This thesis examines the extent to which optimism has a bearing on objectivity in scientific inquiry. It is not, however, a psychological level examination into objectivity. Rather, the discussion focuses on collective attitudes, whether in the form of science or a more general public opinion. In essence, sources of optimism at the fundamental level of scientific inquiry are articulated with a careful attempt to differentiate between attitudes about the subject (methodology) and the object of study. The antithetical thread of optimism versus pessimism is teased out with the use of a joint case study of liberalism and Stalinism. The idea of antithesis, however, is contrasted by the fact that, although mirror image ideologies, these collective attitudes share a common faith in progress (albeit through different social mechanisms). This faith in progress provides the basis for the crux of the thesis as it moves to discuss scientific methodology. There is general agreement on what good science should look like and the possibility of progressive science can be articulated. However, it is also possible to highlight the conditions for degenerative science and to further link this to a degenerative social totality in which democracy and social progress are undermined. Economics is used as a case study and it is argued that dogmatic notions on progress have proved to be a major stumbling block to objectivity in the discipline. Furthermore, the implications on the real world are serious.

<p>Avsikten med detta arbete har varit att synliggöra och att utforma en lärarhandledning som baseras på det entreprenöriella förhållningssättet i undervisningen. Bakomliggande metod har inkluderat litteraturstudier, inventering av befintliga projekt inom området, deltagande av utbildningsdag om entreprenörskap, intervjuer av lärare samt västerås projektansvarige för entreprenörskap i Västerås skolor. Entreprenörskap för elever har tidigare drivits av organisationer utanför skolorna varför det har blivit mer angeläget att utbilda skolpersonal så att förhållningssättet kan börja utvecklas inne i den dagliga verksamheten inom skolans egen arena. Resultatet visade att det fanns lärare som framhöll att de alltid undervisat med ett entreprenöriellt förhållningssätt. Det fanns lärare som kände behov av att lära elever olika strategier som eleverna sedan själva kunde utnyttja i sitt lärande. Arbetet visade även att det fanns lärare som blev nyfikna och intresserade av det entreprenöriella förhållningssättet.</p>

This thesis enquires into the role of values in the attrition of teachers of physical science subjects in the formative years of their teaching careers. Recruitment and attrition have contributed to a shortage of these teachers in English schools (Bousted, 2016), and while recruitment has benefited from increased investment (Gov.uk, 2017), attrition has largely gone unaddressed. In belief system theory, values are considered to be intrinsically linked to the behaviours people exhibit (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980). As the behaviour of interest in this thesis is the departure of these teachers from the profession, it was decided that the values informing this behaviour should be investigated. Values are also components of an organisation's culture, which is linked to job commitment and satisfaction (Branson, 2008). It is therefore possible that when the values of these teachers and those in school culture are aligned, this will contribute to reduced attrition. Based on the works of Rokeach (1973) and Schwartz (2012), an adapted value scale using Q-method was developed to measure the value systems of student teachers and those contributing to school culture as determined by secondary school department leaders. The measurement and comparison of these value systems showed: values held by these teachers in the formative years of their careers evolve, and ITT guides this; physical science and non-physical science student teacher value systems were shown in some instances to be similar, and in others to be noticeably different; one of the two physical science student teacher value systems was in most instances aligned with the value systems identified as being present in English secondary school culture; misalignment showed that physical science specialists place less emphasis on having a sense of belonging and on benevolence oriented values; when compared with the values in English secondary school culture, teachers in the formative years of their careers, regardless of their specialism, have the potential to overemphasise the importance of conformity oriented values. It is suggested that these combined factors contribute to the attrition of teachers of physical science subjects in the formative years of their careers.

The primary objective of this thesis is to study the role of surveys as power factor with a particular focus on studies of Internet users. The conditions and practices of the private research field are related to the academic discourse on the essence of science as well as to media's role in society. The methodological basis of the quantitative studies and their practices are examined in relation to a range of competing theories on the nature of science and its role in society. Earlier contributions to the criticism of quantitative surveys are also discussed. The methodological problems are further highlighted by concrete examples based on own analyses of various data collections. One empirical part of the thesis consists of analyses of survey studies as reported in the press coverage of the Internet in 1997, 1999 and 2000. The goal of the analyses is to show that surveys are an important mechanism for creating truth effects. The methodological tools are part of the struggle for mastery of the discourse –thereby confirming or changing existing power relations – in part through the dissemination of selected results in the media. Through a perusal of the newspaper articles with regard to the context in which the keywords "Internet" and "survey" appear and what the specific actor says, to whom, with which intention, an overall discourse appears, which reveals that the leading commercial actors endeavour to promote the development of the Internet in accordance with their aspirations. The published results are also related to other, more complex analyses of data collections from the same period. In another empirical part of the thesis findings from some fifty interviews with various experts are presented. The aim is to evaluate the methodological sources of error associated with sampling, the carrying out of studies, the analysis of results and other factors that have to do with the value of the surveys as basic facts, as well as the survey buyers’ awareness of the nature of the errors and their relevance for the results. The quantitative surveys appear as an uncontrolled and uncertain source of knowledge. The survey industry is profit-oriented and characterised by competition whereby methodological issues often land up in the background. The final discussion addresses a set of mechanisms by which the interested parties from the media industry use the ratings in the internal competition or in various administrative documents. They achieve this by establishing a "common currency" on the basis of such studies, which is valid in relation to other interested parties, such as media owners and advertisers. Different strategies developed by the survey industry in order to lend more market value to their products are also discussed. The methodological problems, the lack of openness to external scrutiny and the dependence on the economic field signify that the praxis of the survey field essentially deviates from the basic concepts of science. Surveys take therefore undue  advantage of scientific legitimacy.

Avsikten med detta arbete har varit att synliggöra och att utforma en lärarhandledning som baseras på det entreprenöriella förhållningssättet i undervisningen. Bakomliggande metod har inkluderat litteraturstudier, inventering av befintliga projekt inom området, deltagande av utbildningsdag om entreprenörskap, intervjuer av lärare samt västerås projektansvarige för entreprenörskap i Västerås skolor. Entreprenörskap för elever har tidigare drivits av organisationer utanför skolorna varför det har blivit mer angeläget att utbilda skolpersonal så att förhållningssättet kan börja utvecklas inne i den dagliga verksamheten inom skolans egen arena. Resultatet visade att det fanns lärare som framhöll att de alltid undervisat med ett entreprenöriellt förhållningssätt. Det fanns lärare som kände behov av att lära elever olika strategier som eleverna sedan själva kunde utnyttja i sitt lärande. Arbetet visade även att det fanns lärare som blev nyfikna och intresserade av det entreprenöriella förhållningssättet.

To determine how leading companies in North America, Europe, and Asia develop and sustain strong talent pipelines, this research investigates talent management processes and practices in a sample of 37 multinational corporations, selected on the basis of their international scope, reputation, and long-term performance. In-depth case studies and a Web-based survey of human resources professionals identify various effective practices that can help companies attract, select, develop, and retain talent. However, the results suggest that competitive advantage comes not primarily from designing and implementing best practices but rather from the proper internal alignment of various elements of a company's talent management system, as well as their embeddedness in the value system of the firm, their links to business strategy, and their global coordination.

Over the past 30 years there has been an increase in socioeconomic inequities between Black and White persons in the United States. Some research suggests that political ideology, which in turn impacts political competition levels, may at least partially explain these disparities, though the body of academic literature in this area is sparse. Little is known about how Black political ideology is formed by perceptions of inequality. The purpose of this study was to examine the phenomenon of Black political ideology, political competition, and socioeconomic status to determine how political competition relates to social inequities between Blacks and Whites. The theoretical framework of the study was Lockean social contract theory. The overarching question guiding this study explored how competition could better defend natural rights to reduce social disparities and the obligations of government to equally protect, similarly to the protections of government historically extended to Whites. Multiple and multivariate regression models were developed using data from the 2010 General Social Survey, the 2010 American Community Survey, and the presidential election results of 2008. Results showed no significant relationship between Black beliefs of inequality with Black political ideology and that high political competition rates might contribute to the increasing Black/White socioeconomic gaps. Contrary to economic competition models developed through Locke's social contract, there was no evidence that political competition reduces socioeconomic inequities between Blacks and Whites. The implications for positive social change include education of policy makers that higher political competition rates in their states contribute to lower socioeconomic outcomes for Blacks.

This thesis discusses linguistic constraints on scrambling and flexibility in word order in spoken Persian (Farsi) and presents a computational model for efficient implementation of these constraints for a subset of Persian. Linguistic phenomena which we have studies include local scrambling, long distance scrambling, extrapolation of clauses, topicalisation, case tendancy and the discourse marker ra. The work extends previous work on Persian based on Government and Binding (GB) theory by considering the pragmatic aspects of Persian Grammar and long distance scrambling.

Man kann die allgemeinen Probleme, denen Weber sich in seinen kulturwissenschaftlichen Studien gewidmet hat, in zwei Hauptprobleme zusammenfassen: das erste liegt im Verhältnis zwischen kulturwissenschaftlichen Allgemeinbegriffen einerseits sowie empirischer Realität d. h. je individuellen historischen Ereignissen und sozialen Handlungen andererseits; das zweite bezieht sich auf die Trennlinie zwischen Werturteilen und wissenschaftlicher Erkenntnis beziehungsweise auf die Unterscheidung zwischen dem „Seinsollenden“ und dem „Seienden“. Zur Lösung der ersten Problematik schlägt Weber seinen Ansatz des „idealtypischen Vorgehens“ vor, zur Lösung der zweiten sein Konzept der „Werturteilsfreiheit“ oder „wertfrei“ der Kulturwissenschaften. Wir haben uns in unserer Arbeit vorrangig auf die erste Problematik konzentriert, ohne jedoch deren Zusammenhang mit der zweiten außer Acht zu lassen. Hier kommt die Frage: Inwieweit ist Webers „idealtypische Begriffsbildung“ tauglich als eine rationale Rekonstruktion der empirischen Realität? Im Sinne Weber ist der „Idealtypus“ wohl die einzige Möglichkeit, kulturwissenschaftlich zu forschen. Somit entsteht zwangsläufig das Problem, dass das kulturwissenschaftliche Erkenntnisobjekt nur auf eine idealtypische Weise zugänglich ist. So gesehen wäre es unmöglich, die Kulturwissenschaften als Wirklichkeitswissenschaften zu bezeichnen. Daher sollte man auch weiterhin über alternative kulturwissenschaftliche Erklärungsmodelle nachdenken. Zu denken wäre hier etwa an Hempels DN-Erklärung, Drays rationale Erklärung, von Wrights praktischen Syllogismus, Schwemmers rational- rekonstruktive Erklärung sowie verschiedene Modelle weiterer moderner Autoren, die einen wichtigen Anteil an der Diskussion der Frage nach einer gangbaren kulturwissenschaftlichen Methode für die Erklärung von Handlungen hatten. Die Frage selbst wird unseres Erachtens jedoch auch der künftigen Kulturwissenschaft erhalten bleiben und sich mit der Entwicklung der Kulturwissenschaften selbst weiterentwickeln. / The general problems Weber addresses in his cultural studies can be summarised as two main problems. The first one is located in the relationship between cultural general terms on the one hand as well as empirical reality, i. e. based on historical events and social action on the other hand; the second one refers to the parting line between value judgements and scientific knowledge which is to say to the differentiation between “what should be” and “what is”. Weber proposes his approach of the “ideal-typical action” in order to solve the first problem; to solve the second problem he proposes his concept of “freedom from value judgements” or “value-free” cultural studies. In our work we are primarily focusing on the first problem without losing sight of its relationship with the second problem. So here comes the question: to what degree is Weber’s “ideal-typical concept formation” suitable as a rational reconstruction of empirical reality? In Weber’s sense, the “ideal type” is arguably the only possibility of conducting research in a cultural-scientific context. In this way the problem inevitably arises that the scientific object of cultural studies can only be accessed through an ideal-typical approach. If we looked at it that way, it would be impossible to consider cultural studies as real life science. For this reason we should continue thinking about alternative explanatory models concerning cultural studies. Perhaps here Hempel’s D-N explanation comes to mind, Dray’s rational explanation, von Wright’s practical syllogisms, Schwemmer’s rational-reconstructive explanation as well as different models of other authors who played an important role in the discussion of the question of a practicable method in cultural studies concerning the explanation of action. As far as we are concerned the question itself will continue to be explored in future cultural studies and with the further development of cultural studies continue developing itself.

Einleitung: Ein Eingriff, der in der heutigen Zeit sehr häufig angewandt wird, gleichzeitig aber Thema einer kontroversen wissenschaftlichen Debatte ist, ist die Episiotomie. Methode: Dieser Untersuchung liegt eine qualitative Analyse von 39 Dissertationen im Fach Gynäkologie und Geburtshilfe zu Grunde, die im Zeitraum zwischen 1885 und 1996 an deutschen Hochschulen und Universitäten zum Thema Episiotomie veröffentlicht wurden. Die Doktorarbeiten wurden anhand eines Fragerasters untersucht und die Ergebnisse in Tabellenformaten zusammengefasst. Ergebnisse: Es ist festzustellen, dass eine Entwicklung weg von den Indikationen "Missverhältnis" und "Prophylaxe des Dammrisses" hin zu sehr zahlreichen und verschiedenartigen Indikationen stattgefunden hat. Details der Schnittführung werden ab 1927 so intensiv und breit diskutiert, dass dieser Punkt bis in die heutige Zeit als der Diskussionspunkt um die Episiotomie überhaupt gelten kann. Diskussion: Die Diskussion und Interpretation der Ergebnisse erfolgte nach den von Fleck postulierten Annahmen von Denkstilen, Denkkollektiven und systemimmanenten Fragestellungen der Forschenden. Ausgehend davon wurde der Untersuchungszeitraum in drei Abschnitte unterschiedlicher wissenschaftlicher Prägung unterteilt. Schlussfolgerung: Die Forschungsgegenstände, Forschungsergebnisse und auch die Interpretationen sind zeitabhängig. Eine jede Arbeit muss im Kontext ihrer Entstehungsgeschichte betrachtet werden. Somit ist jeder Forschende in zweierlei Hinsicht ein Abhängiger: Er produziert die Wissenslandschaft seiner Zeit, aber er reproduziert sie auch. / Introduction: The episiotomy is an operation applied frequently, at present, and at the same time it is a topic of a scientific controversy. Methods: This treatise is based on a qualitative analysis of 39 doctoral thesisses of obstetrics and gynocology published in the period between 1885 and 1996 at German universities und medical academies concerning the topic of episiotomy. The thesisses are analyzed by means of a pattern of questions. The results are summarized in tables. Results: The described indications change from "disproportion" and "prophylaxis of the rupture" to various indications. Details of the direction of the cut are discussed intensivly and widly, since 1927. Nowadays this is the most important point of discussion in the community. Discussion: The discussion and interpretation of the results is based on Ludwik Fleck´s postulates of thought styles, thought communities and system inherent questions of the scientists. Proceeding from this theory the mentioned period is divorsed in three phases of different scientific characters. Conclusion: The objects, results and interpretation of research depend on the scientific period. Every treatise has to be considered in the context of its genesis. Every scientist creates and reproduces the knowlegde and the ideas of his time.