This thesis addresses two research gaps: the gap of how to operationalize resilience in an urban context, and the gap on empirical studies of the relationship between resilience and sustainable development. I have approached these gaps by entering the emerging field of interdisciplinary research linking planning and resilience in a study of the process of preparing a resilience assessment for the semi-urban municipality of Eskilstuna in Sweden (2012–13). In order to capture in-depth data, I have conducted participant observation of the resilience assessment process, semi-structured interviews with the organizers at the municipality, as well as key participants from other departments, a review of the official municipal documents and a survey to the workshop participants. My findings show that resilience thinking helped frame the previously overlooked threats of a future triple crises, and bridge the short-term crisis management and the longer-term planning for sustainable development at the municipality. The idea of complex adaptive systems introduced a new perspective for sustainable development in the municipality, which practitioners thought was useful for providing new arguments to hinder slowly degrading trends, as well as clarifying the picture of a sustainable society.

Nowadays there is a great deal of concern for global warming. Researchers and politicians all over the world are urgently trying to find solutions to it. However, most of the solutions which consider sustainable development have a technical perspective to environmental problems. The alarm of global warming might open up for new ways of solving problems. Indigenous peoples live close to nature and their specific ecosystems which give them a unique understanding for the complexity of nature. However, indigenous people and their knowledge are rarely integrated in international regimes, the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment is the most inclusive regime. Integration of Indigenous Knowledge have been successful in Western environmental management, such as in EIA’s. This ignorance to indigenous knowledge as a source to knowledge illustrates a Eurocentrism in environmental management (McGregor, 2004; Tsuji & Ho, 2002; Berkes, 1999; Smith & Sharp, 2012; Battiste & Henderson, 2000). This study has several aims. Firstly I will compare what has been interpreted as a holistic worldview with the atomistic one. Secondly, I will compare the organic view of nature to the technocratic view of nature. Thirdly, a comparison of the positivist-reductionist approach to the term “Indigenous Knowledge” as McGregor (2004) describes it will be done. Furthermore, the aim of this study is to understand if and if so how IK challenges the positivist-reductionist approach and whether these knowledge systems are compatible with each other. At last, a new analytical framework will be developed to support my theories and clarify them. This study concludes that while there are fundamental differences between the worldviews, views of nature and knowledge systems. This study stress that indigenous knowledge is compatible with the positivist-reductionist approach. Furthermore it is desirable to include IK in Western society further because Western society can make benefits from indigenous peoples view on nature and their view on knowledge from an environmental management perspective.

Tillgång till mänskliga resurser är avgörande för många företags långsiktiga utveckling och överlevnad. Demografiska förändringar och tecken på ökade svårigheter att rekrytera personal leder till att allt fler verksamheter måste reflektera över sitt arbetsgivarvarumärke i syfte att behålla och attrahera rätt personal. Inte bara demografiska förändringar utan även könssegregerade strukturera kan försvåra detta. Segregering, traditioner och stereotypa förhållningsätt påverkar individers utbildnings- och yrkesval vilket begränsar tillgången till kompetens. Med finansiering från VINNOVA för tillämpad genusforskning inledde en forskargrupp och ett ingenjörsföretag i Dalarna, 2009, ett samarbete för att gemensamt utveckla kunskap om hur en verksamhet kan bli mer attraktiv i syfte att underlätta framtida kompetensförsörjning utifrån ett genusperspektiv. De erfarenheter och frågeställningar som samarbetet genererade lade grund till denna avhandling. Syftet med avhandlingen är att öka den vetenskapliga kunskapen om hur begreppet arbetsgivarvarumärke kan utvecklas ur ett genusperspektiv för att öka arbetsgivares förmåga att rekrytera och behålla kompetent personal oavsett kön. För att besvara avhandlingens frågeställningar har olika vetenskapsområden kombinerats: Teorier om varumärke, arbetsgivarvarumärke, genusvetenskap och förändringsprocesser har varit grundläggande. Från det genusvetenskapliga fältet har främst begreppet ”doing gender” (göra kön) varit centralt för att förstå hur genus kan ses som ett vardagligt görande i organisationer. Även teorier om hållbara förändringsprocesser och utvecklingsprogram har använts för att öka förståelsen för organisering, ansvarsfördelning och utveckling av ett långsiktigt hållbart arbetsgivarvarumärke. Metoden för samverkan med det studerade företaget byggde på aktionsforskning med en abduktiv ansats där parterna gemensamt planerade och genomförde insatser. För att besvara de frågeställningar som uppstod i samarbetet med företaget användes forskningsdatabaser för att ta fram underlag för litteraturstudier. Avhandlingen bidrar med en vetenskaplig analys av hur ett genusperspektiv praktiskt och teoretiskt kan integreras i processen för utveckling av ett attraktivt arbete. Dessutom analyseras förslag på hur ansvarsfördelning och organisering kan utformas i en långsiktigt hållbar utvecklingsprocess för ett arbetsgivarvarumärke.

The forced displacement of over 100 ethnic minorities in Burma over the last few decades has negatively impacted the overall health of this population. The maternal mortality ratio along the Thailand-Burma border is one of the highest in the world and access to life saving reproductive health services and technologies is minimal. The purpose of this study is to understand the experiences of intra-uterine device (IUD) users living along the border while exploring the various influences that have shaped women’s reproductive experiences. Using qualitative methods, I found that differences in legal/minority status, culture, availability of services, health status, financial status, and education/awareness of family planning can determine women’s overall health in the region. The use of the IUD helped reduce the influence of these factors and provided women with reproductive autonomy; the contraceptive technology was greatly appreciated by users for its efficiency, its effectiveness, and its safety. The findings from this study suggest that the IUD can address significant reproductive health problems in the region and should be made more widely available along the Thailand-Burma border.

Patients with advanced cancer (PWAC) are living months-years longer. With advances in oncological care, their illness can be considered chronic rather than terminal. This population of survivors emerged within the last two decades and their needs are not well understood nor are appropriate resources available. A particular concern is depression. Both clinical and subclinical depressive symptomatology can impede functioning and quality of life (QOL). Using secondary clinical data from a palliative rehabilitation program (PRP), the thesis objectives were to a) examine pre-post changes in functioning and QOL, b) examine the mechanisms of change in depressive symptomatology, and c) examine the longitudinal course of depressive symptomatology. Study 1 examined pre-post changes in QOL and functioning. Outcomes from 67 PRP patients were analyzed using paired t-tests. Results revealed ameliorations in the majority of domains (e.g. physical functioning, malnutrition) including self-reported “depression.” These results counter the existing literature that has shown that these typically stay stable until one month before death, when they drastically worsen. This begins to support that rehabilitation may be beneficial for PWAC. Study 2 focused on the finding that depression scores decreased. Changes in systemic inflammation, exercise, and general self-efficacy (GSE) from 80 PRP patients were examined as predictors of change in depressive symptomatology using a hierarchical linear regression. The model accounted for 15% of change in depression symptomatology, and GSE was the only significant predictor. This suggests that a GSE theoretical framework may be helpful in reducing depressive symptomatology in interdisciplinary palliative rehabilitation. Study 3 focused on longitudinal depressive symptomatology. Three-month follow-up data from 80 patients were analyzed using a repeated measures ANOVA for continuous data and a Cochrane’s Q analysis for grouped data. Results revealed that patients maintained reduced scores at follow-up. This counters the existing literature, in which longitudinal maintenance is poor following exercise-based interventions. Therefore, PRP may offer something beyond what other published interventions have previously. These finding will be discussed in the context of other existing literatures and the implications will be discussed.

Visual aesthetics -- Whole-brain thinking -- Pictorial imaging -- Art and science, mathematics, social studies, and language arts.

This project promotes the use of literature groups based around a theme. In trying to meet the requirements of the California state framework, to integrate the subjects, this project contains two thematic units. Although the themes were designed for second and third grade, the two thematic units may be used as a guide to help teachers implement the thematics teaching approach into their classrooms.

No description available.

This study explores and exposes the dichotomy that currently exists between educational policy and research in learning theory.

No description available.