Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Capitalism Case studies'

This dissertation examines literacy practices in settings that have been transformed by changes in capitalism of the last forty years. These settings are characterized by increased technologization, accrediting processes, team-building, and a requirement for independent critical thinking on the part of workers. The two school-to-work programs included in the dissertation are biotechnology and nursing. Both were sited in a two-year urban community college and both had the characteristics mentioned above. However they also provided a contrast it two ways. First, nursing is a traditional practice that has recently been transformed by changes in capitalism while biotechnology is a completely new field that didn't exist forty years ago. Second, students in these school-to-work programs were pointed towards different class positions within their work settings; biotechnology students toward elite positions, and nurses toward a more traditional and less elite position. The dissertation examines how apprentice workers in these settings learn new practices of a changed capitalism through literacy and other discursive processes as they move back and forth between school and work settings. It also examines students as they learn other aspects of capitalism through the grammars of their respective fields. These include gendered work identities, highly prescriptive critical thinking processes that bear the footprints of a sociohistorical past, and new processes of thinking and acting that are characteristic of a new moment in capitalism.

Abstract Amidst the worst disaster to impact a major U.S. city in one hundred years, New Orleans’ main trauma and safety net medical center, the Reverend Avery C. Alexander Charity Hospital, was permanently closed. Charity’s administrative operator, Louisiana State University (LSU), ordered an end to its attempted reopening by its workers and U.S. military personnel in the weeks following the August 29, 2005 storm. Drawing upon rigorous review of literature and an exhaustive analysis of primary and secondary data, this case study found that Charity Hospital was closed as a result of disaster capitalism. LSU, backed by Louisiana state officials, took advantage of the mass internal displacement of New Orleans’ populace in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in an attempt to abandon Charity Hospital’s iconic but neglected facility and to supplant its original safety net mission serving the poor and uninsured for its neoliberal transformation to favor LSU’s academic medical enterprise.

During the last decades, culturally racist parties, like the Sweden Democrats (SD) and the Alterna-tive for Germany (AfD), have seen a rapid growth in popularity and are now represented in parliaments in almost all European countries. Although the majority of their voters are considered white, male, and working class, a growing number of people with a migration background started sup-porting parties of said political stream that frame migration as the biggest threat to society. This thesis aims at understanding the alleged contradiction of individuals that are to different degrees racialized as immigrants becoming members in the SD and AfD. Located within discourses of racial neoliberalism, the study examines how national belonging and subject positions are constructed and contested, and how racist migrant respectability serves as a strategy of overcoming a struggle for belonging to the host society.

"Multiple Case Study of (Re)-Design and Restructuring of Studio Arts Schools and Departments in the Research University Environment" investigates the effect of a changing academic value system, as it is manifest through activities of studio arts program redesign and restructuring within the specific context of large, public research universities in the United States of America. A multiple case study (of three distinct American studio arts units) of the academic restructuring phenomenon within this specific locus, examining the interplay of studio arts culture with the larger institutional mandates in the restructuring process, this work approaches restructuring as a series of cultural and survivalist responses to a complex and changing environment.

Corporate finance researchers have long been puzzled by low corporate debt ratios given debt's corporate tax advantage. What makes the capital structure debate especially intriguing is that the different theories represent such different, and in some ways almost diametrically opposed, decision-making processes.

En phase d’amorçage, les jeunes entreprises technologiques à la recherche de ressources pour financer leur développement peuvent solliciter les business angels (BAs) et capital-investisseurs (CIs). Notre recherche porte sur le type d’investissement (BAs seuls, BAs et CIs en co-investissement séquentiel ou simultané) mis en œuvre et amène la question de la nature et de la qualité des relations et interactions entre les différentes catégories d’investisseurs et l’entrepreneur, dans le sens où ces investisseurs peuvent influencer la dynamique de croissance et être à leur tour influencés par cette dynamique. Celle-ci suppose que les rythmes et l’intensité des trajectoires de croissance des jeunes pousses de haute technologie n’ont rien de déterministes, mais se développent de façon dynamique dans le champ de l’interaction entre les principaux apporteurs de ressources. Nous mobilisons conjointement la théorie d’agence et les approches cognitive et effectuale pour analyser le co-investissement par BAs et CIs. Nous avons mené une étude de cas multiples à visée comparative auprès de trois jeunes entreprises de la région Rhône-Alpes-Auvergne. Nous avons montré que, quand les schémas cognitifs des BAs et/ou de l’entrepreneur sont proches de celui du CI, les relations et interrelations peuvent se déployer à moindre coût cognitif en phase préinvestissement et que le co-investissement séquentiel ou simultané peut prendre place. Nos résultats révèlent qu’un financement par BAs est associé à une trajectoire de croissance plus lente et qu’un co-investissement séquentiel permet de stabiliser la trajectoire de croissance sans pour autant que l’entreprise rencontre une très forte croissance. Nous mettons aussi en évidence que lorsque les BAs et/ou les CIs perçoivent le fort potentiel de croissance de la jeune entreprise, très tôt dans le processus d’investissement, les CIs ont avantage à intégrer les BAs qui ont une expérience spécifique comme leur passé entrepreneurial et leur connaissance du secteur. L’approche prédictive de ces trois acteurs : entrepreneur, CIs et BAs favorise la mise en œuvre d’un un co-investissement simultané. Dans ce contexte, les investisseurs (BAs et CIs) peuvent être des partenaires actifs au côté de l’entrepreneur et contribuer à ce que la jeune entreprise rencontre une trajectoire de croissance forte voire d’une hyper-croissance
In their seed, young technological ventures seeking resources to finance their development may seek business angels (BAs) and venture capitalists (VCs). Our research shall include the type of investment (only BAs, BAs and VCs in sequential or simultaneous co-investment) implemented and this leads to the question of the nature and the quality of the relations and interactions among various categories of investors and the entrepreneur, in the sense that these investors may influence the dynamic of growth, and be themselves influenced by that dynamic. It implies that the pace and intensity of the venture growth of the young technological ventures do not have any kind of determinism, but they develop rather in a dynamic manner within the field of the interaction between the main providers of resources. We jointly mobilize agency theory and cognitive and effectual approaches in order to analyse the co-investment of BAs and VCs. We conducted a multiple-case study with a comparative aim concerning three young companies of the Rhône-Alpes Region. We have shown that, when the cognitive schemes of the BAs and / or the entrepreneur are close to that of the VC, the relations and interrelations can occur to a lesser cognitive cost during the pre-investment phase and that the sequential or simultaneous co-investment may take place. Our results indicate that a funding by BAs is associated with a slower venture growth and that a sequential co-investment allows the stabilisation of the venture growth without a very high growth for the company. We are also highlighting that when the BAs and / or the VCs recognize the high growth potential of the young company very early in the investment process the VCs really need to integrate the BAs who have a specific experience, like their entrepreneurial past and their knowledge of the sector. The predictive approach of these three stakeholders: entrepreneur, VCs and BAs promotes the implementation of a simultaneous co-investment. In this context, the investors (BAs and VCs) can serve as active partners alongside the entrepreneur and help ensure that the young company follows a high venture growth, or even a hyper growth

Im Zentrum der Studie stehen erfolgreiche betriebliche Anpassungsprozesse im Prozess der ostdeutschen Industrietransformation. Trotz einer breiten Forschung zur ostdeutschen Transformation ist dieses Phänomen bislang weitgehend ununtersucht. Während die Transformationsforschung in weiten Teilen vor allem von der Erwartung einer Angleichung der ostdeutschen an die westdeutschen Strukturen geprägt ist, folgen die realen Anpassungsprozesse im Zuge der ostdeutschen Industrietransformation einer eigenen, durch die spezifischen ostdeutschen Problemlagen bestimmten Logik. Auf der Mikroebene der Unternehmen entwickelte sich so eine Unternehmenslandschaft mit spezifischen Strukturmerkmalen und Eigenheiten der von den Unternehmen verfolgten Geschäftsmodelle. Auf der Makroebene sind die Unternehmen mit aus Westdeutschland transferierten Institutionen konfrontiert, die im ostdeutschen Kontext teils nur schwach institutionalisiert und begrenzt funktionsfähig sind, auch wenn der Institutionentransfer formal als gelungen gilt. Dies gilt insbesondere für die industriellen Beziehungen und die duale Berufsausbildung als Kerninstitutionen des (west-) deutschen Kapitalismusmodells. Die Studie untersucht anhand von zwölf Unternehmensfallstudien die Entwicklung und Ausprägung erfolgreicher betrieblicher Anpassungsstrategien sowie die institutionelle Einbettung der von den Unternehmen verfolgten Geschäftsmodelle. Die Arbeit stellt dabei die ostdeutschen Akteure und ihr strategisches Handeln ins Zentrum der Forschungsperspektive. Sie vertritt die These, dass die besonderen ostdeutschen Rahmenbedingungen das Handeln der ostdeutschen Akteure wesentlich stärker prägen, als dies von der Transformationsforschung wahrgenommen wird. Auf der Mikroebene müssen Unternehmen und Betriebe sich mit eigenen Strategien insbesondere auch gegen westdeutsche Wettbewerber durchsetzen. Bei der Entwicklung von Wettbewerbsstärken sind sie vor allem auf vorhandene, zu DDR-Zeiten herausgebildete industrielle Kompetenzen verwiesen, die die Transformationsforschung überhaupt nicht als betriebliche Ressource anerkennt. Auf der Makroebene müssen sie mit Institutionen umgehen, die zwar dem westdeutschem Vorbild nachgebildet wurden, aber in Ostdeutschland nicht dieselbe Funktionalität entfalten. Trotzdem unterfüttert die institutionelle Einbettung ihrer Geschäftsmodelle die von den Unternehmen verfolgten Strategien. Abschließend diskutiert die Arbeit, inwiefern das komplementäre Zusammenspiel originärer Geschäftsmodelle und spezifischer Formen der Institutionalisierung für Ostdeutschland einen eigenen sozioökonomischen Entwicklungspfad begründet.

Climate change implication and rural livelihood capitals remain the major inextricable dimensions of sustainability in this twenty first century globally. As a result, the impact and outcome of climate change on rural livelihood capitals, including economic development cannot be overemphasized in Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality of the North West Province of South Africa, where the study took place. It is one of the largest maize production regions in South Africa, where a preponderance of the people in the province obtain their livelihood from agriculture which contributes enormously to the promotion of household’s food security. The study, therefore, investigated the adaptation strategies, awareness of climate change, factors that influenced climate change adaptation in North West Province of South Africa, with the aim of ascertaining the effects of climate change on livelihood capitals among small and emerging maize farmers. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select three hundred and forty-six (346) farmers who were interviewed from the study area, while a pre-tested questionnaire was administered to the maize farmers, aiming at matters related to climate change impact on livelihood and adaptation. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics while inferential statistical tools employed were Principal Component Analysis, Two-Stage Least Square regression model, Binary Logistic regression model, and Tobit regression model. The results of the study showed that climate change was linked to rural livelihood capitals as climate change awareness, low profit and co-operative finance were statistically significant (p<0.05). The study also established that majority of the rural farmers in the study area were aware of climate change, in which farm size, education, ownership of the farm, information received on climate change, source of climate change information, climate change information through extension services, channel of information received on climate change and support received on climate change were statistically significant (p<0.05). Factors such as farm size, household gender, type of farms, who owns the farm, land acquisition, source of climate change information, support received on climate change, and adaptation barrier were statistically significant (p<0.05) and influenced climate change adaptation in the study area. Conclusively, climate change is entwined with rural livelihood, and the variables that are significant to the study were identified. It was therefore recommended that government intervention, access to information, extension service and support, farmers’ networking, adoption of drought and heat stress tolerant seeds, indigenous knowledge should be improved, practiced and promoted among the rural farmers and the stakeholders involved in the study area.
Agriculture, Animal Health and Human Ecology
D. Phil. (Agriculture)

This paper interweaves narrativized readings and experiential narratives as personal and cultural resources for counterhegemonic cultural critique within our historical context of globalization and ecological crisis. Framed by perspectives on epistemology, everyday life, and place, these reflections seek to engage and revitalize our notions of community, creativity, and the individual, towards visioning the human art of community as a counternarrative to globalization. Such a task involves confronting the meanings we have come to ascribe to work and economy which so deeply determine our social fabric. Encountering the thought of key 19th and 20th century social theorists ranging from William Morris, Gregory Bateson, and Raymond Williams, to Murray Bookchin, Martin Buber, and Wendell Berry, these reflections mark the indivisible web of culture in the face of our insistent divisions, and further, iterate our innate creativity as the source for a vital, sustainable culture that might reflect, in Bateson’s terms, the pattern that connects.