Teses / dissertações sobre o tema "New modes of political action"

L'Opération d'Intérêt National (O.I.N.) n'est vraiment pas une opération d'aménagement comme les autres. Son histoire, son évolution, son influence et ses caractéristiques en attestent. Longtemps sans définition légale ou réglementaire, c'est la jurisprudence qui, dans un premier temps, nous a permis d'y voir plus clair sur sa nature (une opération d'aménagement), les autres sources du droit demeurant fort silencieuses. Toutefois, le législatif a fini par intervenir pour mettre fin au doute.Issue de la décentralisation, de la volonté de l'État de conserver sa compétence sur des opérations couvrant des secteurs qu'il jugeait stratégiques, elle s'est pourtant muée en instrument idéal de l'urbanisme de projet et s'est donc parfaitement intégrée à la décentralisation et aux nouveaux modes d'actions de l'État, mêlant interventions ponctuelles et stratégiques et soft law. Partant de La Défense, des ports autonomes et des villes nouvelles, l'O.I.N. est devenue un véritable projet urbain, en épousant tous les traits. Intégration du développement durable et utilisation décomplexée du marketing territorial sont devenus deux caractéristiques substantielles des nouvelles O.I.N., celles lancées à partir d'Euroméditerranée à Marseille en 1995. L'accent peut y être mis sur différentes actions, mais les axes majeurs de l'opération restent toujours les mêmes. Douze années d'évolution et de maturation des nouvelles pratiques de l'aménagement ont fait de l'O.I.N. ce qu'elle est maintenant, un méta-projet de grande envergure qui permet la mise en œuvre de projets concrets qui changent beaucoup la physionomie d'une agglomération ou l'aide à sortir d'un déclin qui semblait inéluctable.Sa souplesse exceptionnelle qui pourrait presque la faire passer pour une « coquille vide » et son régime dérogatoire font qu'elle peut convenir à tous les acteurs de l'aménagement tant publics que privés, tout en rassurant les investisseurs qui vont rendre ses projets concrets réalisables. Ne pouvant fonctionner que parfaitement concertée, elle peut permettre de réconcilier les visions étatique et locale sur un territoire donné.Son régime juridique minimal, la prémunit contre de nombreux risques et lourdeurs qui peuvent peser sur d'autres instruments de l'aménagement. Son échelle massive la rend aussi bien plus adaptée que les outils « traditionnels » de l'aménagement. L'O.I.N. est donc l'outil idoine pour marquer l'engagement de l'État dans un grand projet d'ambition nationale, voire internationale, pour attirer des partenaires d'envergure et conserver la réactivité et l'adaptabilité propres à la démarche de projet.Ses caractéristiques, la rendant éminemment pratique, ont beaucoup influencé le législateur et le pouvoir exécutif qui ont souhaité l'étendre, la décliner et l'adapter à d'autres échelles territoriales, financières. D'autres instruments juridiques en sont les héritiers plus ou moins directs : le Quartier d'Intérêt National, le Contrat d'Intérêt National, le Contrat de Développement Territorial ou encore le Projet d'Intérêt Majeur. Au-delà des similitudes terminologiques, ces outils ont un lien de parenté clair et vérifiable avec l'O.I.N.Outil à la fois politique et juridique, s'intégrant à merveille dans l'ère du temps, sa souplesse providentielle selon les conceptions nouvelles du droit de l'aménagement, ne manquera pas de lui permettre d'évoluer en même temps que les pratiques de ce dernier.L'O.I.N. a encore de beaux jours devant elle sous forme originelle ou dérivée
The Operation of National Interest (O.I.N.) is really not a development operation like any other. Its history, its evolution, its influence and its characteristics attest to this. For a long time without a legal definition, it was the law case which, at first, allowed us to see more clearly about its nature (a development operation), while the other sources of law remained very silent. However, the legislation eventually intervened to put an end to the doubt.Coming from decentralization and the desire of the State to retain its competence over operations covering sectors which it considered strategic, it has nevertheless become an ideal instrument of project planning and has therefore perfectly integrated itself with decentralization and new modes of action of the State, combining ad hoc and strategic interventions with soft law. Starting from La Défense, autonomous ports and new cities, the O.I.N. has become a real urban project, embracing all the features. Integration of sustainable development and uncomplexed use of territorial marketing have become two substantial characteristics of the new O.I.N., which originated from Euroméditerranée in Marseille in 1995. The focus can be on different actions, but the main axes of the operation always remain the same. Twelve years of evolution and maturation of new planning practices have made O.I.N. what it is now, a large-scale meta-project that allows the implementation of concrete projects that greatly change the physiognomy of an agglomeration or help to emerge from a decline that seemed inevitable.Its exceptional flexibility that could almost make it look like an “empty shell” and its derogating regime mean that it can be suitable for all those involved in the development, both public and private, while reassuring investors who will make its concrete projects achievable. Being able to function only perfectly concerted, it can make it possible to reconcile the state and local visions in a given territory.Its minimal legal regime prevents it from many risks and heaviness that may weigh on other planning instruments. Its massive scale makes it as much more suitable as the “traditional” tools of the development. The O.I.N. is therefore the right tool to mark the commitment of the State in a major project of national or even international ambition, to attract major partners and maintain the responsiveness and adaptability specific to the project approach.Its characteristics, making it eminently practical, have greatly influenced the legislator and the executive power who wished to extend it, decline it and adapt it to other territorial, financial scales. Other legal instruments are more or less direct heirs: the National Interest District, the National Interest Contract, the Territorial Development Contract or the Major Interest Project. Beyond terminological similarities, these tools have a clear and verifiable relationship with O.I.N.A tool both political and legal, being perfectly integrated into the era of time, its providential flexibility according to the new conceptions of planning law, will not fail to allow it to evolve at the same time as the practices of the latter.The O.I.N. still has good days ahead of it in original or derived form

It has been known for a long time that the cytosine base can be modified to produce a new nucleotide, identified as 5-methylcytosine (mC). In normal cells, mC is correctly distributed into the genome, but in many diseases including life-threatening cancers, its pattern is profoundly perturbed. In 2009, Anjana Rao, published that certain proteins, known as the TET enzymes, are capable of removing mC by further oxidizing it to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (hmC). This original article, cited more than 1200 times, has led to a great expansion in our understanding of DNA methylation. Such recent publications expanded this knowledge by showing that the TETs successively oxidize hmC to 5-formylcytosine (fC) and 5-carboxylcytosine (caC).

These oxidized methylcytosines have been implicated in several mechanisms of DNA demethylation, including “active” demethylation through base excision repair, and “passive” demethylation via successive rounds of DNA replication. In addition, DNA hydroxymethylation is thought to be involved in a wide range of diseases, and a marked decrease of hmC seems to be a “hallmark” of many cancers.

However, little is known about the regulation of their modes of action. It is tempting to speculate that these proteins interact with a plethora of factors to elicit coordinated biological functions. Likewise, they might be regulated by environment, which in certain situations, could alter the hydroxymethylome landscape, and lead to cellular malfunction and diseases.

In the first study, we pursued a large, unbiased screen of the TET interactome, and discovered that TET2 and TET3 interact with the O-linked N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) transferase (OGT). OGT is a glycosyltransferase that adds N-acetylglucose moieties on various proteins, including histone H2B, expanding therefore the “histone code”. We further discovered that the TET-OGT association seems to enhance OGT activity and to potentiate glycosylation and stabilization of SET1/COMPASS, a complex that is responsible for the global deposition of the H3K4me3 histone mark that “decorates” active promoters. Finally, we could confirm a decreased genome-wide H3K4me3 deposition in a model of acute myeloid leukemia mutated for TET2, suggesting that the TET-OGT link is implicated in Health and Disease.

In the second study, we looked at the impact of the environment on TET activity and on cellular hydroxymethylomes. We focused on oxidative stress assaults that are known to be involved in inflammation, a mediator of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. We observed a significant decrease of hmC in cell lines treated with various oxidant stressors, likely due to a direct inactivation of the TETs catalytic domain. Moreover, gene ontology analysis of differentially hydroxymethylated regions (dhMRs), profiled by deep-sequencing on treated vs non-treated cells, highlighted pathways involved in oxidative stress response. The implication of TETs in oxidative stress response was further emphasized by a decreased proliferation of TET1-depleted cells when they are treated with oxidant stressors. Importantly, those results were confirmed in mice knockout for the major antioxidant enzymes GPx1 and GPx2.

In conclusion, the work of this thesis contributed to better understand the modes of action of the TET proteins, through (1) direct interaction with OGT, and (2) via direct regulation by oxidative-stress-associated molecules, and we hope that these results will bring new insights to better understand these fascinating enzymes.

Doctorat en Sciences biomédicales et pharmaceutiques
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2006.
The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file viewed on (February 20, 2007) Includes bibliographical references.

Members of the diaspora are conflict actors with an agency that is important to include in conflict theories and analysis of international relationships. Scholarship suggests its origins, and thereafter changes in the conflict cycle effect decision-making and mobilization in the diaspora, but the conditions and mechanisms that inform these processes are undertherorized. The Sri Lankan conflict and its Toronto based diasporas are used to explore processes of diasporization and mobilization in the context a changed political landscape. A series of semi-structured interviews and a short survey asks respondents to assess their motivations for mobilization. The comparative work is within and between ethnic groups. New Institutionalism underscores this project. Butler’s (2001) epistemology, Brinkerhoff’s (2005) identity-mobilization framework, the political process model and insights from the New Social Movement literature are used to situate politicized identities and political activism directed toward the homeland. Attention is paid to factor processes.

This thesis investigates the relationship between contemporary climate protest movements (Extinction Rebellion and Fridays For Future) and governmental bodies in European countries that declared a climate emergency in 2019. The primary contribution of this thesis is to demonstrate how emerging communication practices by these movements compare to the perceived influence of such practices among political decisionmakers in their governing bodies’ votes for a climate emergency declaration. Twitter content (tweets by movement accounts) surrounding protest actions of the climate movements was coded using concepts deduced from theoretical literature of participation, media and communication. Themes induced from this data were also used for coding. A thematic analysis of empirical interview text from semi-structured interviews of nine politicians in eight governmental bodies (six German city councils, that of Innsbruck, Austria and the Swiss cantonal parliament of Vaud) on this subject matter was done similarly. Relational thematic analyses of both datasets influenced the coding of one another. A frame analysis grounded in these data studied the use of social media imagery and text by the two movements. Another look at the interview data reflects the influence these movements had on climate emergency declarations via comparison of politicians’ stated impressions of the movements’ participation/influences with formations of tweeted movement frames. The data support the hypothesis that citizens engage via the connective power of personalized participatory culture on social media, enabling political participation. Today, we see a shift away from a political logic of social movements abiding to strong shared identity and meaning through frames of collective action. Instead, a social media logic, which aims to achieve the same functions, operates in loosely networked movements based on individualized frames of youth identity. This ‘connective identity’ bridges the participatory culture of social media with offline political participation in the streets and halls of power.

Though mainstream environmentalism, both in the U.S. and India, was initially rooted in social justice, it has, over time, moved away from this focus. The Environmental Justice Movement consequently arose to reunite social and environmental activism. In this thesis, I trace the historical relationship between the mainstream environmentalism, the Environmental Justice Movement, and marginalized communities. After providing this general overview, I examine two case studies – in Los Angeles and New Delhi respectively – where marginalized communities have been involved in Environmental Justice activities. My analysis reveals that marginalized communities often act in an ‘environmentalist’ or ‘environmentally friendly’ manner, without defining their actions as such. That is, their socio-political activism often is or becomes environmental because of the contexts it operates within.

In order to probe how social movement messages foster participant mobilization, this study utilized an experimental design to investigate collective action frames, core messaging tasks that define problems, assign blame, convey a plan of action, and inspire participation. The study compared the effects of climate change messages that contain motivational frames with those that do not, incorporating the influence of resonance, and exposure to competing and counter frames. Results revealed that motivational frames contributed to mobilization, especially intention to act, under conditions of resonance and with exposure to counter frames. Salience primed participants to respond to motivational frames, however for some, motivational frames decreased intention to act. As social movements and climate change continue to profoundly shape our world in myriad ways, we will be better prepared to address those changes with information provided here.

This study is an investigation in and through media arts practice. It set out to develop a novel type of new media artistic praxis built upon concepts drawn from the disciplines of scientific and cultural ecology. The rationale for this research was based upon my observation as a practising new media artist that existing praxis in the new media domain appeared to operate largely without awareness of the ecological implications of those practices. The thesis begins by explaining key concepts of ecology, spanning the arts and the sciences. It then outlines the thinking of contemporary theorists who propose that the problem of ecology is a critical issue for the 21st century, suggesting that our well-documented ecological crisis is indicative of a more general crisis of human subjectivity. It then records an investigation into particular strategies for artistic praxis which might instigate an active engagement with this problem of ecology. The study employed a methodology based in action research to focus upon the development and analysis of three new artistic works, '#14', ' Public Relations' and 'transit lounge'. These were used to explore diverse theories of ecology and to hone a series of pointers towards Ecosophical arts/new media praxis. This journey constitutes an emergent theory for new media space design. The thesis concludes with a toolkit of tactics and approaches that other arts/new media practitioners might employ to begin working on the problem of ecology.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior
O período entre 2009 e 2012 foi considerado um marco na história das pessoas com autismo no Brasil, devido à sanção da Lei Federal n 12.764, no dia 27 de dezembro de 2012, que reconheceu os autistas, para todos os efeitos legais, como pessoas com deficiência. A tomada da deficiência como instrumento político-identitário caracterizou, assim, novos rumos da luta por direitos. A partir da análise de diferentes estratégias de atuação política desenvolvidas por três grupos de pais de autistas no Estado do Rio de Janeiro (APADEM, Mundo Azul e Pelo Direito dos Autistas), este trabalho discorrerá acerca de suas principais demandas e alegações. A escolha destes três dispositivos associativos é justificada por suas respectivas coordenações, exclusivamente, atribuídas a pais e familiares de autistas, além do reconhecimento nacional de suas participações na formulação de projetos, leis e eventos relacionados ao espectro. Portanto, esta dissertação pretende responder às seguintes questões: a) quais processos e motivações permitem que uma questão privada (ter um filho autista) se transforme em uma questão pública? b) como se agrupam, quais são e a quem se dirigem suas reivindicações? c) quais expectativas, estratégias e tensões estão envolvidas no movimento dos movimentos sociais do autismo? Além de entrevistas com informantes qualificados, a metodologia de pesquisa envolveu observação participante em passeatas, audiências públicas, palestras e celebrações de datas comemorativas, como o Dia Mundial da Conscientização do Autismo. No entanto, a maior parte do trabalho etnográfico se concentrou no município de Volta Redonda, onde, há quinze anos, foi fundada a APADEM, caso paradigmático de atuação política de pais de autistas no Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Por meio da parceria entre sociedade civil e poder público, atualmente, Volta Redonda detém três legislações municipais direcionadas ao autismo e uma gama de serviços especializados. Por fim, ao apresentar como os três grupos de pais de autistas configuram a politização da experiência da deficiência, esta dissertação pretende contribuir academicamente com os campos dos novos movimentos sociais e dos estudos sobre deficiência, ambos de grande potencial heurístico, mas ainda pouco explorados no Brasil.
The period between 2009 and 2012 was considered a landmark in the history of autistic people in Brazil, due to the enactment of the Federal Law 12.764, on December 27, 2012, which recognized autistics, for all legal purposes, such as people with disabilities. The use of disability as a political and identity tools has defined new directions of "struggle for rights". From the analysis of different strategies of political action undertaken by three groups of parents of autistic in the State of Rio de Janeiro (APADEM, Mundo Azul e Pelo Direito dos Autistas), this work will discuss about their main demands and claims. The choice of these three associative devices is justified by their respective coordinators exclusively attributed to parents and families of autistic, and also the national recognition of their participation in the formulation of projects, laws and events related to the spectrum. Therefore, this master thesis aims to answer the following questions: a) what processes and motivations allow a private matter (having an autistic child) become a public issue? b) how they group together, what are their claims and whom they are addressed? c) what expectations, strategies and tensions are involved in the "movement " of autism social movements? In addition to interviews with qualified informants, the research methodology involved participant observation in demonstrations, public hearings, lectures and commemorative dates, such as the World Autism Awareness Day. However, most of the ethnographic work was focused on the city of Volta Redonda, where fifteen years ago, was founded APADEM, paradigmatic case of political action of parents of autistic in the State of Rio de Janeiro. Through the partnership between civil society and government, Volta Redonda currently holds three municipal laws directed to autism and a range of specialized services. Finally, when presenting how the three groups of parents of autistic configure the politicization of the experience of disability, this dissertation aims to contribute to the academic field of new social movements and disability studies, both of great heuristic potential, but still little explored in Brazil.

This study is an investigation in and through media arts practice. It set out to develop a novel type of new media artistic praxis built upon concepts drawn from the disciplines of scientific and cultural ecology. The rationale for this research was based upon my observation as a practising new media artist that existing praxis in the new media domain appeared to operate largely without awareness of the ecological implications of those practices. The thesis begins by explaining key concepts of ecology, spanning the arts and the sciences. It then outlines the thinking of contemporary theorists who propose that the problem of ecology is a critical issue for the 21st century, suggesting that our well-documented ecological crisis is indicative of a more general crisis of human subjectivity. It then records an investigation into particular strategies for artistic praxis which might instigate an active engagement with this problem of ecology. The study employed a methodology based in action research to focus upon the development and analysis of three new artistic works, '#14', 'Public Relations' and 'transit_lounge'. These were used to explore diverse theories of ecology and to hone a series of pointers towards Ecosophical arts/new media praxis. This journey constitutes an emergent theory for new media space design. The thesis concludes with a toolkit of tactics and approaches that other arts/new media practitioners might employ to begin working on the problem of ecology.

The purpose of this dissertation is to study the Europeanization of Swedish alcohol policy from 1995-2006. It analyses the development of Swedish and European alcohol policy and answers the following research questions: How has alcohol policy developed on the national and the EU level during this period? What are the Swedish alcohol policy initiatives on the EU level? What does the interplay between Swedish and European policy processes look like? Of interest for this dissertation is also how the Swedish view on alcohol policy has been received on EU level. The dissertation comprises four related articles and an introductory chapter. In the articles official documents and interviews are analyzed in the context of the literature on Europeanization, using the concepts framing, narrative and new modes of governance. Article I explores the history of negotiations between Sweden and the EU on the traveller’s allowances question. Article II and III analyse how Swedish authorities, first through research and later through formal policy-making during the Swedish Presidency, tried to reframe alcohol on the EU-level. Finally, the fourth article is a comparative analysis of the Nordic retail monopolies, analyzing how the monopolies have developed and reacted to national and international pressures on their activities. The dissertation shows that Swedish authorities have influenced the EU level by putting alcohol on the agenda, and offered pressure and economic support to make sure that alcohol as a public health question has become and been kept as a prioritized question. This development is, however, nested inside the changing scope and emphasis of the EU. The emergence of a European alcohol policy as a public health-oriented process has been made possible through a new focus on the EU level, with increased cooperation between member states and a trend toward harmonization of policy and frames when it comes to alcohol.

La participation politique d’une minorité protège son identité culturelle et renforce la paix et l’intégration dans l’Etat. La jouissance des nouveaux groupes minoritaires musulmans européens de leurs droits à la participation politique suppose qu’ils soient reconnus juridiquement comme des minorités ce qui nécessite l’écartement des éléments de reconnaissance de citoyenneté et d’ancienneté. Les institutions internationales tendent de plus en plus à considérer que les minorités n’ont plus besoin de ces deux critères pour bénéficier des droits des minorités. Par contre, cette tendance est peu suivie par les Etats. La participation politique est une notion vaste qui comprend toute activité politique institutionnalisée ou informelle.La participation effective de minorités nécessite la jouissance des droits fondamentaux à la liberté d'expression, de réunion et d'association, ainsi que du droit de voter, d’être élu et d’accéder à la fonction publique pour les ayants droit (citoyens). Une égalité réelle et une participation effective des minorités nécessitent l’adoption des mesures d’action positive. Elles peuvent concerner le droit de vote (représentation) ou le droit de prendre part au processus décisionnel (participation) par le biais des mécanismes comme l’autonomie territoriale, culturelle ou fonctionnelle. Une variété des dispositions juridiques internationales (déclaratoires ou de soft law), ainsi que des législations étatiques favorisant la participation offrent une sorte de catalogue très utile pour traiter la question. Les Etats peuvent y puiser pour générer un système de participation des minorités le plus approprié à chaque contexte étatique et minoritaire
The political participation of a minority protects her cultural identity and reinforces peace and integration in the state. In order to be able to enjoy full rights to political participation, the new European Muslim minorities have to be legally recognized as minorities and this must be done without requiring citizenship and long term residence. International institutions tend to consider that minorities no longer need these two criteria to qualify for minority rights. However, this trend is not followed by states. Political participation is a broad concept that includes all political institutionalized or informal activities. The effective participation of minorities requires their enjoyment of fundamental rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association and the right to vote, to be elected and access to the public service ( for citizens ). Real equality and effective participation of minorities require the adoption of affirmative action measures, which may concern the right to vote (representation) or the right to participate in decision-making (participation) through mechanisms such as territorial, cultural and functional autonomy. A wide range of international legal provisions (mostly declaratory or soft law) and state legislations promoting participation offer useful means to solve the problem. States can use them to generate the most appropriate system of minority participation in any state or minority context

This dissertation documents a generation of black women who came to politics during the 1940s in New York City. Ada B. Jackson, Pauli Murray, Anna Arnold Hedgeman, Bessie Buchanan, Jeanne Noble and Shirley Chisholm among others, worked, studied and lived in Harlem and Brooklyn. They seized the political opportunities generated by World War II and its aftermath and pursued new ways to redress the entrenched systems of oppression that denied them full rights of citizenship and human dignity. These included not only grassroots activism, but also efforts to gain insider status in the administrative state; the use of the United Nations; and an unprecedented number of campaigns for elected office. Theirs was a new politics and they waged their struggles not just for themselves, but also for their communities and for the broader ideals of equality. When World War II began, grassroots activists operated outside the halls of formal political power. Yet they understood the necessity of engaging the state and frequently endeavored to wrest power from it: the power that made life more bearable, that made the streets safer, that kept the roofs over their heads. These activists and others in women's clubs and civic organizations won favor in their communities and they increasingly pursued formal political positions. As the war drew to a close, a growing number of black women ran for elected office and sought political appointments. However, to attain political posts, they had to overcome the entrenched traditions of Tammany Hall's machine and the gendered and racialized nature of New York City politics. Most were unsuccessful, but by 1954, a few succeed. By the 1960s, black women had made their way into national politics. They were appointed to presidential commissions, the administration and won congressional office. Dorothy Height, Pauli Murray, Jeanne Noble, and Congresswoman and presidential candidate Shirley Chisholm represent the advancements black women made into the state structure. This study illustrates the kinds of political changes women helped bring about, it underscores the boundaries of what was possible vis-à-vis the state, and it traces how race, gender and the structure of the state itself shape outcomes.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
This thesis argues that Purdue, a socially and politically conservative institution in an equally conservative state, provides an ideal atmosphere in which to study the inception of the New Left. The insular nature of the campus and its relative isolation from outside groups provides an opportunity to study the genesis of the movement as it progressed from local concerns to a broader focus on national and international topics.

PhD - International Relations
The thesis examines the design and implementation of African regional economic cooperation initiatives using the Lagos Plan of Action (LPA) and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) as comparative case studies. With regards to design, it focuses on the international political economy of the shift from the LPA’s state-led, inward-looking, collective self-reliance model to NEPAD’s outward looking, market-friendly orientations. Pertaining to implementation, it examines the domestic political economy of institutionalising compliance with regionally agreed policy prescriptions in the absence of an overarching central authority. It focuses on the level of implementation of the LPA and the prospects of implementing NEPAD. The thesis pursues two main sets of arguments: First, it argues that African states’ common concerns about their vulnerability in the global economy have informed the design of a number of ambitious regional initiatives. Within this context, the shift from the LPA to the NEPAD has been dictated by changes in global realities and circumstances. Second, it argues that individual African governments’ concern with vulnerability nationally has been responsible for the low levels of implementation of regional economic initiatives. In this regard, the prospects for the sustained implementation of regional cooperation initiatives is structured by expectations of socio- economic benefits, the cost of compliance to states and the institutions to enforce compliance. The study employs neo-liberal and nationalist perspectives of international political economy to explain how global realities have dictated Africa’s economic cooperation options. To explain African governments’ attitude towards regional initiatives, the thesis uses insights from comparative political economy. The thesis meanwhile employs insights from institutional economics and rational choice institutionalism to highlight the difficulties of institutionalising compliance with regional policy prescriptions. To capture the differences in the contexts within which the LPA and the NEPAD were crafted and the variations in their orientations, the thesis uses a combination of ‘historical explanation’ and ‘structured focused comparison’ methodology that allows for two separate, but structurally linked accounts of the processes of design and implementation of the two initiatives.

Over the past 30 years South Africa has lost valuable human capital due to high volumes of emigration. South Africa has also seen numerous changes in its political, economic and social structure specifically in these decades, but little investigation has been done into the possibility of an association between political, economic and social, as well as personal factors, and the decision to leave South Africa. This study refers to Lee’s Migration Model (1966) that was used as a broad theory for migration. The model involves four sets of factors: factors associated with the area of origin, factors associated with the area of destination, intervening obstacles and personal factors. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory also explains the personal motivational theory for migration. Lee’s Model of Migration is used to investigate which political, economic, social and personal factors in the area of origin (South Africa) pushed South African emigrants to leave the country. It also investigates which political, economic, social and personal factors in the area of destination (Australia and New Zealand) pulled South African emigrants toward these countries. This study involved mixed-methods research (Creswell, 2009), thus the data collection methods were both qualitative and quantitative. The study followed a sequential exploratory strategy in two stages with the qualitative data collection occurring first, followed by a quantitative study – ‘QUALquan’ study. The data are mixed between analysis of the qualitative data and the quantitative data collection (Creswell, 2009:211). The qualitative data collection instruments used in the first stage of the study in 2009, were face-to-face interviews consisting of one focus group and six personal interviews in New Zealand, as well as twelve personal interviews in Australia. In the second stage of the study in 2015, namely the quantitative research, respondents were selected by contacting 17 closed (secured) Facebook groups that were formed for South Africans living either in Australia or New Zealand. There is no alternative sampling frame available since emigrants do not need to declare themselves as migrants on a work visa, furthermore, official documentation is not accessible to the public. A quantitative data collection instrument was administered with an online questionnaire. In the Australian Facebook groups, 137 respondents completed the questionnaire, and in New Zealand Facebook groups, 118 respondents, which adds up to a total of 255 respondents who completed the questionnaire. The results concluded that South Africa’s governance framework, its infrastructure and legislation acted as political push factors motivating South Africans to emigrate, while an uncertain economy contributed as an economic push factor. Socially, a perception of a limited future and a narcissistic society is what pushed South Africans to emigrate. Personal push factors that drove the emigration decision included, unmet physical, safety, belonging and esteem needs. The political factors that pulled South African emigrants to Australia and New Zealand involved effective government services and governmental aid. Economic pull factors included economic certainty and a lower cost of living. Social pull factors proved to be familiar circumstances and a better future. Personal pull factors were safety, belonging and self-actualisation needs. This mixed-method approach focussed on the gap to a followup study that was identified in previous individual qualitative and quantitative studies. These results may assist the South African government to take measures that ensures the retention of highly skilled citizens.
Business Management
M. Com. (Business Management)