Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

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Th.--Lett.--Paris 7, 1985.

Contient un choix de documents, 1898-1917. - Inaug.-Diss. : Geschichte : Berlin, [BRD] : 1982. - Bibliogr. p. LXXII-LXXXVII. Index. -

An assumption in Cognitive Psychology, which has been challenged in recent years, is that the systems responsible for action and perception work independently of one another. These systems work together during conceptual tasks and research has demonstrated that action knowledge can influence performance even when the task is 'action-irrelevant' (Borghi, 2004; Borghi, Flumini, Natraj & Wheaton, 2012; Creem & Proffitt, 2001; Tucker & Ellis, 1998, 2001). However, participants in such tasks are often only asked to make simple category judgements, such as natural versus man made. The research reported in this thesis has shown that, under certain conditions, participants use action knowledge to make 'complex' category choices in an action-irrelevant task. The experimental work has predominantly used the forced-choice triad task to assess the circumstances under which participants categorise objects based on shared actions. The triads were designed with a target object and two choice objects matching on either shared actions (rifle + water pistol), shared taxonomic relations (rifle + sword), or both (orange + banana). The context in which the objects were presented was also manipulated so that the objects were either presented on a white background (context-lean) or being used by an agent (context-rich). Participants were most likely to select the choice object that shared both a taxonomic and an action demonstrating that action has an 'additive' effect in categorical decisions. Presenting the objects being used by an agent in a functional scenario increased the saliency of the shared actions between the stimuli, and participants were more likely to select the action choice. The subsequent experimental work reported in the thesis sought to eliminate potential confounding variables including perceptual features, object typicality and task instructions. What the experimental work presented here has demonstrated is that action can influence decisions on more complex categories, and judgments of similarity. The research has identified three main circumstances under which knowledge of action becomes influential in the triad task designed for the purpose of this research as follows: (i) when it is presented in conjunction with taxonomic information, (ii) when it is presented with a context, and (iii) when participants are first asked to physically interact with the objects.

Ce travail présente l’analyse d’une politique qui se voulait à l’origine celle de l’aménagement de l’espace et du développement économique, devenue par la suite une action publique transversale où l’environnement, puis le patrimoine, ont pu trouver leur place. La Loire y est abordée à la fois d’un point de vue spatial et temporel. Il a été nécessaire de reconstruire l’action publique dans le temps pour comprendre d’où nous sommes partis, comment, et ce à quoi nous arrivons aujourd’hui. L’action publique sur la Loire mêle des préoccupations diverses : aménagement d’un hydrosystème, écologie, aménagement urbain, paysage, patrimoine, patrimoine mondial. La Loire constitue un véritable laboratoire, théâtre de très nombreux projets et finalement de peu de réalisations, ces dernières d’ailleurs marquées par une grande complexité. Ce fleuve a donc été un lieu où se sont cristallisés les débats, les conflits d’idées et d’actions. Cette thèse a pour but de comprendre l’action publique Loire et son évolution. Le processus de mise sur agenda est décrypté. L’angle retenu est celui du changement introduit par l’irruption des acteurs du territoire : d’une part les acteurs publics locaux et d’autre part les acteurs associatifs de la mouvance écologiste. A la faveur d’un conflit avec l’organisme aménageur de la Loire, les écologistes ont participé à une reformulation progressive des objectifs de l’action publique déployée sur cet espace. Nous avons identifié les différents référentiels qui ont guidé cette action publique. Il s’agit également de questionner l’hypothèse de l’émergence d’une gouvernance territoriale, symbole du renouveau de l’action publique, et de saisir dans quelle mesure, comme cela est souvent évoqué, les modalités d’action et de relation entre acteurs qui se sont mises en place sur la Loire contribuent aux évolutions de l’action publique concernant d’autres sites et d’autres espaces. Mots-clefs : Loire, barrages, environnement, patrimoine (mondial), action publique, acteurs, référentiels, mise sur agenda, problèmes publics, conflits / This study is an analysis of what was at first meant to be a political wish to spatially and economically regenerate a particular area but which later became a transversal public policy whereby the environment, and then the notion of heritage, became key factors. The river Loire, here, is being approached from both a spatial perspective, as well as a temporal perspective. It has been necessary to reconstruct the decision making process in terms of time in order to understand where we started from and where we got to today. Public policy, centred on the river Loire, is a mixture of diverse purposes: regeneration of a hydrosystem, ecology, urban regeneration, landscape, the notion of heritage, the notion of world heritage. The river Loire has been a platform upon which many projects have developed, but rarely leading to concrete results. The few results achieved are truly complex. The river Loire has been a place around which many debates, conflicts of ideology, and action have happened. The goal of this thesis is to understand the “Loire river related public policy” as well as its evolution. This has been done from perspective of the changes that happened as some “territorial agents” became involved: on one hand the involvement of some public agents, on the other the involvement of some ecology-driven ones. The latter took part in the gradual reshaping o objectives of the public policy of the area under scrutiny. We also had in mind to question the hypothesis according to which a territorial governance was to be put in place. This territorial governance was to symbolise the renewal of the public policy. We had in mind to see if, as is often evoked, the sort of actions and relations between different agents involved in the Loire project have had an impact on public politics of other geographical sites and spaces.

This thesis addresses the question of divine action in the mind: Is human consciousness a uniquely nonphysical causal joint wherein divine intentions meet natural realities without contravening lawlike physical processes? It is argued that consciousness is not uniquely spiritual but wholly natural (and possibly physical). However, this need not lead to the conclusion that divine action in the mind does not occur. Rather, this thesis argues that noninterventionist causal joint programs (such as those privileging the mind as uniquely open to divine action) are both scientifically implausible and theologically insufficient, resting on questionable metaphysical presuppositions that are not necessitated by either theology or the natural sciences. By discarding the God-nature model implied by contemporary noninterventionist divine action theories, one is freed up to explore theological and metaphysical alternatives for understanding divine action in the mind (and elsewhere). It is argued that a theologically robust theistic naturalism offers a more compelling vision of divine action in the mind than that offered by standard causal joint theories. By affirming that to be fully natural is to be involved with God’s active presence, one is then free to affirm divine action not only in the human mind, but throughout the natural world. This thesis is divided into two parts. Part One engages with the scientific and philosophical literature surrounding human consciousness, and uses debates about the nature of the mind to offer a sustained analysis and critique of what is termed the “standard model” of divine action. It is argued that the noninterventionist, incompatibilist model of divine action that has spurred the development of various causal joint theories is scientifically and theologically insufficient, and that this is seen particularly clearly in recent theories locating (and constraining) divine action in the emergent human mind. Chapter 2 analyses the contemporary divine action scene, arguing that the standard model presumes noninterventionism, incompatibilism, and a high view of the laws of nature. However, the God-world relationship implied by this model is theologically insufficient. Chapter 3 examines Philip Clayton’s divine action theory, which locates divine action in the emergent human mind and is the latest manifestation of the causal joint model described in Chapter 2. After using emergence theory itself to critique Clayton’s approach, the thesis then examines the philosophy and science of consciousness, in Chapters 4 and 5. It is suggested that a physicalist understanding of the mind is a well-supported position. Part Two of the thesis reframes divine action in the mind within an explicitly theological framework. The thesis does this by analysing what is termed the “theological turn” in divine action debates – the recent tendency to react against standard causal joint theories by rejecting the idea that science can say anything about how and whether divine action occurs. Proponents of the theological turn instead understand divine action from explicitly theological perspectives, affirming compatibilist models in which God is seen to work in, through, and with natural processes – precisely because God is never absent from nature in the first place. Such an approach allows theologians to accept physicalist explanations of the mind, precisely because all the natural world is necessarily involved with God. Chapter 6 introduces this theological turn by exploring various versions of naturalism, ultimately suggesting that neither philosophy nor science mandates the sort of metaphysical naturalism assumed not only by those who deny divine action, but (ironically) noninterventionist divine action theorists as well. Chapters 7, 8, and 9 then introduce, compare, and contrast three different versions of strong theistic naturalism: Thomism, panentheistic naturalism, and pneumatological naturalism. While each of these explicitly theological frameworks is distinctive, they share an affirmation of the intimate relationship between God’s immanent, active presence in the natural world, and suggest the naturalised mind as a relatively intense locus of divine action, as human minds actively participate in and with God. It is concluded that the participatory ontology supported by these theistic naturalisms does, after all, suggest the mind as a locus of intensified divine action – but for very different reasons than those motivating causal joint theorists.

Cette thèse analyse la relation entre la politique de santé “différenciée”, le territoire et l’Indianité, en s’appuyant sur les références conceptuelles de la sociologie de l’action publique locale, à partir de l’étude de la Terre indigène du Haut Rio Guama (TIARG) au Nord-Est de l’Etat du Para, un territoire revendiqué par ses habitants, le peuple Tembé-Tenetehar et, en particulier, les communautés de Guama et de Gurupi. Le processus principal sur lequel s’appuie cette recherche concerne l’appropriation du discours public sur la politique de santé “différenciée” par les leaders Tembés, en particulier la manière dont ils réussissent à l’utiliser comme ressource politique dans la conduite d’actions pour la défense de leur identité associée à la défense de leur territoire. Ce territoire ”hibride” se presente comme animé et construit à partir de références symboliques, cosmologiques, propres à une culture singulière qui contribuent à la production d’une action publique locale et d’un système d’acteurs ; une action locale qui se concrétise dans un domaine de compétences qui concerne un des secteurs du servisse public, celui de la santé.Partagées entre les droits sociaux particuliers du fait de leur Indianité et les droits sociaux universels, les deux communautés s’efforcent d’amplifier leurs ressources et de développer de nouvelles stratégies de manière à intégrer dans le territoire de leurs traditions les exigences de l’Etat brésilien et celles des organismes internationaux. De telles stratégies qui ne remettent pas en cause la permanence de leurs rituels sont les moyens que se donnent les Tembés pour défendre les intérêts de leur territoire contre les exploitants de la forêt, les grands propriétaires terriens et les agriculteurs de la reforme agraire (agriculture familiale). Cela permet aux Tembés, tant de Guama que de Gurupi, de dynamiser et de réinventer une culture fortement imprégnée d’une dimension politique qui se manifeste dans des actions locales et, en même temps, de défendre leur Indianité et leur territoire.Une analyse comparative entre les deux communautés permet d’observer des différences qui se manifestent en termes d’apprentissage et de transmission des connaissances et qui montrent en particulier que les Tembés de Gurupi adoptent des stratégies et des discours de résistance et de défense plus fermés. Les Tembés de Guama, moins affectés par les iniciatives liées à l’exploitation de la forêt et par l’action des grands propriétaires de la terre, se mobilisent davantage pour défendre un “nouveau” territoire, typiquement émergent, qui conserve cependant des correspondances avec les anciennes limites de leur territoire, en s’efforçant de réactualiser leur mémoire collective qui se nourrit des références de leurs traditions, des traditions que partagent les Tembés de Gurupi. / This study analyzes the relationship between « differentiated health », territory and Indianness , using conceptual frameworks from the sociology of local public action in the Indian Land High River Guama ( TIARG ) , northeastern Pará , territory claimed by its inhabitants , the people Tembe - Tenetehar Villages Guamá and Gurupi . The central process observed relates to appropriation of the discourse of differentiated health Tembé by leaders who spend using it as a political resource in the defense of an action associated with the defense of its territory identity. A hybrid territory is then constructed and experienced in specific symbolic, cosmological references a unique culture that integrates in a local public people whose action points system performance in a comprehensive spheres of competence from the perspective of public service, in this case the health. Between specific social rights and universal social rights, the two villages, seek to expand their resources and develop new strategies for integrating traditional territory requirements which achieves global levels. Such strategies, especially the reissue of traditional rituals are ways that give the Tembé to continue to address other interests in their territory - the loggers, ranchers and settlers. This has allowed Tembe, both Guamá as the Gurupi, streamline, reinvent culture printing an eminently political character of its shares at the same time defend the territory and Indianness. Comparing the two groups of villages are observed differentiations, learning and transmitting knowledge to demonstrate the Tembé Gurupi to set in motion strategies and discourses of resistance and defense of the most closed country. The group Guamá, most affected by the initiatives linked to logging and farms, advocate a new territory, typically emerging that keep in itself however, correspondence with the limits of the territory, updated in collective memory, in which the references are not exactly the same.

"Participation" is a frequently articulated requirement within the context of community development. Yet despite this, the concept of participation is neither comprehensively theorised, nor entirely unproblematic. The theoretical paucity surrounding participation is particularly marked within accounts of its interactional and relational dynamics . This thesis is accordingly concerned with theorising the interactional and relational features of participation in, and for, development. To this end a small development intervention, constituted as an agricultural co-operative within a rural area of South Africa, is examined. In this inquiry the phenomenon of participation is viewed through the lens of dialogical-activity. This enables explication of the "joint activity" directed towards participatory development, within the focal research setting. The overarching theoretical framework for this thesis is conferred by Activity theory. Orientated towards examining the collective and artefactually mediated nature of human action, Activity theory is foregrounded in Y. Engeström's (1989; 1999b) analytic schema of the Activity System. This Activity System framework is expanded by the inclusion of communicative and semiotic elements; an inclusion effected by reference to R. Engeström's theory of communicative action (1995,1999), which in turn, draws on theoretical precepts gleaned from the work of Mikhail Bakhtin. The resultant fusing of dialogue and activity therefore serves to extend Activity theoretical insights. The results of this research are based on data collected from a multitude of sources within the focal participatory development research setting, including internal project documentation, interview transcripts and field notes. The dialogical Bakhtin-derived an alytic categories of speech genre , voice and social language were drawn on in order to examine this textual data , and to explicate the interactional and relational features of participatory development. Analysis of these served to reveal the polyphony of (speech genre constituted) voices, wherein the phenomenon of participation is disparately accentuated. The results chapter moreover discusses the substantial mismatches and discontinuities in the referential object invoked by the various roleplayers, within the focal research context. This thesis considers the sources of these discontinuities and tensions, including how they point to historically constituted contradictions within participatory development. It furthermore briefly examines the opportunities and affordances these offer up for expansive new forms of activity. Finally, in re-examining participation and development, the complex, and sometimes antithetic relationship that exists between these two concepts and their associated social practices, are considered.

The research problem addressed in this study, was to determine what affirmative action policies are being practiced by members of the East Cape Master Builders and Allied Industries Association. To achieve this objective, a literature study was conducted to cite and evaluate relevant literature, in the process of presenting the most theoretical and methodological rationale for the research. The empirical results obtained, indicate that most companies have implemented affirmative action policies. In conclusion, various recommendations have been made with regard to the findings ascertained in the empirical study.