The study aims to create a deeper understanding and gain more knowledge about the complex and dynamic management processes in gazelle companies, in relation to both social- and financial aspects. We argue that financial challenges, such as funding and cash flow controls, are closely connected to social dimensions as human resources and company-specific strategies. Thus, it is not sufficient to handle them separately, since both social- and financial processes are closely connected and influenced by different stakeholders. The research displayed that human resources management practices and finance practices were more important than the other three dimensions. The companies that participated in our study also seem to have different attitudes towards external investors/stakeholders, depending on if they were founded before or after the financial crisis in 2008.

Food safety regulations have increased over the past decade in response to food safety scares, international trade and changing public demands. The purpose of this thesis is to determine the impacts of meat safety regulations and a subsequent amendment on food security in rural and remote communities in British Columbia. Case studies of three communities, Bella Coola Valley, Haida Gwaii and Powell River Regional District, were utilized to assess these impacts. Interviews with government officials and local farmers were combined with agricultural and socio-economic data. Though it is not possible to attribute impacts directly and solely to the change in regulatory structure, it appears that the addition of harsh safety regulations has damaged an already fragile local meat industry in these vulnerable communities. The regulation amendment solved some of these issues, but many rural regions are still struggling to maintain local self-sufficiency in food production. / Graduate

As populations in informal urban settlements continue to grow, an increasing number of people are exposed to unsafe living conditions. Children are particularly vulnerable to the environmental risks associated with this settlement type. While much is known about child morbidity and mortality in informal urban settlements, little is known about maternal perceptions of child health. This thesis explores the determinants of maternal perceptions of child health in the informal urban settlement of Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya. Data utilized in this thesis come from A Kenya Free of AIDS (KeFA), a research-based, National Institute of Health-funded project. Through Respondent Driven Sampling (RDS), 320 women in Kibera were recruited for interviews. Of these, 277 reported having children in their care and were accordingly selected for analysis. Questions selected for analysis were divided into four categories: child health, maternal background, social and economic support, child characteristics and maternal health. Data were analysed using Student’s t-tests, chi-squares, and multiple regression methodology. Two different response variables were used in the regressions: general child illness rating and infrequency of child illness. Analysis indicated that women in the sample were significantly more likely to report poor child health if they: had more children in their care, had younger children in their care, were involved in an intimate relationship, and had experienced a recent barrier to medical treatment for a child. Exploring maternal perceptions of child health is critical because these perceptions are the precursor to healthcare-seeking behaviour. / Graduate / 0573 / 0766 / jdrengson@gmail.com

In the framework of social perception and attribution theories, fundamental bias of Just World Beliefs developed by Lerner (1965) states that people need to see world as a just place in order to cope with an ordered and controlled sociophysical environment. By holding this ideas people can involve in long term proposes as in daily life social regulated behavior. Pursuing the isolation of a “cognitive invariant”, Just World Beliefs (JWB) thesis can be seeing as dealing with a natural aspect of human being not conditioned by social, cultural or ideological factors. In the need of recovering social dimension of attribution processes, pre- sent study aimed to examine the relationship between Just Word Beliefs (Rubin & Peplau, 1973) and some social variables. A descriptive correlation study was carried out based on a convenience sample of 349 students from Buenos Aires city. As hypothesized, means on JWB increase with age, educational levels, parental education and cultural capital. Similarto previous researches, no differences related to sex were found. / La Creencia en el Mundo Justo (CMJ) desarrollada por Lerner (1965) plantea que los individuos necesitan creer que el mundo es un lugar justo para enfrentar su ambiente físico y social como algo ordenado y controlado. En el interés por aislar invariantes cognitivos, la tesis de la CMJ puede llevar a concluir que estas creencias responden a aspectos naturales, esenciales del ser humano, dejando de lado elementos sociales, culturales e ideológicos. El objetivo del estudio fue examinar la relación de la CMJ (Rubin & Peplau, 1973) con algunas variables sociales. Se realizó un estudio descriptivo correlacional con una muestra intencional de 349 alumnos y estudiantes de la ciudad de Buenos Aires. Los resultados muestran que las medias en CMJ se incrementan con la edad, el nivel educativo, la educación de los padres y el capital cultural. No se encontraron diferencias con relación al sexo. El interés en profundizar el estudio de los sesgos cognitivos se basa también en resaltar algunos de sus tantos efectos como la derogación de la víctima a la hora de justificar comportamientos.

2019 was the year with the highest measured amount of GHG emissions in history, indicating that our existing way of living is unsustainable and demands substantial changes. New ways of governing environmental issues are therefore being called upon in which the local level has great potential to create change. Sustainability measures involving integrated social dimensions which questions the motive for performing or engaging in emission demanding activities are found leading to a more long-lasting change. In Sweden, the decentralized decision model makes municipalities have a large responsibility for creating change in crucial emission demanding areas. Recognizing these concerns, this study applies a multi-dimensional system perspective with a broad range of cultural, habitual and technological aspects by Jensen et al. (2019) on three front-running municipalities (Tyresö, Växjö and Lund) working to reduce emission levels. The study focuses on distinguishing between different drivers for change among sustainability measures regarding energy and mobility functions, with a specific focus on the account of incorporated social dimensions. The results indicate that there is a lack of integrated social dimensions among the selected municipalities, in which only 26% of the grand total of 220 analyzed measures involve integrated social elements which enables a system-wide change. Technical and individual behavioural changes are far more prioritized than changes which are linked to collective lifestyle aspects and involve a mixture of technology, norms, cultures and organizations within the society, which are aspects proven more likely to lead to a system-wide change. The study provides knowledge on the capability of local decision making to enforce a systemic change toward sustainability if the current measures are carried out, in which the results indicate that the change among the three selected municipalities will be limited.

Background: Virtual teams are becoming an increasingly prominent organizational unit, mainly as a result of globalization, digitalization, and the Covid-19 pandemic. While enabling operational advantages, virtuality may be adverse for the team members’ motivation as limited physical interaction in virtual teams can cause feelings of loneliness and demotivation. However, the full impact of the limited physical social interaction on member motivation remains unclear.  Purpose: The study’s purpose is to contribute to knowledge development regarding individual motivation in virtual teams, and how it is affected by limited physical social interaction. The study further aims to provide insight into how to manage such teams to strengthen the motivation of the virtual team members and thus improve the overall functioning of the team.  Method: A qualitative research design was utilized for this study. The empirical data was obtained through semi-structured interviews conducted with ten virtual team members operating within the IT industry. Further, an abductive research approach was applied, and the collected data were analyzed using thematic analysis.  Conclusion: Social dimensions are interdependent and affect each other. They also interplay with social identity and the need to belong. Limited social ties and socialization are generally a motivational issue, but the perception and motivational effect varies greatly between individuals as a result of personal factors. However, virtual team members are still generally motivated, mainly as a result of the independence that the virtual setting provides. Motivation can be improved over time as the team members get to know each other better. The manager should also plan physical, or if not feasible, digital social activities focused on bringing value and not awkwardness. Lastly, the manager is advised to promote team empowerment as it fosters prosocial motivation, which is generally preferable in virtual teams.

The Jellyfish Project (JFP) is the environmental initiative that uses music as a means to engage youth, increase awareness about climate realities, and promote behaviour change. Music is an exceptional tool to captivate youths’ attention and increase their receptivity towards environmental messages. The arts also play a role in democratizing engagement and exhibit the potential to mobilize social action and change. Thus, music serves more than a leisure purpose, it can rally youth around a common purpose and create a powerful shared experience between musicians and their audiences. This community-based case study connects arts-centred movements to an ecosystems perspective and social marketing approaches, while establishing social engagement as a social determinant of health. Social engagement is the intentional and active participation in one’s community to create change and requires resources, efficacy, and opportunities for participation. Multiple data collection methods were used, including focus groups with youth, interviews with key informants, and social media analytics. Research themes include 1) The Power of Music, 2) Seeking Connections, 3) Awareness ≠ Change, and 4) Searching for Solutions. Findings showed that The JFP presentation was well-received by its audiences. Awareness, the primary goal of the organization increased, yet it was evident that for behaviour change to occur a broader community-level strategy is necessary. This strategy needs to involve active participation by students, numerous follow-up strategies, and community partnerships to address contextual issues and support sustained change. Implications for practice include developing active participation and partnerships; incorporating additional interaction with youth in the school presentation program; enhancement of online and social media strategies, and the provision of lived, multi-sensory experiences, both online and in the community. This intentionally transdisciplinary research filled gaps in the literature concerning the interconnections between social engagement, the social determinants of health, and the ecosystems perspective. It was also the first body of research to propose that social engagement is an appropriate community-level social determinant of health. Originating in real world experiences, this research advances knowledge translation and exchange immediately, informing the social engagement strategies of not-for-profit organizations as they harness the energy of the arts to effect social change. / Graduate / 0413 / 0515 / 0566 / jlansfie@uvic.ca

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:46:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 NestorGDJ_DISSERT.pdf: 815149 bytes, checksum: 3535f029a2bde27c92cb3258eddb4466 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-11-25 / Coordena??o de Aperfei?oamento de Pessoal de N?vel Superior / This paper discusses about the higher education in Brazilian society highlighting the struggle of the working class, as concerning the access to public universities, as well as highlights the contradictions implicit in social quotas adopted by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) . The aim of this paper is on presenting the analysis of student assistance of the state universities in the Northeast that adopt quotas as social criteria of access for its students , presenting investigative locus as the following universities : UERN , UEPB , UPE and UNEAL . The paper presents the results of a qualitative study , based on a documentary analysis , based on dialectical and historical materialism in which she performed the reading of data from the following analytical categories: Higher Education, Social Quotas and Student Assistance. As main results, it is emphasized that the implementation of quotas as a means of access to higher education was not decisive for the form of planning and implementation of student assistance the university investigated; latent heterogeneity is that universities deal with actions to support student residence. And it is this heterogeneity and the variation in the conduct and understanding of student assistance , reflecting the lack of prioritization with the actions of the context of HEIs ; support programs are to stay focused on central campuses which are located the administrative offices of the universities, penalizing students enrolled in advanced units; also highlight that there is no link between the programs and projects related to student assistance with actions related to teaching, research and extension in universities investigated , which ultimately characterize the student assistance as an isolated action and punctual / O presente trabalho discorre acerca da educa??o superior na sociedade brasileira ressaltando a luta da classe trabalhadora, no que concernente ao acesso ? universidade p?blica, bem como destaca as contradi??es impl?citas nas cotas sociais adotadas pelas Institui??es de Ensino Superior (IES). O objetivo central deste trabalho constitui-se em apresentar a an?lise da assist?ncia estudantil das universidades estaduais do Nordeste que adotam as cotas sociais como crit?rio de acesso dos seus discentes, apresentando como l?cus investigativo as seguintes universidades: UERN, UEPB, UPE e UENAL. O trabalho apresenta os resultados de um estudo qualitativo, a partir de uma an?lise documental, baseado no materialismo hist?rico e dial?tico em que se realizou a leitura dos dados a partir das seguintes categorias anal?ticas: Educa??o superior, Cotas sociais e Assist?ncia estudantil. Como principais resultados, destaca-se que a implanta??o das cotas como mecanismo de acesso ? educa??o superior n?o tem sido determinante para a forma de planejamento e execu??o da assist?ncia estudantil nas universidades investigadas; ? latente a heterogeneidade com que as universidades lidam com as a??es de apoio ? perman?ncia discente. E ? esta heterogeneidade e a varia??o na forma de condu??o e entendimento da assist?ncia estudantil, que refletem a falta de prioriza??o com as a??es de apoio ? perman?ncia discente no contexto das IES investigadas; os programas de apoio ? perman?ncia s?o concentrados nos campi centrais onde se situam as sedes administrativas das universidades, penalizando os estudantes matriculados nas unidades avan?adas; Ainda destacamos que n?o h? articula??o entre os programas e os projetos vinculados ? assist?ncia estudantil com as a??es vinculadas ao ensino, pesquisa e extens?o nas universidades investigadas, o que acaba por caracterizar a assist?ncia estudantil como uma a??o isolada e pontual

The recent election victory of gen. Obasanjo highlights the fragile civil-military relations encountered in Nigeria. It also illustrates the impact environment has on the recruitment process of political leaders, as a changed environment paved the way for democratic elections in Nigeria. To shed light on the phenomenon of the undemocratic recruitment of military leaders as political leaders, a model encompassing environment, recruitment and leadership elements was formulated and applied to the Nigerian situation as experienced under the Gowon, Babangida and Abacha regimes. The first step of the environment determined political leadership model is to perform a specific analysis of the historical situation to facilitate the description, explanation and clarification of undemocratic recruitment. In the next step, the dynamic interaction between leadership, environment and recruitment, as revealed in the previously assessed historical situation, is analysed and tabularised to facilitate prediction. The third step of the model is to test set linkages of statements, to formulate a theory for the prediction of undemocratic recruitment in general. This theory is as follows: The military leader (micro environment) will adopt a challenger personality, when the macro - and global environment allow the micro environment to challenge them for political domination. If the micro environment is able to mobilise resources and the macro environment is unable to mobilise resources and the global environment remains neutral, the military leader can be recruited in an undemocratic manner as political leader. To remain in power, the military leader must either dominate the macro environment or adopt legitimacy. In the application of this model, it was determined that a challenger personality developed in the micro environment due to a weakened macro environment pestered by the absence of nationalism and national political leadership, as well as constant psychological conditioning, but also because the global environment remained uninvolved in the recruitment process. Besides the colonial legacy of Nigeria, this background provided the opportunity for a strong supportive organisation to develop in favour of military regimes. This eased the mobilisation of military resources for attempting undemocratic recruitment actions and facilitated the institutionalisation of military regimes in Nigeria. These identified behavioural patterns confirmed the mentioned general theory on the undemocratic recruitment of military leaders. In conclusion it was stated that undemocratic recruitment attempts in Nigeria can be prevented if a balance is kept between the micro -, macro - and global environment. To address this imbalance, political restructuring (including leadership, institutions and processes), and also economic - and social restructuring need to take place in order for Democracy to be institutionalised. This requires that the lack of nationalism and the attitude of the military be addressed immediately. It also necessitates the participation of the global environment in condemning undemocratic recruitment actions. Fact is, the environment has changed and in the process has begun to hinder Africa's military's self imposed mission to redeem the continent from corrupt politicians. The more Africa reacts on the new social dimensions in the environment, such as education, Information Technology and accelerated time, the more difficulty the military will have in intervening in politics. / Thesis (MA (Political Science))--University of Pretoria, 2003. / Political Sciences / unrestricted

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s short stories about the character Sherlock Holmes are known by many people, they excited readers when he first released the stories in different magazines, and they still excite readers to this day. This essay aims to explore the social dimensions in Conan Doyle’s first and last Sherlock Holmes story by searching for indications of social status and formality. The theory that is being used is the new historicist approach, where there is a contrast between the literary and the non-literary texts, meaning that the stories may be affected by what happened in the society when the stories were written. The conclusion for the essay is that characters in both stories are in the beginning not of a higher class, rather a middle class, whilst in the last they become less dependent on one another, they do not need to live together anymore but, they choose to keep working together. Lastly, this essay is about the Swedish classroom and gives examples of how a teacher could use these stories in their classrooms.