Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references.

In 2006, millions of Immigrant Rights Movement (IRM) activists and allies stomped through the streets of cities throughout the United States. Attracting a diverse array of participants, the IRM includes immigrants and non-immigrants and people from varying religious and non-religious traditions. This dissertation focuses on the social cohesion as an element of the collective identity of this multicultural and multi-faith movement. Taking the IRM in San Diego County as a critical case, this study included data from forty-nine extensive formal interviews with movement participants in sixteen organizations, along with countless informal conversations during participant observation in over two hundred activist-organized events from April 2006 until August 2008. By focusing on movement narratives, frames, and patterns of interaction, this study finds that stories of change, a progressively inclusive moral framework, and what I call "multicultural activist etiquette" serve as unifying mechanisms in the IRM. In stories of change, we hear how activists articulated the right to migrate and advocate for worker rights through shared narratives of agitation and hope-generating stories of collective action. A shared sense of injustice and collectively focused movement goals are informed by a belief system about how the world ought to operate that is located at the ideological intersection between religious and non-religious. An inclusive and humanitarian moral framework provided the common ground upon which diverse activists organize, but this progressive moral framework was differently legitimated by the diverse religious and non-religious traditions of the activists. They agreed that all people are inherently equal, and everyone ought to care for one another, upholding an emphasis on marginalized immigrants. This over-arching moral framework moved beyond multicultural and multi-faith rhetoric and helped guide and affirm the way activists interacted in meeting spaces. Together, they constructed a code of collaboration, the multicultural activist etiquette, that facilitated equality within organizational processes, in an emotionally and physically secure meeting space, while focusing on productivity toward movement goals. Finally, this study recognizes immigrant activists as "rule-changers," agents of change collaborating to improve their own quality of life in the U.S. It thus offers an alternative to current perspectives on immigrant assimilation into American society.

This article explains the implications and benefits of founding transdisciplinary collaborations of knowledge production in critical realism. We call such equal partnerships of researchers and practitioners knowledge alliances. Drawing on the distinction between the referent to which we refer (the object that our research is about) and our references (our research about this object), we show that practitioners can contribute to the process of knowledge production by providing access to referents and producing references but also by achieving societal relevance. In order to accomplish excellence, knowledge production should be organized in ways that engage different types of knowledge in a constructive interplay and use the respective strong points of researchers and practitioners. Abduction and retroduction, two modes of inference vital to critical realism, are particularly inclined to benefit from involving practitioners in knowledge production. We call such an approach potential-oriented and put it in contrast to problem-orientation and the empiricism of evidence-based research and policy-making.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:25:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2002-05-07Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:08:07Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 cossentini_aa_me_assis.pdf: 406838 bytes, checksum: 5ec7766caf5d0fca0519569bb6b64b56 (MD5) / Trata-se de uma pesquisa sobre a produção de textos realizada na E.E.P.S.G José Augusto Ribeiro, na cidade de Assis - SP, onde foi averiguado como se processa o ensino da expressão escrita de 2ª e 3ª séries da Educação de Jovens e Adultos (Supletivo). Observei e, posteriormente, realizei diagnósticos dos problemas textuais dos alunos, das concepções do professor com referência ao trabalho em sala de aula, além de ter apresentado sugestões de trabalho com coesão e, conseqüentemente, com a produção de textos. Durante as observações em sala de aula, atentei para a hipótese do déficit lingüístico, ou seja, verifiquei se ele é o principal responsável pelas dificuldades de aprendizagem e se ele afeta os alunos da Educação de Jovens e Adultos. A pesquisa, em suas conclusões, aponta os problemas que dificultam o processo ensino-aprendizagem, bem como procura colaborar para solucioná-los, orientando para outras formas de ensino que podem ser utilizadas pelos professores, para que se atinja um maior índice de aprendizagem, levando-se em conta que a curta duração do curso não deve impedir a instauração da capacidade crítica dos alunos. / This dissertation deals with texts written by young and adult students of second and third grades of a high school in Assis, São Paulo State. The students' writing and the teachers' comprehension as to their teaching activities were first analyzed and then listed so that suggestions could be presented to achieve the writing of texts with cohesion. Such an observation showed a linguistic deficit hypotheses, that is, I found out that such a deficit is the main cause of learning difficulties affecting both young and adults students. The conclusions point to the problems that make the teaching-learning process difficult as well as try to solve them, showing to the teachers other possible ways of teaching, so that a higher level of learning could be attained, taking into consideration the shortness of the course.

In July 2013 the British Government unveiled its Future Reserves 2020 (FR20) policy, which aimed to radically change the role and function of the Army Reserve by making it both more capable and more deployable. One of the policy’s central organising principles was its focus on outsourcing military logistics capability previously held in the regular army to reserve forces in order to save costs. Reserve logistics transformation was therefore deemed central to the success of FR20. This thesis examines the origins, evolution and impact of FR20 as an attempt to organisationally transform the British Army Reserve’s logistics forces. In first detailing the historical, political and conceptual origins of FR20, it argues that reserve transformations rarely succeed in the manner envisaged; that the intensely political origins of FR20 have shaped the policy during each step of its development; and that the radical change in the delivery of military logistics since 2000 which underpins FR20’s emphasis on logistics is best understood through a post-Fordist analytical framework. Examining the impact of FR20 at the reserve sub-unit level, it argues that many units will struggle to deliver the capability required of them, but in other areas, such as integration with the regulars and increased professional opportunities, FR20 is succeeding. Quantitative evidence is presented to support these arguments. It then details how reserve logistics cohesion is different from that of regular combat forces, and shows how such inherent micro-level organisational factors can influence transformation. Finally, the wider implications of FR20 as a transformative attempt are discussed. This thesis’s central argument is that the political origins of FR20 within Parliament, and the Army Reserves’ organisational nature, have undermined the policy’s ability to deliver the key military capabilities it envisaged of reserves logistics units. However, in some important cultural/normative aspects, FR20 is slowly transforming the reserves. To date, FR20 has therefore been a ‘partial transformation’. In making this argument, this study contributes to the literature on the British Army Reserves, and military logistics, cohesion and transformation.

This article explores the implications of founding transdisciplinary collaborations of knowledge production in critical realism. We call such equal partnerships of researchers and practitioners knowledge alliances. Using the distinction between the referents that we refer to (what our research is about) and our references (our research about that), we show that practitioners can contribute to the process of knowledge production by providing access to referents and producing references but also by achieving relevance. Researchers and practitioners bring different types of knowledge. To become excellent, knowledge production should be organized in ways, which engage these different types in a constructive interplay. We call this approach potential-oriented, which we put in contrast to the empiricism of evidence-based research and policy-making. Our deliberate choice of the term potential-oriented reflects the shifts in philosophy suggested by critical realism, but also a sensitivity for how practitioners communicate and express themselves. / Series: SRE - Discussion Papers

Thesis (MTech (Design)--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2016. / The research was motivated by my lived experience in the Olifants River community of Namaqualand. In this community there are many diverse ethnic and social groupings with considerable potential to contribute to indigenous knowledge and creative practices. These groupings are, however, fragmented, with no platform for their varied and rich cultural assets to be displayed and acknowledged. In addition, the research was motivated by the call for a platform for the arts in the region. It is argued that visual art practice is an instrumental tool in the advancement of both creativity and social cohesion in this community. The research commenced with a pilot study, comprising workshops, which were run by art practitioners from various sectors in the region. Primary literature that influenced the emerging research design was that of Solomon (2007) as well as the holistic cultural viewpoints of Schafer (2014). The organic process of qualitative research methods as described by Ellingson (2009) was a natural personal directive. Body mapping was used during a preparatory phase that led to the creative exploration of community members’ own identity. Storytelling and dance were included in the design methodology since they enabled a psychosocial process of validating art practice as an economic asset within the community as well as enhancing social cohesion in the community. Crystallisation methods implemented in the process-driven body map workshops were held for grassroots -, town – and township sectors in the Olifants River valley. Each of the workshops comprised ten participants who were invited to participate in a subsequent do-designed collaborative event.

abstract: Recommendations made by expert groups are pervasive throughout various life domains. Yet not all recommendations--or expert groups--are equally persuasive. This research aims to identify factors that influence the persuasiveness of recommendations. More specifically, this study examined the effects of decisional cohesion (the amount of agreement among the experts in support of the recommendation), framing (whether the message is framed as a loss or gain), and the domain of the recommendation (health vs. financial) on the persuasiveness of the recommendation. The participants consisted of 1,981 undergraduates from Arizona State University. The participants read a vignette including information about the expert group making a recommendation--which varied the amount of expert agreement for the recommendation--and the recommendation, which was framed as either a gain or loss. Participants then responded to questions about the persuasiveness of the recommendation. In this study, there was a linear main effect of decisional cohesion such that the greater the decisional cohesion of the expert group the more persuasive their recommendation. In addition, there was a main effect of domain such that the health recommendation was more persuasive than the financial recommendation. Contrary to predictions, there was no observed interaction between the amount of decisional cohesion and the framing of the recommendation nor was there a main effect of framing. Further analyses show support for a mediation effect indicating that high levels of decisional cohesion increased the perceived entitativity of the expert group--the degree to which the group was perceived as a unified, cohesive group¬--which increased the recommendation's persuasiveness. An implication of this research is that policy makers could increase the persuasiveness of their recommendations by promoting recommendations that are unanimously supported by their experts or at least show higher levels of decisional cohesion. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Psychology 2013

Orientador: Ingedore G. Villaça Koch / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-07-24T08:56:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Francischini_Rosangela_D.pdf: 8912362 bytes, checksum: 197144387c566dce9100d223eb482458 (MD5) Previous issue date: 1998 / Resumo: Tendo por referenciais teóricos o Interacionismo Social e a Lingüística Textual, este trabalho procura investigar os problemas que emergem quando da construção de cadeias anafóricas em narrativas produzidas por crianças em processo formal de escolarização séries iniciais. O corpus é composto por 15 (quinze) narrativas - 8 (oito) primeiras versões e 7 (sete) segundas versões -, produzidas a partir de um livro de estórias somente com gravuras. O procedimento adotado, inspirado no conceito de Zona de Desenvolvimento Proximal, de Vygotsky, permitiu a construção de uma segunda versão das narrativas, refacção esta possibilitada por uma necessidade que se impôs à criança de refletir sobre o emprego de determinados recursos expressivos presentes na primeira versão (no nosso caso, os recursos empregados para introdução e manutenção dos personagens. Em outras palavras, na constituição de cadeias anafóricas). A análise proposta mostrou-nos que: 1.) a estratégia que consiste em empregar pronomes como formas referenciais (pessoal e possessivo, principalmente) mostrou-se a mais problemática, no sentido de que, em um número significativo de ocorrências desses pronomes, houve ou ambigüidade de referência ou impossibilidade de determinar o referente; 2.) a situação interativa mediada pela linguagem propiciou a mobilização de operações de linguagem que se materializaram em recursos expressivos mais adequados para a construção das cadeias anafóricas. Sendo assim, do ponto de vista da estruturação textual, as segundas versões das narrativas, por terem sido produzidas a partir da intervenção de um adulto mais hábil, são, indiscutivelmente, qualitativamente superiores; 3.) as crianças buscaram soluções próprias para a resolução dos problemas acima apontados. Desta forma, observamos, principalmente, as seguintes estratégias para caracterização I diferenciação dos personagens: a.) atribuição de nomes aos personagens, b.) emprego de adjetivos indicativos de cor ou gênero (masculino; feminino); c.) acréscimo de informações não constantes nas primeiras versões / Abstract: With the Social Interactionism and the Text Linguistics as theoretical references, this paper tries to investigate the problems related to the construction of anaphoric sequences in narratives produced by children in their formal process of schooling (initial grades). The corpus is composed by fifteen narratives: eight first versions and seven second versions - produced from a storybook made up with illustrations only. The procedure adopted, inspired by the concept of Zone of Proximal Development, by Vigotsky, allowed the construction of a second version of the narratives, which was made possible because the child had to look into the employment of certain expression devices present in the first version (in this case, the resources used to introduce and make reference to the characters, in other words, the devices used in the constitution of anaphoric sequences. The analysis demonstrated that: 1.) the strategy which consists of employing pronouns as reference forms (especially personal and possessive pronouns) seems to be the most troublesonie, in the sense that, when they were used, there was either ambiguity of reference or impossibility to determine the referent; 2.) the interactive situation made it possible the use of language operations, which resulted in expression devices more suitable to the construction of anaphoric sequences. Thus, from the point of view of the text structure, the second versions are undoubtedly superior in terms of quality, since they were produced from the interventions of a more experienced adult; e, 3.) the children tried, by themselves, to find solutions for the problems mentioned above. They made use of the following strategies to characterise / differentiate the characters: a) they named the characters; b) they used adjectives indicating colour or genre(masculine or feminine); c) they added information not present in the first versions / Doutorado / Doutor em Linguística

Cohesion and coupling are considered amongst the most important properties to evaluate the quality of a design. In the context of OO software development, cohesion means relatedness of the public functionality of a class whereas coupling stands for the degree of dependence of a class on other classes in OO system. In this thesis, a new metric has been proposed that measures the class cohesion on the basis of relative relatedness of the public methods to the overall public functionality of a class. The proposed metric for class cohesion uses a new concept of subset tree to determine relative relatedness of the public methods to the overall public functionality of a class. A set of metrics has been proposed for measuring class coupling based on three types of UML relationships, namely association, inheritance and dependency. The reasonable metrics to measure cohesion and coupling are supposed to share the same set of input data. Sharing of input data by the metrics encourages the idea for the existence of mutual relationships between them. Based on potential relationships research questions have been formed. An attempt is made to find answers of these questions with the help of an experiment on OO system FileZilla. Mutual relationships between class cohesion and class coupling have been analyzed statistically while considering OO metrics for size and reuse. Relationships among the pairs of metrics have been discussed and results are drawn in accordance with observed correlation coefficients. A study on Software evolution with the help of class cohesion and class coupling metrics has also been performed and observed trends have been analyzed.