Att leda handlar om att ge riktning och vara den som kopplar samman organisationen och strategin. Att forma organisationskultur är ett sätt att göra detta. I ledarskapsperspektivet Symbolic management beskriver Alvesson hur materiella symboler, handlingar, och verbala symboler manifesterar kulturen och påverkar medarbetarnas uppfattning om mening. Här uppmuntras ledare att se på sig själva som människor som hjälper till att skapa och forma denna mening och därigenom vägleda organisationens aktiviteter och handlande. Sensemaking är ett begrepp som används för att studera hur organisationer skapar mening. Sensemakingaktiviteter är de konkreta aktiviteter som ledare använder för att skapa mening. Forskning inom strategi har börjat gå ifrån att se strategi som något en organisation har, till snarare något en organisation gör. Detta perspektiv kallas ‘Strategy as practice’. Det fokuserar på vad som praktiskt görs för att föra en organisation mot dess långsiktiga riktning; dess strategi. Genom studiens ’Strategi i praktiken’-perspektiv, kommer mikronivån av de praktiska aktiviteter ledarskap utmärks av att studeras för att se vad ledarna faktiskt gör för att leda sin organisation i strategisk riktning. För att undersöka detta görs en kvalitativ och explorativ studie i form av intervjuer med elva ledare från olika organisationer. Studien visar att ledare använder sensemakingaktiviteter för att leda sin organisation. Det konstateras att det finns många likheter och skillnader mellan ledarnas användning av sensemakingaktiviteter, och att en variabel som påverkar mycket är organisationens storlek. Vidare presenterar studien en ny underkategorisering av Alvessons organisatoriska symboler. För materiella symboler är de plats och lokaler samt föremål. För handlingar är de personlig kontakt, dramatiska ritualer, digitala aktiviteter, samt icke-handlingar. För verbala symboler är de formella uttryck, metaforer och berättelser, och visionen som symbol. Vidare argumenterar studien för att en gemensam nämnare bakom samtliga ledares sensemakingaktiviteter är visionen; vad organisationen vill uppnå. Strategi är inte tillräckligt entusiasmerande, och därför använder ledarna i större utsträckning sin vision, berättelsen om vad man vill uppnå och varför, för att leda och engagera medarbetarna att arbeta i enlighet med deras strategi. Denna upptäckt utmynnas i en ny syn på hur ledare använder sensemakingaktiviteter; ’Vision as Practice’.

In the ongoing discussion about the gotlandic picture stones, there is a highly debated question if we can interpret their reuse in gotlandic churches as a ritual practice or not. Also, if the reuse was of ritual character, was it in order to oppress and humiliate an earlier faith?  Or to redeem and initiate the old faith into Christianity, in a respectful manner towards the past?      This work focuses on the churches with Romanesque architecture since they are the closest kept monuments that could shed more light on the time period that spans on the transition from Viking age to Middle age Gotland. The aim of the thesis is to shed more light on the period when the first stone churches on Gotland were built as a manifestation of Christianity. It is of great interest here to question how the first stone church builders on Gotland looked upon their forefathers and their past.       Investigations of how picture stones are placed and reused in Romanesque churches have been made, with overviews of their context and dating. This in order to contribute to the ongoing debate about the reuse of picture stones. The discussion is completed by pointing out clear examples of meaningful use in accordance to the churches heavily symbolic room and space. The Romanesque churches were seen as representations of the temple of Jerusalem. Connecting the placing of picture stones to the value of these churches room and space, can result in interpretations of continuity and cultural process.

This thesis is concerned with how entrepreneurs’ performance - the act of impression (Goffman, 1959a), is accomplished through emotion management - the work that an individual does to manage and display situation-appropriate feelings (Hochschild, 1983). There is literature that suggests that understanding entrepreneurs’ emotion management is needed (Goss, 2008; Hampson & Junor, 2005) with Goss (2008) maintaining that entrepreneurs’ management of emotion is integral to their activities. This thesis provides the specific consideration that has been lacking. Empirically, drawing on data obtained from entrepreneur interviews, this study extends Hochschild’s (1983) list of occupations that conduct emotion management to the field of entrepreneurship. Theoretically, Hochschild’s (1983) theory of emotion management has been reconceptualised to become more interactionally sensitive. Influenced by symbolic interactionism (Blumer, 1969) with experiences, interpretations of meaning and actions drawn on to show how performance and emotion management emerge in interaction. Emotion management is conceived of as a negotiation where both ‘normative’ pressures such as the two sets of entrepreneurship feeling rules that have been identified – feeling of engagement and feeling of detachment, and interpretive conceptualisation, are taken into account in the development of a shared scheme of understanding. Goffman’s (1959a) ideas around the presentation of self have been drawn on in rendering visible entrepreneurs’ performance as embodied, relational co-operative, and professional and appropriate. Entrepreneurs are negotiators conceiving of their performance and emotion management as resourceful, negotiated, self-interpretive work. This negotiated work is a process of ‘fluid equilibrium’, that is, a dynamic continuous process of negotiation where entrepreneurs’ legitimation is produced and maintained. Entrepreneurs negotiate power dimensions drawing on strategies such as bounded disclosure where they manage the information they divulge. However the findings from this study also demonstrate that tensions and complexities can emerge resulting in lapses in performance. These are explained through issues of ambivalence towards emotion management, ambiguity over social boundaries and inadequacy in managing information flow.

Software systems form an essential part of Western society,serving as tools to uphold institutions, processes andservices. It is understandable, therefore, that the mostfundamental aspects of programs are their function and utility.But they are not, however, the only things programmers areconcerned with when writing them. On the contrary, programmers also discuss about many otheraspects of software, including the beauty of code. Theydistinguish between different programming styles and expresstheir personal preferences, often by way of admiring andvilifying other people's code. Programmers' identification withaesthetic preferences may give rise to vanity, to disagreementsso entrenched that they deserve the name of 'holy wars' and toother similar phenomena. This thesis describes and analyses these phenomena, whichultimately originate in the human faculty to create andappreciate nuances, to become attached to them and to engage indisputes because of them - even infields as standardised ascomputer programming. Its aim is to expose the aesthetics ofcode, and in doing so, to discuss the symbolic aspects ofinstrumental action at large. Keywords:aesthetics, code, instrumental action,internet discussion fora, programming, symbolic action / <p>NR 20140805</p>

This investigation proposes a powerful formalization of common sense knowledge based on function-free normal deduction graphs (NDGs) which form a powerful tool for deriving Horn and non-Horn clauses without functions. Such formalization allows common sense reasoning since it has the ability to handle not only negative but also incomplete information.

In this dissertation, we investigate how commonsense reasoning can be formalized by using extended logic programs. In this investigation, we first use extended logic programs to formalize inheritance hierarchies with exceptions by adopting McCarthy's simple abnormality formalism to express uncertain knowledge. In our representation, not only credulous reasoning can be performed but also the ambiguity-blocking inheritance and the ambiguity-propagating inheritance in skeptical reasoning are simulated. In response to the anomalous extension problem, we explore and discover that the intuition underlying commonsense reasoning is a kind of forward reasoning. The unidirectional nature of this reasoning is applied by many reformulations of the Yale shooting problem to exclude the undesired conclusion. We then identify defeasible conclusions in our representation based on the syntax of extended logic programs. A similar idea is also applied to other formalizations of commonsense reasoning to achieve such a purpose.

Doctor of Philosophy / Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work / Lothar F. Weyher / This dissertation explores the case of emigration from Latvia towards the West after collapse of the Soviet Union. It takes the perspective of a particular cultural structure that came to dominate post-Soviet Latvia and adopts the vantage point of the state-society relationships this structure has cast. The central question of this study examines: what is the relationship between the cultural structure in post-Soviet Latvia and emigration towards the West? This study answers this question by contrasting Latvia’s civil discourse with emigrants’ and those who remain in Latvia personal narratives through the lens of cultural sociology that emphasizes the role of the symbolic realm, meaning making, and emotions. Research findings suggested that the post-Soviet cultural structure was dominated by "symbolic codes" (Alexander and Smith, 1993) or sharp divides such as West vs. East/Soviet, Right vs. Left, and Developed vs. Underdeveloped. Notably, symbolic codes of West, Right and Developed were constructed as “sacred” while their opposites were pushed out of "sacred" and ridiculed. These divides originated from such particular emotions as shame, confidence/pride and fear. Their meanings in the dominant transformation discourse and emotional origins were formative to the identity and modern state craft, and subjectivities in post-Soviet Latvia. These sharp divides between what is "sacred" in a community and what is not, came with "unintended consequences" (Weber, 2002). These divides and how they shaped the transformation discourse trumpeted misguided notion of the West, post-Soviet Latvia so eagerly wanted to resemble and belong to. Given this distorted notion of the West, the ruling elite fashioned environment where people not only lost hope for their better future in Latvia but began to lose their self-confidence - an important emotion for one’s "willingness to act" (Barbalet, 2004, p.83); and, as such, were more prone to emigration. Emigration for my respondents provided the space where West and Left were experienced as compatible despite their construction as incompatible in post-Soviet Latvia. Amidst confidence over their better future in their receiving countries, this gave to emigrants also a feeling of comfort, sense of self-confidence and empowerment.

To understand the persistence of wartime rape that the DRC has experienced during the sixteen years old civil war, this study undertakes a critical analysis of the concept of ‘symbolic violence’ as proposed by Bourdieu. I have suggested that this concept [symbolic violence] as developed by Bourdieu needs other dimensions of definition in order to be applied to other social crises outside the western world. Shaping a link between wartime rape and its symbolic dimensions enables us to clearly articulate that the symbolic order brought through the practice of wartime rape by perpetrators does not remain unchallenged by the dominated who are direct and indirect victims of wartime rape. For this purpose, data were collected from ordinary community members, community leaders; a doctor and nurse form Panzi Hospital, an army General, a lawyer and some NGOs members working in the area of study (Kamanyola)through in-depth interviews. Observation and document analysis have also been used in the process of data collection. As a result the study found that wartime rape, at first, is a threat that perpetrators use to impose their own symbolic power upon males from the enemy groups through the rape of females from the same enemy groups. Therefore, this physical attack [war rape] against females impacts the victims as individuals, the community and the whole nation. This helps to suggest that physical violence is also symbolic violence. This is rendered possible through social and cultural patriarchal norms shared by both victims and perpetrators. As a result, family and community ties as well as marriage – as constitutive elements of the community’s symbolic order – are directly fractured by wartime rape. Forcing women to be economically unproductive was another strategy to undermine community ties which were built through community-based activities. Secondly, the strategic use of war rape comes to counter the idea of symbolic violence as being just soft or an invisible violence but under some circumstances a symbolic violence might produce physical harm.Thirdly, the study found that, patriarchy as the dominant social and cultural order is resisted by the dominated (women respondents in majority) now that it is associated to wartime rape. Because of this, I proposed that symbolic orders are not always taken for granted; they maybe resisted by the dominated. Based on the findings, this research report advocates for a more gender inclusive policy to encourage women to participate in the making of decisions which concern their lives as main victims of wartime rape in DRC generally and in Kamanyola in particular.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy September 2015 / This study explores the mathematical discourse of Grade 11 learners on the topic function through their routines. From a commognitive perspective, it describes routines in terms of exploration and ritual. Data was collected through in-depth interviews with 18 pairs of learners, from six South African secondary schools, capturing a landscape of public schooling, where poor performance in Mathematics predominates. The questions pursued became: why does poor performance persist and what might a commognitive lens bring into view? With the discursive turn in education research, commognition provides an alternate view of learning mathematics. With the emphasis on participation and not on constraints from inherited mental ability, the study explored the nature of learner discourse on the object, function. Function was chosen as it holds significant time and weight in the secondary school curriculum. Examining learners’ mathematical routines with the object was a way to look at their discourse development: what were the signifiers related to the object and what these made possible for learners to realise. Within learners’ routines, I was able to characterise these realisations, which were described and categorised. This enabled a description of learner thinking over three signifiers of function in school Mathematics: the algebraic expression, table and graph. In each school, Grade 11 learners were separated into three groups according to the levels at which they were performing, from summative scores of grade 11 assessments, so as to enable a description of discourse related to performance. Interviews were conducted in pairs, and designed to provoke discussion on aspects of function and its signifiers between learners in each pair. This communication between learners and with the interviewer provided data for description and analysis of rituals and explorations. Zooming in and out again on these routines made a characterisation of the discourse of failure possible, which is seldom done. It became apparent early in the study that learners talked of the object function, without a formal mathematical narrative, a definition in other words, of the object. The object was thus vested in its signifiers. The absence of an individualised formal narrative of the object impacts directly what is made possible for learners to realise, hence to learn. The study makes the following contributions: first, it describes learners’ discursive routines as they work with the object function. Second, it characterises the discourse of learners at different levels of performance. Third, it starts exploration of commognition as an alternate means to look at poor performance. The strengths and limitations of the theory as it pertains to this study, are discussed later in the concluding chapter. Keywords commognition, discourse, communication, participation, routines, exploration, ritual, learners, learning, narratives, endorsed narratives, visual mediators.

"Let P(n) be a statement for every positive integer n. We denote the set of all positive integers by N and consider G = {n [is an element of] N [such that] P(n) is true}. The principle of mathematical induction can now be stated as follows: If [(i) 1 [is an element of] G and, (ii) for all k [is an element of] N if k [is an element of] G, then k + 1 [is an element of] G], then G = N. Now symbolize this statement as follows: P: 1 [is an element of] G. R: k [is an element of] G. S: k + 1 [is an element of] G. Q: G = N. Therefore the statement of the principle of mathematical induction can be seen in the following form. If [P and, [for all] k [is an element of] N (if R, then S)], then Q. One strategy for teaching this principle is to explain that in order to apply the principle of mathematical induction and assert Q, one must appeal to the logical rule of modus ponens (the law of detachment). That is, we must affirm the antecedent [P and, [for all] k [is an element of] N (if R, then S)], and then we can assert Q. Therefore the research hypothesis for this study was that if people have the prerequisite knowledge of logic, and that if they are taught the principle of mathematical induction in terms of logic, then they will perform better on a criterion test over the principle of mathematical induction than people who are not taught in terms of logic"--Introduction. / Typescript. / "June, 1972." / "Submitted to the Department of Mathematics Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in Mathematics Education." / Advisor: E. D. Nichols, Professor Directing Dissertation. / Includes bibliographical references.