Why do students choose to study particular courses and what is the impact of these choices on their later progression? Quite often the reason for the choice appears to be obvious and straightforward, and their after course trajectory is already determined. The education system has, what some may view as an easy to follow progression route when students reach the end of Key Stage 4, i.e. GCSE to A level, and then university for those who meet the criteria. With A levels considered by many to be the 'gold standard', there is probably no expectation by schools, parents and students that they will do anything else. But what about those who may not meet the criteria and A levels may not be the most appropriate progression route for them? This thesis examines the factors that influence the choices made by students who have decided to study a course other than A level. This is done through longitudinal case studies derived from the use of questionnaires, focus groups and individual interviews using BTEC L3 Science as a vehicle. Four educational establishments agreed to participate in the research to varying degrees, with one establishment providing the participants who provided the case studies. Many previous studies that have investigated student choice have often done so from either the perspective of structural factors or individual agency, but not usually both. Hemsley-Brown and Fosketts' 2001 Integrated Model of Educational Choice has been used to provide a theoretical framework as it allows consideration of both structural factors and individual agency. The model was used at two different points in the research, but in a different way at each point. The result was a series of individual stories that gave an insight into the factors that influence student choice and also how the balance of power in the decision making process shifted in favour of the student as they progressed through the course. At the start of the course structural factors such as the systems that exist within education had a significant role in the choice of course for the students, to the point where it was effectively a 'non-choice' for them. By the end of the course individual agency played a significant role and the students were able to adapt and make the systems work for them to enable them to make the best possible choices to meet their own needs.

Recent decades have seen a shift in Scotland in terms of the provision of housing and housing-related services from the public sector to the private sector. In statistical terms, the proportion of Scottish households in the private rented sector has doubled during the past ten years. This thesis unpacks anthropologically the private rented sector as a locally-found concept in Edinburgh, largely through the medium of ‘property management', another locally-found concept. Key questions concern how the private rented sector in Edinburgh is ‘managed' at the vernacular level, how the ethics of property management take shape in Edinburgh in the context of this ongoing shift from the public to the private sectors, and how the property relations within the sector relate to existing debates in economic anthropology. The primary ethnographic material, based upon fieldwork in 2014 and 2015, is of an Edinburgh letting agency as archetypal property managers, though other material either was produced in conjunction with Shelter Scotland or stemmed from the tracing of further connections within the field. Engaging with the broader anthropology of ethics, a core conclusion is that processes of property management rest ultimately upon practices of ethics that take place at the ‘ordinary' level. A parallel aim is to consider how anthropologists might produce ethnography of an economic ‘sector', such as the private rented sector. Borrowing from Actor-Network Theory, I propose occupying a range of different vantage points in a given economic sector within a socially defined locale, such as the city, by following the connections encountered in the field, and then by allowing actors to perform both the social and the economic by tracing their associations through the production of the ethnographic text.

This thesis traces the changing conceptions and uses of myth in the poetry and prose of Percy Shelley. Its main argument is framed from a critical-theoretical perspective inspired by Dialectic of Enlightenment by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer. From this methodological standpoint, the study of myth can be related to other aspects of Shelley’s work, like his understanding of history and the problem of necessity and agency. The body of the dissertation is divided into three main parts, each of which is constituted by a series of shorter chapters. The first part deals with the mutually constituting negation of myth by enlightenment, where simultaneously several different but related conceptions of myth are produced and the preliminary principles of enlightenment advanced. Shelley’s earlier conceptions and uses of myth are identified (personification, euhemerism, and allegory), and compared to those of his probable sources as well as of useful analogues, among whom David Hume, William Godwin, the Baron d’Holbach, and John Frank Newton are given special attention. These conceptions of myth are also situated in their intellectual contexts in the fields of eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century mythography and theological debate. At the same time, the philosophical underpinnings of Shelley’s earlier writings (naturalism, scientism, and necessitarianism) are brought to light, and interpreted as having been strategically advanced in his critique of myth and religion. The main subject of the second part is the partial reification of enlightenment as a narrative of natural history. The interaction of theological debate and natural history of religion is explored in the light of literary form and pragmatic situation. Shelley’s political and social writings are described as a natural history of civil society based on political economy, and are situated within the historiographical tradition developed in the Scottish Enlightenment by authors like William Robertson, Adam Smith, Adam Ferguson, and John Millar. These narratives contained embedded within themselves an early concept of sociological necessity, and developed in opposition not only to sacred history but also to the classical narratives of individual political agency. I argue that this historiographical framework became problematic for Shelley in the wake of the Manchester massacre, since it was at odds with his pacifist values and utopian expectations. The final part treats of the reincorporation of some elements originally suppressed in the critique of myth. Shelley’s later mythical dramas are read as an alternative representation of history to that of natural history, where a new conception of collective political agency was developed. Simultaneously, a new concept of truth as praxis is identified as emerging in some of Shelley’s political writings, whereby the truth value of myth and poetry could be reassessed as that of a guide for political action. Finally, I argue that Shelley’s debate with Thomas Love Peacock concerning the social function of poetry catalysed the process by which the attributes of myth were transferred to poetry, and the latter was set against science and other expressions of the calculating faculty.

Despite the high profile nature of the interventions made by regulators after the global financial crisis, there have been few objective assessments of their success and of the orthodoxy of market failure analysis that underpins the rationale for taking action. This study addresses both literature gaps by developing a distribution landscape segment model to measure the success of an exemplar; the Retail Distribution Review (RDR). It also undertakes exploratory research to establish a basis for a diagnostic paradigm based on customer value rather than well established, but criticised, classical economic indicators. A “stock flow” based model was constructed to assess post-RDR levels of asymmetry, agency and trust. The absence of source data prompted a second exploratory phase of research into Trust as a welfare benefit, using customer focus groups and telephone surveys. An evidential basis for an alternative framework based on what consumers value, rather than how economists think is rational for them to act, was established. The model results indicated a landscape which is more complex than 2013, with competing interests transmuted rather than eradicated and information asymmetry growing rather than shrinking. The results support a view that interventions focussing on narrow “market” definitions do not reflect the complexity of human behaviour and are simply “squeezing the balloon”. The customer value research found that trust is complicated and related to several key “motivators”. These have underlying attributes which differ between socio economic groups, the financial objectives and whether customers have advisers. The conclusion reached is that an evidence based customer perspective should be at the heart of regulatory analysis, if public welfare is to be maximised. The study provides evidence of complexities and connectedness between actors and economic forces in the retail financial services landscape, cautiously supporting the literature on regulatory interventions as socio-technical assemblages. It argues that the customer value framework enriches the regulatory toolkit by forming a guard against intellectual capture and unintended consequences of shaping reality to fit a so-called perfect market model.

The Postclassic (pre-conquest) Nahua often performed displays of religious devotion. Usually involving stripping victims of their skin, flesh and internal organs, these public, state-sanctioned rites have been understood as astonishing, even exceptional, for their brutality. As a consequence, scholars have focused on human sacrifice at the steps of the Templo Mayor; ritual away from the imperial capital Tenochtitlan has remained very poorly understood. Where attempts have been made to understand regional practices, scholars have generally assumed binary distinctions between central versus periphery or state versus local. Existing studies fail to appreciate Nahua ritual as fluid and dynamic, instead casting ceremonial behaviour across space as unrelated and fundamentally oppositional. Integrating the ethnohistorical and archaeological records, this thesis takes understandings of Nahua ritual in new directions by examining the relationship between the public arena, the sacred landscape and domestic spheres. Crucially, this thesis argues that rituals were sensitive to circumstantial pressures and personal imperatives, across hierarchies,space and time. In so doing, this study suggests a more fluid model for understanding Nahua ritual than binary distinctions can allow. A lack of appreciation for variation or agency in ritual performance has perpetuated the understanding that the Nahua were trapped in a cycle of ferocious ritualism which left little room for critical thought. Using alphabetic, pictorial and archaeological evidence for a rounded perspective, this thesis examines the intersection between official structures and personal agency to question the notion that all Nahuas unthinkingly repeated human sacrifice and other ritual bloodshed. This study argues that the household was a crucial arena for the normalisation of the blood debt which permitted the acceptance of mass public human sacrifice. This thesis finds that, within the Nahua's symbiotic worldview, activities of the temple, mountain and household rituals were mutually supporting. Moreover, it is shown that the Nahuas chose to adapt their rituals throughout the years, to suit individual preferences and environmental circumstances. Taken as a whole, my findings suggest that the Nahuas sought to control their daily existence by adapting rituals to assuage violent and impulsive supernatural forces.

This thesis examines the evolving gender relationships exposed by and contested through the Senegalese art of seduction, mokk pooj. The Wolof expression encompasses a set of feminine attitudes and actions (culinary prowess, docility, eroticism) that reflect values such as teraanga (hospitality), sutura (discretion), and muñ (patience, endurance). These beliefs and the discursive practices that perpetuate them are central to the reproduction of a gendered, normative, patriarchal, polygamous Senegalese sexual imaginary, but are framed within the playful and pleasurable realm of seduction and sexuality. Indeed, mokk pooj implies a satisfying sexual life based on a religiously-­‐informed sexual ethics: in a country where 95% of people identify as Muslim, marriage and procreation are divine recommendations, and sexual pleasure is said to make a married couple feel closer to Allah. In consequence, objects and strategies that enhance sexual satisfaction are an integral part of the Senegalese seduction toolkit. Each chapter pays attention to a specific element of the material culture of seduction and explores how it exposes larger gender dynamics. By taking potions and amulets, money, aphrodisiacs, food, and lingerie as the starting point of each chapter, I explore how these objects relate to concepts of social conformity and normativity, love, anxiety, complementarity and agency. In doing so, I analyse the gendered labour – the art/work of seduction – that goes into mokk pooj. David Graeber (2012) suggests that within hierarchical relationships, individuals in an inferior position (women) have to constantly imagine, understand, manage and care about the egos, perspectives and points of view of those on the top (men) while the latter rarely reciprocate. While Graeber contends that this ‘interpretive labor’ or ‘imaginative identification’ reproduces an internalised structural violence, I analyse mokk pooj as an affective economy in which women’s emotional, interpretive labour, becomes an agentive, albeit conservative, tool of negotiation and power (Mahmood 2005). In imagining and interpreting men’s needs and desires, Senegalese women uphold the Senegalese sexual imaginary that portray them as docile and submissive. However, it is through the apparent conformity and subdued demeanour that mokk pooj requires of them that Senegalese women manage to portray themselves as good women and consequently enhance their agentive power of negotiation.

Transições sociotecnológicas são processos de modificação e substituição de regimes sociotecnológicos, estruturas sociais que englobam sistemas tecnológicos e produtivos, bem como políticas públicas, sistemas econômicos e significados simbólicos associados. A transição sociotecnológica tem sido discutida como um caminho para o desenvolvimento sustentável, dada a possibilidade de substituição de regimes sociotecnologicos vigentes por regimes que representem menores impactos sociais e ambientais. Apesar da atenção que a transição sustentável tem recebido em anos recentes, observa-se na literatura uma lacuna no estudo da função de agência na transição. O objetivo da presente pesquisa é analisar a agência no processo de transição sociotecnológica sustentável, e a principal contribuição está na proposição de um modelo conceitual estruturado para a explicação desta agência. No desenvolvimento do modelo adotou-se a perspectiva multinível, a qual estuda a transição a partir de três diferentes níveis de análise: nicho, regime e cenário. O modelo está consolidado em três ideias centrais, que se constituíram em hipóteses de trabalho no desenvolvimento da pesquisa. Propõe-se como primeira hipótese que a agência na transição seria distribuída, resultando de uma ação coletiva do nicho. Propõe-se também como segunda hipótese de trabalho que a agência seria exercida por meio da construção pelos atores nicho de um sistema de narrativas, o qual direcionaria as expectativas dos demais atores, bem como o compromisso resultante destas expectativas. Por fim, propõe-se como terceira hipótese que expectativas e compromisso seriam continuamente ajustados pelo desempenho do sistema, e a principal medida de desempenho na transição tecnológica estaria na capacidade do nicho em desenvolver aprendizado. Adotou-se no desenvolvimento da pesquisa uma abordagem multimétodo, a partir de um posicionamento epistemológico de complexidade organizacional; outra contribuição significativa de pesquisa está no tratamento metodológico adotado no teste do modelo proposto. O modelo conceitual proposto foi operacionalizado em uma fase de pesquisa qualitativa, a partir de em análise de conteúdo de narrativas socialmente construídas, e outra quantitativa, através de modelagem computacional por meio de um sistema multiagente. Para o desenvolvimento destas fases adotou-se como objeto de pesquisa o nicho de energia eólica brasileiro, o qual se entende como uma transição em andamento dado seu expressivo crescimento recente. Na fase qualitativa de pesquisa buscou-se caracterizar os processos discursivos envolvidos em transições tecnológicas sustentáveis. Observou-se que narrativas atuaram no estabelecimento de expectativas sobre nicho tecnológico, defendendo a existência de grande potencial de geração no Brasil, e a sustentabilidade da geração de energia eólica. A caracterização de narrativas resultado da fase qualitativa de pesquisa foi adotada na fase quantitativa de pesquisa como base para o desenvolvimento do processo de modelagem e simulação. O modelo computacional foi considerado como valido dada sua capacidade de representar o processo de constituição de um nicho tecnológico, e as três hipóteses de trabalho que consolidam o modelo conceitual proposto foram testadas por meio deste modelo. Os resultados de simulação observados dão suporte à aceitação das primeira e segunda hipóteses, embora indiquem pela rejeição da terceira. A principal implicação dos achados está na sugestão que a transição sustentável deve ser entendida como um processo iminentemente coletivo, não podendo ser conduzida de forma isolada por um único agente. / Socio-technological transitions are processes of change and replacement of socio-technical regimes, social structures that include technological and production systems, as well as the associated public policies, economic systems and symbolic meanings. Socio-technical transitions have been discussed as a path to sustainable development, due to the opportunity of replacement of incumbent socio-technical regimes by regimes that account for lesser social and environmental impacts. Despite the attention that sustainable transitions have recently received, it is observed in the literature a gap in the study of agency in the transition. The aim of this research is to analyze agency in the socio-technical transition to sustainability, and the main contribution is the proposition of a structured conceptual model in order to explain this agency. In developing the model, it was adopted the multi-level perspective, which studies the transition through three different levels of analysis: niche, regime and landscape. The model is consolidated in three core ideas, which constituted themselves in working hypotheses for the development of research. At first, it is proposed a first hypothesis the adoption of a conception of distributed agency, resulting from a collective action of the niche. It is also proposed as second work hypothesis that agency would be exerted through the construction by the social actors of the niche of a system of narratives, which would direct the expectations of other actors, as well as the commitment resulting from these expectations. Finally, it is proposed as the third work hypothesis that expectations and commitment would be continuously adjusted by system performance, and the main performance measure in the sociotechnical transition would be in the ability of the niche to develop learning. It was adopted in the research a multimethod design, from an epistemology of organizational complexity; another significant contribution of the research is the methodological approach adopted in testing the proposed model. The proposed conceptual model was operationalized in a qualitative research phase, using a content analysis of socially constructed narratives, and other quantitative phase, by means of computational modeling using a multi-agent system. To the development of these phases it was adopted as a research subject the Brazilian wind energy niche, which is understood as a transition in progress, given its significant recent growth. In qualitative research phase, we attempted to characterize the discursive processes involved in sustainable technological transitions. It was observed that narratives have acted in establishing expectations about technological niche, defending the existence of a large generation potential in Brazil, and the sustainability of wind power generation. The characterization of narratives resulting of the qualitative research phase was adopted in the quantitative phase as the basis for the development of modeling and simulation process. The computational model was considered valid, given its ability to represent the process of establishment of a technological niche. The three working hypotheses that consolidate the proposed conceptual model were tested using this model. The observed simulation results supported the acceptance of the first and second hypotheses, while indicating the rejection of the third one. The main implication of the findings is the suggestion that the transition to sustainability must be considered as a collective process, and cannot be conducted by a single individual agent.

Orientador: Fernão Vitor Pessoa de Almeida Ramos / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Artes / Made available in DSpace on 2018-09-20T17:17:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Maruno_GabrielaRufino_M.pdf: 2953336 bytes, checksum: 7cc3cf87cf6de9be42ffdd33e8af8f3e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / Resumo: A motivação primeira desta pesquisa nasceu de um momento ímpar para aqueles que fazem do cinema brasileiro contemporâneo objeto de estudo e/ou de trabalho. Em 2005, a Agência Nacional de Cinema, após larga sistematização e recuperação de informações, disponibilizou o primeiro de uma série de arquivos (aqui intitulados "Banco de Dados da Ancine") contendo a história dos "números" do cinema nacional. A partir de então, outra ótica de análise e indagações do fazer cinematográfico foi disponibilizada. Produtores, realizadores, distribuidores e acadêmicos encontraram um denominador comum de discussão, um ponto nevrálgico que há tempos vinha sendo reivindicado por todos os personagens deste roteiro - misto de drama, comédia e terror - chamado Cinema Brasileiro. O surgimento desta fonte coincide, também, com um intenso período, em escala mundial, de questionamentos sobre a ética, definição, forma e realização do filme documentário. O Brasil atua como participante atento e ativo desta movimentação, que está longe de encontrar seu fim. Nos últimos três anos, por exemplo, foram lançados, nas salas de cinema do país, mais de 65 filmes documentários brasileiros de longa-metragem - sem contabilizar os documentários cabo, realizados exclusivamente para exibição em televisão. Da união destas duas conjunturas é que se construiu a coluna deste trabalho. Observando a participação do filme documentário, tendo como parâmetro o Banco de Dados da Ancine, procurou-se inferir qual o efetivo comportamento deste tipo de filme dentro da produção nacional realizada entre 1994 e 2007. Nos estudos de cinema, há os que se dedicam a estudar os sujeitos agentes (realizadores); há os que optam pelos produtos (filmes), sob as mais diversas facetas que podem gerar; e há os que, como nós, optam pelos dados que derivam das ações dos agentes e dos impactos dos produtos. Todos, no entanto, temos o mesmo intuito: entender o que "é" - ou o que "está" - nosso cinema. Portanto, a análise aqui apresentada é apenas um dos braços possíveis de diálogo, e de modo algum esgota o assunto: aproxima-se mais de uma proposta de longa discussão do que de uma breve solução. Palavras-chave: Cinema Brasileiro; Documentário; ANCINE / Abstract: The primary motivation of this research was born at an odd/unique time for those who work and study contemporary Brazilian cinema. In 2005, Agência Nacional do Cinema (The National Cinema Agency), after the extensive recovery and systemisation of information, released a series of archives (entitled "Banco de Dados Ancine" or "Ancine Database") containing the history of national cinema "numbers". Faced with this new source, another view of analysis and inquiries into film making became available. Producers, directors, distributors and academics found a common source of discussion, a sticking point that for years was being demanded by all the characters in this script - a mix of drama, comedy and terror - called Brazilian Cinema. The appearance of this source also coincides with an intense period, on a global scale, of questions about ethics, definition, form and direction of documentary film. Brazil acts as an active and attentive participant in this movement, which is far from finding its end. In the last three years, for example, more than 65 Brazilian feature length documentaries were released in national exhibition halls. It is from the union of these two states of affairs that the backbone of this work is built. By observing the participation of documentary film, having as parameter the Ancine Database, it attempted to find the real behaviour of this type of film within national production made between 1994 (considered the start of Reconquista of Brazilian Cinema) and 2007. In film studies, there are those who choose to study the subject agents (directors); there are those who opt for the products (films) under the most diverse facets that they can generate; and there are those who, like us, choose the data arising from the actions of agents and the impacts of products. All of them, however, have the same aim: to understand what "is" our cinema. Therefore, the analysis presented here is only one of the possible avenues of dialogue, and brings us closer only to a longer discussion rather than a short solution. Keywords: Brazilian Cinema; Documentary / Mestrado / Mestre em Multimeios

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro / O mercado de capitais brasileiro se caracteriza pela alta concentração de poder nas mãos de poucos acionistas controladores. No Brasil, a existência de ações preferenciais sem direito a voto enseja o surgimento de conflito de agência entre acionistas controladores e acionistas minoritários, agravado pelo fato de que o controle pode ser exercido com uma participação relativamente pequena sobre o total de ações emitidas pelas companhias. A concentração de propriedade permitiria a possibilidade de expropriação dos direitos dos minoritários. Diversos estudos empíricos vêm sendo realizados ao longo dos últimos anos com o objetivo de avaliar a influência da estrutura de propriedade das ações sobre o valor de mercado das companhias. Nesse contexto, o presente trabalho pretende trazer novas contribuições, com ênfase na participação de ações preferenciais na estrutura de propriedade. Neste trabalho, usando uma amostra de empresas de capital aberto negociadas na BM&FBOVESPA, a partir de teste de diferença de médias, rejeita-se a hipótese de igualdade de valor entre empresas que só possuem ações ON em sua estrutura de propriedade, em relação às que possuem ambos os tipos, ON e PN. Em continuidade, usando modelos de regressão linear, encontra-se relação negativa estatisticamente significativa entre valor de mercado das empresas e variável utilizada para caracterizar a estrutura de propriedade, especificamente, a diferença entre o percentual de participação dos acionistas não controladores no total de ações PN e o percentual de participação dos acionistas controladores no total de ações PN. / The capital market is characterized by high concentration of power in the hands of few controlling shareholders. In Brazil, the existence of preferred shares without voting rights has motivate the emergence of agency conflict between controlling shareholders and minority shareholders, compounded by the fact that the control can be exercised with a relatively small share of the total shares issued by companies. The concentration of ownership would allow the possibility of expropriation of minority rights. Several empirical studies have been conducted over the past year in order to evaluate the influence of the structure of ownership of shares on the market value of companies. In this context, this thesis intends to bring new contributions, with emphasis on the participation of preferred shares in the ownership structure. In this work, using a sample of public companies traded at BM&FBOVESPA, from the test mean difference, rejects the hypothesis of equal value among companies that have only voting shares in its ownership structure in relation to that have both types, and preferred. Continuing, using linear regression models, is statistically significant negative relationship between market value of companies and variable used to characterize the ownership structure, specifically the difference between the percentage of participation of minority shareholders in total PN and percentage of ownership of the controlling shareholders of preferred shares in total.

This diploma thesis deals with the sustainability and stability of anarchy in the long run. Theories of Robert Nozick, Tyler Cowen and Randall G. Holcombe, which point to inevitable emergence of the state from the state of nature, are evaluated and compared with empirical observations of stateless societies. Proposals for the potential avoidance of state emergence despite the possible tendency of anarchy toward monopolization in the form of vertically integrated proprietary communities, remedial state and ideology are also introduced and analyzed. As result, the diploma thesis challenges the theories describing the inevitable emergence of the state and the first two proposals, which were designed to solve this problem. The role of ideology is highlighted in the conclusion as a crucial factor in achieving and maintaining anarchy in the long run.