Over the last two decades, Australian higher education has undergone dramatic changes in purpose and orientation. Changes in public funding arrangements and concomitant policy statements have contributed to the reconceptualisation of Australian higher education, and internationalisation has become a core goal for Australian universities. In light of these dynamics, this study examined understandings of internationalisation within two Australian universities. The study examined the ways in which internationalisation was understood by university staff working in either a teaching capacity and/or a managerial position. Situated within the broad field of critical sociology, the study drew on critical realism (Bhaskar, 1979, 1989), critical epistemology (Carspecken, 1996) and reflexive sociology (Bourdieu, 1972, 1990) to analyse how the universities and their staff positioned themselves in relation to the goal of internationalisation. Furthermore, the study examined how this goal served to reposition the institution and/or various forms of university work. The insights of critical social theory were used to examine the contested power relations associated with the growing importance attributed to the goal of internationalisation in Australian higher education. The significance of the study resides in its recognition of the ways in which academic and non-academic subcultures within the university contribute to the goal of internationalisation. Whereas previous research viewed divergence of understandings as weakening the commitment given to internationalisation as an institutional goal, this study has shown that such diversity stems from the differential encounters with and experiences of internationalisation. Moreover, in previous research, the pre-determined objectives for internationalisation resulted in the compartmentalisation of this goal, as in economic objectives and academic objectives. In contrast, this study focused on the dynamic and evolving nature of internationalisation in higher education. Consequently, the study's contribution lies in its explanation of the long term benefits to be derived from viewing internationalisation as a dynamic and generative phenomenon, rather than simply as a pre-determined goal. A case study approach was used in this research with two contrasting onshore Australian universities selected as the case sites. One institution had a reputation as an elite, research intensive university. The other was a post-Dawkins university with a strong vocational orientation. At each site, semi-structured interviews were conducted with staff from across the university's hierarchy. Interviewees included the Pro Vice-Chancellor for the Office of Internationalisation, the Chair of the Academic Board, the Director of the Teaching and Learning Support Unit, Faculty Deans, Heads of Departments, as well as departmental staff concerned with first year teaching. Departmental staff were drawn from two disciplinary areas, Australian History and Marketing. Interviews engaged participants in discussion about the processes by which internationalisation was enacted. Furthermore, university documents, such as the Strategic Plan, were analysed in terms of how the given institution constructed the need for internationalisation and the means by which this goal was to be achieved. The study found that internationalisation involves and promotes constant adaptability. The two institutions used whatever resources they had to develop and promote their international aspirations. The international visions of the institutions were influenced by both their historical and intended relationship with the broader higher education world. The elite, research intensive institution viewed internationalisation with becoming a university of international standing. This institution used its bureaucratic and hierarchical nature to advance its objectives for internationalisation. The vocationally oriented university had developed an internationalisation policy with a view to maximising the revenue to be derived from its diverse international activities and to gaining greater prestige within the higher education field. Staff involved with managerial and/or teaching work were found to develop their ideas about internationalisation through a combination of personal and professional experiences. The study confirmed the growing trend for academics to assume managerial roles in addition to their teaching and research. Consequently, accounts of internationalisation were not necessarily confined to a purely managerial or an academic perspective. Furthermore, the accounts of internationalisation differed between and within the two selected disciplines. On the one hand, specific disciplinary attributes could be seen by the academics interviewed as inherently international, even though they may not assist in realising institutional objectives for internationalisation. On the other, academics spoke of the perceived need for the frames of reference used in undergraduate education to be broadened, given the globalised nature of contemporary society and/or the increasing international enrolments. The study concluded that internationalisation is an important means by which the localised priorities of an institution, an academic department, and/or of individuals can engage with forms of global mobility. Moreover, the study argued the need for all staff and students in Australian higher education to see themselves as part of the processes of internationalisation. This latter point raises questions about the personal and professional attributes required of academics when working within internationalised Australian universities.

Michaela Polányi's Theory of Personal Knowledge (1891-1976) attempts to cope with the objections of the critical period of philosophy in which the ideals of science are set to be objectively unbiased and empirically grounded knowledge. The reason for this is the distrust of the subjectivistly conceived influence of the tradition and authority of the major research ancestors. Polanyi, however, points out that such ideals disregard the important constitutions of the knowledge of personal character, without which knowledge would not be possible. That is why it responds to these objections by trying to rehabilitate them and putting them in proper contexts. It points out the role of personal judgment that makes an intuitive estimation of the fertility of a research project within the given competencies. It highlights the role of the expertise and knowledge, which operate thanks to capturing the researcher in the tradition of the branch. And last but not least, it emphasizes the role of intellectual enthusiasm that helps the creative and original way to solve the problem. However, according to Polanyi, these constituents can perform their role properly only if the researcher establishes close contact with reality within an act he describes as contemplative submersion into the problem. This cognitive act should protect the entire cognitive process from the risk of subjective distortion. Polanyi also discovers two dimensions of knowledge. The first dimension is called tacit (unspecific). This dimension affects all cognitive processes that take place outside the apparent focal awareness of the cognitive person, yet they essentially influence the understanding of the ability to integrate in the mind of the cognitive person not only the individual elements of knowledge but also their interrelations. It helps to estimate the limits and possibilities of research. The second dimension is fiduciary-programmed knowledge, which points out that all knowledge is based on the commitment of faith to the reality of the cognitive object, to personal abilities of the cognitive person, and to the research community, and the principles of its research. It turns out that faith is not an obstacle to scientific knowledge, but a prerequisite for discovery. That is why Polanyi's theory of human knowledge is also considered in the field of the defense of the relevance of religious epistemology. Polanyi does not make the distinction between secular and religious epistemology as critics of religion. Both types of knowledge, according to him, are constituted by the same cognitive abilities that are applied in the same reality. The difference lies more in a different perspective and in the subject of interest. This thesis focuses on selected chapters of religious epistemology, where the original objections and proposals for their resolving solutions are well evident. These are, above all, the possibilities and limits of God's experience of knowledge, the role of reason and belief, and the possibilities of personal realization of knowledge within the religious tradition and the Authority Church.

La sexualité est arrivée au statut d’objet scientifique à la suite des découvertes psychanalytiques. L’élargissement du sexuel avec Freud par la théorie de la libido a permis une investigation beaucoup plus large et complète de la sexualité, la faisant apparaître comme un phénomène de totalité. Les sciences sociales n’ont pourtant pas nécessairement intégré cet élargissement dans leurs théorisations sur la sexualité livrant une définition de celle-ci selon leurs paradigmes et cadres interprétatifs disciplinaires. De même, la politisation de la sexualité a dans un premier temps interpréter la question de la libido freudienne dans une utopie critique, celle de la libération sexuelle de Mai 68. Dans un second temps, elle a idéologisé et partialisé la question sexuelle en orientant les débats sur les questions des minorités sexuelles. La démarche critique adoptée dans cette thèse permet de montrer en quoi la sexualité en tant qu’objet est l’analyseur des sexualités concrètes. La sexualité est une force originaire au fondement de la subjectivité, de l’intersubjectivité et des formations sociales. Elle ne peut donc être conceptualisée de façon réductrice. Cette complexité est nécessairement polémique car elle comprend des enjeux épistémologiques, politiques, mais aussi éthiques, praxéologiques et métaphysiques. / Sexuality become a scientific object following psychoanalysic discoveries. The extension of sexuality by Freud with the libido theory allow more complete and broader investigation of sexuality, showing it as a phenomenon of totality. Social sciences however did not insert this enlargement into their theorizings on the sexuality delivering a definition of this one according to their paradigms and disciplinary interpretative frames. Also, the politicization of sexuality has at first interpreted the question of freudian libido in a critical utopia, that of the sexual liberation of Mai 68. In second time, it has ideologised ans partialised the sexual question by orientating the debate on the sexual minorites questions. Critical step adopted in this thesis allows to show that sexuality as object is the analyser of concrete sexualities. Sexuality is a native force in the foundation of subjectivity, intersubjectivity and social trainings. Sexuality can’t be conceptualised in a reductionnist way. This complicacy is necessarily polemical because it consists in epistemological and political stakes, but also in ethical, praxeological and metaphysical stakes.