A major weakness of the literature on the regulation of freedom of expression within the field of political science is the assumption of peaceful, liberal democratic conditions. My project seeks to contribute to a better understanding of the legitimate regulation of speech by analyzing disciplinary approaches to freedom of expression through the lens of countries recovering from intractable conflict. I ask: How appropriate are current understandings of freedom of expression to the regulation of speech in post-conflict environments? Relying on insights from the field of social psychology and the case of post-genocide Rwanda, I argue that greater restrictions on freedom of expression could be legitimate in countries recovering from intractable conflict. However, rights derogations must take place within limits so as not to become a tool of authoritarian rule.

As China has celebrated its economic boom over the past decades, scientific research within the R&D sector of industry has become an active arena for Science and Technology Studies (STS) in understanding how science contributes to social change in China. Two themes are central in this sociological work: the study of secular change in China, in particular, change in its biotech industries exemplified by work in the BGI (formerly known as Beijing Genomics Institute); the investigation of interdisciplinarity in that context. This research sheds new light on explanatory practice in interdisciplinary research (IDR) strategy as patterns of interaction in the social process of scientific knowledge production, and its contribution also includes bridging the sociology of scientific knowledge production and research policy studies. In this thesis, I examine a number of topics at three interrelated levels of analysis. First, it explores the theoretical development of the academic discipline and the notion of interdisciplinarity, with a focus on the balance of normative and descriptive approaches in understanding their social functionality as embodied by what I name as Paradiscipline (the initial stage of IDR project). The second level investigates closely how IDR patterns emerge and evolve in the sequencing-based industrial R&D practice in the case of the BGI. Social, cultural, and institutional factors directing and conditioning collective actions by status groups within interaction network are carefully weighed against the context that scientific expertise speak to power in China's social setting. The last level is dedicated to yield more pervasive implications including the organizational structure of interaction and modelling of scientific research, via comparative analysis of traditional S&T management and governing 'Big Science'. It further addresses the issues around on-site governance of China's biotechnology industry R&D, at both management practice and policy making levels, on the basis of social embedment.

The thesis deals with the evolution of musical communication, competencies and offers a research method for study of these. In the first chapter, author's background, motivation and the chosen body of music is presented. The second chapter briefly summarizes the development of musical communication and of the main theoretical and research approaches to it in the Western society. The third chapter provides a research method of shared musical communication skills based on Italian scholar Gino Stefani's model of common musical competence. In the fourth chapter this method is tested out on a sample of Czech musically uneducated population to prove wrong the common assumption that only a gifted and musically educated part of society is privileged to participate in the practices of musical communication.

The dynamic nature of science is embodied in the growth of knowledge in magnitude and the transformation of knowledge in structure. More specifically, the growth in magnitude is indicated by a sharp increase in the number of scientific publications in recent decades. The transformation of knowledge occurs as the boundaries of scientific disciplines become increasingly less distinct, resulting in a complicated situation wherein disciplines and interdisciplinary research topics coexist and co-evolve. Knowledge production in such a context creates challenges for the measurement of science.This thesisaims to develop more flexible bibliometric methodologies in order to address some of the challenges to measuring science effectively. To be specific, this thesis1) proposes a new approach for identifying emerging research topics; 2) measuresthe interdisciplinarity of research topics; 3) explores the accuracy of the journal classification systems of the Web of Science and Scopus; 4) examines the role of cognitive distance in grant decisions; and 5) investigates the effect of cognitive distance between collaborators on their research output. The data used in this thesisaremainly from the in-house Web of Science and Scopus databases of the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University. Quantitativeanalyses, in particular bibliometric analyses,are the main research methodologies employed in this thesis. Furthermore, this thesis primarily offers methodological contributions, proposing a series of approaches designed to tackle the challenges created by the dynamics of science. While the major contribution of this dissertation lies in the improvement of certain bibliometric approaches, it also enhances the understanding of the current system of science. In particular, the approaches and research findings presented here have implications for various stakeholders, including publishing organizations, bibliographic database producers, research policy makers, and research funding agencies. Indeed, these approaches could be built into a software tool and thereby be made available to researchers beyond the field of bibliometric studies. / <p>QC 20160406</p>

While international academic and research collaborations are of great importance at this time, it is not easy to find researchers in the engineering field that publish in languages other than English. Because of this disconnect, there exists a need for a portal to find Who’s Who in Engineering Education in the Americas. The objective of this thesis is to built an object-oriented architecture for this proposed portal. The Unified Modeling Language (UML) model developed in this thesis incorporates the basic structure of a social network for academic purposes. Reverse engineering of three social networks portals yielded important aspects of their structures that have been incorporated in the proposed UML model. Furthermore, the present work includes a pattern for academic social networks. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Waste as a topic for anthropological investigation has enjoyed a recent resurgence in interest, mirroring burgeoning discussion among policy-makers and the general public about questions of environmental impacts, economic costs, and social detriments of contemporary waste management paradigms. While waste management in the United States has largely focused on technical and organizational solutions typically considered the domain of environmental planning and engineering (such as source reduction, recycling, and reuse), anthropology and the social sciences have become more prominently involved in efforts to inform policy-makers and researchers about the social and behavioral factors influencing waste norms and habits, particularly in educational institutions and municipal governments. The central questions to this research were as follows: (1) What are some of the perceptions and practices concerning food waste at an environmental charter elementary school in Florida? (2) What do self-reported data on food waste behaviors suggest about disposal habits and norms? (3) What is the extent to which food is discarded relative to other types of refuse? and (4) From the perspectives of school staff and students, what are some of the factors influencing food waste? To answer these questions, I employed both "garbological" and ethnographic methods at an environmental charter school, Learning Gate Community School, over a period of nine months, including (1) participant observation, (2) garbological audits of the cafeteria waste stream, (3) key informant interviews with students and staff, and (4) log sheets sent home to a random sample of parents to gauge the fraction of leftovers taken home that are ultimately discarded in order to gain a more holistic understanding of the waste stream of the school cafeteria. The results of this project support the following conclusions: (1) students at Learning Gate tend to agree that food waste is a detriment, but these concerns are subordinate to factors such as the degree of hunger at lunchtime and the perceived palatability of certain food items and (2) lunch periods are an important block of unstructured time, which Learning Gate students use for a far broader variety of activities than merely nourishment.

<p>Despite the globally growing interest in corporate responsibility (CR), there is little practical as wellas academic knowledge of CR practises in the media sector. The aim of this study is to make acontribution to the evolving understanding of what CR implies in the media sector by applying astakeholder approach to a case study, which is Alma Media, a Finnish media corporation. Firstly,from the corporate perspective, the objective of this study is to provide Alma Media with a CRagenda, based on the CR priorities defined in stakeholder interviews. Secondly, from a moretheoretical point of view, this study aims to evaluate the stakeholder theory as a means of definingthe CR characteristics of the media sector in Finland.The main body of the primary data is collected by 44 stakeholder interviews, supportedby participant observation at the case company. The data is structured with content analysis andanalysed according to the stakeholder categorisation of Mitchell, Agle and Wood (1997) in order toprioritise between the different stakeholders and their CR interests.The findings indicate Alma Media’s CR priorities are a mix of media ethics (reliability,responsible journalism, journalistic integrity), traditional CR issues (environment, personnel) andcultural responsibility (locality, citizenship). Most stakeholder demands concerns environmentalresponsibility. To understand media CR on a general, global level, further research is needed toconfirm the findings of this study and, particularly, to highlight the international differences andsimilarities in media CR.Concerning the theoretical objective of the study, the study concludes that the Mitchell,Agle and Wood model helps to identify the priority stakeholders and CR issues but fails to capturethe multi-dimensional nature of the power attribute and the role of stakeholder networks in themanagement of CR. Thus, stakeholder theory provides valuable insight into CR management butfurther research on stakeholder network models is needed.</p>

<p>Water governance in South Africa is challenged by natural as well as socially constructed water scarcity. 15 years after the transition from Apartheid to the new democratic era, this paper shows that water resources are still distributed along racial lines. Based on a case study in rural KwaZulu Natal, results indicate that outcomes of water policies which aimed at redressing historic inequalities have not yet been able to create the expected benefits for the disadvantaged black farming community. This paper uses an ecosystem service (ESS) approach to assess how those benefits that are derived from different water-related ecosystem services (WES) developed in the smallholder community and its adjacent commercial farming area. The change in the distribution of water for household use, water for irrigation, water flow regulation and water for scenic beauty is further discussed in regards to its response to water policies on local and national level. Hereby, the paper addresses the research need to provide insight into ESS responses to policy outcomes, which in turn is expected to reveal challenges and opportunities for policy makers to incorporate the complex yet important interactions between social and ecological systems into their decision making. Practically, this paper contributes by making gaps in ESS utilization between smallholder and commercial farmers explicit. Focusing on the material aspects of equality, i.e. the redistribution of water resources is argued to be neither feasible nor unequivocally desirable in the near future. Rather, I encourage capacity building to increase possibilities of the smallholder farmers to effectively use existing resources.</p>

<p>This thesis aims to determine what CSR issues stakeholders in the wind power industry careabout and how stakeholders want to be involved in these issues. The objective is furthermoreto test and improve the theory of stakeholder involvement – the normative idea thatstakeholder management should strive for maximum stakeholder involvement.The study is carried out using a case study, o2, an important actor in the wind power industryin Sweden. Five stakeholder groups are included in the study, customers, capital providers, inthe form of a major bank and a private equity company, NGO’s and lastly regulators.The study contributes directly to the stakeholder management practices in the wind powerindustry by giving guidance on how to prioritize among different stakeholder groups as wellas to the untested theory of stakeholder involvement by applying the theory to a real casestudy.The result of the study suggests that stakeholders value environmentally related CSR issuesmore than socially related CSR issues. In particular the issues of emissions and flora & faunaare classified as the most important CSR issues for the wind power industry to manage.Furthermore, the theory of stakeholder involvement is shown to be misleading for thestakeholders closest to the company, the once with a direct contractual stake (customers andcapital providers). However, it is shown to be directly applicable, and useful, to thestakeholders more external to the company (NGO’s and regulators).</p>

<p>On-going and future climate change is universally acknowledged. Climate changeincorporating global mean temperature rise, impacts on global hydrology and ecosystems willaffect human society and global economy. Corporations will encounter a changing world,most likely including negative effects on business and the global markets, influencingdevelopment and economic growth. Some companies will likely face increasing threats, whileothers may be less affected or may even benefit from direct or indirect change.Affected by climate change interruptions to every-day-business may come as a result or evenbe unavoidable in some regions. Business as usual may therefore not be an option. CorporateClimate Change Adaptation offers companies a solution for responding to climate change andthe interconnected uncertainties, adjusting to noticed or expected climate change effects,focusing on avoiding negative consequences and/or possibly taking advantage of newopportunities.With the aim of studying corporate awareness and understanding of climate change as well ason-going Corporate Climate Change Adaptation a case study including interviews with eightSwedish fashion and textile companies was conducted, supplemented by a literature reviewand discussions with line-of-business and monitoring organizations.Presented in this master’s thesis, the study established that Swedish fashion and textilecompanies show awareness and acceptance of the climate change issue, agreeing to thatclimate change will have ecological and social consequences. However, Swedish fashion andtextile companies, portraying a greatly varying focus on climate change issues, seem only toshow limited understanding of climate change effects regarding natural resources, and docommonly not connect climate change to their own status, to their business activities,processes, supply chains or corporate needs. Displaying low proactivity none of theinvestigated eight Swedish fashion and textile companies had started to adapt to on-going orfuture climate change or plan for future adaptation. The Swedish fashion and textilecompanies, it seems, will need an alarum for the process of Corporate Climate ChangeAdaptation to start.</p>