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International migration flows and patterns shaped by the determinants, processes and outcomes of social, political, and economic conditions have led to important transformation of society and human geographies. As Canada continues to effectively manage its immigration system and uphold its commitment to international refugee protection and resettlement, it is critical for Canada to do so with an understanding of the changing context of immigration, which are reinforced by shifting policies and their impact, in our contemporary society. In this thesis, the migration trajectory of three groups of newcomers to Canada; international students, Syrian refugees, and refugee youth, are explored by examining policies and conditions that can create group risks and vulnerabilities in immigration, settlement, and integration as groups transition to life in Canada after arrival. As suggested by Castle (2010) migration researchers can advance the field by embedding their work in broader theories of social change to facilitate understanding of the complexity, interconnectedness, variability, contextuality, and multi-mediation of migratory process in the context of rapid change. This thesis employs a geographical lens of place to deepen understanding of processes and outcomes in our contemporary society, while responding to these evolving contexts in one mid-size, post-industrial Canadian city. In three separate research, this thesis examines: 1) economic immigration flow under Express Entry in 2015 and 2016; 2) the role of the voluntary sector during the Syrian Refugee Resettlement Initiative in Hamilton, Ontario in 2016; and 3) the place of school-based settlement in bridging and brokering school-based mental health for newcomer youth. / Thesis / Doctor of Science (PhD) / As Canada continues to effectively manage its immigration system and uphold its commitment to international refugee protection and resettlement, it is critical for Canada to do so with an understanding of the changing context of immigration in our contemporary society. In this thesis, I examine the migration trajectory of three groups of newcomers to Canada; international students, Syrian refugees, and refugee youth, by asking two overarching research questions that explores policies and conditions that can create group risks and vulnerabilities in immigration, settlement, and integration. This thesis seeks to understand how policies could be addressed to improve successful outcome for newcomers. This thesis employs a geographical lens of place to deepen understanding of processes and outcomes in our contemporary society, while responding to these evolving contexts in one mid-size, post-industrial Canadian city.

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Yes / This paper reports on a case study involving a strategic and innovative approach to creation of an in-house multifaceted digital engineering platform (the DEP) in overcoming a number of organisational problems at a multinational engineering company. The DEP was to be used strategically for simplifying the operational complexity and to create and appropriate new work-related mind-set and new organisational discourse to achieve homogenous working across the organisation, which is a huge challenge. The need for this system emerged from the need to resolve many organisational services related problems that carried phenomenal amount of processes, health and safety risks and to regulate, and, control the running of engineering project. Research data were collected using a longitudinal case study approach over a period of six months. In order to make sense of how the DEP helped the organisation, the study used certain elements of Extended Structuration Theory as a lens to assess the case study. This research discovered that the DEP succeeded in creating and appropriating work-related mind-set and organisational discourse. It also had real influence on working processes and employees at all levels while encouraging transparency, responsiveness, agility and accountability. It continues to help the organisation to govern, manage and maintain good standard of service but many barriers still remain.

India experienced huge media coverage from all over the world associated with the Nirbhaya-case in 2012, when a young middleclass girl was brutally raped in a bus by five men in Delhi. After this horrifying incident a lot of demonstrations followed all over India. Women in the urban areas was arguing for the same rights as men and was standing up for a more equal society where everybody is able to live as freely as someone else, no matter what gender you was born with. This study aim to examine what experiences, perceptions and opinions Indian journalists in English written press have of their reality from a gender perspective. We wanted to know how and when Indian journalist represent women and if there is a certain way of thinking about representation of women in the media content. In interviews with a total of eleven journalists and ethnographic observations in two of India’s largest cities we tried to examine the structures and perceptions that influenced the journalist’s worldview and thus also the messages that appears in the news. By using the theory of structuration, agenda setting, performativity and intersectionality we examined what structures that the journalists live and operates within and how this is affecting the media content.

his study attempts to obtain a holistic view of ICT application and its impact in the context of a developing economy taking the Lebanese Ministry of Finance as a case study. It draws on the works of Heeks and Stanforth (2007) and Tseng (2008) for the pre-deployment phase of the e-Gov application and the post-implementation phase respectively. Heeks and Stanforth used actor network theory to study the trajectory taken by the Sri Lankan e-Gov project, while Tseng used a form of Structuration theory known as Orlikowski's Model of Technology to gauge the impact of an Electronic Government Information System (EGIS) on the Taiwanese Ministry employees. To the knowledge of the researcher the chosen research site has never been investigated before. This necessitated that the design phase of the study needed to be assessed first in order to get in-depth information about the contingent and local contextual factors and to ascertain the level of progress in the design and deployment of the ICT tools and techniques. For the post- implementation phase, this longitudinal study assessed the perceived effectiveness of the ICT impact on the end users - the employees. In addition, secondary data collected from the Ministry and the International Monetary Fund was used to corroborate the research. The study found that the use of 'trajectory mapping' was a crucial tool for investigating the initial ICT adoption process. This is due to its strength in exposing contextual factors, its ability to identify social and technical determinism at different stages of the investigation and its suitability in revealing political wrangling and identifying the dynamism of power in a public institution. The study's findings also reveal the presence of both technical determinism and social determinism throughout the project, restructuring of the organisation due to the introduction of an ICT unit and job redesign in the whole MoF. The study also found out that ICT resulted in a power shift within the organisation by having the IT unit gain power due to its ICT knowledge. The investigation, however, could not find a direct relationship between the 'degree of success' end point suggested by Heeks and Stanforth (2007) and the sought benefits from the ICT impact. In other words, the proposed 'degree of success' may only explain the design aspect of the EGIS, however, this study found that success or demise depends also on the implementation process and the preparedness of citizens to receive such IT services. Furthermore, the study was able to empirically investigate the applicability of the three layered model suggested by Omoteso et al. (2007) and found out that considering contingency as dynamic is more applicable than the static contingency proposed in the model. The study realised that there is a great need for a continuous, contemporary training process in the ever-changing ICT environment in order to achieve uninterrupted positive results. Finally, the study indicates that lack of vertical communication, as observed in the Lebanese public institution, between users, ICT designers, and decision makers weaken the whole change process. Therefore, it suggests a form of knowledge management application using ICT as the main venue, a transition from the current mechanistic (bureaucratic) structure to an organic (flat) structure.

A inovação orientada para a sustentabilidade (IOS) tem sido um dos posicionamentos assumidos por diversas empresas que afirmam contribuir para o desenvolvimento sustentável. Nessa perspectiva, as empresas reconhecem a problemática da escassez de recursos e de diversos problemas socioambientais e alinham sua estratégia de inovação para novos produtos e processos que, de alguma forma, poderiam ser considerados como sustentáveis. A fim de entender esse fenômeno por meio de uma lente teórica que leve em consideração os indivíduos inseridos nas atividades de inovação, este projeto teve como objetivo geral compreender a dinâmica de estruturação das práticas sociais dos processos de IOS. Como suporte teórico, foi utilizada a teoria da estruturação de Giddens (1984) e como estratégia metodológica adotou-se o estudo de caso, realizado junto a duas unidades de negócios de uma empresa multinacional. Foi possível descrever a estruturação das práticas que ocorrem no processo de inovação. Evidenciou-se que as práticas correntes de inovação têm suas estruturas ligadas fortemente às lógicas econômica e de competitividade. Tais práticas são altamente legitimadas e são praticamente inquestionáveis. Por outro lado, há elementos estruturantes, muitos deles ligados a uma visão mais abrangente do ator social e presente em vários sistemas sociais, dos quais os atores fazem parte, e que estão permitindo o surgimento, ainda que tímido, de práticas que poderiam ser entendidas como orientadas para a sustentabilidade. A partir do estudo de caso e da articulação da teoria da estruturação, este trabalho propõe um modelo de estruturação das práticas em processos de IOS. Observa-se que as estruturas da IOS apresentam elementos de esquemas interpretativos, normas e métricas e uma visão de legitimação que depende altamente do nível de mediação. Suportando essa orientação, vislumbra-se um elemento de visão de mundo e construção de significado sobre a sustentabilidade que é emergente. A agência do ator social também é considerada no modelo e elementos como mindset, rigidez da estrutura e posição social / hierárquica conferem uma dualidade, ora potencializadora, ora inibidora na mudança e surgimento de novas práticas / The sustainability-oriented innovation (SOI) has been one of the assumed positions by several companies that affirm to contribute to sustainable development. From this perspective, these companies acknowledge the problem of resources scarcity and many others socio-environmental problems. Additionally, they align their strategy of innovation to new products and processes that, in a certain way, could be considered as sustainable. Aiming to comprehend this phenomenon through a theoretical lens that takes into account the individuals inserted into the innovation activities, this project had as main objective to comprehend the dynamic of structuration of the social practices in the processes of SOI. As a theoretical background, it was applied the structuration theory of Giddens (1984) and as a methodological strategy was adopted the case study, carried out with two business unities of a multinational company. It was possible to describe the structuration of practices that take place in the innovation process. It was evidenced that the current innovation practices have their practices strongly anchored to the economic and competitiveness logics. These practices are highly legitimized and are likely unquestionable. On the other side, there are structural elements, most of them linked to a broader view of the social actor and present in several social systems which the actors are part of it, that are enabling the emergence, even weak, of practices that could be understood as oriented to sustainability. Through the case study and the articulation of the structuration theory, this work proposes a model of the structuration of the practices in SOI. It can be observed that the structures of the SOI show elements of interpretive schemas, norms and metrics and a vision of legitimation which depends highly on the level of mediation. Supporting this orientation, it can be seen an emergent element of a broader world vision and meaning construction about sustainability. The agency of the social actor is also taken into consideration in the model and elements as mindset, structure rigidity and social position / hierarchy gives a duality (sometimes enabler, sometimes restrictive) in the change and emergence of new practices

Le foncier, entendu comme des relations entre les humains à propos de la terre, est au cœur de la répartition des pouvoirs, particulièrement dans les sociétés à dominantes agraires. Encadrer sa gestion à travers la formulation d'une politique publique signifie altérer les rapports entre l'État et les pouvoirs locaux, et la manière dont l’État entend construire un pouvoir de contrôle sur les hommes et le territoire. À travers l'exemple de l'Ouganda sous le régime du National Resistance Movement (NRM), cette thèse en science politique analyse la manière dont une politique publique foncière se fabrique en interaction avec les structures de pouvoir. Nous touchons ici aux rapports entre polity, politics et policy. Appréhendée comme une activité politique, la fabrication d’une politique publique foncière en contextes africains n’est pas qu’une affaire d’État. Elle est une source de légitimité politique pour les acteurs intégrés au processus. Son instrumentalisation peut profiter à un changement de rapports de force. Ce processus commence à partir de la fabrication des énoncés de problème et aboutit à la négociation d'une solution. Cette recherche inductive se fonde sur des méthodes de recherche qualitative : observations participantes, entretiens semi-structurés, recours à la littérature grise et aux archives. Elle est le fruit d'un travail de terrain de quatre ans en Ouganda. Cette thèse innove d'un point de vue théorique en intégrant l'approche discursive et pragmatique de l'action publique à l'approche structurationniste. Elle lie cette approche à la notion « d'historicité de l’État importé ». Ce cadre théorique permet d'étudier les mouvements d'ordre et de désordre de la société qu'engendre la formulation des énoncés de problème et de solution. Elle fournit aussi un apport empirique détaillé à l'étude de la politique foncière en Ouganda. Cette thèse contribue ainsi à l'étude de la démocratisation en Afrique, de celle du foncier en Afrique, et de celle des politiques publiques en contextes africains. / Land tenure, defined as the set of relations among humans that determine their interaction with land, lies at the heart of power struggles, especially in agrarian societies. Governing land management through public policy means changing power relations between the state and the local institutions that exercise social control. Using Uganda under the regime of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) as its case study, this thesis in political science explores the manner a public policy concerning land is constructed through the interactions among various power structures. We are dealing here with the interactions among polity, politics and policy. Examined as a political activity, the construction of a public policy concerning land in African contexts goes beyond a matter of concern for the state alone. This activity is a source of political legitimacy for those actors participating in the process. Its instrumentalisation can lead to changes in power relations. This process starts with the construction of the problem and ends with the negotiation of a solution. This inductive research is based on qualitative research methods : participant observation, semi-structured interviews, analysis of grey literature and of archives. It is based on four years of field work in Uganda. This thesis innovates theoretically as it integrates the discursive and pragmatic approach of public policy to structuration theory. It ties this approach to the notion of « historicity of the imported state ». This theoretical framework allows us to study the ordering and disordering of society that are triggered by the formulation of problems and solutions. It provides a detailed empirical study of public policy concerning land in Uganda. This thesis contributes, more generally, to the study of democratisation in Africa, land tenure in Africa and public policy in African contexts.

Cette thèse de doctorat propose de comprendre la spécificité rituelle des pratiques funéraires au début du XXIe siècle. Les analyses rituelles classiques (interactionnistes et structuro-fonctionnalistes) nous ont conduit à nous intéresser au processus rituel plutôt qu’au rituel lui-même et à cheminer par l’entremise d’une approche de l’action rituelle, plutôt que par celle des fonctions ou des symboles. Pour restreindre la part de réalité sociale étudiée, nous avons considéré que, parmi les différentes transformations funéraires, le phénomène de la crémation était une porte d’entrée pour comprendre cette spécificité. Cette thèse poursuit un double objectif :1) Le premier objectif est descriptif. Dans la trajectoire du mourir, à partir d’une perspective relationnelle, nous avons exploré le processus funéraire, notamment celui ayant pour perspective la crémation comme mode de transformation du corps, en le décomposant comme une chaîne opératoire du mourir. Nos données sont recueillies par la méthode de la participation observante de pratiques au sein du milieu funéraire. L’exemplarité du phénomène crématiste, en tant que pratique réunissant les attributs de l’évolution récente funéraire à partir des années 1980, a dirigé notre sélection vers un échantillon diversifié dans deux contextes socioculturels (France et Québec) et deux agglomérations (Strasbourg et Montréal) où le taux de crémation est historiquement élevé. 2) Le second objectif consiste à comprendre la spécificité de la ritualisation funéraire à partir de ces données, en s’intéressant à l’action rituelle en train de se faire dans le processus funéraire, c’est-à-dire expliquer la mise en forme et en acte de relations sociales. Par-delà une lecture socioanthropologique de l’organisation des relations contextuelles de ritualisation, une lecture psychosociologique des actions rituelles complète l’interprétation. Notre compréhension de la spécificité du processus rituel funéraire fait apparaître la complexité relationnelle de cette pratique sociale : d’une part, en tant qu’actions interagies par et dans des relations interindividuelles, faisant appel à des ressources réflexives (habilitantes) et permettant la réduction de l’état de dissonance provoqué par la mort; d’autre part, en tant qu’actions enserrées par et dans les règles des systèmes sociaux. La mise à jour de la prépondérance de ces caractéristiques relationnelles dans la ritualisation funéraire actuelle a pour vocation de comprendre à la fois la diversification des pratiques funéraires et leur normalisation. / This doctoral thesis aims to understand the specific ritual burial practices in the early twenty-first century. The classic ritual analyses (structural-functionalist and interactionist) led us to focus on the ritual process rather than on the ritual itself, so we adopted a ritual action perspective. To reduce the focus on the social reality studied, we posit that among the various transformations of funerals, the phenomenon of cremation is a gateway to understand this specificity. This thesis has two objectives: 1) The first is descriptive. In the path of dying, from a relational understanding, we explored the funeral process, notably the cremation, as a mode of body transformation as an operational chain of dying. Our data was collected through the method of observing participation in funeral practices. The phenomenon of cremation, as a practice combining the attributes of the recent funeral evolution from the 1980s, led to our selection of a diverse sample in two sociocultural contexts (France and Quebec) and two cities (Strasbourg and Montreal) where the cremation rate is historically high. 2) The second objective is to understand the burial ritual from this data, focusing on the ritual surrounding the funeral process, while explaining the setting, form and act of social relations. In addition to a socio-anthropological reading of the organisation of the contextual relations behind ritual, a psychosocial reading completes the interpretation of the ritual actions. Our comprehension of funerary rituals shows the complexity of this social practice. In one hand as actions, through interpersonal relations, appeal to reflexive resources (enabling) and allow the reduction of dissonant state caused by death. On the other hand, as actions surrounding the rules of the social system. This new data on the preponderance of these relational features within the current funeral rituals, aims to understand both the diversification of funeral practices and their standardisation.

Companies in the United States are concerned about the indeterminate effectiveness of corporate cyberloafing mitigation efforts leading to the persistence of employee cyberloafing behavior. Although middle managers are the driving force behind the transformational influences that guide employee productivity and could proffer practical solutions, a lack of clarity surrounds the middle manager's role in the overall cyberloafing mitigation efforts within organizations. The central research question for this transcendental phenomenological research study explored the lived experiences of middle managers regarding their roles in mitigating employee cyberloafing at higher education institutions in Florida. This study used a social constructivist-interpretive framework that draws from the multiple realities constructed through social interactions and lived experiences. Participants included 7 middle managers with experience mitigating cyberloafing at higher education institutions in Florida. Four major themes emerged from an inductive analysis of the data, including managing employee performance, proximity matters, cyberloafing interventions, and understanding employee online technology use. The results and recommendations of this study provide implications for social change. Business organizations may modify cyberloafing mitigation strategies and policies from a better understanding of manager/employee interactions, transformational managerial influences used to mitigate employee cyberloafing, and managerial knowledge of employee appropriation of online technology.