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Šiandieninėje visuomenėje nykstant tradicinei šeimai ir tradiciniams bendruomeniškiems santykiams, nyksta bendruomeniniai ryšiai, socialinis solidarumas, bendruomeniškumas – visa tai, kas sudaro vadinamaji socialini kapitala. Socialinio kapitalo paieška tampa užduotimi socialiniui darbuotojui pagalbos šeimai procese. Literaturinė analizė ir atliktas tyrimas atskleidžia šeimos ir bendruomenės poreiki solidarizuotis, neformalios pagalbos šeimai svarba, socialinio darbuotojo vaidmenis bendruomenėje planuojant pagalba šeimai, jaunosios kartos perspektyvas tapti pavyzdine bendruomene, kurioje bus palaikomi bendradarbiaujantys šeimos ir bendruomenės santykiai. Tyrimo objektu pasirinktas socialinės paramos tinklo ieškojimas seniunijoje. Darbo tiksle užsibrėžta išryškinti formalios ir neformalios socialinės paramos tinklus atskleidžiant socialinės pagalbos šeimai galimybes seniunijoje. Tyrimo uždaviniai: 1) išnagrinėti aplinkos veiksniu ir ju saveikos poveiki žmogaus elgesiui, šeimai ir bendruomenei, 2) apžvelgti socialinio darbuotojo vaidmenis bendruomenėje, kuriant neformalios paramos tinklus šeimai, 3) atskleisti jaunuoliu ryšius su šeima ir bendruomeniškumo raiška seniunijoje atliekant tyrima Vilijampolės seniunijos mokyklose. Dėmesys šiame darbe yra sutelktas ties problemine literaturine analize tyrimo ivykdymui yra pasirinktas žvalgybinio tipo tyrimo metodas. Buvo atlikta respondentu anketinė apklausa su Kauno miesto Vilijampolės 10 – tos klasės moksleiviais. Tyrime dalyvavo 22... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / In the modern society we experience family transformations. The number of risk families is increasing in the society. Vanishing the traditional family and the traditional sociality relations, the community relations, sociality, social solidarity are vanishing – everything that makes so-called capital is vanishing. The search of the social capital is becoming the task in the process for the workers of the family help. The literary analysis and performed research open the need of the family and the society to solidarize in helping the family casualness, planning the roles of the social worker in the society and helping the youth generation to become the exemplified community in which the communicating families and socialites will be supported. The investigation object is chosen in searching of the monitored institution of social net help. The purpose tasks are the following: 1. To examine the influence of the environment processes and their interaction for the man’s behavior, for the family and society, to overlook the roles of the social workers in the society, creating the net casualness in helping the family and opening youth relations with the family and the sociality expressing the monitor institutions, performing the investigation in the schools of Viliampole monitor institution. The attention of this work concentrated in the problematic literary analysis. The investigative method is chosen for the reconnaissance. The questionnaire was performed by respondents of the 10th... [to full text]

This project looked at two different sets of data to further understand the relationship between surveillance discourse and the Internet, how surveillance discourse around navigating the Internet has developed, and how children use social technology and digital media for positive communication as well as an alternative space for social engagement. This project argues that there is a disconnect between the way children use social technology, and the approach authoritative websites take in aiming to educate parents, educators, and children on using the Internet safely. This study performs a thematic content analysis on websites that aim to educate on Internet Safety. Additionally, this qualitative study focuses on semi-structured interviews with grade 4-6 students in a French language school in Western Ontario and their reaction to the question, “how do you use technology”. This project is a stepping-stone into many conversations around the possibilities present for the Internet, children, and communication.

This project looked at two different sets of data to further understand the relationship between surveillance discourse and the Internet, how surveillance discourse around navigating the Internet has developed, and how children use social technology and digital media for positive communication as well as an alternative space for social engagement. This project argues that there is a disconnect between the way children use social technology, and the approach authoritative websites take in aiming to educate parents, educators, and children on using the Internet safely. This study performs a thematic content analysis on websites that aim to educate on Internet Safety. Additionally, this qualitative study focuses on semi-structured interviews with grade 4-6 students in a French language school in Western Ontario and their reaction to the question, “how do you use technology”. This project is a stepping-stone into many conversations around the possibilities present for the Internet, children, and communication.

Šiomis dienomis, sparčiai augant tinklaraščių skaičiui, pateiktos informacijos kiekis internete taip pat auga. Tampa sudėtingiau atsirinkti, kurie pateikti straipsniai ir informacija juose yra naudinga, o kurią galima praleisti. Pateiktą didelį kiekį straipsnių būtų lengviau atrinkti, jeigu jie būtų kategorizuojami, įvertintinami ir kaupiami vertinimo sistemose. Kita sparčiai auganti ir populiarėjanti sritis yra socialiniai tinklai. Žmonės buriasi į virtualias bendruomenes, dalijasi savo patirtimi, sukaupta ir įvertinta informacija. Socialiniai tinklai, kol kas egzistuojančiose tinklaraščių sistemose yra nenaudojami, tačiau taikant šią sritį, būtų galima papildomai išnaudoti socialiniaime tinkle sukauptą informaciją, tokią kaip vartotojų tarpusavio pasitkėjimas. Darbe analizuojama pasitikėjimo sąvoka socialiniame tinkle, aptariamos pasitikėjimo savybės. Kuriama tinklaraščių sistema remsis socialiniu tinklu, dėl to iš čia išplaukia pagrindinė ploblema, kaip vartotojas turėtų pasitikėti nepažįstamu kitu vartotoju, remdamasis savo socialinio tinklo ryšiais. Šios problemos sprendimui yra detaliau išnagrinėjami galimi vartotojų tarpusavio skaičiavimo algoritmai. Remiantis išnagrinėtais algoritmas yra parenkamas tinkamiausias metodas – vartotojų pasitikėjimo skaičiavimui galima naudoti Jenifer Ann Golbeck [7] pasiūlytą algoritmą TidalTrust. Tačiau tinklaraščių vertinimo relizacijoje šis algoritmas turi ilgo laiko skaičiavimo problemą, detaliau problema aprašoma 3.1 skyriuje... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The main aim of this work is to create the system of weblog trust. The system will offer to user subjective evaluation about the article. To calculate the subjective evaluation there is used social network. There are users, who evaluates articles according the system of evaluation. The same time they form network of trust. Estimators doesn‘t know each other directly. There comes main question, how to calculate trust of unfamiliar users. In this study there will be elaborating algorithms of users intertrust and right selection. To TidalTrust algorithm, there will be offered extention, which solves the main problem of time counting. Using calculated algorithm of users intertrust there will be offered approach of calculation, which gives us the recomendationt of article trust.

Individuals, communities, non-government organizations and governments are in constant pursuit of intelligent responses to the complex socio-environmental challenges they encounter. The capacity to respond effectively to these contemporary challenges is deeply dependent on the presence of effective governance processes. Governance scholarship has typically been limited to individual elements such as frameworks (hierarchical or market or network), tools (e.g., regulation) or actors (e.g., government). The goal of this thesis is to characterize and explain transformations in water governance in order to offer insight into how more effective governance processes can be created. Transformations in governance speak to the dynamic nature of governing, and highlight the consistent push and pull between, and amongst, the various components at play. Components include actors, formal and informal structures, and the social, economic and environmental contexts in which governance is embedded. Critically each of these components also exists and has influence at multiple levels, adding to the complex and dynamic nature of governance. This research argues that the core elements (frameworks, tools, actors) should be examined individually, as well as collectively, and within context of the various components in order to obtain a holistic perspective on governance process. This holistic perspective is necessary if we are to garner a true understanding of how governance is ultimately designed, contested and transformed. The research focuses on a large-scale water governance case in southern Ontario that is governed by its own provincial legislation ??? the first of its kind in Canada. The research examines governance frameworks as situated within the broader architecture, tools, and actor dynamics in the Lake Simcoe watershed and how they evolved over a 30-year period. Interviews, archival research, surveys and social network analyses were utilized in a mixed methods approach. The first governance element examined in this thesis is the architecture of the entire system over the 30 year time period. Rather than conduct a narrow analysis of an individual governance framework in a select period of time, the research takes a high level perspective to identify the transitions between governance frameworks, and the social, economic, and environmental tensions and drivers that initiated change. Particular value is offered by the use of social network analysis to visually identify the structure and statistically evaluate the governance framework at multiple phases in the research period. The second element of governance, tools, is then assessed. Specifically, the utility of a watershed boundary for water governance is examined. The thesis argues that the watershed boundary has value, but should be applied in limited and focus ways, and greater attention should be given to governance processes that transcend the watershed boundary. The final element examined is actors. Early in the thesis, focus is given to the role of government, but in the final section particular attention is given to the role of non-government actors. The research describes how the role and activities of non-government actors has advanced beyond late 20th century approaches, where recent trends display more innovative and entrepreneurial characteristics. The research offers nine important insights for theory and practice in water governance. (1) Governance processes have the potential to be flexible, adaptive and responsive. (2) A reduced presence of government does not always hold back processes of governance. (3) Existing tools can be re-imagined for new processes. (4) Non-government actors have agency (5) Give attention to individual knowledge and capacity through a distributed governance approach (6) Give attention to time and the building of scientific knowledge (7) Give attention to need for effectively facilitated processes (8) Give attention to emerging opportunity (9) Permits space for creative destruction. Collectively, the findings from this research further develop scholarship on the individual elements of governance, as well as speak to the transformations in water governance as a whole.

Thesis (M.Com. (Business Management))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

I report on the findings of an inductive, interpretive multiple-case study of organizational cross-cultural adaptation and answer the question of how foreign companies can overcome the challenges of fitting into their host environment. Based on in-depth interview data from nine Chinese firms operating in the United States, I explore the content and drivers of firm-level cross-cultural adaptation. The emergent framework demonstrates a dynamic and comprehensive process at the firm level, involving a multilevel and multidimensional adaptation to fit through social networking. The identified patterns of adaptors reveal the link between cross-cultural adaptation and functional fitness of firms in a foreign environment. The study also identifies the boundary conditions of the cross-cultural adaptation of foreign firms. In addition, the study highlights the previously underserved aspect of functional fitness in a foreign environment and its essential role in influencing a firm’s overseas performance.

With more and more images being uploaded to social networks each day, the resources for identifying a large portion of the world are available. However the tools to harness and utilize this information are not sufficient. This thesis presents a system, called PhacePhinder, which can build a face database from a social network and have it accessible from mobile devices. Through combining existing technologies, this is made possible. It also makes use of a fusion probabilistic latent semantic analysis to determine strong connections between users and content. Using this information we can determine the most meaningful social connection to a recognized person, allowing us to inform the user of how they know the person being recognized. We conduct a series of offline and user tests to verify our results and compare them to existing algorithms. We show, that through combining a user’s friendship information as well as picture occurrence information, we can make stronger recommendations than based on friendship alone. We demonstrate a working prototype that can identify a face from a picture taken from a mobile phone, using a database derived from images gathered directly from a social network, and return a meaningful social connection to the recognized face.

Studies of adaptive governance in social-ecological systems have identified common features that assist social actors in responding to environmental pressures. Among these features, multiple sources of ecological knowledge, trust, and networks between actors have been highlighted as properties that contribute to successful governance arrangements. However, studies in adaptive governance have also been critiqued using a political ecology approach. This is due to their under-theorization of political elements that can constrain or promote the formation of the features of adaptive governance. In particular, power dynamics between actors and the subsequent privileging of one source of knowledge over another might have an effect on governance arrangements. In China, environmental degradation is a serious issue. The Qinhuai River, located in the city of Nanjing, has experienced significant ecological decline over the last 30 years as urbanization pressures on the system increased. Over the same period, China has undergone changes in state-society relations, including allowing the formation of NGOs. Since the turn of the millennium, several NGOs have begun working on issues related to the Qinhuai River, including raising awareness and producing information on the environment. This study examines the features of adaptive governance in a critical light by situating them in the local political context of China. The relationship between NGOs, fishers who use the Qinhuai River and government are examined using Social Network Analysis and semi-structured interviews in order to understand the production of information, networking and trust between these actors. It is shown that the existing arrangements to include NGOs and fishers in the river’s governance activities are guided by a corporatist system of state-sanctioned representation. This is not conducive to adaptive governance arrangements, despite the increasing existence of ENGO networks and new sources of knowledge over the last decade. It is thus important that studies of adaptive governance take steps to contextualize their findings within the local political climate.