There isn¡¦t any clear definition on the discussion of Local Democracy. There are some similar concepts that are easily confused with us, such as local government, local autonomy, localism, and local democracy¡Ketc. Therefore, it¡¦s necessary to clear and find out the relationship among them. In addition, the dichotomy of democracy in the UK polity is particularly conspicuous in relation to local government. Consequently, The challenge is that how we apply the theories to the reality. I will use the approach of historical institutionalism to illustrate the development of UK local democracy. Meanwhile, it¡¦s reasonable to base a normative theory of local government or local democracy on the concept of ¡¥limited democracy.¡¦ In the light of the complexity of local government levels, I will focus my study on England. Case study and document analysis will be the research method of this essay. The process of history should be included six stages. I will make a brief analysis on the institution, actors, and events of each stage. After that, I will synthesize the path and its relationship with the change of voters¡¦ attitudes. The research results included: As for UK polity, although local democracy is the catch phrase of New Labour¡¦s programme for local government, it should not be an unfamiliar concept. The concept of local democracy doesn¡¦t necessarily equate to local autonomy; to some extent, the interdependence between them cannot be ignored. The path of UK local democracy tends to step from the theoretical model of localism to economy and efficiency. When we observe the low turnout of UK local election recent years, the voters¡¦ apathy has been a social normal phenomenon. The reality seems to undermine the immutable and sacrosanct place for democracy in the institutions of local government. However, are the things ostensibly unreasonable really bad? From the enlightenment of the approach of historical institutionalism, the voters have been incorporated into UK polity. Under the constraint of UK polity, they play the role of ¡¥maximizing satisfiers¡¦, unless major issues. In a word, if we want to learn from the lesson of UK local democracy, we have to rethink it again and again. And then, we may have an audit of the health of local democracy in Britain

How and why do organizations approach greening? How can we conceptualize approaches and how can we encourage reflexive dialogues on them? These are the main questions addressed in this qualitative study on organizational greening. The study sets off by discussing matters of research philosophy, arguing that our trust in science ought to be revised and that a more postmodern and constructionist philosophy might be a way to go. This is then followed by a theoretical review, showing that organizational studies have a history in environmental issues, but that it is basically technocentric in orientation. A more reflexive organizational approach is suggested. The empirical part of the study is based on qualitative research of five case studies, representing a mix of organizations situated in Sweden, all with an explicit ambition to approach greening. The analyses target the organizations' approaches from practice to assumptions, pointing at the commonalities as well as the tensions. Basically, greening was an issue for all studied organizations, but an increasing pressure to market-orient their operations in line with the business rhetoric dominated their identity construction. The environment was included if there were opportunities of win-win situations between environment and economy in sight. Once embarked upon, the organizations tended to focus on technocratic practices, developing or implementing management systems, product development indexes, life-cycle methodologies and other tools. On a more philosophical level, in the study referred to as the worldview level, the approaches were predominandy characterized by a representative epistemology and a dualistic ontology, that is, they were clearly anthropocentric. With a base in these findings, an alternative approach is discussed as a way out, or as a way of constructing a reflexive dialogue on greening. This is partly based on the tensions within and between the cases, which encouraged reflections on how greening was approached. In the alternative, organizations are seen as actors on a symbolic agora where transparency, participation and self-reflexivity are keys to organizational legitimacy. This view frames organizations in the dominating approach as agoraphobic producers of materialistically dependent satisfiers. The alternative also targets the limits of a preference and materialistically oriented view on die satisfaction of human needs. Instead, it is argued that environmental and cultural sensitivity should be acknowledged as natural parts of organizational greening. This, however, demands more room for reflexive dialogues encouraging ontological awareness and a respect for more ecocentric views. / digitalisering@umu

Organizational learning causes organizational change. Different descriptive models have been proposed, but little research on variables influencing these processes has been done. Needs govern our behavior and motivate our acting. It has been shown that their identification and satisfaction effect value-creating and knowledge-intensive activities, such as innovation processes, strategy development, and product design. However, needs are usually implicitly anchored in organizations and people can hardly articulate them. Despite the fact that a focus on needs does not prescribe any concrete strategy, but extends opportunities to act, an initial consideration of needs often lacks. Consequently, their role as an influencing variable for organizational learning has not been investigated yet. Addressing this gap, this dissertation explores the nature of needs and how they can enhance organizational learning processes. It introduces a novel theory on needs for organizational practice which emphasizes the potential of a focus on needs. It argues why considering needs is beneficial for learning initiatives, such as vision or strategy development, in which various expectations which presumably emerge from shared needs have to be combined. Shared needs within a social system can trigger organizational learning and facilitate the design of new consensual satisfaction strategies (satisfiers). The theory allows for understanding the motivational forces of organizational learning and exploiting the postulated one-to-many relation between needs and satisfiers. Moreover, it points at influencing variables for the organizational transition from needs to need satisfaction and illustrates that by a knowledge perspective resulting in the concept of "need-based solution knowledge". This knowledge enables people to propose viable satisfiers in organizations. We introduce the methodological framework "Bewextra" that targets at the capacity to identify needs in organizations. It rests upon theories from various scientific fields and utilizes "learning from an envisioned future" as a core method. This enables to literally envision a desired future scenario in which all needs are intuitively fulfilled, and thereby allows for the creation of knowledge about needs. The research follows the action research paradigm which proposes a combinational interplay between rational and empirical research processes, in which various (qualitative) research methods are used. Besides theoretical considerations, the dissertation reports about four research projects in which the theories and methods were applied, reflected, and refined. More specifically, it presents how "Bewextra" was implemented and adjusted and demonstrates that a combination of conventional learning from the past and "learning from an envisioned future" enhances the outcome of organizational learning in various domains. Moreover, it investigates the differences between organizational strategies, that emerge with reference to needs, and strategies, that are developed without explicitly considering needs.

This study analysis the concept of human needs form a systematic theological perspective. The definition of human needsis formulated to include the element of deficiency as well as the element of potential The study is divided in three parts according to the author’s definition of the task of systematic theology as coherent articulation of the Christian faith, the apologetic defense of the Christian faith against competing truth claims and the establishment of guidelines for the practical work of the church. According to this definition of the task of systematic theology, the study is divided into three parts. Part one analyses some of the classical loci of dogmatics for their implications for a Christian perspective on human needs. The doctrines of God, creation, Christ and salvation, the Spirit and the church as well as the doctrine of sin are analysed here. Special attention is paid to theological anthropology by analyzing the contributions of Karl Barth and Wolfhart Pannenberg in this regard. Part two analyses the origins and factual basis for the popular claims that a hierarchy of needs exist and that people have infinite needs. Serious deficiencies are found in Maslow’s theory of the pre-potency of needs. The contribution of Max-Neref, especially his distinction between needs and satisfies, facilitates a more nuanced understanding of the subject. As a conclusion to this part the results of part one and two are used to give a short outline of a Christian perspective on human needs. Humans need God as the basic ground and purpose of their existence. The presence of God is both mediated and presupposed by the fundamental need for other people. All human needs have a material basis. Human needs should be thought of as a network and not as a hierarchy. Here the symbolic needs facilitates the integration of the person while the material needs maintain the basis on which integration takes place People do not have infinite needs but needs the Infinite One. The third part provides clarity of what the concepts holistic and relevant mean for Christian ministry. / Thesis (DD (Dogmatics and Christian Ethics))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Dogmatics and Christian Ethics / unrestricted

Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-04T12:42:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010 / No presente estudo objetivamos contribuir ao debate sobre a promoção da saúde em contextos locais, com ênfase na relação entre a saúde e o ambiente, visando práticas que possibilitem relações emancipatórias. Destina-se em particular a discutir as bases conceituais que possibilitem práticas de promoção da saúde visando o engajamento de jovens moradores de periferias urbanas a partir de uma visão crítica e contextualizada de desenvolvimento. Considerando-se a importância da interface entre a saúde pública e a população em geral, as noções de qualidade de vida e de promoção da saúde foram escolhidas porserem grandes articuladoras do diálogo entre a saúde e outros setores da sociedade. Na intenção de construir uma visão onde a saúde e o ambiente são indissociáveis, optou-se por discutir a temática do desenvolvimento focalizando-se no nível local. Dentro da teoria crítica, mas crendo que o pólo da emancipação não está esgotado, buscamos identificar principalmente a partir dos espaços estruturais dassociedades capitalistas modernas de Boaventura de Souza Santos, aspectos de regulação e da emancipação nas formulações da qualidade de vida e da promoção da saúde e apontando, de maneira sucinta, potenciais emancipatórios que poderão contribuir para o desenvolvimento de práticas de promoção da saúde. De forma complementar à teoria crítica de Santos, escolheu-se para aprofundamento e como contraponto, a alternativa de desenvolvimento denominada Desenvolvimento a Escala Humana de Max-Neef, a qual relaciona diretamente as noções de desenvolvimento com qualidade de vida. Destacam-se dois aspectos nessaproposta: (i) a discussão sobre necessidades, satisfatores e bens em sua relação com o desenvolvimento, cujas contradições e potencialidades nos ajudam, acreditamos, a melhor contextualizar limites e possibilidades de ações de promoção; (ii) a centralidade das ações das pessoas (vistas não como objetos) na construção de melhor qualidade de vida. Tendo por referência as discussões anteriores, realizamos como exercício teórico a análise de uma das mais importantes referências no campo da vigilância ambiental, a matriz de dados da OMS, a qual visa relacionar uma cadeia causal que vai das forças motrizes aos efeitos à saúde humana a partir de problemas concretos de saúde ambiental. A partir desta análise são apontados alguns desafios e fragilidades dessa abordagem como base de uma promoção da saúde emancipatória Conclui-se a tese com uma reflexão acerca da possibilidade de na formação de jovens através da iniciação científica, se pensar práticas educativas em saúde críticas da ideologia hegemônica de desenvolvimento baseadas na regulação. Vislumbra-se estas alternativas, agregando práticas que comportem análises locais de positividades e de construção do futuro, tendo como aporte inicial o ferramental dos cenários prospectivos conjugados ao pensamento a escala humana, da dupla ruptura epistemológica de Boaventura e também incorporando contribuições do educador Paulo Freire,destacando-se sua visão a respeito do futuro. / The present study aimed to contribute to the debate on health promotion in local contexts, with emphasis on the relationship between health and the environment in order to foster emancipatory relations. It focuses especially on the discussion of the conceptual bases that allow practice of health promotion aimed at engaging young people living in urban peripheries from a critical view of development. Considering the importance of the interface between public health and the general population, the notions of quality of life and health promotion have been chosen for being great articulators of the dialogue between health and other sectors of society. In the intention to build a vision where health and the environment are inextricably linked, we chose to discuss the issue of development focusing on the local level. Within critical theory, but believing that the pole of emancipation is not exhausted, we identified mainly from the "structural spaces of modern capitalist societies" in Boaventura de Souza Santos, aspects of regulation and emancipation in the formulations of the quality of life and health promotion and pointing, succinctly, the emancipatory potential that could contribute to the development of practices to promote health Viewing to complement Santos´ critical theory, it has been chosen for further development and as a counterpoint, the alternative development called the Human Scale Development of Max-Neef, which directly relates the notions of development and quality of life. Among them are two aspects in this proposal: (i) the discussion of needs, satisfiers and property in its relation to development, whose both contradictions and potentialities help us, we believe, contextualize limits and possibilities of promotion activities in a better way, (ii) centrality of the actions of people (not viewed as objects) to build a better quality of life. With reference to previous discussions, conducted as a theoretical exercise to an analysis of the most important landmarks in the field of environment monitoring, the data matrix of WHO, which aims to relate a causal chain that goes from the driving 11 forces for the human health effects from practical problems of environmental health. From this analysis are pointed out some challenges and weaknesses of this approach as a basis for emancipatory health promotion. The thesis is concluded with a reflection on the possibility of the formation of youth through basic scientific research, taking into account health education criticism of hegemonic ideology of development based on the regulation. Conjecture about these alternatives, adding practices involving local analysis of positivity and to build the future, and tooling as the initial contribution of future scenarios combined to thought the human scale, double epistemological rupture of Boaventura and also incorporating contributions of the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, highlighting his vision concerning the future.

The aim of this study was to identify those job factors that determine the level of motivation in the Nigerian Federal Civil Service Commission and to establish how this knowledge can be used to increase motivation and job satisfaction across the Nigerian Federal Civil Service. A wide variety of theories on motivation and job satisfaction were studied. Herzberg's dual-factor theory of job satisfaction was used as the defining basis for the empirical part of the study. The findings both supported and refuted the theory. Both intrinsic and extrinsic job variables influenced the work motivation of respondents, with specific extrinsic variables having a significant effect, contrary to Herzberg's findings. A difference was also recorded among senior staff who appeared more motivated by intrinsic variables and junior staff who tended to emphasise extrinsic job variables. / Public Administration / D. Admin.

The aim of this study was to identify those job factors that determine the level of motivation in the Nigerian Federal Civil Service Commission and to establish how this knowledge can be used to increase motivation and job satisfaction across the Nigerian Federal Civil Service. A wide variety of theories on motivation and job satisfaction were studied. Herzberg's dual-factor theory of job satisfaction was used as the defining basis for the empirical part of the study. The findings both supported and refuted the theory. Both intrinsic and extrinsic job variables influenced the work motivation of respondents, with specific extrinsic variables having a significant effect, contrary to Herzberg's findings. A difference was also recorded among senior staff who appeared more motivated by intrinsic variables and junior staff who tended to emphasise extrinsic job variables. / Public Administration and Management / D. Admin.