This study attempts to offer an ecological interpretation of Genesis 1: 1-2:4a in view of the question as to what extent this passage bears footprints of anthropocentrism, on the one hand, and/or ecological wisdom, on the other hand. Extant ecological readings of this text tend to either recover its ecofriendliness, or they criticise the text on the basis of its dominion and subdual language in Genesis 1:26-28 which seems to go against the grain of ecological sensibilities. In resonance with revisionist readings, this study shows that the only way to mollify the dominion language of Genesis I :26-28 is to read this section as part of the whole Priestly creation account. Elements of the exilic context and many literary features of Genesis I: l-2:4a present humans as a member of a world of interdependences. Hence, accusing Genesis I: l-2:4a of lying at the root of modern indifference towards nature, is not the whole story. / Old Testament & Ancient Near Eastern Studies / M. A. (Biblical Studies)

L’objectif de la présente recherche est double: il s’agit dans un premier temps de proposer une autre lecture de Mein Jahrhundert de Günter Grass à partir des manuscrits en adoptant une perspective génétique au plus près du texte. À partir d’un corpus d’étude restreint, mais représentatif, recelant des documents sources explicites et montrant les différentes phases rédactionnelles nous avons mis en évidence un certain nombre de procédés caractéristiques de l’écriture grassienne et de phénomènes tant endogénétiques qu’exogénétiques révélant le recours à une intertextualité protéiforme déclarée ou dissimulée. Cette entreprise descriptive et interprétative s’est ensuite doublée d’une démarche herméneutique destinée à vérifier si l’ouvrage satisfait aux ambitions didactiques affichées par l’auteur en matière de transmission de l’Histoire, une transmission à finalité civique visant à prévenir ses bégaiements. En optant pour la polyphonie et le récit par le bas Grass entend également combler les lacunes du discours historiographique officiel. À l’issue d’un travail de recherche des sources avérées ou hypothétiques, nous avons mis en évidence que Grass a essentiellement recours à des sources journalistiques lui permettant d’ancrer le récit dans la réalité historique et d’inscrire son livre dans une veine populaire. La présence d’une matière documentaire implicite souvent dense requiert toutefois un savoir extratextuel de la part du lecteur, ce qui va à l’encontre d’une écriture populaire de l’Histoire, même si plusieurs degrés de lecture sont possibles. Le recours à la polyphonie prétendument garant d’une narration pluriperspective est un leurre en raison du marquage axiologique négatif de certains narrateurs laissant transparaître la position idéologique de l’auteur. Le choix des narrateurs, qu’ils soient empruntés à la réalité historique ou fictifs, comme celui des événements s’inscrit dans un système de valeurs univoque faisant constamment référence au discours épitextuel de l’auteur qui peut faire figure d’intertexte. L’écriture de l’Histoire s’appuie ainsi sur une rhétorique de la répétition polymorphe et transversale qu’elle soit autotextuelle, thématique, picturale ou concerne les procédés narratifs, ce qui accrédite la thèse d’un haut degré d’autoréférentialité de l’ouvrage et d’une perception autocentrique du siècle. / Our research has a dual aim: first to offer a new reading of Mein Jahrhundert by Günter Grass from the manuscripts and from a genetic perspective while remaining as close as possible to the text. Using a restricted but representative corpus of studies with explicit source documents and pointing to various phases of writing, we have highlighted a certain number of procedures which are characteristic of the way Grass wrote, as well as phenomena of both an endogenous and exogenous nature which show his recourse to declared or hidden proteiform intertextuality. This descriptive and interpretative undertaking was then doubled with a hermeneutic approach aimed at establishing whether the work fulfils the didactic ambitions the author asserts regarding the conveying of History with a civic agenda aimed at overcoming the author’s stuttering. By opting for polyphony and a narrative from below, Grass also intends to fill gaps in the discourse of official historiography. After researching proved or hypothetical sources, we were able to demonstrate that Grass essentially uses journalistic sources which allow him to anchor his narrative in historic reality while writing his book in a popular vein. The presence of often dense implicit documentary material nevertheless makes far‐reaching extra‐textual knowledge on the part of the reader necessary, even if various layers of reading are possible.Recourse to the polyphony which is put forward as a guarantee for a narration from differing perspectives is misleading because of the negative value judgements of certain narrators revelatory of the author’s ideological position. The choice of narrators, whether borrowed from historic reality or fictional, just as the choice of the events is part of an unequivocal value hierarchy which constantly refers to the author’s epitextual discourse, which may be read a an inter‐text. The writing of History thus is based upon a rhetoric which consists of polymorphous and transversal repetition, ranging between autotextual, thematic, and pictorial and absorbed by narrative procedures. This corroborates the hypothesis that the work is highly self‐referential and based upon a self‐centred perception of the century.

This study attempts to offer an ecological interpretation of Genesis 1: 1-2:4a in view of the question as to what extent this passage bears footprints of anthropocentrism, on the one hand, and/or ecological wisdom, on the other hand. Extant ecological readings of this text tend to either recover its ecofriendliness, or they criticise the text on the basis of its dominion and subdual language in Genesis 1:26-28 which seems to go against the grain of ecological sensibilities. In resonance with revisionist readings, this study shows that the only way to mollify the dominion language of Genesis I :26-28 is to read this section as part of the whole Priestly creation account. Elements of the exilic context and many literary features of Genesis I: l-2:4a present humans as a member of a world of interdependences. Hence, accusing Genesis I: l-2:4a of lying at the root of modern indifference towards nature, is not the whole story. / Biblical and Ancient Studies / M. A. (Biblical Studies)

The concept of development has been extensively researched, and it isa key topic in political and economic international and domestic agendas.Modernization and globalization theories have been the most prevalentanalytical approaches to development, but from a postcolonial and decolonialperspective, these theories are Western-centric, overgeneralized, andoverused. As a result, Political Studies have struggled to comprehend andlegitimate the local knowledge from the Global South and face moderncolonialism, as uncritical transfers of science, technology, and knowledgefrom the Global North take place. For this, the goal of this thesis was to raiseawareness of the OECD's development discourse through a transformationaland critical lens. Decolonial thinking, which asserts an epistemology from thesouth, specifically from Latin America, was employed for this work as atheoretical-epistemological, ethical-political, and methodological framework.This investigation is a pilot and desk study with abductive reasoning thatexamines discourses characteristic of the OECD, supported by a qualitativeresearch approach. In response to coloniality and modernity -building theoriesof development-, a content and critical discourse analysis through categorieswas conducted. Along with the instrumentalization of concepts and discursivetactics, the findings demonstrate and explore a productive, economical, andbusiness-like logic in the OECD discourses. In conclusion, colonial narrativesare found in the modernization and globalization approaches that take the formof utilitarian, neoliberal, universal, and emotive narratives in the twodevelopment reports by the OECD where the epistemic postulates are builtupon the idea of growth and a natural need to evolve.

Transnational corporations are playing an important role in the global economy of today. Many of these corporations have great economic resources and have the possibility of contributing to the development of societies in developing states. At the same time, in their search for profit, the activities of TNCs have proven fatal to some of the individuals employed by them, or otherwise in contact with their activities. Within the international legal framework, corporations are not traditionally treated as subjects and if a TNC allocates its production to a state with lax human rights protection, no binding international standards exist to regulate the conduct of the corporation.  In my thesis I will assess the position of TNCs under the present core human rights instruments and soft law initiatives. I will also analyze a draft treaty text produced by the Intergovernmental Working Group on Business and Human Rights, released in July 2018, to reach a conclusion on whether such an instrument would affect the international legal status of TNCs and provide a more robust protection of international human rights.

Summaries in English and Afrikaans / In die tesis word die modernistiese en laat/postmodernistiese reduksionistiese benaderings in die Adventiste wêreld nie bloot afgewys nie, nie net omdat dit deel van ons ervaring is nie maar ook omdat die reduksies wat in die moderne en laat/postmoderne tyd ontstaan het in ʼn gemodifieërde sin die boustene is van ʼn hermeneutiese benadering wat poog om holisties en in multiverse sin oorvleuelend te werk met die antieke, moderne en laat/post moderne benaderinge. In ʼn hermeneutiek wat holisties oorvleuelend en multivers integrerend aan die gang is, vorm die vierledige opset van die handelinge en beweginge van God, die menslike bewustelike self, medemens(e) as die ander mens en die natuurlike kosmiese wêreld ʼn misterie van vierledig aktiewe teenwoordighede wat nie-vermengd saambestaan maar tog ontsettend naby aan mekaar is as die voortgaande ervaringskaart van elke konteks en situasie. Juis die uitmekaar ruk van die vierledige aktiewe teenwoordighede inonservaringswêrelde vorm die agtergrond vir moderne teologisme met God alleen speler van die spel, psigologisme met die bewustelike menslike self as die kaptein van sy siel en die meester van sy lot, humanisme waarin die mensheid as kollektiewe menswees die enigste roerder van die menslike brousel in die geskiedenis is en naturalisme waarin die natuurlik kosmiese omgewing die naturaliserende ordeningsagent van die kosmiese chaos is. Wat radikaal deur ʼn holisties oorvleuelende en multiverse integrerende aanpak sny, is dat die vierledige teenwoordighede gedra word asook ingebou is in wat in die Bybels-historiese tydslyn vorendag kom as die vier prominente dade van God se voortgaande skepping, versoening in Jesus Christus, alomvattende vernuwing deur die Gees en voleindende volmaking tot in die aanbreek van die nuwe hemel en die nuwe aarde. Binne die omraming van ʼn hermeneutiek wat holisties oorvleuelend en multiversintegrerend werk, word algemene moderne en postmoderne benaderinge oor tekse, teorieë, menslike handelinge en die natuurlike kosmiese gebeurtenisse beskryf. Terwyl die moderniteit – en ook die postmoderniteit – uitgaan van die hoofsaaklik opponerende verskille tussen sinmakende beskouinge word hier gepoog om eers die oorvleuelingsareas refleksief te betrek en daarna aandag gee aan die verskille. Die drie breë benaderinge wat hoofsaaklik beskryf word is die van fundamentalistiese spieëling, liberale interpretasie en die konsinlike onderhandeling van tekse, teorieë, menslike handelinge en natuurlik kosmiese gebeure.Juis teen hierdie agtergrond word diverse SDA omgangspatrone met die Bybel, ervaringe in die kerklike arena en alledaagse ervaringe in ʼn draaikolk van multivers oorvleuelende en differensiërende refleksiwiteit beskryf. / In the thesis Adventist approaches making use of modernist and late/postmodernistic reductionist philosophies are not rejected out of hand. Not only are the reductions which emerged in the modern and late/modern era part of our experience but they are in a modified sense the building blocks of a hermeneutical approach in which an attempt is made to work in an overlapping holistic and multiverse way with approaches of the ancient world, modernity and late/post modernity. In a hermeneutics that operate holistically with overlaps and in a multiverse integrative sense, the quadruple setting of actions and movements of God, the conscious human self, neighbour(s) as the other human and the natural cosmic world forms a mystery of foursome active presences that do not exist together in a mixed sense but are very close to each other as the continuous experiential map of every context and situation. The dislocation of the foursome active presences in our experiential worlds forms the backdrop of modern theologism in which God is the sole player in the game, psychologism with the conscious human self as the captain of his or her soul, humanism in which humanity as the collectiveness of being human is the only stirrer of the human concoction in history and naturalism in which the natural cosmic environment is the only naturalistic agency that arranges the cosmic chaos. Cutting radically through the holistic overlapping and multiverse integrative approach is that the foursome presences are carried and built into what come to the fore in the biblical historical timeline as the four grand acts of God of continuous creation, reconciliation in Jesus Christ, all embracing renewal through the Holy Spirit and fulfilling fulfilment as in the dawn of the new heaven and the new earth. Within the embrace of a hermeneutics which works with overlaps in a holistically and integrating in a multiverse sense general modernist and late/post modern approaches regarding texts, theories, human doings and natural cosmic events are described. While modernity – and late/post modernity - depart from mainly opposing differences between sense making views the attempt is made here firstly to engage oneself in a reflexive sense with the areas of overlapping and only then to pay attention the differences. The three broad approaches mainly described are that of fundamentalist mirroring, liberal interpretation and consensual negotiation of texts, theories, human doings and natural cosmic events. It is against this background that diverse SDA engagement patterns with the Bible, experiences in the arena of the church and everyday experiences is described in a vortex of holistic overlapping and multiverse integrative reflexivity. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / D. Th. (Systematic Theology)