Master of Arts / Department of Economics / Peri da Silva / Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) are known to facilitate liberalization with respect to only a few trading partners and thus they have been a topic of debate for the past two decades especially because their effect on most favored nation (MFN) tariffs is known to be ambiguous. We provide insights for analyzing whether the PTAs indeed hamper or support multilateral liberalization. Using product level official and actual tariffs we provide evidence from the United States (US) import data that the stumbling block effect on the US MFN bound tariffs is present only for goods that receive full preference in books or in actual. However, my dataset does not statistically support the stumbling block hypothesis in the case of Applied tariffs.

Assurance of corporate sustainability reports relies on the idea of a third-party assuror who is independent and objective. The assurance approaches typically used by accountancy companies have been developed over many years and are supported by internal as well as external standards. With the help of these standards, the assuror provides credibility to the public statements of the companies through a thorough checking of statements, data and supporting systems. However, the orthodox approach overlooks or neglects the many paradoxes and dilemmas that are the daily experience of most assurors, e.g. what it means to be independent and objective while at the same time trying to develop a relation with the client. There has also been criticism of assurance, as currently practiced, as being too rigid, too predictable and providing too few benefits to the companies assured. In this thesis, the author explores why and how his own assurance practice differs from the more orthodox approach. This has led to the description of an alternative approach to assurance, called the ‘artist’ approach that takes the ethical dilemmas and paradoxes into account. The approach has been developed and described on the basis of the author’s own experiences using a critically reflexive methodology. The methodology builds on personal narratives and iterative feedback from fellow researchers and supervisors. The development of the ‘artist’ approach is based on: 1) a critical investigation into the idea of ‘compromise’, which leads to an alternative way of thinking about the practice of assurance; 2) a critical investigation into notions of trust and distrust, and power relations, and the effect of these on assurance work; and 3) a concept of ‘stumbling together’, which is built on relationality and ‘essential references’, where the assuror and the assuree are mutually exploring the territory. In the ‘artist’ approach, the values of independence and objectivity are compromised. The assuror actively strives to build personal trust based (at least in part) on technical kinship. Through this trust the power dynamics of the ‘insider’ and the ‘outsider’ are contained; indeed, the notion of ‘insider/outsider’ is forgotten in the moment. Independence has turned into interdependence, and objectivity into mutual engagement, where both assuror and assuree together might discover new issues not known to either of them before. In the orthodox approach, the assuree is ‘called to account’, whilst in the artist approach, the assuree is invited to ‘give an account’. This process of collaborative exploration allows the potential for radical new discoveries, for both assuror and assuree. The ‘artist’ approach as described here has affinities with complex responsive processes of relating as explained by Stacey. In the ‘artist’ approach, the craftsman approach is always paradoxically present at the same time, and the approach makes use of the same tools and the same framework as the craftsman approach. A wider understanding and application of the ‘artist’ approach can potentially lead to significant changes in the way assurors act, and hopefully to assurance results that are more relevant and useful.

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The study of a foreign language can never be seen in isolation, but forms part of the social and cultural setting in which it functions. Therefore, teaching English to multicultural groups of adults in Qatar, cannot be done effectively and efficiently, without taking the influence of cultural diversities and values, as well as the requirements of the adult learner, into account. This research deals with how native English speaking lecturers at one specific language centre in Qatar acknowledge these cultural diversities and values and how they accommodate adult learners in the multicultural classroom environment, by means of a literature study and an empirical investigation. Qualitative data collection was done by open-ended questionnaires to lecturers and learners, focus group interviews with lecturers and learners, individual interviews with lecturers, classroom observations and keeping of field notes. Findings revealed that lecturers are aware of the cultural diversities and values of learners who come into the classroom from different nationalities, and accommodated these learners without bias. These differences however, did not necessarily influence their teaching styles and lecturers remained focussed on teaching English as effectively as possible. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Adult Education)

The study of a foreign language can never be seen in isolation, but forms part of the social and cultural setting in which it functions. Therefore, teaching English to multicultural groups of adults in Qatar, cannot be done effectively and efficiently, without taking the influence of cultural diversities and values, as well as the requirements of the adult learner, into account. This research deals with how native English speaking lecturers at one specific language centre in Qatar acknowledge these cultural diversities and values and how they accommodate adult learners in the multicultural classroom environment, by means of a literature study and an empirical investigation. Qualitative data collection was done by open-ended questionnaires to lecturers and learners, focus group interviews with lecturers and learners, individual interviews with lecturers, classroom observations and keeping of field notes. Findings revealed that lecturers are aware of the cultural diversities and values of learners who come into the classroom from different nationalities, and accommodated these learners without bias. These differences however, did not necessarily influence their teaching styles and lecturers remained focussed on teaching English as effectively as possible. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Adult Education)