Investment in low income markets is increasing so too is a sense of controversy regarding poor markets. With BOP investment becoming many a firms’ strategy towards achieving growth, it is not clear to what extent managers’ attitudes to poor customers differ towards their attitudes towards middle-class customers. It is, however, well described that attitudes to poor people in a social context is negative and in some cases less favourable. It is postulated that business' mindset may be a barrier towards engaging with BOP markets despite the incentives and benefits that literature puts forward for marketing to the poor. Whether this attitude is negative, neutral, less favourable or similar is not well understood. The findings of this research project, can with a high level of confidence, report that the attitudes of a sample of managers do display a less favourable attitude towards a poor customer than is the case with a similar sample that is exposed to a wealthier customer. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Syftet med vår kvalitativa studie är att bidra med ökad kunskap om vilken erfarenhet och kunskap lärare som arbetar på mellanstadiet har om poor comprehenders. Vi vill även bidra med ökad kunskap om på vilka sätt elever med dessa svårigheter upptäcks och hur det kan påverka undervisningens utformning. Vi har genomfört semistrukturerade intervjuer med 12 lärare som undervisar eller har undervisat på mellanstadiet. Efter att ha gjort en tematisk analys av vårt material fann vi fem teman som belyser lärares kunskap om och erfarenhet av poor comprehenders samt hur undervisningen utformas och anpassas med tanke på dessa elever. Resultatet visar att begreppet poor comprehenders är okänt bland lärare men fenomenet väl känt. Poor comprehenders upptäcks ofta i klassrumsundervisningen. Kartläggning av läsförståelse sker på alla skolorna i vår studie men hur man dokumenterar och använder resultaten varierar, liksom hur undervisningen utformas och anpassas. En slutsats är att avsaknaden på ett vedertaget begrepp gör att det kan vara svårt att kommunicera runt den här gruppen av elever. En annan slutsats är att det inte finns någon tydlig definition av problematiken, vilket i sin tur kan leda till att kunskapen varierar i hur man bäst utformar undervisningen för att utveckla lärandet för poor comprehenders. Det finns en stor variation i graden av erfarenhet av att arbeta med förståelseproblematik.

Kraven på att läsa för att lära ökar i takt med att eleverna blir äldre, vilket ställer krav på deras läsförståelse. Syftet med studien är att öka kunskaperna om lärares och speciallärares/specialpedagogers uppfattningar om språkinriktad undervisning för elever benämnda som ”poor comprehenders”. Ytterligare ett syfte är att undersöka vilka möjligheter och hinder som lärarna uppfattar med en språkinriktad undervisning. Tolv semistrukturerade intervjuer med lärare och speciallärare/specialpedagoger genomfördes och analyserades med en fenomenografisk metodansats. Utifrån studiens syfte utkristalliserades tre utfallsrum: olika arbetssätt och synsätt i språkinriktad undervisning, framgångsfaktorer och svårigheter i arbetet med språkinriktad undervisning och olika synsätt på elever med specifika läsförståelsesvårigheter. De teoretiska utgångspunkterna för studien är det sociokulturella och det inkluderande perspektivet.  Studiens resultat visar att informanterna uppfattar det sociala samspelet med eleverna som en styrka i den språkinriktade undervisningen, att intervjupersonerna snarare ser möjligheter än hinder med språkinriktad undervisning och att elevernas intresse för läsning har minskat. Möjligheter som informanterna lyfter fram är kunniga och stöttande kollegor.  Slutsatser i studien är betydelsen av en lärmiljö som utgår från ett gemensamt arbete i klassrummet och att pedagogernas intresse för språkinriktad undervisning har betydelse för det språkinriktade arbetet. Studiens informanter poängterar betydelsen av språkinriktad undervisning för elevernas språkliga utveckling.

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Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document / Dissertation (MSc (Veterinary Science))--University of Pretoria, 2000. / Veterinary Tropical Diseases / unrestricted

Federally mandated citizen participation has been controversial since its inception in 1964. It has been as difficult to implement in practice as it has been to define conceptually. An examination of the literature related to this federally mandated citizen participation uncovers a number of untested assumptions relating to the individual political behavior of those for whom participation is mandated. This literature concentrates on forms of organized group participation, and the direct action of these groups in the planning and policy-making process, but it tends to ignore the fact that participation in the organized neighborhood groups advocated is essentially an individual political decision. Also ignored is the substantial body of research and literature related to individual political behavior which generally finds that levels and rates of participation are a function of socio-economic factors. This well established research suggests those for whom participation is mandated--residents of low income and low socio-economic status neighborhoods--are the least likely to become politically active. The general weakness of this body of research and literature, which is based largely on the electoral process, is that it fails to adequately explain or predict the significant levels of participation actually exhibited by lower income and lower socio-economic status individuals in the War on Poverty, Model Cities, and similar programs. A more holistic model of political behavior based on social-psychological concepts allows a much broader view of the elements which may contribute to this more non-traditional type of political behavior. Such a model has been developed by Robert Lane and others. It suggests perceptual and attitudinal variables which may be especially useful in explaining and/or predicting the participation of lower socio-economic status individuals in these programs. These perceptual and attitudinal variables, and their relationships to political participation, are the focus of the research undertaken in this dissertation. Through a random sample household interview survey, a study of the perceptual and attitudinal variables associated with resident participation in elections, issues, and neighborhood groups was undertaken in two low income neighborhoods in the City of Portland, Oregon. The survey results suggest that individuals active in neighborhood groups and issues are not necessarily the same individuals highly involved in traditional electoral activity. These survey results indicate a number of perceptual and attitudinal variables significantly associated with participation in neighborhood groups and issues: (1) the perception of the existence of neighborhood problems; (2) salience of perceived neighborhood problems; (3) feelings of personal and/or group efficacy in doing something about the specific problems perceived; (4) perception of the social and political nature of identified neighborhood problems; (5) attitudes toward the value of participation as a desired end in itself; and (6) attitudes toward voting, petitioning, collective action, non-violent protest, and violent protest as approved and effective means to solve neighborhood problems. The survey results also indicate systematic differences in the perceptual and attitudinal variables associated with the participation of Black and White survey respondents. White participation appears to be much more highly related to the perception of neighborhood problems than Black participation. Whites in the study appear to participate as a means to solve problems they perceive in their neighborhood, while participation seems to be more an end in itself for the Blacks surveyed. The results of the survey tend to validate important elements of a social-psychological model of political behavior. The results also suggest that more attention needs to be focused on the relationships between individuals' perceptions of their environment and political behavior.

This study is made up of two parts which explore some of the effects upon individual households making up a sample of a low income neighborhood in Portland. The first section in Chapter II presents a survey of sample households in our identified area, securing personal information given by adult members along with their responses to questions concerning effects on their budgets and the adaptations they have made to reduce the cost of fuel. The second section compares costs of fuel for January, February, and March of 1975 with the same months of 1974 for another sample in the same area. Amount of fuel was tabulated along with costs, and percentage increases or decreases were charted. The fortunate coincidence of the same three-month average temperature in downtown Portland for both years gave an especially good comparison. The monthly use of gas could be more accurately measured than the use of oil. None of our interviewed sample were found to use electricity as a primary source of heat.

This study addresses the determinants of women's economic activity in three low income communities in Amman, the capital of Jordan. These communities represent what is typically referred to as "pockets of urban poverty." Besides addressing the demographic and socio-economic variables, the study identifies and includes cultural variables in a model of female labor force participation. Modern economic systems developed definitions and measurements of productivity that render the majority of women's work as non-productive. Activities within the domestic sphere that do not earn monetary returns are not measured as productive economic activities, and hence are dropped from the calculations of gross national and domestic products of most if not all developing nations. In the Arab Middle East, where women's work outside the home is relatively a recent phenomenon, labor statistics are measuring only female labor force in the "formal sector" of the labor market. The scope and magnitude of women's economic activity within the domestic sphere, or in what is termed the informal sector, is neglected, or at best, underestimated, by labor force statistics. In such cultural contexts where women's economic activity outside the home is still considered secondary to the array of their reproductive and home-related activities, the underlying thesis is that cultural factors play an important role in shaping the outcomes of women's decisions regarding labor force participation. A field survey covered the sample of adult women, aged 15 years and over. To achieve a 95% level of significance, 435 women were interviewed. Three field surveyors were trained to thoroughly probe and depict all types of economic activity for the purpose of raising cash, be it in the formal or the informal sectors of the labor market. A nested logit model assesses the effects of demographic and socio-economic variables on women's employment status. Employment status is defined as a dichotomous dependent variable indicating whether a woman does or does not work. The second step of the logit model incorporates cultural variables in addition to the demographic and socio-economic variables. Each logit run segregates women by marital status, and one run addresses the pooled sample of women, with marital status included as a predictor variable. The results indicate that age and marital status (in the pooled sample) are important variables in determining the employment status of women. The presence of a resource person to help the ever-married woman in child-care also had a significant effect on women's employment decisions. Household income, which represents the need for the woman's income, is also a significant variable. In the second step of the nested logit model, education significantly influences women's work outside the home. Segregation (a cultural variable that represented a constraint to women's work in a mixed environment) is also a significant variable in influencing women's work inside the home. This study shows that when addressing the determinants of female labor force participation, it is important to include cultural variables and assess their effect on influencing the outcome of women's decisions to undertake economic activity. Policies that seek to increase female employment need to be aware of the cultural and demographic (fertility related) considerations. Consequently, employment creation and enhancement programs need to be formulated and designed with this consideration in focus. For example, child-care facilities could be established within communities. This will free sometime of mothers with children to work outside the home, and will create child-care jobs within the community. Realizing that, due to cultural barriers, some women will still desire to only work at home, agencies providing marketing channels for such activities need to be established.

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