Thesis (Ph. D. (Administration)) -- University of Limpopo, 2016 / The thesis drew from a combination of phenomenology, interactionism and critical theories because South Africa in itself consists of a polity with national dynamics, within the matrices of globality in which connectivity plays a determining role, especially in terms of the capacity to competitively participate in the global knowledge economy. Guided by reading collectively and critically from the economic, physical development, policy analysis, interpretative as well as collaboration planning approaches, among others, and the mono-centric, multilevel and adaptive models of governance, the thesis constructed a conceptual argument that the primate enablers for modernized infrastructure, skills and culture attached to the preconditions for blended pedagogies, are modernized planning and governance. However, the attainment of planning, governance, infrastructure and skills is in itself inadequate to inculcate the culture necessary for the integration of elearning with conventional didactics. This observation is confirmed through international experiences that involve the developed countries that are in the very high and high Human Development Index (HDI) categories such as Australia, Poland and Korea as well as Thailand, Brazil and Algeria, respectively, where the presence of planning, governance, infrastructure and skills has not automatically precipitated a culture required for blended pedagogies. This evidence does not seek to underplay the significance of planning, governance, infrastructure and skills in the integration of e-learning with conventional didactics, but the thesis has established that the existence of modernized planning, governance, infrastructure and skills are a necessary, rather than a sufficient, condition. From the literature review, the thesis deduces that e-culture is a virtually sufficient condition for the establishment of blended pedagogies. Hence, variables such as GDP per Capita, Gross Fixed Capital Formation, Average Annual Growth of General Government Final Consumption Expenditure, Research and Development Expenditure and Public Expenditure on Education, that demonstrate the level of human development of a country, do not necessarily reflect capacity to enable the establishment of blended pedagogies. Such conditions do not always coexist with pre-eminence of communication using Internet and/or Mobile Phones, characteristic of the “Net Generation Culture”. The vi latter, as a specific form of e-culture, is heavily dependent on infrastructure and skills which are, among others things, reflected in Gross Fixed Capital Formation, Employment to Population Ratio, Labour Force Participation Rate, Labour Force with Tertiary Education, Total Electrification Rate as well as Employment to Population Ratio. The observation made above is corroborated by the experiences of developing countries such as Vietnam, Zambia and Kenya, which are in the medium and low HDI categories, wherein the absence of appropriate and adequate infrastructure, skills and e-culture together with planning and governance imperil the evolution of the national culture into that of the “Net Natives”. From an empirical perspective, consistent with the hybridization of philosophy, the thesis conveniently selected a target population that consisted of a total of 15 countries, wherein 14 of these observations provide a backdrop against which South Africa’s relative readiness and appropriateness of planning, governance, infrastructure, culture and skills for blended pedagogies are determined. A combination of purposive and quota sampling procedures was adopted to select the 15 countries across the four HDI categories. The 15 countries are classified in terms of the 2015 United Nations Development Programme HDI conceptions, which produced four levels of “very high”, “high”, “medium” and “low”. A total of 28 variables were selected for Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The thesis used secondary data sources for textual and empirical data, where the latter was largely drawn from the United Nations Development Programme Reports. The textual data were analysed qualitatively through thorough descriptions, classification and drawing of connections, the statistical data were organized into a 15 (observations) by 28 (variables) raw data matrix and analysed through the PCA. Verbal tools were used to provide thick descriptions of contexts regarding historical, social, demographic and economic backgrounds in order to situate the motive underlying the planning and governance of blending e-learning pedagogies with conventional didactics in South Africa. From a quantitative perspective, PCA was used for statistical modelling that standardized the data and produced a variety of useful statistical summaries such as Principal Components, Eigenvalues, Communalities, Correlation Matrix, Component Loadings, Component Scores and Scattergrams. vii Given that the raw data consisted of 15 observations by 28 variables, a 28 by 28 variables correlation matrix was generated. Of the 378 correlations that the thesis discovered, 183 are direct and 195 are indirect. However, 276 of the 378 relationships are negligible; only 102 correlations were strong and significant enough to deserve closer examination. Principal Component Analysis extracted a total of 15 Principal Components; and, the first seven according to the thesis, accounted for the cumulative percentage of 92% in the interrelationships. Furthermore, it is evident that Principal Component 1 consists of the characteristics of Modernized, Planning, Governance, Infrastructure, Skills and Culture, which are diametrically different from the Frustrated Development, Unsustainable State Intervention and Societal Inequalities, Limiting e-infrastructure, e-skills Constraint, Muted Development Potential and the Non-existent e-culture that are associated with the rest. Given the significance and strength of the eigenvalue and component loadings on Principal Component (PC) 1, it should signify the presence of enabling environments for e-infrastructure, e-governance, e-culture and e-skills consistent with modernized planning and governance of blended pedagogies. Therefore, a country that scores negatively on PC 1 and positively on PC 2 would represent a society that is far less prepared for blended pedagogies where an unrelenting state investment for e-infrastructure, e-governance, eskills and e-culture would translate into a replacement behaviour rather than integration of conventional didactics with digital technologies. This infers that the status of governance, infrastructure, skills and culture would remain less optimal for the adoption of blended pedagogies. For such countries, investing heavily in blended pedagogies without first creating the requisite conditions for engagement in the global knowledge economy would imply that they would have sought to exploit non-existent capacity in governance, infrastructure, skills and culture. South Africa's component score on PC 1 is -0.58, which would in terms of the analysis mean that this country lacks the character of modernized planning, governance, infrastructure, skills and culture that are necessary for engendering blended pedagogies. Countries such as Norway, Australia, Poland, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and Sri Lanka that have variably trotted the blended pedagogies score positively on PC 1. Besides, viii some of these countries have not been successful in blended pedagogies, notwithstanding their apparent enabling environments. Conversely, South Africa's component score on PC 2 is extraordinarily higher than all of the 14 countries; and, it is 2.15 points higher than the nearest score. It is important to recognize that South Africa's score on PC 2 is an extreme case and a virtual outlier that has no connection to the rest of the fourteen countries, especially those in the Medium and Low HDI. Overall, South Africa's component scores highlight the relative dearth of appropriate planning, governance, infrastructure, skills and culture, that are necessary for the adoption of blended pedagogies. Whereas the thesis finds that there is no direct correlation between the level of human development and adoption of blended pedagogies, the latter appears to be a result of convoluted processes that involve the creation of enablers for e-culture largely through planning, governance, infrastructure, skills and culture. These qualities are embedded with societal equality, equity of access to services, capital formation, employment, education as well as Internet infrastructure. The thesis therefore, concludes that South Africa's potential for human development is derailed through endless planning that has become an end in itself. Planning for its own sake, which defines South Africa's democratic history, means that modernized governance, skills and e-culture that are necessary for blended pedagogies have remained substandard. The thesis establishes that South Africa’s national as well as Information and Communication Technology (ICT) planning demonstrates ambition and interest, which is however pursued in the absence of effective governance of implementation and adoption of appropriate educational technologies. Evidently, South Africa is yet to attain modernized planning, governance, skills and culture appropriate for the implementation of blended pedagogies, notwithstanding the infrastructure provided in some of the schools for teaching and learning. Instead, South Africa’s pedagogic digital transformation is characterized by replacement of conventional didactics with e-learning rather than integration for blended pedagogies. Therefore, this evidence suggests that, although South Africa’s educational ICT infrastructure seems to be relatively modernized, the absence of appropriate and adequate planning, governance, skills and e-culture impairs the successful implementation of blended learning. The thesis, therefore, recommends ix that adoption of blended pedagogies should be supported through the creation of eculture in households, underwritten by modernized planning, governance, infrastructure and skills for competitive participation in the global knowledge economy.

Student Number : 0420292V - MA research report - School of International Relations - Faculty of Humanities / The transformation of the political economy after the Cold War, and particularly the introduction of the knowledge economy and the successful liberation of a group of developing countries, has made a considerable impact on the trading patterns in the global economy. It has also revolutionised the processes of manufacturing, production and consumption. These economic changes have had significant consequences for the countries of the developing world, making the possibility of coalition-building between the countries of the Southern core more feasible, and in this way bringing about fundamental alterations in the political economy of the international system. However, the economic co-operation that takes place in the South is uneven and advances the interests of semi-peripheral states such as India, South Africa and Brazil, giving rise to new patterns of collaboration.

Les pays de la région Mena ont un point commun, la recrudescence du chômage de masse des jeunes diplômés. Ce problème lié à la dynamique et à la qualité de la croissance, à une carence chronique en démocratie, cause des déséquilibres socio-économiques qui menacent la stabilité et le développement dans la région. Les PM doivent transformer leur modèle de croissance actuel peu différencié, en un modèle à productivité globale des facteurs, où l’innovation améliore de façon continue la qualité et la combinaison des facteurs et permet d’emprunter un régime de croissance endogène fondé sur le progrès technologique. Après une introduction générale, le chapitre II présente les systèmes d’innovation des PM et leurs effets sur l’emploi dans une analyse en composantes principales, et une étude en panel des déterminants de la croissance. Dans les chapitres III et IV, les effets de l'économie de la connaissance sur l'emploi des jeunes sont soigneusement étudiés par une analyse en séries chronologiques en panel pour la région MENA, d'une part, et pour l’étude du cas tunisien, de l'autre. Le chapitre V donne les principales conclusions de l’étude. / Countries in the MENA region have been recently characterized by a common feature mainly the upsurge in the unemployment of young graduates. This is due to the dynamics and quality of economic growth, a chronic democracy deficiency, and socio-economic imbalances that threaten the stability and development wihtin the region. The PM must alter their current growth framework into a total factor productivity model, whereby innovation continuously improves, allowing for an endogenous growth regime based on technology progress to take over. After a general introduction, Chapter (II) highlightst the PM’s innovation systems and their effects on employment generation in a principal component analysis, and a panel study of the determinants of economic growth. In chapter (III) and (IV), the effects of the knowledge economy on youth employment are carefully studied though a time series analysis for the MENA region as a panel on one hand and for Tunisia a single case study on the other. Chapter (V) gives the mains conclusions of the study

Powering Kenya's agricultural economy, the Kenyan flower industry is prided as an example of successful African integration into global agricultural trade. Export markets are bifurcated due to a marked shift from the Dutch flower auctions and an increase in trade within 'direct markets' which includes supermarkets and florists. While flower production is dominated by a few vertically integrated, large scale flower farms (>100 ha), mid-scale (20-80 hectares) and small-scale (>0.25 hectares) flower farms which are the focus of the thesis, face a unique set of challenges in terms of navigating access to the more stable direct markets. The overall narrative is that even in a buyer-driven market, Kenyan cut flower producers at the mid and small scale have agency, and they exercise their bargaining power for favourable export access by diversification and differentiation in strategies and networks. Two meta-narratives framing the sector coalesce around the development angle which showcases contestations around labour and environmental abuses and the political economy angle focusing on governance structures and power relations of production. This thesis goes deeper than these meta narratives by introducing micro-level, relational perspectives using the GPN framework, and asks what strategies Kenyan mid and small scale cut flower producers employ to navigate the shifts in export markets as producers diversify from the Dutch auctions towards supermarkets. My findings identify diversification as the common factor in mid and small scale producers' strategies for securing a range of lucrative export markets. Producers' enhance their bargaining power to access diverse markets through adaptable production, relationally through collective action, and in the regulatory sphere by circumvention, compliance or contestation for more favourable 'rules of the game'. Going beyond labour and environmental analyses, the thesis uniquely analyses the knowledge economy originating from the cut flower sector as an undertheorized aspect of its development impact.

O estudo trata da descentralização de políticas públicas de Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (CT&I) do governo federal para os municípios. As políticas públicas de CT&I são, cada vez mais, essenciais para o desenvolvimento economicamente viável e sustentável de uma nação. Assim, governos ao redor do mundo investem em empresas e sistemas de inovação como forma de manter a competitividade em uma economia cada vez mais global. Paradoxalmente, apesar da crescente relevância política, social e econômica das cidades no mundo, seu papel tem sido subestimado nas políticas nacionais de CT&I no Brasil. No plano teórico, o presente estudo apoia-se em duas vertentes temáticas: o desenvolvimento regional na economia do conhecimento e a descentralização federativa. Nesse contexto, o estudo interroga sobre como inserir o município nas políticas nacionais de CT&I. O estudo busca evidências empíricas nas relações intergovernamentais da descentralização e em dois estudos de caso, nas cidades brasileiras de Porto Alegre e São Leopoldo, ambas do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, escolhidas pelos bons resultados na promoção de sistemas empresariais de inovação. A pesquisa chegou a alguns resultados como: (a) a mobilização dos governos em torno de políticas públicas em CT&I continua sendo crucial para o desenvolvimento de empresas e sistemas empresariais de base tecnológica; (b) os municípios mostram capacidade de criar políticas públicas de CT&I, como marcos regulatórios, estruturas organizacionais, mecanismos de incentivo e sistemas de governança; (c) a descentralização via municípios pode melhorar a capilaridade e a eficácia de programas nacionais, fortalecendo sistemas regionais de inovação e complementando políticas federais de CT&I; (d) os municípios são entes federados plenos que têm poder político e econômico para influir e promover ajustes nas políticas públicas federais de CT&I. / This thesis discusses decentralization of national public policies on Science, Technology and Innovation (ST&I) from the federal to the city government. Governments around the world have been supporting companies and innovation systems because of their relevance to economic viability and national sustainable development. However, despite the increasing political, social and economic relevance of cities worldwide, their role has been underestimated in national ST&I policies. In this context, this study considers how municipal decentralization of national ST&I policies enhances capillarity, efficiency and the strengthening of regional systems of innovation. The study offers empirical evidence of intergovernmental relationships of decentralization through the case studies of two Brazilian cities: Porto Alegre and São Leopoldo, which were selected because of their comparatively good results in promoting companies and systems of innovation in comparison to other Brazilian cities. The main conclusions of the study are: (a) federal government public policy promotion in ST&I remains crucial to the development of entrepreneurial technologically-based systems; (b) municipalities are capable of mobilizing resources, structuring incentive mechanisms, articulating actors, and organizing governance systems; (c) decentralization via municipalities can improve capillarity and effectiveness, strengthening regional innovation systems and consequently complementing national ST&I policies; (d) increased political and economic power of city governments can promote improvements in federal policies of ST&I.

This thesis examines policy documents relating to the knowledge society of six Asia-Pacific countries (India, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Fiji and New Zealand). I employ Norman Fairclough’s version of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to explore the discursive construction of knowledge-related policies within a comparative case study methodology. Leximancer – a computer software for text analysis is used to assist in operationalising parts of the CDA. The general conclusions drawn from the study indicate that the evolving knowledge policy discourse in the Asia-Pacific is not based on any robust theoretical framework but on international and country-specific paradigms of the knowledge society. In the policy discourses, the knowledge society is posited as a desired outcome in light of external (global) imperatives - economic globalisation, technological knowledge and innovation flows, and ICT revolution – which are married to context-specific developmental imperatives arising from geography, culture, history and polity. This hybridisation process gives shape to unique knowledge society paradigms of each country. My CDA analysis shows that the ideology of neoliberalism is a key discursive influence on the knowledge society paradigms and is mutated by differences in contexts across different countries. In the discourses, neoliberalism operates via an emphasis on policy restructuring (privatisation, deregulation and liberalisation), and streamlining of governance mechanisms relating to key knowledge and information policy sectors. The resulting knowledge society constructions are context and time-dependent frameworks and exhibit two core arguments of convergence in all the case studies: (1) ICT and Science & Technology as vehicles for knowledge-based development need to grow in an enabling policy environment and; (2) the twin imperatives of globalisation and technological revolution mean that knowledge policy should have a competitive and innovation orientation, and should be continuously readjusted in tune with global economic changes. In addition to convergence, there are two major issues of divergence, namely: (1) emphasis on affirmative action in knowledge-related policies of India, Malaysia, and Fiji; (2) the promotion of cultural production and creative industries in Singapore, New Zealand, and more recently in Korea. The original contribution of this thesis is that it provides a reassessment of the role of neoliberalism in knowledge society. The study is novel both in the selection of the problem and the methodology. Comparative case studies using CDA have not been attempted at the regional scale and not with this level of documentary data. The use of Leximancer improves the management of textual data and increases the validity of the interpretations. A study of this magnitude has not been attempted for the Asia-Pacific region previously. Finally, the conclusions drawn from applying the CDA are both persuasive and creative in terms of analysing policy discourses of the knowledge society.

二十一世紀是知識經濟世紀，知識已經從過去形而上、抽象的觀念，逐漸融入下層物質經濟的體系之中，而且知識也開始取代土地、勞力與資本等舊有生產要素，成為經濟體中最重要的生產要素。我們可以從產業價值活動分析中看出，真正能夠為企業帶來高額經濟利益與長久競爭優勢的都是含有豐富知識內涵的部分。Leadbeater在「知識經濟大未來」一書中提到當在消費知識時，我們並未擁有知識，知識的所有權（產權）仍是歸發明者所有，買方購買知識的行為反而像是複製或再生，知識非但不會因為使用而消失，反而是將知識散佈開來。 而在SIP（semiconductor Intellectual Property）產業中我們也可以觀察到同樣的現象，對於SIP的使用者（也就是買者）而言，他所買到的並不是SIP本身，而只是SIP使用的權力，對於買者而言，他們所要的是使用這個知識，而使用並不一定要擁有，而且行使這兩種不同的權利將要付出的代價（價錢）亦是差距極大的，於是，重複的利用這個SIP，不斷的複製及製造產品，對於SIP本身並不會耗損或消失，它將被重複使用到由於知識的折舊以及技術過時等問題發生之後淘汰。 由知識經濟蓬勃發展的趨勢看來，知識商品將會在未來扮演重要角色，但是對於此一主題的研究卻尚未受到重視，大部分的研究多探討的是知識資源或是知識管理等議題，對於知識型商品的特性、如何進行交易等問題都尚未有十分明確的回答，於是，本研究以最近最受注目的SIP產業為研究對象，針對知識型商品的交易模式與一般商品之間的差異以及知識的特質是否會對將亦造成影響，知識型的商品是否具有其獨特的操作條件進行研究。 經過研究之後本研究有以下幾點結論： 1. 知識生產者：企業內部必須配合以良好的知識管理流程，以便將知識商品「package」，進入知識市場買賣。 2. 同時可能是生產者及使用者的廠商：這一類廠商如IC設計公司、IDM公司、EDA公司等，其內部除了必須有良好的知識管理流程之外，還需搭配完善的資訊流通系統及內容完整的資料庫，以便不同的部門之間能夠方便的進行SIP的重複使用；企業文化也應大力提倡SIP的重複使用，鼓勵設計工程師多多使用SIP進行設計工作，讓企業內部真正落實SIP的重複使用。 3. 買賣過程：目前市場中買方雙方最大的問題即是「雙方無法對知識的價值產生共識」以及「資訊揭露」與「經驗財」這三個項目。由於「知識」無法試用，因此，在買賣的過程中會產生對價值的質疑，而買賣進行之後，由於賣者要將知識重複販賣，因此，不能夠讓第一位買者有機會將知識洩漏，或是將知識「偷走」的情形發生，因此，「知識的保護」在交易過程中扮演重要的角色。 4. 對買者而言，因為希望在買賣進行之前能夠先確定知識的價值，因此會希望賣方能夠透露部分的資訊給買方試用，雖然賣方不願，但是會透露少許的知識，不過即使如此，對於產品價值及功能的判定幫助仍是有限，因此，對於那些已經被使用過經過價值認證的SIP元件，自然使用起來才會比較安心，但相對而言，這些SIP的價格也會比較高。 5. 資訊揭露：利用中立的第三者，在交易中扮演防止資訊揭露過度的角色，是SIP市場中一個比較特別的情形，由於不希望買方得知所有的核心知識，藉由將知識分散的方式進行交易，來確保在交易能夠順利進行的前提之下，賣方仍能保有其SIP的技術知識不被剽竊。 6. 交易模式：本研究提出三種交易的模式，其背後的含意代表著希望藉由不同的交易方式來保護有價知識的適當揭露，以及不同的廠商類型也影響到交易模式的選擇。

There are numerous of ideas and theories around the present development in our global society, describing an ever changing era based and propelled by information and communication technology (ICT). How influential has this development been on political visions and intentions and on the business worlds views on important competencies? The purpose of this thesis is to describe the national and international visions of important competencies in the “information society”. Through a case study, focused on how the training and consultancy industry apprehends and answer to this change and development, as they often act as agents for new trends in the business world both as accommodators and originators. The growth and speed of the universally available information demands knowhow in seeking, analyzing and managing information, and this competence is crucial today. To place my study in an adequate theoretical context it is placed in the realms of Information Literacy (IL). I will describe and discuss connections between IL and workplace processes. All political visions in my research are unanimous and have an extremely positive, almost naïve approach to the future effects that the ICT development will have on our society. The case study shows that, even if the predecessors don’t speak or use the term information literacy they are well aware of the challenges and problems related to Information Literacy. / Omvärldsbevakning och Omvärldsanalys

<p>There are numerous of ideas and theories around the present development in our global society, describing an ever changing era based and propelled by information and communication technology (ICT). How influential has this development been on political visions and intentions and on the business worlds views on important competencies? The purpose of this thesis is to describe the national and international visions of important competencies in the “information society”. Through a case study, focused on how the training and consultancy industry apprehends and answer to this change and development, as they often act as agents for new trends in the business world both as accommodators and originators. The growth and speed of the universally available information demands knowhow in seeking, analyzing and managing information, and this competence is crucial today. To place my study in an adequate theoretical context it is placed in the realms of Information Literacy (IL). I will describe and discuss connections between IL and workplace processes. All political visions in my research are unanimous and have an extremely positive, almost naïve approach to the future effects that the ICT development will have on our society. The case study shows that, even if the predecessors don’t speak or use the term information literacy they are well aware of the challenges and problems related to Information Literacy.</p> / Omvärldsbevakning och Omvärldsanalys

During the year 2007, when this thesis was completed, the European Union could look backat fifty years of collaboration, which began with the signing of the Treaty of Rome in 1957and which has developed from being mainly economic in character to incorporating a politicalas well as a social dimension at the European level. In 2007 the European Union alsocommemorated the twentieth anniversary of Erasmus, its higher education mobilityprogramme. It is this relatively new political dimension which I have been interested ininvestigating in this thesis. More precisely it is the political construction of a commonEuropean identity which is analysed using a critical discourse analysis approach.The majoraim of this thesis has been two-fold. The first aim has been to investigate how the European isconstructed in the discourse contained within the official European Union policy documents. Ihave been interested in analysing the various structures, in the form of ideas and norms whichare used in order to construct ‘the European’. The second aim has been to explore whether therole of higher education, as constructed in the official European Union discourse, is given asimilar identity-making role as education is argued to have in the nation-state according to thetheory on national identity. I argue that there are three version of European identityconstruction, i.e. cultural, civic, and neo-liberal, with their own relationship to highereducation, present in the empirical material analysed, consisting of official European Uniondocuments. Further, this thesis is also a study of the power of modern government. I arguethat there is an increase in normative soft power where ‘The Good European’ is notsomething ‘you’ are but something ‘you’ become by being a responsible active citizen.Through the use of critical discourse analysis I illuminate the power which resides in thelanguage in the discourse analysed. Thus, I have been interested in investigating how theofficial European Union discourse on European identity and higher education works to bothinclude and exclude individuals.