TITLE: Hearing Loss and Its Social Impacts in Adult Age AUTHOR: Tereza Skákalová DEPARTMENT: Department of Special Education SUPERVISOR: doc. PhDr. Lea Květoňová, Ph.D. ABSTRACT: The present dissertation deals with the issue of the social impacts of hearing loss in adults. The thesis compiles the theoretical knowledge about the hard of hearing and society's attitudes towards them. The gradual change in attitude towards these people throughout various historical periods is described and this description of the evolution of their social status is concluded with the analysis of the current situation in the Czech Republic. The empirical part examines the influence of hearing loss on a person's involvement in modern day society. The research is qualitative and it examines the opinions of the affected people themselves and also experts working with this target group. The results of the research reflect a positive shift in the attitude towards the hard of hearing, but simultaneously show that their needs and abilities remain misunderstood. The most problematic issue is their capability of contribution at work. The findings are compared with other research. On the basis of this comparison the suggestions are formulated to improve the situation. The results of this dissertation can help raise the quality of the...

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This dissertation examines perceptions of purpose in family foundations and the impact of differences in those perceptions on family foundation board composition/function and on grant making activities. One of the primary decisions facing the donor who creates a private foundation relates to governance. Here, the donor arguably faces a deeply personal choice: to what extent should the donor’s family be involved? Related to this choice is the question of the degree of focus on the mission-related aspects of the organization or the family-related aspects of the organization. This dissertation explores whether family foundation trustees view family purposes and social impact purposes as meaningful for the foundation they represent and whether trustees differ with regard to the degree to which they emphasize one or the other. If family foundation trustees do meaningfully differ in this regard, what difference does an emphasis on family or social impact purposes make on board composition, grant making focus and stability, similarity to one’s peers, and other factors? Through a combination of survey, interview, and review of publicly available material, this dissertation explores this question for a sample of family foundation trustees in two Midwestern states.

As the rhetoric of collaborative governance continues to gain popularity in the discourse of public affairs, both scholars and practitioners advocate cross-sector partnerships as a strategy to replace the vertical hierarchy of government with the horizontal approach of governance through a network of actors. This research explores the potential of social impact bonds (SIBs) as an instrument of collaborative governance. An SIB is an approach for broadening social programs, in a multi-faceted partnership among private investors, governments, and nonprofits. In this cross-sector partnership, private investors take on the financial risk of expanding evidence-based social programs provided by nonprofit organizations. In return, the government agency repays investors if the interventions meet measurable goals that demonstrate social impact (McKinsey & Company 2012, 15). Actors involved in the development of SIBs have published the majority of the scholarship to support them. Therefore, much of the literature informing the creation of future bonds is biased, and governments appear hesitant to try them before seeing any results. This study investigates possible disconnections between the arguments for and the practice of SIBs through textual analysis and elite interviewing. I identify three major disparities between the rhetoric and realities of SIBs: measurement of social impact, complexity of partnerships, and transfer of risk. / Master of Arts

Previous studies by Cornforth (2003, 2004), Cornelius et al. (2008), Cornelius and Wallace (2010), and Wallace and Cornelius (2010) highlight the need for further research in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for social enterprises and how their governance systems facilitate social outcomes when aligned to organisational mission. Against this backdrop, the main aim of this study is: to investigate the extent to which social enterprises (not-for-profit social providers) pursue ethical practices and social policies underpinned by their CSR agendas that enhance their stakeholders’ capabilities. The conceptual framework for the study is built on Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach (Sen 1991, 1999). Primary data were collected from face-to-face, in-depth, semi structured interviews with twelve owner-managers of small social enterprises from Bradford, UK. These were designed to understand their enterprise’s ethical views towards the development of deprived communities and the role this has in formulating their enterprise’s CSR agenda. The interview data were transcribed and analysed using constructivist grounded theory. The findings suggest that external CSR provision is often prompted as an immediate reaction to problematic issues arising in society. In general, it consequently lacks sustainability and is insufficiently evaluated for long term social impact. It is therefore argued that the CSR agenda for social enterprises should be based more on the organisation’s social ethos than the current process. Moreover, the findings emphasise the importance of social strategy emanating from governance mechanisms as this was identified as critical for the implementation of the CSR agenda so that social value is created in a structured and planned manner. These findings make a contribution to knowledge by providing conceptual and empirical insights regarding the consequences of social enterprises incorporating capabilities into their CSR policies and practices, and its social impact. Moreover, a conceptual model is developed that reflects the strategic importance of such a convergence in achieving this dual purpose.

Sustainable design is often practiced and assessed through the consideration of three essential areas: economic sustainability, environmental sustainability, and social sustainability. For even the simplest of products, the complexities of these three areas and their trade-offs cause decision making transparency to be lost in most practical situations. Additionally, the models and tools available to consider social sustainability are severely underdeveloped. This thesis is separated into three parts: 1) a design tool to consider all three aspects of sustainability simultaneously, 2) a literature survey to characterize social impact as it relates to products, and 3) interviews with engineering professionals regarding how social impact is currently considered in product design in industry.The existing field of multi-objective optimization offers a natural framework to define and explore a given design space. In chapter 2 of this thesis, a method for defining a products sustainability space (defined by economic, environmental, and social sustainability objectives) is outlined and used to explore the trade-offs within the space, thus offering both the design team and the decision makers a means of better understanding the sustainability trade-offs. This chapter concludes that sustainable product development can indeed benefit from trade-off characterization using multi-objective optimization techniques “ even when using only basic models of sustainability. Interestingly, the unique characteristics of the three essential sustainable development areas lead to an alternative view of some traditional multiobjective optimization concepts, such as weak Pareto optimality. The sustainable redesign of a machine to drill boreholes for water wells is presented as a practical example for method demonstration and discussion. In these efforts it became apparent that the tools for considering social impact were lacking and needed to be further developed.While efforts have been made to identify social impacts, academics, and practitioners still disagree on which phenomena should be included, and few have focused on the impacts of products specifically compared with programs, policies, or other projects. The primary contribution of chapter 3 of this thesis is to integrate scholarship from a wide array of social science and engineering disciplines that categorizes the social phenomena that are affected by products. Specifically, we identify social impacts and processes including population change, family, gender, education, stratification, employment, health and well-being, human rights, networks and communication, conflict and crime, and cultural identity/heritage. These categories are important because they can be used to inform academics and practitioners alike who are interested in creating products that generate positive social benefits for users.Though academic research for identifying and considering the social impact of products is emerging, additional insights can be gained from engineers who design products every day. Chapter 4 explores current practices in industry used by design engineers to consider the social impact of products. 46 individuals from 34 different companies were interviewed to discover what disconnects exist between academia and industry when considering a products social impact. These interviews were also used to discover how social impact might be considered in a design setting moving forward. This is not a study to find the state of the art, but considers the average engineering professionals work to design products in various industries. Social impact assessments (SIA) and social life cycle assessments (SLCA) are two of the most common processes discussed in the literature to evaluate social impact, both generally and in products. Interestingly, these processes did not arise in any discussion in interviews despite respondents affirming that they do consider social impact in product design. Processes used to predict social impact, rather than simply evaluate, were discussed by the respondents and tended to be developed within the company and often related to industry imposed government regulations.The combined work reported in this thesis is a significant step forward in being able to handle the unwieldy nature of social impact in product design in the larger context of sustainability. Not only do these efforts provide a basis upon which future tools can be developed, they are also immediately useful in providing a basic framework upon which to consider the full spectrum of social impact of products during design.

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