Дисертації з теми "Custom and practice"

METIS (Mater Dei Education for Teaching Information System) is a custom-built online learning environment for teaching practice (TP) that has been developed in the context of a concurrent Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programme at the Mater Dei Institute of Education (MDI), Dublin. It is guided by three objectives ('to facilitate competency-based profiling of student-teachers', 'to facilitate reflective practice by student-teachers', and 'to facilitate the flow of information for teaching practice') and one central aim ('to facilitate the professional growth of student-teachers'). This thesis considers the contribution of METIS to the conduct and understanding of teaching practice in MDI, offering insights into reflective practice and processes of lesson planning, at the same time as suggesting ways in which online learning environments such as METIS might help student-teachers and their supervisors to operate more effectively in collaboration and as individuals. It employs a case study methodology and draws upon data obtained from semi-structured one-to-one interviews with studentteachers, TP supervisors and TP administration staff as its primary source of data, and information from within METIS itself as a secondary source. Following presentation and analysis of this data, the final chapter considers ultimately the central research question using an amended subset of Rogers' 'Diffusion of Innovation' theory. There is evidence of a number of positive contributions to TP in MDI through the introduction of METIS. These include increased transparency and clarity surrounding the assessment of student-teachers, empowering the professional development of studentteachers through the provision of online formative feedback, and overall enhanced communication between staff and students. A number of features also emerge in need of review. These include the existing mechanisms in place for facilitation of elements of reflective practice through M ETIS and the use of competency-orientated graphical components to visually illustrate student-teacher performance on TP.

Building Information Modeling (BIM) has entered the construction industry and has permeated the commercial sector. Research is continually performed to expand the capabilities and applications within the industry. However, research has historically been mostly limited to the commercial sector and has seen little expansion to other sectors of the industry including the residential sector. The potential cause for this may be the limited number of industry professionals who utilize the software to the benefit of their companies. The focus of this study was specifically the custom home building sector of residential construction in the United States because of the unique and potentially complex nature of each project. The study was performed using a Delphi Panel, which utilizes a panel of experts to reach a consensus on a given subject. In this study, the goal was to reach a consensus on the most common uses challenges and benefits of BIM within the residential sector. In the first questionnaires, the experts were asked to identify, with a series of demographic questions including the number of employees in their company, the number of homes they build each year, and the average sale price of each home. Each expert's responses to the demographic questions were cross-referenced with the responses concerning uses, benefits, and challenges to provide other industry members wishing to implement with relatable demographic references to compare with their own company demographics. The experts then identified how they used BIM, what benefits they had seen, and any challenges they faced. The uses, benefits, and challenges identified in this questionnaire were ranked in the following questionnaire to identify the most common uses, greatest benefits, and greatest challenges.The top uses identified by this expert panel were design and visualization, the creation of construction documents, and quantity take-offs. The most common benefits identified by this panel were client visualization, plan accuracy, improved client communication, and ease of plan revisions. The most common challenges identified by this panel were high software costs, the steep learning curve when training employees, and the time-consuming nature of creating and maintain models correctly.

European legal history, as a field of scientific enquiry, is a relatively young discipline that can trace its roots back to the German jurist Savigny, whose work on the jurists of the medieval ius commune is commonly seen as the first of its kind. As one of the foremost German scholars of the nineteenth century and a fierce opponent of German codification, Savigny laid the foundation for generations of subsequent historians, not only in terms of the scope, but also in terms of the method of enquiry. Thus, in the generations after Savigny, European legal history tended to be approached in terms of general narratives charting the development of the European legal order through successive historical epochs. Within these narratives, jurists played a prominent role. Thus, the creation of the legal order of Europe was based upon a translatio studii from the Roman jurists via the medieval ius commune to civil codes of the nineteenth century. By grouping jurists into “schools” or “movements”, modern commentators, so it was argued, were able to assess the impact of these on the narrative of European legal history. Although, since the end of the Second World War, this narrative has become more nuanced, the jurists remain central to it. This has had a number of consequences. The main consequence of this focus on jurists (mostly academic figures teaching at universities) has been the marginalisation of legal practice and legal practitioners in the narrative of European legal history. And yet, as recent research on the rise of central courts in Europe has shown, legal practice clearly had an impact on the development of the European legal order. In light of these insights, this thesis seeks to contribute to the narrative of European legal history by focusing not on the works of academic jurists, but on the activities of legal practitioners. This statement requires delimitation. Rather than focusing on a number of legal practitioners over a long period of time, this thesis will focus on a single legal practitioner who flourished during a specific period in European history using the principles of a microhistory. The individual in question is the French lawyer Nicolas Bohier (1469-1539). The reasons for this specific focus are twofold. First, a focus on a specific individual and his works allows for greater scrutiny in depth, thus providing a counterbalance to (and also a means of testing and verifying) the broad sweep accounts found in most works on European legal history. In second place, Nicolas Bohier and his oeuvre cry out for a critical analysis and, until now, remain largely unstudied. As a practising lawyer and eventually president of the regional court of Bordeaux, Bohier was at the coalface of French legal practice in the sixteenth century. As a prolific writer and editor, Bohier left a rich corpus of work consisting of records of decisions of the court in Bordeaux, legal opinions as well as customs of the region. Furthermore, sixteenth-century France is a particularly exciting topic of investigation. This period not only saw the rise and solidification of Royal authority, but also saw the beginning of the homologation of customary law in France. On an intellectual level, the sixteenth century saw the rise of “legal humanism”, a particularly controversial intellectual movement in the context of European legal history as shown by recent research. This then brings us to the central point of this thesis. If, during the sixteenth century, the medieval ius commune was being replaced by “national” legal orders across Europe, as the general surveys of European legal history state, the works of a legal practitioner would show it much more clearly than the works of academic jurists. This thesis will therefore examine Bohier’s use of the term ius commune across his works to assess not only his understanding of the term, but also to assess how this concept operated in relation to other “sources of law”, for example statute and custom. Although the results of a microhistory study should not be generalised too far, it will permit us to interrogate the general narratives of European legal history of the early modern period.

Cette étude cherche à mettre en lumière les différents raisonnements qui conduisent à identifier une règle coutumière internationale sur le fondement de la convergence des pratiques conventionnelles internationales. Cette hypothèse a été expressément admise par la Commission du droit international en 2018 dans ses projets de conclusions sur la détermination du droit international coutumier. Elle a en effet considéré que « [l]e fait qu’une règle soit énoncée dans plusieurs traités peut signifier, sans toutefois que cela soit nécessairement le cas, que la règle conventionnelle reflète une règle de droit international coutumier » (Conclusion 11, al. 2). Pour mener à bien cette étude, deux aspects des règles coutumières ont été distingués : d’une part leur contenu, c’est-à-dire le comportement qu’elles prescrivent, et d’autre part leur force juridique, c’est-à-dire leur qualité de règles de droit. L’influence des dispositions conventionnelles est en effet différente dans les deux situations : en ce qui concerne la substance de la coutume, cette incidence est certaine mais varie suivant l’abstraction des énoncés conventionnels en cause. En revanche, en ce qui concerne la valeur juridique de la coutume, il est nécessaire de dépasser le principe de l’effet relatif des engagements conventionnels pour qu’ils puissent attester de l’existence d’une règle coutumière
This study seeks to highlight the different rationales which lead to the identification of an international customary rule on the basis of the convergence of international conventional practices. This assumption has been expressly accepted by the International Law Commission in 2018 in its draft conclusions on the determination of customary international law. It has held that "[t]he fact that a rule is set forth in a number of treaties may, but does not necessarily, indicate that the treaty rule reflects a rule of customary international law" (Conclusion 11, para. 2). To carry out this study, two aspects of customary rules are distinguished: on the one hand, their content, that is to say the behaviour they prescribe, and on the other hand, their legal bindingness, that is to say their quality of rules of law. The influence of conventional provisions is indeed different in these two situations: as regards the substance of the custom, this incidence is certain but varies according to the abstraction of the conventional statements in question. By contrast, as far as the legal value of custom is concerned, it is necessary to go beyond the principle of relative effects of conventional commitments so that they can attest to the existence of a customary rule

Objet de la vie quotidienne, la typographie est un produit socioculturel et un outil de délégation que l’homme place entre lui et le monde. Comment organise-t-il cette médiation ? Tel est l’enjeu principal de notre sujet.Située à la croisée de son faire et de son agir, elle est le résultat d’un processus cognitif dont les modalités de production et de circulation se fondent sur un principe de mise en relation communicationnelle d’ordre anthropogénique. En examinant l’étude de sa matérialité technique au regard de sa réalité culturelle, la typographie est autant envisagée comme un « appareil d’incarnation » – on parle de corps aussi bien pour la lettre que pour un texte – que comme creuset d’une pratique. À la fois instrument de perception et moyen d’action, elle permet, à l’échelle du caractère, l’invention typographique tout en donnant lieu à un double régime d’interprétations d’ordre technique et sémiotique. Si le parcours se déploie au cœur des pratiques de métiers liées à la conception de caractères et s’intéresse aux différents contextes d’énonciation typographique, il débouche sur une réflexion en réception, à propos des usages de la typographie, en tant que manipulation culturelle ouverte à tout un chacun, pour une ressaisie du monde
As a daily life object, typography is a sociocultural product and transfer tool that people put between them and the world. How do they organize this mediation ? That is the main issue of our subject.At the crossroads of the doing and acting concepts, typography is the result of a cognitive process, which production and circulation’s methods are based on communication’s principles from the Henri Van Lier’s Anthropogeny. Studying its technical materiality according to its cultural reality, typography is considered as an “embodiment system” – in French, we call “body” the typeface as well as the text – and also as the crucible of this practice. As a sensitive agent and practical method, typography makes typeface invention possible while creating a double regime of interpretations based on its technology and semiotics. Whereas our words are related to trade practices which are then connected to type face design and various contexts of typographical enunciation resulting in a thought about reception. The fact is that uses linked to typography exist as cultural experiments accessible to all who desire it to challenge the world

The world of international trade has evolved over the centuries and, with this process of evolution, unique challenges have emerged over time. International trade, in essence, involves the movement of goods and services across borders; it is conducted mainly by private firms rather than governments. The suggested role of government is to create an environment that allows for efficient international trade. Such an environment is manifested in the provision of an adequate physical infrastructure and a transparent regulatory environment. Today, an organisation such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), whose members direct the vast bulk of international trade, plays an active role in advancing the agenda of a rules-based international trade regime. This same organization also provides, on an ongoing basis, initiatives directed to improving the facilitation of trade internationally. Examples of trade facilitation initiatives are the recent Bali-Agreement (The Trade Facilitation Agreement, 2013), signed by WTO members in 2013 in Bali, and the Revised Kyoto Convention of the World Customs Organization (WCO) which has, as its objective, the elimination of barriers to efficient international trade. This dissertation focuses on customs penalty regime as utilised by South Africa. The South African regime is compared with certain foreign and international customs penalty regimes (in this case, Canada, the United States of America and the European Union). The study further explores the appeal system available to transgressors of these regimes. The penalty - and appeal regimes is further analysed against recommendations and prescripts in international agreements to which these countries are parties, specifically the WTO Bali Agreement and the WCO Revised Kyoto Convention. A practical and transparent customs penalty regime will obviously support the agenda to improve trade facilitation, a situation that is desired by traders throughout the globe.

Il presente lavoro è volto ad analizzare un particolare aspetto della disciplina della responsabilità civile del medico: si tratta dell’utilizzo di documenti medico-scientifici, variamente denominati practice parameters, practice patterns, written policies, protocols, standards, e riassumibili nella locuzione clinical practice guidelines o linee-guida per la pratica clinica, che viene fatto dai rule makers, siano essi legislatori o giudici, per individuare il criterio di giudizio della condotta tenuta dal medico. Nel primo capitolo, dopo aver brevemente accennato alle necessarie nozioni di epistemologia della medicina, al contenuto delle guidelines e alla metodologia con cui esse vengono prodotte, si dà conto di alcune interazioni tra scienza e diritto verificatesi – con riferimento ai documenti medico-scientifici in esame – nell’ordinamento dell’Unione Europea, del Consiglio d’Europa e poi in quello italiano. Lo studio della responsabilità medica, nonché quello dell’utilizzo delle guidelines, induce poi ad attingere alle risorse della comparazione giuridica. In particolare, si è imposta la scelta dell’ordinamento degli Stati Uniti d’America, in quanto proprio dalla dottrina americana è stata formulata per la prima volta alla fine degli anni ’80 l’ipotesi di utilizzare le linee-guida nei processi per medical malpractice. Nel secondo capitolo si offre perciò una ricostruzione dettagliata del sistema delle fonti e del ruolo delle giurisdizioni statali e federali nella produzione e applicazione del diritto americano, con particolare attenzione alla responsabilità civile del medico. Inoltre, per quanto attiene alla struttura della medical malpractice, si rileva che il criterio di giudizio prevalentemente utilizzato è quello della medical custom, che è ritenuta un fatto, il quale deve essere pertanto oggetto di prova dinnanzi alla giuria. Da ciò discende che nei processi relativi alla responsabilità civile del medico assumono particolare rilievo le conoscenze tecniche in materia di medical custom, però negli Stati Uniti una consulenza tecnica d’ufficio non viene praticamente mai disposta dal giudice: poiché l’onere della prova del breach of duty grava sull’attore, si osserva che l’expert witness di parte in materia di negligenza del medico diviene un requisito astrattamente necessario di procedibilità della domanda del paziente. È dunque in un’ottica essenzialmente probatoria, e cioè nell’interazione e – a volte – nella contrapposizione con quanto affermato dalla expert testimony, che la giurisprudenza e la dottrina americane concepiscono l’uso processuale delle linee-guida per la pratica clinica. Si prosegue perciò con l’analisi delle regole della Law of Evidence, con particolare attenzione al vaglio sulla expert witness testimony imposto dal c.d. Daubert test, e alle disposizioni in materia di ammissibilità dei documenti nel trial. Nel terzo capitolo, si dimostra che l’uso delle linee-guida nei processi americani per medical malpractice è un fatto assai più frequente di quello che la dottrina americana ritiene, e che le regole appena descritte in materia di Evidence costituiscono tuttora i riferimenti normativi più significativi per il giudizio di ammissibilità e rilevanza di tali documenti, più che i pochi statutes speciali in materia di linee-guida e responsabilità medica, che sembrano essere invece il modello a cui ha fatto riferimento il legislatore italiano per l’adozione del decreto Balduzzi. Nel quarto capitolo si ritorna al diritto italiano, e si ricostruisce la parabola che ha portato, nel nostro ordinamento, la responsabilità civile dall’illecito aquiliano alla responsabilità per inadempimento dell’obbligazione da contatto sociale. Si mettono inoltre in rilievo le distorsioni operate dalla giurisprudenza, che ha voluto caratterizzare la disciplina di questa responsabilità in senso oggettivo assoluto. Nel quinto capitolo, si rileva che in questo humus – assai diverso da quello della Law of Torts – viene trapiantata dall’art. 3, co. 1 d.l. 13 settembre 2012, n. 158 conv. con modif. in l. 8 novembre 2012, n. 189 l’idea di escludere la responsabilità del medico in caso di rispetto delle linee-guida, che trae ispirazione da alcuni statutes americani, i quali però – come si è detto – non rappresentano “il” modello più autorevole e diffuso in materia negli Stati Uniti. Viene poi effettuato un inquadramento delle guidelines assai differente rispetto a quanto accade oltreoceano: infatti, se l’obbligazione del medico ha ad oggetto una prestazione a regola d’arte, sinonimo di perizia, tali documenti si devono collocare a livello del criterio di qualificazione giuridica della condotta, non a quello dell’accertamento del fatto, e dunque non sono affatto prove, a differenza di quanto ritengono generalmente i giuristi americani. Si sostiene, in seguito, che in forza del principio iura novit curia e dell’esplicito richiamo di cui all’art. 3, co. 1 decreto Balduzzi, il giudice è tenuto a conoscere e a fare uso delle linee-guida per la pratica clinica nell’accertamento della responsabilità civile del medico, nella misura in cui esse siano applicabili al caso di specie e scientificamente valide. Proprio per quanto attiene al vaglio giudiziale di tali documenti, e specialmente a quello relativo alla loro validità scientifica, si propone poi all’interprete italiano di cogliere i frutti dell’esperienza americana, guardando con particolare attenzione al Daubert test. Ma nella circolazione del modello che qui si propone, si è coscienti che l’originale subisce alcune importanti modificazioni, di cui si dà conto. Infine, si definiscono i limiti entro i quali la Cassazione può sindacare l’utilizzo delle linee-guida da parte dei giudici di merito.
PHD DISSERTATION - ABSTRACT - THE ASCERTAINMENT OF MEDICAL MALPRACTICE THROUGH CLINICAL PRACTICE GUIDELINES AND OTHER SCIENTIFIC DOCUMENTS. This PhD dissertation aims to analyze a specific aspect of Medical Malpractice Law: the use of scientific documents – known as practice parameters, practice patterns, written policies, protocols, standards or clinical practice guidelines – by rule makers (legislators and Courts) in order to identify the standard of care for health care practitioners. In the first chapter, after a short introduction on fundamental notions of medical epistemology, guidelines’ content and their production, some interactions between Science and Law are described, picking the European Union Law, Council of Europe Law and finally Italian Law. Research on guidelines and Medical Malpractice calls for taking the advantage of Comparative Legal Studies. In particular, the legal system of the United States of America has been chosen. This because American scholars have first proposed in the ‘80s to use guidelines in Medical Malpractice trials. The second chapter offers thus a detailed picture of the sources of the law, including the role of state and federal Courts in making American Law. Focusing then on Medical Malpractice, it has to be said that the majority of the States adopted medical custom as the standard of care, which is a matter of fact, to be proven in front of the jury. According to this, in Medical Malpractice trials expert witness testimony about medical custom became very relevant, but no Court in the U.S. appoints experts. This, and the fact that the plaintiff retains the burden of proof of the breach of duty, makes partisan expert testimony mandatory for the claim of the patient to be heard by the jury. Therefore, Courts and scholars in the United States put guidelines in the Evidence Law frame, looking at how they interact – or sometimes clash – with expert testimonies. So, the chapter ends with an analysis of the Law of Evidence, with a focus on the so called “Daubert test” on expert witnesses, and one on the admissibility of documents. The third chapter demonstrates that the use of clinical practice guidelines in Medical Malpractice trials is way more frequent than American scholars think. Furthermore, it shows that the above-mentioned rules of Evidence are still the most relevant source of the law governing admissibility and relevance of these documents. Evidence Law indeed is far more relevant than the small number of state and federal statutes on Medical Malpractice that mention guidelines as a judicial tool for assessing liability. But these statutes seem to have inspired the Italian legislator seems adopting the so called “decreto Balduzzi” (see art. 3, comma 1 d.l. n. 158 of 2012 – l. n. 189 of 2012). The fourth chapter goes back to the Italian legal system, describing the path that brought Medical Malpractice from Tort Law to Contract Law through the so called “contatto sociale” doctrine. Furthermore, the case law caused some distortions of the rules that are now similar to strict liability. The fifth chapter describes a legal transplant from American Tort Law to the very different Italian legal environment: the idea of giving a defense to doctors who complied with clinical practice guidelines. Anyhow, some American state statutes, not the prevailing traditional Evidence Law pattern, have influenced the Italian legislator. Moreover, the conceptual framing of clinical practice guidelines under Italian Law is very different from the original. In Italy, Medical Malpractice is a branch of Contract Law, according to which the clinician is bound to perform treatments with the due technical expertise (“perizia”). Scientific documents can help Courts to define doctor’s behavior as coping with technical expertise, which is a matter of law. Guidelines cannot prove any fact. Therefore, they are not related to Evidence Law. The core of this PhD dissertation is that Italian Courts have to take judicial notice of clinical practice guidelines in Medical Malpractice trials. This comes out of the “iura novit curia” principle (“The Court must know the law” principle) and art. 3, co. 1 of decreto Balduzzi, which explicitly talks about clinical practice guidelines and iatrogenic injuries. The above-mentioned scientific documents have also to pass muster under a test of applicability to the case and scientific validity. This dissertation suggests taking the advantage of the American experience, in particular of the so called “Daubert doctrine”. However, even this would be a legal transplant, in which the original model would be surely modified, as this work shows. Finally, the fifth chapter describes how Cassazione Court could reverse lower Courts’ decisions that apply clinical practice guidelines in Medical Malpractice cases.

During the period of the years 1952 to 2009, there have been only two automotive piston manufacturers in the Southern African Customs Union (SACU). SACU is comprised of the following five member states; South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland. Owing to the SACU agreement, these countries have enjoyed fairly good trade flows in goods and services amongst each other. The role of the abovementioned piston manufacturers was the provision of piston components to engine assembling companies in the SACU region as well as for sale to the aftermarket.

The expansion of global trade, especially trade in intermediate products, compels goods to cross borders multiple times before assembly. This phenomena requires better trade facilitation mechanisms in conveyancing goods and people across borders. The World Customs Organization, among many other organizations, has been in the fore-front of promoting these trade facilitation techniques. This qualitative case study has an objective of analyzing the current trade facilitation techniques used at Kasumbalesa. It also aims at pointing out any outdated customs procedures. During the study, data was collected using questionnaires and oral interviews. Secondary data was also collected from publications of the World Customs Organization, World Bank and the World Trade Organization, among other sources. In addition, observational methods were also used to collect data. The case study focuses on Kasumbalesa as a representative entry/exit point in Zambia. Consequently, identification of challenges faced by goods and people crossing Kasumbalesa can help streamline operations at other Zambian borders.

Magister Artium - MA
The objective of this thesis was the translation of an original defence of Sufi practice titled "A Kind word in response to those who reject sufism" by Shaykh Aòhmad ibn Muòsòtafá °Alawåi. This book was written in defence of Sufis and Sufism. This research provide some notes on the life, spiritual heritage and writings of the Shaykh °Alawåi in conjunction with a critical introduction to complement the translated text. The Shaykh's methodology applied in his ijtihåad to validate and defend the Sufis and their practices was also reviewed.
South Africa

Customer relationship management (CRM) presents a new paradigm shift to the old traditional marketing strategies that are known and practiced by many organisations in South Africa and across the globe. Competition is not an excuse for failure anymore. Organisations that do not have any concrete strategies in dealing with the customer will not survive in the market. The ultimate goal of CRM is to enable organisations to forge closer ties with the customer so that a solid bond can be created to enhance loyalty and satisfaction. The goal for this research was to identify the CRM strategies used by a single organisation and thereafter suggest improvements to enhance customer loyalty. The results of the study could assist the management of the organisation to improve the CRM strategies which will hopefully enhance retention and prevent customer attrition. A literature review was conducted to unveil various elements of CRM, and strategies that can attract and retain customers. It helped in identifying themes for the empirical study. An in-depth interview was conducted with the general manager of the organisation to gauge his perception, and CRM practices in the organisation. An interview guide was used during the interview process. Four main topics namely: implementation of CRM, customer loyalty, customer complaints and conflict, and employees training and motivation were utilised for the interview guide and followed by further probing. Based on the responses obtained, analyses were made by comparing the responses to what literature revealed so that shortcomings could easily be identified.The study revealed that there were several inconsistencies with what was practised by the organisation and what the literature study revealed. Bearing in mind the shortcomings identified in the empirical study, the researcher made the following recommendations. The CRM implementation approach needs to be carefully planned with a clear defined vision and mission statement that focus on customer centredness. The organisation needs to invest in modern and innovative channels of communication and strategic partnership to reach the right customer. The organisation has to develop effective market segmentation and targeting to know the customer well. Consistent and highly relevant customer experiences should be drawn-on to fulfill the organisation’s promise of trust and reliability. The organisation should adopt competitive pricing strategy to limit customer sensitivity on price. The organisation should invest in employees’ development and welfare. Further research can be conducted to investigate the perception of other food retailers on the CRM strategies practiced. Further research can also be conducted in the organisation to investigate the perception of employees and customers on the CRM strategies practised.

This study crafts a schema for understanding the relationship between what organisations say they do and the way they operationalise what they think: the premise-to-received practice. The study navigates its way through an exhaustive volume of relevant work on organisation and organising. The case is argued for adoption of the symbolic interpretive paradigmatic perspective. It is particularly suitable for investigating enacted premise and received practice contexts. A research design is applied in putting these paradigmatic assumptions into motion. The study reports on interpretations emerging from analysis of 'lived experiences' from the two organisational contexts under investigation.A focus for the study was the Public Sector (Western Australia) reform strategy, known as 'customer focus'. The study's title 'Customer Focus: Enacted premise and received practice', locates interest in the relationship between organisational intentions and actions using customer focus as the lens for grounding organisational experiences. This study investigates the apparent reified social construct of organisation though a customer focus lens.Similar studies have focused on interpretation schemata in order to understand key organisational events that support the methodology and assumptions used in this, study. Such studies owes allegiance to the constructivist ontology, based on the' belief of the existence of multiple realities whereby the research act is epistemologically interpretive, aimed at generating understanding.Following the tenets of constructivist and interpretive knowledge, a qualitative methodology was used. Viewing organising as explicitly communicative, the research strategy adopted a symbolic interpretive theoretical perspective. Consistent with hermeneutics and grounded theory principles (not methods), the study sought further understanding of the relationship between organisational intentions and actions. The research design emphasised an interpretive approach by eliciting data from individual points of view within the work setting. A sample of six organisations was selected, and sixty-one interviews were conducted. Focus interviews were conducted with Top Management Teams. Individual interviews were conducted with Workers.Two sets of meanings were construed. One, Top Management Teams, enacted involvement, commitment, communication and relationships. This was related to Top Management Teams practice of control. The other, Workers, enacted the same meanings in the customer focus strategy, involvement, commitment, communication and relationships. This was related to Workers received practice of equivocality.This study reports on two major findings. First, there was harmony in the enacted thinking on the meaning for customer focus across Top Management Teams and Workers. Second, the harmony in the enacted thinking on the meanings for customer focus across the two groups were discordant with the way respondents operationalise what they report they think. Top Management Teams were unaware of the discord between the way they say they think (involvement, commitment, communication and relationships) and the way they operationalise what they think (practices of control). The discord between premise and practice in Top Management Teams was received in practice by Workers as equivocality. Equivocality emerged as discordant with Worker premise taken for customer focus as meaning to create shared understanding.The study emerged a non-alignment between what organisations say they do (Top Management Team enacted premise) and the way they operationalise what they think (Worker received practice).

This study crafts a schema for understanding the relationship between what organisations say they do and the way they operationalise what they think: the premise-to-received practice. The study navigates its way through an exhaustive volume of relevant work on organisation and organising. The case is argued for adoption of the symbolic interpretive paradigmatic perspective. It is particularly suitable for investigating enacted premise and received practice contexts. A research design is applied in putting these paradigmatic assumptions into motion. The study reports on interpretations emerging from analysis of 'lived experiences' from the two organisational contexts under investigation.A focus for the study was the Public Sector (Western Australia) reform strategy, known as 'customer focus'. The study's title 'Customer Focus: Enacted premise and received practice', locates interest in the relationship between organisational intentions and actions using customer focus as the lens for grounding organisational experiences. This study investigates the apparent reified social construct of organisation though a customer focus lens.Similar studies have focused on interpretation schemata in order to understand key organisational events that support the methodology and assumptions used in this, study. Such studies owes allegiance to the constructivist ontology, based on the' belief of the existence of multiple realities whereby the research act is epistemologically interpretive, aimed at generating understanding.Following the tenets of constructivist and interpretive knowledge, a qualitative methodology was used. Viewing organising as explicitly communicative, the research strategy adopted a symbolic interpretive theoretical perspective. Consistent with hermeneutics and grounded theory principles (not methods), the study sought further understanding of the relationship ++
between organisational intentions and actions. The research design emphasised an interpretive approach by eliciting data from individual points of view within the work setting. A sample of six organisations was selected, and sixty-one interviews were conducted. Focus interviews were conducted with Top Management Teams. Individual interviews were conducted with Workers.Two sets of meanings were construed. One, Top Management Teams, enacted involvement, commitment, communication and relationships. This was related to Top Management Teams practice of control. The other, Workers, enacted the same meanings in the customer focus strategy, involvement, commitment, communication and relationships. This was related to Workers received practice of equivocality.This study reports on two major findings. First, there was harmony in the enacted thinking on the meaning for customer focus across Top Management Teams and Workers. Second, the harmony in the enacted thinking on the meanings for customer focus across the two groups were discordant with the way respondents operationalise what they report they think. Top Management Teams were unaware of the discord between the way they say they think (involvement, commitment, communication and relationships) and the way they operationalise what they think (practices of control). The discord between premise and practice in Top Management Teams was received in practice by Workers as equivocality. Equivocality emerged as discordant with Worker premise taken for customer focus as meaning to create shared understanding.The study emerged a non-alignment between what organisations say they do (Top Management Team enacted premise) and the way they operationalise what they think (Worker received practice).

The purpose of this research is to see how Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) principles and practices can be used on high end custom residential construction projects to increase the collaboration and efficiency of the project team. A case study was conducted on a custom home project to observe how and what IPD principles were used. Observations, interviews and a survey were used as part of that case study to gain insights. This research found that IPD principles and practices could be used on residential projects. In addition, the research found that those involved found the experience positive and beneficial to their success on the project.

This thesis reports a study that investigated customer retention practices in four business contexts: a bank; a sales company; a chemical processing company; atid an airport. The main objective of the study is to understand the 'contextualised' phenomena associated with customer retention management and in particular the influences of contextual factors on the firms' customer retention practices, in addition, the study examined the applicability of current theory to the four firms.

Two surveys evaluated heifer management practices in dairy herds and custom grower operations. The NC-119 Heifer Management Survey conducted through the North Central Regional Research Project 119 included 226 Holstein and 67 Jersey herds from MN, MO, PA, VA, and WA. Mean rolling herd average for milk was 8,838 and 6,251 kg for Holstein and Jersey herds, respectively. Calf mortality rates from birth to first calving were 15.3 % for Holsteins and 15.8% for Jerseys. High producing herds had more aggressive, preventive health programs, hand-fed colostrum to newborn calves, and used prepartum groups and separate postpartum groups for first calf heifers. Practices associated with low calf mortality included using maternity pens in barns separate from the dairy herd as a calving facility and vaccination for brucellosis, an indicator of the level of overall management. Larger herds weaned calves earlier, placed more importance on heifer size as a criterion for first breeding, and used prepartum groups and separate postpartum groups for first calf heifers States differed in calving facility and calf housing choices. Calf mortality rates were similar among states. The Virginia Custom Dairy Heifer Rearing Survey included 24 growers. Average herd size was 194 head. Seven growers contracted with dairy producers, nine purchased, raised, and resold heifers, and eight did both. Survey results indicated a need for increased emphasis in several management areas. Only two contract growers had written contracts. Fifty-eight percent never monitored growth and 42% did not have forages tested or rations balanced. Fifty-seven percent used AI.
Master of Science

Women in early modem England were expected to marry, and then to become housewives. Despite the fact that nearly fifty percent of the population was in this position, little is known of the expectations and realities of these English housewives. This thesis examines both the expectations and actual lives of middling sort and gentry women in England between 1500 and 1640.

Abstract The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between customers and the telecommunication service provider regarding customer support service. The authors focus on customers support service as a tool of enhancing relationship between customers and telecommunication service provider and to come up with a “best practice” for the customer-support service in the telecom industry. The research has been conducted with recent relevant literature from academic viewpoint such as the relationship marketing, customer loyalty, customer dominant logic, customer support service and triggering factors for switching. After reviewing all of literatures authors have adequate knowledge how to enhance and sustain long term relationship with customers. Nearly every literature stipulates from customers perspective business operations for long term relationship. To accomplish research aim, authors conducted with an explorative research approach and with the help of a designed descriptive questionnaire which consist of seventeen close-ended and open-ended questions. The target group was sixteen master level students of Karlstad University who belong to nine different countries. From the interview, authors try to explore respondents’ experiences and acceptation from customer support service. Authors reached at the conclusion on the basis of collected qualitative information that the effective customer support service plays a vital role for enhancing the relationship between customers and telecom service providers. It is also evident throughout the research that the customer support service is the key link between the customer and the telecommunication service provider.
TeliaSonera

This research is designed to investigate the relationship between IT and Organisational customs and practices in Business Process Reengineering (BPR) projects based on a research framework, which consists of organisational culture, IT and the outcome of BPR initiatives together with the inextricable interdependence between them. The focus is on developing a process oriented, context-based description and explanation of the BPR phenomenon in Arab Gulf Cooperation Council (AGCC) countries. The study strives to describe and explain the process of adopting and implementing BPR initiatives in petrochemical and utilities industries in AGCC countries in terms of interaction of contextual conditions, actions and consequences. The research methodology of this thesis focuses on the pragmatics of conducting case studies as a rigorous and effective method of research. The study emphasises on conducting positivist inquiry of three case studies' data to deductively test the researcher's understanding on BPR and her assumptions of 'Blueprints' for successful BPR in AGCC countries. Two of the case studies organisations are sister companies operating in the oil and gas industry, whereas the third case study organisation is a utility company operating in the field of water and electricity generation and supply. This study resulted in a framework that could serve as a prescription to achieve a successful BPR initiative. It has identified a number of organisational elements that emphasised the necessity to pay attention to cultural and IT issues prior to undertaking BPR projects. These include the development of strategy and sound stimuli for the project, the availability of leadership, top management vision, availability of required skills and expertise and the maturity of the IT infrastructure. In addition, the study has empirically emphasised a number of BPR project implementation elements that should be in place to ensure successful implementation and management of the project including: the availability of an appropriately composed project team, continuous communication, users' involvement and usage of communication technologies.

Dissertation to obtain PhD in Industrial Engineering
In order to increase partnership efficiency and truly meet the customers' demands, in today's business environment companies are operating in supply chains. Integration of supply chains facilitates minimizing diferent types of wastes and satisfying needs of the end customer. The first step toward supply chain integration is to understandand the customer values, and to reconfigure supply chain to support those values. The current research addresses supply chain integration through quantifying relations between supply chain practice and customer values. It employs Bayesian network and analytic network process as tools to quantify comparative relations among entities. The proposed approach starts with identifying trade-offs along customer values using Bayesian network. In parallel supply chain practices are comparatively analyzed through interviews with experts which is technically quantified using analytic network process. Thereafter, these two parallel phases join together to form a network of customer values and supply chain practices. The network is able to quantitatively identify relations among nodes; in addition, it can be used to plan scenarios and handle senstitivity analyses. This model is expected to be used by supply chain decision makers to have a quantitative measure for monitoring the influence of practices on preferences of the end customer. A survey and two case studies are discussed which go through aforementioned phases. The survey identifies and analyzes six customer values namely quality, cost, customization, time, know-how and respect for the environment. It makes input for the two cases which develop supply chain integration model for fashion and food industry. Supply chain practices are categorized into two groups of manufacturing and logistics practices. The two case studies include five manufacturing practices as cross functional operations, decrease work in process, implement standards, mixed production planning, and use recyclable materials as well as four logistics practices namely visibility to upstream /downstream inventories, information sharing with customer, implement logistics standards, and just in time.
Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - (MIT Project: MIT-Pt/EDAM-IASC/0022/2008)

This thesis provides the first sustained study of the material culture of dining among the gentry and ‘middling sort’ in early modern England. It focuses on the religious and ritual significance of the shared dining experience, interrogating the role objects played in engendering domestic commensality. The project establishes that through their material properties and ritualized uses, objects such as salt-cellars, eating utensils and banqueting trenchers, were essential instruments in the construction and communication of personal and social identities. I argue that developments in the material paraphernalia of dining functioned to create a sense of continuity and community during this period of profound religious and social change. Chapter One applies the anthropological theory of ‘distributed personhood’ to salt-cellars, offering new insights into why salts were considered particularly effective objects for conveying identity. Chapter Two draws connections between eating utensils and significant moments in the life cycle and argues that utensils could have strong ‘personal’ associations, which commemorated essential rites of passage and functioned as perpetual reminders of familial ties. Chapter Three investigates banqueting trenchers as tools for sociability and collective spiritual contemplation and examines how their visual and material qualities required a specific ‘performance’ from diners. As a whole, the thesis provides a framework for interpreting a neglected body of historical artefacts and it contributes new knowledge about how specific types of crafted objects communicated identity within the context of ritualized social activities.

With emergence of knowledge economy and shift in power towards customers, the way of performing business and managing customer markets in organisations has changed significantly. Organisations which are typically reliant on internal knowledge have been setting their sight on customers as a valuable new source of external knowledge. This led to the wide acknowledgement of Customer Knowledge Management (CKM) in both business and academic fields within the last decade. Extant CKM literature has highlighted the need for 360 degree view of customer but there is significant gap regarding how to achieve this in organisations. Thus, the main motivation for this research is to develop theory in terms of practise framework to enable organisations to achieve 360 degree view of customer while taking into consideration the challenges identified in practising CKM. This thesis attempts to address the complex research problem – 'how to manage customer knowledge to achieve 360 degree view of customer in organisations'. The research problem developed for the study led towards interpretivist paradigm to interpret and understand various relevant organisational phenomena and research is carried out using qualitative approach. The empirical data is collected using case study research method from five large organisations from India, Germany, and the United Kingdom. In-depth case studies were conducted in Biocon, Daimler, Genpact, Honeywell-ADI, and University of Bolton. The empirical data collected was analysed using techniques from grounded theory approach. This thesis presents findings of the study in the form of five core categories and twenty seven constituent factors influencing the customer knowledge management practice in large organisations. The empirical findings associated with each of these core categories and identified factors have been discussed in the light of current literature. Based on these core categories and constituent factors, a comprehensive CKM practice framework has been developed to achieve 360 degree view of customer, among organisations. This thesis has been concluded with evaluative discussions on theoretical and practical contributions to knowledge, validity of the findings, limitations of the study, and implications for further research.

Includes bibliographical references
This study sought to clarify the role of Customs Risk Management (CRiM) in facilitating cross-border trade at Beit Bridge border post from 2001 to 2014. Qualitative methods of survey questionnaire and face-to-face interviewing techniques were used to gather primary data. Secondary data was collected from the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA)'s internal sources such as Asycuda System and internal reports. Externally, sources like internet and research findings from other researchers in the same field were used. An in-depth literature review was done so as to simplify the research problem. Data analysis and presentation was done using diagrams, graphs and tables where applicable. The following research findings were then critically discussed in light of the literature reviewed: On the role of CRiM Training in cross-border trade facilitation, the study revealed that an overwhelming majority had not received any form of specialized training on CRiM or some form of work-related CRiM Training in the last 2 years. There exist a strong demand for CRiM Training in risk intelligence gathering, risk audit techniques and risk profiling. A majority, 93% of the respondents confirmed that ZIMRA's Strategic Plan makes some form of reference to CRiM. However, 73% of this majority, indicated that there is a greater and urgent need for management to provide operational staff with CRiM tactical implementation guidelines for easy of enforcement on the ground. 87% said the main purpose of applying CRiM in Customs procedures was mainly to maximize revenue collection ahead of trade facilitation. 76% expressed the same view with regards to use of Information Communication and Technology (ICT) in the procedures. 100% said the level of co-operation on exchange of ICT-based risk related information exchange between ZIMRA and other government departments was almost nil. In response to these findings, the study recommends that ZIMRA: continuously offer CRiM Training to its operational staff over short periods of time in a single year, effectively make use of CRiM techniques such as intelligence gathering, risk profiling, risk auditing techniques in identifying high risk cargo, and to eradicate lack of confidence in the flexible use of existing ICT systems among staff by giving them further training. According to this study, benefits of implementing these recommendations will be: increased revenue collection, reduced border clearance time, reduced costs of compliance, rationalized customs controls and predictability in the nature and level of controls all in the best interest of trade facilitation.

Bibliography: leaves 92-96.
This dissertation examines the side by side existence of Popular Islam, or Muslim Common Religious Practices, with Official Islam in the Cape of today. Our task is thus primarily to identify the popular movement as no systematic documentation in this field has to date been attempted. Almost all approaches in Islamic Studies have concentrated an Official Islam and mostly from theological perspectives. In those works references to particular common beliefs and practices have been made and sometimes suggestively. Comparatively, however, much more, and perhaps methodologically not enough, has been done in Christian studies under the headings of Popular Religion, African Christology and very importantly, African Indigenous Church movements. The academic study of Islam, however, is still a relative novelty in South Africa and we suspect that the area of research into the popular movement may not gather momentum as rapidly as studies on the official movement. This apathy towards this "invisible institution" is attributable to the marginality it receives as a religious response.

The study investigates the human rights violations that underlie widowhood practices in Cape Coast and Komenda in the Central Region of Ghana. Review of the relevant literature on widowhood practices suggests that widowhood practices are a global cultural phenomenon, which is not confined to Sub-Sahara Africa. A survey of relevant studies on the phenomenon suggests that there are two competing perceptions on African widowhood practices: (1) a dominant negative perspective and (2) a minor positive perspective. The dominant negative perspective, which receives overwhelming research attention, focuses only on the negative characteristics of widowhood while the minor positive perspective which receives scanty research attention, rejects the criticisms levelled against widowhood practices as being externally influenced by Christianity and Western Feminism. Various stakeholders within the Akan community were given an opportunity to retell their own versions of widowhood practices. In order to achieve this purpose, the research extracted competing narratives from all the multiple sample subgroups of the proposed study: widows; widow family heads; chiefs; widowhood ritual practitioners; elderly female supervisors of widowhood practices; an official from the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ); an official from the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs (MOWAC); and an official from the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of Ghana. The study found out that despite legislative intervention and policy frameworks, the practice still persist among the Akan communities in Ghana. The reasons for the continued existence of such rituals are explained followed by recommendations for possible solutions.

In recent decades, many Chinese have experienced changes in their eating as a result of a shift from food shortages to an expansion of food markets. Many urban Chinese make choices from a variety of food, and food safety incidents frequently reported in the media have raised consumer concerns with food quality and the potential effects of foods on human health. Meanwhile, some urban dwellers worry about overweight, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and other health threats as a result of, for example, diets that are high in fats and sugar. Some studies have examined how consumers respond to food-related anxieties in China. These studies have suggested that they may change their eating or shopping patterns and rely on external indicators such as, brands and vendor types. A number of these studies are based on quantitative calculations of patterns of participants’ behaviours or perceptions. However, they pay little attention to how ordinary people experience and deal with food-related anxieties. Moreover, individuals seem to be passive and dependent on institutional efforts to control food-related anxieties. With the use of interview and participant observation data, this research analyses how participants deal with the food-related anxieties they experience in everyday life through their daily food and eating practices. The research demonstrates participants’ activity to deal with their food safety and health concerns in light of Mauss’s (1973) concept of ‘body techniques’, and de Certeau’s (1984) discussion of ‘strategies’ and ‘tactics’. By drawing on Mauss’s (1973) concept, the study offers an understanding of food-related anxieties and the practice of home cooking to deal with those anxieties through the perspective of embodiment. My research also challenges the existing literature which suggests ordinary people are passive and subject to institutional strategies to deal with food-related anxieties. With reference to Mauss (1973) and de Certeau (1984), participants have agency to respond to food safety and health concerns according to their acquired eating habits and the social circumstances to which they belong. The findings suggest that participants tactically use embodied knowledge and techniques of home cooking transmitted across generations to deal with food safety and health concerns in contemporary China.

This dissertation is a study of customer relationship management theory and practice. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a business strategy whereby companies build strong relationships with existing and prospective customers with the goal of increasing organizational profitability. It is also a learning process involving managing change in processes, people, and technology. CRM implementation and its ramifications are also not completely understood as evidenced by the high number of failures in CRM implementation in organizations and the resulting disappointments. The goal of this dissertation is_ to study emerging issues and trends in CRM, including the effect of computer software and the accompanying new management processes on organizations, and the dynamics of the alignment of marketing, sales and services, and all other functions responsible for delivering customers a satisfying experience. In order to understand CRM better a content analysis of more than a hundred articles and documents from academic and industry sources was undertaken using a new methodological twist to the traditional method. An Internet domain name (http://crm.fiu.edu) was created for the purpose of this research by uploading an initial one hundred plus abstracts of article~ and documents onto it to form a knowledge database. Once the database was formed a search engine was developed to enable the search of abstracts using relevant CRM keywords to reveal emergent dominant CRM topics. The ultimate aim of this website is to serve as an information hub for CRM research, as well as a search engine where interested parties can enter CRM -relevant keywords or phrases to access abstracts, as well as submit abstracts to enrich the knowledge hub. Research questions were investigated and answered by content analyzing the interpretation and discussion of dominant CRM topics and then amalgamating the findings. This was supported by comparisons within and across individual, paired, and sets-of-three occurrences of CRM keywords in the article abstracts. Results show that there is a lack of holistic thinking and discussion of CRM in both academics and industry which is required to understand how the people, process, and technology in CRM impact each other to affect successful implementation. Industry has to get their heads around CRM and holistically understand how these important dimensions affect each other. Only then will organizational learning occur, and overtime result in superior processes leading to strong profitable customer relationships and a hard to imitate competitive advantage.

It is widely acknowledged that value can be regarded as interactively formed by customers through the integration of a variety of resources. However, it is difficult to find service research that takes these concepts seriously in empirical studies. Consequently, the aim of this thesis is to present an empirically grounded understanding of how customer resource integration takes place in practice and how customers experience their resource integration. By collecting data of public transport customers through qualitative diaries, interviews, and video recordings of situated action in addition to a survey, the thesis draws on script and practice theory. The main contribution of the thesis is an empirically grounded model of customer experience of resource integration, which can be summarized in six propositions: (a) customers can acquire four different types of scripts: generic, incongruent, rigid, or transformative; (b) the script types are implicit parts of interactive value practices, which emerge as navigating and ticketing in the empirical context of public transport; (c) the interactive value practices are constellations of the resource integration activities of identifying, sense-making, and using, which customers focus on to varying extents, depending on their acquired script; (d) during or after interactive value formation customers potentially update their scripts; (e) customer processes, other customers, the physical environment, contact personnel, provider processes, and the wider environment all form the context of the service, but can also be resources that the customer integrates; and (f) the customer experience is a holistic evaluation of the interactive value formation and can be understood as consisting of three dimensions: a cognitive evaluation and two affective evaluations, positive activation and positive deactivation. As such, I reframe the notion of the servicescape in order for it to be more attuned to the perspective of interactive value formation and resource integration.

Customer satisfaction is one of the hot topics also for a successfull Czech car producer ŠKODA AUTO a.s. This diploma thesis titled: Identification of best practices for customer satisfaction at ŠKODA AUTO a.s., analyses customer satisfaction management of sales and evaluates the applicability of proposed improvement process measurements.

This thesis contributes to the ongoing debate on the future of smart ticketing in the United Kingdom, and in particular the role of ITSO in that future. Through evaluation of commentary from prominent elite personnel connected with the transport industry and from local and national government departments, this thesis identifies the environment in which smart ticketing is intended to operate, the means by which that is achieved and the significance of the outcomes. Key themes which emerged from the research were Partnership Working and Governance, the Customer Proposition and the ITSO Question, which focused on the operationalisation of smart ticketing in the bus industry. In terms of the evaluation of the outcomes of ITSO, conclusions are reached as to the success ITSO has achieved in terms of the national concessionary schemes as well as the limited success it has achieved in relation to commercial interoperable ticketing in a deregulated environment which has been revealed to work against the concept of interoperability.

This research provides a study of practices of innovative ideation. The literature highlights the need for more radical innovation as drivers for customer delight, and more innovative approaches to understanding customers. However, both the theory and application, including the resultant practise describe and present a product-centred approach to innovation as best practise. Using an Action Research methodology within the Advanced Product Group of a well known automotive manufacturer; the technical centre of another well known automotive manufacturer and the industrial design department of a university, this exploratory and descriptive study contributes to the understanding and practise of more innovative approaches to customer driven ideation. Literature suggests that integrating customer understanding into the earliest stages of new product development was critical both to its effectiveness and its ability to innovate. This study, therefore aimed to investigate innovative ideation by considering two key factors: 1. Its integration into the early stages of the product design and development process 2. Industrial design practises of customer understanding The research concluded on Industrial Design practise as well as the evolving practise of Innovative Ideation. Industrial designers' participate in ideation processes and practices in a unique way, not fully represented or accounted for in existing prescriptions for integrating customer understanding. They require specific types of information, usually general in nature and presented visually. Information integrated into these practises is often substantiated with case study and example-based evidence or data. The potential to innovate is regarded as the single most significant motivator for designers to participate in customer understanding. Paradoxically, designers' processes use and rely upon 'product' as a focus for innovation and communication of design integrity. A designer's key role and most significant contribution, is in creative and strategic thinking: (new ideas: IDEATION): that is the integration of the actions of idea generation and the formulation of creative design responses; and the proposal of new concepts, which place a strong emphasis on increasing the desirability of 'product experiences' or new behaviours. This orientation of design considerations and the questions associated with them are particularly unique to industrial design disciplines. They are systems based and holistic in their approach in order to prioritise customer needs within the design brief. An important early aspect is the identification of customer attitudes and activities, which broadens the design considerations. This study relates these findings to an existing Empathic Design methodology and Kano's model of delight (1995), as identified best practice drivers for ideation. This study also concludes that 'Empathic Design' (it's theory, descriptions, definitions and practise) and product design as a discipline (its profile, uses and practise) need to evolve in order to embrace customer understanding as a pathway to innovation.

This Australian Indigenous creactive work and its Treatise promote ways of thinking about practice and research that extend well beyond the current discourse. It invites re-thinking on how research can be practice-led in new ways, and what that might mean for future students. When discussing the challenges of today, this work signifies how "Western Style" thinking and theory is wanting in so many ways. It engages a new dynamic and innovative way of theorising, encouraging future students to apply their full capacity of energy and wisdom. (Extract from examiners' reports.)

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Bachelors
Arts and Humanities
Humanities

This thesis presents an analysis of Piaroa shamanic practices that combines elements of symbolic, psychobiological and phenomenological approaches. Theories from, and clinical findings in, neuroscience, pharmacology, psychology and psychoneuroimmunology are integrated with extended participant observation field study involving basic shamanic training to demonstrate how Piaroa shamans learn to understand and effect biopsychosocial adaptation and promote health. It is argued that Piaroa shamanism is a sophisticated means of interpreting ecological forces and emotional processes in the interests of minimising stress across related systems: self, society, ecosystem, and cosmos. Piaroa shamans should be cadres in the promotion of an ethos, the good life of tranquillity, which serves as the basis for low-stress social relations. Piaroa mythology is predicated upon human-animal-god reciprocity and provides the shaman with a series of informationprocessing templates, designed to be invoked with the use of hallucinogens, which assist him to understand inter-systemic relations. I analyse how Piaroa shamans develop the psychic skills to divine and regulate ecological relationships and emotional processes, while highlighting possible relationships among native symbolism, neurology, consciousness and the emotions. It is argued that Piaroa shamanic practices involve conditioning the mind to achieve optimal perceptive capacities that, in association with sensitive biopsychosocial study, facilitate accurate prediction and successful psychosocial prescription. A cultural neurophenomenological approach enables articulation of the psychocultural logic of ethos, epistemology, divination, sorcery, and curing, and a fuller picture of a South American indigenous society’s shamanic practices than less integrative approaches have afforded

Britain produces some of the best designers in the world, and UK fashion education systems provide a continuous flow of exceptional talent into the industry. However, the numbers of British designer brands being created are low in comparison to the high number of graduates being educated. Often fashion start-ups are not able to sustain a presence in the market place after their intial entry, and are not able to realise and recognise their growth potential.

Rituals surrounding death were social in addition to being religious. Virginians conveyed the status of the deceased through funerals, burials, gravestones, commemoration, and mourning. But these customs greatly differed according to gender, both in what they consisted of and who was responsible for carrying them out. This thesis examines wills, diaries, correspondence, grave markers, prints, and newspapers of eighteenth-century Virginians, which demonstrate the differences in the death customs of men and women. Because of men’s involvement in public activities like business and politics, they gave greater forethought into how acts of remembrance would reflect their positions. Women’s duties were centered on the home and family. This resulted in less elaborate death customs as well as greater responsibility for appropriately attending to the remembrance of others. Despite the overwhelmingly private nature of women’s funerals and burials, gravestones, death notices, and the responsibilities of widowhood briefly brought women into the public realm.

This thesis explores the problematic nature of theodicy (theological explanations for suffering). It questions what kind of meaning-making might occur in place of theodicy in societies which are undergoing a change in attitude to religious belief and practise. In doing so, it looks to shed light on how the Church might respond to instances of mass suffering (referred to as 'ground-zero' events) and other traumatic experiences in the current social context. Drawing on a practical theological methodology, and employing ethnographic tools of investigation, this thesis includes data collected via interviews (thirty in total) and observation with the Sunday Assembly. This burgeoning global movement is not religiously affiliated, yet it draws on the structures and practises of the Christian Church to the extent that it has been referred to as an 'atheist church' (and, laterally, a 'secular congregation.') Data gathered at communities in London and Edinburgh provides a critical basis for theological reflection on the group's responses to suffering. The key finding of this thesis concerns the Sunday Assembly's adoption of a philosophy of celebration, which, in practise, can lead to the 'passing over' of suffering on both a global and individual scale. In response, this thesis concludes with a reflection on the Church's propensity to also avoid discussion of suffering, and suggests that churches resist this by constructing a 'culture of lament' in which suffering might be acknowledged and addressed. This practise is intended to prevent Christian communities from evading traumatic events, or else reverting to potentially harmful theodicies.