In recent years one of the most commonly discussed issues in professional sport, and in particular Association Football, has been the pay of professional athletes. However, much of this literature is largely based on assumptions, speculation or broad financial reports, with little, if any, focus on the potential impact on the athletes’ lives. Therefore, the aim of this research was to examine the role money plays in the relationships within the working lives of professional footballers. Using professional football as a case study, this project examined a number of key areas: the consumption of products by footballers as a demonstration of economic power and wealth in an environment where wages are a taboo subject, the complex nature of contract negotiations and the impact this can have on relationships within their working lives. In addition to these areas, the thesis examined how money is used as punishment for players to try to encourage them to conform to the expected codes of behaviour set by club managers and officials, and ways in which players attempt to break their highly routinised daily life. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 34 male professional footballers and analysed using concepts from the sociology of money. It is argued that image has become an important factor for many professional footballers. Displaying wealth through ‘conspicuous consumption’ was also important in an environment where wages are a secretive subject, as it is suggested that the ‘more you have, the better you are’ and therefore some players even felt that this would impact on the way in which they were valued by the club hierarchy (as well as their teammates within the club). Value was also important through contract negotiations, as the more a player was valued by a club, the greater balance of power they had within the negotiation process. It is argued the negotiation process has become more complex since the introduction of the Premier League, as more people are typically involved. It was also evident that money was a major factor for players when deciding on contracts or having to relocate, which led to feelings of loneliness for some players and their families. Players are heavily regulated and constrained within their lives, one-way players are constrained, by the club officials, is through financial punishment. Players discussed several methods of trying to break the routinisation that such constraints introduce. One of those was gambling. It is argued that some players, due to the technological advances, were able to gamble in a covert manner and keep their gambling losses private, which can impact on the performance, health and wellbeing of the players. Overall the results of this study highlight the increasing monetisation of social relationships within professional football and that such trends are significantly impacting on the relationships within the working lives of professional footballers.

Doctor of Philosophy / The relationship between the Angkorian Empire and its capital is important for understanding how this state was sustained. The empire’s political economy is studied by analysing data from Pre-Angkorian and Angkorian period inscriptions in aggregated form, in contrast to previous studies which relied mainly on detailed reading of the texts. The study is necessarily broad to overcome the constraints of having relatively few inscriptions which relate to a selected range of topics, and are partial in viewpoint. The success of the pre-modern Khmer state depended on: its long-established communication and trade links; mutual support of rulers and regional elites; decentralised administration through regional centres; its ability to produce or acquire a surplus of resources; and a network of temples as an ideological vehicle for state integration. The claim that there was a centrally controlled command economy or significant redistribution of resources, as for archaic, moneyless societies is difficult to justify. The mode of control varied between the core area and peripheral areas. Even though Angkor did not have money, it used a unit of account. Despite being an inland agrarian polity, the Khmer actively pursued foreign trade. There are indications of a structure, perhaps hierarchical, of linked deities and religious foundations helping to disseminate the state’s ideology. The establishment of these foundations was encouraged by gifts and privileges granted to elite supporters of the rulers. Contrary to some views, Angkor was not excessively rigid or unusually hierarchical and autocratic when compared with contemporary analogous states. Its political economy is marked by three simultaneous cycles indicative of changing power relationships: cycles of royal inscriptions; of non-royal inscriptions; and fluctuating control over peripheral territories. Its processes and strategies were sufficiently flexible for it to endure as an empire for approximately six centuries, despite internal and external disturbances.

Doctor of Philosophy / The relationship between the Angkorian Empire and its capital is important for understanding how this state was sustained. The empire’s political economy is studied by analysing data from Pre-Angkorian and Angkorian period inscriptions in aggregated form, in contrast to previous studies which relied mainly on detailed reading of the texts. The study is necessarily broad to overcome the constraints of having relatively few inscriptions which relate to a selected range of topics, and are partial in viewpoint. The success of the pre-modern Khmer state depended on: its long-established communication and trade links; mutual support of rulers and regional elites; decentralised administration through regional centres; its ability to produce or acquire a surplus of resources; and a network of temples as an ideological vehicle for state integration. The claim that there was a centrally controlled command economy or significant redistribution of resources, as for archaic, moneyless societies is difficult to justify. The mode of control varied between the core area and peripheral areas. Even though Angkor did not have money, it used a unit of account. Despite being an inland agrarian polity, the Khmer actively pursued foreign trade. There are indications of a structure, perhaps hierarchical, of linked deities and religious foundations helping to disseminate the state’s ideology. The establishment of these foundations was encouraged by gifts and privileges granted to elite supporters of the rulers. Contrary to some views, Angkor was not excessively rigid or unusually hierarchical and autocratic when compared with contemporary analogous states. Its political economy is marked by three simultaneous cycles indicative of changing power relationships: cycles of royal inscriptions; of non-royal inscriptions; and fluctuating control over peripheral territories. Its processes and strategies were sufficiently flexible for it to endure as an empire for approximately six centuries, despite internal and external disturbances.

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Technology: Information Technology In the Faculty of Informatics and Design at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology / Data sources often emerge with the potential to transform, drive and allow deriving never-envisaged business value. These data sources change the way business enacts and models value generation. As a result, sellers are compelled to capture value by collecting data about business elements that drive change. Some of these elements, such as the customer and products, generate data as part of transactions which necessitates placement of the business element at the centre of the organisation’s data curation journey. This is in order to reveal changes and how these elements affect the business model. Data in business represents information translated into a format convenient for transfer. Data holds the relevant markers needed to measure business elements and provide the relevant metrics to monitor, steer and forecast business to attain enterprise goals. Data forms the building blocks of information within an organisation, allowing for knowledge and facts to be obtained. At its lowest level of abstraction, it provides a platform from which insights and knowledge can be derived as a direct extract for business decision-making as these decisions steer business into profitable situations. Because of this, organisations have had to adapt or change their business models to derive business value for sustainability, profitability and transformation. An organisation’s business model reflects a conceptual representation on how the organisation obtains and delivers value to prospective customers (the service beneficiary). In the process of delivering value to the service beneficiaries, data is generated. Generated data leads to business knowledge which can be leveraged to re-engineer the business model. The business model dictates which information and technology assets are needed for a balanced, profitable and optimised operation. The information assets represent value holding documented facts. Information assets go hand in hand with technology assets. The technology assets within an organisation are the technologies (computers, communications and databases) that support the automation of well-defined tasks as the organisation seeks to remain relevant to its clientele. What has become apparent is the fact that companies find it difficult to leverage the opportunities that data, and for that matter Big Data (BD), offers them. A data curation journey enables a seller to strategise and collect insightful data to influence how business may be conducted in a sustainable and profitable way while positioning the curating firm in a state of ‘information advantage’. While much of the discussion surrounding the concept of BD has focused on programming models (such as Hadoop) and technology innovations usually referred to as disruptive technologies (such as The Internet of Things and Automation of Knowledge Work), the real driver of technology and business is BD economics, which is the combination of open source data management and advanced analytics software coupled with commodity-based, scale-out architectures which are comparatively cheaper than prevalent sustainable technologies known to industry. Hadoop, though hugely misconstrued, is not an integration platform; it is a model the helps determine data value while it brings on-board an optimised way of curating data cheaply as part of the integration architecture. The objectives of the study were to explore how BD can be used to utilise the opportunities it offers the organisation, such as leveraging insights to enable business for transformation. This is accomplished by assessing the level of BD integration with the business model using the BD Business Model Maturation Index. Guidelines with subsequent recommendations are proposed for curation procedures aimed at improving the curation process. A qualitative research methodology was adopted. The research design outlines the research as a single case study; it outlines the philosophy as interpretivist, the approach as data collection through interviews, and the strategy as a review of the method of analysis deployed in the study. Themes that emerged from categorised data indicate the diverging of business elements into primary business elements and secondary supporting business elements. Furthermore, results show that data curation still hinges firmly on traditional data curation processes which diminish the benefits associated with BD curation. Results suggest a guided data curation process optimised by persistence hybridisation as an enabler to gain information advantage. The research also evaluated the level of integration of BD into the case business model to extrapolate results leading to guidelines and recommendations for BD curation.

This master's thesis describes the use of microtransactions in video games and their influence over the game design, player experience, and virtual goods presentation. The goal was to compare the titles that use different monetization methods (paid and free to play games) and different types of microtransactions (functional and cosmetic), and to identify which parts of those games could be influenced by microtransactions and how. The research focuses on five titles - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, Anthem, Warframe a Path of Exile. The first part of the thesis summarises the historical evolution of monetization models used in video games and defines the terms microtransaction, micropayment, virtual goods, or loot box. It also contains a typology of microtransactions, describes their implementation methods, and possible consequences tied to their use. The second part focuses on the analysis of the chosen five games. The research used the following methods - analysis of my own gameplay and mutual comparison of each game. Each game was examined over the course of ten hours, in sessions about 45-60 minutes long - the gameplay was accompanied by video recordings of the gameplay, screenshots, and a journal that contained detailed information about each gaming session. The research...