Europos Sąjungos formuojamos politikos įtaka suvaidino nemažą teigiamą vaidmenį kuriant efektyvų valstybės vaidmenį ir formuojant šalies ekonominę politiką. Tačiau esama atvejų, kai Europos Sąjungos institucijos diktuoja valstybėms narėms ir kandidatėms vienus ar kitus sprendimus – sprendimus, nebūtinai atitinkančius tų valstybių interesus. Šio darbo tikslas - ištirti Europos Sąjungos ir Lietuvos aplinkos apsaugos reguliavimo politikos harmonizavimą, remiantis Europos aplinkos agentūros poveikio analize. Tikslui pasiekti buvo atsižvelgiama į Europos Sąjungos reguliavimo agentūrų veiklos funkcionavimo ypatumus, pagrindinius Europos Sąjungos aplinkos apsaugos ir Lietuvos Respublikos aplinkosaugos veiklos prioritetus bei analizuojamas Europos aplinkos agentūros vaidmuo harmonizuojant Lietuvos aplinkos apsaugos politiką. Apibendrinus darbo rezultatus, galima teigti, kad reguliavimo agentūrų veikla yra labai svarbi ir naudinga veiksmingam Europos Sąjungos funkcionavimui. Nacionaliniai valstybių narių skirtumai gali būti šalinami pasitelkiant labiausiai tinkamą reguliavimo politikos metodą. Europos Sąjungos aplinkos apsaugos politika grindžiama nuostata, kad aukšti aplinkosaugos standartai skatina inovacijas, atveria verslo galimybes, prisideda prie ekonominio augimo skatinimo. Lietuvos valstybei tapus Europos Sąjungos nare, nemažas dėmesys buvo skiriamas rengiamų įstatymų ir kitų teisės aktų projektų harmonizavimui, atsižvelgiant į Europos Sąjungos direktyvose patvirtintų nuostatų... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Policies being formed by the European Union have had a significant positive influence in developing an effective role of the state and forming economical policy of the country. However, there are cases when institutions of the European Union dictate certain decisions to the member and candidate states, and those decisions do not necessarily serve best interests of the states. Aim of this paper - is to analyze impact of the European Union and Lithuanian state environmental sector regulatory policy harmonization, using a case study of The European Environment Agency analysis. To reach the goal has been taken account European Union regulatory agencies' functioning characteristics, the main environmental priorities of the European Union and those of the Republic of Lithuania, and analyzing European Environment Agency's role in harmonizing Lithuanian environmental policy. Summarizing the results of the paper, it can be asserted that regulatory agencies are very important and useful for the efficient functioning of the European Union. National differences of member states can be eliminated by invoking the most proper method of regulatory policy. Environmental policy of the European Union is based on attitude that high environmental standards promote innovations, open business opportunities and further economical growth. When Lithuania joined the European Union, significant consideration was given to harmonizing new laws and projects of other legal acts with the guidelines expressed... [to full text]

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<p>This literature study aims to identify international best practice concerning the role of the board and more particularly that of the independent director in ensuring good corporate governance. The study is based on sources which include a large contingent of up to date sources on the subject ranging from newspaper articles, journal articles, various corporate governance codes, company reports and reports on governance such as Cadbury and Higgs.</p>

<p>This thesis is a small scale in depth exploration into the perceptions of power held by eight Muslim women residing in the Cape Town Metropole area. Using a Qualitative Feminist approach the study aimed to explore and shed light on the multiple ways in which Muslim women negotiate, construct and co-construct agency, power and authority in their everyday lives. This study also sought to explore whether Muslim women who appear independent or empowered actually feel in control of their own lives / and how their ability to make choices is mediated by intersecting identities such as race, class, age, etc. The research highlights a number of emergent themes in which discussion of the women‟s views around education, finance, reproductive responsibilities, patriarchy, etc. takes place and also explores the ways in which the women contest and resist traditional cultural norms in their everyday experiences. Furthermore this study also sought to create a space where the researcher focused and refocused her gaze on the theoretical and epistemological aspects of her chosen method of enquiry in order to interrogate its merits and limits. Upon reflection the researcher also acknowledges that, similar to the participants, she also holds contradictory views on some of the issues discussed.</p>

This study explores the contemporary working lives of prison managers. It attempts to understand the ways in which globalised changes in management practices have intersected with localised practices and occupational cultures. Through an ethnographic study of the lived experience of the practitioners of prison management, the research explores the ways in which the operation of managerialism in a prison environment creates a series of tensions, pressures and expectations on senior managers, and the ways in which these are experienced, understood and negotiated. This study is therefore concerned with the relationships between global and local, and between agency and structure that are characteristic of late modernity. The constraining and enabling features of contemporary prison management are considered in light of Giddens’s account of ‘the duality of structure’. Relevant work on transformation of working lives by Sennett and others are also considered in order to situate this discussion within the world of work more generally. The original research involved ethnographic field work in two medium security prisons in England over a twelve month period, with data generated from observations, interviews and documentary sources. Four aspects of prison management are used in order to address the central issues. The first is a consideration of performance monitoring mechanisms such as targets, audits and inspections; how these are understood, operated, and influenced by those using them and also how they reshape and direct the approach and thinking of managers. The second is a discussion of aspects of agency such as values, discretion, resistance and the use of power; in what ways these are idiosyncratic and individual and how far they are patterned across the organisation and shaped by wider factors. The third issue is a consideration of how people become prison managers and how they approach and understand key issues that face them in managing individual staff, teams and prisoners. The final area considers the ‘hidden injuries’ of contemporary management practice, including how this is experienced by women, members of minority ethnic groups and others who experience themselves as having been marginalised. The study concludes by describing the confluence of global and local, and agency and structure that shape what is described as ‘prison managerialism’. It also describes some of the effects of this and discusses alternatives.

Signals convey information to marketplace participants regarding the unobservable quality of a product. Whenever product quality if unobservable prior to purchase, there is the risk of adverse selection. Problems of hidden information also occur in the consumer marketplace when the consumer is unable to verify the quality of a good prior to purchase. The sending, receiving, and interpretation or signals are potential ways to overcome the problem of adverse selection. In general, there is a lack of empirical evidence for signaling hypothesis, particularly that which links signaling to business performance outcomes. This research proposes that reputation serves as a marketplace signal to convey unobservable information about products offered for sale. Signaling hypotheses are tested in a network context, examining the influence of signals throughout a network of buyers and sellers in a marketplace. There are many situations where a signal does not affect just one sender and one receiver; multiple constituencies may be aware of and react to a given signal. This study incorporates the actions of seller side principals, seller side agents, and buyer side agents when examining marketplace signals and provides a new perspective and better vantage point from which to test signaling theory. The research setting for this study is the world’s largest individual marketplace for Thoroughbred yearlings. Several sources of secondary data are employed. These openly available published sources of information were selected as representative of the information that would typically be available to marketplace principals and agents to use in planning interactions in this unique live auction marketplace. The findings from his study indicate that the reputation of seller side principals and agents affect the eventual business performance outcomes as measured by final price brought at auction for goods. Specifically, seller side principals and agents who have developed a reputation for producing or selling high-priced or high-performing goods will be rewarded in the marketplace with relatively higher prices for their goods. Buyer side agents who are more central in the marketplace will pay relatively higher prices for goods. Evidence suggests that more central seller side agents will receive relatively higher prices for their goods.

Sustainability has become a buzz word of our time, although our developed world community is still coming to terms with what the word really means. Universities and polytechnics in Aotearoa New Zealand will have to change in many ways before sustainability can be considered to occupy a meaningful place in the tertiary education sector. However the change process that sees an organisation moving towards sustainability is complex, and agency for change can be considered on many different levels including the individual identities of staff and students, the identity of managers, and the programme and wider organisational identities constructed by the communities that comprise them. This qualitative research explores education for sustainability within the context of outdoor education using the Bachelor of Adventure Recreation and Outdoor Education (BRecEd) at the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT) (the programme into which the author teaches) as a case study. Participatory action research forms the overarching methodology for a multiple method approach to data collection. The research leans heavily on the lived experiences of staff and students within the programme, is woven with my own reflections, and incorporates many examples of students’ work. The weaving together of these experiences grounds the research and helps bring theory to life. The research reveals the complexity of change towards more sustainable ways of practising outdoor education in an organisational setting. It explores the tensions that are encountered and mechanisms that have allowed for staff and students to engage in education for sustainability in a more meaningful way. The key themes of the research explore the intersection of identity construction processes and change agency, and it is argued these processes are inseparable for those concerned with organisational change towards sustainability.

Agricultural Education has been informed by four major areas including agricultural education (teaching and learning), educational policy, agricultural policy (industry collaboration) and research. Historically agriculture teachers have been removed from the policy process affecting their profession in these four areas (Thompson, 1963). A review of historical literature suggests that only twice have teachers been involved in the policy process. The purpose of this study was to examine the involvement levels of stakeholders in agricultural education across the state of Kentucky. Specifically, examining the emotional appraisal of specific issues in agricultural education and if the emotions of stakeholders influence their involvement in these issues (Sherer, 2005). The researcher found that the involvement level of stakeholders in Kentucky was consistent with the historical research suggesting that stakeholders including teachers are not actively engaged in policy affecting their profession. The researcher also found that stakeholders that appraised a specific issue with a joyous emotion (contentment) became more involved in a local agricultural education program than those apprehensive about the same issues. Recommendations for the profession and specific stakeholder groups have been provided by the researcher to attempt to engage stakeholders in the polices that affect their classroom and profession.

Abstract The goal with this study was to investigate the possibility for bird watching tourism in the northernmost national park in Sweden, Vadvetjåkka and to enhance the knowledge of bird species that occur in the area.  To find out which and how many species of birds that nest in Vadvetjåkka a field study in form of bird inventories and spontaneous bird watching was done in the period 1-12 / 7 2014. Line tax was chosen as a method of bird inventory. Together 43 species of birds and 248 individuals of birds were observed. The three most common bird species along the line transects were: brambling (Fringilla montifringilla), willow warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus) and meadow pipit (Anthus pratensis). During the spontaneous bird observations 20 bird species and 65 individuals were found and the three most common species there was: redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus), chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs) and hawk owl (Surnia ulula). International studies on bird tourism indicate that bird watching is a very popular nature activity. In Sweden there is no research on bird tourism, but there is a variety of nature companies that engaged in birdwatching tourism in combination with other nature activities. There are attractive and rare species found in Vadvetjåkka national park, so the potential is there to attract birdwatchers. To promote nature tourism in Vadvetjåkka national park the Swedish government has decided to make it easier for nature companies to engage in commercial activities in Vadvetjåkka. If eco-tourism companies and nature conservation authorities work together to minimize the potential negative influence of tourism on birds and nature bird tourism can contribute to a positive development in the area.

Combining breastfeeding and other forms of work is desirable from both public health and labour productivity perspectives. This is often challenging, especially in low- or middle-income fast-growing urban settings. The aim of this thesis was to gain a deeper understanding of mothers’ perspectives on combining breastfeeding and other work in the urban contexts of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and New Delhi, India. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with community mothers (n=8) and health worker mothers (n=12) in Dar es Salaam, and mothers working in the health (n=10) and education sectors (n=10) in New Delhi. The methods of analysis were:  qualitative content analysis, grounded theory approach, and directed and general inductive content analyses. Mothers’ agency manifested in several ways. Striving to integrate or segment the competing domains of home and work was a goal of these mothers to reduce conflicts in managing breastfeeding and other work. Spatial and time constraints led mothers to engage in an array of carefully planned actions and troubleshooting tactics that included ways of ensuring proximity between them and their baby and efficient time managing. The timing of these strategic actions spanned from pregnancy, over maternity leave, to the return to employment. Managing breastfeeding and work triggered emotions such as stress, frustration and guilt, but also satisfaction and joy. Mothers negotiated with family, employers, colleagues and informal networks to gain support for their strategies, displaying both individual, collective and proxy agency. Changing family structures and roles highlight the potentially greater supportive role of the partner/husband. Work/Family Border Theory and Bandura’s agency constructs provided frameworks for a deeper understanding of mothers’ perspectives, but using existing family relationship constructs would better diffentiate between various modes of agency. Workplaces and maternity protection conditions were generally inadequate. Interventions are required: to strengthen the breastfeeding mother’s own agential capacity using an individual approach; to provide information to families and communities; to improve regulatory, structural and attitudinal conditions at workplaces, and to strengthen health and social services to adequately support mothers in managing breastfeeding and other work.