The international community has followed up its 2001 invasion of Afghanistan with a complex multi-faceted peacebuilding project. However, informed observers believe the Western-led mission in Afghanistan has failed to address the inherent peacebuilding needs of Afghanistan and has hindered the formation of a locally experienced sustainable peace. In response, emerging peacebuilding theory and rhetoric has pointed to an urgent need for revised peacebuilding paradigms and strategies that hold local (Afghan) ownership of peacebuilding activities as a central concern. This research project utilised a qualitative grounded theory methodology to explore perceptions of Afghan ownership of peacebuilding activities in Afghanistan. Research data was gathered in early 2011 through face-to-face semi-structured interviews with 63 local and international peacebuilding leaders in two Afghan urban centres. The participants included persons from the United Nations, the Afghan and foreign governments, local and international NGOs, a broad range of civil society groups, international donors, and the international military forces. Analysis of the interview narratives revealed several dilemmas on the journey towards increased Afghan ownership of peacebuilding. First, participants believed that the international community is performing important roles in Afghanistan, but is struggling to ensure Afghan ownership of peacebuilding activities. Second, international and Afghan peacebuilding actors have struggled to define who should be owning peacebuilding in at least two respects: (1) civil society or government; and (2) traditional- informal or democratic-formal institutions. Third, grassroots populations and Afghan civil society felt virtually no ownership of upper-level peace processes, and described a distinct lack of locally owned grassroots-level peace process activities. And fourth, inappropriate external forces and processes, the militarisation and politicisation of peacebuilding activities, local aid dependency, and inadequate local control over peacebuilding coordination have hindered the international-domestic inter-relationship in Afghanistan. However, the dilemmas of local ownership do not need to be viewed as unworkable barriers but can be re-conceptualised as holding constructive potential in designing sustainable peacebuilding solutions. To this end, this research study proposed the creation of a locally owned, broadly participatory, and strategic dispute resolution system that might transform international-local relations and forge the necessary space in which the transition to local authority and ownership might occur.

South Africa's water law dispensation has changed dramatically with the promulgation of the National Water Act 36 of 1998. The previous distinction between public and private water has been abolished and the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry has been appointed to act as trustee of the nation's water resources. Through the working of section 4(4), exclusive rights of water use, which were in force before 1998, were replaced by water allowances, granted in the discretion of the relevant authority. The key issue, which is investigated in this article, is whether the state, through the provisions of the National Water Act, expropriated vested rights in property or whether such infringement merely constituted a deprivation. The new concept of property in terms of section 25 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa and the distinction between deprivation and expropriation are examined. It is indicated that the concept of property in South African law has been extended to include not only ownership but also rights in property. Although no definition of property has been formulated in the Constitution, it appears from applicable authority, that this development in the law of property is supported by the Constitution and that the protection granted by the property clause will stretch as far as the inclusion of rights in property. It is for this reason that the existing water use rights, which were available to certain individuals in terms of the 1956 Water Act, can be classified as property. Section 25(1) authorises the infringement of private property in certain defined instances. Despite the many academic works which define the difference between deprivation and expropriation as described in section 25(2), the Constitutional Court clarified this matter in First National Bank of SA Ltd Va Wesbank v Commissioner for the South African Revenue Services 2002 7 BCLR 702 (CC). Expropriation is described as a sub-category of deprivation. Section 25(1) must thus be used as the starting point in all cases in which an investigation is conducted into the constitutional validity of an infringement of property. Only when it has been established that the requirements of section 25(1) have been complied with, is the question of whether deprivation constitutes expropriation, asked. The requirements for deprivation, expropriation and inverse condemnation are discussed with reference to applicable case law. After the aim of the National Water Act was weighed up against the disadvantages which individuals suffer through the infringement of their vested rights, the conclusion was reached that the nation's need for sustainable water resources carries more weight than the individual's exclusive right of use of water. A constitutionally valid deprivation has thus occurred. Due to the fact that the state did not appropriate any rights in this process, the conclusion was reached that this provision does not amount to an expropriation. It does however appear that the provisions of the National Water Act can give rise to inverse condemnation or constructive expropriation in specific circumstances. / Thesis (LL.M. (Estate Law))--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2003.

Analysts, investors and entrepreneurs have for long recognized the value of comprehensive user profiles. While there is a market for trading such personal information among companies, the users, who are actually the providers of such information, are not asked to the negotiations table. To date, there is little information on how users value their personal information. In an online survey-based experiment 1059 Facebook users revealed how much they would be willing to pay for keeping their personal information. Our study reveals that as soon as people learn that some third party is interested in their personal information (asset consciousness prime), the value their information to a much higher degree than without this prime and start to defend their asset. Furthermore, we found that people develop a psychology of ownership towards their personal information. In fact, this construct is a significant contributor to information valuation, much higher than privacy concerns. (author's abstract)

This thesis examines the influence of contemporary approaches to biodiversity conservation on conceptions of state sovereignty over natural resources. Traditional approaches to state sovereignty have emphasized the right of states to exploit natural resources. Contemporary approaches to biodiversity conservation, however, have given rise to a more flexible and dynamic understanding of state sovereignty over natural resources: one encompassing sovereign rights of exploitation along with corresponding conservation responsibilities. Founded upon this premise, the thesis focuses on the emergence of a 'balanced' approach to state sovereignty over natural resources and examines its effects on the role of states in managing natural resources. While addressing it as the basis of the emergence of the recognition of a duty of environmental protection, inter alia, in the form of biodiversity conservation and sustainable use of biological resources, the author suggests that the balanced approach to state sovereignty has been instrumental in redefining the role of states, and the role of the sovereignty principle itself in achieving the goal of biodiversity conservation.

An understanding of ownership is an important aspect of child development because it helps to promote harmonious social interactions. People are typically restricted from using objects belonging to others. Respecting others’ ownership rights is necessary for socially appropriate behaviour. Because of the frequent property disputes that children engage in, it might be expected that preschoolers’ appreciation for ownership is limited and that adult input is needed to teach children about ownership rights. In three experiments, I demonstrate the opposite. Preschoolers value ownership rights more strongly than do adults and support ownership rights in property entitlement disputes between a possessor and an owner. An additional two experiments demonstrate that although children strongly value ownership rights above other principles of entitlement, they show some flexibility in their reasoning about ownership rights when provided with sufficiently compelling reasons to consider disregarding these rights. These findings show developmental differences in children’s ability to determine when ownership rights should be disregarded. Older children and adults disregard ownership rights when they are provided with compelling enough reasons do so, whereas younger children often uphold owners’ rights to the exclusion of all other factors. Together, these studies challenge the intuitive view that children learn about ownership from adult input. Rather than strengthening children’s appreciation of ownership rights, adult input may serve to teach children about situations where it is socially appropriate to disregard ownership.

Who would not like a profit of more then 95 % in a day? Investors in Sweden had thatopportunity, if they had bought a certain stock on the primary market and sold it on the firsttradable day at the Stock Exchange. Most of that profit fell into the hands of institutionalinvestors. The reason for this extraordinary profit was the underpricing of that specific stockduring its initial public offering (IPO).Our report aims to analyze the relationship between offer price, underpricing and theownership structure of stocks. Our investigation is based on all IPO’s on the Stockholm stockexchange during the years between 2000 and 2005. Through our analysis we have found factssaying that companies can determine their ownership structure by setting their introductionprice high or low. A high offer price will have more institutional investors than if the price islow. On the other hand the high offer price will also create a greater underpricing which leadsto a higher initial return and greater transformation of wealth between old and new shareholders. / Vilken investerare skulle tacka nej till en positiv avkastning motsvarande drygt 95 % under enbörsdag? Den möjligheten fanns för investerare som köpte aktier i ”nya” bolag och såldedensamma under introduktionsdagen på Stockholmsbörsen. Underprissättningen av aktier iSverige är normalt inte så stor, men trots det kan vinster göras genom investeringar i företagsom kommer att introduceras på börsen. Mellan åren 2000 och 2005 noterades 116 nya bolagpå Stockholmsbörsen. Av dessa nya bolag var 30 stycken faktiska börsintroduktioner, vilkadärmed ingår i undersökningen. Bland de introducerade bolagen var den genomsnittligainitiala avkastningen + 3,43 %. Skillnaden mellan aktien med högst och den med lägst initialavkastning var under perioden 165,38 procentenheter och introduktionskursen varierademellan 7,50 och 161 kronor per aktie.Undersökningen fokuserar på sambandet mellan introduktionskurs och underprissättningkopplat till ägarstruktur vid börsintroducerande företag och de efterföljande arton månadernaefter introduktion. Syftet är att analysera dels introduktionskursens påverkan påintroduktionsrabatt och ägarstruktur, och dels samband mellan ägarstruktur ochunderprissättning vid börsintroduktion. Genom att undersöka samtliga börsintroduktioner påStockholmsbörsen mellan åren 2000 och 2005 har undersökningen skapat en bild av dessasamband. Då ingen tidigare känd studie undersökt hur introduktionskurs och underprissättningpåverkar ägarstrukturen vid en börsintroduktion samt tiden därefter, anser vi därför dennauppsats vara unik.Vi har med vår undersökning kommit fram till att det finns ett samband mellanintroduktionskurs, underprissättning och andelen institutionellt ägande. Debörsintroducerande företagen kan påverka ägarstrukturen och därmed också påverka hur storandel av den välfärdsöverföring som uppstår vid en börsintroduktion som skall fördelas tillprivata investerare respektive institutionella ägare. Vår undersökning visar att ägarstrukturenpåverkas i första hand genom det pris som fastställts på primärmarknaden. Vi förklararsambandet mellan introduktionskurs och ägarstruktur med att en hög introduktionskurs ger enrelativt hög andel institutionellt ägande. Vår undersökning visar även att samma antagandenger en hög introduktionsrabatt.

Stock splits are supposed to be financial cosmetics. However, this study shows that such corporate events have impact on ownership structure. This study exploits unique data from Swedish Central Security Registration regarding ownership and analyzes the ownership structures in stock splitting firms. Our data consists of exclu-sive semi-annually reported ownership structures of companies listed on Stockholm Stock Exchange. We categorize stock owners as domestic institutional investors, foreign investors and domestic individual investors. The information on ultimate ownership composition in listed companies is rare and more or less exquisite for Sweden.Our results confirm positive abnormal returns surrounding the announcement of stock splits and stock dividends. Moreover, we find evidence on changes in owner-ship structure as well as number of shareholders. The results show evidence on decreasing ownership concentration due to the stock split, which implies a more dispersed ownership structure.

China has been changing from a centrally planned to a market economy. Its journey has not been a smooth one and is not likely to be easy in the years to come. One of its industry sectors, the chemical industry, which represents approximately 4.6% of its national GDP, is facing challenges in the changing market dynamics. The Chinese government has applied administrative actions rather than simply relying on the market to address these challenges. Fragmentation has been reduced by closing down inefficient chemical plants; merging various companies to form groups. It has also attempted to privatise government owned enterprises by corporatisation and marketisation. Corporatisation of government-owned enterprise refers to alteration of their ownership to create joint stock companies. Marketisation refers to listing those privatised enterprises on the stock market. The objective of this research was to find out whether taking these administrative actions is the best strategy for the Chinese government-owned chemical industry rather than making it more effective by building up state owned chemical enterprises? core competencies and core capabilities. The principal argument of this thesis is based on the resource-based view (RBV). / thesis (PhDBusinessand Management)--University of South Australia, 2004.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [124]-137).

Diss. Stockholm : Stockholms universitet, 2005.