AbstractCross-sector collaboration is an innovative strategy and practice to be implemented by socially-driven organizations towards reaching sustainable development goals. However, it is challenging to develop successful, effective collaborations that are important to cross-sector dynamics and political contexts, particularly in developing countries, such as Indonesia. Therefore, the paper aims to examine how socially-driven organizations in Indonesia collaborate with other sectors by using certain factors. Besides, this research also investigates the success and failure factors of collaboration among sectors. To meet this goal, this paper examines three essential factors for cross-sector collaborations (power distribution, communication, and shared goals) from three different sectors (socially-driven organizations, governments, and societies).The research was conducted by semi-structured interviews using Zoom for video communication. In addition, the interview was analyzed by content analysis, while Bryson et al. (2015) are used to identify the sectors and factors of collaboration. The results showed that the three collaborative factors that are used in this research significantly affect the development of the organization to collaborate with the external three sectors. Furthermore, quality education becomes the most common goal of all collaboration. In addition, face to face communication, and the use of social media have a huge impact on the communication, promotion of the goals and defining the power to the other collaboration sectors. However, communication breakdown, unclear goals, powerless figures, and bureaucratic procedures become the main challenges of collaboration. Therefore, organizations need to develop alternative ways to tackle these issues.Keywords: cross-sector collaboration, socially-driven organization, Sustainable Development Goals, Semi-structured interview, document analysis, power distribution, shared goals, communication.

Thesis advisor: Raquel Muñiz / Due to opportunity and achievement gaps in schools, leaders face the challenge of monitoring student expectations related to academic rigor and emotional health. As a result, social and emotional learning (SEL) has gained traction for students in the field of education. However, SEL competencies are rarely developed with the adults who work with these students. In this dissertation in practice, interviews, observations and questionnaires were used to collect data about the practices of school-based leaders in a qualitative case study at the elementary and middle school levels. Research revealed what leadership practices modeled SEL competencies, practices such as those involving time and resources, relationship building and sharing of expertise; and how they shaped the ways in which adults collaborate, including honest and authentic dialogue, adult learning, and the improvement of practices. This is important due to the many leadership practices employed in schools that influence adult behaviors. The findings suggest that socially and emotionally competent leadership considers both an awareness of self and other, as it cultivates individual capabilities, collaborative relationships, and a greater capacity in the schools in which it exists. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

This thesis investigates the myriad of responses and complex relationships residents have to the stigma attached to their neighbourhood, one categorised by the police as socially vulnerable (Nationella operativa avdelningen 2019). This research explores the narrative of place to diffuse some complexity around the multidimensional positions people have to stigma and stigmatising imagery of place. Drawing on qualitative interview material, with past and present residents in Hisings Backa, this thesis explores the narrative of stigmatisation from experiential and temporal perspectives of understanding the place of Hisings Backa. Using a feminist approach, the research highlights the importance of understanding everyday experiences of place and space in the context of locating the wider effects of place stigma.

Reading the book Perform or Else by Jon Mckenzie along with the social distancing, isolation, and all the ongoing challenging and forced experiences of the 2020-21 Covid-19 pandemic era, on one hand, and my interests in performance art and physicality, on the other hand, made me think how can I create a work that represents an image of the body, the concept of action, and the idea of togetherness which are all essential for performance art, and/or for any performance. All art disciplines combine theory and practice in order to depict the relationship between bodies, art, and education, and as history proves, theory is always intended to be put into practice. The theoretical and practical in this written thesis begins with its title This Is Not a Thesis; continues by furthering the idea of Perform or Else, asking instead Thesis or Else; and goes on to serve its purpose of being a theoretical concern, a narrative, a genre in and of itself, an exercise in authorship, and furthermore, function as a documentation of documentation of my art – performance – practice. The series of written pieces, performances (rejected proposals), and images (documents) compiled here are meant to create a space between authorship and performance art. This Is Not a Thesis demonstrates the rejection and acceptance of the same thing at the same time.

The main goal of this diploma thesis is based on conceptual analysis and empirical research to assess the suitability of the concept of poverty culture (Oscar Lewis) for analyzing the situation of socially excluded people - specifically Roma - in the Czech Republic with emphasis on education. In the first part of the work I will focus on the analysis of key terms and concepts related to racism, ethnicity and especially the culture of poverty. The second part is devoted to the issue of Roma education in the Czech Republic. I will use the knowledge from these parts as a basis for the operationalization of the given conceptual field into a form usable for empirical research. The last part introduces the implementation of a qualitative research probe between teachers and teaching assistants in a selected socially excluded locality, which focuses mainly on their work motivation and approach to socially excluded localities, etc. My research shows that the concept of Oscar Lewis can be applied in a school environment.

In the last decade, socially assistive robots have been used in therapeutic treatments for individuals diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs). Preliminary studies have demonstrated positive results using the Penguin for Autism Behavioral Intervention (PABI) developed by the AIM Lab at WPI to assist individuals diagnosed with ASDs in Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) therapy treatments. In recent years, power-efficient embedded AI computing devices have emerged as a powerful technology by reducing the complexity of the hardware platforms while providing support for parallel models of computation. This new hardware architecture seems to be an important step in the improvement of socially assistive robots in ABA therapy. In this thesis, we explore the use of a power-efficient embedded AI computing device and pre-trained deep learning models to improve PABI’s performance. Five main contributions are made in this work. First, a robot-enhanced ABA therapy framework is designed. Second, a multilayer pattern software architecture for a robot-enhanced ABA therapy framework is explored. Third, a multifactorial experiment is completed in order to benchmark the performance of three popular deep learning frameworks over the AI computing device. Experimental results demonstrate that some deep learning frameworks utilize the resources of GPU power while others utilize the multicore ARM-CPU system of the device for its parallel model of computation. Fourth, the robustness of state-of-the-art pre-trained deep learning models for feature extraction is analyzed and contrasted with the previous approach used by PABI. Experimental results indicate that pre-trained deep learning models overcome the traditional approaches in some fields; however, combining different pre-trained models in a process reduces its accuracy. Fifth, a patient-tracking algorithm based on an identity verification approach is developed to improve the autonomy, usability, and interactions of patients with the robot. Experimental results show that the developed algorithm has the potential to perform as well as the previous algorithm used by PABI based on a deep learning classifier approach.

Over the past decade, sustainability has emerged as one of the foremost issues faced by corporations across all sectors and Corporate Social Responsibility has gained much momentum in the past two decades. This research investigated whether investors in emerging markets are equally concerned about a firm’s social and environmental impacts as their counterparts in developed economies. The aim was to ascertain whether or not a correlation exists between CSR and stock market performance of South African listed companies. This was the first study undertaken in South Africa that specifically investigated the relative performances of SRI listed and non-SRI listed companies. The findings reveal that there are observable differences between the average market returns of the FTSE/JSE Socially Responsible Investment Index and the FTSE/JSE All Share Index, as well as the average price/earnings ratios and average price/book value ratios of all companies listed the JSE Main Board. Although two out of the three hypotheses failed to yield significant statistical outcomes, all the findings were in favour of the SRI. The research has opened up the avenue for future studies to investigate the purported links between sustainability and financial performance in the context of emerging markets. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Much of the existing literature on the social aspects of sustainability in the supply chain has focused on dyadic buyer-supplier relationships. However, supply chains are much more extensive, featuring multi-tiered systems consisting of many interconnected sequential and parallel dyadic relationships; therefore, a more expansive and holistic approach to exploring the management and integration of social sustainability standards across the extended supply chain is desirable. This research attempts to help fill this void and considers the extent to which a series of sequential upstream and downstream supply chain partners, rather than only a focal organization’s immediate suppliers and buyers, influence the formulation process of the social aspects of a sustainability strategy and the deployment of associated practices across the extended supply chain. Findings in the literature indicate that, inter alia, sustainability efforts in the supply chain are likely to be guided by stakeholders’ sustainability desires/requirements, the geographical location of buyers and suppliers and the associated sustainability enforcement regulations and cultural norms, and the volume of trade between the buyer and supplier. This paper uses the results gleaned from a review of the literature to propose a conceptual framework for selection of sustainability strategy across the multi-tiered supply chain. Finally, we introduce a conceptual approach to the process of implementing and deploying the social aspects of sustainability strategies and practices across the supply chain using an integrated social-sustainability information management system (ISIMS).

The socially responsible customer segment is growing. Increasingly, customers are concerned about social, political, and environmental issues. These concerns have been shown to affect their attitudes towards the quality of goods and services as well as their buying behaviors. Nevertheless, there is a paucity of empirical research in the service literature on socially responsible customers. This study investigates the role that social responsibility plays in measuring service quality. Both qualitative and quantitative techniques were used in this study. Focus group and in-depth interviews were conducted to develop a scale measuring the social responsibility dimension in the evaluation of service quality. Confirmatory factor analysis and a multiple regression method were then utilized to test four hypotheses postulated in the study. The social responsibility scale consisted of eight items and was shown to be highly reliable. This scale along with the 22 items from the perception part of SERVQUAL formed the Socially Responsible Customer (SRC) SERVQUAL instrument used in this study. A total of 803 respondents completed the survey. The results of confirmatory factor analysis showed that social responsibility was a salient dimension of service quality and highly socially responsible customers used the concept of social responsibility more pronouncedly than the others when evaluating service quality. The social responsibility dimension alone significantly explained the variance in service quality. However, after accounting for the existing five SERVQUAL dimensions, the social responsibility dimension does not add a significant increment to the variance explained by the service quality regression model. / Ph. D.

Philanthropy and philanthropic associations and organizations were highly active in European countries in the 19th century, because of the widespread poverty that affected people of the lower class. Poverty, and solutions for it, was highly debated and resulted in different policies that affected the image of and conditions for the population in need. In this time of distress, people of the philanthropic organizations, made it possible for children to be relocated to other families, to be under better conditions during their growth. Because of the religious roots and agenda that philanthropic organizations possessed, it is interesting to investigate how this might have been an act of controlling, disciplining and monitoring the socially vulnerable. This thesis intended to study the underlying motives of the said institution by analyzing discourses of the children and parents through subject positions, discipline mechanisms and surveillance. The results demonstrated that there were acts of normalization and discipline of the poor by taking them out of their said to be morally corrupted homes and conditioning them in another with Christian morality and rituals. Children and their parents were monitored through the community and children were highly observed through follow-ups when committed in the association. There were also acts of othering by describing children and parents as the opposite of the desirable norms and therefore increasing the distance between the socially vulnerable and the upper class. Mothers were especially vulnerable when describing the parents as immoral, frivolous and prurient.