L’objet de la thèse est d’analyser la forme de coordination entre les agents économiques dans un environnement évolutif, incertain et complexe. Cette recherche est consacrée à l’étude des interactions entre l’organisation de la production, la logique relationnelle et la dynamique spatiale à travers la recherche de la flexibilité. Cette nouvelle orientation modifie les relations industrielles vers des rapports de coordination plus enrichis et des stratégies plus innovantes. Au niveau théorique, les différentes contributions provenant de différents courants de pensée (économie, gestion, sociologie, géographie industrielle) révèlent la diversité des comportements des agents, ce qui explique la pluralité de la forme de coordination. Le rapprochement entre les différentes approches théoriques (Nouvelle Economie Institutionnelle, l’économie des conventions, la sociologie économique et l’approche évolutionniste) apparaît indispensable pour une meilleure compréhension de la nature de relation entre les agents et le mode de management des risques dans le temps et l'espace. Les apports de ces approches prennent en considération les interactions formelles et informelles qui caractérisent la relation de coordination. L’application de cette grille de lecture théorique à la relation de sous-traitance dans le secteur textile–habillement marocain, constitue l’objet de l’étude empirique. La confrontation entre l’analyse théorique et le travail de terrain permet de tester la pertinence du modèle conceptuel et les hypothèses de départ / The object of this thesis is to analyze the form of coordination between the economic agents in an evolutionary, uncertain and complex environment. This research is dedicated to the study of interactions between production organization of the production, the relational logic and spatial dynamics in the search for flexibility. This new orientation modifies industrial relations into more enriched coordination relations and more innovative strategies. At the theoretical level, the various contributions resulting from various schools of thought (economy, management, sociology, industrial geography) reveal the variety of the behavior of the agents, which explains the plurality of the form of coordination. The connection between the various theoretical approaches (New Institutional Economy, economy of agreements, economic sociology and the evolutionist approach) seems indispensable for a better understanding of the nature of relations between the agents and the mode of management of risks in time and space. The contributions of these approaches take into consideration the formal and informal interactions which characterize the relation of coordination. The use of this theoretical reading grid in the subcontracting relation in the Moroccan textile and clothing industry constitutes the object of the empirical study. The confrontation between the theoretical analysis and the field work allows us to test the relevance of the abstract model and the hypotheses of departure

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / The ever increasing regional and global trade competition has manifested itself in a growing number of non-standard forms of employment including the increasing use of "temporary employment services" (or “labour brokers” as commonly referred to). Labour brokers enter into employment relationships as third parties with client companies to supply employees through a commercial contract. These labour services usually fall outside the regular twoparty contract of employment defined under existing labour laws and thus the employees are not covered by that law. Labour brokers have been labelled as “the re-emergence of new apartheid strategy” and “modern slavery” by some quarters in labour sectors of Namibia and South Africa. Trade unions, particularly, have led the most vocal resistance against labour brokers in both countries. They argue that, like previous apartheid contract labour systems, labour brokers today erode standards for decent working conditions and weaken union representations in the workplace. Thus unions have repeatedly sent strong calls to lawmakers to amend existing labour laws and „forever put labour broking in its grave where it belong‟1. On the other hand, employers have argued that recent forces of globalisation demand flexible employment strategies and banning labour brokers will make it more difficult for local businesses compete profitably globally via flexible short term employments and can lead to losses of many job opportunities.2 It is against this background that I will argue that current labour laws should be amended to define and regulate labour brokers more closely and compel them to recognise workers rights and conditions as equal as those of standard employees. But first, I will highlight some socio-economic indicators influencing the labour markets in South Africa and Namibia, including the history of worker‟s rights under the contract labour systems in both countries. Second, I will look at some of the expressed exploitive conditions resulting from the use of labour brokers and also look at some reasons why businesses engage labour brokers. Thereafter I will point out some of the reasons why trade unions have called for a total ban on labour brokers. I will then discuss the difficulty of banning labour brokers, including the constitutional challenge in the landmark case of African Personnel Services v Government of the Republic of Namibia3. Lastly i will expand on the ruling by the Namibian Supreme Court of Appeal (NSA) recommending a regulatory approach in line with the International Labour Organisation‟s (ILO) conventions on third-party employments. / South Africa

This thesis is submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). This study developed an experimental small group teaching method in the Realistic Mathematics Education tradition for teaching fractions using models and contexts to year 7 children in Brunei (N=89) whose effectiveness was evaluated using a treatment-control design: the E1 group was given the experimental lessons, the E2 group who was given “normal” lessons taught by the experimenter, and a whole class (E3) group which acted as the control group. The experimental teaching was video recorded and subject to semiotic analysis, aiming to describe the objectifications that realized ‘learning of fractions’ by the groups.The research addresses two research questions:1. How effective was the experimental teaching in helping learners make sense of fractions, with respect to equivalence of fractions and flexibility of unitizing?2. What were the semiotic learning and teaching processes in the experimental group of the RME-like lessons? This study used a mixed method approach with a quasi-experimental design (QED) for the quantitative side, and a semiotic analysis for the qualitative side. Quantitatively, the experimental teachings proved to be relatively effective with an effect size of 0.6 from the pre- to the delayed post-teaching test, compared to the E2 and the control groups.The basic findings pertaining to the semiotic analyses were:a. The mediation of the production of fractions in terms of length, from the production of fractions in terms of the number of parts which led to equivalence of fractions;b. The use of language and gesture help to objectify the equivalence of fractions and the flexibility of unitizing–in some case it involved gesturing to the self;c. The role of the Hour-Foot clock (HFC) as a model in a realistic context; andd. The complexity of the required chains of objectifications reflects the difficulties of the topic.

This essay aims to study the new regulation of the Swedish legislation regarding fixed-term work with a comparison to the EU directive 99/70/EC[1]. The essay also aims to study if the new legislation makes any difference for the individuals that has a fixed-term employment. The EU directive 99/70/EC is the legislation which shows how the member states in the EU are supposed to prevent employers from abusing frequent temporary employment and aims to protect the employees. Previously, an employer in Sweden could use the fixed-term contracts for temporary employments and just keep on giving the employee a temporary position in a spiral. In this way, the employer could avoid to give an employee a permanent employment and this makes for an unsafe future for the affected individual. In may 2016 Sweden, after criticism from the EU-commission, changed the Swedish legislation and aimed to stop the abusing of fixed-term contracts. Sweden wanted to try to keep the balance between the employer’s flexibility and the employee’s safety and this essay aims to investigate to what extent the change fulfills the purpose. [1] Council Directive 1999/70/EC of 28 June 1999 concerning the framework agreement on fixed-term work concluded by ETUC, UNICE and CEEP. Later know as the EU directive 99/70/EC.

Research on mental rotation has consistently found sex differences, with males outperforming females on mental rotation tasks like the Vandenberg and Kuse (1978) mental rotation test (MRT; D. Voyer, Voyer, & Bryden, 1995). Mental rotation ability has been found to be enhanced with experience (Nazareth, Herrera & Pruden, 2013) and training (Wright, Thompson, Ganis, Newcombe, & Kosslyn, 2008) and the effects of training have been found to be transferable to other spatial tasks (Wright et al., 2008) and sustainable for months (Terlecki, Newcombe, & Little, 2008). Although, we now are fairly certain about the malleability of spatial tasks and the role of spatial activity experience, we seem to have undervalued an important piece of the puzzle. What is the mechanism by which experiential factors enhance mental rotation performance? In other words, what is it that develops in an individual as a consequence of experience? The current dissertation sought to address this gap in the literature by examining cognitive strategy selection as a possible mechanism by which experiential factors like early spatial activity experience enhance mental rotation performance. A total of 387 adult university students were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions. The three experimental conditions differed in the amount and type of non-spatial information present in the task stimuli. Participant eye movement was recorded using a Tobii X60 eye tracker. Study I investigated the different types of cognitive strategies selected during mental rotation, where eye movement patterns were used as indicators of the underlying cognitive strategies. A latent profile analysis revealed two distinct eye movement patterns significantly predicting mental rotation performance. Study II examined the role of early spatial activity experience in mental rotation performance. Male sex-typed spatial activities were found to significantly mediate the relation between participant sex and mental rotation performance. Finally, Study III examined the developmental role of early spatial activity experience in cognitive strategy selection and strategy flexibility to enhance mental rotation performance. Strategy flexibility was found to be significantly associated with mental rotation performance. Male sex-typed spatial activity experiences were found to be significantly associated with cognitive strategy selection but not strategy flexibility. Implications for spatial training and educational pedagogy in the STEM fields are discussed.

La flexicurité est un concept qui tente de concilier deux objectifs. Ainsi elle associe un marché du travail flexible caractérisé par exemple par une protection du travail relativement faible contre le licenciement et une solide protection sociale contre le chômage avec des allocations chômage généreuses. Parallèlement à cela, la flexicurité promeut une politique d’emploi qui vise à raccourcir la période entre deux emplois. Ce concept qui est apparu dans les pays du nord de l’Europe est présenté par l’Union européenne comme modèle social de référence. En France l’adoption de ce concept s’est fait de manière hésitante après l’échec du Contrat première embauche. Mais depuis 2008, la construction de ce concept prend de plus en plus d’ampleur. En ce sens, la France a innové en instaurant de nouveaux procédés de rupture de la relation contractuelle avec par exemple la rupture conventionnelle. La loi du 14 juin 2013 s’inscrit dans la continuité de cette démarche en réduisant les délais des actions qui portent sur l’exécution ou la rupture du contrat. Mais pour autant l’impact de ces mesures sur le taux de chômage n’est pas convainquant. Il s’agira alors de savoir quelle est l’importance réelle des mécanismes d’importation de ce concept en France. / Flexicurity is a concept that attempts to join two objectives. It combines a flexible labor market characterized by the relatively labor law protection against dismissal and a strong social protection against unemployment with generous unemployment benefits. At the same time, flexicurity promotes an employment policy that aims to shorten the time between jobs. This concept derived from the northern Europe countries and was presented by the European Union as a social reference model. In France this concept was not really adopted due to the failure of First Employment Contract. But since 2008, the construction of this concept is becoming increasingly important. In this field, France has innovated by introducing a new process of out of the contractual relationship whose interesting example is the contractual termination. The 14th 2013 Act is a continuation of this approach to reduce the time of the procedure to the breach or execution of contract.However the impact of these measures on the rate of unemployment is not convincing. It would therefore be interesting to assess in the case of further studies the impact of this concept in the French context.

La physique de nage d’une nageoire caudale flexible est étudiée expérimentalement grâce à une plaque flexible immergée dans un écoulement uniforme. Le bord d’attaque est forcé par un mouvement harmonique, tandis que le bord de fuite répond passivement au forçage. Une résonance en amplitude dans la réponse est mise en évidence et révèle une forte interaction entre les fréquences naturelles de la plaque et celles du forçage. Les résultats expérimentaux suggèrent un rôle non trivial de l’amplitude de forçage, qui souligne le rôle des non linéarités dans ce problème. Pour avoir une meilleure compréhension de l'origine de ces non linéarités, un modèle analytique faiblement non linéaire a été développé. Nous supposons une plaque d'épaisseur nulle immergée dans un écoulement potentiel, sujette à une force de traînée résistive. La déflection de la plaque a ensuite été décomposée en un mode rigide, mimant le forçage en pilonnement et en modes propres de flexion d’une poutre dans le vide. Les prédictions de la réponse en amplitude et en fréquence du système forcé sont alors calculées. Les fréquences de résonances, ainsi que l’enveloppe de la déflection, sont en bon accord avec les résultats expérimentaux. Les performances du système, mesurées à travers la poussée générée, est également correctement prédite par la modélisation. L’accord entre les expériences et le modèle est étendu à une étude trouvée dans la littérature. Une optimisation analytique a été conduite et étendue à l’application de la bio-robotique. / The physics of the swimming with a flexible caudal fin is studied experimentally by the means of an elastic plate immersed in a uniform water flow. The leading edge of the plate is forced into a harmonic motion, while its trailing edge responds passively to this actuation. A resonance response in amplitude is demonstrated, revealing a strong interaction between the natural frequencies of the plate and the forcing frequencies. Experimental results suggest a non-trivial role of the forcing amplitude, emphasizing the role of non linearities in this problem. To gain better insight into the origin of these non linearities, a weakly non linear model is developed. We model a quasi two-dimensional plate of zero thickness immersed in a potential flow and subject to a resistive drag-like force. The plate deflection is then decomposed into a forcing heaving mode and natural flexural modes. Predictions of the response in amplitude and frequency to a heave forcing system are then calculated. The frequencies of the resonances, as well as the shapes of the deflection, match the experimental results. The performance of the system measured through the generated thrust, is well predicted by the modelling. The experimental and modelling results presented here show (very) good agreement with the literature. Finally, an analytical optimization is undertaken and potential applications to bio-robotic are suggested.

Although architectural services have been for a long time a common part of civil engineering, they are very rarely mentioned in theory and practice of enterprise architecture. Author of this thesis deals with formulation of the model of enterprise architecture as a service and its solution. The model is defined by a set of constructs and assumptions, which take into account current knowledge in the fields of enterprise architecture and services. In model solution a set of architectural services, which provide Enterprise Architecture agile and flexibly, is identified and defined. Validity of the model and of its solution is practically verified in two real-world cases: in a shared services center and in an external service provider.

The diploma thesis is dealing with mutually linked relations between family and working sphere of working women, mothers in sense of dependency on availability and possibility to use the measures how to coordinate family and work. Such measures coordinating family and work are very important part of concept known as flexicurity, combining required flexibility of labor market and social securities. The goal of the thesis is to answer the question: Is effective implementation and working of concept of flexicurity under actual social and economic conditions of slovak labor market possible? The theoretical part describes the concept of flexicurity itself, its pillars, especially the measures how to coordinate family and work. These are the inevitable assumption of effective implementation and working of the concept in practice. To meet the objective the combination of quantitative and qualitative research is choosen. According to research findings the diploma thesis concludes, that even the availability and possibility to use the measures of family and work coordination up allow some level of organization of family and working time, actual social and economic conditions of slovak labor market are inadequate in order to effective implementation and further working of concept of flexicurity.

Flexibility describes the system ability to cope with events that may cause imbalance between electricity supply and demand while maintaining the system reliability in a cost-effective manner. Flexibility has always been present in the power system to cater for unplanned generator outages and demand uncertainty and variability. The arrival of wind generation with its variable and hard to predict nature increases the overall needs for system flexibility. This thesis provides a systematic approach for investigating the role of flexibility in different power system activities including generation scheduling, generation planning and market operation, and furthermore proposes two 'offline' indices for flexibility evaluation. Using the tools and metrics presented in this thesis, it is possible to perform the following tasks: • Conduct generation scheduling simulation to evaluate the impacts of wind on the flexibility requirement of power systems; • Use the unit construction and commitment algorithm to 1) estimate the maximum allowable wind capacity for an existing system; 2) find the optimal investment of new flexible units for accommodating more wind generation; and 3) decide an optimal generation mix for integrating a given wind penetration; • Use the market model to reveal the value and profitability of flexibility and evaluate the corresponding effects of alternative market design; • Use the two proposed flexibility indices to quantitatively assess the flexibility of individual generators and power systems without undertaking complex and time consuming simulations.