本研究以經歷過921大地震以及多次土石流災害的雲林縣古坑鄉為個案，透過參與觀察法、質性訪談以及文獻檔案分析的方式，以了解當那些受到環境劇變的人們在經歷自然災害後，如何在有選的情況下做出遷移與否的決策，而哪些社會因素會在決策過程中影響人們的決定及行動。 本研究的重要發現包括以下幾點：第一，在自然災害發生後，多數的居民會選擇留下，這是基於本身的災害識覺排除了立即性、短時間內的生命威脅。同時，大部分的居民也會因為在地性的資源（如社會關係、在地知識、與在地的不動產）較多，而傾向選擇留在原地。同時，有一些社經弱勢家庭會因為非在地性資源的缺乏，也使他們不得不做出留下來的選擇。從生命史的觀點，本研究發現這些遷移決策往往是鑲嵌在長期累積的地方經驗與生活脈絡中的。第二，家庭的遷移往往是家庭成員整體的決定，或考量家庭整體需要後做出的決定。不同的家庭可能採取不同的方式來完成他們在地重建或者是遷移的目標。第三，個人和家庭的慣習往往在選擇的傾向或行動的方式中成為核心。多數人希望能在自然災害發生後恢復既有的生活慣習，但慣習的維持不僅在於個人能力，也與他所在環境中是否有足夠的社會支持有關。當社區中的社會安全網可以提供足夠的支持時，個人與家庭的慣習則得以被維持，而社區社會安全網又和地方產業型態具有緊密關聯。以觀光為主要發展的草嶺村，和在921大地震後轉型為觀光農業的華山村就是兩個極佳的對比案例。研究資料也顯示當地居民改變社會環境的可能，證明了人不是單向地受到社會環境的影響，也可以反向影響社會環境。 / This study aims at understanding how people make migration decisions after drastic environmental changes brought by natural disasters and exploring the social factors influencing these decisions. Gukeng was chosen as a case for this study due to its encounters of the Chichi earthquake and several landslides. The study utilizes qualitative research methods and collects field data, mainly through participant observation, in-depth interviewing techniques and text analysis. The main findings of this study are summarized as follows. First, most residents tend to stay after natural disasters, and such choice is based on their hazard perception that excludes immediate and short-term threats to their lives. The majority of residents prefer to stay due to more local resources（including social relationships, local knowledge, and ownership of real estate property）. Those families in lower social-economic status also tend to stay for the lack of non-local resources. From the perspective of life history, these decisions are embedded in local contexts contructed and experiences accumulated throughout the years. Second, family’s migration decision is usually made by all family members or based on the needs of all members. Different families may use different ways to reach their goals of migration or rebuilding on the same ground. Third, the habitus of individuals and families often become the core element in the modes of choice and action. Most people want to be able to recover their habitus after the natural disasters. However, the maintenance of the habitus is based not only on personal capacity, but also on the social support drawn from the his environment. People can maintain their habitus when the local community safety net can provide enough support, and the local community safety net is highly related to the development of local industries. The comparative study of Caoling Villege and Huashan Villege provides an illustrative example, in which the former is based on tourism and the latter was transformed into eco-tourism and tourist agriculture after the Chichi earthquake. The findings also show the possibility of people changing the environment, proving the mutual influence between individuals and the environment.

This thesis uses cross-country panel regressions to identify the effects of fossil-fuel subsidies for both oil importers and oil exporters on GDP growth, industry growth, crowding out of government expenditures in education, health, and infrastructure, government debt, carbon dioxide emissions, inequality and poverty. Fossil-fuel subsidies are found to be associated with lower levels of growth and industry growth, less government expenditure on health and education, poorer infrastructure quality, more government debt, and higher rates of carbon dioxide emissions. No relationship is found between fossil fuel subsidies and poverty and inequality. These results confirm the arguments of those that argue that fossil-fuel subsidies should be rationalized. However, removing subsidies is politically challenging. In order to identify strategies for fossil fuel reform, the successful reform efforts of Indonesia and Turkey are examined. These cases are then used to draw lessons for governments undertaking subsidy reform. The key strategies used were to exempt some regions, groups, or fuels from reform, use funds from subsidy removal for social safety nets and other poverty alleviation programs, time the reforms strategically, and communicate clearly to the public the reason for reform and how the funds will be used. These lessons are applied to countries in the developing Middle East and North Africa, including Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco.

This thesis uses cross-country panel regressions to identify the effects of fossil-fuel subsidies for both oil importers and oil exporters on GDP growth, industry growth, crowding out of government expenditures in education, health, and infrastructure, government debt, carbon dioxide emissions, inequality and poverty. Fossil-fuel subsidies are found to be associated with lower levels of growth and industry growth, less government expenditure on health and education, poorer infrastructure quality, more government debt, and higher rates of carbon dioxide emissions. No relationship is found between fossil fuel subsidies and poverty and inequality. These results confirm the arguments of those that argue that fossil-fuel subsidies should be rationalized. However, removing subsidies is politically challenging. In order to identify strategies for fossil fuel reform, the successful reform efforts of Indonesia and Turkey are examined. These cases are then used to draw lessons for governments undertaking subsidy reform. The key strategies used were to exempt some regions, groups, or fuels from reform, use funds from subsidy removal for social safety nets and other poverty alleviation programs, time the reforms strategically, and communicate clearly to the public the reason for reform and how the funds will be used. These lessons are applied to countries in the developing Middle East and North Africa, including Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco.

Text in Afrikaans / Social security is an important instrument of government to reduce the risks of economic insecurity to indivi~uals and the community. Social security usually consists of social insurance (for example pensions, unemployment insurance and workmen's compensation) and social assistance (for example social pensions, disability grants and maintenance grants). In view of South Africa's low economic growth, high and rising unemployment, widespread poverty, skew distribution of income and the disintegration of the family, social security requires urgent attention. This issue is even more pressing during the political transition since most policy measures and institutions are reconsidered, while pressure on government expenditure increases. This study commences with a discussion of basic aspects of social security, such as its definition, the rationale for social security in a market economy, the possible influence on economic behaviour, targeting, the financing of social security through a payroll tax and general taxation and the financing of a national pension fund. One of the sources of information of social security is the experience of other countries in this regard. The second part, which constitutes the core of the study, involves a comparative study of social security. After a general discussion on comparative studies, the origin and development of social security in welfare states (the USA, Britain and the Netherlands) and developing countries (Chile, Mexico, Guatemala, Cuba and Sri Lanka) are studied. African countries and the "miracle" countries of the East also receive brief attention. The main emphasis is on equity and efficiency, and aspects such as affordability, financing, targeting, the extension of coverage, a negative income tax, traditional social security and specific programmes that could be of importance to South Africa. In the last section the origin and development of and the fiscal scope for social security are discussed. Besides social insurance and assistance, programmes such as in-kind transfers, public works programmes and tax expenditure receive attention. Aspects of social security such as poverty alleviation, means testing, take-up rates, administration and corruption are discussed, while recommendations are made on topics such as a "voluntarily" national pension scheme, employment creation programmes and food stamps. / Bestaansbeveiliging is 'n belangrike instrument in die hande van die owerheid om die risiko' s van ekonomiese onsekerheid vir individue en die gemeenskap te verminder. Bestaansbeveiliging bestaan gewoonlik uit maatskaplike versekering (waaronder pensioene, werkloosheidsversekering en ongevalleversekering) en maatskaplike bystand (byvoorbeeld maatskaplike pensioene, ongeskiktheidstoelaes en onderhoudstoelaes). In die lig van Suid-Afrika se lae ekonomiese groei, hoe en stygende werkloosheid, wydverspreide armoede, skewe verdeling van inkome en gesinsverbrokkeling, verg bestaansbeveiliging dringende aandag. Die aangeleentheid is des te dringender gedurende die politieke oorgangsperiode waartydens die meeste beleidsmaatreels en instellings in heroorweging geneem word en daar voortdurend druk op die owerheid is om meer van die land se skaars bronne te gebruik. Ter inleiding word enkele kemaspekte van bestaansbeveiliging bespreek, waaronder die definisie daarvan, die rasionaal vir bestaansbeveiliging in 'n markekonomie, die moontlike invloed van bestaansbeveiliging op ekonomiese gedrag, die rol van teikenstelling, die finansiering van bestaansbeveiliging deur middel van 'n loonstaatbelasting en algemene belastings en die finansiering van 'n nasionale pensioenfonds. Een bron van inligting oar bestaansbeveiliging is die ervaring van ander lande op hierdie terrein. Die tweede gedeelte, wat die kern van die studie is, behels 'n vergelykende studie van bestaansbeveiliging. Na 'n inleidende bespreking oar vergelykende studies in die algemeen, word die ontstaan en ontwikkeling van bestaansbeveiliging in welvaartstate (die VSA, Brittanje en Nederland) en in ontwikkelende lande (Chili, Mexiko, Guatemala, Kuba en Sri Lanka) bestudeer. Afrikalande en die "mirakel-lande" van die Coste kry oorsigtelik aandag. Die nadruk in die gedeelte val veral op billikheid en doeltreffendheid en aspekte soos bekostigbaarheid, finansiering, teikenstelling, uitbreiding van dekking, negatiewe inkomstebelasting, tradisionele bestaansbeveiliging en programme wat vir Suid-Afrika van betekenis kan wees. In die laaste gedeelte word die ontstaan en ontwikkeling van en die fiskale ruimte vir bestaansbeveiliging in Suid-Afrika bespreek. Benewens maatskaplike versekering en bystand, kry programme soos in natura oordragte, openbare werke-programme (werkskeppingsprogramme) en belastinguitgawes aandag. Aspekte van bestaansbeveiliging soos armoedeverligting, die middeletoets, opneemkoerse, administrasie en korrupsie word bespreek en aanbevelings word onder me er gemaak ten opsigte van 'n "vrywillige" nasionale pensioenskema, werkskeppingsprogramme en voedselkoepons. / Sociology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Ekonomie)

The aim of this thesis is to design maintenance work for a small transport aircraft. This thesis is focused on an overview of the activities, which are carried out in the maintenance of small transport aircraft with a capacity about fifty passengers. The first part of this thesis is conceived as a theoretical part and summarizes the activities used during maintenance - maintenance methods, a typical part failures, diagnostics, network analysis and equations for the calculating of the cost of maintenance. At the beginning are showed the basic characteristics of selected representatives of this category and regulatory requirements on them. The design of maintenance work is in the second half of the thesis. It includes the visualization of the database that could be used for the maintenance of aircraft and which could be subsequently evaluated. This is a general description of the maintenance work, which ca be performed during the pre-flight inspection, re-inspection for repeated flights, preliminary preparation and periodic maintenance.

This applied dissertation was designed to provide a better understanding of the effectiveness of out-of-class safety net corrective instructional activity practices conducted beyond regular classroom instruction for lower secondary level (9th- and 10th- grade high school) students within mastery learning educational environments. The study was designed to shed light on the impact and implications of these practices on Bloom’s vanishing point (Bloom, 1971) and Arlin’s leveling effect (Arlin & Westbury, 1976). Seven mastery learning structured international schools in geographic proximity, of similar size, and utilizing the same program of study were used in this study. Three of the schools that employed a safety net program were the basis of this study, and the four schools that did not have in place a safety net program were used as a control for this observational research. Normed Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) RIT scores (Northwest Evaluation Association, 2005), grade point averages, and safety net program data were used in a series of case-control tests to determine the effectiveness of out-of-class corrective instructional activity safety net programs for above-average and below-average achieving students. The mean study and control group RIT percentile ranking scores for the students was nearly 1 standard deviation above the averages reported by the Northwest Evaluation Association (2005), so these relative comparisons involved bright students. This large volume of data enabled analysis of the effects of out-of-class safety net activities on school-wide and individual improvement in literature, writing, mathematics, and comprehensive results. Series of conclusive nonparametric analysis were used instead of normal distribution tests because of the out-of-bounds skewed nature of the data. Analysis of the data suggested that safety netting programs benefit all students, irrespective of whether or not students received out-of-class corrective instructional activities. The MAP RIT scores of below- average achieving students were not affected by attending a school with a safety net program but their GPA results improved in all subjects. Arlin’s leveling effect (Arlin & Westbury, 1976) most likely accounted for improvement of MAP RIT scores for above- average students who attended a school with a safety net program but their GPA results were not affected. These contrasting benefits masked the school-wide test results, which suggested that a school district might not realize an overall increase in MAP RIT and GPA results when adopting a safety net program. Students identified in need of safety netting services benefited by having been placed in the program up to twice in any respective course, but a point of diminishing returns was reached when a student fell 3 or more units behind in a course in relation to the progress of the class.

No description available.

The thesis deals with the role of the state and society in their attitudes to poverty and social exclusion. The introductory part aims at characterising the phenomenon of poverty and social exclusion, and deals with the issue of how the society perceives poverty. It focuses on the concept of the culture of poverty, and attention is given to the need of solidarity, social justice and the social state. The following part of my thesis deals with the extent of poverty and social exclusion in the Czech Republic, as well as possibilities of a social safety net in the Czech Republic. It describes particular examples of the manifestation of social exclusion and poverty in the Czech society, especially in the sphere of housing, opportunities in the labour market and falling into destructive debts. It sheds light on the situation of Romanies as the worst affected population group. The current situation in the Czech Republic shows that the attitude of the society to poverty as a personal fault and failure, impedes mutual solidarity, and generates strategies connected with repression that fail to understand the causes of poverty. For this reason, they cannot be adequately efficient. The society should react to, consider and efficiently solve poverty-related problems. Inspiration may be found in Christian ethics and its concept of human dignity.

Power, and how it is exercised within social relations is pivotal in explaining policy change. Hence, this dissertation explores policy change in Kenya by examining the transfer and subsequent adoption of social protection policies in the form of cash transfer schemes. Instead of the current analytical frameworks drawing from political settlements, political institutions, and ideational approaches in explaining policy uptake, the research studies policy making from a policy transfer and power nexus. The study examines power relations among multiple actors in the national context to explain the adoption of social protection policies. Hence this dissertation articulates power dynamics and asymmetries inherent in policy-making involving national and transnational actors as underpinning policy transfer processes. The thesis is premised on the following interrelated arguments; firstly, I show how transnational actors created and manipulated interests and incentives based on their resource base in three significant ways: controlling the policy agenda, constraining the agency of other actors and influencing the preferences of actors in the policy space. The interaction of interests and resources – financial, and ideas and knowledge – converged to bring about policy change. Secondly, I focus on the role of ideas and knowledge within policy space to show how the creation of a discursive hegemony and a structure of knowledge, social construction and policy narratives played a significant role in shaping learning and influencing national actors. Thirdly, I argue that transnational actors used structural mechanisms based on financing and coerced government to adopt social protection policies through a catalysing mechanism and imposition of conditionalities. The study depicts how transnational actors conditioned and manipulated national context and institutions to align with the idea of cash transfers. This thesis employs a qualitative approach to study policy transfer and subsequent adoption of two cases of transfer schemes in Kenya, the Cash Transfer for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (CT-OVC) and the Hunger Safety Net Programme (HSNP). / Sociology / D. Phil. (Sociology)

With an increasing rate of urbanisation in East Africa, and with the highest prevalence rate of undernourished population than any region in the developing world, the issue of food access insecurity in urban areas has received considerable attention. While there are noticeable differences between big, medium- and small-sized towns, the variation in the household’s response to food access insecurity across urban hierarchies remains largely unexplored. This study aimed to investigate the social, economic and demographic factors in coping with food access insecurity among households in urban slum areas of Ethiopia. The study used both secondary and primary data sources. The national surveys of household consumption and expenditure survey and welfare monitoring surveys of 2004/5, 2010/11, and 2015/16 was used to analyse the food security situation in Ethiopia across time and urban hierarchies. Primary data of 500 households and three focus group discussions were conducted from slum areas of Addis Ababa, Hawassa, and Sheki representing a big city, medium- and small-sized town, respectively. The household survey data were subjected to descriptive statistical analysis and a standard regression model to investigate the relationship between factors such as household structure and composition, economic resources, social protection programmes and projects, and urban-rural linkages with coping with food access insecurity across urban hierarchies. A global model and three site-specific regression models were constructed. Descriptive results from both the primary and the secondary data sources have revealed that the proportion of the households affected by food shortage varies across the urban hierarchy that food insecurity was highest in the small-sized town as compared with the medium-sized town and the big city. The quality of food consumed was consistently low among female-headed households regardless of their socio-economic characteristics when compared with male-headed households. The result of the regression analysis for the global model has shown that economic resources (asset and source of income) predict nearly half of the variability in coping with food access insecurity. Household structure and composition such as gender and education of the head of the household, family structure (nuclear/extended), and the ratio of young children in the household predict a quarter of the variability in coping. Social protection programs and services predict one-tenth; the remaining variability in coping is explained by the combined effect of all the factors involved. The significance of these factors in predicting coping with food access insecurity, however, varies across the urban hierarchies. The contribution of economic factors in predicting coping is the highest at the big city (Addis Ababa); household structure and composition took the leading role in predicting coping at the small-sized town (Sheki); the significant factors in predicting coping at the mediumsized town (Hawassa) was the combined effect of all the factors involved. Household characteristics such as female headship, a higher ratio of young children, low education of the household head, lack of access to the financial loan, asset and income poverty, and weak linkages with kin structure at rural areas increase vulnerability to food insecurity and put households under stress to cope with food access insecurity. The study results show that the traditional urban-rural dichotomy may not suffice to portray the degree of food insecurity, as well as the mechanisms how food insecure households strive to cope with food access insecurity, which varies across the continuum of urban hierarchies. Those who wish to support food insecurity challenges need to be sensitive to the variability of factors in coping with food access insecurity across urban hierarchies. During policy, design and program implementation policymakers and international partners need to consider that the needs and coping mechanisms of urban households vary across urban hierarchies besides the other social, economic and demographic variables. / Development Studies / Ph. D. (Development Studies)