兩岸關係研究在開放政策的導引下，自過去以共黨體制與理論研究，轉為更務實的經濟和文化研究，兩岸社會和人民透過頻繁交流瞭解彼此，是目前兩岸關係的重要發展，其中一項趨勢即是大陸年輕學生能在台灣停留，並在一段不算短的時間內深入一般民間生活，這些所謂的「陸生」在來台停留4個月以上的時間內，除了在學校上課，騎單車環島、搭「台灣好行」、搭台鐵、坐公車等等方式，在台灣城市和鄉野間體驗與感受，一部分人更在選舉造勢場合，和激動的選民一起喊凍蒜凍蒜。 根據Allport以來學者對於接觸相關研究文獻的瞭解，群際之間的研究必須考慮接觸的內涵、接觸的過程以及制約接觸的條件等對接觸效果的影響。傳統「接觸假說」認為類似文化背景之群體可透過深度交流接觸達到真正理解溝通，消除群際偏見與隔閡，達到族群融合。 本論文即以上述理論為基礎探討兩岸年輕學子交流的樣態及效，透過量化的問卷與深度訪談，探索這個族群接觸內涵與過程，理解到所謂的「接觸」並不能僅限於「接觸的頻率和時間長短」，也不能僅奠基在語言文化具類似性的基礎上，就達到「接觸假說」所預設的「消除類屬」(de-categorization)或進一步「融合類屬」(re-categorization)。因為族群之間各成員心中存在著「自我類屬」(self-categorization)，想要消融彼此的界線，必須先探索成員對自我類屬的定義，此外還須考慮接觸環境上制度面的制約，從制度面的設計增加群際成員的接觸頻率，才能進一步減少成員的「群際偏見」(intergroup bias)及增進「群際情感」(intergroup emotion)。 / In the leading of open policy, the mainstream of cross-strait studies has shifted from Socialism and Communism to Economy and Culture. At the tide of exchange, Chinese exchange students studying in Taiwan are the most propriate targets to learn about, less sensitive and having deep contact with Taiwan society. According to the related studies like Allport’s, scholars should take the content, process, and constrait of contact into consideration while studying the relations between nation groups. Traditional “contact assumption” assumes groups sharing similar culture background will reach mutually understand through exchange in depth, deliminate bias and barriers between groups. This study has examed the impact of the frequency and time length, the language and culture similarity on contact, knowing that those conditions above are not the only factors to de-categorization or further re-categorization. The members of each group have bared self-categorization in mind. Eliminating intergroup bias and enhance intergroup emotion would play an important part of breaking down the walls between groups. Besides, the goal of institutional design is to make the contact more intensive and to avoid the false contact. The less attractions offered by media to the Chinese exchange students, the less political socialization they will have. So the policy design should be delicate enough to allow those students to take the advantages of curriculums、professors, and schools to reach the goal of social contact between the young generations of cross-strait.

Examensarbetet utgår ifrån en kommun vars sjukfrånvarostatistik är bland de högsta i landet. Vi har fått möjlighet att undersöka i vilken grad kommunens chefer känner till och arbetar efter uppsatt policy i rehabiliteringsärenden, deras attityd gentemot denna samt om och i förekommande fall, vad de anses saknas i policyn. Vi har även att undersökt vilka faktorer som har en positiv inverkan på rehabiliteringsprocessen. Teorin utgår från faktorer som enligt forskning visat sig ha en positiv inverkan på långtidssjukskrivna, exempelvis arbetsanpassning, tidig återgång i arbete samt social kontakt mellan arbetsgivare och sjukskriven. Metoden har främst utgått från ett kvantitativt förhållningssätt, då vi använt enkäter för att samla in material till undersökningen. Samtidigt finns kvalitativa drag då materialet både analyserats kvantitativt samt kvalitativt. Resultatet visar att cheferna till stor del känner till och arbetar efter kommunens policy. Cheferna visar en positiv attityd till att erbjuda medarbetare förändringar som innebär en snabbare återgång i arbete men inser även att det kan finnas begränsningar både i arbetets karaktär samt kommunens resurser. Slutsatserna visar att kommunen har flera möjligheter att förbättra sitt rehabiliteringsarbete för att möjliggöra till att medarbetaren snabbare kan återgå i arbete. De behöver bland annat utbilda sina chefer i presenterade faktorer som har positiv inverkan på rehabilitering samt samverkan. / The master thesis is based on a municipality whose sickness absence statistics are among the highest in the country. We have had the opportunity to investigate whether the municipality's managers work according to established policy in rehabilitation cases, as well as the attitude towards this and what they consider missing. We have also studied which factors have a positive impact on the rehabilitation process. The theory is based on factors that, according to research, have shown a positive impact on long-term sick leave, such as job adaptation, early return in work and social contact between employers and employee on sick leave. The method has primarily been based on a quantitative approach, we used surveys to collect material. At the same time there are qualitative features when the material is analysed both qualitative and quantitative. The results show that managers largely know and work according to the municipality´s policy. The managers also show a positive attitude to offer employees changes that mean a faster return to work, but also realize that there may be limitations in both the work´s nature and the municipality's resources. The conclusion shows that the municipality has several possibilities for change in order to improve their rehabilitation efforts to improve the opportunities for employees to return to work faster. One suggestion is to train their managers in presented factors that have a positive impact on rehabilitation.

The problem being investigated in this thesis is to understand and explain why some Setswana speaking students in the ACE-programme for Life Orientation who have voluntarily registered for a decentralised off-campus education programme at the NWU, continue to demand personal, face-to-face communication with their lecturers during the course of their studies. „Off-campus education‟ (also known as „distance education‟ and / or „decentralised education‟) is usually implemented in an attempt to afford more students the opportunity to improve their qualifications and skills – especially in the case of those students who, for a variety of reasons, may not be in a position to enrol for fulltime contact training. Off-campus education could help to serve the divergent education-related needs of poor, less privileged, geographically isolated, difficult-to-reach and deep rural communities. It could also assist with the teaching and learning of new knowledge and skills as far as its integrated use of contemporary technological developments is concerned. Besides UNISA, the North-West University is at present the biggest supplier of off-campus education programmes to practising teachers in the country. Despite the exponential increase in educational and technological developments in the late 20th and early 21st century, information and communication technology – within a broader South African context – is still not within reach of all the NWU‟s off-campus education students. Recent attempts to integrate contact education principles in off-campus education, led to the development of the (well-known) hybrid, namely „flexi-education‟. Over the past seven years or so, this state of affairs has slowly developed to the point where the number of registered, off-campus African education students at the NWU who insist (despite paper-based, electronic and mobile learning support) on demanding personal, face-to-face contact with their lecturers, has increased rapidly. It would furthermore seem that the use of, for example, internet and communication technology is increasing the existing gap between the African education student and his / her lecturer. This growing gap has already resulted in some registered African education students feeling increasingly isolated. The problem with the use of ICT in off-campus education is understood by some as leading to a situation where the ICT being implemented may, one day soon, replace the lecturer during scheduled contact facilitation sessions. Should that happen, it could mean that interactive communication and the social presence of the lecturer during scheduled contact facilitation sessions may be compromised and even permanently forfeited. The available body of scholarship does not adequately address the perceptions of students with regard to the importance of (a) the temporal-spatial, simultaneous presence of their lecturers and (b) social interactions during scheduled contact facilitation sessions. From the available literature, it is also not clear: why some students may want to entertain and maintain such perceptions, what the attitude of students with regard to social interaction and the social presence of their lecturers might be, or what role ICT could be playing in the life-world of off-campus students in South Africa. In an attempt to solve this intellectual conundrum and with a view to effecting naturalistic generalisation (and not statistical generalisation) I have decided, in light of the above, to implement and follow a multi-analytical research design (mixed methods, multi-analysis design) (Onwuegbuzie et al., 2009: passim; 117). Instead of me seeking to generalise my own research findings, I have decided to leave it to my readers to generalise the findings from their own experiences in the past (Onwuegbuzie et al., 2009: 120). This approach represents a kind of „fuzzy generalisation‟ (Ekiz, 2006:73) in the sense that something that has happened in one place could just as well be demonstrated to have happened somewhere else as well (ibid.). I have, therefore, undertaken both a quantitative as well as qualitative study in order to understand why Setswana speaking education students in the ACE-programme in Life Orientation would continue to demand personal, face-to-face contact with their lecturers, despite all the teaching and learning support that they are offered along the way. I have completed my research on the basis of (and in view of) my research aims. The same applies to the data that I have managed to capture and interpret. On the basis of these data, certain strategic guidelines for effective education in off-campus education programmes for practising teachers have then been drafted. My most important research findings include: Off-campus education is purposively delivered to the client, e.g. to the Setswana speaking student in his / her natural surroundings. Off-campus education should strive to care for the student and his / her contextualised needs. An authentic encounter between the off-campus lecturer and student should be allowed to take place. These encountering opportunities could assist in liberating the Setswana speaking student from all moral and ethical obligation of having to meet his / her lecturer and talking to him / her personally. No more moral burdening or social indebtedness should be placed on students to attend the scheduled contact facilitation sessions. The Setswana speaking student should be accompanied to feel and experience that s/he is unconditionally accepted and respected in his / her particular situation and locale. The Setswana speaking student should be able to feel and experience on a particularly deep interpersonal level the security that s/he has the right to belong to a particular off-campus education community (that is not only viewed as a communal society, but also managed as one). The University as service provider ought to create intimate, interactive spaces during scheduled contact facilitation sessions for all off-campus lecturers in order to afford their Setswana speaking students the opportunity to realise their ontic, social yearning for belonghesion. The Setswana speaking student experiences off-campus education as a process of social unity, as well as a social, communal learning community, together with his / her lecturers and fellow students. For this reason, scheduled contact facilitation sessions should be focusing (given the transactional nature of off-campus education) on communal, „perfect-fit education for us‟. Within a communal „perfect-fit‟ education community, the Setswana speaking student should be accompanied to adopt his / her reason for existence in the following manner: “We are, therefore I am.” Given the transactional nature of scheduled contact facilitation sessions (that should be focusing on transactional proximity, openness and sincerity within this communal „perfect-fit education for us‟) the Setswana speaking student does not wish the use of computer and internet technology to replace their ontic and socially cohesive, essential yearning for communal humanity and fellowship. It would seem that Setswana speaking students may not, necessarily, be less than ready for the implementation of ICT in their off-campus education programmes because they cannot afford it, but mainly because they do not yet regard computer and internet technology as part of their cultural furniture. Any attempt at implementing ICT in off-campus education should be considered and managed by universities with great circumspect, so that these students‟ social, ontic, and cohesively essential yearning and ever intensifying, deepening, socially-mutual attaching, fixative and reciprocally trusting attraction could be properly accounted for, and so that it may be managed satisfactorily on a curricular level. Off-campus education should, therefore, be based on the realisation of ontic „We-ness‟ where the members of this community continue to depend on each other and where the supply and delivery of off-campus education is constantly reformed and fine-tuned so that it may reflect an authentic collective learning community. Off-campus education should be focusing on a collectivist, communally searching, epistemological approach where human beings are constantly relating to their fellow human beings, playing different social roles and taking full responsibility for whatever may be needed to realise these students‟ off-campus studies successfully. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Education))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

The problem being investigated in this thesis is to understand and explain why some Setswana speaking students in the ACE-programme for Life Orientation who have voluntarily registered for a decentralised off-campus education programme at the NWU, continue to demand personal, face-to-face communication with their lecturers during the course of their studies. „Off-campus education‟ (also known as „distance education‟ and / or „decentralised education‟) is usually implemented in an attempt to afford more students the opportunity to improve their qualifications and skills – especially in the case of those students who, for a variety of reasons, may not be in a position to enrol for fulltime contact training. Off-campus education could help to serve the divergent education-related needs of poor, less privileged, geographically isolated, difficult-to-reach and deep rural communities. It could also assist with the teaching and learning of new knowledge and skills as far as its integrated use of contemporary technological developments is concerned. Besides UNISA, the North-West University is at present the biggest supplier of off-campus education programmes to practising teachers in the country. Despite the exponential increase in educational and technological developments in the late 20th and early 21st century, information and communication technology – within a broader South African context – is still not within reach of all the NWU‟s off-campus education students. Recent attempts to integrate contact education principles in off-campus education, led to the development of the (well-known) hybrid, namely „flexi-education‟. Over the past seven years or so, this state of affairs has slowly developed to the point where the number of registered, off-campus African education students at the NWU who insist (despite paper-based, electronic and mobile learning support) on demanding personal, face-to-face contact with their lecturers, has increased rapidly. It would furthermore seem that the use of, for example, internet and communication technology is increasing the existing gap between the African education student and his / her lecturer. This growing gap has already resulted in some registered African education students feeling increasingly isolated. The problem with the use of ICT in off-campus education is understood by some as leading to a situation where the ICT being implemented may, one day soon, replace the lecturer during scheduled contact facilitation sessions. Should that happen, it could mean that interactive communication and the social presence of the lecturer during scheduled contact facilitation sessions may be compromised and even permanently forfeited. The available body of scholarship does not adequately address the perceptions of students with regard to the importance of (a) the temporal-spatial, simultaneous presence of their lecturers and (b) social interactions during scheduled contact facilitation sessions. From the available literature, it is also not clear: why some students may want to entertain and maintain such perceptions, what the attitude of students with regard to social interaction and the social presence of their lecturers might be, or what role ICT could be playing in the life-world of off-campus students in South Africa. In an attempt to solve this intellectual conundrum and with a view to effecting naturalistic generalisation (and not statistical generalisation) I have decided, in light of the above, to implement and follow a multi-analytical research design (mixed methods, multi-analysis design) (Onwuegbuzie et al., 2009: passim; 117). Instead of me seeking to generalise my own research findings, I have decided to leave it to my readers to generalise the findings from their own experiences in the past (Onwuegbuzie et al., 2009: 120). This approach represents a kind of „fuzzy generalisation‟ (Ekiz, 2006:73) in the sense that something that has happened in one place could just as well be demonstrated to have happened somewhere else as well (ibid.). I have, therefore, undertaken both a quantitative as well as qualitative study in order to understand why Setswana speaking education students in the ACE-programme in Life Orientation would continue to demand personal, face-to-face contact with their lecturers, despite all the teaching and learning support that they are offered along the way. I have completed my research on the basis of (and in view of) my research aims. The same applies to the data that I have managed to capture and interpret. On the basis of these data, certain strategic guidelines for effective education in off-campus education programmes for practising teachers have then been drafted. My most important research findings include: Off-campus education is purposively delivered to the client, e.g. to the Setswana speaking student in his / her natural surroundings. Off-campus education should strive to care for the student and his / her contextualised needs. An authentic encounter between the off-campus lecturer and student should be allowed to take place. These encountering opportunities could assist in liberating the Setswana speaking student from all moral and ethical obligation of having to meet his / her lecturer and talking to him / her personally. No more moral burdening or social indebtedness should be placed on students to attend the scheduled contact facilitation sessions. The Setswana speaking student should be accompanied to feel and experience that s/he is unconditionally accepted and respected in his / her particular situation and locale. The Setswana speaking student should be able to feel and experience on a particularly deep interpersonal level the security that s/he has the right to belong to a particular off-campus education community (that is not only viewed as a communal society, but also managed as one). The University as service provider ought to create intimate, interactive spaces during scheduled contact facilitation sessions for all off-campus lecturers in order to afford their Setswana speaking students the opportunity to realise their ontic, social yearning for belonghesion. The Setswana speaking student experiences off-campus education as a process of social unity, as well as a social, communal learning community, together with his / her lecturers and fellow students. For this reason, scheduled contact facilitation sessions should be focusing (given the transactional nature of off-campus education) on communal, „perfect-fit education for us‟. Within a communal „perfect-fit‟ education community, the Setswana speaking student should be accompanied to adopt his / her reason for existence in the following manner: “We are, therefore I am.” Given the transactional nature of scheduled contact facilitation sessions (that should be focusing on transactional proximity, openness and sincerity within this communal „perfect-fit education for us‟) the Setswana speaking student does not wish the use of computer and internet technology to replace their ontic and socially cohesive, essential yearning for communal humanity and fellowship. It would seem that Setswana speaking students may not, necessarily, be less than ready for the implementation of ICT in their off-campus education programmes because they cannot afford it, but mainly because they do not yet regard computer and internet technology as part of their cultural furniture. Any attempt at implementing ICT in off-campus education should be considered and managed by universities with great circumspect, so that these students‟ social, ontic, and cohesively essential yearning and ever intensifying, deepening, socially-mutual attaching, fixative and reciprocally trusting attraction could be properly accounted for, and so that it may be managed satisfactorily on a curricular level. Off-campus education should, therefore, be based on the realisation of ontic „We-ness‟ where the members of this community continue to depend on each other and where the supply and delivery of off-campus education is constantly reformed and fine-tuned so that it may reflect an authentic collective learning community. Off-campus education should be focusing on a collectivist, communally searching, epistemological approach where human beings are constantly relating to their fellow human beings, playing different social roles and taking full responsibility for whatever may be needed to realise these students‟ off-campus studies successfully. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Education))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

In this study the experiences, perceptions and challenges of being in a mixed-race relationship (M-R) were explored against the backdrop of previous South African pieces of legislation meant to keep the various race groups apart. The study was located within a conceptual framework predominantly informed by a constructivist approach, as well as some tenets from the social constructionist approach. This study focused only on M-R relationships consisting of black and white partners. The couples were recruited through the use of a snowball sampling method. In-depth interviews were used as the primary tool for collecting data. All participants were interviewed by the researcher either at their own homes or in the researcher's office. The collected information was later transcribed and qualitatively analysed. The results of the study indicate that individuals found their involvement in M-R relationships to be a positive experience, and thus resulting in a positive attitude change and a sense of personal growth. M-R couples and their extended families experienced cognitive dissonance which required them to discard their previously internalised racial stereotypes, using strategies such as cognitive differentiation, re-categorization and de-categorization, allowing shifts toward non-racial socially constructed categories. Most of the challenges of being in M-R relationships were experienced on interpersonal and inter-group levels. The losses, disadvantages, challenges, concerns and pains experienced by M-R couples were mainly related to family and social disapproval of the relationship as well as efforts to discourage race mixing. The study concludes that the non-conformist nature of M-R relationships requires from the participants a high level of self-differentiation and individuation that challenges racial norms and cultural collectivism. Albeit being a personal or private matter, a M-R relationship carries the burden of easily being the subject of public discourse. It is in this sense that M-R relationships cannot be understood without taking the socio-political context within which they occur into consideration. / Psychology / D.Phil. (Psychology)

Portuguese global expansion was initiated by the capture of Cueta in 1415. Voyages of discovery along the West African coast ensued, resulting in the conquest and colonisation of the N’Dongo Kingdom. This dissertation comprises an archaeological survey of the Lusitanian Empire in the Republic of Angola. The Portuguese first established a settlement at Luanda in 1576, after which they set forth into the interior, following the Kwanza River upstream. The strategy for conquest was to take possession of the river with the objective to control the indigenous population, subjugate the N’gola, and, ultimately, to reach the silver mines at Cambambe. Various settlements developed along the margins of the river with associated forts and churches. Fortifications dominated the landscape while the churches expressed religious idealism. Social contact between the Mbundu people and the Portuguese at the colonial frontier is discussed. Post-colonial theory is used as the research methodology. / Anthropology and Archaeology / M. A. (Archaeology)

Många organisationer har infört distansarbete för att minska smittspridningen under Covid-19 pandemin. I samband med påtvingat distansarbete har organisationer snabbt fått öka deras kunskap gällande ledarskap, effektiva och hälsosamma virtuella teamsamt digitala hjälpmedel. Syftet med föreliggande studie var att undersöka hur ledare har upplevt att arbetet fungerat med den psykosociala arbetsmiljön under det påtvingade distansarbetet under Covid-19. Sju semistrukturerade intervjuer utfördes med ledare från offentlig förvaltning och privat sektor. Materialet analyserades med en induktiv tematisk analys, de teman som framkom var: relation till medarbetarna, kommunikation och stöd, medarbetarnas hälsa samt framtida arbetssituation. Föreliggande studie visade att ledarnas upplevelse av den psykosociala arbetsmiljön för medarbetarna inte har försämrats under det påtvingade distansarbetet. Dock var resultatet motsägelsefullt då ledarna även upplevt en viss problematik med social kontakt och att det var svårt att fånga upp signaler när det gäller ohälsa bland medarbetarna på distans. Resultatet diskuteras i relation till tidigare forskning inom psykosocial arbetsmiljö under distansarbete. / Many organizations have introduced teleworking to reduce the spread of infection during the Covid-19 pandemic. Due to forced teleworking, organizations rapidly needed to increase their knowledge regarding leadership, effective and healthy virtual teams,and digital aids. The purpose of the present study was to investigate leaders' experience of the work with the psychosocial work environment during the forced distance-work during Covid-19. Seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with leaders from public administration and the private sector. The material was analyzed with an inductive thematic analysis, the themes that emerged were relationship to the employees, communication and support, the employees' health, and future work situation. The present study showed that managers' experience of the psychosocial work environment for employees has not deteriorated during the forced distance work. However, the result is contradictory as the leaders also experienced some problems with social contact and that it was difficult to pick up signals when it comes to ill health among employees at a distance. The results are discussed in relation to previous research regarding psychosocial work environment during teleworking.