The central aim of this thesis is to provide a detailed ethnographic account of the human ecology of the Broads - a protected wetland region in the East of England - focussing upon how working lives shape and are shaped by this reedy landscape. In conversations about the management of the Broads, the concept of "common sense" is a frequent trope; encompassing a wide range of associated meanings. But what are these meanings of "common sense" in English culture, and how do they influence the peoples of England, and landscapes in which they work? This thesis addresses these questions ethnographically; using academic and lay deployments of common sense as a route into the political economy of rural Norfolk. Based on 12 months of fieldwork in the Broads National Park, this thesis draws together interviews and participant observation with land managers of various kinds - including conservationists, farmers, gamekeepers, volunteers, gardeners, and administrators. Chapter 1 dissects the differences between academic and popular understandings of "common sense" as a phrase, and produces an ethnographically-derived, working definition. Chapter 2 examines the attitudes of farmers, establishing "the common" as a root metaphor for social and practical rectitude, actualised through labouring in a shared landscape. Chapter 3 explores how the common is sensed, reflecting upon the diverse sensoria afforded by different degrees of enclosure on a single nature reserve. Chapter 4 explores how the concept of common sense intersects with a prevailing culture of possessive individualism, creating a fragmented society in the Park, wracked by controversies over management. Chapter 5 examines bureaucracy in Broadland - frequently cast as the very antithesis of common sense. In the conclusion, we return to the title, and ask - what do the reeds have to say about land, labour, and human nature?

Considérant l’environnement numérique qui se caractérise par la convergencedes modes et des formes discursifs, à quels cadres les auteurs et les lecteurs héritiers de la bande dessinée se référent-ils et de quelle manière s’y réfèrent-ils ? Il s'agit de comprendre comment des auteurs confrontés à de nouveaux dispositifs de publication produisent le sens commun nécessaire à la création de récits numériques dont les lecteurs parviennent à partager les standards de transcription, tirent des routines d’usage pour leur interprétation, et jugent attrayante la sélection et la mise en forme des évènements racontés. Après avoir présenté lecontexte dans lequel ont émergé les premiers récits identifiés comme des « bandes dessinées numériques de création », l'étude porte sur l'analyse indexicale d'entretiens conduits auprès des auteurs et des lecteurs de deux de ces récits. L'analyse fait apparaître l'originalité des assemblages de cadres de références opérés par les auteurs et reconnus de leurs lecteurs. Cette étude montre ainsi l'importance des dynamiques de production de sens dans l'invention et l'adoption de nouvelles formes narratives. Le retour critique sur ce travail soulève plusieursquestions méthodologiques, notamment quant à la place du chercheur en tant qu'acteur engagé dans la production de sens, mais aussi quant à la prépondérance accordée au mot dans ce type d'étude, et enfin quant aux modalités d'entretien les plus favorables à la recherche et à l'élucidation des marques indexicales par lesquelles s'expriment les cadres de référence des acteurs. / What are the frames to which authors inspired by the comics legacy refer inthe digital environment, characterized by the convergence of media and discursive forms ? How do they refer to such frames in order to make sense and to tell digital stories from which readers are able to share the standards of translation, find routines for their interpretation, and feel entertained by the selection and the arrangement of events ? After setting the context in which emerged the first accounts identified as « original digital comics », the study focuses on the indexical analysis of interviews with authors and readers of two such stories. The analysis reveals the originality of the frames arrangements made by the authors and recognized by their readers. This study shows the importance of sensemaking activities for the invention and adoption of new narrative forms. The critical review of this work raises several methodological issues, particularly regarding the place of the scientist as an actor engaged in the sensemaking activity, but also about the the importance given to words in this kind of researches, and finally about the appropriate interview methods in order to find and explain indexical marks leading to the actors' frames

Deux questions sont à l’origine de cette recherche: 1) Quelles transformations affectent un savoir de gestion lorsqu’il sort du champ théorique pour devenir objet d’enseignement ? 2) Comment conserver, aux concepts enseignés en gestion, leur force initiale lorsqu’ils sont apparus dans le champ scientifique ? La problématique générale de l’articulation de l’épistémologie et de la didactique en gestion conduit à mettre en œuvre une méthodologie originale d’analyse d’un concept de gestion en cinq étapes : analyse du sens commun et des représentations du concept, étude du sens scientifique dans les traités et les œuvres de grands auteurs, repérage de la place du concept dans les programmes officiels, examen des manuels scolaires, identification des obstacles épistémologiques qui entravent la construction du concept par l’élève. Cette méthodologie est appliquée ici au concept de décision, concept nodal des sciences de gestion, qui est ici analysé en détail, et à sa didactisation dans la voie technologique tertiaire supérieure française. L’examen des programmes officiels et des manuels scolaires a montré que le savoir didactisé de la décision est une construction spécifique des auteurs de manuels, à mi chemin entre le sens commun et les sens scientifiques. Il est aussi apparu que la connaissance épistémologique des concepts en gestion ne suffit pas à en conserver la force initiale, mais que la culture épistémologique est nécessaire à la problématisation des concepts de gestion et à la didactique de leur conceptualisation. / This research stems from two questions: 1) What is the impact on scientific knowledge in management when it leaves the theoretical field of study to become an object of teaching? 2) Regarding the concepts taught in management how is it possible to preserve the initial strength they had when they were first introduced in the scientific field? The general issue of the articulation between epistemology and didactics in management leads to implement an original methodology for analysing a management concept in five steps: analyse the concept through a common sense approach and representations, study its scientific meaning from the treatises and works of great authors, identify the treatment of the concept in the national curriculum, study school textbooks, investigate the epistemological obstacles which hinder pupils from constructing the concept. This methodology applies here to the concept of decision, a central concept in management, which is precisely analysed in this research, and to the way it is apprehended didactically with a view to teaching students attending technological courses. Exploring the national curriculum and school textbooks has shown that the concept of decision adapted for teaching purposes is a specific construct which was created by textbook writers, half way between common sense and scientific sense. It has been made clear that the epistemological knowledge of management concepts is not enough to preserve their original strength. However the problematization of management concepts and the didactic study of their conceptualization require an epistemological culture.

It is no secret that 'managerial' solutions are not, on average, nearly as reliable as 'technical' solutions. The focus of this work is to clarify the reasons why this is so, and to seek ways to increase the reliability of managerial solutions. The causes of this situation are both subjective (human factor failure), which can be influenced, and objective (complexity of the problem, the specifics of human behaviour, etc.) that can be only minimally influenced. Significant subjective causes at work were identified as: a. cognitive distortions at the mental level of thinking of the problem solvers; b. deficiencies in making inference and drawing conclusions; c. incorrect argumentation. There are two ways to reduce these causes: 1. cultivation of managerial thinking of the problem solvers; 2. the use of reserves in the implementation of approaches and tools of theoretical disciplines that already operate successfully elsewhere and are beneficial for managerial solutions. The first way deals with procedures for managerial solutions formulated in the language of the relevant discipline (the language of management), expressed by natural language and the chain of formulas (calculations) and visual (graphic) tools in the form of managerial decision trees, diagrams and charts with the rules of 'managerial logic'. This is generally defined as a set of approaches, tools, methods and skills needed for credible justification when solving managerial problems. Specifically it deals with: - the 'case-based reasoning' approach, which aims at finding the best point of view on a given problem and analysing all considered aspects within its context step-by-step in detail; - translating the tools and methods of modern logic (especially its intuitionistic version) from the language of logic into the language of management taking into account the factual content of expressive means of the language of management including the ability of their effective application; - respecting the principles of rational and ethical argumentation within managerial solutions. The second way circumvents managerial solution procedures by recasting the managerial task to the task of a scientific discipline (logic, game theory, etc.) and derives the correct result therein. In this context we talk about the use of knowledge of theoretical disciplines in management. Both of these ways are demonstrated in the work in a number of illustrative examples and the annexed case studies addressing the specific tasks of managerial practice.

L’hémophilie est une maladie héréditaire incurable qui ralentit la coagulation sanguine. Le plan de traitement vise à prévenir les saignements pouvant se produire dans les articulations, puisque ceux-ci peuvent causer des dommages à long terme dans les structures internes. Le traitement consiste en l’administration régulière et continue d’injections de concentré de facteur de coagulation. Le plan de traitement inclut aussi des indications sur les activités physiques sécuritaires et celles à éviter pour les patients atteints de la maladie. Peu de recherches psychosociales ont été conduites en hémophilie à ce jour. L’objectif de cette thèse, composée de 5 articles, était de déterminer les facteurs sociocognitifs susceptibles d’influencer l’adhésion aux recommandations chez les enfants et les adolescents atteints d’hémophilie et de proposer des pistes d’intervention. Pour ce faire, nous nous sommes appuyés sur trois modèles théoriques qui apportent, en complémentarité, un éclairage sur des aspects centraux de l’adhésion. Dans le premier article, nous avons traduit en français un instrument de mesure de l’adhésion au traitement par injection et nous avons fourni les données psychométriques préliminaires de l’instrument. Les données ont appuyé son utilisation auprès des jeunes patients, ce qui nous a permis de l’utiliser dans la thèse. Dans le deuxième article, nous avons utilisé la théorie du comportement planifié pour comprendre comment les jeunes se positionnent face aux recommandations de l’équipe médicale en ce qui a trait au traitement par injection et à l’activité physique. Pour cela, nous avons mesuré leur attitude, leur perception de contrôle comportemental, la norme sociale subjective et le comportement passé. Nous avons évalué si ces facteurs étaient liés à l’intention de suivre les recommandations. Les résultats ont indiqué que ces facteurs expliquaient une grande proportion de la variance de l’intention de suivre les recommandations sur l’activité physique, surtout pour celles dites « à risque ». Ayant constaté une bonne adhésion au traitement par injection chez les participants et une adhésion plus faible en ce qui a trait à l’activité physique, nous avons décidé de nous concentrer sur l’activité physique pour la suite. Dans le troisième article, nous avons utilisé le modèle du sens commun pour comprendre comment les patients se représentent leur maladie et si ces représentations pouvaient avoir un impact sur leur pratique d’activé physique. Les perceptions étaient plus négatives pour les domaines suivants : les conséquences de la maladie, le nombre de symptômes et l’impact émotionnel. Lorsque nous avons classé les participants selon leur profil d’activité physique, le sous-groupe « adhésion faible », c’est-à-dire celui qui suivait moins et avait moins l’intention de suivre les recommandations, avait significativement plus de préoccupations par rapport à la maladie et percevait plus de symptômes en moyenne. Le quatrième article souligne l’intérêt du modèle du soutien à l’autonomie de la théorie de l’autodétermination dans l’intervention en hémophilie et consiste en une adaptation pratique de ce modèle aux enjeux spécifiques de la maladie. Le cinquième article porte sur un livret d’information que nous avons développé utilisant la théorie de l’autodétermination. Nous avons utilisé des méthodes quantitatives et qualitatives pour évaluer la réception du livret chez les parents et pour apporter des modifications à celui-ci. / Hemophilia is an incurable bleeding disorder that slows the blood clotting process. The treatment plan aims to prevent bleeding episodes that occur in the joints, since repeated bleeding episodes can cause long-term damage to internal structures. The treatment plan consists of regular infusions of the missing clotting factor and specific recommendations as to which physical activities are safe and which are to be avoided. The objective of this thesis, composed of 5 articles, was to determine the socio-cognitive factors likely to influence the adherence of children and adolescents to the recommendations of the treatment plan, and to suggest avenues for intervention. To do this, we relied on three theoretical models which, together, shed light on the central aspects of adherence: the perspective of young patients on the medical recommendations, their perceptions of the illness and, finally, avenues of intervention to promote better adherence in those young patients in the long-term. In the first article, we translated to French an instrument that measured adherence to the infusion therapy, and we provided the preliminary psychometric data of the instrument. The data supported the use of the instrument with young patients, which allowed us to use it in the thesis. In the second article, we used the theory of planned behavior to understand how young people perceive the recommendations concerning infusion treatment and physical activity. For this, we measured their attitude towards the behavior, their perception of behavioral control, the subjective social norm and past behavior. We assessed whether these factors were related to the intention to follow the recommendations. The results indicated that these factors explain a large proportion of the variance in intention to follow physical activity recommendations, especially for those at risk of causing bleeding. As adherence to injection therapy was high in our sample while adherence to physical activity recommendations was lower and more variable among participants, we decided to focus on the latter for the next articles. In the third article, we wanted to understand how patients view their illness and whether illness perceptions could have an impact on their physical activity practice. For this we used the common-sense model. Perceptions were more negative for the following areas: the consequences of hemophilia, the number of symptoms and the emotional impact. When we ranked participants according to their physical activity profile, the subgroup that followed the recommendations less iv closely and had a lower intention of following the recommendations had significantly more concerns and perceived more symptoms. The fourth article highlights the interest of the autonomy support model in hemophilia intervention and consists of a practical adaptation of this model to the specific challenges of the illness. The fifth article is about the development of an information booklet that we created using the concepts of this theory. We used quantitative and qualitative methods to assess the parents’ acceptability of the booklet and modified the booklet according to their suggestions.

This dissertation set out to understand the decision processes used by decision makers in adversarial environment by setting up an adversarial decision making microworld, as an experimental platform, using a real time strategy (RTS) game called Rise of Nations (RON). The specific objectives of this dissertation were: 1.Contribute to the validation of recognition-primed decision (RPD) model in a simulated adversarial environment; 2.Explore the roles of common-sense strategies in decision making in the adversarial environment; and 3.Test the effectiveness of training recommendations based on the RPD model. Three related experimental studies were setup to investigate each of the objectives. Study 1 found that RPD model was partly valid where RPD processes were prevalently used but other decision processes were also important in an adversarial environment. A new decision model (ConPAD model) was proposed to capture the nature of decision making in the adversarial environment. It was also found that cognitive abilities might have some effects on the types of decision processes used by the decision makers. Study 2 found that common-sense strategies were prevalent in the adversarial environment where the participants were able to use all but one of the warfare related strategies extracted from literature without teaching them. The strategy familiarization training was not found to significantly improve decision making but showed that common-sense strategies were prevalent and simple familiarization training was not sufficient to produce differences in strategy usage and performances from the novice participants. Study 3 also found that RPD based training (cue-recognition and decision skill training) were not significant in producing better performance although subjective feedback found such training to be useful. However, the participants with RPD based training conditions were able to perform on the same level as the expert participants bridging the gap between novices and experts. Based on the findings, it was recommended that decision training should involve not just RPD based training, but comparisons of attributes as well. A more interactive training combining common-sense strategies, cue-recognition and decision skill training might be more useful. More theoretical experimentation would be required to validate the new decision model proposed in this dissertation. / Ph. D.

This item contains the agenda, minutes, and attachments for the Faculty Senate meeting on this date. There may be additional materials from the meeting available at the Faculty Center.