Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf [316]-346).

Thesis (MPA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2017. / The aim of the study was to investigate elements that compromise the success of Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy (PLAS) in Mopani District, Limpopo Province. There is a general view that PLAS intended to fast track the land reform process. The emerging farmers as soon as they get the land through PLAS are expected to use the land for production so as to improve their socio- economic status and contribute to the local economic growth. The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform proactively acquires the land and redistributes it to the previously disadvantaged people in a lease contract. Emerging farmers do not need to own the land and have title deeds as the land belongs to the government. PLAS is state driven because only the government can proactively acquire the land and lease it out to prospective productive emerging farmers from previously disadvantaged groups. Qualitative research design was used to collect data. The target group in this study were direct beneficiaries of PLAS or emerging farmers. Data was collected using focus group discussions with emerging farmers and one-on-one interviews in all three local municipalities: Ba-Phalaborwa, Tzaneen and Maruleng. One- on- one interviews were conducted with the key participants from the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform and the Limpopo Department of Agriculture. The results of the study show that the emerging farmers are not effectively using the land as expected. They do not have the necessary support from government or Department of Rural Development and Land Reform. It was also revealed in the study that the Limpopo Department of Agriculture is expected to support the emerging farmers with technical support. In practice there is no visible form of support from the provincial department and farmers are left to fend for themselves. Emerging farmers usually lack farming skills and need regular training and support to be able to continue with their farming and businesses. The findings further reveal that the emerging farmers face serious challenges such as a lack of funding, water shortage, and lack of access to markets and their recapitalisation is reduced. These findings show that the strategy is not responsive enough because of lack of resources from the government. While there are instances where the white farmers are willing to sell their land, the government do not always have resources to acquire such lands. Also most of these land prices are often inflated and it is where these sellers are taking advantage of the government. This study recommends that the government should support the emerging farmers by all means possible. That will lead to profitable farming and the lives of the people will change qualitatively, leading to social and economic development. It is recommended further that the emerging farmers be given appropriate training so that they can be equipped with skills and be able to run and manage their farms

Since Russia's war in Ukraine started, EU decided to start working with European Union Advisory Mission (EUAM) and Security sector reform (SSR) in order to build Ukraine into a safe, democratic country. Former studies have shown that EUs presence in Ukraine has turned Russia into an even more aggressive neighbor, which is why the object of this essay is to examine what EUAM has worked with and what the result of this work is. The study has been done through a single case study research with liberalism and security sector reform as theories. The result shows that EUAM have tried to implement a western european way of work, and have focused on reforms of institutions, courses and human rights. The result of EUAMs work is ambiguous; EUAM is happy with the work, but both the work with police reform, border guard and Security service have received criticism and has not fulfilled its full potential.

I denna uppsats presenteras en studie med tre fokusområden. -Hur tre utbildningsreformer påverkat fritidshemmets undervisning och/eller fritidshemslärarens yrkesprofession. Syftet med studien är att belysa hur yrkesrollen fritidshemslärare förändrats utifrån ett historiskt och politiskt perspektiv genom införandet av tre olika utbildningsreformer. Genom studiens frågeställning undersöks vilket sätt dessa förändringar samt införandet av reformerna kan ha påverkat yrkesrollen. Den metod som används i denna uppsats är en kvalitativ studie i form av intervjuer. I avsnittet tidigare forskning presenteras fyra studier med koppling till kommunaliseringen, läroplansreformen samt yrkesidentitet och nya benämningen ”lärare i fritidshem”. Studiens teoribildning bygger på Guthrie och Koppichs samt Dauns tolkningar av teorier kring utbildningsreformer. I slutresultatet kategoriseras det empiriska materialet under teman som yrkesrollen, status samt samordning. Varje tema analyseras utifrån begrepp som ingår i det teoretiska utgångspunkterna. Utifrån det empiriska materialet går de att se att reformerna haft en viss inverkan på yrkesrollen. Det framkommer också att respondenterna har haft svårigheter att beskriva hur deras yrkesroll har påverkats - vilket också beskrivs i den slutliga diskussionen. / In this essay, a study with three focus areas is presented. -How three educational reforms have affected the after-school centre's teaching and/or the after-school centre teacher's profession. The purpose of the study is to shed light on how the professional role of after-school teachers has changed from a historical and political perspective through the introduction of three different educational reforms. The study's question examines the way in which these changes and the introduction of the reforms may have affected the professional role. The method described in this essay is a qualitative study in the form of interviews. In the section previous research, four studies are presented in connection with communalisation, the curriculum reform and professional identity and the new term "teachers in after-school centres". The study's theory formation is based on Guthrie and Koppich's along with Daun's interpretations of theories about educational reforms. In the end result, the empirical material is categorized under themes such as professional role, status and coordination. Each theme is analyzed on the basis of concepts that are included in the theoretical starting points. Based on the empirical material, it can be seen that the reforms have had a certain impact on the professional role. It also appears that the respondents have had difficulty describing how their professional role has been affected - which is also described in the final discussion.

This research examined the challenges, decisions, issues, and dilemmas facing the International Community (IC) in attempting to re-establish and rebuild public administration and other government institutions in a country that continues to suffer from instability and remains at high risk of further conflict. The research looks specifically at a subset of Public Administration Reform (PAR): Civil Service and Administrative Reform (CSAR). The research concludes that CSAR in a Fragile and Conflict Affected State (FCAS) such as Afghanistan is clearly a ‘wicked problem’ requiring innovative, iterative and adaptive responses by the IC over an extended time period. However, the IC treats CSAR in Afghanistan as a ‘tame’ problem simply framed in terms of ‘we are coming to build your capacity’, resulting in slow progress on public sector reform overall and little understanding of the relationship with overarching statebuilding and stabilisation objectives. Despite the acknowledgement of the importance of CSAR, IC support has fallen dramatically in recent years. The current approach to supporting CSAR in Afghanistan is therefore almost guaranteed to fail. The research calls for a new approach to PAR in these types of cases, one that recognises the severe limits to progress utilising existing approaches and structures rooted in Western notions of good government. A new approach goes beyond the overwhelming focus on capacity development; emphasises the importance of understanding what space exists for reform; recognises the need to pragmatically confront trade- offs between the competing objectives of reconciling stabilisation imperatives with wider considerations of ‘good governance’; and poses an alternative expanded framework for considering public administration, legitimacy, authority and representation in the government of an FCAS, partly as an organising framework but also as an aid to understanding the complexity of interrelated systems prevalent in an FCAS. The research also concludes that a great deal more independent academic research is required to understand how to make progress in Public Sector Reform (PSR), stabilisation and longer-term development that will help prevent countries slipping back into conflict.

In 2008 the Ministry of Education in Kuwait began to reform the science curriculum in schools at all academic stages: primary (grades 1-5), intermediate (6-9) and secondary (10-12). The new science curriculum was adapted from an original curriculum which had been designed and published by the Amercan company Pearson-Scott Foreman. This study explores the perspectives of science teachers and students concerning the new science curriculum for the sixth and seventh grades (students aged 11 to 15) in the State of Kuwait. The study also investigated the process of the reform and the roles that science teachers and students performed in this reform process. The study used Sociocultural Theory as a framework to examine the science curriculum reform process and to discuss findings. A multi-method design was used with both quantitative and qualitative methods to collect the data: science teachers’ and students’ questionnaires; interviews with science teachers, students and science curriculum reformers; and classroom observations. The study sample was selected randomly. The questionnaire was conducted with 310 science teachers and 647 students. 11 science teachers, nine reformers and 30 students (five in each of six focus groups) were chosen to conduct in-depth interviews. Ten classroom observations were conducted with four science teachers. The study indicated that the science curriculum reform process was controlled centrally by the Ministry of Education and teachers and students did not participate in any stage of the reform process. The findings also found that many of the science teachers and students held negative views about the new science curriculum. They felt that the content of the new curriculum does not relate very well to Kuwaiti culture, to the Islamic religion and that the curriculum objectives needed to be more clear and achievable. The findings showed that many of the students indicated that they have difficulty understanding much of the content and did not enjoy studying science. Most of the teachers indicated that they faced challenges in teaching the new science curriculum. These included a lack of instructional tools, lack of teacher autonomy, the amount of material that needed covering and large class sizes. This study recommends reviewing the new science curriculum (now currently in use) taking into account the perspectives of teachers and students. It recommends that in carrying out curriculum reform the Ministry of Education be encouraged to provide guidance in the form of instructional tools and professional development programmes for teachers. These should be designed to help teachers develop the pedagogic skills needed to address the complex relationships between science and culture and between science and religion.

The thesis examines aspects of social change in rural Tigray, northern Ethiopia. It is based on fieldwork conducted between February 1993 and February 1995 in two villages located on the south central highland plateau: Enda Mariyam, and Tegula. The majority of fieldwork was conducted in Enda Mariyam - a village of some 228 farming households - and spanned two complete agricultural years. The thesis considers the local implications of reform measures implemented by nationalist rebels - the Tigray People's Liberation Front - as part of a revolutionary agenda for the transformation of 'traditional' Ethiopian peasant society. These measures included, most notably, land tenure reform, as well as changes in customary law and the re-organisation of rural administration. In addition, campaigns were mounted aimed at modifying certain aspects of peasant practice. In the context of a village-based ethnography, the thesis aims to qualify the most significant effects of these measures on social life and livelihoods. A key concern is how reform measures have affected the relationship between subsistence-oriented production, social organisation, and social stratification. In a setting where agricultural inputs - including land, oxen, and seed - are scarce, differential abilities amongst farming households to access agricultural inputs informs the pattern of social relationships. In this context, land reform is intimately linked to changes in the dynamics of wealth differentiation and social stratification in the village. The implications for the position of 'big men' and cultural notions of status-honour are considered. Together with land reform, reform of customary law in the area of marriage and divorce has wrought subtle but important changes in marriage and divorce practices, and the nature of intra-household relationships. It is argued that public campaigns for the 'emancipation' of women have probably had less effect on the ability of women to exert power within marriage, than the economic penalties that men now face upon divorce. Attempts to modify peasant religious practice are also examined, including efforts to minimise the number of holidays in the Ethiopian Orthodox calendar. The outcome of these attempts is explored in terms of notions of disaster and risk, the traditional authority of the Church, and the fragmentation of consensus around religious practice in the village.

This research was focused on analyzing and interpreting the U.S. Supreme Court’s holdings in several cases that directly affect the juvenile justice system and the sentencing process of youth offenders. Drawing primarily from Miller v. Alabama (2012) and the Supreme Court’s ‘Miller doctrine’, this thesis goes against the viewpoints of many policymakers, arguing that life without parole and mandatory adult sentence minimums for youth offenders are ‘cruel and unusual’ punishments that are unconstitutional as sentencing options for a juvenile offender. In order to arrive at the conclusion that the aforementioned punishments violate a youth’s 8th Amendment right to a proportional sentence, this thesis drew from previously unavailable research in modern neuroscience that substantiates the Supreme Court’s claim that “Children are different” on a developmental basis and thus, can never possess the same degree of culpability for a crime as an adult offender. If one accepts the conclusions made in this thesis, it is a matter only of when, not if, the sentencing process for youth offenders experiences a paradigm shift on a legislative level, and becomes a much more efficient and successful process where rehabilitation becomes the foremost goal. If science and developmental psychology support the Supreme Court’s assertion that nearly all juvenile crime-activity is the result of “transient immaturity,” then why are 16 year olds being sentenced to life without the possibility of parole? This thesis explores the possible answers to this question, and anticipates the possible impediments to national changes in juvenile sentencing procedures.

Societies have established various forms of governance to protect the natural environment from the adverse effects of human activity. While direct “command and control” regulation has achieved significant improvements in environmental protection, concerns for its efficiency have led governments to seek alternative approaches to achieve environmental policy objectives. Commentators describe a shift from “government” to “governance” as policy makers and regulators seek to harness wider social forces beyond government, while risk-based regulation is pursued to target constrained regulatory resources for maximum effect. However, robust evidence for the effectiveness of different forms of regulation is lacking. This thesis addresses this gap, providing an evidence base for instrument selection and a data-informed critique of regulatory reform practice. Research followed a case study strategy, gathering qualitative data through 58 in-depth semi-structured interviews, analysed using the NVIVO™ Computer Aided Qualitative Data Analysis System (CAQDAS), with senior policy makers at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, England (Defra) and senior executives in businesses and trade associations in 5 UK sectors. (1) A new typology of regulatory instruments has been compiled, validated with sector experts, refined for policy end-users, and published as part of Defra’s guidance on instrument selection. (2) The critical case of instrument selection in practice at Defra has been examined for the first time, revealing factors affecting choice, the use of coregulation to develop evidence and the importance of retaining policy maker skills for new forms of regulation. (3) A multiple-case study of senior business representatives found five strongly preferred voluntary regulation, seven expressed significant doubts about its effectiveness, and 19 expressed no general preference. While voluntary approaches were valued for flexibility and lower burdens, direct regulation offered stability and a level playing field. They sought inter alia coherent, evidence based regulatory frameworks, delivered through positive regulatory relationships. This research progresses the better and smarter regulation debate on the use of alternatives to direct regulation and has already been used to inform policy making in practice.

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration