Dissertations / Theses: 'Social change – Europe, Central'

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Mays, S. "Social organisation and social change in the early and middle Bronze Age of central Europe : A study using Â£Thuman skeletal remainsÂ£T." Thesis, University of Southampton, 1987. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.377647.

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Ovseiko, Pavel Victor. "The politics of health care reform in Central and Eastern Europe : the case of the Czech Republic." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2009. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:d8f1c4d3-9dda-4a2b-94d1-5afcb0cf5c87.

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This thesis examines the political process of health care reform between 1989 and 1998 in the most advanced sizable political economy in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) – the Czech Republic. Its aim is to explain the political process bringing about post-Communist health policy change and stimulate new debates on welfare state transformation in CEE. The thesis challenges the conventional view that post-Communist health care reform in CEE was designed and implemented to improve the health status of the people, as desired by the people themselves. I suggest that this is a dangerous over-rationalisation, and argue that post-Communist health care reform in the Czech Republic was the by-product of haphazard democratic political struggle between emerging elites for power and economic resources. The thesis employs the analytical narrative method to describe and analyse the actors, institutions, ideas and history behind the health policy change. The analysis is informed by welfare state theory, elite theory, interest group politics theory, the assumptions of methodological individualism and rational choice theory, and Schumpeter’s doctrine of democracy. Its focus is on the interests of health policy actors and how they interacted within an unhinged, but fast-consolidating, institutional framework. The results demonstrate that, while historical legacies and liberal ideas featured prominently in the rhetoric accompanying health policy change, in Realpolitik, these were merely the disposable, instrumental devices of opportunistic, self-interested elites. The resultant explanation of health policy change stresses the primacy of agency over structure and formulates four important mechanisms of health policy change: opportunism, tinkering, enterprise, and elitism. In conclusion, the relevance of major welfare state theories to the given case is assessed and implications for welfare state research in CEE are drawn.

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Andrews, Johanna. "Facing Obstacles to Change : implementing EU gender equality policies in the Central and Eastern European Countries." Thesis, Linköping University, Department of Management and Economics, 2004. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-2632.

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On May 1st 2004 the European Union was enlarged with ten new countries. Eight of these share a common background as satellite states of the former Soviet Union and today three more are candidate countries for an EU membership. These countries share a state-communist past. In terms of gender equality this affects the countries’ norms regarding gender and the conception of equality between the sexes. The EU has an outspoken commitment to gender equality and has throughout the years developed a number of Equal Opportunity Policies to combat the problem with gender discrimination within the EU. What happens when the EU is implementing these policies into the former communist countries and norms from two different environments meet? T

he thesis aim to critically review and discuss EU equal opportunity policies concerning the labour market in the former communist countries from perspectives of neo-institutionalist and contemporary feminist theory. The discussion concern obstacles to change and the creation of norms regarding gender equality, and whether the specific background (the communist experience) shared by the countries of the Eastern Europe might have implications for the process.

The thesis uses a multi strategy approach, combining text studies, interviews and quantitative data. The analytical framework consists of concepts relating to change and norm formation from cultural neo-institutionalism and a feminist perspective. The input consists of the present rules and roles in the former communist countries and the existing EU equal opportunity policies. The situation that appears when the perspectives meet is analysed from a critical feminist perspective based on modern debates regarding the east-west dichotomy within the school of feminism. By adding concept of change from the school of cultural neo-institutionalism the situation can be evaluated from a norm creating perspective. This creates an opportunity to discuss potential future scenarios.

The findings of the thesis show that there is a significant difference between the theoretical foundation for a discussion on gender equality between the EU15 and the CEEC11. This is reflected in a lack of gender awareness in the CEEC11 acknowledged by both NGOs and EU officials. The implication of this is that the EU is challenged to make the public aware of the importance of these values. They are forced to create a change in the norms governing gender equality in the CEEC11. However, the findings also show that the EU is somewhat uncritical towards its own role as the norm shaper in the process. There is a need for the European Commission to reflect over the present equal opportunity policies in order to create sustainable change. If the EU fail to do so it will most likely be the uncontested norm-holder and socialisation ceases to be a two way process. The consequence may be ineffective policies.

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Pham, Thuy Van. "Ancrage nominal du taux de change et coûts de la désinflation : une estimation économétrique." Phd thesis, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne - Paris I, 2007. http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00198619.

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Nous avons établi une indication chiffrée des coûts réels issus des désinflations basées sur l'ancrage nominal du taux de change. Notre analyse s'est appuyée sur deux régions ayant recouru le plus souvent au taux de change comme instrument de lutte contre l'inflation élevée chronique ou l'hyperinflation : l'Amérique latine et l'Europe centrale et orientale. En général, la stratégie d'ancrage nominal par le change est efficace pour réduire le taux d'inflation. Cette efficacité est plus marquante en Europe centrale et orientale qu'en Amérique latine, où le bilan de désinflation reste mitigé. Quant à son impact sur l'activité économique, les résultats obtenus sont moins évidents. En utilisant deux approches, factuelle et économétrique, nos estimations des ratios de sacrifice des deux régions indiquent que, quel que soit l'ancrage nominal, les coûts de la désinflation sont faibles, voire nuls. Il ressort, cependant, de notre étude, qu'il est difficile d'établir une relation entre les ratios de sacrifice et l'ancrage nominal du taux de change, dans la mesure où les résultats varient d'une méthode d'estimation à l'autre. L'hétérogénéité des ratios de sacrifice rend impossible la comparaison des coûts entre les pays, entre les régions et entre les stratégies d'ancrage nominal. Le choix d'une stratégie désinflationniste ne peut donc pas être basé sur l'analyse des ratios de sacrifice.

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Letki, Natalia. "Social capital in East-Central Europe." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.419054.

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Wu, Pei-Ju. "Change and continuity in German foreign policy in East Central Europe, 1990-2002." Thesis, University of Liverpool, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.288118.

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From the Kaiser Reich to the Berlin Republic, the weight of German foreign policy has shifted from national greatness to international co-operation. As international factors have played the major part in foreign policy making, the distinctive principle of German foreign policy has been mutlilateralism since the end of WWII. The thesis investigates Germany's foreign policy in East Central Europe in the period from 1990 to 2002 to explore whether and to what extent Germany's present foreign policy corresponds to multilateralism and if there has been continuity in German foreign policy since WWII. It employs modified neo-realist foreign policy theory assuming that Germany's post-unification foreign policy behaviour will choose to strengthen international institutions in which it itself participates and join in multilateral actions. The thesis argues that the German government assists in the political and economic reforms of the eastern candidates countries in order to speed up their entry to the EU. The major contribution is to provide information and analysis on Germany's East Central European policy after the demise of communism. The thesis demonstrates that Germany's policy in East Central Europe best fits the modified neo-realist prediction of loss of both influence and autonomy because Germany has chosen to multilateralise its relations with weaker states (i. e. East Central European countries), aiming at dealing with them within a multilateral framework (i. e. EU). The overall conclusion is that with the Berlin Republic there has been some change in German foreign policy, but underlying this is a basic continuity in the multilateralism of German post Second World War political culture.

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FERNANDES, Daniel. "Governments, public opinion, and social policy : change in Western Europe." Doctoral thesis, European University Institute, 2022. http://hdl.handle.net/1814/75046.

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Defence date: 21 November 2022
Examining Board: Prof. Ellen Immergut (EUI, Supervisor); Prof. Anton Hemerijck (EUI); Prof. Christoffer Green-Pedersen (Aarhus University); Prof. Evelyne Hübscher (Central European University)
This dissertation investigates how public opinion and government partisanship affect social policy. It brings an innovative perspective that links the idea of democratic representation to debates about the welfare state. The general claim made here is that social policy is a function of public and government preferences. This claim hinges on two critical premises. The first relates to the general mechanisms that underlie government representation. Politicians have electoral incentives to align their actions with what citizens want. They may respond to public opinion indirectly by updating their party agendas, which can serve as the basis for social policy decisions in case they get elected. They may also respond directly by introducing welfare reforms that react to shifts in public opinion during their mandates. The second premise concerns how citizens and politicians structure their preferences over welfare. These preferences fall alongside two dimensions. First, general attitudes about how much should the state intervene in the economy to reduce inequality and promote economic well-being (how much policy). Second, the specific preferences about which social programmes should get better funding (what kind of policy). The empirical analysis is split into three empirical chapters. Each explores different aspects of government representation in Western European welfare states. The first empirical chapter (Chapter 4) asks how governments shape social policy when facing severe pressures to decrease spending. It argues that governments strategically reduce spending on programmes that offer less visible and indirect benefits, as they are less likely to trigger an electoral backlash. The experience of the Great Recession is consistent with this claim. Countries that faced the most challenging financial constraints cut down social investment and services. Except for Greece, they all preserved consumption schemes. The second empirical chapter (Chapter 5) explores how public opinion affects government spending priorities in different welfare programmes. It expects government responsiveness to depend on public mood for more or less government activity and the most salient social issues at the time. Empirical evidence from old-age, healthcare and education issue-policy areas supports these claims. Higher policy mood and issue saliency is positively associated with increasing spending efforts. Public opinion does not appear to affect unemployment policies. vii The third empirical chapter (Chapter 6) examines how party preferences affect spending priorities in unemployment programmes. It claims that preferences on economic intervention in the economy and welfare recalibration affect different components of unemployment policy. Evidence from the past 20 years bodes well with these expectations. The generosity of compensatory schemes depends on economic preferences. The left invests more than the right. The funding of active labour-market policies depends on both preference dimensions. Among conventional parties, their funding follows the same patterns as compensatory schemes. Among recalibration parties, parties across the economic spectrum present comparable spending patterns.

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Tostevin, Gilbert Brendan. "Behavioral change and regional variation across the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition in Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and the Levant /." Ann Arbor (Mich.) : UMI dissertation services, 2001. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb40020123t.

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Henn, Matt. "Opinion polling in comparative contexts : the challenge of change in contemporary societies." Thesis, Nottingham Trent University, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.309567.

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This thesis aims to examine both the extent to which political opinion polling can contribute to democratic processes in different countries, and the degree to which polling is tied to the developing processes of restructuring and transition which contemporary advanced societies are tending to undergo. Specifically, the examination will focus on political opinion polling in both 'late-capitalist' and 'post-communist' societies. In doing so, it will consider two key related issues: firstly, how shifting political contexts impact upon the ability of polls to carry out their perceived tasks of measuring public opinion and contributing to political democratisation; and secondly, whether polls extend or inhibit democratic processes. The principal concept around which this analysis is organised is that of 'Complex Politics'. This has as its core an analytical framework which focuses upon those aspects of political systems similar to both late-capitalist and post-communist societies, which impinge directly upon political opinion polling. These are Political Culture, Party Systems, Mechanisms for Political Participation, and the Policy Process. It is argued that, despite the obvious differences in context and recent history, the complexity of contemporary political envirorunents in which polls operate in both types of political system are such as to display broadly similar problems for pollsters. In order to project the course of development of polling, the likely issues that pollsters will need to address in the future, and the shape and nature of the links between polling and the processes of democratisation in late-capitalist societies, it is instructive to refer to the current experiences of pollsters and polling in the transitional states of Central and Eastern Europe. As the processes of political pluralisation and restructuring take place in these former communist societies, this will help to identify the major problems which pollsters are likely to face in countries such as Britain and elsewhere in continental Europe when attempting to gauge political opinions, beliefs, orientations and behaviour as their own societies become more variable and complex.

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Oosthuizen, Henning. "A comparative study on the educational debate in central Europe, with specific reference to Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia 1989-1991." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/17502.

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Bibliography: p. 191-205.
This dissertation seeks to determine how the socio-economic and political changes, following the 1989 revolutions in Central Europe, have found reflection and led to the emergence of interest groups in the education debate. It looks at the reforms initiated by the new ruling .power-elite in Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. This reform process, embodying the value system of the new governments, has led, the dissertation seeks to show, directly to new and vibrant interest groups on the educational landscape. This study identifies the seven prominent interest groups - seeking to satisfy their own interests - which engage the government in the education policy making arena. This policy making arena, which I refer to as the "arena of power", is analysed through focussing on the relationship of power between the seven interest groups and the state. The Halasz (1986: 123) classification of interest groups in communist Hungary in 1986, forms the point of departure for my examination of post-1989 interest groups. Each chapter highlights the circumstances that influenced the development of interest groups and the extent of their participation in reforms. The dissertation concludes with a reclassification of post-1989 interest groups in Central Europe, in order to facilitate a better understanding of the dynamics of interest groups in the "arena of power".

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Endfield, Georgina Hope. "Social and environmental change in Colonial Michoacan, west central Mexico." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 1998. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/14616/.

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The fall out from the Quincentennial anniversary of the "discovery" of the Americas has yet to settle. One of the key issues still in need of address concerns the nature of the social and environmental change wrought by colonialism. Until recently, research in this field has been determined by a series of antiquated myths, largely creations of Eurocentric Renaissance and Romantic philosophies. This study aims to provide a more objective insight into the degree of regional Colonial impact by focusing on an archival reconstruction of post-Conquest social and environmental change in the highlands ofMichoacan, west central Mexico. Archival evidence suggests that the Spanish encountered an already degraded landscape in this region, reflective of several centuries of pre-Hispanic settlement and exploitation. Contrary to conventional wisdom, however, little evidence emerges to suggest that there was an immediate and deleterious environmental impact following European contact, despite the introduction of livestock and plough technology to an area where they had hitherto been absent. Indeed, tangible evidence of ecological disturbance in the area does not emerge until the 18th century - a period recognised to have been one of population recovery and resource monopolisation. A detailed survey of litigation documents suggests that this period witnessed an acceleration in the number of indigenous claims for land reinstatement, concomitant with a marked increase in the number of references to infertile and degraded territory and apparent heightened concern over water sources. It is here argued that de-intensification of land use in the wake of indigenous depopulation and the imposition of conservative land use practices accounts for the negligible environmental impact in the early post-Conquest period. By the later 17th and 18th centuries, progressive climatic drying, population expansion, resource monopolisation and social inequality had combined to create a period of acute resource stress and landscape instability and consequent civil unrest. It was this untenable situation that was to play itself out in the Wars of Independence that characterised the first two decades of the 19th century.

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Wilson, Joanna E. P. "The social role of the elderly in the Early Bronze Age of Central Europe." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.580386.

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Mansurnoor, Iik Arifin 1950. "Ulama, villagers and change : Islam in central Madura." Thesis, McGill University, 1987. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=72083.

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The ulama in Madura are an inseparable part of the local social structure. Their strategic position has given them an excellent opportunity to exercise a leadership role in the local context. The ulama's niche in the social order of the village and the forces that participate in the process of change can be seen through a study of village religion in a historical context. More specifically, this study examines village religion in a contemporary setting, and focuses on the internal structure of the villages and their relations to the outside world. The ulama play an important role in a number of domains, and thus occupy a central position in society. Indeed, their religious leadership has nurtured the emergence of complex networks of followers and colleagues which have, over time, sustained the stability of the ulama's leadership role in the face of social and political vicissitudes.

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Adams, Jonathan. "Ships, innovation and social change : aspects of carvel shipbuilding in northern Europe 1450-1850." Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Humanistiska fakulteten, 2003. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-93655.

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Adams, Jonathan. "Ships, innovation & social change : aspects of carvel shipbuilding in northern Europe 1450-1850 /." Stockholm : Stockholm university, Department of archaeology, 2003. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb39918145j.

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Gill, Nicholas Geography &amp Oceanography Australian Defence Force Academy UNSW. "Outback or at home? : environment, social change and pastoralism in Central Australia." Awarded by:University of New South Wales - Australian Defence Force Academy. School of Geography and Oceanography, 2000. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/38728.

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This thesis examines the responses of non-indigenous pastoralists in Central Australian rangelands to two social movements that profoundly challenge their occupancy, use and management of land. Contemporary environmentalism and Aboriginal land rights have both challenged the status of pastoralists as valued primary producers and bearers of a worthy pioneer heritage. Instead, pastoralists have become associated with land degradation, biodiversity loss, and Aboriginal dispossession. Such pressure has intensified in the 1990s in the wake of the native Title debate, and various conservation campaigns in the arid and semi-arid rangelands. The pressure on pastoralists occur in the context of wider reassessment of the social and economic values or rangelands in which pastoralism is seen as having declined in value compared to ???post-production??? land uses. Reassessments of rangelands in turn are part of the global changes in the status of rural areas, and of the growing flexibility in the very meaning of ???rural???. Through ethnographic fieldwork among largely non-indigenous pastoralists in Central Australia, this thesis investigates the nature and foundations of pastoralists??? responses to these changes and critiques. Through memory, history, labour and experience of land, non-indigenous pastoralists construct a narrative of land, themselves and others in which the presence of pastoralism in Central Australia is naturalised, and Central Australia is narrated as an inherently pastoral landscape. Particular types of environmental knowledge and experience, based in actual environmental events and processes form the foundation for a discourse of pastoral property rights. Pastoralists accommodate environmental concerns, through advocating environmental stewardship. They do this in such a way that Central Australia is maintained as a singularly pastoral landscape, and one in which a European, or ???white???, frame of reference continues to dominate. In this way the domesticated pastoral landscapes of colonialism and nationalism are reproduced. The thesis also examines Aboriginal pastoralism as a distinctive form of pastoralism, which fulfils distinctly Aboriginal land use and cultural aspirations, and undermines the conventional meaning of ???pastoralism??? itself. The thesis ends by suggesting that improved dialogue over rangelands futures depends on greater understanding of the details and complexities of local relationships between groups of people, and between people and land.

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Hildermeier, Julia. "How Ideas Change Markets : Social and Semantic Construction(s) of Automobility in 21st century Europe." Thesis, Cachan, Ecole normale supérieure, 2015. http://www.theses.fr/2015DENS0022.

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Cette thèse cherche à comprendre et développer comment les trajectoires institutionnelles émergent, tant empiriquement que théoriquement. Sur la base d’une étude de cas de l’industrie et la culture automobile, elle identifie les trajectoires de PATH DEPENDENCY, historiquement (chap.1) et théoriquement (chap.2). Dans une approche méthodologique qualitative, les chapitres 4 et 5 identifient les effets des conflits environnementaux dans l’industrie que remettent en cause la justification de sa structure même. L’analyse empirique de différents conflits autour des standards des émissions des voitures, les innovations technologiques comme le moteur électrique montrent que l’automobilité de demain, et le secteur, vont évoluer de manière plus pluraliste et hétérogène qu’avant. Si parmi les deux scenarios de développement une trajectoire institutionnelle stable émerge, elle dépend de si un narratif cohérent peut émerger, qui rend compréhensible et évident les relations entre offre, demande et réglementation pour les acteurs. La conclusion (ch.6) identifie les conditions d’émergence de nouvelles trajectoires institutionnelles : dans les conflits où un narratif alternatif est déjà présent, mais sous-jacent, des nouvelles structures organisationnelles et sémantiques peuvent émerger
This PhD thesis seeks to understand how institutional paths emerge, theoretically and empirically. Taking the case of the European automobile industry and culture it revisits how path dependency can emerge historically (chapter 1) and theoretical patterns of path production (chapter 2). Based on qualitative research design (chapter 3), the case study identifies possibilities of path rupture through environmental conflicts in automobile history (chapter 4 and 5). It shows that through path ruptures and the emergence of new paths following new environmental requirements, 21st century automobility builds pluralistic and more heterogeneous semantic and organizational structures. Geographic and local conditions such as city planning and infrastructure matter in shaping vehicle use and culture in the future, as well does the distribution of decision making power on different political levels. Chapter 6summarize s and reflects the results of my micro-analytical study as parts of an emerging theory of path creation. If the analyzed trajectories of scenarios for the automobile sector become reality, either electrified automobility or electric multimodality, depends on whether they build a coherent narrative that ‘make sense’ of offer, demand and regulation in the sector. The case study showed that these coherent narratives can emerge when conflicts render visible already existing counter-narratives. These counter-narratives emerge in situations of crisis, such as when new environmental regulation determines technological development and behavioural adaptation in automobility. Once accepted, they create a new path – a new semantic and organizational structure in society

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Radin, Dagmar. "Too Ill to Find the Cure? - Health Care Sector Success in the New Democracies of Central and Eastern Europe." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2006. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc5348/.

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This study examines the factors that have contributed to the success of some Central and Eastern European countries to improve their health care sector in the post communist period, while leaving others to its demise. While most literature has been focused on the political and economic transition of Eastern Europe, very little research has been done about the welfare aspects of the transition process, especially the health care sector. While the focus on political consequences and main macroeconomic reforms has shed light on many important processes, the lack of research of health care issues has lead to consequences on our ability to understand its impact on the future of the new democracies and their sustainability. This model looks at the impact of international (World Bank) and domestic institutions, corruption and public support and how they affect the ability of some countries to improve and reform their health care sector in the post-transition period.

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Kaupová, Sylva. "Bioarchaeology of the medieval population of central Europe : relationships among health status, social context and nutrition." Thesis, Aix-Marseille, 2017. http://www.theses.fr/2017AIXM0198/document.

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Le travail s'est concentré sur la mesure des valeurs des isotopes stables du carbone (δ13C) et de l'azote (δ15N) dans un groupe de 189 adultes des deux sexes et 74 animaux. Le groupe étudié était représenté par différents ensembles de populations (les centres du pouvoir vs. l’arrière-pays) et périodes : la Grande-Moravie (IXe – Xe siècles) et la période de « late Hillfort » (XIe siècle). L'analyse a également concerné un groupe d’immatures âgés de moins de six ans. Les données isotopiques du groupe des adultes indiquent que l'alimentation de la population de la Grande-Moravie était basée sur les ressources terrestres riches en plantes dites en C4. Des différences dans la proportion des protéines animales ont été observées au niveau de l'alimentation des habitants des centres et de leur arrière-pays. Des modifications diachroniques ont été observées au niveau de l'alimentation – l'alimentation du groupe de la période de late Hillfort était caractérisée par une consommation significative de plantes en C4. Les données isotopiques du groupe des immatures indiquent que la population de la Grande-Moravie ne connaissait aucune norme obligatoire pour la durée de l'allaitement maternel. Les résultats de cette étude démontrent que la société de la Grande-Moravie présentait un taux élevé de stratification socio-économique. Les changements diachroniques observés indiquent que malgré le développement apparent de la population au XIe siècle, la qualité des conditions de vie accuse une aggravation par rapport à la période de la Grande-Moravie. Les statistiques ont démontré l'impact de la qualité de l'alimentation sur l'état de la dentition de la population de la Grande-Moravie
In this study carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotopic values were measured in a sample of 189 adult individuals of both sexes and 74 animals representing different socio-economic contexts (power centers versus the hinterlands) and chronology: the Great Moravian (9th -10th century AD) versus late Hillfort (11th century AD) period. A sample of 41 sub-adults aged 0–6 years was also selected for isotopic analyses.Isotopic data of the adult sample showed that the Great Moravian population had a terrestrial diet with a substantial proportion of C4 plants. Dietary analysis revealed statistically significant differences in the consumption of animal protein between power centers and the hinterlands. Diachronic changes in the diet were observed: the diet of the 11th century sample was characterized by higher consumption of C4 plants.For sub-adults, the isotopic results suggested there was not solely one established norm for the duration of breastfeeding in the Great Moravian population. These results confirmed that Great Moravia represented a highly stratified society socio-economically. The diachronic change in dietary behavior suggested that even after the apparent recovery in the 11th century, Moravian society did not reach its original level of welfare. The quality of diet significantly influenced dental health in the Great Moravian population sample

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Pikhardt, Hynek. "Social and psychosocial determinants of self-rated health in seven countries of Central and Eastern Europe." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2000. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1349438/.

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Life expectancy in countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CCEE) is substantially shorter than in Western Europe, and similar divide exists in self-rated health. The project described in this thesis was set up to study the effects of socio-economic factors (such as material deprivation, education and inequalities) and psychosocial factors (perceived control, psychosocial work environment) on self-rated health (a predictor of mortality in prospective studies). Cross-sectional surveys were conducted in seven CCEE: Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary. Data were collected by interviews in randomly selected national samples in all seven countries (total 7,599 subjects), and by questionnaires in random community samples in 4 countries (total 6,642 subjects). The data included socio-economic and psychosocial factors, self-rated health (SRH) and behavioural risk factors. Overall, 17% of men and 23% of women rated their health as worse than average. In the national samples, perceived control, material deprivation and education were strongly related to poor SRH. In the pooled data, adjusted odds ratio (OR) of poor health for 1 standard deviation (SD) increase in perceived control was 0.59 (95% Cl 0.54-0.63). The OR for 1 SD increase in the material deprivation score was 1.35 (95% Cl 1.26-1.46). The ORs for vocational, secondary and university education, compared with primary education, were 0.75,0.58 and 0.53, respectively. We also examined the ecological effects of income inequality; the OR for the most versus the least unequal populations (using the Gini coefficient of income inequality) was 1.88 (95% Cl 1.55-2.28). In multivariate analyses, however, the effect of inequality was eliminated by adjustment for material deprivation and perceived control. In the community samples, the results were similar. Among psychosocial factors at work, the effort-reward imbalance appeared to be the strongest predictor of self-rated health; work variety was also a predictor of self-rated health. Job strain was not associated with SRH. Our results suggest that (a) the prevalence of poor SRH in CCEE is high, and (b) socioeconomic and psychosocial factors are strongly related to self-rated health in these populations. The gradients were present in all populations, and were of the same direction and similar magnitude as in the West. Prospective studies are needed to address the problems of temporality and reporting bias, which are the major problems of these results.

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Tjernström, Hanna. "Parents’ Wishes and Children’s Lives : Social Change and Change of Mind among Young People in West-Central Tanzania." Thesis, Uppsala University, Department of Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology, 2005. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-6230.

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This paper is about the transformation of a society in a rural area among the Nyamwezi of West-Central Tanzania. It deals with the change of people’s attitudes toward themselves, their lives and the surrounding world, brought on by the introduction of ‘modern education’. The discussion evolves around the theories of education and the socializing role of schooling. The paper treats the issue whether the education provided is relevant in relation to local

life, or only directed toward the realization of a radically new way of living.Further this paper debates the impact of modernization through institutions other than the schools, and the future of small communities in an increasingly globalized world.The issues in this paper are discussed from the perspective of young students in secondary schools and their parents. The background to the discussions throughout the paper is the secondary school itself,the

educational system, the rural community and developing countries.

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Bardell, Geoffrey. "The role of pre-1945 national and catholic myths in transforming an illiberal Polish political culture into a liberal political culture of opposition under communism." Thesis, Brunel University, 2002. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/5105.

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The thesis, in exploring how and why illiberal pre-1945 Polish nationalism and political Catholicism were synthesised into a post-1945 liberal political culture of opposition under communism, argues that this process was much aided by universal myths. The thesis shows how these myths enable political culture to be transmitted over time and to be adapted to take on different values and yet retain legitimacy. In so doing, the research may contribute insights into how the political cultures of other Central East European countries were similarly transformed. Chapter 1 argues that the social anthropological literature on myths provides a theoretical framework to better understand the nature of political culture, its dynamics and its relationship with the process of democratisation. Chapter 2 maps the pre-1945 territory of nationalist and political Catholic illiberal and liberal discourse as reflected in the genesis and meanings of key myths. Chapter 3, in exploring how pre-1945 myths were deployed in 1945-1989 Poland, illuminates the relationship of myths with the dynamics of political culture and democratisation. Chapter 4 explores the 1970-1976 process of dialogue between liberal-leaning dissident Catholic and secular left Polish intelligentsia. The chapter sheds light upon the emergence of a liberal political culture of opposition and argues that the dialogue went beyond expediency. Chapter 5, in demonstrating how and why John Paul II deployed pre-1945 myths, argues that the Pope's preachings found practical expression in the formation of Solidarity. Chapter 6 in exploring the role of pre-1945 myths in influencing Solidarity, argues that these myths acted as vehicles for the union's liberal political culture. Finally Chapter 7 draws together the conclusions of the thesis.

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Temple, Paul R. "Social capital and institutional change in higher education : the impact of international programmes in Eastern Europe." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2004. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10020464/.

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This thesis examines institutional change in higher education, through case studies of aspects of two broadly similar institutions in Poland and Romania. It finds that, during the 1990s, international programmes supported institutional change in these cases to a significant extent, although probably not with the results that the funding organisations anticipated. The case studies suggest that such programmes have been most effective in supporting change when they have encouraged relatively small-scale, academically-led initiatives, in contrast to national-level, externally-driven programmes. It is proposed that this difference in effectiveness in promoting sustainable organisational change relates to the extent to which international programmes have assisted in the formation of social capital within the institutions. Organisational social capital is formed through intense, local engagement in the activity concerned, leading to individual and institutional learning. Social capital created in one context may then be available to support other aspects of organisational development. Social capital theory thus provides insights into the process of organisational change, particularly in the complex structural and procedural circumstances of higher education. This thesis examines why social capital is an important, if often overlooked, factor in understanding change in these settings, particularly in Eastern Europe, where political arrangements before 1989 were not generally conducive to social capital formation. The particular organisational arrangements of the universities there are also important factors in understanding institutional change. A theoretical account of social capital formation and organisational change in higher education is offered, with proposals as to how this may be relevant to structural and operational matters in higher education institutions in transitional countries more widely. The thesis draws conclusions about how international projects in higher education might be designed so as to create social capital more effectively, and thereby to support sustainable institutional change.

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Richardson, Jane E. "Animal exploitation and social change in late Iron Age and early Roman central France." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.268275.

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25

Escalona, Fabien. "La reconversion partisane de la social-démocratie européenne : du régime social-démocrate keynésien au régime social-démocrate du marché." Thesis, Université Grenoble Alpes (ComUE), 2016. http://www.theses.fr/2016GREAH029.

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La thèse porte sur la "reconversion partisane" de la social-démocratie en Europe. Elle propose une explication au paradoxe apparent entre d’une part l'existence de travaux décrivant la crise voire la mort du régime social-démocrate d’après-guerre, et d’autre part la conservation par cette famille de partis de son statut de grande alternative de gouvernement. La reconversion partisane est définie comme une modalité particulière de changement partisan, qui seule pouvait permettre à la social-démocratie de surmonter l’obsolescence (plus ou moins avancée) de son projet, de sa coalition électorale et de son modèle organisationnel. M’inscrivant dans la tradition de l’institutionnalisme historique, je propose une étude macrosociologique et comparée de quatre processus de reconversion, analysés de manière systématique au Royaume-Uni, en France, en Suède et en Allemagne. Leurs similarités et leurs différences sont ensuite expliquées, notamment à l’aide de plusieurs variables susceptibles de peser sur la forme et la temporalité des reconversions. Mon travail s’achève sur une appréciation provisoire de la mise à l’épreuve des reconversions par la grande crise économique en cours depuis 2008. Au-delà de l’éclairage nouveau qu’elle projette sur la trajectoire historique de cette famille politique, la thèse est une contribution à la littérature sur le changement partisan, sur la "cartellisation" des grands partis de gouvernement, et sur l’adaptation de ces derniers aux mutations de la structure des clivages politiques en Europe. Elle illustre aussi comment une approche "intégrée" des partis (sur plusieurs niveaux d’analyse) peut entrer dans un dialogue fécond avec les travaux sur les recompositions contemporaines de l’Etat moderne et du capitalisme
The thesis deals with the "partisan conversion" of social democracy in Europe. It aims to resolve the apparent paradox between the existence of many publications describing the crisis or even the death of social democracy on one hand, and the fact that this political family has remained one of the major party alternatives on the other hand. We define the partisan conversion as a singular type of party change, which was the only one that could help the Social democrats to overcome the obsolescence of their project, electoral support and organizational model. My analysis is methodologically anchored in the historical institutionalism paradigm. It offers a macrosociological comparison of four processes of partisan conversion in the United Kingdom, France, Sweden and Germany. The similarities and differences between these processes are then explained, partly through a set of variables weighing on the structure and the temporality of conversions. My work ends with an appreciation of how theses conversions have been put under stress by the 2008 global crisis. The thesis thus provides a reconstructed picture of the historical path of social democracy, additional analytical tools to the literature in party change, and some insights to the reflections about the contemporary cleavage structures. Our intention is also to prove the usefulness of an investigation nurtured by the most recent works on global capitalism and the modern state

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Wilkoszewski, Harald. "Germany's social policy challenge : public integenerational transfers in light of demographic change." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2011. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/886/.

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This dissertation addresses the question of to what extent growing numbers of older people who might have similar preferences regarding public intergenerational transfers (family and pension policies) will limit the scope of future social policy reforms in Germany. We are interested in to what extent the shift in the country's demography will trigger a so-called "gerontocracy." As a theoretical framework, we combine Mannheim's concept of political generations with a demographic life-course approach. According to Mannheim, growing numbers of a societal group, combine with unified preferences within the group, enhance the group's political power. To empirically test this hypothesis, we use three analytical steps: First, we analyse the future age composition of the German population, including familial characteristics, using a micro-simulation approach. The results suggest that the number of older people will grow substantially over the coming decades, particularly the share of older people who will remain childless and who will not be married. Second, we analyse preferences regarding redistributive social policies according to age, parity, and marital status, based on recent survey data. Generalised Linear Models and Generalised Additive Models are applied to examine what the effects of fdemographic indicators are on these preferences. Results show that older people are less in favour of transfers ot the younger generation than their younger counterparts. This is particularly true of childless interviewees. Third, we explore the extent to which these developments are likely to have an impact on the political sphere. How do policy makers perceive ageing and the preferences structures found? How do elderly interest groups define their roles in light of these results? In-depth interviews with these stakeholders provide a mixed picture: whereas most interviewees are convinced that older people have gained more power due to their bigger population share, there is little awareness of differences in policy preferences between various demographic groups. The biggest challenge for social policy makers is, therefore, to find ways to mediate between these two interesrs. if they fail to do so, a conflict of generations might become a realistic scenario for Germany.

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Naczyk, Marek P. "The financial industry and pension privatization in Europe : shareholder capitalism triumphant?" Thesis, University of Oxford, 2012. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:c867023b-1b9a-41c9-8e46-6d4ac835cc61.

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The thesis examines the political dynamics behind the contemporary trend towards pension privatization in Europe. Its aim is to develop a theoretical model that can explain not only why governments have increasingly replaced their public pay-as-you-go systems with private fully-funded schemes, but also why there is considerable diversity both in the extent and in the content of pension privatization. Private pension funds can indeed be governed by a variety of institutional arrangements and can have very different types of links with the financial system. They do not necessarily contribute to a financialization of the economy. The thesis takes issue with the idea that pension privatization would be primarily the result of a new pensions orthodoxy promoted by international organizations such as the World Bank or of an electoral strategy that consists in attracting the votes of the middle class. I argue that the driving force behind the more or less dramatic rise of funded pensions in Europe is a series of lobbying campaigns launched by the financial industry, and their varying influence. Financial firms have a vested interest in the development of a market in private pensions, which should profit them as an industry. However, pension reform is an issue that matters to voters and can therefore prove dangerous for party politicians. Moreover, it involves complex changes that directly affect key material interests of employers and workers. In this context, the success of financial firms’ campaign for pension privatization depends on their capacity to forge alliances with a variety of actors. This in turn contributes to limit the influence financiers can exert. The argument is tested using a comparative historical analysis of pension debates in the United Kingdom, France and Poland since the beginning of the 1980s.

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Ayuba, Jonathan Mamu. "Social and economic change in colonial north-central Nigeria : the history of Akwanga Division, 1911-1960." Thesis, SOAS, University of London, 2007. http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/28820/.

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This thesis is concerned with the social and economic history of the communities of the Akwanga division of Plateau province in central Nigeria from the beginning of formal British administration in 1911 to the end of colonial rule in 1960. The thesis is divided into seven chapters. The first looks at the early history of the peoples of Akwanga with emphasis on their political, religious and economic organisation. It also discusses the effect of the nineteenth-century Sokoto jihad on settlement patterns in the region. Chapter 2 deals with resistance to the colonial conquest, which lasted up to 1925. Chapter 3 discusses the development of the indirect rule system and native administration, focusing on the creation of chiefs, divisional boundaries and the native administrative policies pursued by successive Governors of Nigeria. Chapter 4 looks at taxation and cash crop production and their impact on the peoples of Akwanga. Chapter 5 examines the use of local labour for building the infrastructure of colonial rule and for tin mining, which dominated the economy of Plateau province. Chapter 6 discusses the religious encounter between Islam, Christianity and indigenous belief and how these two world religions shaped the political identity of the people of the region. Chapter 7 focuses on the demise of indirect rule and the emergence party politics in Akwanga with emphasis on minority politics and the role of the educated groups in the politics and process of decolonisation.

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Eakin, Hallie Catherine. "Rural households' vulnerability and adaptation to climatic variability and institutional change: Three cases from central Mexico." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/280168.

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This dissertation examines the concept of social vulnerability through documenting the intersection of both political-economic uncertainty and climatic variability in the production decisions and livelihood strategies of peasant farm households in three communities in central Mexico. Although the research is situated within the broader literature on globalization and climatic change, the study focuses on the impacts of the El Nino-Southern Oscillation events of 1997, 1998 and 1999 and the neoliberal agricultural policy reforms of the 1990s as rough analogies of these larger-scale processes. The author uses both quantitative and qualitative methodology and a livelihoods analysis framework to document rural responses to change. The research concludes that institutional change and uncertainty are often more important than biophysical factors in structuring households' vulnerability and adaptation strategies to climatic risk. Households' adaptive capacity is more a function of the stability and flexibility of their livelihoods than of the households' agricultural income potential. Maize production continues to be central to the livelihood security for smallholders, despite the crop's sensitivity to climatic risk and lack of commercial potential. The household as a unit of labor management and allocation, and the institution of the ejido, also play important roles in risk management by enabling agricultural intensification and diversification. Small-scale commercial farmers are particularly vulnerable from the double impact of market and climatic risks the lack of flexibility in their production process. The importance of the institutional context of production in defining households' adaptive capacity suggests that one cannot assume spontaneous adaptation to climate changes. Furthermore, seasonal climate forecasts---often proposed as possible decision tools to facilitate agricultural adaptation---will have little utility for farmers whose production strategies are limited by lack of credit and insurance, poor producer prices, rising input and consumer costs and land scarcity. The dissertation concludes by arguing that vulnerability to climatic risk may be best addressed through "adaptive policies"---policies that evolve over time with the changing goals and vulnerabilities of rural populations, while aiming to expand the range of choice and flexibility of their livelihoods over the long-term.

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Pate, Carl Edward. "What has happened to Seattle's Black community? : exploring the changes in the Central District /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/8910.

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Remtilla, Aliaa. "Re-producing social relations : political and economic change and Islam in post-Soviet Tajik Ishkashim." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2012. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/reproducing-social-relations-political-and-economic-change-and-islam-in-postsoviet-tajik-ishkashim(107bfabb-2c1c-4fb8-90b8-323b578da7c8).html.

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This dissertation explores what it means to be post-socialist for Ismaili Muslims living in the Ishkashim district of Tajik Badakhshan. It examines the legacies of the Soviet era in people’s everyday lives, questioning how people continue to see themselves as socialist notwithstanding the putative end of state socialism. Part of what it means to be socialist has to do with expectations of what the state should provide. Tajik Ishkashimis experienced the Soviet Union as an allocative centre that helped them greatly. The post-Soviet Tajik state is unable to provide for Tajik Ishkashimis in the way of the former Soviet Union. I suggest that Tajik Ishkashimis’ religious leader, the Aga Khan, and his development institutions have gone some way toward filling this gap, making the Imam appear to be the new paternalist centre. I propose that we think through Ishkashimis’ memories of their relations with the Soviet allocative centre through what I call an “economy of grace”. Drawing on Pitt-Rivers’ theorization of “grace” as a morally-driven gift of excess that the receiver is never expected to (be able to) return, I trace the ways in which this economy of grace continues to frame Ishkashimis’ post-Soviet engagement with the Imam and his institutions, if not with the Tajik state. I then explore the moral legacies of Soviet socialism by examining how Ishkashimis try to maintain values that they associate with socialism, most notably the privileging of social relations over the market. Where both the Tajik state and the Imam’s institutions fail to provide for Tajik Ishkashimis in the way of the former Soviet state, Ishkashimis turn to labour migration. I draw on Greenberg’s (2011) and Jansen’s (2011) definition of “normal” as the predictability of daily life to demonstrate that remittances enable those living at home to maintain the rhythms and trajectories of “normal” village life. One of the effects of migration, however, is that the absence of migrants has made villages in Ishkashim no longer feel like home. It is my contention that wedding videos actualize a transnational home by giving hope that migrants who had been present in Ishkashim for when the wedding was taped might one-day return.Many hope that the Imam will create jobs in Ishkashim that will bring home migrants because they see that his development projects in Afghanistan have had this effect. Tajik Ishkashimis want their state to enable such development work on their side too, but they also worry that the work of the Imam and his institutions will force them to negotiate the norms and values of what it means to be Ishkashimi with their cross-border Afghan kin. And so, they look to the Tajik state to firmly enforce the border and keep clear the division between Tajik and Afghan Ishkashim. Ultimately, notwithstanding the incapacity of the Imam and his institutions to provide for Tajik Ishkashimis in the way of the former Soviet state, the Imam continues to garner legitimacy because he is also a spiritual leader. As such, the Imam commands a moral order, motivating people to be good so that they can achieve spiritual enlightenment. I explain that for Tajik Ishkashimis, being good is not (yet) defined by orthopraxy. Instead, Ishkashimis strive to be good in their own ways within the context of the changing socio-economic circumstances. In many ways, even though Tajik Ishkashimis’ present socio-economic situation is ostensibly worse than during the Soviet era, they now have access to the Imam in a way they never had before. Tajik Ishkashimis hold out hope for a better future, one that looks very much like their Soviet past, only better. Better because it has the Imam in it and the spiritual component of his leadership gives him the potential to satisfy them in ways that the former Soviet state could never have.

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Steward, Jill. "The development of tourist culture and the formation of social and cultural identities 1800-1914, with particular reference to Central Europe." Thesis, Northumbria University, 2008. http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/3031/.

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The essays presented here for submission for the degree of PhD by publication were published between 1998 and 2006 and (with one exception) consist of sole-authored studies in cultural history focused on the development of tourist culture in the period 1800-1914. Cultural history as a field of academic study is a rich area for interdisciplinary research and these case studies draw on a wide range of disciplines — anthropology, cultural geography, the history of medicine, visual culture, media and literature for theoretical and methodological support. Together, they constitute a coherent examination of the material and cultural factors influencing the development and expansion of tourist culture across the European continent and an exploration of its role in the formation of the social and cultural identities of people and places in the period 1800-1914, in different contexts and from different perspectives. The essays fall into two main groups. The first focuses on material and cultural factors influencing the growth of tourism in central Europe: its relationship to the development of urban culture and nationalism in the region and to the discourses and practices relating to health and leisure that supported the spa trade. A particular concern is the contribution of a developing tourist culture to the formation of cultural identities within the Habsburg Monarchy in an era of growing nationalism. For the state, tourism represented an opportunity to counteract its growing weakness by capitalising on the imperial image (a key element in touristic images of Vienna), to bolster the image of the Monarchy abroad and attract valuable foreign currency. At the same time the growth of tourism contributed to that weakness by reinforcing perceptions of cultural distinctiveness in areas influenced by growing national and regional self-consciousness. The second group of essays focuses on the production of tourists and the creation of a market for different types of tourism through an examination of the discourses influencing tourist motivations and behaviours, the experience and performance of place and the broader question of how and why tourists were attracted to particular places. A theme running through both sets of essays is that of the way that the spread of tourist culture, geographically and socially, contributed to the formation of cultural identities as particular social groups incorporated tourist practices into their lifestyles, and the places they visited acquired distinctive tourist images. Key factors in this process were the media and cultural industries responsible for the production and dissemination of travel-related forms of literature and visual culture. These industries helped to shape tourism as an economic and social institution by influencing the way in which particular places were produced for tourists and the manner in which they were perceived, experienced and performed as, for example, in case of the relationship between the British and different parts of continental Europe.

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Osei, Sampson. "Social capital and climate change adaptation strategies : the case of smallholder farmers in the Central region of Ghana." Thesis, University of the Western Cape, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/5270.

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Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS)
Agriculture in Ghana is dominated by smallholder farmers who are faced with unpredictable rainfall and extreme weather events. Climate modelling forecasts that the rate at which precipitation will decrease in the country is far more than the rate at which it will increase during the wet season. It is predicted that rain-fed maize output will decrease below 25 percent in all the ten regions of the country by 2020 if nothing is done. To mitigate the effect of climate change and safeguard food security, the country must undertake measures to adapt to the changing climate. The process of adaptation, therefore, involves the interdependence of agents through their relation with each other. This includes the institution in which the agents reside and the resource based on which they depend. The resource embedded in such relationship has been termed social capital. Empirical studies on social capital and climate change adaptation is lacking, especially in Ghana. Based on this, the study assesses the influence of social capital on climate change adaptation strategies among smallholder farmers in the Central region of Ghana. Both primary and secondary data were used for the study. Primary data was collected using household questionnaires, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews. K-means cluster analysis was used to identify weak and strong ties and four individual social capital variables. Twenty-year maize and rainfall data were analysed using trend analysis. The influence of individual social capital and other controlled variables were analysed using Multinomial logit model. Using 225 sampled households the results of the study showed that all the four identified individual social capital variables differ by sex. The perceptions of climate change among smallholder farmers also differ significantly by location. The four individual social capital variables as well as other controlled variables influence at least one indigenous adaptation strategy and one introduced adaptation strategy. The study recommends, among others, that transfer of climate change adaptation techniques or technology to smallholder farmers should not be solely accomplished through the usual technology transfer network of agricultural researchers and extension agents. Rather, it will be imperative to increased contact with a wide variety of local actors who provide information and resources for agricultural production.

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Drygala, Frank. "Space use pattern, dispersal and social organisation of the raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides GRAY, 1834) an invasive, alien canid in Central Europe." Doctoral thesis, Saechsische Landesbibliothek- Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Dresden, 2009. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa-25476.

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Abstract Between October 1999 and October 2003, 30 adult and 48 young (< 1 year) raccoon dogs (Nyctereutes procyonoides) were monitored using radio-telemetry in an area of Germany which has been occupied by this invasive alien species since the early 1990s. Additionally, three pairs of raccoon dogs were observed by continuous radio-tracking during the first six weeks after parturition in 2003. Furthermore 136 raccoon dog pubs were ear-tagged between June 1999 and August 2006. No adult animals dispersed from the area during the study period and home ranges tended to be used for several years, probably for life. The average annual home range size, calculated using 95% fixed kernel, was 382.2 ha ± 297.4 SD for females (n = 30 seasonal home ranges) and 352.4 ha ± 313.3 SD for males (n = 32 seasonal home ranges). Paired raccoon dogs had home ranges of similar size, with pair sharing the same area all year round. Raccoon dogs occupied large core areas (85% kernel) covering 81.2% of their home ranges. The home ranges were at their smallest during the mating season. The slightly larger size of home ranges in winter suggests that, due to the temperate climate, raccoon dogs do not hibernate in Germany. Males and females formed a long-term (probably lifelong) pair bond. Same-sex neighbours ignored each other and even adjacent males/females showed neither preference nor avoidance. Thus, it can be assumed that the raccoon dog in Central Europe is monogamous without exclusive territories, based on the results of home range overlap analysis and interaction estimations. Habitat composition within home ranges and within the whole study area was almost equal. Although, percentage shares of farmland and meadow was 16.35% smaller and 12.06% higher within the home ranges, respectively. All nine habitat types (farmland, forest, settlement, water, meadows, maize fields, small woods, reeds and hedges) were used opportunistically by raccoon dogs. No significant, recognisable difference for habitat preferences between seasons was detected. Male and female raccoon dog showed equal habitat preference pattern. A comparison of active and inactive locations in different habitats found no remarkable differences. Habitat composition of individual home ranges was used to classify animals. If the percentage of forest within a home range exceeded 50% the individual was classified as a ‘forest type’ raccoon dog. If the percentage of forest habitats within a home range was less than 5%, the share of pastureland was mean 81.82% ± 16.92 SD. Consequently the individual was classified as a ‘agrarian type’ raccoon dog. Neither habitat preference nor habitat selection process differed between the two ‘types’. Habitat use and preference is discussed with relation to the ability of the raccoon dog to expand its range towards Western Europe. Males spent noticeably more time (40.5% of the time ±11.7 SD) alone with the pups than females (16.4% of the time ±8.5 SD). Females had noticeably larger 95% kernel home ranges (98.24 ha ±51.71 SD) than males (14.73 ha ±8.16 SD) and moved much longer daily distances (7,368 m ±2,015 SD) than males (4,094 m ±2,886 SD) in six weeks postpartum. The raccoon dogs being studied left the breeding den in the 6th week after the birth of the pups. In situ video observation showed that the male carried prey to the den to provide the female and the litter with food. A clear division of labour took place among parents during the period in which the pups were nursed: males guarded the litter in the den or in close vicinity of it, while the females foraged to satisfy their increased energy requirements. There were relocations of 59 (43.4%) ear-tagged young racoon dogs and mean distance from marking point was 13.5 km ±20.1 SD. Dispersal mortality rate was 69.5% among young raccoon dogs. Most animals (55.9%) were recovered nearer than 5 km from the marking point, whereas only 8.5% relocations were recorded further than 50 km from the marking point. There was no difference in the distances of relocations between sexes. Most (53.7%) relocations of ear-tagged young raccoon dogs were in August and September and, only 34.1% were recorded from October to April. Hunting (55 %) and traffic (27 %) were the major mortality factors. Radio-collared young raccoon dogs generally dispersed between July and September. The mean natal home range size (MCP 100%) with and without excursions was 502.6 ha ±66.4 SD (n = 9) and 92.1 ha ±66.4 SD (n = 17), respectively. There were no differences between sexes in the month of dispersal. The direction of travel for dispersing animals appeared to be random, with distances from 0.5 km to 91.2 km. A highly flexible dispersing behaviour is certainly one of the reasons which contribute to the high expansion success of the species.

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Drygala, Frank. "Space use pattern, dispersal and social organisation of the raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides GRAY, 1834) an invasive, alien canid in Central Europe." Doctoral thesis, Saechsische Landesbibliothek- Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Dresden, 2010. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa-39711.

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Between October 1999 and October 2003, 30 adult and 48 young (< 1 year) raccoon dogs (Nyctereutes procyonoides) were monitored using radio-telemetry in an area of North-East Germany which has been occupied by this invasive alien species since the early 1990s. Additionally, three pairs of raccoon dogs were observed by continuous radio-tracking during the first six weeks after parturition in 2003. Furthermore 136 raccoon dog pubs were ear-tagged between June 1999 and August 2006. No adult animals dispersed from the area during the study period and home ranges tended to be used for several years, probably for life. The average annual home range size, calculated using 95% fixed kernel, was 382.2 ha ± 297.4 SD for females (n = 30 seasonal home ranges) and 352.4 ha ± 313.3 SD for males (n = 32 seasonal home ranges). Paired raccoon dogs had home ranges of similar size, with pair mates sharing the same area all year round. Raccoon dogs occupied large core areas (85% kernel) covering 81.2% of their home ranges. The home ranges were at their smallest during the mating season. The slightly larger size of home ranges in winter suggests that, due to the temperate climate, raccoon dogs do not hibernate in Germany. Males and females formed a long-term (probably lifelong) pair bond. Same-sex neighbours ignored each other and even adjacent males/females showed neither preference nor avoidance. Thus, it can be assumed that the raccoon dog in Central Europe is monogamous without exclusive territories, based on the results of home range overlap analysis and interaction estimations. Habitat composition within home ranges and within the whole study area was almost equal. Although, percentage shares of farmland and meadow was 16.35% smaller and 12.06% higher within the home ranges, respectively. All nine habitat types (farmland, forest, settlement, water, meadows, maize fields, small woods, reeds and hedges) were used opportunistically by raccoon dogs. No significant, recognisable difference for habitat preferences between seasons was detected. Male and female raccoon dog showed equal habitat preference pattern. A comparison of active and inactive locations in different habitats found no remarkable differences. Habitat composition of individual home ranges was used to classify animals. If the percentage of forest within a home range exceeded 50% the individual was classified as a ‘forest type’ raccoon dog. If the percentage of forest habitats within a home range was less than 5%, the share of pastureland was mean 81.82% ± 16.92 SD. Consequently the individual was classified as a ‘agrarian type’ raccoon dog. Neither habitat preference nor habitat selection process differed between the two ‘types’. Habitat use and preference is discussed with relation to the ability of the raccoon dog to expand its range towards Western Europe. Males spent noticeably more time (40.5% of the time ±11.7 SD) alone with the pups than females (16.4% of the time ±8.5 SD). Females had noticeably larger 95% kernel home ranges (98.24 ha ±51.71 SD) than males (14.73 ha ±8.16 SD) and moved much longer daily distances (7,368 m ±2,015 SD) than males (4,094 m ±2,886 SD) in six weeks postpartum. The raccoon dogs being studied left the breeding den in the 6th week after the birth of the pups. In situ video observation showed that the male carried prey to the den to provide the female and the litter with food. A clear division of labour took place among parents during the period in which the pups were nursed: males guarded the litter in the den or in close vicinity of it, while the females foraged to satisfy their increased energy requirements. There were relocations of 59 (43.4%) ear-tagged young raccoon dogs and mean distance from marking point was 13.5 km ±20.1 SD. Dispersal mortality rate was 69.5% among young raccoon dogs. Most animals (55.9%) were recovered nearer than 5 km from the marking point, whereas only 8.5% relocations were recorded further than 50 km from the marking point. There was no difference in the distances of relocations between sexes. Most (53.7%) relocations of ear-tagged young raccoon dogs were in August and September and, only 34.1% were recorded from October to April. Hunting (55 %) and traffic (27 %) were the major mortality factors. Radiocollared young raccoon dogs generally dispersed between July and September. The mean natal home range size (MCP 100%) with and without excursions was 502.6 ha ±66.4 SD (n = 9) and 92.1 ha ±66.4 SD (n = 17), respectively. There were no differences between sexes in the month of dispersal. The direction of travel for dispersing animals appeared to be random, with distances from 0.5 km to 91.2 km. A highly flexible dispersing behaviour is certainly one of the reasons which contribute to the high expansion success of the species.

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Woldemariam, Asmelash. "The effects of land reform on peasant social organisation : a study of village-level dynamics in Central Tigray, 1974-1994 /." Addis Ababa : Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Addis Ababa University, 2006. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/fy1001/2008349420.html.

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Saxena, Alark. "Evaluating the resilience of rural livelihoods to change in a complex social-ecological system| A case of village Panchayat in central India." Thesis, Yale University, 2015. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3663589.

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This dissertation thesis details an interdisciplinary research project, which combines the strengths of resilience theory, the sustainable livelihood framework, complex systems theory, and modeling. These approaches are integrated to develop a tool that can help policy-makers make decisions under conditions of uncertainty, with the goals of reducing poverty and increasing environmental sustainability.

Achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, including reducing poverty and hunger, and increasing environmental sustainability, has been hampered due to global resource degradation and fluctuations in natural, social, political and financial systems. Climate change further impedes these goals, especially in developing countries. The resilience approach has been proposed to help populations adapt to climate change, but this abstract concept has been difficult to operationalize.

The sustainable livelihood framework has been used as a tool by development agencies to evaluate and eradicate poverty by finding linkages between livelihood and environment. However, critiques highlight its inability to handle large and cross-scale issues, like global climate change and environmental degradation.

Combining the sustainable livelihood framework and resilience theory will enhance the ability to simultaneously tackle the challenges of poverty eradication and climate change. However, real-life systems are difficult to understand and measure. A complex-systems approach enables improved understanding of real-life systems by recognizing nonlinearity, emergence, and self-organization. Nonetheless, this approach needs a framework to incorporate multiple dimensions, and an analytical technique.

This research project attempts to transform the concept of resilience into a measurable and operationally useful tool. It integrates resilience theory with the sustainable livelihood framework by using systems modeling techniques. As a case-study, it explores the resilience of household livelihoods within a local village Panchayat in central India.

This method integrated the 4-step cross-scale resilience approach with the sustainable livelihood framework through the use of a system dynamics modeling technique. Qualitative and quantitative data on social, economic and ecological variables was collected to construct a four-year panel at the panchayat scale. Socio-economic data was collected through questionnaires, focus group discussions, participant observation, and literature review. Ecological data on forest regeneration, degradation and growth rates was collected through sample plots, literature review of the region's forest management plans, and expert opinions, in the absence of data.

Using these data, a conceptual, bottom-up model, sensitive to local variability, was created and parameterized. The resultant model (tool), called the Livelihood Management System, is the first of its kind to use the system dynamics technique to model livelihood resilience.

Model simulations suggest that the current extraction rates of forest resources (non-timber forest produce, fuelwood and timber) are unsustainable. If continued, these will lead to increased forest degradation and decline in household income. Forest fires and grazing also have severe impacts on local forests, principally by retarding regeneration. The model suggests that protection from grazing and forest fires alone may significantly improve forest quality. Examining the dynamics of government-sponsored labor, model simulation suggests that it will be difficult to achieve the Government of India's goal of providing 100 days' wage labor per household through the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

Based on vulnerability analysis under the sustainable livelihood framework, eight risks to livelihoods were identified based on which six scenarios were created. One scenario was simulated to understand the resilience of local livelihoods to external shocks. Through these simulations, it was found that while climate change is a threat to local livelihoods, government policy changes have comparatively much larger impacts on local communities. The simulation demonstrates that reduced access to natural resources has significant impacts on local livelihoods. The simulation also demonstrates that reduced access drives forced migration, which increases the vulnerability of already risk-prone populations.

Through the development and simulation of the livelihood model, the research has been able to demonstrate a new methodology to operationalize resilience, indicating many promising next steps. Future undertakings in resilience analysis can allow for finding leverage points, thresholds and tipping points to help shift complex systems to desirable pathways and outcomes. Modeling resilience can help in identifying and prioritizing areas of intervention, and providing ways to monitor implementation progress, thus furthering the goals of reducing extreme poverty and hunger, and environmental sustainability.

Many challenges, such as high costs of data collection and the introduction of uncertainties, make model development and simulation harder. However, such challenges should be embraced as an integral part of complex analysis. In the long run, such analysis should become cost- and time-effective, contributing to data-driven decision-making processes, thus helping policy-makers take informed decisions under complex and uncertain conditions.

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Ou, Po-Hsiang. "Climate change v Eurozone crisis : social and economic views of risk in inter-expert risk communication." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:f3619fc5-fd2a-483b-92b5-94aa90ce13d1.

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This DPhil thesis discusses how two divergent risk conceptions, a 'social view' and an 'economic view' of risk, are constructed through inter-expert risk communication. Different and sometimes contradictory concepts of risk are mobilised in regulatory practice, but the origins of these divergent risk conceptions are not extensively studied. This thesis seeks to unpack this divergence. Empirically, I analyse risk communication among experts in the European Union (EU) during the creation of two risk regulation standards. The two case studies, one related to the development of the two-degree target of EU climate policies (the climate case) and the other about the negotiation of the excessive deficit criteria of the Maastricht Treaty (the euro case), can shed light on the relations between risk conceptions and inter-expert risk communication. I argue that through risk communication, an initial 'view' of risk can be entrenched and developed into a paradigmatic 'risk conception'. My analysis uses historical and sociological institutionalism, by focusing on path dependence of risk communication and social construction risk conceptions among EU experts. Through the two case studies, I identify four analytical dimensions of inter-expert risk communication: networks (the institutional setting and relationships between different experts), cultures (the mentalities of experts in relation to discussing risks), dynamics (the actual processes of transmitting and receiving risk messages) and strategies (the rationales supporting the decisions of risk regulation standards). My thematic analysis reveals four key distinct 'features' of social/economic views of risk: expertise (the types of knowledge mobilised), normality (characterising risk as either 'special' or 'routine'), probability (considering risk as either uncertain or calculable) and impact (seeing risk as either negative or positive). I argue that these four features can help explain the construction of risk conceptions, and more broadly, provide an analytical framework for studying how views of risk evolve and interact over time.

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Altzinger, Wilfried, Cuaresma Jesus Crespo, Bernhard Rumplmaier, Petra Sauer, and Alyssa Schneebaum. "Education and Social Mobility in Europe: Levelling the Playing Field for Europe's Children and Fuelling its Economy." European Commission, bmwfw, 2015. http://epub.wu.ac.at/4720/1/WWWforEurope_WPS_no080_MS19.pdf.

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The persistence of socioeconomic outcomes across generations acts as a barrier to a society's ability to exploit its resources efficiently. In order to derive policy measures which aim at accelerating intergenerational mobility, we review the existent body of research on the causes, effects and the measurement of intergenerational mobility. We also present recent empirical works which study intergenerational mobility in Europe, around the Globe, and its relevance for economic growth. We recommend four policy measures to reduce the negative impacts of intergenerational persistence in economic outcomes: universal and high-quality child care and pre-school programs; later school tracking and increased access to vocational training to reduce skill mismatch and facilitate technological development; integration programs for migrants; and simultaneous investment in schooling and later social security programs.
Series: WWWforEurope

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Day, Stephen Robert. "The process of social-democratization : from Leninist to Social-Democratic parties in Central and Eastern Europe (a comparative based approach focusing specifically upon the Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland - SdRP)." Thesis, University of Warwick, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.300210.

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Carson, Marcus. "From common market to social Europe? : paradigm shift and institutional change in European Union policy on food, asbestos and chemicals, and gender equality /." Doctoral thesis, Stockholm : Almqvist & Wiksell, 2004. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-174.

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Koller, Stefan [Verfasser], Wolfgang [Akademischer Betreuer] Brüggemann, and Imke [Akademischer Betreuer] Schmitt. "Ecophysiological monitoring of native and foreign oaks in Central Europe, introduced in the framework of proactive climate change mitigation / Stefan Koller. Betreuer: Wolfgang Brüggemann. Gutachter: Wolfgang Brüggemann ; Imke Schmitt." Frankfurt am Main : Univ.-Bibliothek Frankfurt am Main, 2015. http://d-nb.info/1077557698/34.

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Yost, Joanna S. "Testing the Questions Central to the Theory of Change for Interpersonal Skills Group (ISG) for Adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1439832342.

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Akyurek, Engin Ahmet. "Changing Conceptions Of European Identity And Shifting Boundaries." Master's thesis, METU, 2004. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12604993/index.pdf.

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In the end of the 1980s and in the beginning of the 1990s Europe and the world witnessed the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the mid-1990s the member states of the European Union decided to enlarge the Union towards the Eastern Europe. Thus European integration entered into an unprecedented phase. Integration of the Eastern Europeans with the Western Europe contributed to the debates on the notions of European identity and the idea of Europe. Adherence of the East Europeans to the ideals of the Western European civilization brought up some questions about the changing identities and shifting boundaries of Europe. Various theories deal with the problems of identity in general and European identity in particular. However to a great extent they are limited within a rigid description of self-other relationship. They do not intend to investigate the real motives or purposes behind these transformations of the prevailing identities and shifting of the boundaries of Europe. So, it will be argued that, in order to understand construction/reconstruction process of the new European identity, one should also take into consideration the more dynamic effects on changing European identity and shifting borders of Europe.

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Dykstra, Corina Maria. "Education for social transformation : a quest for the practice of democracy." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1991. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/30545.

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This study emerged from an awareness that educators comprehension of what is taking place in social movements (in social sites outside the formal institution) is most vital for understanding and linking adult education to the wider struggle for radical democracy. The Christian Task Force on Central America is a unique British Columbia wide solidarity network that provided the "practical" context to explore social change education. This case study used participant observation to examine the educational practice of the network. The study began by presenting the theoretical base, as developed from current literature, on education for social change. This included a critique of the dominant understanding and approach to social change education, reflecting a liberal philosophy of individualism and a pedagogy that is acritical and apolitical in nature. It was argued that this model of social change education strips social processes of their political nature and content by situating them within the framework of social adjustment. An alternative "transformative" social change model was presented; one that places greater stress on the relationship between education and social action. This included a discussion of three core elements: social change vision, a critical pedagogy and a pedagogy of mobilisation. The process of analysis involved exploring the Task Force as an transformative educational movement. The historical background to the network and its contemporary work was discussed. Key educational principles were identified from its practice and developed into a "grassroots" liberative theory of social change. The factors of "organisational structure" and "resources" were revealed as elements that have both a liberating and constraining effect on the work of the movement. The Task Force, as a case-study, illustrates the centrality and educational nature of the struggle for social justice. Educational activities of the network incorporate collective and active learning processes for social justice and are based upon a "practical" rather than speculative concept of social change. The study concludes that the radical possibility of education lies within the process of education itself; it is not so much the content as the method of practice which is vital in creating the conditions of a participatory democracy, here and now. Recommendations for further research were suggested for those interested in examining further the role of education within social movements.
Education, Faculty of
Educational Studies (EDST), Department of
Graduate

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Gravesteijn, Robin. "Models of social enterprise? : microfinance organisations as promoters of decent work in Central Asia." Thesis, University of Bath, 2014. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.619146.

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In simultaneously pursuing commercial and social goals, specialist microfinance organisations (MFOs) are leading examples of social enterprises working in development. Yet evidence of the feasibility of such ‘double bottom line’ management is limited. The thesis takes a comparative case study approach to investigating the dynamics of a social enterprise model of microfinance, with particular emphasis on its role in promoting employment related goals. Case study material consists primarily of the experience of two Central Asian MFOs that participated in an action research project ‘Microfinance for Decent Work’ implemented by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Data was obtained through participant observation, staff interviews, client level surveys, and it also includes reflective practice arising from my participation in the ILO project as a consultant to both MFOs between 2008 and 2012. The findings are mixed. One of the MFOs was more strongly internally motivated to achieve social goals, and was more successful in implementing social performance management initiatives. The other was motivated more by the goal to demonstrate social performance to external stakeholders, and was less responsive to the evidence generated. The thesis also illustrates both path dependence in the evolution of social performance management, and the limited capacity of external agencies such as the ILO to influence the institutionalisation of development management within MFOs.

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Argabright, Karen Jane. "Social Support in Ohio State University Extension: A Mixed-Methods Approach to Examining Central Actor Characteristics and Influence in a Distributed Educational Outreach Organization." The Ohio State University, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1524130604744304.

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Dalton, Alison J. "John Hooper and his networks : a study of change in Reformation England." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2008. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:833f0dcf-8426-49e8-a10e-3f0f50300e2e.

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The research is a study of the context of the life and work of John Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester and Worcester, 1551-1555. It charts the nature of his relationships with friends, patrons, mentors, colleagues, and lay and clerical supporters and opponents in England and on the Continent, through the study of ecclesiastical, political, business and economic, intellectual, official and judicial, kinship and social networks in which he was involved. Its purpose is to reveal the complex mix of societal and confessional pressures influencing Hooper's approach and constraining his freedom of manoeuvre, and to a large extent determining how successful he was at achieving change. The study reveals key determinants of the nature and direction of the Reformation in England. It shows that the pressure to change doctrinal allegiances and to accommodate reformed church practices challenged not only personal confessional loyalties but also the very framework of society; that is, familial and social ties, economic, business and judicial groupings, educational affiliations, and ruling oligarchies. Within these societal networks there existed the momentum for, and resistance to, religious change. Confessional allegiances were just part of a complex mix of political and social pressures that included the exercise of patronage and protection, the use of conflict and compromise, the practise of different obligations, allegiances and loyalties, the employment of status and kinship, and the accommodation of various alliances and means of association. All of these influenced Hooper's approach and scope for action. As such, the research provides insight into why and how, in the development of the newly-reformed church in England, thoroughgoing religious change was resisted and contained.

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Eriksson, Göran, Tobias Davidsson, and Pauline Lundgren. "Minor field study on traffic safety in Ghana : Pedestrian and cyclist facilities and access in central Accra." Thesis, University of Skövde, School of Technology and Society, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:his:diva-2644.

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This study is an analysis of the traffic situation for pedestrians and bicyclist, unprotected road users, in Accra’s Central Business District. A Swedish method, Calm streets, is used to identify conflicts in the mixed traffic situation. The findings reveal a large amount of conflicts between unprotected road users and motor vehicles. These conflicts cause congestions which have negative implications on the environment, health and economy.

In addition an assessment of the quality of and access to pedestrian and bicycle facilities were conducted. This assessment indicates that the quality and access to the facilities are in general low, especially for the disabled, elderly and children. A larger Traffic Network Analysis and a Cost Benefit Analysis are needed to address these problems for stakeholders and decision makers.

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Pauls, Linnéa. "How Rainwater Can Transform Cities : An Evaluation of Success Factors for Urban Rainwater Harvesting Projects in Europe." Thesis, KTH, Urbana och regionala studier, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-254601.

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Changing weather patterns challenge societies globally and at multiple levels related to amongst others health, the environment, disaster management and mitigation. There is a need for greater flexibility and resilience, which in turn can be enabled through a transition towards increased sustainability in governance and infrastructure. Urban rainwater harvesting (URWH) is a term used in this paper to collect various approaches to the sustainable handling of rainwater in cities, a practice becoming increasingly common in some areas of the world. Global experiences can be useful learning opportunities in the planning, implementation and maintenance of sustainable urban rainwater harvesting in future smart cities. The aim of this thesis was to synthesize the factors of success of previous projects, in order to develop a framework tailored to the evaluation of projects concerned with rainwater harvesting. The review spans over 18 projects of different scale and design. The findings of the study show that successful URWH projects are: (1) found as part of urban renewal schemes; (2) successfully implemented by involved actors with open mindsets and flexible and collaborative working approaches; (3) maintained based on plans determined from the onset of the project, developed together with local actors, in order to involve the community and strengthen social inclusion. The revised evaluative framework, which is proposed as a result of the review, indicates general trends of success among the reviewed cases. To be fully operational, the framework should be further developed with additional URWH projects and revised thereafter.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Social change – Europe, Central'

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