Le travail de recherche qui suit vise à l’obtention d’une méthodologie opératoire propre à faire évoluer la culture organisationnelle d’une firme dans le domaine de l’activité inventive, en particulier en opérant un transfert culturel à partir du monde académique. Il s’agit de construire un procédé de recueil et d’explicitation des connaissances inventives ayant abouti à une conception nouvelle, puis à exploiter en interne les résultats de ce premier procédé en appliquant ceux-ci à un second procédé ayant la dimension d’un apprentissage organisationnel. Le dispositif expérimental présenté a visé à réaliser la validation des hypothèses formulées. L’étude de cas dans notre organisation a permis de concrétiser, sur la base du bilan de l’évolution temporelle du patrimoine intellectuel inventif, l’approche de la créativité stimulée par les connaissances dans un cadre limité à trois domaines de connaissance et où l’on vise une innovation incrémentale. Ce mécanisme met en jeu individuellement et collégialement un ensemble d’acteurs impliqués dans l’inventaire préalable du patrimoine intellectuel inventif et dans son évolution stratégique au sens de l’organisation. En outre, ce travail introduit une vision peu commune de l’activité de R & T d’une organisation industrielle, vision où l’approche par la connaissance non contextuelle se substitue aux approches contextuelles usuelles par produits et services. Cette méthodologie opératoire s’appuie sur une approche conceptuelle de la créativité appliquée à la création de connaissances inventives. Cette création de connaissances est interprétée comme une mutation épistémologique déclenchée par la nature profondément paradoxale de la créativité. Le (futur) créateur doit porter en lui l’essence d’une oeuvre constituant la future création, la créativité lui permettant d’identifier cette essence par abstraction et l’inventivité lui permettant de donner performativement une Forme à cette abstraction. La mise au jour de liens puissamment opératoires entre des domaines peu mis en regard jusqu’alors, ceux de la Créativité/Inventivité, du Patrimoine Intellectuel et de l’Ingénierie des Connaissances fournit de solides fondations à l’approche conceptuelle de la création de connaissances inventives, ainsi qu’à de nombreuses perspectives de recherches supplémentaires. / The following research work aims at getting an operational methodology able to make firm’s organizational culture progress in the inventive activity field, especially through a cultural transfer from academic world. The point is first building a process gathering and making explicit inventive knowledge which succeeded in a new design. Then, results coming out of this first process are applied to a second process featuring organizational learning. We described an experimental plan dedicated to the validation of the research hypotheses that we formulated. The case study based on our own organization was the opportunity to get a first operational validation of Knowledge-based innovation method applied to a 3-knowledge domain configuration for incremental innovation. Creativity stimulation was operated through the time-evolution synthesis of intangible inventive intellectual corpus. This mechanism both individually and collectively involves numerous actors already solicited for the preliminary inventory of inventive intellectual corpus and for its strategic evolution according to the firm.Moreover, this work brings an usual view on industrial R & T activity, where non contextual knowledge approach is substituted to conventional contextual approach bases on products. This operational methodology is based on a conceptual approach of creativity applied to the generation of inventive knowledge, which is seen as an epistemological mutation triggered by the most paradoxical nature of creativity. The (future) creator must house in himself the essence of intellectual work which will be the future creation: creativity allows him to identify this essence by abstraction and inventivity allows him to performatively give a Form to this abstraction. By revealing strongly operative links between poorly linked domains(Creativity/Inventivity, Intellectual Corpus, Knowledge Management), solid foundations are brought to the conceptual approach of inventive knowledge generation and to numerous perspectives of extra research.

Thesis advisor: Marc L. Snapper / Chapter 1. Review of concept and methodology development for asymmetric allylation of carbonyls and imines. Chapter 2. Description of the catalytic asymmetric addition of allyltrichlorosilane to aldehydes catalyzed by a proline-based N-oxide catalyst. Chapter 3. Introduction of the first catalytic asymmetric silylation of alcohols for desymmetrization of meso-diols. Chapter 4. Presentation of asymmetric silylation for synthesis of chiral syn-1,2-diols by kinetic resolution or divergent reaction on a racemic mixture. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2008. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Chemistry.

Unbranched heterocytous cyanobacteria exhibit complex filament and colony architectures and variable life strategies from symbionts to free living planktic and non-planktic species. They are counted among microbial groups showing an extensive production of secondary metabolites, resulting in both pharmaceutically important and toxic compounds. The main focus of this thesis is to broaden our knowledge on bioactive secondary metabolite potential in this widespread group of cyanobacteria. An effective combination of methods including whole genome sequencing, bioinformatic analysis, and analytical chemistry techniques are applied to accomplish this task. The discrepancies in distribution of various classes of compounds among ecological groups defined by different life strategies are discussed. Additionally, the thesis endeavours to test multidisciplinary approaches to tackle taxonomic assignments of unresolved unbranched heterocytous cyanobacteria using morphological, phylogenetic and ecophysiological methods, including a meta-analysis of morphological traits.

Magister Artium - MA / Not all disabilities are the same and the way that society may respond to people with disabilities depends on their “disability” and how their body deviates from the appearance norms of society. People with disabilities constitute a significant portion of the South African population. A body of research and physical evidence shows that people with disabilities may face certain obstacles or limitations in fulfilling a normal life. Obstacles include perceptions of disabilities, negative stigma and attitudes, barriers to an environment which is accessible for people with disabilities, and constructions of ableism. In a way, these obstacles influence the way people with disabilities construct their identity. Beyond this, the voices of people with disabilities are not always heard and their personal experiences are not always given political recognition. This research aimed to explore how a group of students living with a physical or visual disability constructed their identities in their environment or society. A feminist qualitative method was conducted. The study focused on the experiences and perceptions of nineteen to twenty-seven year old female and male students with disabilities. Out of the six participants, two were coloured, three were black and one participant is classified as coloured, but identifies as biracial. A semi-structured interview was used for data collection and a Qualitative Thematic Analysis was used to analyse the data. Social constructionism and intersectionality were useful theoretical approaches adopted in exploring the lived experiences of students with disabilities. The results of this study revealed that students with disabilities find living with a disability as not being a barrier to living a fulfilling life. Students with disabilities construct their identities in a way that frees them from ideologies which shape the experience of disability in a negative way. However, the study revealed that negative barriers to identity construction still exist. These barriers come in the form of negative perceptions and stigma of disability, ableism and the medical model. The study further revealed that when the lived experiences of students with disabilities are understood through the lens of gender, race and class, these social divisions overlap and are cumulative on the effects of student’s experiences. The one major barrier in identity construction that the study revealed is the negative social perceptions of disability. The way in which students feel that they belong in their society is representative of how they respond to negative social constructions of disability.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The main theoretical and empirical interest of this study is the critical examination of the life of David Cecil Oxford (D.C.O.) Matiwane. In it, I critically examine the politics of representing Matiwane’s life and the methods employed in such a discourse. I do this by focusing on the question of representation of political, social and economic struggles launched by D.C.O. Matiwane against segregation and apartheid in South Africa in the twentieth century. This study then questions the notion of creating a biographical supernarrative of his achievements. It confronts the binary approach in the representation of his life and argues that Matiwane’s life is an embodiment of various, even contradictory, philosophies. This study puts forward an argument that Matiwane's representation should be contextualised in relation to the struggles of his contemporaries, and that his narrative should not be seen as a product of a single political route. It unpacks various communal, individual, economic and political strategies employed by organisations and persons against apartheid and colonialism. It looks at how these strategies were implemented to overcome apartheid, and analyses how Matiwane's contribution is documented, especially in relation to contributions made by others. This research project also analyses how different layers and patterns in Matiwane's narrative have been created in an attempt to present his auto/biography as a cohesive discourse in spite of fragmented archival and oral memory. It argues that his memory has been appropriated to pursue different political and personal ends. This study further asks the following question: to what extent and why have different political systems given Matiwane’s voice a platform or silenced his point of view? Are there trends in his representation compared to narratives of his contemporaries? What are the underlying reasons behind such trends, if any? Are there continuities or discontinuities in his representation? What were the ambiguities embedded in their struggles? This study evaluates factors that led to him being declared a persona non grata. It closely examines why and how Matiwane has been represented as a source of controversy, as a lone political activist and as a pragmatist.

Thesis. 1975. Ph.D.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Alfred P. Sloan School of Management. / Vita. / Bibliography: leaves 139-142. / Ph.D.

Grit, the concept consisting of perseverance and passion towards a desired long-term goal, has been spotlighted as a key psychological resource that is predictive of positive life outcomes including academic achievement, professional success and subjective well-being. Despite its popularity within and outside of academia, much more needs to be researched before we can understand its properties and sociological utility. This dissertation explores the potential location of grit within various sociological discourses, including literature on agency, stratification, and perceived meritocracy. In addition, I explore the relationship between social status, subjective agency, the social valuation of grit, and grit cross-culturally to place grit within proper cultural and structural contexts. In Chapter 2, I propose the psychological notion of grit as a potentially useful variable in sociological analysis and explore its potential for contributing to addressing sociological concerns including human agency and stratification. Grit could work as a “behavioral engine” transforming subjective beliefs about agency (e.g., sense of control) to agentic practices that potentially produce better life outcomes. In Chapter 3, using new cross-cultural data collected from South Korea and the United States, I test the current measure of grit, the Grit-S scale, that is developed and predominantly tested in the United States, in two different countries, South Korea and the United States. I find in both countries grit is better understood as the concept consisting of two separate dimensions, perseverance and passion, rather than a global concept. In addition, I find the perseverance facet of grit, but not the passion facet, shows the distinctive utility in explaining subjective well-being beyond subjective agency (i.e., sense of control) in both countries. In Chapter 4, I analyze novel cross-cultural data collected from four nations (France, South Korea, Turkey and the United States) and find an indirect linkage between a person’s socioeconomic status and the level of grit through positive associations with the sense of control. That is, people with a higher socioeconomic status tend to hold stronger beliefs about one’s agency, and those who are strong believers in one’s control over life outcomes, in turn, are more likely to develop grit in these four countries. In Chapter 5, using the same cross-cultural data used in Chapter 3, I investigate the social valuation of grit and whether and how the valuation of grit is associated with individual development of grit in South Korea and the United States. In both countries, grit is valued as a desirable virtue that leads to success in life. However, there is within-society variance: people from lower social statuses tend to value grit as a virtue that leads to success more than those from higher statuses in both country samples. In addition, I find people with a higher sense of control are more likely to value grit as a virtue, and valuing grit is positively associated with the individual development of perseverance in both countries.

Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS) / A prepaid water metering project was implemented in various high density suburbs around the city of Harare in 2015 with the intention of spreading the project throughout the whole country. It was anticipated that the use of prepaid water meters as a water management device would improve the social, health, hygiene and general well-being of the poor households in the Sunningdale high density suburb. This study will investigate the social implications that were caused by the use of prepaid water meters as a tool for water management among poor households in this high density suburbs. The impact of prepaid water meter technology has been felt by water consumers in Sunningdale who have shared their experiences and attitudes towards this recently introduced innovation in water service delivery within Harare high density suburbs. The study examines the implications of using prepaid water meters as a water conservation measure and considers the behaviour, health and hygiene as well as home-based livelihoods of low-income water users. This study also provides answers for the premature abandonment of the expansion of the prepaid water meter project into other surrounding cities in Zimbabwe.

The thesis presents a critique of the nature of 13 to 15 year-old students' images of futures. Arguments are made for their importance to the individual community and culture and their value and use in a science learning setting.This study of the nature of futures images is based upon data collected from small samples in two school settings between 1990 and 1999 using a guided fantasy approach. The diversity of student hopes and fears for futures is categorised using several research tools developed from the futures literature. The results identify a range of futures scenarios ranging from highly utopic to highly dystopic and themes including human interactions, the natural and built environment and the nature and use of futuristic technologies.The importance of student images of futures is discussed from the personal perspective of the students and then considered in the broader context of society and Western culture. The data are examined through a number of theoretical frames including psychology, history and the futures field of enquiry. The consensus seems to be that expectations of the future are inseparable from human nature and influential in determining the viability of cultures.The value of student images of futures in science learning is explored through a case study of one of my own Year 9 classes. In teaching this class I used the technique of futures imaging integrated into a critical futures teaching approach utilising a constructivist planning model. I found that students' futures images revealed a broader aspect of student worldviews than is usual in science learning environments, and were valuable in exposing student prior knowledge, interests and concerns. Student learning seemed to be enhanced using this futures oriented approach.

A single case study using a narrative approach to therapy was undertaken to examine the process and outcomes of therapy with a case of a 12 year old boy who presented with what could be described as an "anxiety disorder". The results were contrasted with the possible process and outcomes should a cognitive-behavioural approach have been used. This aspect of the Study was necessarily a speculative endeavour. Specific behaviours of the client and significant others were measured pre, post and followup. Positive changes occurred in the following behaviours: absence from school, reports of victimization, positive and negative self statements and statements by significant others.