In 2011, both Major League Baseball (MLB) and the National Football League (NFL) saw the expiration of their collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) between the players’ unions and owners. Without an agreement in place, the two leagues would have been unable to play the next season. The CBAs established basic contract provisions, pensions and other benefits for players, and, most importantly, granted players the right to move between teams at their own discretion and outlined the manner in which they could do so. This process of changing teams was known as free agency.

This Master‟s thesis is the result of research conducted through field-work which has taken place in Sweden, and additionally text analysis. The aim of this study is to explore the specific case of the Colombian diaspora in Sweden, to discover the reactions, possible involvements, and motivations for involvements and/or un-involvements in relation to their homelands currently ongoing peace negotiation process. This study first seeks to understand the overall reaction and attitudes of the Colombian diaspora members in Sweden towards the peace negotiations, and then looks to provide an understanding over possible influences being exerted from the Colombian diaspora members, and why or why not there is an exert of influence/involvement. The overall understanding of how the Colombian diaspora members in Sweden react to the peace process, are involved/un-involved, and their motivations behind what they do has been discovered through the field-work conducted in this study. This field-work was conducted solely in Sweden, as to provide the specific case of the Colombian diaspora member in Sweden, through qualitative methods and has used semi-structured interviews as well as questionnaires in English and Spanish to collect the information needed to answer the aim of the research presented in this study. Through the field-work, this study has discovered strong hesitations on the Colombian diaspora member behalves to not only be involved in any form of economic, social and political means of influence towards the peace process, but to also take part in this study. The concerns presented by the Colombian diaspora members towards involvements and/or un-involvements are those of political interests, hesitations from the strong bi-polarity of the Colombian society, as well as personal security. Overall, this study has discovered that there is more support from the Colombian diaspora members in Sweden for the ongoing peace negotiations than non-support, but that very few involvements are exerted by this small population of Colombian diaspora members in Sweden.

Along with the United Nations Security Council Resolutions on women, peace and security, women’s participation in peace processes has become an increasingly popular research topic in the 2000s. However, while several authors have written on the topic, there seems to be a lack of empirical data to support the argumentation regarding women’s participation in peace negotiations and its impact on agreements and post-conflict societies. Therefore, the objective of this study is to carry out an analysis on the recent research processes that concern women’s participation in formal peace negotiations and its impact, and assess this research in terms of its validity. As the primary data used for this study consisted of scientific publications, content analysis and discourse analysis proved to be appropriate methods to collect and categorise the data. After this process the data were analysed with the help of an analytical framework based on the criteria for validity in scientific research, which was composed of four different elements credibility, transferability, reliability and verifiability. The findings regarding the validity of the research processes concerning women’s participation in peace negotiations and its impact indicated that the research lacks validity to a great extent in all four areas depicted in the analytical framework. The main issues with the past research arose within the connections made between the methods, sources and findings. In addition, it was concluded that there are indications that the scientific discourse on women’s participation is heavily influenced by the UNSC resolutions on women, peace and security, creating more advocacy research with political agenda rather than scientific studies aiming at objectivity. In other words, there are great opportunities to be taken in different areas of research to create more validity on the argumentation and thus, to generate data to support relevant mechanisms for more sustainable peace-building in regards of women’s participation in peace negotiations.

Thesis (M.P.A.)--Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, 2000. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2946. Typescript. Abstract precedes thesis as, preliminary leaves [2-3]. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 89-90).

This thesis reports on a qualitative study of student interactions in one grade seven mathematics classroom as the students worked through a series of tasks exploring multiple uses of variables. Student tasks were planned out by me, as the teacher and the researcher, and they were executed in my classroom, where I had worked to create a constructivist classroom environment. This study posed two research questions: (1) In what ways do student interactions during group activities promote the development of individual and collective understanding of the concept of variable? and (2) In what ways do student interactions during whole-class discussions promote the development of individual and collective understanding of the concept of variable? I used research methods in which I was a participant. Data was collected in the form of audio taped discussions for the participants (working in three groups of four). Audio files of class discussions were accumulated and stored for later review. Written student work and reflections were collected for all class members at the time of the study. From these data sources, the relevant data set emerged. Analysis came in the form of thick description of eight episodes of importance in which the multiple data sources came together to highlight how student interactions in the form of negotiations may have promoted a shift in understanding of variable. The data showed the complex nature of student interactions along with the potential benefits to student learning. The data showing these benefits were outlined as three patterns of negotiations. These were: negotiations with other students, negotiations with self, and negotiations with the teacher. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2008-04-07 19:10:42.808

No description available.

This dissertation explores the role of cognition—the elements, structures and processes of individual and collective thought—in finding effective, cooperative solutions to climate change. It makes three contributions—theoretical, empirical, and methodological—to international relations scholarship. First, it explores cognition as a significant variable in international political life, developing an analytical framework that not only links a cognitive framework of analysis to major IR theories but bridges current theoretical divides between rationalism and constructivism. Second, by identifying and visualizing current belief systems of participants in global climate negotiations, the thesis offers insights regarding cognitive obstacles to multilateral cooperation. The most important obstacle is a clash of substantively and emotionally different belief systems. Depending on the specific constellation of a person’s beliefs about collective identity, perceptions of climate-change threat, and associated emotions, some belief systems contain normative beliefs about justice (i.e., a dominant logic of appropriateness), while others do not. The latter belief systems reflect the national-interest logic of consequences. Focusing in particular on the “wicked” characteristics of climate change, the analysis further reveals a neglect of scientific knowledge (in particular knowledge of the possibility of climate tipping points), a serious under-valuation of the distant future, and perceptions of a number of constraints on agency, some of which cannot be resolved within the negotiations. The study also identifies six distinct belief systems among climate negotiators, which I label The International Community, A Minilateral Club, The Market, Individuals, The Developed World, and The Irresponsible West. The key element distinguishing these belief systems is actor type, which affects problem definitions, proposed solutions, political strategies, and more generally an actor’s role in global climate governance. Third, this dissertation expands the methodological toolbox available to IR scholars by demonstrating the value and synergistic power of cognitive-affective mapping and Q Method. These are powerful tools to reveal individual and collective belief systems respectively.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Duke University, 2008.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1986. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 323-335).

South Africa‟s participation in international peace missions is guided by the White Paper of 1998 and premised specifically on the country‟s foreign policy objectives based on its vision of “a better South Africa, a better Africa and a better world”. South Africa recognises itself as an integral part of the African continent and therefore sees its national interests as being intrinsically linked to Africa‟s stability, unity and prosperity. Since 1994, South Africa has placed itself at the forefront of Africa's peace and security endeavours, trying to transform itself from international villain during apartheid years to Pan-Africanist peacemaker. The country has played an instrumental role in both shaping and setting the normative agenda of the African Union and Southern African Development Community. South Africa‟s participation in conflict resolution and peace missions in Africa is informed by an understanding of the nexus that exists between peace, security and sustainable development. This research focuses on South Africa‟s diplomatic and peacekeeping engagement in Lesotho, covering the constitutional and electoral crises from 1994 - 2015 constitutional crisis. The author shows the importance and way forward to resolve conflicts before they become escalated and deadly. The study calls for a „timely‟ reaction to disputes and conflicts on the African continent via preventive diplomacy, conflict provention and addressing of underlying issues that give rise to disputes and conflict.