Examining Visitor Attitudes and Motivations at a Space Science Centre

The H.R. MacMillan Space Centre is a multi-faceted organization whose mission is to educate, inspire and evoke a sense of wonder about the universe, our planet and space exploration. As a popular, Vancouver science centre, it faces the same range of challenges and issues as other major attractions: how does the Space Centre maintain a healthy public attendance in an increasingly competitive market where visitors continue to be presented with an increasingly rich range of choices for their leisure spending and entertainment dollars?This front-end study investigated visitor attitudes, thoughts and preconceptions on the topic of space and astronomy. It also examined visitors’ motivations for coming to a space science centre. Useful insights were obtained which will be applied to improve future programme content and exhibit development.

A comparative study of immigrants’ political participation in Sweden and the Netherlands

This study deals with immigrants’ political participation in Sweden and the Netherlands. Scholars have recognized low level of political participation of immigrants in Sweden compared to the Netherlands. The main goal of this study is to analyze the institutional influence, mainly from political parties over immigrants’ motivation for active electoral participation. The modified actor-context model uses here as the main theoretical framework. In addition, social capital theory employs to analyze immigrants’ voluntary organizational membership. This study confirms that, Swedish immigrants have the lower participation rate in the political sphere, at lest to a certain extent, than its counterparts the Dutch immigrants. This study also confirms the argument that contextual factors can influence actor’s motivations in integration-oriented action, and similarly it validates the necessity of enlargement of the actor-context model.

The Evolution of a Responsibility to Protect in Africa : The African Unions Emerging Peace and Security Regime

The thesis focuses on, and tries to evaluate, the role that the African Union (AU) plays in protecting the peace and security on the African continent. The thesis takes an interdisciplinary approach to the topic by both utilizing international relations and international law theories. The two disciplines are combined in an attempt to understand the evolution of the AU’s commitment to the pragmatist doctrine: responsibility to protect (R2P). The AU charter is considered to be the first international law document to cover R2P as it allows the AU to interfere in the internal affairs of its member states. The R2P doctrine was evolved around the notion of a need to arrive at a consensus in regard to the right to intervene in the face of humanitarian emergencies. A part of the post-Cold War shift in UN behaviour has been to support local solutions to local problems. Hereby the UN acts in collaboration with regional organizations, such as the AU, to achieve the shared aspirations to maintain international peace and security without getting directly involved on the ground. The R2P takes a more holistic and long-term approach to interventions by including an awareness of the need to address the root causes of the crisis in order to prevent future resurrections of conflicts. The doctrine also acknowledges the responsibility of the international community and the intervening parties to actively participate in the rebuilding of the post-conflict state. This requires sustained and well planned support to ensure the development of a stable society.While the AU is committed to implementing R2P, many of the AU’s members are struggling, both ideologically and practically, to uphold the foundations on which legitimate intervention rests, such as the protection of human rights and good governance. The fact that many members are also among the poorest countries in the world adds to the challenges facing the AU. A lack of human and material resources leads to a situation where few countries are willing, or able, to support a long-term commitment to humanitarian interventions. Bad planning and unclear mandates also limit the effectiveness of the interventions. This leaves the AU strongly dependent on regional powerbrokers such as Nigeria and South Africa, which in itself creates new problems in regard to the motivations behind interventions. The current AU charter does not provide sufficient checks and balances to ensure that national interests are not furthered through humanitarian interventions. The lack of resources within the AU also generates worries over what pressure foreign nations and other international actors apply through donor funding. It is impossible for the principle of “local solutions for local problems? to gain ground while this donor conditionality exists.The future of the AU peace and security regime is not established since it still is a work in progress. The direction that these developments will take depends on a wide verity of factors, many of which are beyond the immediate control of the AU.

Actitudes hacia la lengua náhuatl : Un estudio sociolingüístico con jóvenes de la Ciudad deMéxico.

Nahuatl is one of the indigenous languages in Mexico that is at risk of falling out of use. The research in the last years have showed that this occurs due to the low amount of Nahuatl speakers and the social stigma and discrimination towards the indigenous peoples, among other factors.The studies of language attitudes are relevant when making attempts to revitalize a language. As Mexico City authorities have considered to implement a revitalization project, we wanted to approach the real situation of Nahuatl in that city. Our purpose was to measure the attitudes of young people towards this language. By using a direct method –a questionnaire- we asked two groups of students if they agreed or disagreed with some items about Nahuatl and its speakers. One group had contact with Nahuatl speakers and but not the other one. We compared the results and they showed that the students who have contact with Nahuatl have more positive attitudes than those who don’t have any contact with it. This study also revealed that the reason why the first group showed positive attitudes was solidarity with the Nahuatl speakers. However, the both groups considered that speaking or learning Nahuatl cannot contribute to raise their status in the Mexican society.

Små citroner gula : En studie i hur estetiska lärprocesser iscensätts, värderasoch realiseras, samt hur en lärmiljö med – ”The Wow Factor”påverkar inlärning på gymnasienivå

Uppsatsens syfte är att studera hur estetiska lärprocesser används för att stimulera lärandet och utveckla eleverna på gymnasial nivå i ämnet religionskunskap. För att få svar har under-sökningen fokuserat på hur estetiska lärprocesser iscensätts i praktiken, kopplat till teori om hur dessa lärprocesser kan påverka och stimulera elevens utveckling och lärande. Studien grundar sig på kvalitativa intervjuer gjorda på två olika skolor, en privat skola och en kom-munal med gymnasielärare i ämnet religion. Intervjutexterna har tolkats hermeneutiskt för att inte bara synliggöra samtalet mellan informanter och forskare, utan även belysa den tolkade texten som på så sätt även den kan ses som ett samtal mellan tolkare, läsare och text. Studien har använt ett teoretiskt ramverk där tre teoretiska perspektiv belyst estetiska lärprocesser samt kringliggande problematik i ämnet. Studien är av komparativ art och analysverktygen har selekterats utifrån tanken att med olika teoretikers perspektiv bemöta och besvara studiens frågeställningar.Resultatet påvisar att det råder en tveksamhet om vad som kan betraktas som estetiska lärpro-cesser och vad som ska inkluderas i begreppet bland informanterna. Dock råder en samstäm-mighet i att det rör sig om praktiskt, kreativt engagemang i grupp som kännetecknar estetiken i verksamheten. Värderingsfrågan visade sig ha två dimensioner. Den ena aspekten var att in-formanterna värderade de estetiska lärprocesserna högt som ur motivations-, engagemangs- och personlighetsutvecklande perspektiv. Däremot värderades de estetiska lärprocesserna lågt ur ett betygsgrundande perspektiv.De estetiska lärprocesserna iscensätts främst genom film, möten och miljöbyten. Film an-vänds främst som visuell och känslomässig förstärkning av undervisningens valda innehåll. Möten med personer aktiva inom det aktuella undervisningstemat används i lika stor utsträck-ning för att öka elevernas minnesförnimmelse och engagemang samt verklighetsrelatering, det vill säga koppling till extern kunskap. Möten kunde även i mer abstrakt betydelse innefatta möten med andra, redan befintliga kulturer i dess omgivning som synliggjorts genom den estetiska lärprocessen.Fördelarna med att använda sig av de estetiska lärprocesserna i undervisningen visade sig i huvudsak vara att de skapade utrymme för känslor och att de bidrar till en större studiemoti-vation samt ett ökat engagemang bland eleverna. Respekt för andra människor ur ett sociokul-turellt perspektiv var vad informanterna anser att de estetiska lärprocesserna genererar i ett vidgat lärande perspektiv, det vill säga ett externt lärande. Nackdelarna kan sammanfattas med de bristande resurser som stod till pedagogernas förfogande i form av tid och utbildning i ämnet, vilket i hög grad kom att belysa bedömningsproblematiken.

A new life in the mountains : changing lifestyles among in-migrants to Wanaka, New Zealand

Mountainous areas with a high dependency on its tourism industry are often relatively small and remote. But some of these areas have faced a population increase due to large in-migration;Wanaka in New Zealand’s Southern Alps is one example. This paper is studying the migration motivations of a few individuals that have moved to Wanaka and how they started to feel like part of their new community. The meaning of the place is important for these newcomers. The results of the study indicate that there is a strong link between the community and the lifestyle that in-migrants are seeking. It also highlights the importance for in-migrants to be a part of the social community. Social Clubs, sport clubs and voluntary work are ways of becoming a part of a social network.

A user guide to simple monitoring and sustainable operation of PV-diesel hybrid systems : Handbook for system users and operators

This report contains a suggestion for a simple monitoring and evaluation guideline for PV-diesel hybrid systems. It offers system users a way to better understand if their system is operated in a way that will make it last for a long time. It also gives suggestions on how to act if there are signs of unfavourable use or failure. The application of the guide requires little technical equipment, but daily manual measurements. For the most part, it can be managed by pen and paper, by people with no earlier experience of power systems.The guide is structured and expressed in a way that targets PV-diesel hybrid system users with no, or limited, earlier experience of power engineering. It is less detailed in terms of motivations for certain choices and limitations, but rich in details concerning calculations, evaluation procedures and maintenance routines. A more scientific description of the guide can be found in a related journal article.

Hjælp til selvcensur

Self-help and self-censorship: A self-help cultural perspective on organizational silence This paper seeks to explain silence in the workplace through an analytical perspective derived from Judith Butlers work on censorship, and in this way suggest an alternative to explanations in the existing literature on employee silence, which are often tied to the actions and motivations of the individual subject. It is thus argued that self-help books can be seen as indicative of a pervasive culture of self-improvement, which among other things promotes the absence of criticism in the workplace. The empirical point of departure for this argument is the two bestselling self-help books The secret by Rhonda Byrne and The 7 habits of highly effective people by Stephen Covey. Theoretically, the paper applies Butlers notion of ”implicit censorship” where censorship is understood as productive in the sense of being constitutive of language. Hence, in the analysis it is shown how discursive regimes in self-help literature tend to be constructed in such a way, that explicit criticism cannot emerge as a meaningful activity, and is thus implicitly censored.