Autonomy and Control of State Agencies:Comparing States and Agencies

Do public organizations with similar tasks or structures differ across states with respect to their autonomy and control? If so, why? By comparing the autonomy, control and internal management of state agencies, this book shows how New Public Management doctrines actually work in three small European states with different politico-administrative regimes. Using a unique set of similar survey data on 226 state agencies in Norway, Ireland and Flanders, this study explains differences in agency autonomy, control and management by referring to international isomorphic pressures, state-specific politico-administrative regimes and characteristics of agencies. Therefore, organization theory and neo-institutional schools are used to formulate four competing theoretical perspectives and hypotheses are tested through simple and advanced statistical techniques. By comparing practices between states and between types of agencies, this study substantially enhances scientific knowledge about why public organizations are granted autonomy, why they are controlled in specific ways, and how autonomy affects internal management.

Models of Mental Health

A good understanding of the different theoretical models is essential when working in the field of mental health. Not only does it help with understanding experiences of mental health difficulties and to find meaning, but it also provides a framework for expanding our knowledge of the field.

As part of the Foundations of Mental Health Practice series, this book provides a critical overview of the theoretical perspectives relevant to mental health practice. At the core of this book is the idea that no single theory is comprehensive on its own and each theory has its limitations. Divided in to two parts, Part I explores traditional models of mental health and covers the key areas: bio-medical perspectives, psychological perspectives and social perspectives, whilst Part II looks at contemporary ideas that challenge and push these traditional views. The contributions, strengths and limitations of each model are explored and, as a result, the book encourages a more holistic, open approach to understanding and responding to mental health issues.

Together, these different approaches offer students and practitioners a powerful set of perspectives from which to approach their study and careers. Each model is covered in a clear and structured way with supporting exercises and case studies. It is an essential text for anyone studying or practising in the field of mental health, including social workers, nurses and psychologists.

Rural women in Europe: the impact of place and culture on gender mainstreaming the European Rural Development Programme

Gender relations are socially constructed. Space and culture are key factors in this process. We consider how women’s identity is constructed in rural areas of Europe. In particular, we examine the ability of gender mainstreaming to advance gender equality through the EU Rural Development Programme – the single most expensive European policy. We offer both overarching theoretical perspectives and specific case studies.

What is the learning in games-based learning?

This chapter explores the nature of “learning” in games-based learning and the cognitive and motivational processes that might underpin that learning by drawing on psychological theories and perspectives. Firstly, changing conceptions of learning over the last few decades are reviewed. This is described in relation to the changes in formal learning theories and connections made between learning theory and GBL. Secondly, the chapter reviews empirical research on the learning outcomes that have been identified for GBL, with specific focus on cognitive benefits, school attainment, collaborative working, and the motivational and engaging appeal of games. Finally, an overview of the dominant theoretical perspectives/findings mostly associated with GBL is presented in an attempt to broaden understanding of the potential for GBL in the classroom.

Applying the recovery approach to the interface between mental health and child protection services

There are a range of theoretical approaches which may inform the interface between child protection and adult mental health services. These theoretical perspectives tend to be focused on either child protection or mental health with no agreed integrating framework. The interface continues to be identified, in research, case management reviews and inquiry reports, as complex and problematic. This paper proposes that more positive, integrated approaches to service user engagement, risk assessment and management may lead to better outcomes in working with families experiencing parental mental health problems and child protection concerns. It is proposed that the recovery approach, increasingly used in mental health services, can inform the processes of engagement, assessment and intervention at the mental health and child protection interface. The article provides a critical overview of the recovery approach and compares it with approaches typifying interventions in child protection work to date. Relevant research and inquiries are also examined as a context for how to more effectively respond to cases where there are issues around parental mental health problems and child protection. The article concludes with case material to illustrate the potential application of the recovery approach to the interface between mental health and child protection services.

Dinâmicas do turismo rural: impactos em termos de desenvolvimento rural

Esta tese incide sobre as dinâmicas do turismo rural e as respetivas implicações em termos de desenvolvimento rural. Para tal recorreu-se à mobilização de um conjunto de conhecimentos, nomeadamente da área do turismo no espaço rural, do desenvolvimento rural e do marketing dos destinos rurais. Após uma revisão teórica minuciosa acerca de cada uma das temáticas anteriores, passámos à definição das hipóteses de investigação e do modelo de análise. As hipóteses de investigação permitiram-nos, efetivamente, testar algumas relações que considerámos, desde logo, relevantes no que diz respeito à problemática da investigação. Estas centraram-se nos promotores da oferta e na população rural. Se por um lado pretendíamos analisar a relação entre o perfil dos promotores, motivações de criação do empreendimento turístico e atividades de marketing seguidas, por outro, assumia-se como fundamental, observar as repercussões da oferta turística proporcionada junto da população local. Assumimos que esta se manifesta não só nos benefícios pessoais usufruídos, mas também a nível das perceções positivas e negativas. Após termos integrado as hipóteses de investigação, o modelo foi testado em duas regiões rurais que apresentam particularidades de regiões pobres, mas, ao mesmo tempo, um potencial turístico enorme, sendo que, inclusivamente, parte de uma dessas regiões é Património Mundial da Humanidade. Tomando em consideração esta última constatação, foram também apresentadas hipóteses complementares relativas à existência de diferenças (ao nível dos promotores e residentes) entre as regiões. Estas tarefas obrigaram à recolha de dados primários e secundários. Após a recolha da informação primária, os dados foram tratados e analisados à luz das perspetivas teóricas entretanto fornecidas. Os resultados obtidos com o estudo realizado permitiram identificar relações significativas entre o perfil do promotor, motivações de abertura do empreendimento, objetivos económicos e atividades de marketing desenvolvidas no empreendimento. Por outro lado, confirmámos ainda a existência de relações significativas entre benefícios pessoais auferidos e perceções positivas e negativas desenvolvidas pelos residentes e entre estas e a satisfação e apoio à atividade turística. Considera-se ainda que os resultados obtidos pela investigação devem ser utilizados em prol do desenvolvimento das respetivas regiões rurais. Por fim, sublinha-se o facto do modelo desenvolvido nesta investigação ser passível de aplicar a outras regiões rurais.

Between Library and Research Centre: Metadata and Criticism

Abstract: In order to promote the transfer of information and the development of knowledge, university librarians should proactively work with the academic community in well-organized transdisciplinary teams—involving teachers, researchers, students, and experts in various subjects. The concept of this very innovative practice has been developed and tested by the Faculty of Humanities Library, Lisbon University, and the University of Lisbon Centre for English Studies, focusing on the role played by libraries in canon-formation. We will now proceed to build an interactive website to publish our theoretical perspectives along with bibliographic records (UNIMARC format), including metadata related to marks of use. Furthermore, Richard Garnett’s “The International Library of Famous Literature” (London 1899), bio/bibliographical essays on Garnett as a scholar and librarian, and critical essays on the anthology will be published there. A link to the English edition is the next follow-up. Finally, two volumes of the Portuguese anthology (ca. 1910), based on the English one will also be made available on the website.

Labirintos da justiça na escola : representações e práticas de alunos e professores

Tese de doutoramento, Educação (Supervisão e Orientação da Prática Profissional), Universidade de Lisboa, Instituto de Educação, 2015

Contigo eu posso : caminhos da aprendizagem de uma menina com Síndrome de Down

Dissertação de mestrado, Ciências da Educação (Área de especialização em Educação Intercultural), Universidade de Lisboa. Instituto de Educação, 2015

Deportação e criminalidade nos Açores

Dissertação de Mestrado em Ciências Sociais.

Finnish Maritime Personnel's Conceptions on Safety Management and Safety Culture

The purpose of this thesis is to explore Finnish maritime personnel’s conceptions of safety management and its relationship with the concept of safety culture. In addition, the aim is to evaluate the impact of the ISM Code on the prevailing safety culture in the Finnish shipping business. A total of 94 interviewees and seven Finnish shipping companies were involved in this study. Thematic interviews were applied as the main research method for the study. The results were analysed qualitatively. The results indicate that maritime safety culture can simultaneously demonstrate features of integration, differentiation and ambiguity. Basically, maritime personnel have a positive attitude towards safety management systems since they consider safety management beneficial and essential in general. However, the study also found considerable criticism among the interviewees. The interviewed maritime personnel did not criticise the ISM Code as such, yet they criticised the way the ISM Code has been applied in practise. In order to understand the multiple perspectives of safety culture more comprehensively, multiple theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches are needed. This study indicates that safety culture and the impacts of the ISM Code should not be unambiguously studied solely quantitative methods or qualitative methods. By examining safety culture from several methodological and theoretical perspectives, one may gain a more versatile and holistic overview of safety culture.

Comics carnet : the graphic novelist as global nomad

An interdisciplinary approach is used to identify a new graphic novel genre, 'comics camet', and its key features. The study situates comics camet in a historical context and shows it to be the result of a cross-pollination between the American and French comics traditions. Comics camet incorporates features from other literary genres: journalism, autobiography, ethnography and travel writing. Its creators, primarily European rriales, document their experiences visiting countries that Europe has traditionally defined as belonging to the 'East'. A visual and narrative analysis, using theoretical perspectives derived from cultural and postcolonial studies, examines how comics camet represents the non-European other and identifies the genre's ideological assumptions. Four representative texts are examined: Joe Sacco's Palestine (2001), Craig Thompson's, Camet de Voyage (2004), Guy Delisle's Pyongyang (2005) and Mrujane Satrpi's Persespolis 2 (2004). The study concludes that the comics camet genre simultaneously reinforces and challenges stereotypical assumptions about non-European people and places.

Is Brand Equity an Asset or a Liability in Brand Harm Crisis? Buffering and Amplifying Effects and Contingent Conditions

Brand harm crisis often result in negative consumer responses. This thesis addresses the buffering and amplifying theoretical perspectives of brand equity effects. We theorize that brand equity may interplay with the nature of brand-harm crisis in shaping consumer reactions. Results from focus group studies provide interesting insights into the amplifying and buffering effects. Moreover, research findings from two experiment studies show that brand equity amplifies consumer negative responses in a performance-related crisis but only when the crisis is extremely severe. When the crisis becomes less severe, the amplifying effect diminishes from outset. However, in a value-related crisis, the amplifying effect of brand equity is pervasive regardless of the level of crisis severity. The current thesis adds to the extant literature by demonstrating that brand equity can have very complex effects on consumer responses, which are contingent on the severity and domain of a crisis. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

Des femmes converties à l'islam en France et au Québec : religiosités d'un nouveau genre

En Europe et en Amérique du Nord, les phénomènes de conversion à l'islam suggèrent que modernité et sécularisation ont engendré de nouvelles formes de subjectivité, insolites au premier abord. Pourtant, l'apparente incompatibilité entre les identités musulmane d’un part, et québécoise ou française d’autre part, provient davantage du contexte sociopolitique dans lequel ces identités se produisent que d'une impossibilité inhérente aux paradigmes musulman et occidental en soi. Notre étude réalisée en France et au Québec montre que si le retour à l’islam s’inscrit dans un projet d’herméneutique du soi qui se réalise dans le cadre d’une démarche spirituelle, le geste de conversion est forgé par le contexte social et politique qui lui donne sens et portée. Ainsi, l’identité des nouvelles musulmanes se négocie dans les rapports sociaux qui traversent et dominent les univers du discours locaux; le projet social et politique qui en résulte vise à transcender ces modèles en proposant une alternative qui combine l’hérité et le choisi. Notre projet s’inscrit dans une perspective comparative au sein de deux espaces politiques se distinguant non seulement par leur mode de gestion de la diversité religieuse et ethnique, mais aussi par leur système de régulation du religieux dans l'espace public. Considérant que le changement de religion est un processus aussi subjectif que social, nous soutenons que la nouvelle identité du converti se distribue de façon continue et dynamique entre la réalisation du soi et la (re)construction de son appartenance sociale. Par conséquent, le geste de conversion traduit autant la quête d’une spiritualité et d’un mode de vie pieux, qu’il exprime un discours critique de son contexte social et politique, et constructif puisqu’il en propose une alternative. En nous inspirant des perspectives théoriques de Ricœur, de Foucault, et de Calhoun, nous examinons la formation du sujet et la construction de son identité, autant par la production d’un discours (récit de conversion), que par le modelage du corps (apprentissage des pratiques religieuses et sociales). Cette approche performative de la ritualité quotidienne met en évidence la fluidité, l'idiosyncrasie et l'historicité des appartenances et des subjectivités. Pour les femmes rencontrées, la mise en narration de la trajectoire de conversion joue un rôle clé dans le processus de constitution et d’actualisation du soi musulman. Par la réflexivité du sujet, elle produit en effet une nouvelle herméneutique du soi, motivée par un objectif d’accomplissement personnel, et travaillé par le médium de la spiritualité. Par ailleurs, nous identifions des discours standardisés qui constituent des points de tension autour desquels se forgent la piété, la subjectivité, et l’identité des converties. Parmi eux, le modèle de genre préconisé révèle le retour à une nouvelle morale de la pudeur, de l'intimité, du corps et du souci de soi qui revisite les rhétoriques polarisées entre le féminisme jugé extrême des sociétés occidentales, et les dérives patriarcales de l’islam politique. En ce sens, nous considérons les femmes converties à l’islam comme la figure archétype du sujet musulman féministe. La formation de ces identités originales révèle les forces sociales et politiques sous-jacentes les localités nationales et les dynamiques globales. En effet, les performances élaborées par les converties se situent en compétition avec certains discours construits, tant par les musulmans de naissance que par la société d'origine. La conversion induit ainsi une recomposition des identités genrées, religieuses, nationales ou biographiques des nouvelles musulmanes. Si les attributs de l’altérité désormais mêlés à ceux du soi sont travaillés aux limites des catégories de la modernité avancée (savoir, religion et genre), ils reconfigurent également les rapports sociaux et les frontières de nouveaux groupes d’inclusion et d’exclusion (ethnicité, piété, génération). Au Québec, l'attrait pour l'islam participe d’une reconquête du sens et d’une volonté d'adhésion à la rhétorique cosmopolite hégémonique, l’entrée dans l’islam célèbre alors le retour à des formes de solidarité communautaire, faisant suite à une phase de modernisation et de sécularisation accélérée. En France, elle manifeste une critique envers la différenciation sociale et un mode d'appartenance à une classe ghettoïsée. L’adhésion à la religion de la catégorie minoritaire et ostracisée met en évidence l’échec d'un modèle républicain qui a failli à sa prétention d’universalité. Cette voie alternative aux projets séculier et moderne dominants contribue à reconfigurer les domaines du privé et du public, et permet à ceux qui choisissent la marge, de révéler les apories du centre.