O referencial teórico utilizado nesta pesquisa é a Análise de Discurso de linha francesa; também se lança mão, neste texto, de considerações de outros estudiosos da linguagem verbal (Mikhail Bakhtin e Norman Fairclough, especialmente) e também da linguagem visual (Gunther Kress e Theo van Leeuwen) compatíveis com essa abordagem dos estudos do discurso. O objeto deste estudo, o RPG Vampire: the Masquerade, torna-se merecedor de atenção acadêmica porque apresenta uma aparente tendência à dispersão das formas de saber e das posições de poder na prática do jogo - isto é, trata-se de um jogo que explicitamente recomenda a interpretação livre de suas regras e estimula a sensibilidade do leitor para a multiplicidade de pontos de vista na construção da narrativa. A hipótese de pesquisa é que, no discurso do livro de regras de Vampire, abre-se a possibilidade de que se constitua uma nova relação de poder entre as posições discursivas do Autor e do Leitor/Jogador, em que este, o elemento tradicionalmente mais fraco nas práticas de interpretação dos jogos, assuma a posição de fonte privilegiada de produção de significados. Para verificar em que medida efetivamente ocorre essa dispersão do saber-poder interpretativo, esta pesquisa analisa o funcionamento discursivo do jogo (tomando como corpus os discursos verbal e visual registrados no livro de regras), isto é, como o leitor se relaciona com o jogo, quais formações discursivas estão presentes no discurso do livro de regras do jogo, que efeitos de sentido delas resultam, como elas afetam as práticas discursivas e, por decorrência, as práticas sociais desse leitor. As asperezas do discurso e seus pontos de deriva constituem os dados para a análise. Para as finalidades desta pesquisa, três dimensões do jogo são analisadas: a) a caracterização do leitor de Vampire: The Masquerade, de acordo com os indícios encontrados na superfície textual de seu corebook; b) a análise da interação entre Autor e Leitor no processo de interpretação do texto do corebook de Vampire e de alguns suplementos, e c) a análise das possibilidades de leitura do discurso visual desse RPG. A partir dessas análises, o que se observa é que, ultrapassada a superfície textual, o discurso do livro de regras se torna mais centralizador; embora esse discurso seja evidentemente heterogêneo, e permita que o saber-poder interpretativo flua para o Leitor em determinados pontos, prevalecem os significados associados à posição discursiva do Autor - em outras palavras, a hipótese de pesquisa não é confirmada. Isso ocorre porque a análise efetuada concentrou-se no texto do livro de regras, ou seja, num domínio em que os significados são produzidos basicamente a partir da posição discursiva do Autor. Fica colocada a necessidade de efetuar uma outra análise, centrada no domínio da produção das narrativas particularizadas de cada grupo de jogo - domínio em que a produção de sentidos se faz a partir da posição do Leitor/Jogador, para que se possa ter uma compreensão global da prática de jogo de Vampire. / This research is set in the theoretic field of the French Discourse Analysis; contributions by other authors, such as Mikhail Bakhtin, Norman Fairclough, Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen are also used, since their theoretical standpoints are compatible with the one to which we subscribe. The object of this study, the roleplaying game Vampire: The Masquerade, attracts academic interest because of its avowed intention to let the reader do as he/she wills, stimulating the free re-creation and interpretation of its rules. The central hypothesis of this research is that a new power relation is established between the discursive positions of the Author\'s and the Reader\'s, in which the latter is empowered as the privileged position for the production of meanings. In order to determine to what extent this dispersion of power-knowledge really happens, this research will analyse the discursive workings of this RPG, that is, how the Reader interacts with the game, which discursive formations are present in the game, what meanings they uphold, and how they affect the Reader\'s discursive practices, and thus his/her social practices. The unevennesses of the discourse are the raw data for this analysis. Three dimensions of the game will be analysed: a) the characterization of Vampire: The Masquerade\'s implied Reader, according to the evidence found on the text of its corebook; b) the analysis of the interaction between Author and Reader in the process of interpretation of the text of the corebook and some other supplements, and c) the analysis of the possible readings of the visual discourse of this RPG. From these analyses, it can be observed that the discourse of Vampire\'s corebook is essentially centralizing in relation to its interpretations; although, at some points, a certain degree of empowerment of the Reader can be observed, the Author remains as the main source of acceptable interpretations of the discourse of the game - in other words, the central hypothesis of this research was not verified. This is so because of the domain in which this research was conducted - the domain on the interaction between the Reader and the textbook, in which most meanings emanate from the Author\'s discursive position. It remains a task for the future to conduct another researched centred on the domain of the production of the narratives of individual roleplaying groups - a domain in which the meanings predominantly emanate from the Reader\'s discursive position - in order to achieve a full comprehension of this game.

O MERCOSUL e a União Européia (UE) firmaram no ano de 1995, o Acordo Marco de Cooperação Inter-Regional, que tinha como objetivo fortalecer as relações bi-regionais e a preparar as condições para a criação de uma Associação Inter-Regional, que abrangesse a área comercial, cooperação econômica, tecnológica, financeira, e também cultural e social. A concretização da Associação representaria um grande ganho para o MERCOSUL devido à importância comercial que a UE representa para o bloco, sendo a sua principal parceira tanto nas exportações quantos nas importações. Desde a assinatura do acordo, os dois blocos realizaram diversas rodadas de negociações, mas não conseguiram avançar na direção de maiores realizações. Um dos principais entraves tem sido a intransigência da UE, principalmente no que diz respeito ao conceder melhores ofertas no setor agrícola. O presente trabalho objetiva, portanto, analisar a evolução das negociações comerciais entre os dois blocos, a fim de identificar os entraves no setor agrícola, que contribuíram para o impedimento da implantação da Associação Inter-Regional. A evolução das rodadas de negociações entre os dois blocos mostrou que o protecionismo agrícola é um dos pontos cruciais para a obtenção de um acordo de livre comércio. O fracasso das negociações provou para o MERCOSUL, que independemente das negociações acontecerem no plano multilateral ou bilateral, a UE não está disposta em maiores concessões. Portanto, enquanto a UE mantiver as subvenções, responsáveis por enormes excedentes na produção agrícola européia, não será possível a obtenção de melhores resultados, que conduzam a implantação de uma área de livre comércio entre MERCOSUL e União Européia. / MERCOSUR and the European Union (EU) signed in 1995, the Framework Agreement on Inter-Regional Cooperation, which aimed to strengthen bi-regional relations and prepare the conditions for the creation of an Interregional Association, covering the commercial area, economic cooperation, technological, financial and also cultural and social. The concretion of the Association would be a great gain for Mercosur due to the commercial importance that the EU accounts for the block, which is its main partner in both exports and imports. Since signing the agreement, the two blocks had several rounds of negotiations, but failed to move toward greater accomplishments. A major obstacle has been the intransigence of the EU, particularly with regard to grant better offers in the agricultural sector. This paper aims, therefore, to examine developments in trade negotiations between the two blocs, in order to identify the barriers in the agricultural sector, which contributed to impeding the implantation of the Inter-Regional. The evolution of rounds of negotiations between the two blocs has shown that agricultural protectionism is one of the crucial points for achieving a free trade agreement. The failure of the negotiations proved to MERCOSUR, that independently the negotiations occur multilaterally or bilaterally, the EU is not willing to further concessions. So, while the EU maintains subsidies, responsible for huge surpluses on European agricultural production, it is not possible to obtain better results, which conduce to establishment of a free trade area between MERCOSUR and the European Union.

Few studies have a focus on progression in teaching and learning mathematics. An assumption for this study was that progression in teaching between school stages was important. The approach of the study was based on action research. Four teachers from preschool to 9th grade (age 1-16) were invited to a temporary team, a community of practice. The overall aim of the study was to develop knowledge about teaching fractions when teachers used students’ understandings as a point of departure for their action plans. A second aim was to illuminate what influences progression in their teaching. The team of teachers used the four phases of action research: plan, act, observe and reflect, during their learning processes. The teachers’ learning sessions were videotaped and transcribed and this provided the main data that formed the basis of the results. Wenger’s dimensions of social learning were used as an analytical tool: joint enterprise, mutual engagement and shared repertoire. Four themes that described teachers’ negotiation of qualities in mathematics instruction were identified: interpreting students’ understandings, basing instruction on students’ understandings, visualizing fractions and ensuring students’ understanding. When teachers, regardless of what stage was involved, reified similar instructions, it did not benefit students’ learning opportunities. In order to improve progression in teaching fractions, it was important that teachers succeeded in identifying students’ understandings and that the team negotiated different qualities in their community of practice. The shared repertoire (the pre-tests and the video recordings) formed the core of negotiating progression based on students’ understandings. The team showed a mutual engagement, with students’ learning as their joint enterprise. An implication of the study is that teachers from different educational stages can negotiate progression and improve it.

Breaking-off contract negotiations without justifiable grounds Abstract The thesis at hand deals with Sec. 1729 of the Civil Code which governs the liability for breaking-off contract negotiations without justifiable grounds. Its aim is to interpret the afore-said provision that forms an inherent part of the newly introduced regulation of pre-contractual liability. The thesis discusses both the conditions for establishing the liability for breaking-off contract negotiations and concurrently the legal consequences thereof. The difficulties in terms of interpretation, incidental to the introduction of this provision, are attempted to be solved by use of theological interpretative method and inspiration drawn from the comparative study of German and Austrian state of law. Finally, the thesis strives for analysing the case-law of the Czech Supreme Court related to the previous legislation and answering a question to which extent the conclusions previously arrived at by this court may be uphold following the recodification process. The thesis is divided into four main chapters. The first chapter emphasizes the importance and role of the principles of freedom of contract and good faith which are crucial for better understanding of culpa in contrahendo. It also elaborates, albeit in general terms, on the matter of...

This thesis is about medical doctors with immigrant backgrounds who work in Sweden. Based on 15 qualitative interviews with medical doctors with immigrant backgrounds, this thesis explores the medical doctors’ feeling of professional belonging and boundary work. This thesis focuses mainly on the doctors’ experiences of being part of the Swedish medical profession while, at the same time, being regarded as ‘different’ from their Swedish medical counterparts. It starts off with the idea that medical doctors with immigrant backgrounds may have, or could be regarded as having, contradictory social positions. By virtue of being part of the Swedish medical profession, they belong to one of the most privileged groups in Swedish society. However, due to their immigrant background these doctors do not necessarily occupy a privileged position either within their profession or in society in general. This thesis shows that doctors with immigrant backgrounds feel that they are not perceived as full-fledged doctors, which seem related to how they are somewhat ‘othered'. The results show that these doctors cope with being seen as different from doctor with non-immigrant backgrounds, by using the notion of ‘migranthood’ as a resource in negotiations in everyday work life but they also do what they can to overcome the boundaries of ‘Swedishness’. Belonging should therefore be seen as having a formal and an informal side, as getting a Swedish license does not automatically mean that you feel belonging to, in this case, the Swedish medical profession. This seems to put doctors with immigrant backgrounds in a somewhat outsider within position, which seems having to do with boundaries between who is included in the ‘us’ and in the ‘them’. Lastly, these findings indicate that sociologists need to expand the understanding of professional groups to also include boundary work within these groups. In order to do so, this thesis argues that sociological theory on professional groups could be combined with sociological theory about social positions as that is one way to understand the outsider-within position that these doctors (and presumably other skilled migrants) have to cope with.

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / Increasing energy needs globally have recently led to an interest in effectively bringing energy services in the trading system. Energy services were part of the Uruguay Round of negotiations, whose main achievement was the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). The objective of the GATS is to achieve progressive liberalisation and reduction or elimination of trade barriers of all services sectors, including energy services. The GATS has made commendable progress in liberalising many service sectors, however it has not made meaningful progress with energy services. Furthermore though the SADC region engages in energy services trade through bilateral and regional agreements, a variety of barriers inhibit major successes from being achieved. Effective energy services trade and liberalisation has therefore proved problematic both at the multilateral, regional and bilateral level. This study, seeks to investigate why energy services liberalisation and trade at the multilateral, regional and bilateral level is problematic, with a particular focus on the SADC region. / South Africa

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / Increasing energy needs globally have recently led to an interest in effectively bringing energy services in the trading system. Energy services were part of the Uruguay Round of negotiations, whose main achievement was the General Agreement on Trade in Services(GATS). The objective of the GATS is to achieve progressive liberalisation and reduction or elimination of trade barriers of all services sectors, including energy services. The GATS has made commendable progress in liberalising many service sectors, however it has not made meaningful progress with energy services. Furthermore though the SADC region engages in energy services trade through bilateral and regional agreements, a variety of barriers inhibit major successes from being achieved. Effective energy services trade and liberalisation has therefore proved problematic both at the multilateral, regional and bilateral level. This study,seeks to investigate why energy services liberalisation and trade at the multilateral, regional and bilateral level is problematic, with a particular focus on the SADC region.

The focus of this study is the Southern African Development Community (SADC) preventive diplomacy interventions in Lesotho in 1994, 1998 and 2007. The core aim of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of the SADC security mechanism (the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security (OPDS) in conflict prevention, management and resolution on the basis of the Lesotho experience. Data for this qualitative case study was collected through interviews and document analysis. The twenty four participants for the study were drawn from the SADC OPDS unit, Lesotho political parties, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), Academics from the University of Botswana (UB) and the National University of Lesotho (NUL), retired Botswana Defence officers who participated in the Lesotho missions and office of the post-2007election dispute dialogue facilitator in Lesotho. Documents on the SADC Treaties, Protocols, Communiqués and interventions in other set ups were used to highlight its operational policies, mandate, structures, successes and challenges. Lesotho was chosen as a case study because SADC employed both non-coercive (SADC Troika and Eminent Person mediation, 1994 and 2007 respectively) and coercive measures (the 1998 military intervention). The findings of the study revealed that SADC as a regional body had its own successes and challenges. Different perceptions on the SADC interventions in Lesotho emerged mainly between the participants from the ruling party and the opposition parties. While the former commended SADC for successfully mitigating the calamitous effects of 1994, 1998 and 2007 post-electoral violence, the opposition parties viewed the regional organisations as engaged in illegal interference in the domestic affairs of the country to defend the incumbent governing party. It also emerged from the study that the SADC security mechanism has numerous structural and operational flaws. There were several unanswered questions revolving around the legality and mandate of some of the missions. For instance, no concrete evidence emerged as to whether the 1998 military intervention was authorised by the SADC. The study also revealed that SADC has learnt valuable lessons from the Lesotho missions. Some of the reforms which the SADC has introduced in the OPDS such as the establishment of the SADC Stand by Force, Early Warning structures, the Mediation Unit, and a panel of expert mediators emanated mainly from the Lesotho experiences. The study recommends that SADC needs to harmonise the efforts of its OPDS structures such as the Mediation Unit; the Troika; the Inter-State Defence and Security Committee (ISDSC); the Inter-State Politics and Diplomacy Committee (ISPDC) and the Summit of Heads of States and Governments for rapid, coherent and well coordinated interventions in future regional preventive missions. It is also recommended that SADC should focus on identifying and mitigating underlying causal factors such as underdevelopment; poverty; deprivation of freedoms, marginalisation and other forms of social stratifications and oppression in its preventive diplomacy missions if durable peace is to be achieved in Lesotho and any other future cases.

This thesis elaborates the character of Bulgarian Republic development over last years in the view of current situation, which is remarkably influenced by the global financial and economic crisis. The core of this thesis is to map the difficult path for Bulgaria's membership in the European Union, its entry into these structures and the subsequent development during the first 3 years of membership. Finally, I review the present position of Bulgaria in the EU and evaluate the overall benefits for Bulgaria joining the European Union and whether the country was able to complete the necessary reforms and deliver on promises, which it made before the accession to the Union.

This diploma thesis deals with Croatia, the newest member of the European Union. Within the theoretical foundations it focuses on the European integration, describes the development of the European Union and introduces the entry conditions for the candidate countries, it also characterizes the basic macroeconomic concepts, which are being used further in the work. The second part of this work presents the long journey of Croatia towards European membership, with a focus on problem areas of the accession negotiations. The main part of the work is an analysis of the economic and political situation, firstly in the period before and then after the country's accession to the EU. After that the changes which this event represents for Croatia and the European Union are evaluated. Finally, an evaluation of the country's preparedness for potential entry into the euro area is submitted along with the arguments for and against the adoption of the single currency.