Immigrants live transnational lives when they maintain transborder social ties, participate simultaneously in multi-local social relations, and engage in self-transforming identity negotiations that also impact their host societies and their communities of origin. Their social organizations manifest identity construction as agency, with their objectives reflecting particular culture production activities. This native ethnography of Atlanta’s sub-Saharan African immigrants combines 115 surveys of the general population, and 13 in-depth interviews of their organization leaders and members, to examine the potential problem solving instrumentality of social organizations. Study results show that organizational objectives do not reflect top community problems, but prioritize projects that confirm immigrant transnational lives. The organizations’ early potential for engineering non-tribal nationalism within the specific countries and the continent is a surprising finding. African philosophy is evoked to illuminate the relevance of pre-migratory identities and socialization as a possible homogenizer, but also a source of friction for immigrant integration.

With the increasing pervasiveness of mobile technologies such as cellular phones, personal digital assistants and hand held computers, mobile technologies promise the next major technological and cultural shift. Like the Internet, it is predicted that the greatest impact will not come from hardware devices or software programs, but from emerging social practices, which were not possible before. To capitalize on the benefits of mobile technologies, organizations have begun to implement nomadic computing environments. Nomadic computing environments make available the systems support needed to provide computing and communication capabilities and services to the mobile work force as they move from place to place in a manner that is transparent, integrated, convenient and adaptive. Already, anecdotes suggest that within organizations there are social implications occurring with both unintended and intended consequences being perpetuated. The problems of nomadic computing users have widely been described in terms of the challenges presented by the interplay of time, space and context, yet a theory has yet to be developed which analyzes this interplay in a single effort. A temporal human agency perspective proposes that stakeholders’ actions are influenced by their ability to recall the past, respond to the present and imagine the future. By extending the temporal human agency perspective through the recognition of the combined influence of space and context on human action, I investigated how the individual practices of eleven nomadic computing users changed after implementation. Under the umbrella of the interpretive paradigm, and using a cross case methodology this research develops a theoretical account of how several stakeholders engaged with different nomadic computing environments and explores the context of their effectiveness. Applying a literal and theoretical replication strategy to multiple longitudinal and retrospective cases, six months were spent in the field interviewing and observing participants. Data analysis included three types of coding: descriptive, interpretive and pattern coding. The findings reveal that patterns of technology use in nomadic computing environments are influenced by stakeholders’ temporal orientations; their ability to remember the past, imagine the future and respond to the present. As stakeholders all have different temporal orientations and experiences, they exhibit different practices even when engaging initially with the same organizational and technical environments. Opposing forces emerge as users attempt to be effective by resolving the benefits and disadvantages of the environment as they undergo different temporal, contextual and spatial experiences. Insights about the ability to predict future use suggest that because they are difficult to envisage in advance, social processes inhibit the predictability of what technologies users will adopt. The framework presented highlights the need to focus on understanding the diversity in nomadic computing use practices by examining how they are influenced by individual circumstances as well as shared meanings across individuals.

We investigate whether multiple large shareholders (MLS) play an internal corporate governance role in mitigating agency problems between the controlling shareholder and minority shareholders in a cross-country sample of public firms. We draw our conclusion by examining the market reaction (in terms of bidder announcement period abnormal returns) to acquisition announcements made by firms with and without MLS in their ownership structure. Using an international sample of acquisition announcements made by firms with at least one large shareholder from 10 Western European and 5 East Asian countries between 1996 and 2000, we find the presence of MLS, their voting rights, relative voting power, the number of blockholders and the relative voting power of these blockholders have a positive and significant impact on bidder announcement period abnormal returns. We also find that the legal institutions such as disclosure requirement, investor protection, common-law legal origin and anti-self-dealing have positive effects on bidder announcement period abnormal returns.

We investigate whether multiple large shareholders (MLS) play an internal corporate governance role in mitigating agency problems between the controlling shareholder and minority shareholders in a cross-country sample of public firms. We draw our conclusion by examining the market reaction (in terms of bidder announcement period abnormal returns) to acquisition announcements made by firms with and without MLS in their ownership structure. Using an international sample of acquisition announcements made by firms with at least one large shareholder from 10 Western European and 5 East Asian countries between 1996 and 2000, we find the presence of MLS, their voting rights, relative voting power, the number of blockholders and the relative voting power of these blockholders have a positive and significant impact on bidder announcement period abnormal returns. We also find that the legal institutions such as disclosure requirement, investor protection, common-law legal origin and anti-self-dealing have positive effects on bidder announcement period abnormal returns.

The hardest time to receive financing for a venture is at its earliest stage. These ventures are among the riskiest investments for an investor, which creates a gap in financing that is often bridged through a source of funding called Angel Financing. Angel investors are one of the best providers of early stage funding. This thesis will explain what angel investing is, how they work, and what angels look for. This information will help entrepreneurs be better equipped to find an angel investor for their venture.

Theodore Stanton’s career as a literary middleman exemplifies several of the intermediary professions in book and periodical publishing that were being created and tested in the late nineteenth century in response to expanded publishing opportunities in France, Great Britain, the United States, and Canada. The need for professional middlemen between writers and publishers developed differently in each country, thus their roles and activities, the literary agent’s in particular, varied according to regional demands. Different interpretations of intellectual property in copyright laws determined the balance of power between creators and producers of texts. In turn, writers’ relative ability to control copyrights shaped the middleman’s field of endeavour. The range of professional middleman specializations is described. A case study of some American publications of Émile Zola’s novels shows the legal and logistical difficulties of transatlantic publishing in practice. In chapter 3, Stanton’s beginnings as an American newspaper correspondent in Paris precede his middleman role as editor of the European Correspondent, a weekly galley-proof service printed in English in Paris and syndicated to American newspaper editors. Stanton’s work as a European sub-editor of the North American Review and other magazines is detailed in chapter 4. As the Paris representative of Harper & Brothers from 1899, Stanton presented previously unpublished writings of Honoré de Balzac, Victor Hugo, Émile Zola, and others to American readers, also co-operating with French publishers. Case studies portray the challenges and successes of a middleman position within a large, complex enterprise. In chapter 5, a more independent Stanton arranges the simultaneous, posthumous publication of the memoirs of Eugénie, ex-Empress of France, by D. Appleton and Company in New York and London, and in four European translations. Count Maurice Fleury compiled and authored the two-volume work, which was not published in France. The manuscript took a circuitous path to publication through Stanton’s efforts to ensure authenticity, maintain exclusivity, and protect copyright. Methodological approaches of correspondence editing, bibliography, and textual criticism reveal both the processes and the results of Stanton’s mediation and illuminate how the participation of literary middlemen shaped the way French culture was received and understood in North America.

This study explores the differences (and similarities) between sentencing reform and the legal practices of criminal defence lawyers. This research specifically focuses on Section 718.2 (e) of the Criminal Code, which is aimed at reducing the use of imprisonment for Aboriginal offenders and the application of the section in the Supreme Court’s 1999 decision R .v. Gladue. It investigates whether or not the section and/or Gladue has affected the legal practices of criminal defence lawyers and if so, how. The practice of lawyers, in this study, is conceptualized as structured action. The agency of lawyers is thus constrained and enabled by both macro and micro processes. These include traditional legal ideology, managerial/organizational ideology, presuppositions surrounding Aboriginality as well as the broader socio-political context of neo-liberalism and neo-conservativism. How the practices of defence lawyers either reflect or contradict the section and Gladue is examined through the oral narratives of lawyers—obtained through in-depth semi-structured interviews with twelve defence lawyers. The findings of this analysis show that the vast majority of lawyers were not integrating the section or Gladue in their defence strategies. This suggests that efforts to remedy the issue of Aboriginal over-incarceration need to be aware of the complexity of criminal justice processes, the agency of lawyers and the broader social and political context. / October 2008

Adoption of evidence-based parenting programs by community agencies requires an understanding of the variables that affect their implementation. This study examined variables associated with the implementation of Triple P – Positive Parenting Program in Ontario. Surveys were completed on-line by 63 administrators, 54 supervisors, and 215 service providers from 69 different agencies. In a first article, I report on agencies’ pre-implementation openness, readiness, and resistance as well as on service providers’ self-reported use of and adherence to the program. Respondents from the vast majority of agencies reported openness to change prior to implementation but approximately half reported that they were not ready and experienced resistance. Although the majority of trained service providers used the program, a significant minority had not delivered it since training. The average adherence rate reported by service providers who used the program was 85.9%. In the second article, I report on the variables associated with implementation. The majority of respondents reported that they had adequate office resources to implement Triple P. Over half the managers (administrators and supervisors) and over two thirds of service providers reported that their agency had received adequate training. The most commonly identified barrier to implementation was agency characteristics which included organizational climate, service provider characteristics, and supervision. Adequate office resources and positive agency characteristics were associated with higher program usage by service providers. Service providers’ reports impacted their individual adherence rates whereas managers had broader perspectives of the quality of implementation in their organizations. Differences in reports between managers and service providers were not associated with usage or adherence.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka Skolverkets diskurs kring lärare som mobbar elever. Detta görs genom en textanalys av myndighetens publikationer där utsagor om mobbande lärare jämförs med utsagor om mobbande elever. Det studerade materialet utgörs av Skolverkets mest omfattande publikationer om skolmobbning mellan år 2002 och 2011. Texterna analyseras med hjälp av Michel Foucaults diskursanalys och de teorier som används är Steven Lukes definition av maktens tredje dimension samt Foucaults maktteori. Studien visar att mobbande lärare sällan omnämns i materialet och att utsagorna koncentreras kring historia, juridik och statistik. När det gäller talet om elever som mobbare är utsagorna frekvent förekommande och deras individuella egenskaper behandlas ingående. Eleverna beskrivs i förhållande till forskning, åtgärdsprogram, historia, juridik, statistik och utredande texter. Undersökningen visar att statistik om lärare respektive elever ej behandlas på ett jämlikt sätt; det gäller både vid framtagning av underlag för statistiken och vid redovisning av resultat. Skolverket presenterar ämnet om mobbande lärare diskontinuerligt och fragmentariskt medan mobbande elever beskrivs ingående och ur en mängd olika synvinklar. Texterna ger ingen förklaring till varför mobbande elever respektive mobbande lärare behandlas på så olika sätt när skolmobbning ska beskrivas. Resultatet av denna uppsats kan sättas i relation till maktteorier där den statliga makten osynliggör sig själv, samtidigt som den synliggör medborgarna. Lärare som mobbar elever osynliggörs, eftersom deras uppgift är att utföra statens direktiv; elever som mobbar är fullt exponerade eftersom maktutövningen undersöker, iakttar och kontrollerar dem. / This study has the intention to investigate how the Swedish National Agency for Education describes teachers who bully students. The examination is done by a research of published texts from the agency (between 2002 and 2011), and embodies the most numerous publications about bullying in school in this period of time. The investigation is performed with Discourse Analysis from Michel Foucault and compares bullying teachers with bullying students. Theory of Three-Dimensional Power from Steven Lukes  and Power Theories from Foucault gives a further understanding of the results. The study shows that bullying teachers is mentioned sporadically and in sprinkling fields related to historical dictums, statistics and juridical subjects. When it comes to the description of students, there are many and frequent dictums from personality traits to research findings. Students are also discussed in relation to programs against bullying and in a historical, judicial and statistical context. Statistics are unequal when it comes to bullying teachers versus bullying students, both in how investigations are composed and how the results are presented. The question of bullying teachers are almost excluded in the texts and none of the publications explains why there’s such a big difference between the presentation of bullying teachers comparing to bullying students. The conclusion is that the Swedish National Agency for Education treats the problem with bullying teachers in a discontinuous and fragmentary way whilst bullying students are described comprehensively and in widespread subjects. The result can be related to power theory therefore it shows how governmental power is making itself invisible whilst it exposes the members of the society. Bullying teachers are invisible because their task  is to perform the governments directives, whilst bullying students are fully visible because exercise of power investigates, observes and controls them in full exposure.

The object of this thesis is to analyze the evolution of railway interoperability and safety in Europe in the period 1991-2011. This pretends to assess what has been the legislative process at EU level in the last 20 years. This analysis looks for to determine whether it has been established the strong enough bases to achieve fully interoperable Trans-European Railway Network in a reasonable time, with uniform security features. The second aspect is to determine those points that should be corrected and improved, or simply addressed, to accelerate the integration process. A common feature of the rail networks in the European countries is their strong national focus in regard to Railway traffic rules and technical standards. This leads to specific products often developed and implemented by the national industry. This has raised a strong dependence of the rail networks on the local suppliers. Furthermore in most cases this carry out an incompatibility of these networks with the networks of neighbouring countries. To illustrate this situation it is only necessary to remember the different gauges in national networks (1,668 mm in the Iberian Peninsula, 1,520 in Russia, Finland, Baltic republics, 1,435 mm in the other European countries) to which must be added the numerous narrow gauges regional and urban networks. Another good example is the different supply voltages: 1,500 V dc, 3,000 V dc, 25 kV 50 Hz, 15 kV 16 2/3 Hz, which should add the 625 V dc, 750 V dc, 1,200 V cc, used in trams and regional rail systems. In the field of railway signalling, more than six different and incompatible systems exit. As we show in this document there are hundreds of other parameters that are different from one network to another: the height of the overhead line, the height of the platforms, the gauges an so on and so forth. The lack of interoperability, affects decisively to the creation of a European single market in rail transport for both: goods and passengers, which prevents private (or public) rail undertakings to give trans-national services and create a single market. The thesis focuses on the study of the directives relate to the interoperability and railway safety, and the technical specifications for interoperability (TSI). It leaves for future analysis the detailed studies European standards being developed for the technical harmonization of each subsystem parts. According to the author when the concept of interoperability was lunched in 1996, probably it was thought that the technical harmonization would be much easier. However, when it was analyzed in depth it was found a large number of discrepancies between the technical characteristics of each network raised. These parameters such as width and height of the pantographs, the stresses of the overhead contact wires, the length of the neutral zones, the height of platforms, the different kinematic and dynamic gauges and a long list of different parameters, made it impossible, in practice, the movement of trains across borders in a generalized manner in a short term. Finally it was recognized the fact that, for achieving real harmonized lines, it would be necessary to invest a huge amount of money not justify by the cost-benefit analyzes. The Thesis concludes that is necessary to put in force more strong Technical Specifications of Interoperability that leave less degree of freedom to the Member states: determining a single objective parameter value, trying to reduce the permanent specific cases and solving and reducing the list of open points. / El propósito de esta tesis es analizar el desarrollo de la interoperabilidad y seguridad ferroviaria en Europa en el periodo comprendido entre 1991-2011. La intención es evaluar cuál ha sido el proceso legislativo a nivel de la UE durante los últimos 20 años. Este análisis tratará de determinar si ha sido establecido desde una base suficientemente sólida para obtener una Red Ferroviaria Trans-Europea dentro de un periodo razonable, con uniformidad de instalaciones de seguridad. El segundo aspecto sería determinar aquellos puntos que deben ser corregidos o mejorados, o sencillamente re-examinados para acelerar el proceso de integración. Un aspecto común a las redes ferroviarias de los países europeos es su fuerte énfasis nacional en lo que respecta a normas de circulación ferroviaria y reglamentación técnica. Esta realidad conduce a la creación e implementación de productos específicos por parte de la industrial nacional. Esto ha llevado a una fuerte dependencia de las redes ferroviarias de suministradores locales. Asimismo, en la mayoría de los casos, esto lleva a la incompatibilidad de estas redes con las redes de países vecinos. Para ilustrar esta situación, solamente es necesario recordar los distintos anchos de vía en redes nacionales (1.668 mm en la península ibérica, 1.520 en Rusia, Finlandia y las repúblicas del Báltico, 1.435 mm en otros países europeos) al que habría que añadir las numerosas redes de vías de ancho estrecho regionales y urbanas. Otro buen ejemplo serían los distintos suministros de tensión: 1.500 V dc, 3.000 V dc, 25 kV 50 Hz, 15 kV 2/3 Hz, al que habría que añadir las de 625 V dc, 750 V dc, 1.200 V cc, utilizados en tranvías y redes de trenes regionales. En el ámbito de la señalización ferroviaria, existen más de seis sistemas distintos e incompatibles. Tal y como demostramos en este documento, hay cientos de parámetros distintos que difieren de una red a otra: la altura de la línea suspendida, la altura de andenes, los anchos, etc, etc. La falta de interoperabilidad afecta decisivamente a la creación de un mercado común europeo de transporte ferroviario para tanto mercancías como pasajeros, lo cual impide que empresas privadas (o públicas) ferroviarias puedan ofrecer servicios transnacionales y crear un solo mercado. Esta tesis se enfoca en el estudio de la reglamentación relacionada con la interoperabilidad y seguridad ferroviaria, y las especificaciones técnicas para la interoperabilidad (TSI). Deja para análisis futuros el estudio detallado de los estándares europeos bajo desarrollo para la armonización técnica de cada parte de subsistema. Según el autor, cuando el concepto de la interoperabilidad fue lanzada en 1996, probablemente se pensara que la armonización técnica sería mucho más sencilla. Sin embargo, al analizarlo en detalle se descubrió que aparecían un amplio número de discrepancias entras las características de cada red. Estos parámetros, como el ancho y alto de los pantógrafos, las tensiones de los hilos de contacto suspendidos, la longitud de zonas neutras, el alto de andenes, las diferentes propiedades cinemáticas y el ancho dinámico y una amplia lista de distintos parámetros hacían imposible en la práctica la circulación de trenes más allá de sus fronteras de forma generalizada a corto plazo. Por fin se reconoció el hecho de que para conseguir líneas verdaderamente armonizadas sería necesario invertir una enorme cantidad de dinero que no era justificable en los análisis de coste-beneficio. La tesis concluye que es necesario poner en vigencia especificaciones técnicas de interoperabilidad más fuertes que dejen menos libertad a los países miembros: determinar un solo valor de parámetro objetivo, y tratar de reducir los casos específicos permanentes y resolver y reducir el número de puntos abiertos.