Peacebuilding in Nepal - the Tentative Quest for Post-Liberal Peace

The focal point of this thesis is the peacebuilding environment in Nepal following the end of the civil war in 2006. A fieldwork investigation was conducted focusing on the perceptions of inhabitants of Kathmandu on peace and peacebuilding issues using semi-structured interviews. By investigating these perceptions the study seeks to answer three main questions: -How can the contrasting perspectives on the peace process be understood? -Can life in post-conflict Nepal fruitfully be conceptualized as a ”no war, no peace”-society, and if so, what are the possible implications of this on the peace process? -How do people in contemporary Nepal envision sustainable peace? The thesis draws on theoretical frameworks which are critical of the liberal peace - mainly problematizing its tendency to neglect the local context and needs, and its reliance on top-down and technocratic measures. The conclusion of this thesis is that the contrasting perspectives on the peace process can be understood as a consequence of the disjuncture between everyday experiences of peacebuilding in Nepal and the top-down perspective of liberal peacebuilding actors. Furthermore, the study has found that Nepal can in material and political terms be aptly described as a "no war, no peace"-society, yet at the same time there appears to be socio-cultural factors which restrain a return to civil war. Finally, people in Nepal conceptualize sustainable peace in a manner which highlights everyday issues such as material improvements and social inclusion

Bridging the traditional-progressive education rift through entrepreneurship

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to use entrepreneurship to bridge the traditional – progressive education rift. Design/methodology/approach - The rift between traditional and progressive education is first deconstructed into five dualisms. Conceptual question-based analysis is then applied to determine if and how three entrepreneurial tools could contribute to bridging this rift; effectuation, customer development and appreciative inquiry. Finally, pattern based generalizations are drawn from this analysis. Findings – Patterns in the analysis motivate the articulation of an overarching educational philosophy – learning-through-creating-value-for-others – grounded in entrepreneurship and capable of bridging the educational rift. Research limitations/implications Only three entrepreneurial tools were included in the conceptual analysis, signifying a need to explore whether other tools could also help teachers bridge the traditional - progressive education rift. Entrepreneurial tools and the new educational philosophy manifesting entrepreneurship could also need to be further contextualized in order to be useful in education. Practical implications - The tentatively new educational philosophy has been shown to be capable of bridging five dualisms in education which are currently problematic for teachers in their daily practice, and to remedy teacher challenges such as complexity, lack of resources, assessment difficulties, and student disengagement. Originality/value – An educational philosophy grounded in entrepreneurship has arguably not been proposed previously. Contrasting existent educational philosophies, this new philosophy goes beyond learning-through to also emphasize creating-value-for-others. This could facilitate bridging between traditional and progressive education, one of the most important challenges in education. It could also be used to facilitate the infusion of entrepreneurship into general education

Kategorihantering; ett verktyg för att skapa framtidens ekologiska frukt- och grönthylla?

Titel: Kategorihantering; ett verktyg för att skapa framtidens ekologiska frukt- och grönthylla? Institution: Institutionen för Service Management, Campus Helsingborg, Lunds Universitet Nivå: Magisteruppsats VT 2009. 15 poäng Författare: Martin Lundqvist, Calin Roman och Marcus Stridhammar Handledare: Mikael Bergmasth och Birgitta Olsson Syfte och bidrag: Vårt syfte med studien är följande; att undersöka om kategorihantering kan tillämpas för att påverka konsumentbeteendet och därmed omsättningen för en varugrupp. Vidare undersöks hur butiker praktiskt arbetar med dessa aspekter genom att skapa en experimentell kategori i vårt fall ekologiskt frukt och grönt. Vi ska bidra med kunskap om vilken skillnad det verkligen gör att kategorisera ekologisk frukt och grönt som en egen produktkategori separera från den konventionella frukt och gröntkategorin. Frågeställningar: • Påverkas försäljningen när placeringen av ekologiskt odlad frukt och grönt ändras? • Vilka för- och nackdelar finns det med en egen kategorisering av ekologiskt odlad frukt och grönt? • Vilken syn har butikschefer angående kunders köpbeteende gällande ekologiskt odlad frukt och grönt? Metod: Vi har samlat in kvantitativ och kvalitativ data i form av intervjuer med tre personer i olika ledande befattningar samt en kategorihanterare på ICA på nationell nivå. Vi har även utfört experiment i en Coop Konsumbutik, en Hemköpbutik och en ICA Kvantumbutik där vi fysiskt ändrat om i frukt och grönsaksdisken för att mäta effekten av en egen kategorisering av ekologisk frukt och grönt. Empiri: Resultatet av experimentet och intervjuerna redovisas för varje butik. Vi tar upp ett flertal aspekter av butikernas kategoriarbete, som ett upplägg inför en kommande analys. Slutsatser: Studien har inte funnit några uppenbara resultatförbättringar vid en layoutförändring av frukt- och gröntavdelningen. Vi har dragit slutsatsen att en ekologisk hylla kan ses som ett mervärde och en extra service till den miljömedvetne kunden samt att segmentet får ökad exponering på sikt. Nyckelord: Butikslayout, Coop, Drivkrafter bakom konsumtion, Ekologi, experiment, Frukt och grönt, Hemköp, ICA, Kategorihantering, Köpbeteend

Graduates of venture creation programs - where do they apply their entrepreneurial competencies?

The assessment of entrepreneurship education outcomes should move beyond a focus on firm creation and associated economic impact to consider a more nuanced view that pays attention to graduates and their entrepreneurial competencies. There is currently limited understanding to what extent entrepreneurial competencies developed through entrepreneurship education are applied in graduates\u27 subsequent careers across various occupational roles, either as employees or as self-employed. Our analysis is based on a survey administered to 556 graduates from three Nordic master-level entrepreneurship education programs (1997-2018), all identified as venture creation programs. We find that, to a large extent, entrepreneurial competencies developed through venture creation programs are applied in subsequent careers across multiple occupational roles encompassing self-employment, hybrid entrepreneurship, and intrapreneurship. Entrepreneurship education is relevant not only to new firm creation but also to entrepreneurial positions in established organizations when it comes to graduates\u27 application of entrepreneurial competencies in subsequent careers. Plain English Summary Entrepreneurial competencies developed through entrepreneurship education are applicable to careers other than "start-up entrepreneur." This article examines graduates from three entrepreneurship education programs in Northern Europe where students experienced venture creation as part of the education. Graduates report the extent to which they apply entrepreneurial competencies (AECs) in their subsequent career. The most common career among graduates is self-employed entrepreneur, closely followed by a career as intrapreneur, where graduates apply their entrepreneurial competencies in established organizations. A smaller group of graduates have careers as hybrid entrepreneurs, where they combine paid employment with self-employment. A minority group of graduates have more conventional careers as full-time employees in established companies, where entrepreneurial tasks are not their main activities. The results indicate that venture creation programs provide fertile ground for graduates to engage in a broad spectrum of entrepreneurial careers. From the analysis, we found that a career as an intrapreneur is more similar to a self-employed entrepreneur than to a conventional employee. An implication for entrepreneurship education is that real-life educational experience through venture creation is applicable to entrepreneurial careers beyond start-ups. Additionally, the study provides a first attempt to connect entrepreneurial competencies developed through education with how such competencies are manifested in graduates\u27 subsequent careers, motivating a discursive shift in how policies could spur a more entrepreneurial society that goes beyond a narrow start-up perspective

Knowing how and knowing when: unpacking public understanding of atmospheric CO2 accumulation

It has been demonstrated that most people have a limited understanding of atmospheric CO 2 accumulation. Labeled stock-flow (SF) failure, this phenomenon has even been suggested as an explanation for weak climate policy support. Drawing on a typology of knowledge, we set out to nuance previous research by distinguishing between different types of knowledge of CO 2 accumulation among the public and by exploring ways of reasoning underlying SF failure. A mixed methods approach was used and participants (N = 214) were enrolled in an open online course. We find that ostensibly similar SF tasks show seemingly contradictory results in terms of people’s understanding of CO 2 accumulation. Participants performed significantly better on stock stabilization tasks that explicitly ask about the relationship between stocks and flows, compared with a typical SF task that does not direct the participants’ attention to what knowledge they should use. This suggests that people possess declarative and procedural knowledge of accumulation (knowing about the principles of mass balance, i.e., what and how to use them) but lack conditional knowledge of accumulation (knowing when to use these principles). Additionally, through a thematic analysis of answers to an open-ended question, we identified three overarching ways of reasoning when dealing with SF tasks: system, pattern, and phenomenological reasoning, providing additional theoretical insights to explain the large difference in performance between the different SF tasks. These more nuanced perspectives on SF failure can help inform interventions aimed at increasing climate science literacy and point to the need for more detailed explorations of public knowledge needed to leverage climate policy support

Primeros pasos en la docencia universitaria : ¿Cómo fue esa experiencia durante la pandemia?

En esta oportunidad presentaremos un análisis del rol del ayudante estudiantil durante el segundo cuatrimestre 2021 en la pandemia, es un avance preliminar del estudio observacional, transversal y descriptivo. Sus autoras son una docente adjunta y dos ayudantes alumnas de la Asignatura Derecho e Historia Constitucional Argentina “A” de la Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Argentina. Haciendo un estudio de cómo fue transitar estos primeros pasos en la formación docente en la universidad en periodo de Pandemia, analizando entrevistas, documentos y sumando las vivencias en el transcurso de este periodo.Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Sociale

Divergent selection predating the Last Glacial Maximum mainly acted on macro-phenotypes in Norway spruce

The current distribution and population structure of many species were, to a large extent, shaped by cycles of isolation in glacial refugia and subsequent population expansions. Isolation in and postglacial expansion through heterogeneous environments led to either neutral or adaptive divergence. Norway spruce is no exception, and its current distribution is the consequence of a constant interplay between evolutionary and demographic processes. We investigated population differentiation and adaptation of Norway spruce for juvenile growth, diameter of the stem, wood density, and tracheid traits at breast height. Data from 4461 phenotyped and genotyped Norway spruce from 396 half-sib families in two progeny tests were used to test for divergent selection in the framework of Q(ST) vs. F-ST. We show that the macroscopic resultant trait (stem diameter), unlike its microscopic components (tracheid dimensions) and juvenile growth, was under divergent selection that predated the Last Glacial Maximum. Altogether, the current variation in these phenotypic traits in Norway spruce is better explained by local adaptation to ancestral environments than to current ones, where populations were partly preadapted, mainly through growth-related traits

Multi-layered Scots pine forests in boreal Sweden result from mass regeneration and size stratification

Understanding historic development of multi-layered Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) stands and how they became multi-layered is essential for assessing the feasibility of using the selection system in these stands. To address this we measured trees (dbh ≥ 4 cm) and saplings (height > 0.5 m dbh < 4 cm) and used increment cores from 244 sample trees to reconstruct stand structure development, ingrowth and basal area increment in four multi-layered Scots pine stands in Sweden. Age distributions were quite homogeneous, three of the four stands had age distributions that were dominated by one or two 20 year age classes, suggesting that the irregular diameter distributions displayed in 2013 had developed from more homogeneous distributions. Analyses of the historical ingrowth of Scots pine into the tree layer suggested that the multi-layered structure was created by mass regeneration followed by size stratification caused by differences in growth rates within even-aged cohorts of regeneration. Large reductions of the basal area in the past resulted in abundant regeneration and ingrowth of Scots pine. When the over-story increased in basal area over time, there was a growth differentiation among the saplings and small trees, gradually creating a multi-layered stand structure as some of the trees grew into the larger size classes while others remained in the smaller size classes. When the stands reached a basal area of about 13 m2 ha−1 the ingrowth of saplings past 1.3 m height essentially stopped but the size stratification among the small trees continued, further enhancing the multi-layered structure. The results indicate that to receive regeneration pulses and sustain a multi-layered structure in Scots pine forests, the basal area needs to be significantly reduced. The growth consequences of this need to be studied