The birth of a new South Africa in 1994 necessitated various reforms in education, and like in many other countries, decentralization was imperative in order to address, among other issues, the undemocratic governance practices and inequalities of the former apartheid educational system. This study interrogates the establishment of districts and circuits in Mpumalanga as nodes of service delivery, immediately after South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994. It also focuses on their demise in 2001 and the birth of regions. The study investigates the rationale behind these processes that took place in Mpumalanga, through posing three main research questions: 1. Which decentralization model(s) informed the formation of districts and circuits in the Mpumalanga Department of Education? 2. What circumstances led to the dismantling of districts and their amalgamation into regions? 3. What has been the effect of this shift on service delivery in circuits and schools? (Did it lead to an improvement or decline in service delivery, education governance in the province, effectiveness and efficiency?) The methodology used in this study is the qualitative framework. The qualitative research approach is appropriate for investigating the rationale behind the shift from the district structure to the regional structure in Mpumalanga, with the Ehlanzeni region as a case study. This phenomenon can be best understood by using a qualitative approach to investigate how those involved conceptualized and experienced the whole process. The data collection method is face-to-face, unstructured, in-depth interviews. The study argues that the shift from districts to regions in Mpumalanga is the result of inadequacies in the district structure which caused districts to fail. These inadequacies filtered down to the performance of roles and responsibilities which led to the demise of districts and their amalgamation into regions, which were given more powers and resources in order to fulfill their mandate. This study uses Samoff’s (1990) decentralization typologies as a lens through which the establishment of districts and circuits, their demise, and the reorganization into regions can be conceptualized. This study found that districts and circuits were established in line with the government’s principle of taking government to the people; in that they were closer to the people they served. Districts and circuits were field offices that were strategically established to assist the province in delivering services to the people as well as encouraging community participation in education. Districts and circuits failed to perform their roles and responsibilities as expected, due to lack of power and authority, resources (physical; human and financial), capacity, coordination and financial support. This led to their restructuring into regions in order to reduce costs, consolidate expertise, provide resources, and grant more powers for them to perform well and achieve efficacy. This study contributes to the body of literature and understanding of the ramifications of decentralization. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted

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Approaches to meaning and the way that texts are read have changed dramatically over the past century. This is particularly true where interpretations of texts have been given an authoritative status, and used to perpetuate power imbalances and discrimination. The exposure of the way that texts are used in this way, particularly by feminist thinkers, has put pressure on traditional Christian understandings of gender and the role of women in the Christian faith community. There is currently a debate within Evangelical Christianity over whether women are equal to men in status, and whether they can function in certain leadership roles. William Webb proposes a redemptive-movement hermeneutic that he uses to identify cultural components within Scripture that may have been progressive in terms of their own culture, but are regressive relative to ours. Webb proposes eighteen criteria that enable the interpreter to discover the redemptive movement of these texts relative to their own culture, and then makes application to contemporary culture on the basis of this. The main weakness of Webb’s model is that the destination of the redemptive movement he discerns in Scripture seems to be determined by what is pragmatic and even politically correct in his own western culture. This research will propose an eschatological trajectory for Webb’s redemptive movement that is based an understanding of the kingdom of God as the rule of God, which has broken into history as an inaugurated reality in the coming of Jesus Christ. When eschatology becomes the controlling factor for Webb’s redemptive movement hermeneutic, an understanding of gender emerges from the Bible that is completely egalitarian. This is confirmed by examining a number of eschatological motifs for their significance with regard to gender. The eschatological egalitarianism proposed by this research encourages the full participation of women in all areas of life and ministry in the Christian faith community. Copyright / Dissertation (MA(Theol))--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Practical Theology / unrestricted

Understanding Design Impact: A new framework for understanding the potential of design and enhancing future professional practice. Design is widely recognised as an important driver for economic performance. However, the value of design has proved resistant to quantification despite research attention since the early 1980s. Correlation between design investment and impact has been demonstrated, but not causation. There is considerable interest from policy and professional bodies in what is described here as ‘Design Impact’. Impact can be measured, for example, by return on investment, increases in profitability or cost reductions. However this only crudely captures the economic impact of a design ingredient. Increasingly, social and environmental impacts are also of interest. The design profession sees the potential for better articulation of design impact as a means to increase their influence. The context has been explored through a series of descriptive and prescriptive studies including analysis of 45 DBA Design Effectiveness Award case studies, 304 undergraduate design projects from two institutions over a three year period together with interviews and workshops with senior design professionals and design academics. A new Understanding Design Impact framework is the overall outcome and contribution to knowledge from the work. This bridges between theory and practice and is a powerful basis for placing consideration of design impact at the heart of design activity. A design impact ontology has been developed as a robust foundation to the framework which resolves issues with underlying concepts. An initial version of this ontology is published in The Design Journal and is claimed as a supporting contribution to new knowledge. So too are new ontological classifications of factors which have considerable influence on design impact: Design Influences and Authority and Motivation and Path. These provide fresh perspectives and are worthy of further research consideration. A number of routes are identified for the further development and dissemination of the framework.

The scholarly field of International Relations (IR) has been slow to appreciate the evolutions in forms of governance authority currently seen in the European political system. Michael Barnett has insisted that ‘IR scholars also have had to confront the possibility that territoriality, authority, and the state might be bundled in different ways in present-day Europe’ (2001, 52). This thesis outlines how modern governing authority is generated and maintained in a Europe that is strongly impacted by the many institutions, departments, and agencies of the European Union (EU). Using the specific cases of the EU’s disaster response organisation, the DG for Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid (ECHO), and the hub for EU internal security policy management, the DG for Home and Migration Affairs (HOME), this thesis understands the different policy areas under EU policymaker and bureaucrat jurisdictions as semi-autonomous fields of practice – fields that are largely confined to the groups of bureaucratic, diplomatic, corporate, NGO, contracted, and IO that exist in Brussels, decidedly removed from in-field or operational personnel. Transnational governance authority in Europe, at least in these two fields, is generated and maintained by actors recognised as highly expert in producing and using data to monitor for the risks of future disasters and entrenching that ability into central functional roles in their respective fields. Both ECHO and HOME actors came to be recognised as central authorities in their fields thanks to their ability to prepare for unknown future natural and manmade disasters by creating and collecting and managing data on them and then using this data to articulate possible future scenarios as risks. They use the resources at their disposal to generate and manage data about disaster and security monitoring and coordination, drawing on these resources to impress upon the other actors in their fields that cooperating with ECHO and HOME is the best way to minimise the risks posted by future disasters. In doing so, both sets of actors established the parameters by which other actors understood their own best practices: through the use of data to monitor for future scenarios and establish criteria upon which to justify policy decisions. The specific way ECHO and HOME actors were able to position themselves as primary or central figures, namely, by using centralised data management, demonstrates the role that risk practices play in generating and maintaining authority in complex institutional governance situations as currently seen in Europe.

Cette thèse questionne les pratiques du management à distance dans les organisations contemporaines (franchise, sous-traitance, joint-venture, etc.). Elle s’inscrit dans les Sciences de l’Information et de la Communication et en particulier dans le champ de la communication organisationnelle. A partir d’une étude de terrain réalisée dans une station-service en franchise, elle s’attache à répondre à trois questions principales : (1) En quoi peut-on dire que la franchise est une forme de management à distance et quelles en sont les caractéristiques ? (2) De quelle nature sont les capacités d’action – ou agentivités textuelles - qui organisent les routines de travail dans la station service étudiée ? (3) Comment ces capacités d’action se manifestent-elles dans les routines conversationnelles et quels modes d’existence organisationnelle constituent-elles ? Elle apporte des éclairages sur la force de l’action – ou agentivité – à distance qu’exerce le management sur ce que disent et font les membres d’une organisation, à travers une reconceptualisation, de la distance et des routines, fondée sur une dynamique organisante des capacités d’action et sur les dimensions conversationnelles et textuelles de la communication. Ce qui renouvelle également notre conception du mode d’existence de l’entreprise et ouvre le débat sur les formes d’autorité que contribue à généraliser la franchise comme forme de management à distance. / Inscribed in Information and Communication Sciences and in particular in the field of the organizational communication, this research questions the practice of management at distance in contemporary organizations (franchise, subcontracting, joint-venture, etc.). From a field study realized in a Highway Gas Service’s station, it tries to answer three research questions: (1) To what extent can we say that the franchise is a form of management at distance and what are its characteristics? (2) What are the natures of the capacities of action – or textual agencies – that organize working routines in the studied gas station? (3) How do these capacities of action intervene during the conversational routines and what modes of organizational existence do they establish? This thesis sheds light on the strength of the action – or agency – at a distance exerted by management upon what say and do the members of an organization, through a conceptualization of distance and routines based on a the conversational and textual dynamic that organize those capacities of action. This thesis also renews our conception of the mode of existence of the firm and opens the debate on the forms of authority that contributes to widespread the franchise as a model of management at distance.

The thesis is focused on intermodal transport stressing the importance of container seaports. The key objective is to analyze the transport policy and attitudes of port authorities representatives in terms of strategic development differences by region. Based on selected methodology, perception of private sector by port authorities representatives is explained. The thesis outcome is applied in the fields of theory, practice and education.

This work is strictly theoretical reasoning and comparation of the two important trains of thought, humanistic socialism and liberal competition, which conflict with each other in everyday events of the present world. I am trying in this work to consider arguments, which F.A. Hayek is using to defend his idea about functioning of a liberal order which according to him absolutely spontaneusly creates the best possible environment for an assertion and development of a free individual and these arguments i am trying to follow subsequently with humanistic thinking of Erich Fromm placing the emphasis on his different conception of the individual but also spontaneus freedom and to analyse if it is possible for such individual who is humanly oriented to find full exercise of his inner needs and at the same time to remain useful member just of such society which Hayek submit us. Aim of this work is consideration of every discovered contrast of these two conceptions and thinking about humanistic ideas if they are for the liberal order only past drowned in selfish competitive acting or if they are still actual or if they even have opportunity to fully develop in such order. Benefit of this work I see first of all in the analysis of though not quite sought after but extremely actual problem if free individual is able to spontaneusly create such social order over the time in which his individuality may fully develop or if he dies out in unconconsciously created all embracing conformability.

Les garants de toute culture ont toujours eu le souci de transmettre ses valeurs aux jeunes générations en vue de leur sauvegarde. Dans le domaine de l’enseignement en général, et de l’enseignement supérieur en particulier, outre les valeurs culturelles, sont transmis également des connaissances et des savoirs universels qui préparent au marché de l’emploi tout en structurant la personnalité des individus bénéficiaires des apprentissages. L’organisation universitaire est, elle aussi, un construit social, et laquelle organisation est un assemblage de relations de pouvoirs que nouent les acteurs les uns envers les autres. Pour assurer cette mission et faciliter la communication du savoir et ainsi atteindre les objectifs de l’organisation, les enseignants sont ipso facto investis d’un pouvoir conféré par l’institution académique. Mais ce pouvoir ne trouve sa puissance et sa consistance que lorsque le détenteur incarne réellement l’autorité attestée non seulement par le modèle et la référence qu’il essaie de représenter aux yeux des apprenants mais aussi par ses compétences et la maîtrise incontestée de sa matière d’enseignement. Toutefois, au Bénin, ce pouvoir tend à être exagéré par des enseignants qui, eux-mêmes sont fortement influencés par leurs cultures d’origine : détenteurs du savoir et donc « sachants », ils se considèrent comme des chefs traditionnels, des demi dieux à qui l’apprenant doit une totale soumission. Alors, nous sommes là dans un modèle de reproduction sociale amplement décrite par Pierre Bourdieu qui confirme le fait « le séjour dans l’eau ne transforme pas un tronc d’arbre en crocodile », selon les expressions de Seydou Badian. Ce qui signifie que malgré sa formation, ses qualifications et ses diplômes qui font de lui un « nouvel être », un être moderne, l’enseignant au Bénin aura toujours du mal à se séparer d’un fond culturel qui lui est propre et intrinsèque. L’apprenant est conscient que son être social de par sa future carrière est engendré par le savoir enseigné dont l’assimilation confère des diplômes. Pour paraphraser Victor Hugo, je me permets de dire que chaque apprenant qu’on enseigne est un sujet, un acteur social qu’on gagne. Alors le savoir est monétarisé dans l’université choisie comme terrain d’enquête. Le développement de mon objet de recherche bénéficiera en effet d’un apport considérable de l’anthropologie sociale et culturelle, de la sociologie du pouvoir et de la pédagogie. / The guarantors of every culture are always worried about transmitting their values to young generations for their safeguard. In the field of education in general, and higher education in particular, in addition to cultural values, some universal knowledge and acquaintances which help to find a job as well as to structure the personality of those who benefit from these learnings, are also transmitted. The university organization is also a social constructed and this organization is an assembly of relations of powers that the actors establish together. In order to achieve this mission and make the communication of the knowledge easier and therefore reach the objectives of the organization, teachers are ipso facto invested with a power awarded by the academic institution. But this power finds its strength and its consistence only when the holder is really the authority approved not only by the model and the reference he tries to represent for the learners but also by his skills and the undisputed master of his teaching subject. Nevertheless, in Benin, this power tends to be exaggerated by teachers who are themselves influenced by their native culture. Because they are the ones « who know », they consider themselves as traditional leaders, demigods to whom the learner owes a total submission. There we are, in a model of social reproduction greatly described by Pierre Bourdieu who confirms the fact « the stay in the water doesn’t turn a tree trunk into a crocodile », according to the saying of Saydou Badian. It means that despite his training, his skills and degree which make him a « new being », a modern being, the teacher in Benin will always find it difficult to get rid of a cultural background which belongs to him and which is so specific. The learner is aware that his social being because of his future career is generated by the knowledge which allows to be graduated. To paraphrase Victor Hugo, I venture to say that each learner we teach is a subject, a social actor we gain. The knowledge is then marketed in the university chosen as an investigation field. The development of my research subject will take advantage from a great contribution of the social and cultural anthropology, the sociology of power and the pedagogy.

This thesis demonstrates a comparative and analytic discussion of citizenship idea based on two distinct liberal doctrines of two contemporary political philosophers: Brian Barry and William Galston. Barry's egalitarian liberalism argues for 'common citizenship' notion in order to promote liberty and equal treatment of all individuals irrespective of any social differences. On the other hand, 'liberal pluralist citizenship' of William Galston's signifies his liberal pluralism to mitigate cultural and religious conflicts of liberal democratic society. The fundamental disagreements among these liberal approaches over the issues of public recognition of group rights and restricted state authority are analysed in this study. Finally, by analysing both the liberal positions under the challenge of multicultural issues the author defends Galston's liberal idea and judges it as more convincing than Barry's liberal approach.