Our contemporary American food system has created complex environments for decisions and actions around food, and those decisions have implications for culture, health, natural resources, social relations, and the economy. And yet, as scholars, we do not understand the particulars of how people actually cook for themselves and their families. This study explores how race and socioeconomic class interact with individual experience of "food agency," or personal capacity to plan and prepare meals within one's food environment. It is one stage in a multiphase project developing a comprehensive theory of food agency, applicable in any context; a scale for measuring that agency; and a cooking pedagogy for increasing it. This research was based on an explanatory sequential mixed methods design: a qualitative follow-up to quantitative research (see Creswell & Plano Clark, 2011). It is an in-depth qualitative investigation with low-income participants of color, a population that had previously not been included in the development of food agency theory. The study's population was a mix of Drexel University students and community residents of Mantua, in Philadelphia, PA, and was recruited from Drexel's Healthy Cooking Techniques summer course. Data collection included semi-structured interviews and survey administration, and also utilized food agency scale survey responses. Analysis and results are divided into two papers, one narrative, and one a comparison between quantitative components of the food agency scale and corresponding qualitative data. Narrative analysis reinforces the notion that food agency is incredibly complex and self-referential. People with high self-efficacy around food may feel like they have a high level of agency, even if they can identify ways that societal structures impede them. Mixed-methods analysis reveals aspects of food agency that are not reflected by the scale: specifically, strategies for procuring food; environmental and financial impediments to that procurement; and aspiration for greater self-sufficiency and healthfulness in preparing food. Participants are intentional and skillful in resisting economic and environmental obstacles to feeding themselves. They want to be supported in building skills for that daily endeavor. The food agency scale does not gauge many of the strategies with which they resist obstacles, and therefore might be better cast as a cooking action scale, rather than a measure of comprehensive food agency.

L’étude de la gestion du changement s’attache à identifier ce qui peut être agissant dans l’organisation, la faisant évoluer dans un sens favorable ou défavorable aux objectifs définis par ceux qui en ont la charge. La présente étude a pour objet de comparer les propositions d’une approche ventriloque de la communication, telle qu’elle est formulée par François Cooren dans Action and agency in dialogue (2010) avec deux ouvrages traitant du changement organisationnel : The knowledge-creating company (Notaka & Takeuchi, 1995) et La Danse du changement (Senge, 1999). L’objectif est d’examiner dans quelle mesure la perspective ventriloque permet une meilleure compréhension de la nature et des contributions de ces différentes formes d’agentivité. A travers cet examen comparatif, l’ambition de ce travail est aussi d’offrir un point de vue sur la ventriloquie elle-même qui mette en exergue ses aspects les plus novateurs et démontre ainsi l’avancée représentée notamment par l’agentivité non humaine et la dislocalité de l’interaction. / The study of change management intends to identify what can be active in an organization, making it evolve in a direction that follows or resists to the goals defined by those in charge. This study wants to compare the propositions put forward by a ventriloqual approach to communication, as defined by François Cooren in Action and agency in dialogue (2010), with two works dealing with organizational change : The knowledge-creating company (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995) and The Dance of Change (Senge, 1999). The goal is to understand how this ventriloqual perspective allows a better understanding of the nature and contributions of these different forms of agency. Through this comparative inquiry, the ambition of this work is also to offer a perspective on ventriloquism itself, by highlighting its most innovative aspects, in order to demonstrate the progress constituted in particular by nonhuman agency and the dislocality of interaction.

This research is the result of the author’s quest to answer the question whether Corporate Governance is effective in Emerging Markets. Literature on Corporate Governance in the emerging markets of Latin America is limited mostly due to the relatively slower development of capital markets and the late adoption of corporate governance principles. Corporate Governance laws, which largely follow Sarbanes Oxley guidelines, were published and implemented in the mid 00´s and no research has checked their impact on corporate value in Latin America. This research reports compromises two empirical projects. The first project focused on the relationship between boards of directors attributes such size and composition, Corporate Governance law and firm value for Colombia. The second project focused on another Corporate Governance variable, CEO Duality and tested whether it has had any impact in Mexico. This second project also studied whether board attributes such as size and composition and Corporate Governance law were related to firm value. Based on the listed companies from Colombia and Mexico for the years 2001 to 2012 the author found no relationship between board size or composition and firm value. Results from Mexico, where CEO duality is allowed showed that it has no relationship with firm value. These results do not support or contradict either Agency theory or stewardship theory. Results on the impact of the adoption of a Corporate Governance law in firm value are mixed. Results for Colombia contradict previous literature by reporting a positive relationship between Corporate Governance laws and firm results while results from Mexico support previous research by reporting no relationship between these variables. This research is valuable for regulators and policy makers in their quest to assess the impact of the adoption of Corporate Governance laws in emerging markets. . Since effective Corporate Governance is important in easier access to financing it is important for shareholders to know which Corporate Governance mechanisms are positively related to firm value. Similarly, it is also important for investors (both foreign and local) in assessing the risk for equity investments in Colombia and Mexico.

This thesis explores the nature of service learning projects that are structured to make interventions in rhetorical spheres and seek to achieve social change on a smaller scale rather striving for grander, or even systemic, change. In structuring community projects that include inherently limited interventions and equally limited goals, I argue that such projects should be open to immediate adjustments within themselves –to abandon any particular form or goal—to satisfy the immediate needs of the individuals served. I draw upon my work with a reintegration program for ex-offenders in Richmond, Virginia called Working with Conviction to help demonstrate that service learning constituents who create community projects need to be acutely attuned to the temporal and spatial constraints of any project, the ideological commitments of the relevant community, and the various locations of agency that can be affirmed and explored regarding the individuals served.

In this thesis, the author explores and develops new attributes for machine performers and merges the trans-disciplinary fields of the performing arts and artificial intelligence. The main aim is to redefine the term “embodiment” for robots on the stage and to demonstrate that this term requires broadening in various fields of research. This redefining has required a multifaceted theoretical analysis of embodiment in the field of artificial intelligence (e.g. the uncanny valley), as well as the construction of new robots for the stage by the author. It is hoped that these practical experimental examples will generate more research by others in similar fields. Even though the historical lineage of robotics is engraved with theatrical strategies and dramaturgy, further application of constructive principles from the performing arts and evidence from psychology and neurology can shift the perception of robotic agents both on stage and in other cultural environments. In this light, the relation between representation, movement and behaviour of bodies has been further explored to establish links between constructed bodies (as in artificial intelligence) and perceived bodies (as performers on the theatrical stage). In the course of this research, several practical works have been designed and built, and subsequently presented to live audiences and research communities. Audience reactions have been analysed with surveys and discussions. Interviews have also been conducted with choreographers, curators and scientists about the value of machine performers. The main conclusions from this study are that fakery and mystification can be used as persuasive elements to enhance agency. Morphologies can also be applied that tightly couple brain and sensorimotor actions and lead to a stronger stage presence. In fact, if this lack of presence is left out of human replicants, it causes an “uncanny” lack of agency. Furthermore, the addition of stage presence leads to stronger identification from audiences, even for bodies dissimilar to their own. The author demonstrates that audience reactions are enhanced by building these effects into machine body structures: rather than identification through mimicry, this causes them to have more unambiguously biological associations. Alongside these traits, atmospheres such as those created by a cast of machine performers tend to cause even more intensely visceral responses. In this thesis, “embodiment” has emerged as a paradigm shift – as well as within this shift – and morphological computing has been explored as a method to deepen this visceral immersion. Therefore, this dissertation considers and builds machine performers as “true” performers for the stage, rather than mere objects with an aura. Their singular and customized embodiment can enable the development of non-anthropocentric performances that encompass the abstract and conceptual patterns in motion and generate – as from human performers – empathy, identification and experiential reactions in live audiences.

Les scandales financiers des années 2000 ont mis en exergue les dysfonctionnements du gouvernement de l'entreprise. Il a été opéré une remise en cause de la capacité de processus de la gouvernance de l'entreprise actuelle à agir de manière cohérente et à gérer au mieux les conflits et les intérêts de toutes les parties prenantes. L'audit légal est apparu comme un des moyens de régulation du comportement des acteurs dans un cadre théorique de l'agence. L'audit légal joue un rôle central dans la gouvernance de l'entreprise en raison de l'asymétrie d'information existant entre actionnaires et dirigeants. L'objet de cette étude est de comprendre quelles sont les pratiques des commissaires aux comptes qui auditent les sociétés cotées en France. A cette fin une étude descriptive des pratiques a été adoptée. La mise en œuvre d'un nouveau cadre réglementaire et législatif semble avoir un impact sur ces pratiques. L'introduction d'un contrôle de la profession par le Haut Conseil du Commissariat aux Comptes (H3C) apparaissait pouvoir modifier les pratiques de travail des commissaires aux comptes. Ce travail met en lumière que les commissaires aux comptes peuvent être regroupés en trois groupes : les adaptatifs, les coopétitifs et les généralistes. Par ailleurs, il révèle que les commissaires aux comptes tiennent compte dans leurs pratiques de travail du réseau professionnel, de la constitution des équipes, du knowledge management et de la formation technique. / The financial scandals of the 2000s have brought out many of the corporate governance's malfunctions. The capacity of the present-day corporate governance's process to a better management of all stakeholders' conflicts and interests was called into question. Audit has appeared as one of the means to regulate the operators' performance within the theoretical framework of the agency. Audit plays a causal role in corporate governance due to the information asymmetry between shareholders and managers. The aim of this study is to understand what the practices of the auditors auditing listed companies in France are. A descriptive study of the practices was implemented to this end. The implementation of a new regulatory and legislative framework appears to have an impact on these practices. The introduction of a control of the profession by the Haut Conseil du Commissariat aux Comptes (H3C) appeared to be able to change the auditors' working practices. This work highlights the auditors' possible division into three clusters: the adaptives, the coopetitors and the generalizing. Moreover, it reveals that the auditors take into account the professional network, the setting up of teams, the knowledge management and the technical training within their work practices.

The diploma thesis "The Influence of Agency News from the Czech News Agency on the Content of Foreign News Sections in Periodicals" is focused on the thematic a geopolitical focus of the foreign news sections of Czech national dailies in comparison with the agency service of the Czech Newa Agency (CTK). The thesis strives to answer the question, how similar they are. At the same time, work with sources is compared. The theoretical basis for this thesis lies in the theorie of gatekeeping, news values and agenda setting. Two month-long periods were analyzed in the thesis, with emphasis on the comparability of the work with sources. March 2012, a so-called usual month with no expected events of big importance, was compared to the period between 20 October and 20 November 2012, when presidential elections went on in the United States of America. Three hypotheses were determined; of them, two were confirmed and one partially disproved. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

v angličtině In this paper will be described fresh history (after 1989) of culture life in the region of Aš. The art agency in the conditions of regional culture will be described and compared with simile institutions in the Czech Republic. The aim of this paper is to explore the aktivity of a such agency, its results in education system, church, community and european cooperation. In the general analysis the will be specified the means, the problems and the results of explored activities.

This thesis discusses the legal regulation of an agency contract according to the Act no. 89/2012 Coll., The Civil Code, with the focus on the comparison of the changes between the legislative frame of the agency contract contained in the Act no. 513/1991 Coll., The Commercial Code, and the legislative frame of the agency contract contained in the Act no. 89/2012 Coll., The Civil Code. Although the main focus of the thesis lies in description and analysis of the changes, the thesis also examines the practical use of the agency contract, when discussing so called švarcsystém among other things. The aim of the thesis is to describe the changes made by Law no. 89/2012 Coll., The Civil Code, which were explained by Explanatory Memorandum to the Act. No. 89/2012 Coll., The Civil Code, and then highlight those changes that this explanatory memorandum did not mention. The thesis is divided into five chapters, whereas the first four chapters describe the changes and any problems that may arise. The final, fifth, chapter labeled as "Additional information relating to the agency contract", differs from the other chapters in that it does not describe the changes in the legal framework but is devoted to practical problems of the use of the agency contract, which according to the author of this work should also...

This thesis discusses the legal regulation of an agency contract according to the Act no. 89/2012 Coll., The Civil Code, with the focus on the general description of the terms and institutes of agency contract. The work is divided into five chapters, the main objective of this paper is to describe the basic definition of an agency contract. The first chapter described and analyzed the basic characteristics of an agency contract, especially the agent himself, the long-term perception of the agency contract, the definition of the term certain types of transactions, and we have discussed a exclusive and non-exclusive agency contract. The second chapter is focused on the rights and obligations of the parties of the agency contract with a closer focus on the issue of commissions. In chapters 3, 4 and 5, we discussed termination of agency contract, anticompetitive clause and we also mentioned Švarcsystem. Some chapters are for clarity divided into subchapters and the names of the subchapters signify the topic that subchapter is dedicated to. The thesis also refers to the commentary literature and case law relating to legal framework contained in the Act no. 513/1991 Coll., The Commercial Code. In the end the conclusion is drawn about whether the stated objectives have been achieved. Title: Agency Contract...