Orientador: Raul Borges Guimarães / Banca: Arthur Magon Whitacker / Banca: Everaldo Santos Melazzo / Banca: Júlio César de Lima Ramires / Banca: Vitor Ribeiro Filho / Resumo: Nesta tese partimos da hipótese de que nas cidades médias brasileiras ocorrem processos sociais excludentes perversos. O "lugar de cada um" ou a separação espacial das diferentes classes sociais nas cidades médias nos remete à discussão da banalização das desigualdades e a produção e reprodução do espaço banal. O mapeamento da exclusão social permite-nos compreender essa banalização por meio das interfaces entre o econômico e o político, pois não entendemos as cidades médias sem analisar a sua inserção na rede de cidades (geografia econômica) como não podemos compreender a exclusão social sem investigar as especificidades da produção e reprodução do espaço banal (geografia política). Uberlândia, São José do Rio Preto e Presidente Prudente foram escolhidas como recorte empírico que permitiu-nos identificar os processos que envolvem os impactos negativos das desigualdades sociais. É também o elemento que possibilita reconhecer as matrizes excludentes e como estas são reproduzidas. Partimos, assim, do princípio de que a análise e caracterização do conceito de exclusão social, bem como o mapeamento dos indicadores de exclusão constituem-se em uma chave para compreender a banalização das desigualdades sociais e espaciais nessas três cidades médias. / Abstract: In this research, we discuss the social exclusion processes in the intermediate Brazilian cities. Using an empirical study across Uberlandia, Sao Jose do Rio Preto and Presidente Prudente, it was possible to identify the negative impacts and social inequalities that involve the Brazilian urban production. It is also the element that makes possible both recognise the excluding patterns and find out how they are produced. Then we assume that the analysis and characterisation of the concept of social exclusion as well as the mapping of exclusion indicators constitute the key point for understanding the vulgarisation of social and spatial inequalities in these three intermediate cities. / Doutor

Orientador: Tania Celestino de Macêdo / Banca: Suely Fadul Villibor Flory / Banca: Odil José de Oliveira Filho / Banca: Virgínia Maria Gonçalves / Banca: Benjamin Abdala Júnior / Resumo: A presente pesquisa tem por objetivo central efetivar uma análise da temática Deus na ficção narrativa de José Saramago, procurando questionar em sua obra romanceada (Terra do Pecado, Memorial do Convento, História do Cerco de Lisboa e Evangelho Segundo Jesus Cristo) quais serão os perfis de Deus delineados ali. Partimos do pressuposto que estes perfis são construídos baseados na relação conflituosa e fértil dos textos de Saramago com a Bíblia, com as tradições e dogmas religiosos, fundamentados também no tenso diálogo entre Literatura e Teologia, uma constante em suas obras. Nesse estudo procuraremos responder às seguintes perguntas: De que maneira o tema Deus estrutura e incita sua obra literária? Sob que aspecto esse tema é um elemento integrador em seus livros transformando-se num pretexto fértil para sua criação literária? Qual a forma como esse tema é tratado em seus romances que formam o corpus central do nosso trabalho? Qual a sedução que esse tema exerce sobre o romancista? Qual o discurso literário sobre Deus em sua obra? Até que ponto a estrutura literária das obras do autor está impregnada pelo Deus do cristianismo? / Abstract: This research has as its central purpose the effectuation of an analysis of the God thematic in José Saramago's narrative fiction, trying to ask which will be the faces of God delineated in his romanced work. We started from the conjecture that these profiles are constructed based on the fertile and conflicting relationship between José Saramago's texts and the Bible, the traditions and religious dogmas, and also founded on the tense dialogue between Literature and Theology, which is a constant in his works. In this study we will try to answer the following questions: In which way the subject God structuralizes and stirs up his literary work? Under what aspect is this subject an integrating element in his books becoming a fertile excuse for his literary creation? In what way is this subject treated in his novels which form the central corpus of our work? What is the literary content about God in his work? Up to what level is the literary structure of the author's work impregnated by the God of christianism? / Doutor

Magister Artium - MA (Psychology) / Antisocial offending behaviour relate to instances of criminal and societal norm violating behaviour. In South Africa, statistics on antisocial offending behaviour reflect high incidence rates among South African young people who engage in societal norm violations that are largely aggressive and criminal in nature. In the country's prisons, the average inmate is a young substance abuser who is unemployed, has dropped out of school before high school, is functionally illiterate and, more often than not, homeless. This is particularly true for emerging adults (those between the ages of 18 and 25 years) who constitute the poorest economic age group, the average house burglar as well as make up more than a quarter of the prison population in South Africa. In South Africa as well as internationally, the antisocial offending behaviour of emerging adults remain grossly understudied especially through qualitative self-explanations. The present study utilised a qualitative research approach to explore experiences and self-explanations regarding antisocial offending behaviours of a group of 10 South African emerging adults. The study used an exploratory research design. Participants were drawn from a number of non- government organisations, and two townships in Cape Town which is located in the Western Cape Province of the Republic of South Africa.

Magister Artium - MA (Psychology) / Honours students in Psychology typically form larger cohorts with numbers ranging from 20 to 40 students in comparison to other disciplines that have fewer than 10 students in a cohort. The National Qualifications Framework (NQF) requires Honours students to complete a thesis that is equivalent to 300 notional hours or 30 credits. The learning outcome is that students conduct low level research that prepares them for conceptualizing, executing and writing up a research project. The thesis requirement should also prepare them for future studies. The larger cohorts and revised NQF thesis requirement places increased pressure on the staff compliment of Psychology departments. Some of the ways in which departments have attempted to cope with this increased demand include conducting group-based research projects, and secondary research projects. One of the concerns raised is whether these particular types of methodology prepared students adequately for reactive research in further studies. This study aimed to explore students' subjective perceptions about the extent to which group-based systematic review methodology in the Honours year adequately prepared students for conducting research during their masters-level studies. An explorative study was conducted to explore the experiences of purposively selected recent graduates from two identified Honours programmes that have progressed to Masters level studies. Participants were invited on the basis of being graduates or alumni rather than their registration status as Masters students at particular universities.

This thesis explores communication with children affected by sickle cell disease about their condition from the perspectives of both children and parents. It includes three papers: A literature review, an empirical paper and a critical appraisal. Papers one and two have been prepared for submission to Social Science and Medicine and Qualitative Health Research, respectively. Paper one is a meta-synthesis of qualitative literature investigating experiences of communication from the perspective of children with sickle cell disease. A systematic literature search revealed nine relevant papers, which were synthesised by extracting findings related to communication about sickle cell disease. Children were found to receive inconsistent messages about their condition from different personal and professional groups. Communication about the prognosis of sickle cell disease and the social acceptability of the condition differed across the groups. The implications for children's understandings of their condition and their adjustment are discussed. Paper two presents an empirical study of parental communication experiences with children affected by sickle cell disease. Twelve interviews were conducted and subject to inductive thematic analysis which was applied within a contextualist epistemological framework. Parents described skills in 'coaching' their child to negotiate the various challenges associated with managing sickle cell disease. They also described ways in which they avoided challenging topics of communication such as inheritance, the risk of comorbid disease and the life-long nature of the condition. The findings suggest a need for healthcare professionals to support parents in overcoming barriers to talking about difficult topics. This may facilitate more consistent communication between parents and professionals, which has implications for improving child wellbeing and adjustment. Paper three is a reflective piece and is not intended for publication. It critically evaluates papers one and two and discusses the joint implications of the findings for research and clinical practice. Reflections on the experience of conducting a meta-synthesis and an empirical qualitative study are offered in the context of personal and professional development.

Crisis communication has been widely researched for an economic purpose, with the focus on preventing damage to a corporation’s reputation or the restoration of a politician’s image. Additionally, crisis communication also found its utility for natural hazards as well as for terrorist attacks. However, identified as being a research gap, this thesis focuses on studying the prepared crisis communication of mega-event and festival organizations in case of a serious incident. The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the area of crisis communication in the way that it focuses on the process of preparing for a possible crisis with the creation of effective communication manuals, action plans, etc. rather than investigating the post-crisis communication. Through using the uncertainty reduction theory and the chaos theory, it is possible to investigate the internal crisis management processes of organizers that go beyond protecting its reputation, but focus more on saving human lives as uncertainty and chaos get reduced. A deductive approach was taken through conducting interviews and carrying out a thematic analysis of written documentary sources, such as manuals and action plans, as well as the transcripts. In general, one can say that the awareness about the importance of a crisis management and communication plan rises. Regular trainings and a constant collaboration with external partners, such as the blue light organizations, are seen as central to the emergency planning process. Moreover, to guarantee an effective crisis communication, often smaller task groups within the crisis management team are in charge of instructional crisis communication. Knowledge about different threat-scenarios and functions of external specialists reduces uncertainty and supports actions to reduce chaos. This thesis and its findings have a societal relevance, in the sense that it allows a wider and deeper understanding of crisis communication in an area of application that does not seem to be very common. Through insights into the crisis management process of the different event- and festival organizations, one can become active today and threats to human lives can be minimized or even avoided in the future.

Comparing to the aggressive growth of the Chinese student population on Canadian university campuses, their lived experience and identity issues deserve more attention that it already had. Using the theoretical framework combining social identity theory (Tajfel, 1974) and Ting-Toomey’s (1999, 2005) identity negotiation theory, this thesis investigated the identity construction and negotiation process of Chinese international students in Canadian universities. The study utilized a qualitative approach combining semi-structured interviews and a thematic analysis to examine the intercultural experiences of sixteen Chinese students in the Ottawa area through their own voices. Six themes were uncovered and future implications for international education practice were further discussed.

No description available.

Effective implementation of the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) is dependent on Member States’ national water institutions and organizations, often designated as ‘competent authorities’. Although substantial research relating to the Directive itself has been carried out, less is known about the extent to which competent authorities have the organizational capacity to deliver it. The literature notes that conceptual understanding of capacity has been hampered by lack of definitional clarity making both its management and assessment challenging. In this contribution, several conceptualizations of organizational capacity found in the literature are used to construct a set of core qualitative organizational components that encourage analysts to consider the ways in which legal authority, information and knowledge, skills, resources and leadership shape a competent authority’s ability to deliver the WFD. Malta, the smallest European Member State, is the case study used to test the application of these components. Qualitative empirical data collected from policy documents, face-to-face semi-structured interviews and online news media articles, provided the evidence to thematically explore and evaluate the Maltese competent authorities’ organizational capacity across the implementation of three main WFD provisions that are in focus: Article 8, 9 and 14. As a result, the core components of organizational capacity are expanded and refined to produce an organizational capacity thematic map. The results show that competent authorities experience influences across the institutional frameworks they work in as well as external factors (primarily political). The results also support the idea of the organizational capacity components being highly interlinked and the presence (or lack thereof) of one component having knock-on effects on others within an organization. The combination of these two factors highly affect management options and outcomes in the implementation of the WFD. In the small state context of Malta these highlight the need to channel support in a coordinated manner from European counterparts to the Maltese water network. In turn, the water network can have positive knock-on effects on the organizational capacity of the Maltese competent authorities, which currently struggle to perform and seize available opportunities due to low possession of human resources and time availability. The approach and findings presented in this research provide a mechanism and evidence base that can facilitate bilateral discussions between Member States as well as with the European Commission, and help inform the WFD review process planned by end of 2019.

This thesis is devoted to clarifying the issue of atlas production offer and its availability within the scope of the Czech republic. An atlas is a collection of maps interconnected via their purpose, theme, scale coefficient or scale coefficient set, generalization and other system aspects. These are conceptually processed cartographically and polygraphicaly as a unified work. The opening part explains the characteristics of atlas production including the historical development of cartography which is related to this issue. The following part depicts the division of atlases according the individual typology. Another thing elucidated here is which atlases are available in the Czech republic. Only selected atlases are mentioned in this section. The main section of this thesis focuses on the specific cartographic representation and cartographic presentation at a given area. It is a modern method of presentation alternative and utilization of a cartographic digital production what is engaged here.