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Technology permeates education’s discourses and practices, and further dialogue between philosophy of education and philosophy of technology is urgently needed. This thesis attempts to do this by engaging critically with the thought of Martin Heidegger, Jacques Derrida and Bernard Stiegler in order to show that both education and technology are processes of human formation (Bildung). Heidegger’s philosophy of technology underlines the way technology conditions human action and thus allows for an investigation of the constitution of the human being. At the same time, Heidegger’s philosophy maintains certain essentialist elements that make it unresponsive to the digital technologies that increasingly form our milieu. In matters of technology the nature of nearness is always at issue, and digital technology accelerates the changes that occur in this respect. For this reason, and notwithstanding Heidegger’s achievements, it is necessary to challenge his account in certain respects. Through a deconstruction of Heidegger’s theory, I attempt to show that thinking and technology intertwine in his critique of metaphysics. In fact, thinking and technology function according to presuppositions about image (Bild), imagination (Einbildungskraft) and education (Bildung), and both inextricably involve metaphorisation in various ways. In this thesis, I analyse the notion of metaphor either as passive or active transfer of the self. The role of image, as I have already noted, is very important for this process, and it is for this reason that Heidegger’s distinction between ‘representative’ image and ‘originary’ image becomes very important for this investigation. For Heidegger, the possibility of originary image opens up the path towards a nontechnologically mediated truth (alētheia) that offers true nearness to things, whereas representative image condemns thinking to uncritical repetition and existence to a state in which everything is equally far and equally near. This discussion and the specific chain of notions (Bild, Einbildung, Bildung) offers a new way into the investigation of those current digital image-technologies that purport to afford us nearness to things and people. It examines their effects on thinking and imagination, and education’s role in relation to these developments.

This thesis investigates the origin and development of EC cultural policy through four case studies of policy formation. The four cases selected occurred in the pre-Maastricht period, 1955-1988. The first two policy experiences correspond to a pre-history of the EC´s cultural policy, the latter two resulted in authoritative policy decisions by EC institutions. The research objectives include historical understanding of this policy experience and an examination of the process of European policy formation. It draws upon archive material from the Historical Archives of the European Union. This material is organised and analytically narrated around the events that make up each episode. The approach is theoretically oriented case research – each experience studied corresponds to a policy episode. These policy episodes are analysed through a combined theoretical framework based on Kingdon´s multiple streams model (1995), which explains the pre-decisional and decision-making stages of the policy-making process, and on institutional processualism which seeks to attain a causal understanding of these processes that is sensitive to institutional context. This thesis represents one of the first applications of this model in the field of cultural policy. The comparative approach deployed identifies similarities and differences among the four episodes studied and compares the dynamics of the policy process between them with a view to generating theoretical generalisations about the formation of cultural policy in the EC in the period of interest. The application of Kingdon’s model to European public-policy to an extent tested the model, though ultimately it demonstrates its flexibility and relevance to a variety of agenda situations and analysis. The model was less successful in explaining policy formulation, in this instance, which is explained by the pervading institutional reach of the EC Treaties. A specific interest of Kingdon´s is policy entrepreneurship and how it affects the policy process and this is also a main interest of this research. The model worked well here but proved limited in that it generated only a partial explanation for the agency of cultural policy entrepreneurs whose motivations, we found, are intrinsic and specific to cultural policy.

published_or_final_version / History / Master / Master of Philosophy

The objective of the thesis is to use econometric analysis to assess the impact of power sector reforms in Africa during the period 1988-2005, using panel data analysis. The study uses fixed effects model, where all the reform variables are assumed to be strictly exogenous, but goes a step further, to endogenise the variables using 1-step Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimation. To ensure the robustness of the results, the study makes use of both static and dynamic models and other econometric methods to reduce as far as practicable, the likelihood of spurious correlation. The main conclusion from the generation sector study is that, the establishment of a regulatory agency is generally associated with favourable generation outcomes. These are likely to be achieved after a minimum period of 2 years for installed plant capacity, 3 years for plant energy output, and 7 years for plant utilization. Passage of energy sector law seems likely to enhance both installed generation capacity and actual plant energy output. On the impact of private sector participation (PSP) in the generation sector, management and lease contracts, as well as greenfield projects seem likely to enhance installed capacity and actual plant output. On plant utilization, the favourable outcome is associated with concessions and greenfield projects. For the network sector, the result seems to indicate that the co-existence of energy sector law and regulatory agency can reduce transmission network loss levels. The result on the distribution system however show that though energy sector law and regulation are necessary, they are not likely to be sufficient to reduce the system loss level. Effective loss reduction in the distribution sector is likely to be achieved if management and lease contract is present as a PSP option. The long lags associated with the existence of regulation, underline the notion that institutional changes alone are unlikely to be sufficient, if the workforce is not competent and well trained. This implies that regulatory agencies in Africa are still fragile, and it will take quite sometime to build the capacity of key professional staff to operate whatever institutional and regulatory frameworks are chosen.

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<p>Denna studie är en magisteruppsats i socialpsykologi inom programmet personal och arbetsliv vid Växjö Universitet. Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur förändringsprocessen från manuellt till ett i huvudsak datoriserat arbete skett på två arbetsplatser, samt undersöka hur personalen upplevt processen. Tidigare forskning, vilken jag tar upp i studien, visar att upplevelsen påverkas av faktorer såsom ålder och kön, motivation, social gemenskap, egenkontroll, delaktighet, förändringens faser, tilltro till ledningen, datorinteraktionen, datorstöd och acceptans för datasystemet.</p><p>Arbetsplatserna i studien är Försäkringskassan i två län, ett i södra Sverige och ett i norra Sverige. Anledningen till att jag valde just dem är att de samtidigt införde det nya datasystemet som innebar en övergång från manuellt arbete till ett arbete huvudsakligen styrt av datorn. Personalens uppfattning av datasystemet i de båda länen, skiljer sig dock åt mycket enligt den mätning som genomförs två gånger varje år. Personalen i det södra länet uppfattade systemet mest negativt jämfört med övriga landet, medan personalen i det norra länet uppfattade systemet mest positivt jämfört med övriga landet.</p><p>För att ta reda på hur utfallen kan blir så olika har jag använt mig av kvalitativa intervjuer med 13 personer i länen. Efter studien kan jag konstatera att datoriseringen till en början mötte ett motstånd i båda länen. Motståndet berodde delvis på systemets brister i användbarhet och för arbetsmiljön, men även på de negativa konsekvenserna när det gäller motivation, social gemenskap, och egenkontroll. Motståndet berodde även på köns och åldersfördelningen i länen. I södra länet fanns dessutom ett allmänt missnöje i organisationen, vilket gjorde att de hade ett något sämre utgångsläge. I det södra länet har personalen inte varit särskilt delaktig i förändringsprocessen från manuellt till ett i huvudsak datoriserat arbete. Den utbildningsansvariga personen arbetade själv inte i systemet och datorstödet var oklart. Eftersom cheferna i södra länet inte kan datasystemet leder det till frustration hos handläggarna. Förändringsprocessen har därmed upplevts som på ett relativt negativt sätt. I det norra länet har förändringsprocessen från manuellt till ett i huvudsak datoriserat arbete skett genom delaktighet. Vidare har stöd och utbildning skett via ”lokala experter” alltså handläggare som själva arbetar i systemet. Handläggarna har vidare fått datorstöd från närmsta chefen. Trots datasystemets brister har handläggarna i det norra länet reagerat relativt positivt på datoriseringen. På grund av ovan nämnda satsningar genom förändringsprocessen har handläggarna i det norra länet fått acceptans för systemet och en tilltro till ledningen.</p>

Les activités humaines peuvent entraîner des modifications de comportement et de distribution spatiale chez les animaux susceptibles d'avoir un impact non négligeable au niveau de leur population. Pour des espèces migratrices, elles peuvent rendre un site d'hivernage inutilisable en raison d'un dérangement trop important, obligeant les individus à utiliser d'autres sites. Dans ces sites de report, le niveau d'interférence risque d'être plus élevé ce qui peut entraîner une diminution de l'efficacité alimentaire de tout ou partie des individus. Cependant, l'influence des activités humaines ne peut être évaluée correctement sans tenir compte, dans ce cas précis, des ressources alimentaires de l'espèce étudiée. Le travail de cette thèse a été d'intégrer le lien consommateur-ressource dans l'étude de l'influence des activités humaines. Le sujet a porté plus précisément sur l'hivernage de la bernache cravant Branta bernicla dans le golfe du Morbihan (Bretagne Sud), où elle s'alimente essentiellement de phanérogames marines : des zostères, dont la zostère naine Zostera noltii. Nous avons caractérisé la relation bernaches-Z. noltii, en termes de distribution essentiellement, à trois échelles spatiales et temporelles imbriquées. De l'évolution en trente ans de la distribution sur l'ensemble du golfe à la position par rapport à la lame d'eau lors d'un cycle tidal, nous avons montré que les ressources alimentaires conditionnaient largement la distribution des bernaches, ainsi que leur comportement à l'échelle du groupe. Nous avons également montré que les activités humaines sont susceptibles de modifier cette relation. En effet, selon leur type, leur position et la taille du groupe de bernaches, le coût énergétique potentiel qu'elles entraînent pourrait conduire certains individus à éviter certains herbiers, ce coût étant trop élevé pour être compensé par un temps d'alimentation plus long. Ce travail a donc contribué à une catégorisation plus générale et robuste des activités humaines en terme de coût potentiel sur les oiseaux hivernant. Si ce travail a permis de mieux comprendre le rôle majeur des ressources dans la distribution des bernaches en hivernage, ainsi que la façon dont les activités humaines peuvent influer sur cette relation, il s'est aussi inscrit dans une démarche de définition d'indicateur d'état des herbiers de zostères. Et nos résultats suggèrent que le comportement et la distribution des bernaches sont de bons indicateurs de l'état de ces herbiers à l'échelle locale mais également régionale.