The novel The Bluest Eye highlights different modes of racism that is relevant to engage with in today’s society. From a pedagogical standpoint, novels of this nature can enable rich and fruitful discussions about the implication of racism and how to counter it. However, its pedagogical potential is juxtaposed against the risks of presenting such explicit material to a classroom, and the consequential effects of migrating an African American novel to a Swedish subtext. A solution to this is applying Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a theoretical framework which from a conceptual perspective can preserve the integrity of the novel and enable students to actively engage with the text. However, the Swedish National Agency for Education (SNAE) lacks pedagogical tools for English teachers that want to address and counter racism in their classrooms which leaves a gap for those interested in working with The Bluest Eye. This paper aims to contribute to this gap by presenting how The Bluest Eye can help English 7 students engage with questions surrounding racism by applying CRT as a pedagogical framework. In order to migrate CRT to a pedagogical context rather than an institutional one, my focus is on the tenets of the theory along with counter narrative and storytelling. Subsequently, the findings of this paper highlight two aspects of the novel that are indicative of its pedagogical potential: the narrative strategies and the thematic elements which stress different modes of racism. The results also show that with CRT as apedagogical framework, students can gain a deeper understanding in the multidimensionality of racism through engaging with this novel. This paper indicates the strengths of applying CRT as a framework when working with this text by showcasing the richness in The Bluest Eye and providing pedagogical guidelines in teaching it.

The predominant theorists of community in American sociology define community as either geographically confined local solidarities or as networks or relatively close primary ties. These definitions fail to recognize the realities of modern life, let alone life in the context of a global economy. Community according to the earliest community sociologists was a way of organizing society wherein all the social interactions necessary to the reproduction of daily life were embedded in moral relationships, which were historically primary ties located within local solidary communities. With modernity, most of these social interactions have been removed from those moral relationships, and now occur on in a global marketplace where individuals feel no moral responsibility for the consequences of their actions. In such a context, today's predominant theories are no longer viable. In order for community sociology to remain relevant, we need an approach to community which reincorporates all of interactions necessary to daily life and that recognizes the social costs of modernity. The three articles in this dissertation together offer critiques of today's predominant theoretical approaches—the Community Saved and Community Liberated arguments, as Barry Wellman has named them—and provide an alternative that is suited to social life embedded in a global marketplace. The alternative is based on an honest reading of the so-called Community Lost argument—honest in that it is not biased by the straw men built up by the Community Saved and Community Liberated proponents—and extends that argument to include the work of several late-modern theorists (particularly, Zygmunt Bauman and Ulrich Beck). This revived version of the Community Lost argument allows us to address directly all the social interactions necessary to community and to understand the relevance of local solidarities and networks of primary ties as centers of moral proximity.

The mutual need between organizations and startups, from one side to stay competitive and the other to survive, leads to open innovation relationships. However, the actors are asymmetrical, leading to a risk that no value is created. Nevertheless, value needs to be created in the relationship to enable open innovation. This study identifies in literature four relational factors. The aim is to investigate how a startup and established organization perceive the relational factors of actor bonds, resource ties, activity links, network embeddedness, and their influence on value creation. Six semi-structured interviews are conducted. The main findings are: (I) all the relational factors influence value creation in this context. Thus, all are needed to enable an open innovation process (II) each theme that emerged in theory was confirmed (III) each actor􏰈s perceptions were found to be different, demonstrating that value is determined differently depending on the unique actor, their needs and context. Therefore, each actor needs to put more emphasis on the specific themes that actors in the relationship find valuable (IV) new themes are found to influence the relational factor of actor bonds (V) the level of value created depends on how the relational factors are managed by the actors.

Flera olika typer av virtuella produkter växer i popularitet och värde i människors ögon. Inomden digitala spelvärlden spenderas en hög andel pengar på virtuella produkter som inte har ettfunktionellt syfte. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka om sociala faktorer kan påverkaköpintentionen i digitala spel genom sin relation till hedoniskt värde. Denna studie användersig av en kvantitativ metod och tvärsnittsdesign i form av enkäter. Enkäterna har spriditsgenom relevanta medier samt kedjeurval. Resultatet analyseras med en PLS-SEM analys föratt se om det finns ett förhållande mellan sociala faktorer och hedonism. Denna uppsatsförsöker besvara frågan: “Bidrar sociala faktorer till att skapa hedoniskt värde i virtuellaprodukter?”. Resultatet visar på att sociala band och social identitet relaterat till spelet ärpositivt relaterat till att skapa ett hedoniskt värde och på så sätt öka köpintentionen. Theory ofconsumtion value undersöker vilka värden som ligger bakom de val av köp konsumenter gör.Teorin används som grund i denna uppsats och har hjälpt till att skapaundersökningsmodellen samt styrka hypoteserna via begreppen emotionellt och socialt värde.Viktiga fynd är att ålder, kön och tid inte har någon påverkan på hedoniska värdet. Hedonisktvärde, social identitet och sociala band visades ha ett lågt instämmande i undersökningen.Trots detta blev slutsatsen att det finns ett signifikant samband mellan de sociala värdena ochhedoniskt värde. Detta bekräftar hypoteserna i uppsatsen. Resultatet i denna studie bidrar tilllitteraturen genom att undersöka relationen mellan utvalda konsumtionsvärden ochköpintentionen till virtuella produkter. Informationen som uppsatsen ger kan hjälpa företag attförstå faktorer som kan uppmuntra till köp av virtuella produkter. / Many different types of virtual products are growing in popularity and value in people's eyes.In the gaming world, large amounts of money is spent on virtual products that do not have afunctional purpose. The purpose of this essay is to investigate whether social factors caninfluence purchase intention in digital game contexts through their relationship to hedonicvalue. This study has carried out a quantitative method and a cross-sectional design in theform of questionnaires. The questionnaires have been distributed through relevant media andchain selection. The results are analysed with a PLS-SEM analysis to investigate whetherthere is a relationship between social factors and hedonism. This essay tries to answer thequestion: ”Do social factors contribute to creating hedonic value in virtual products?”. Theresult shows that social ties and social identity within the game are positively related tocreating a hedonic feeling and thus increasing purchase intention. The theory of consumptionvalue examines which values lie behind the purchase intention and choices consumers make.The theory is used as a basis in this essay, it has helped to create the research model andstrengthen the hypotheses via the concepts of emotional and social value. Some of theimportant findings in this essay is that age, gender and time are factors that have no influenceon the hedonic value. Hedonic value, social identity and social ties were shown to have lowagreement in the survey. Despite this, the conclusion was that there is a significantrelationship between the social values and hedonic value. This confirms the hypotheses in thepaper. The results of the study contribute to the literature by investigating the relationshipbetween the selected consumption values and willingnes to pay for virtual products. Theinformation provided in this essay can help companies have a better understanding of factorsthat can better promote the acquiring of virtual products.

Работа посвящена анализу динамики развития двусторонних взаимоотношений между Японией и Социалистической Республикой Вьетнам в начале XXI в. На основе широкого круга источников и литературы, включая двусторонние документы, вьетнамские и японские средства массовой информации, а также актуальные публикации российских и зарубежных исследователей, определяются основные направления отношений, особенности и результаты сотрудничества. Подчеркивается важное место вьетнамско-японского взаимодействия в системе безопасности в Азиатско-Тихоокеанском регионе и ценность сотрудничества для обоих партнеров, невзирая на проблемы. / The author analyses the development of bilateral relations between Japan and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in the beginning of the 21st century. A wide range of primary and secondary sources is used, including diplomatic documents, Vietnamese and Japanese mass media, and research publications of experts from different countries of the world. The work systematizes the basic aspects of bilateral relations, defines their specific features and results. The important role of relations between Vietnam and Japan in the system of international relations in Asia-Pacific is emphasized, as well as its significance for both partners, in spite of various problems.

This thesis is a collection of three essays in causal evaluation. The first chapter investigates the effects of formal ties between firms and banks on the amount of credit received. I focus on the micro-effects of ties (bank-firm level) and how they reverberate at the macro level. Results are consistent with the literature considering links as a source of favoritism. However, efficient firms are more likely to be connected to banks, thus benefiting more often than less efficient firms from connections. The comparison of Portugal’s GDP in 2017 with that produced under a hypothetical scenario where every tie was severed shows that severing links results in virtually no changes in GDP. I interpret the result as evidence that the different likelihood of being connected experienced by efficient and not efficient firms counterbalances the misallocating potential of connections.The second chapter introduces a novel Stata implementation of Egger and von Ehrlich’s (2013) econometric framework for the estimation of treatment effect when the treatment is continuous and multidimensional. After the illustration of the package, I present a simple simulation to show the capability of the method to overcome bias.The third chapter consists of an evaluation of European regional policy. It analyzes how different mixes of investments in infrastructure and productive investments affect regions’ growth rate. The main results are that allocations in infrastructure foster growth only when coupled with expenditures in productive investments. Moreover, the highest growth is obtained when investments have high intensity in both dimensions. By generating two hypothetical scenarios, I investigate how the allocation of funds can be improved. The results show that regions could allocate more efficiently. However, the actual transfer intensity is not enough to choose the mix that would globally maximize growth. The findings are consistent with Becker et al. (2012) since enforcing common support restricts the analysis to regions with low transfer intensity.

I detta examensarbete utforskas kollektiva boendeformer som socialt hållbara lösningar i framväxande urbana miljöer förankrat i ett gestaltningsförslag. Det finns en efterfrågan på bostadsmarknaden av kollektiva boendeformer följt av strukturella förändringar i samhället, minskade hushållsstorlekar och människans behov av social interaktion. Teoridelen utgör ett teoretiskt ramverk för studiens fokus på kollektiva boendeformer, med hjälp av teoretiska principer och empirisk forskning kring kollektiva boenden, individens behov av autonomi och gemenskap, samt hur rumslig utformning påverkar social interaktion. För att undersöka detta har studien genomfört en litteratursökning, intervju med bostadsforskare och fallstudier av kollektiv i Malmö. Arbetet baseras på en Inquiry by Design metod som möjliggör en flexibel arbetsmetod. I resultatet presenteras insikter från intervjun och fallstudierna, analyser av rumsliga designaspekter, och sammanfattande slutsatser som formulerar designkriterier för ett gestaltningsförslag av ett framtida kollektivboende. Diskussionen placerar forskningsfynden i kontext till aktuella utmaningar inom bostadsmarknaden, betonar vikten av mellanmänskliga relationer i kollektiv, och föreslår en förlängning av "den tredje platsen" som en integrerad del av hemmet. / In this thesis, collective housing forms are explored as socially sustainable solutions in emerging urban environments, anchored in a design proposal. There is a demand in the housing market for collective living arrangements due to structural changes in society, decreasing household sizes, and the human need for social interaction. The theoretical framework of the study focuses on collective housing forms, drawing on theoretical principles and empirical research on collective living, individual needs for autonomy and community, and how spatial design influences social interaction. To investigate this, the study conducts a literature review, an interview with a housing researcher and case studies of collective housing in Malmö. The work is based on an Inquiry by Design method, enabling a flexible approach. The results present insights from the interview and case studies, analyses of spatial design aspects, and summarizing conclusions that result in a design criteria for a proposal of future collective housing forms. The discussion contextualizes the research findings within current challenges in the housing market, emphasizing the importance of interpersonal relationships in collective housing forms, and suggests an extension of the "the third place" as an integrated part of the home.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Technology: Business Administration, Durban University of Technology, 2014. / This thesis integrates social capital and ‘reasoned action’ theory to construct a theoretical model for investigating the factors which predict an individual’s intention to share tacit knowledge in a University of Technology. It utilizes Nahapiet and Ghoshal (1998: 243) definition and conception of social capital. They define social capital as “the sum of the actual and potential resources embedded within, available through, and derived from the network of relationships possessed by an individual or social unit”. This study examined tacit knowledge sharing behaviour (i.e., knowledge that is shared between individuals) within the context of social capital. The specific type of tacit knowledge that is being studied relates to work experience ‘know-what’ and ‘know-how’. ‘Know-what’ refers to the basic mastery of a discipline that professionals achieve through education and training. ‘Know-how’ refers to procedural knowledge about a business process and the individual’s capability to perform an action with an understanding of why the action is appropriate in the particular context, (i.e., action skill or applied competence). Specifically, this study examines the relationship between the structural, relational and cognitive dimensions of social capital and the individual’s attitude towards the sharing of tacit knowledge. It further examines the relationship between the individual’s attitude towards tacit knowledge sharing, their perceived norms and perceived behavioural control over the sharing of tacit knowledge (mediating variables) and their intention to share tacit knowledge. It is a case study which consists of a mixed methods research design, incorporating nine research interviews and five hundred and fifty four self administered questionnaires. The theoretical model is examined using structural equation modeling (SEM) and as a result of the findings, the initial model is revised into a set of theoretical models, which are tested using SEM and found to be consistent with the data (i.e., a good fit). The direct, indirect and total effects of the identified predictor (social capital) and mediating variables (‘reasoned action’) on the individual’s intention to share tacit knowledge, in each model, is examined and the results are presented. Each dimension of social capital is found to be significant for predicting the criterion variable ‘attitude towards tacit knowledge sharing’. The individual’s attitude towards tacit knowledge sharing is found to be highly significant for predicting the individual’s intention to share tacit knowledge but the ‘reasoned action’ variables are found to be not as significant, particularly perceived behavioural control over the sharing of tacit knowledge. The results of this study enrich our collective understanding regarding social capital and tacit knowledge sharing behaviour. / Academy of Management, National Research Foundation, Durban University of Technology