China currently produces the largest quantity of municipal solid waste (MSW) in the world at 190, 000, 000 metric tones (World Bank 2005). China faces the continuing challenge of increased waste generation due to population growth, increased income, and increased urbanization. As part of environmental protection initiatives, the central government has issued many policy commitments at the national level to address waste management. In concurrence with the national objectives of addressing the problem of waste management, Hainan province has developed an integrated waste management plan that it hopes to implement by 2020 (The Hainan City Environment and Sanitary Association, in association with Hua Zhong University of Science and Technology of Environmental Science and Engineering, 2005). Organic waste, which accounts for a significant proportion of the waste stream in China, poses both challenges and opportunities in terms of disposal and recovery. While the final disposal of organics may present significant challenges, recovery of organic waste through composting is one alternative. Composting is widely recognized as an effective method of turning organic waste into a useful product. Nevertheless, the implementation of composting as part of a Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) strategy faces challenges. Broadly, these challenges include administrative/policy, human acceptance and participation, management, technological and logistical, and marketing as well as composting process, source separation, contamination, quality of the final product, appropriate composting technologies and final demand and distribution of the final product (Schubeler et al. 1996, Hoornweg et al. 1999). This thesis uses a case study approach in implementing a composting pilot project in cooperation with the local and provincial government in Baisha Hainan China. Labor intensive, low technological, windrow composting is used so as to assess the challenges and potential of implementing composting as part of a municipal solid waste management strategy in Baisha Hainan China. The research uses a participatory action research approach incorporating research methods such as participant observation, key informant interviews (n=122), and rapid rural appraisals. The research objectives are to understand the current waste management system, understand how implementing composting affects the waste management system entails, understand the barriers to implementation, understand the implications: impact of implementation, potential, and finally to propose recommendations on how to implement composting. The research identified seven necessary key factors that if not given sufficient attention could potentially jeopardize the successful implementation and operation of composting: governmental support must be present, funds must be made available since operating cost of the waste management system will increase, best practices for composting must be established, training for waste workers must be provided, a market (or end use) for the final product must be established, NIMBY needs to be addressed, source separation should be applied.

China currently produces the largest quantity of municipal solid waste (MSW) in the world at 190, 000, 000 metric tones (World Bank 2005). China faces the continuing challenge of increased waste generation due to population growth, increased income, and increased urbanization. As part of environmental protection initiatives, the central government has issued many policy commitments at the national level to address waste management. In concurrence with the national objectives of addressing the problem of waste management, Hainan province has developed an integrated waste management plan that it hopes to implement by 2020 (The Hainan City Environment and Sanitary Association, in association with Hua Zhong University of Science and Technology of Environmental Science and Engineering, 2005). Organic waste, which accounts for a significant proportion of the waste stream in China, poses both challenges and opportunities in terms of disposal and recovery. While the final disposal of organics may present significant challenges, recovery of organic waste through composting is one alternative. Composting is widely recognized as an effective method of turning organic waste into a useful product. Nevertheless, the implementation of composting as part of a Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) strategy faces challenges. Broadly, these challenges include administrative/policy, human acceptance and participation, management, technological and logistical, and marketing as well as composting process, source separation, contamination, quality of the final product, appropriate composting technologies and final demand and distribution of the final product (Schubeler et al. 1996, Hoornweg et al. 1999). This thesis uses a case study approach in implementing a composting pilot project in cooperation with the local and provincial government in Baisha Hainan China. Labor intensive, low technological, windrow composting is used so as to assess the challenges and potential of implementing composting as part of a municipal solid waste management strategy in Baisha Hainan China. The research uses a participatory action research approach incorporating research methods such as participant observation, key informant interviews (n=122), and rapid rural appraisals. The research objectives are to understand the current waste management system, understand how implementing composting affects the waste management system entails, understand the barriers to implementation, understand the implications: impact of implementation, potential, and finally to propose recommendations on how to implement composting. The research identified seven necessary key factors that if not given sufficient attention could potentially jeopardize the successful implementation and operation of composting: governmental support must be present, funds must be made available since operating cost of the waste management system will increase, best practices for composting must be established, training for waste workers must be provided, a market (or end use) for the final product must be established, NIMBY needs to be addressed, source separation should be applied.

This thesis focuses on the implementation of state-administered integration exams as part of the naturalization and settlement process in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Through analysis of key government documents and interviews with public servants and the experts involved, I argue that the actualization of the exam is a critical point in the policy process through which to understand how particular norms become embedded in not only the content, but the different requirements of each exam. In particular, I consider the role language-education experts, settlement experts, and the notable absence of migrants in the actualization of the exams under consideration. More importantly, I argue that while the state employs expert advice as a means through which to depoliticize the issue, the mechanisms through which this is done can in fact create spaces for the contestation of ideas. Drawing on the governmentality literature I argue that the British and Dutch borders are constructed and reified through the developing of test content, while also pointing to the ways in which non-state actors can mobilize their expertise to push for alternative, more open imaginings of the border. Through my comparison I also consider how integration has been framed as a problem with immigrants who do not have the right kind of orientation toward their ‘host’ community. The solutions to issues within immigrant communities (i.e. unemployment, poverty, poor health outcomes) rest in individuals moving from outsider to insider because these problems stem from the community’s position on the periphery of society. I argue that the immigrant’s affective orientation towards society becomes viewed as the source of these problems, and not the community's or society's orientation towards them. I then argue that the integration exam becomes a suitable solution because it solves multiple problems at once. The exam works as the mechanism through which desire is manufactured by making tangible the object of desire in the first place and by making society itself more exclusive. In this sense, the exam not only seeks to “ensure that those who desire ‘us’ are desirable to ‘us’” (Fortier, 2013, 3) by making immigrants prove themselves worthy, but also serves as a mechanism through which the state reasserts its authority over society. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Many higher education institutions (HEIs) around the world are investing in the implementation of different Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) to support the teaching and learning process. However, there is a lack of detailed guidelines or a practical framework for the VLE system implementation without which an effective VLE system implementation framework, many of the full potential of VLE system cannot be realised objectives and benefits remain underachieved. A small number of frameworks specific for VLE system implementation are reported in the literature; however, these are not comprehensive in terms of covering the entire end-to-end implementation, do not consider all the key elements of a VLE system implementation and are far from integrated. Moreover, a practice-based framework that considers various organisational, pedagogical, and technological aspects and covers the entire end-to-end implementation, is not available in the current literature, and there is no complete set of guidelines to be used by HEIs to support and manage an effective VLE system implementation. Therefore, further research is needed for investigating various key elements and for identifying aspects of a good-practice framework for the implementation of VLE systems in HEIs. Particularly, an integrated good-practice framework that is comprehensive and integrates elements from existing literature and current practices or case studies would be a significant and useful contribution to this field, which highlights the importance of this study. Hence, research into investigating a good-practice VLE system implementation framework is important, and this thesis builds and presents a good-practice-in-context framework for the implementation and use of VLE systems in HEIs. This is done through identifying and exploring the key elements that build-up such a comprehensive practice-based framework for VLE system implementation through literature and good practices by considering various pedagogical, technical, and organisational aspects. These key elements include stages, processes, critical success factors (CSFs) considered, challenges (CLG) faced, associated risks, stakeholders (SHs) involved, and various tools, technologies, and methods, integrated with the VLE system. The key elements provide a deeper understanding of the fundamental issues and success factors underlying the successful implementation and sustainability of a VLE system. Initially, a conceptual framework was developed encapsulating various key elements of a VLE system implementation framework based on an extensive literature review and an analysis of existing frameworks and models, encapsulating various key elements of a VLE system implementation framework, where the elements were integrated and mapped with each other highlighting and depicting interrelations and interactions among them. The conceptual framework was validated by empirical data from the two case studies (of HEIs, at local and national level) to propose a refined, novel, and practice-based framework for VLE system implementation in HEIs, which also contains mappings to Technology Enhance Learning (TEL) strategy components. Thus, the proposed good-practice-in-context framework can be used as a tool to assist or guide HEIs to implement VLE system successfully. Finally, the proposed framework could lead to a successful VLE system implementation and it could also serve as an effective approach that not only facilitates enhancement in the learning and teaching experience, but also fosters end-user engagement and supports flexibility and customization according to the end-user needs of HEIs.