Improving Civilian Protection during War through Conflict-Specific Behavioural Regulation of Combatants

This thesis advances the claim that there is a gap between the regulation of behaviour for the protection of individuals in peace and the regulations needed to protect civilians from combatant violence during war. Social psychology and criminology theories can help to develop the necessary conflict-specific behavioural regulations. This is because social psychology and criminology theories can explain how combatant deviance is adversely affected by psychological processes that reframe combatants’ conceptions of right and wrong and, in so doing, fundamentally alter the way in which combatants view the IHL rules intended to protect civilians. This thesis uses legal doctrinal methodology to establish the current status of IHL application to armed groups and existing IHL protections for civilians, which are based largely on peacetime protections for individuals (e.g., prohibitions on assault, murder, rape, etc.). It demonstrates the need and utility of turning to academic disciplines beyond law, specifically social psychology and criminology, to understand combatant violence toward civilians. Through the use of case studies focusing on the Sierra Leone civil war and the numerous ongoing conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo, this thesis identifies two common combatant behaviours that contribute to the perpetration of IHL violations against civilians, but are currently unregulated by IHL: (1) combatant use of demeaning, degrading, or dehumanizing language toward civilians and (2) combatant use of nicknames, particularly violent or heroic nicknames. The thesis proposes two new IHL regulations to address these behaviours and to inhibit the ability of these behaviours to contribute to violence toward civilians during armed conflict. Ultimately, the thesis demonstrates how combatant psychology can be used to develop the substantive content of IHL for the protection of civilians

A multifaceted approach to understand highly-identified fans’ experiences of sport activism

The pandemic altered the socio-contextual environment. During this time, society was exposed to structural violence experienced by Black individuals at the hands of the police. The subsequent Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests coincided with the return of professional sport in 2020 and became embedded in its programming. This thesis sought to answer how sport activism influences highly-identified fans’ lived experiences of sport. As an interpretivist, it was essential to acknowledge the importance of sociohistorical factors contributing to fans’ experiences. Therefore, semistructured interviews served to answer how fans restructure their consumption in response to changing needs, motives, and socio-contextual environments to contextualize the guiding research question. Data were analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) reflexive thematic analysis to make sense of the data. Chapter 2a utilized U&G and SDT and revealed that participants had difficulties satisfying their needs, especially their relatedness, due to the pandemic-imposed restrictions meant that participants. Sport transformed into a social activity and a means to escape the reality of the pandemic through increased sport consumption. Individuals who increased their sport consumption primarily to socialize and escape did not sustain these habits as the pandemic lessened, whereas autonomously-motivated individuals maintained their elevated consumption levels. Chapter 2b utilized social identity theory and social identity complexity to examine fans’ experiences of sport activism via their social identities. Participants interpreted the BLM protests through their multiple identities, informing their response to the intersection of sport and activism. All participants noted some form of social identity threat resulting from sport activism – either from the sender (i.e., the organization, team, or athlete) and/or the subsequent conversations that resulted from the demonstrations. Participants with less complex (i.e., less inclusive) structures faced heightened identity threats. Participants with more complex (i.e., more inclusive) group characterizations used sport activism as a vehicle to further action and typically expressed tolerance toward the outgroup. Chapter 3 synthesized the two studies' findings noting that seeking relatedness increased social identity threats or conformity behavior and that mentions of escape were used by participants as a maintenance tactic to oppose BLM in sports while distancing their white identity from their stance

Restorative and Responsive Human Services

In Restorative and Responsive Human Services, Gale Burford, John Braithwaite, and Valerie Braithwaite bring together a distinguished collection providing rich lessons on how regulation in human services can proceed in empowering ways that heal and are respectful of human relationships and legal obligations. The human services are in trouble: combining restorative justice with responsive regulation might redeem them, renewing their well-intended principles. Families provide glue that connects complex systems. What are the challenges in scaling up relational practices that put families and primary groups at the core of health, education, and other social services? This collection has a distinctive focus on the relational complexity of restorative practices. How do they enable more responsive ways of grappling with complexity than hierarchical and prescriptive human services? Lessons from responsive business regulation inform a re-imagining of the human services to advance wellbeing and reduce domination. Readers are challenged to re-examine the perverse incentives and contradictions buried in policies and practices. How do they undermine the capacities of families and communities to solve problems on their own terms? This book will interest those who harbor concerns about the creep of domination into the lives of vulnerable citizens. It will help policymakers and researchers to re-focus human services to fundamental outcomes at the foundation of sustainable democracies

Community and context in strategic planning

Strategic planning is an important organizational event, yet there is little research on how individuals experience the process and how it impacts the community. This research examined a recent university strategic planning process, using a sensemaking and critical sensemaking theoretical lens. It provides insight into what strategic planning means to faculty and administration, focusing on how past experiences shape expectations, and how expectations influence sensemaking

Do accounting students differ from others in self-interest, concern for others and ethical perceptions - findings from an Atlantic Canada study

This paper presents the results of a study using participants from an Atlantic Canadian university (n=997) which indicates that accounting students differ significantly in their level of self-interest and perceptions of academic dishonesty – but not in their concern for others- from some of the other business majors and students in other programs

Authors of our own misfortune?: Crandall University Bookstore writes its future

In 2014 the eponymous campus bookstore is in a tenuous position – increasing textbook prices and new competitors who are leveraging technology to capture their traditional market (students) have served to deplete revenues and shake the very foundations of an established business model. Authors of Our Own Misfortune? traces the experience of the Crandall University Bookstore – an independent campus bookstore at a small university in Moncton, NB, Canada – as its manager seeks to plan for its future. Principal issues explored in the case surround how to respond to new entrants who are exploiting innovation to change industry fundamentals and product diversification in an environment characterized by dominant and powerful suppliers who are moving to become competitors

Economic impact of the Nova Scotia co-operative sector

Nova Scotia’s co-op sector has a rich history going back to the 1860s but detailed knowledge of the role of the sector in the economy is limited. We estimated the economic impact of co-ops and credit unions, including GDP, income, employment, and taxes. We also examined the impact of co-ops across the Urban – Rural divide

Virtual integration and segmentation

The purpose of this paper is to extend Ashforth et al's (2000) integration-segmentation continuum by considering the virtual domain. The focus of the integration-segmentation continuum was on the multiple role identities of individuals and how they combined or separated their physical roles. Schultze's (2012) study illustrated that individuals can have a unidirectional or multi-directional influence between one's physical and virtual performance identities. By focusing on the virtual spaces that professors create when they teach online courses, I address the question of when and why professors create virtual environments that are similar or different from their physical environments

Acquisition premiums, CEO power, and the financial crisis

What happens to acquisition price premiums when a powerful bidder CEO confronts a powerful CEO of the target firm? We examine the effect of relative power relationships between the CEOs of the bidder and target firms to explain acquisition overpayment. Our results point to separate sources of power for the acquirer and target CEOs that affect premiums. Acquirer CEOs use power derived from their social networks to improve their ability to judge post-crisis acquisition quality, streamline board decision-making, and reduce premiums. However, target CEOs use only their hierarchical power to reinforce their negotiation stance, driving premiums higher

Social-cognitive mechanisms and counterproductive computer security behaviors (CCSB): an analysis of links

Very little research has been carried out to determine the links between social-cognitive mechanisms and employees' counterproductive computer security behaviors (CCSB). Accordingly, we aim to contribute to the literature in this area. A research model that drew from the social cognitive theory (SCT) was proposed and tested with data collected from professionals employed in Canadian organizations. Data analysis using the partial least squares (PLS) technique confirmed that outcome expectations (personal) and selfregulation were significant factors that impacted employees' decisions to engage or not in CCSB. The other considered SCT factors (i.e., observational learning, self-efficacy, and outcome expectations (organizational) in our study yielded insignificant results. The study's implications for practice and research are discussed