Orientador: David Dequech Filho / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Economia / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-26T00:00:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Chafim_Fernando_M.pdf: 1383453 bytes, checksum: aaafe1236387548279f7252d7f99140d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / Resumo: O objetivo desta dissertação é contribuir para uma abordagem pluralista que avance na compreensão da dinâmica entre as entidades sociais e os agentes na vida econômica. Em termos específicos, objetiva-se construir um modelo que forneça uma compreensão refinada da estrutura social, instituição e agência que contribua para o estudo das mudanças estruturais na economia. Para tal, inicialmente adotamos as contribuições ontológicas e metodológicas do Realismo Crítico em Economia para ampliar nossa compreensão de interdisciplinaridade, ciência econômica e das características gerais e abstratas da realidade social. Após discutir o conteúdo dessa abordagem, elaboramos uma ontologia científica, que explicita as propriedades relevantes e específicas de entidades sociais particulares, tais como estrutura social, instituição, convenção, modelo mental socialmente compartilhado, regra social e relação social. Essa mesma ontologia será complementada por uma análise das propriedades dos agentes visando a construção de um modelo teórico que considere simultaneamente as diversas formas existentes de influências sociais sobre as pessoas e vice-versa, sem confundi-las e evitando determinismos por ambas as partes. A seguir, apresentamos uma síntese das principais influências estruturais que incentivam a conformidade, bem como algumas condições sociais que motivam os agentes não só a se desviarem dessas influências, mas a tentar transformá-las através da mobilização de recursos e relativamente de acordo com seus interesses. Por fim, discutiremos as condições específicas de implementação desse tipo de mudança e usaremos o modelo teórico proposto para analisar a mudança empreendida pelos teóricos da agência ao introduzirem o modelo de gestão corporativa conhecido como maximização do valor do acionista / Abstract: The purpose of this dissertation is to contribute to a pluralistic approach that adds to the understanding of the dynamics between social entities and agents in economic life. More specifically, we construct a model that provides a refined understanding of the social structure, institution and agency that contributes to the study of structural changes in the economy. In order to do so, we first adopt the ontological and methodological contributions of Critical Realism in Economics. This allows for enlarging our understanding of interdisciplinarity, economics and the general and abstract features of social reality. After discussing the contents of this approach, we developed a scientific ontology that spells out the relevant specific properties of certain social entities, such as social structure, institutions, conventions, socially shared mental models, social relations and social rules. This same ontology is then complemented by an analysis of the properties of agents. This aims at building a theoretical model that simultaneously considers various forms of social influences on persons and vice-versa, without confusing them and avoiding determinism from either side. The next section is a summary of the main structural influences that encourage compliance, as well as of some social conditions that motivate agents not only to deviate from those influences, but to also mobilise resources and try to transform them in a fashion somewhat akin to their interests. Finally, we discuss the specific conditions for implementing this kind of change and use the proposed model to analyse the modification agency theorists bring about as they introduce the corporate management model known as maximizing shareholder value / Mestrado / Teoria Economica / Mestre em Ciências Econômicas

Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP) are very large and complex software packages that run every aspect of an organization. Increasingly, ERP systems are used in higher education to teach business processes, essential knowledge for students competing in today’s business environment. Past research attempting to measure learning business processes with ERP has been inconclusive and lacking in rigor. This dissertation contains a comprehensive research study that uses a critical realist approach to measure business process learning from experiential ERP. Using a business simulation game as a proxy for understanding business processes, students from (1) a US undergraduate program in three separate classes, one using ERP experientially, and (2) two UK postgraduate programs, one experiencing ERP and one not, are assessed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The data analysis results in a causal mechanism for learning, complemented by a list that trigger or suppress that mechanism in particular cases. The results validate the efforts of those using ERP in the classroom, and reaffirm other educational business school endeavors, with educational implications as follows. First, before attempting to learn business processes, students must know about business in order to enable them to learn this complex topic. Second, experiencing ERP systems indeed helps students understand business processes, with a cohesive curriculum integrating ERP benefitting students the most and students at the postgraduate level learning more deeply. Third, students are using the knowledge gained in university classes to make business decisions. Fourth, students should be encouraged to use all information possible for making business decisions instead of relying on their personal understanding of today’s current market, relying on their own business intuition or work experience. Last, teaching methods may need to be adjusted for postgraduates, especially those coming into programs with significant work experience.

Brian Lee Goard, Ph.D. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2011 Chairperson: Dr. Gregg R. Allison This dissertation examines the role of critical realism in the theological method of Alister E. McGrath. The thesis of the dissertation is that Alister McGrath uses critical realism in a way that strengthens his theological method and that serves a number of good theological ends, yet McGrath's methodology is in need of revision in some areas, and clarification in others, if it is going to be theologically acceptable. Chapter 1 introduces (1) the philosophy of critical realism, (2) Alister McGrath's work in theological method, and (3) the thesis and methodology of the dissertation. Chapter 2 examines the history and development of critical realism, beginning with the work of Roy Wood Sellars in the early twentieth century and concluding with a description of critical realism as developed by Roy Bhaskar. Chapter 2 argues that historically, critical realism has been a versatile method that can be applied to a variety of projects and disciplines. Chapter 3 delineates the main themes of McGrath's methodology and how critical realism affects those areas. Specific points addressed in this chapter include McGrath's prolonged engagement with other theological methodologies (chief among them being postliberalism), the concept of nature, natural theology, and the science-theology dialogue. Chapter 4 provides a critical evaluation of McGrath's use of critical realism. A number of positive conclusions about McGrath's use of critical realism are drawn, yet where McGrath has made problematic or underdeveloped applications of critical realism, both correction and suggestions for further development are offered. Finally, chapter 5 reviews the thesis of the dissertation and considers the method that has been taken in defense of that thesis. Specifically, it demonstrates how each of the previous chapters serve as evidence for the dissertation's thesis.

This thesis explores the implications of a critical realist perspective for the field of education. Areas of consonance and divergence between two traditions of critical realism which have previously not referenced each other are outlined. It is argued that both theological critical realism and "Bhaskarian" critical realism are consonant in terms of their base tenets, and support the concept of a postfoundational, dialectical, stratified and alethic model of truth.The implications of this model and the potential of other critical realist doctrines for education are then examined. It is argued that the combination of critical realism's epistemological relativism and ontological realism allows it to steer a course between the extremes of other dominant positions, which are ultimately susceptible to either the foundationalism of positivism, or the regression of idealism.It is suggested that critical realism is uniquely positioned to provide an antidote to the problems besetting contemporary educational research - especially in instances where modern and postmodern influences are involved in a recalcitrant, self-sustaining conflict. The postfoundationalist doctrines of critical realism enable it to appropriate deconstructionist research methods, but deploy them from within a realist framework. The implications of a critical realist perspective also go beyond educational research, indicating a conception of education as an emancipatory enterprise. By virtue of its evolutionary, stratified model of human rationality, critical realism raises significant challenges to dominant views of pedagogy and praxis in education. Given its concern with absenting constraints upon human freedom, it is claimed that critical realism reveals the real task of education as facilitating the emergent rationality of students towards emancipation. In light of this emancipatory mission, the possible contribution of critical realism to the field of education is too significant to ignore.

This thesis explores the implications of a critical realist perspective for the field of education. Areas of consonance and divergence between two traditions of critical realism which have previously not referenced each other are outlined. It is argued that both theological critical realism and “Bhaskarian” critical realism are consonant in terms of their base tenets, and support the concept of a postfoundational, dialectical, stratified and alethic model of truth.The implications of this model and the potential of other critical realist doctrines for education are then examined. It is argued that the combination of critical realism’s epistemological relativism and ontological realism allows it to steer a course between the extremes of other dominant positions, which are ultimately susceptible to either the foundationalism of positivism, or the regression of idealism.It is suggested that critical realism is uniquely positioned to provide an antidote to the problems besetting contemporary educational research – especially in instances where modern and postmodern influences are involved in a recalcitrant, self-sustaining conflict. The postfoundationalist doctrines of critical realism enable it to appropriate deconstructionist research methods, but deploy them from within a realist framework. The implications of a critical realist perspective also go beyond educational research, indicating a conception of education as an emancipatory enterprise. By virtue of its evolutionary, stratified model of human rationality, critical realism raises significant challenges to dominant views of pedagogy and praxis in education. Given its concern with absenting constraints upon human freedom, it is claimed that critical realism reveals the real task of education as facilitating the emergent rationality of students towards emancipation. In light of this emancipatory mission, the possible contribution of critical realism to the field of education is too significant to ignore.

This thesis explores the implications of a critical realist perspective for the field of education. Areas of consonance and divergence between two traditions of critical realism which have previously not referenced each other are outlined. It is argued that both theological critical realism and “Bhaskarian” critical realism are consonant in terms of their base tenets, and support the concept of a postfoundational, dialectical, stratified and alethic model of truth.The implications of this model and the potential of other critical realist doctrines for education are then examined. It is argued that the combination of critical realism’s epistemological relativism and ontological realism allows it to steer a course between the extremes of other dominant positions, which are ultimately susceptible to either the foundationalism of positivism, or the regression of idealism.It is suggested that critical realism is uniquely positioned to provide an antidote to the problems besetting contemporary educational research – especially in instances where modern and postmodern influences are involved in a recalcitrant, self-sustaining conflict. The postfoundationalist doctrines of critical realism enable it to appropriate deconstructionist research methods, but deploy them from within a realist framework. The implications of a critical realist perspective also go beyond educational research, indicating a conception of education as an emancipatory enterprise. By virtue of its evolutionary, stratified model of human rationality, critical realism raises significant challenges to dominant views of pedagogy and praxis in education. Given its concern with absenting constraints upon human freedom, it is claimed that critical realism reveals the real task of education as facilitating the emergent rationality of students towards emancipation. In light of this emancipatory mission, the possible contribution of critical realism to the field of education is too significant to ignore.

The thesis sets out to critique recent accounts dealing with the notion and role of ontology in IR theorising as it can be found, for instance, in Alexander Wendt and more recently in the writings of critical realists. The main aim of these treatises on ontology is to provide a new perspective for IR theory that is in line with a more general critique of epistemological foundationalism and strict empiricism. Thereby these accounts rely upon an interpretation of scientific realism as it can be found in the Philosophy of Science. The thesis shows how these approaches to ontology on the one hand overcome epistemological foundationalism but, on the other hand, reaffirm a form of ontological foundationalism through the apodictic positing of ‘intransitive objects’ that exist outside and independent of the human mind. Such an approach, rather than leading to a new and better conception of ontology, reifies the same biases of Cartesian subjectivity, the designative nature of language, a correspondence theory of truth and the problem-laden concept of freedom as it was conceived in Kant’s third antinomy. In response to these approaches whose general aim at reconceptualising ontology must be welcomed, the thesis develops a new approach that does not recreate the same problems in a different fashion but tries to overcome them through a reconceptualisation of the term ontology itself. The basis for the thesis is to be found in post-Husserlian phenomenology, a body of literature that has so far been widely ignored in IR theorising. By explicating the main tenets in the thought of such eminent philosophers as Heidegger, Gadamer, Merleau-Ponty and Ricoeur the thesis reconstructs the notion of ontology on the basis of an enquiry into the meaning of being in general and human being in particular. From this perspective a new approach to the notions of agency, language, truth and freedom becomes possible without recreating the rifts and foundationalisms that characterises many approaches to social and political relations.

Teachers' professional lives are situated at the intersection of local, national and global educational policy contexts. What they purposefully do (agency) and how they see themselves and their roles as teachers (identity) dynamically interact with such contexts. This study argues that in order to understand the meaningful professional development work of teachers, it is important to have an understanding of this interplay. Current dominant policy discourses concerning the 'improving teacher' and 'teaching as a craft' are examples of an over-reliant emphasis on more insular narratives of agentic teachers and teaching. As the research in this thesis shows, such narratives fail to take into account the complexities of factors and discourses that impact on the beings and doings of teachers, and are therefore inadequate. Based on an iterative dialogue between particular theoretical ideas and emerging case study data, the study proposes a multi-level integrating framework for understanding the experiences of teachers as they develop and locate a sense of their professional identity. Four teachers, from different types of English secondary schools, participated in the study. Data was generated from timelines, concept maps, lesson observations and interviews with the teacher participants. The case studies were presented as written portraits. Drawing on Archer's work (e.g. 2012) on reflexivity, the ways in which teachers' thinking mediated the links between their agency and structure were considered. The different modes of reflexivity that teachers employ and the ways in which teachers determine and facilitate personal projects of concern to them were found to be important to their professional identity and agency. The findings also suggested that the similarities and differences between the teachers were to do with how intersecting structural and cultural factors at global and local levels are mediated by individual forms of reflexivity. These forms of reflexivity are a reflection of evolving personal and social identities and an emerging social stance on society. The mediation produces particular professional concerns or projects that both suggest similarities that relate to powerful global discourses of education-such as performativity-but also particular types of agency and identity that are specific to those individual teachers' classrooms and general professional stance. The essence of the daily work of teachers appeared to reflect an intersection of personal biography and the situational structures and cultures of schools in which teachers operated, which brought about differences in professional thinking and doing. The thesis contributes to knowledge by adding to theory concerning identity and agency, as well as contributing to methodology by using portraits in understanding the nature of teacher agency and reflexivity. The factors that are identified and an insight into teachers' reflexivity contribute to the development of a toolkit for understanding teachers' identity and agency that may be useful for both teacher educators and policy makers.

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