In the face of the tremendous onslaught of global imperialism, it is crucial for the third world city to assert its existence beyond the designation as a mere node in the 'World Wide Web'. This thesis breaks away from the general positivist, reductionist gaze to appropriate Hele…
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Chaos and complexity theories are examined in their role as a framework from which to understand social change. The central question is that of how complexity, which is based in chaos theory, can shed light on the emergence of ways to address macro-level problems in complex soci…
This thesis reports on three months of excavation and a month of site survey undertaken in 1999–2000 in the central sector of the Middle Senegal Valley that was associated with the historical polity of Takrur. The focus of the research was two-fold: to investigate the earliest p…
Descriptive complexity is the study of the expressive power of logical languages. There exists a close relationship between the expressive power of a logical language and the computational complexity of the properties captured by such a language. R. Fagin proved that every sente…
The construction industry is notorious all over the world for disputes and claims. In large scale projects these claims are often more frequent and more expensive. The contract is the legal frame work of the project and forms project culture, therefore is a logical starting poin…
This thesis aims to contribute new understandings of community sustainability through a detailed case study of public sector and community relations within Cornwall. The Look Group Network is a multi-layered public sector and community adult informal learning partnership project…
The causes of violent conflicts in Ethiopia in general, and in Gambella in particular, are complex. Critically examining and explaining the causes entails going beyond labelling them solely in terms of one variable, such as 'ethnic conflict‘. The contestation of the study is tha…
This PhD thesis is formed of work completed while studying at Royal Holloway, University of London. The three chapters that form the majority of the thesis each represent distinct projects that were studied in this time. Chronologically, the research forming the first chapter, o…
This study explores how United Kingdom (UK) threshold standards are understood, mediated and safeguarded in an Egyptian Transnational Education (TNE) context. The professional challenge this thesis addresses is the requirement for Higher Education (HE) leaders and practitioners …
This thesis analyses how development appears as lived experience along the Grijalva River, in the state of Chiapas, Mexico. Here, the post-revolutionary Mexican State tried to move a modernist project forward through a series of dams, in the middle of a state associated with rur…
This research deals with the ways Corporate Social Responsibility is interpreted in a UK Higher Education Institution. It evolved from my initial curiosity about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), especially the way it is taken up in daily practices. Drawing on the pragmatic…
This thesis offers a holistic insight into the expectations and experiences of university students in relation to academic feedback. The subjects are a diverse group of first year accounting and finance students in a post-92 university. What is identified and examined here is th…
This thesis addresses how leaders find themselves doing something even when they don't know what to do. It is based on my own practice as an experienced team leader and it deals with questions of action, time, identity and leadership. A classic understanding of action usually re…
There are as many perspectives in designing as there have been instances in which it has occured. In each instance, constraints will have invariably arisen in various forms, to the extent that designing and constraints are considered to be an inherently natural pairing. In addit…
This portfolio identifies a lacuna in the ways most mainstream management literature speaks of change. This literature focuses predominantly on the activities of 'planning', 'implementing' and 'evaluating' change in organizations, while largely overlooking the situated and embod…
There has been an ongoing debate on quality and what constitutes quality improvement in healthcare for several decades. Several authors identify that defining quality is an important part of that debate, yet recognise that quality is defined differently by different interests (C…
I argue that the resources for political change do not exist as already constituted entities, whether in the form of transcendent values or an already-given consensus. Instead, they must be created; constitutive political action is rooted in creativity, and requires the creation…
A bound for Betti numbers of sets definable in o-minimal structures is presented. An axiomatic complexity measure is defined, allowing various concrete complexity measures for definable functions to be covered. This includes common concrete measures such as the degree of polynom…
Mega construction projects are complex undertakings. The complexity is increased during a construction boom in a city such as Dubai where more than 80% of material and labour resources are imported. The complexities inherent in mega construction projects include uncertainty and …