Cette thèse est une contribution à la compréhension des nouvelles dynamiques urbaines liées aux activités commerciales dans les villes des Suds et tout particulièrement à Dakar. L’entrée privilégiée est celle des acteurs qui sont impliqués directement ou indirectement dans les activités commerciales. Compte tenu de la place importante qu’elles occupent dans l’économie et dans l’espace urbains et la multitude d’acteurs qu’elles mobilisent, ces activités offrent un cadre pertinent d’analyse des processus d’appropriation de l’espace et des mutations urbaines en cours. Cette thèse révèle que les activités commerciales s’insèrent dans l’espace dakarois sous de multiples formes : commerce de rue, marchés, centre commercial. Mais l’absence d’une politique cohérente d’aménagement de l’espace urbain établit le commerce comme un défi pour la gestion urbaine. Dans ce contexte, la décentralisation qui aurait pu contribuer au développement harmonieux de la ville, a, plutôt, exacerbé les clivages entre les collectivités de proximité, la mairie de Dakar et l’Etat central sur fond de rivalités politiques, nourries par les conflits d’intérêts privés mis en concurrence. Les opérations de déguerpissement érigées en mode de régulation de l’espace urbain par les collectivités locales ne sont pas parvenues à résoudre le problème de l’occupation des rues par les marchands. Ces derniers préfèrent rester dans la rue plutôt que de regagner les centres commerciaux construits par la mairie de Dakar pour les recaser. Cette thèse contribue ainsi à éclairer la notion d’espace public territoire privilégié des stratégies de survie quotidienne. / This thesis aims to develop a better understanding of the new urban dynamics related to commercial activities in Dakar. It focuses on the identification of the stakes, the logics, and the actors’ game with a view of better understanding the processes of urban space appropriation and its management by multiple actors who are involved directly or indirectly in commercial activities in the Senegalese capital. As a matter of fact commercial activities offer a relevant analytical framework of the processes of space appropriation and urban changes in Dakar, given the important place they hold in urban economy and the multitude of actors they involve. In actuality, commercial activities occur in many forms in the city of Dakar: street trading, markets, shopping malls. They do play a role in space changes within the Senegalese capital. However, due to the lack of coherent policy on urban space, trading presents a challenge to urban management. In this context, whereas decentralization could have contributed to urban development, it has actually heightened tensions, with political rivalries in the background, between the city council of Dakar and the central State. At another level, the decamping operations that are taken as a mode of regulation of urban space by local authorities have failed to solve the problem of street occupancy by merchants.

This Bachelor thesis aims to examine the opinions of the Swedish parliament parties regarding state Government and local Government of the Swedish school system and how the change in opinion over time appears. The study is an argumentation analysis and includes a comparison of motions and documents from the parliament parties at two different time periods, 1990 and 2007–2020. The issues are ”What arguments exist for and against centralisation and decentralisation of the Swedish school by the parliament parties and how are they motivated?”and ”Has there been a change of opinion over time and how do they, in that case, appear?” Therefore, the thesis studies the Swedish parliament parties attitudes towards localisation and renationalisation of the Swedish school. The result shows that the main argument for a renationalisation is better controlling and the main argument against renationalisation is the longer decision paths. The main arguments for keeping the localised school system is shorter decision paths and more local options. A change has taken place over time in the opinion, parties from different political backgrounds want an investigation in the issue regarding renationalisation of the Swedish school system. Two new parliament parties have been elected after the first time period which has affected the debate.

In this essay we discuss how the decentralisation of the Swedish school system affects the concept of “equal opportunity school”. We investigate the development from both a historical and contemporary perspective, in order to identify changes over time. The central question of the essay is how the decentralisation of the school system affects the teacher’s perspective and experiences of the government’s framework about “equal opportunity school”? The analysis is based on four qualitative, semi structured, direct interviews with respondents both active in municipal schools situated in the Malmö council and with more than thirty years of experience in their profession.Our analysis of the interviews show that both respondents experience the overall situation in the schools has deteriorated from an equal opportunity aspect since the decentralisation of the school system. We discuss the individual pupil’s situation from Bourdieu’s concept, habitus and how it affects the pupil’s experiences and behaviour in school and also how the school contributes to shape the pupil’s habitus. Furthermore we argue that the new form of evaluation has affected the quality of the school system and that it has increased the public tension regarding public schools. The final result of the essay is that the Swedish school system does not provide an “equal opportunity school” and that it has become more segregated after the decentralisation process. According to the results of the essay the school system may once again be reformed from a municipal towards a private system. The rift between the municipal schools and the private schools appear to widen and since it hitherto has been harder to evaluate the private schools it is not unlikely that the standard of an “equal opportunity school” disappears in the future and that the school policy framework has to be revised.

The adoption of decentralised systems of governance in its various forms across the world represents one of the most important reforms of the past generation. In South Africa, through a plethora of legislative reforms post 1994, the framework of developmentalism and decentralisation underpin the structure and functioning of the local government system. The new onerous legislative responsibilities bestowed on local government included the significant objectives of promoting social and economic development. Given however the myriad of challenges in this sphere of government, the need to find meaningful, suitable and sustainable solutions are even more pressing. By employing a two-way error component fixed panel data regression technique, this study explores the impact of fiscal decentralisation arrangements in South Africa on the financial wellbeing of the district municipalities across the length and breadth of the country. The data reveals that district municipalities in South Africa are not able to self-generate a meaningful amount of revenue and as a result they are heavily dependent on intergovernmental transfers. The results from the regression models reveal that the fiscal decentralisation arrangement have no meaningful impact on the financial condition of district municipalities in South Africa, given their lack of fiscal autonomy. The current two-tier system of governance between local and district municipalities is not consistent with the tenets and intended outcomes of a decentralised system and there is a need to restructure this system to make it more fiscally autonomous and sustainable for municipalities to be able to fulfil legislative responsibilities.

Konkurrensen i dagens företagsvärld kräver att företag verkligen utmärker sig från mängden. Huvudsakligen finner bolag möjligheten att överträffa sina konkurrenter genom differentiering eller kostnadsminimering. Idag har båda dessa begrepp en klar koppling till produktutveckling. Men för att kunna differentiera sig så måste bolag skapa något nytt, de behöver alltså produktutveckla. För att utveckla produkter på ett effektivt och målinriktat sätt använder sig företag av integrerad produktutveckling (IPU). Integrerad produktutveckling syftar till att involvera olika kompetenser inom bolaget för att styra produktutvecklingen på ett sätt som är bäst lämpad för marknaden. Exempelvis involveras försäljare i produktutvecklingen för att säkerställa att det som utvecklas kan säljas och leverera värde till kunden. IPU syftar till att både främja effektivitet och innovation, genom att alla relevanta personer involveras i ett tidigt skede för att inte upptäcka problem sent i produktutvecklingsprocessen. Men det finns även kritik mot IPU som menar att involvering av för mycket personer bidrar till ökade kompromisser, vilket kan hämma innovationen. Ytterligare kritik mot IPU menar att bolags administrativa kostnader blir onödigt stora av att involvera för många medarbetare. Således står IPU i viss konflikt mellan kostnadsminimering och innovation.  Denna studie vill bidra med kunskap kring hur företag kan anpassa det integrerade arbetet efter projektets uppgift och omfattning. Eftersom ett kunskapsbehov i detta område kan vara anledningen till att IPU fortfarande ifrågasätts och inte är felfritt. Således definierades parametern  Graden av förnyelse som syftar till att beskriva hur stor andel av produktutvecklingsarbetet innebär innovation. Studien syftar till att undersöka hur graden av förnyelse påverkar hur projekt utförs i praktiken. Detta studerades med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer av R&D-medarbetare hos två stora teknikbolag. Empirin från dessa studier indikerar att bolag tar hänsyn till graden av förnyelse i sitt produktutvecklingsarbete. Vid projekt med hög grad av förnyelse, så kallade utvecklingsprojekt, så använde sig båda bolagen av en stage-gateprocess som kännetecknas av integrerade kontrollmekanismer och beslutsfattande. Projekt med hög grad av förnyelse tenderar även att vara mer centraliserat styrda. Däremot behandlade bolagen projekt med låg grad av förnyelse, ändringsprojekt, helt annorlunda. Dessa projekt var inte alls lika strukturerade och arbetssättet var inte lika integrerat, eftersom man inte ville ha onödiga administrationskostnader. För ändringsprojekten var kontrollbehovet inte alls lika stort och därför var styrningen av dessa projekt mer decentraliserad. Sammanfattningsvis kan det konstateras att graden av förnyelsen påverkar hur bolag bedriver projektarbete i praktiken. Dock kan resultatet kritiseras sett till om graden av förnyelse verkligen är det mest relevanta begreppet för att förklara varför bolag anpassar sin IPU. Exempelvis skulle ändringen i kundupplevelse kunna vara en mer relevant parameter

Konkurrensen i dagens företagsvärld kräver att företag verkligen utmärker sig från mängden. Huvudsakligen finner bolag möjligheten att överträffa sina konkurrenter genom differentiering eller kostnadsminimering. Idag har båda dessa begrepp en klar koppling till produktutveckling. Men för att kunna differentiera sig så måste bolag skapa något nytt, de behöver alltså produktutveckla. För att utveckla produkter på ett effektivt och målinriktat sätt använder sig företag av integrerad produktutveckling (IPU). Integrerad produktutveckling syftar till att involvera olika kompetenser inom bolaget för att styra produktutvecklingen på ett sätt som är bäst lämpad för marknaden. Exempelvis involveras försäljare i produktutvecklingen för att säkerställa att det som utvecklas kan säljas och leverera värde till kunden. IPU syftar till att både främja effektivitet och innovation, genom att alla relevanta personer involveras i ett tidigt skede för att inte upptäcka problem sent i produktutvecklingsprocessen. Men det finns även kritik mot IPU som menar att involvering av för mycket personer bidrar till ökade kompromisser, vilket kan hämma innovationen. Ytterligare kritik mot IPU menar att bolags administrativa kostnader blir onödigt stora av att involvera för många medarbetare. Således står IPU i viss konflikt mellan kostnadsminimering och innovation. Denna studie vill bidra med kunskap kring hur företag kan anpassa det integrerade arbetet efter projektets uppgift och omfattning. Eftersom ett kunskapsbehov i detta område kan vara anledningen till att IPU fortfarande ifrågasätts och inte är felfritt. Således definierades parametern Graden av förnyelse som syftar till att beskriva hur stor andel av produktutvecklingsarbetet innebär innovation. Studien syftar till att undersöka hur graden av förnyelse påverkar hur projekt utförs i praktiken Detta studerades med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer av R&D-medarbetare hos två stora teknikbolag. Empirin från dessa studier indikerar att bolag tar hänsyn till graden av förnyelse i sitt produktutvecklingsarbete. Vid projekt med hög grad av förnyelse, så kallade utvecklingsprojekt, så använde sig båda bolagen av en stage-gateprocess som kännetecknas av integrerade kontrollmekanismer och beslutsfattande. Projekt med hög grad av förnyelse tenderar även att vara mer centraliserat styrda. Däremot behandlade bolagen projekt med låg grad av förnyelse, ändringsprojekt, helt annorlunda. Dessa projekt var inte alls lika strukturerade och arbetssättet var inte lika integrerat, eftersom man inte ville ha onödiga administrationskostnader. För ändringsprojekten var kontrollbehovet inte alls lika stort och därför var styrningen av dessa projekt mer decentraliserad. Sammanfattningsvis kan det konstateras att graden av förnyelsen påverkar hur bolag bedriver projektarbete i praktiken. Dock kan resultatet kritiseras sett till om graden av förnyelse verkligen är det mest relevanta begreppet för att förklara varför bolag anpassar sin IPU. Exempelvis skulle ändringen i kundupplevelse kunna vara en mer relevant parameter.

This dissertation undertakes an analysis of the spatial persistence of population in South Africa over the period 1911 to 2011. A comprehensive review is given of the history and development of geographical economics in order to understand the dynamics of the forces of agglomeration. In addition the history of the development of South Africa is discussed and special focus is directed to the geographical, economic and political factors that gave rise to the unequal distribution of population and wealth in the country. In the empirical analysis Zipf’s law was applied and it was found that South Africa’s population was more evenly spread in 1911. With the application of the law to the 2011 data the Pareto exponent of the OLS log-linear regression indicated that urban agglomeration was more persistent. Although this might indicate that apartheid did not influence agglomeration in South Africa it is argued that the nature of the agglomeration was in fact influenced by restrictive measures placed on the urbanisation of the population and industrial decentralisation policies. It is indicated that the apartheid policy altered the equilibrium spatial distribution of population and wealth which lead to a smaller than optimal primate and second largest magisterial districts, too many secondary cities of similar size, and also too many small and uneconomical rural settlements. / MCom (Economics), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

This dissertation undertakes an analysis of the spatial persistence of population in South Africa over the period 1911 to 2011. A comprehensive review is given of the history and development of geographical economics in order to understand the dynamics of the forces of agglomeration. In addition the history of the development of South Africa is discussed and special focus is directed to the geographical, economic and political factors that gave rise to the unequal distribution of population and wealth in the country. In the empirical analysis Zipf’s law was applied and it was found that South Africa’s population was more evenly spread in 1911. With the application of the law to the 2011 data the Pareto exponent of the OLS log-linear regression indicated that urban agglomeration was more persistent. Although this might indicate that apartheid did not influence agglomeration in South Africa it is argued that the nature of the agglomeration was in fact influenced by restrictive measures placed on the urbanisation of the population and industrial decentralisation policies. It is indicated that the apartheid policy altered the equilibrium spatial distribution of population and wealth which lead to a smaller than optimal primate and second largest magisterial districts, too many secondary cities of similar size, and also too many small and uneconomical rural settlements. / MCom (Economics), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

The objective of this study is to obtain an in-depth understanding of the practical working of property tax administration in Jamaica. It highlights the major enforcement and compliance practices along with how the invisible and underlying interactions of actors in the field shape these practices. It also explores those issues and circumstances along with the existing patterns of interests which have contributed to the continued practice of the central administration of the property tax. The study also emphasizes struggles in the property tax field between the various players: the tax authority, the politicians, the developers, the local authorities, the central government and the taxpayers and how each one uses its capital to maintain or dominate its position within the property tax field. The findings revealed that there were various tensions and struggles among the different players within property tax field in Jamaica. The players in the field used their ‘capitals’ to maintain, dominate and or attempt to make changes to the property tax rules. The findings suggest that some property tax enforcement practices were the means through which these tensions were manifested and resolved or on the other hand, the tax authority attempted to use the current practices as hidden agendas to highlight those tensions in order to stand their ground or obliquely suggest changes or even to demonstrate its tacit support of government policies. The findings also suggest that the non-localization of the property tax may be due to varied political interests, mistrust in the local authorities and also the perception by some players that there’s a lack of capital at the local level to manage the tax. Finally, taxpayers’ used their social, economic and cultural capital to resist enforcement and compliance efforts cheating the government of much needed revenues Property tax although not an important national tax is a critical source of revenue for local communities globally. An increased understanding of the working of the practices is beneficial and has implications for both taxpayers and policymakers. The three research questions posed in my study address and highlight the main property tax enforcement strategies and how the tax authority and policymakers use their capital to shape these practices; the extent to which non-localization of the property tax within the Portmore Municipality is influenced by the political dispositions of the players in the field and thirdly the dimensions of property tax compliance and non-compliance in Jamaica. The questions seek to demonstrate how the combination of the actions and interactions of tax administrators, taxpayers, politicians, developers, government bureaucrats reshape administrative practices in the property tax field which have implications for revenue generation and the provision of services. In keeping with the adoption of an interpretive inductive approach, face-to-face interviews were conducted with tax administrators, policymakers, councillors, mayors, taxpayers, members of civil society, a developer and a tax professional. A theoretical framework is created which combines the major themes and theoretical concepts within three strands of literature: tax administration, fiscal decentralization, and Bourdieu’s theory of practice. The structure provides the explanatory lens through which the findings are presented and interpreted. The study contributes to the tax scholarship through an interpretive methodical approach which gives an additional perspective on property tax administration. It answers the call for well-developed tax research dispelling the notion that tax research is adequately dealt with. This study contributes to the tax literature by demonstrating that taxation isn’t just a technical issue; that the legal framework and administrative framework don’t necessarily coincide with practice; that tax practice is shaped by the actions and interactions of players in the field, making it a social construction; that players use their power to influence property tax practice and that players actions are conditioned by their background. The study also contributes a conceptual framework for property tax practice.

This thesis draws on an ethnographic research in Ghana to question mainstream views on decentralisation that local level institutions can be consciously crafted to enlist the participation of marginal actors in governance thereby leading to efficiency and equity in development. The research explores the everyday practice of local governance in Ntonaboma, a resettlement community in the Eastern region of Ghana by using participant observation and interviews. Evidence from the study reveals that first decentralisation is not a technical or managerial exercise but rather a societal practice taking place among heterogeneous actors with diverse interest and values. Secondly, the interactions occurring among these diverse actors are mediated through the interplay of a variety of institutions at the local level. Thirdly, the complex and dynamic character of decentralisation at the community level make the specificities of context very relevant in understanding the transformative potentials of decentralisation especially how it impacts on people and their social organisation. The study places emphasis on the application of agency, institutions and authority in local governance approaches. Evidence from the study suggests that institutionalised decentralisation inadequately provides possibilities for ordinary people to transform the nature of their interactions within the community. The thesis raises further questions about the simplistic and instrumental use of institutions in local governance approaches. The study notes that institutions are not static and do not determine outcomes but are informed by the prevailing conditions at the community level. Thus, the actions of actors and specificities of the locality do shape institutions. The study emphasises the role of existing institutions and socially embedded principles in village governance. It thus suggests that, the process of decentralisation is a political process mediated through diverse institutions and with varied outcomes for different individuals. The study concludes by exploring implications for local governance and decentralisation to making local governance pro-poor.