Since the creation of the Old Age Pension scheme (Algemene Ouderdomswet, henceforth; AOW) in 1957 some important changes in its regulation have taken place. The purpose of this study is to analyse the redistribution of income for different individuals in the AOW taking into account these changes in regulation and different groups of individuals according to their gender, civil status and income. This comparison is made by using the Generational Accounts approach, initially presented by Auerbach (1991), in which the Net Present Value of the pension benefits received by every individual from the system is subtracted from the Net Present Value of the contributions paid to the system. In this study the database IPO, Documentatierapport Inkomenspanelonderzoek from CBS, Statistics Netherlands, has been used for some specific years after 1977. For the data of 2008 onwards the future contributions and benefits of the individuals will be projected according to the forecasts of the wage increases and pension benefits. A sensitivity analysis is also performed in order to check the changes in the Generational Accounts of the individuals with different discount rates and including the effects of the New Pension Contract.

Over the last decade, the Latin American Cross-Border M&A activity experienced a significant increase in terms of volume, value, and complexity. Between 2002 and 2011, 1483 M&A announcements involving Latin American bidders were found in this study. From this sample 344 were targeting companies in a foreign country. With the purpose of measuring to what extent CB-M&A can be a catalyst of value creation or destruction for the bidder in the short-term, the event study methodology was employed in a sample of 47 observations. I found that on average, the market reaction is positive after the announcement, leading to the short-term value creation for the Latin American acquirers. Regarding the allocation of investments in terms of geographies, the outcome shows that bidders tend to favor countries with similar cultural values and geographically close. The Hofstede’s cultural dimensions along with additional factors such as language, legal origins, and religion were analyzed in order to evaluate to what degree cultural differences affect cross-border acquisitions. However much the results are not statistically significant, it appears that cultural differences tend to have a negative effect on the bidder’s short-term performance.

In order to receive the title of Master of Science in Industrial Engineering and Management, the author Juan Pablo Rolón Paz, developed the current Master Thesis, which by the hand of the Dutch company ASML Holding, identified, described and analysed strategies to service generations of machines developed by ASML, now referred as platforms, during the decline stage and post Product Life Cycle (PLC). ASML is a company that designs, develops, integrates, markets and services machines to create chips that power electronic, communications, and information technology products. The services provided by ASML include spare parts, tooling and labour. ASML is characterised to offer perpetual support for their products. They service their recently released equipment, to the ones developed over the life of the company. In this light, ASML wants to identify strategies to service their platforms during the decline stage of product life cycle. This means, strategies to service their aged platforms. ASML is interested in identifying the criteria for deciding whether to stop offering their service products or not, and in the situation they agree to stop offering their service products, what approaches to take regarding post PLC.  To identify strategies to service platforms in the decline stage and post PLC, we decided to do a literature and benchmarking study, to get the best practices in service management, service parts management and service parts logistics for aged products. We met with people within ASML, and people of other companies in The Netherlands, and the United States of America. The results were triangulated with the information gathered through the literature research, meetings with experts on product life cycle and spare parts management, and having feedback from managerial people of ASML. In the next chapter, we define the research, developing the research statement, objectives, questions, scope, delineation, deliverables, method and structure.

The thesis focuses the topic of squatter settlements located along borders in twin cities on the Amazon context. The study claims that Twin Cities are integrated by informality, in this case by squatter settlements along borders. In addition to the integration, these squatter settlements are transforming the border from a limit towards a social spatial construction of their territory. Based on that, the study looks for a cross border approach which can be developed by local governments of twin cities in order to manage squatter settlements along borders as a shared and common problem. In order to develop the research, the study has been done in the case of Leticia (Colombia) and Tabatinga (Brazil) twin cities in the Amazon. The thesis is focused in a natural space which has been the border between these twin cities the San Antonio ravine. Along this “natural” limit between Colombia and Brazil has been taken place an occupation of squatter settlements that has transformed the international limit into an “informal” urban space. The thesis developed two approaches in order to study the mentioned case of squatter settlements located along borders in twin cities. First, the study developed a bottom up approach analysing socioeconomic and physical characteristics of squatter settlements inhabitants and comparing both squatter settlements based on fieldwork findings. The comparative study looks for symmetric and asymmetric issues between both squatter settlements which are a key output towards a cross border approach between the twin cities based on needs and characteristics of squatter settlements inhabitants in the Amazon context. On the other hand, the study developed a review of urban policies of Colombia and Brazil looking for aspects that can be taking into account for local government of Leticia and Tabatinga in their local policies for managing squatter settlements on flood prone lands located on the border’s fringe. In addition, the study made a review of the current frontiers policies of both countries in order to find key elements that can used by local government for developing a cross border cooperation for managing squatter settlements in a cooperation and integration framework.Finally, the study looks for a short and long term appropriate approach for managing these two squatter settlements located along the border between the Leticia and Tabatinga twin cities. The recommendations for both terms can be useful input for future housing policies, and urban planning and management instruments in the twin cities based on Amazon characteristics. Moreover, the research methodology developed in the study can be an appropriate research procedure for further urban studies in Leticia and Tabatinga twin cities, especially on squatter settlements along border’s fringe.

This research aims to find relationships through a comprehensive set of themes between four art museum spaces designed in four different cities, in four different years, by four different architects. The relationships highlight the complexities of museum architecture, its multiple constituents, and its permanent shaping by the varying cultural conditions of a certain time. This paper uses the four architecture projects not as the ultimate object of analysis; rather they are instruments to exemplify broader topics extracted from the literature review. These are: the relationship of the museum with its urban settings, the interactions between architectural form, artistic practices and exhibition space, and the varying models of visitor experience they each create. In addition to systematically collecting, reading, and analysing books and articles published during the last two decades and the review of current information on the museums’ online sites, this dissertation relies on four case studies: The Museum of Unlimited Growth (1939), The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (1959), The Centre Georges Pompidou (1977), and Tate Modern (2000). Although it relies heavily on the literature, it hopes to raise a critical viewpoint and contribute to the efforts towards understanding what shapes the architecture of the museum as well as the thoughtful responsibilities of those involved in this significant scenario; from museum directors, curators, and artists, to architects, policy makers, and visitors.

The study will be based on an anthropological view of learning in which the central idea is to find out how people become to be who they are. On that account, it will be interested in the social influences of the environment people are settled in, as well as the individual’s agency in their process of making sense of their experience. The discovery of the common practices individuals execute at a particular setting –as it is the school- will be one of the aims of this study that is to contribute to the revelation of the social relations structured within the community. Studying deeper these social relations structured in practice (Lave & Wegner, 1991) and in the material dispositions, will bring us to an understanding of how people are valued in the specific situations inside a particular society. On that account, I am concerned with the idea of what it means to be a child and how children come, in particular contexts, like educational institutions, to be valued in historically specific ways. Taking two primary school classrooms in a West London school as my case study, I analyse how value is created as the outcome of socially structured processes of interaction between teachers and children and between children themselves. Comparing and contrasting the teachers’ ideas of what makes children valued at school, I describe how the structuring influence exerted by the teachers in the classroom infringe on the formation of friendship relations among the children. 

Current living conditions and the bottlenecks that restrain agriculture’s progress in Colombia justify the exploration and implementation of public policies aimed at rural development. This dissertation focuses on rural development through smallholders’ agricultural cooperatives. Its main objective is to determine whether the main socio-economic conditions that allow these organizations to successfully develop are currently met in Colombia and to formulate policy implications on how the State may contribute to them. This dissertation argues that the conditions that facilitate the development of agricultural cooperatives are not adequately achieved in Colombia. Furthermore, it suggests that the State and other external agents may have a role to play in advancing these conditions. In short, it proposes the formulation of policies that allow the State to exert a facilitating role that aims to “midwife” the formation of self-reliant grassroots organizations. This “facilitatory” role would represent a third-way between two previous approaches that have failed in Colombia: the “top-down” interventions on farmer enterprises devised by the State in the 1960s and 1970s and the “hands-off” approach that was indifferent toward the development of smallholder organizations in the 1990s and 2000s.

Abstract: The goal of this Capstone is to identify growth opportunities for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Colombia that provide solutions in the area of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). This Capstone is divided in three sections. First, it analyzes the current market of ICT in Colombia. Second, it identifies key ICT technological trends with bigger market opportunities in Latin America (LATAM) and analyzes key regional opportunities in Colombia. Third, it analyzes the characteristics of the Colombian SMEs that provide ICT solutions and their current competitiveness in the ICT industry in Colombia. As a result, this Capstone proposes to the managers of a typical SME a list of key ICTs that they should adopt in their company’s portfolios as well as a list of specific strategies that they could adopt in their company’s business plans to ensure their long-term competitiveness in the Colombian ICT market.Resumen: El objetivo de esta Tesis es identificar oportunidades de crecimiento para las Pequeñas y Medianas Empresas (PYMEs) en Colombia que proveen soluciones en el área de Tecnologías de Información y Comunicaciones (TICs). Esta tesis se divide en tres secciones. Primero, se analiza el mercado actual de las TICs en Colombia. Segundo, se identifican las principales tendencias tecnológicas con mayores oportunidades de mercado en América Latina y se analizan oportunidades regionales claves en Colombia. Tercero, se analizan las características de las PYMEs colombianas que proporcionan soluciones TICs y su competitividad actual en la industria Colombiana. Como resultado, esta tesis propone a los gerentes de las PYMEs una lista de tecnologías claves que podrían adoptar en sus portafolios de servicios, así como una lista de estrategias específicas que podrían adoptar en sus planes de negocio para garantizar una competitividad sostenida en el largo plazo de sus empresas en el mercado de las TICs en Colombia.

This dissertation is a research studies on the dynamics of Crafts its consumerism and contemporary significance within the developed and the developing countries leading to a better understanding of the critical factors and necessary conditions to build up effective strategies to enable craftspeople and organisations to adapt better to the requirements of contemporary society. This study contains relevant reference material to understand the meaning of crafts in different cultural contexts. It also analyses collaborative efforts and promotional strategies which local and international organisations are undertaking in response to new market opportunities for crafts. The outcome is to provide guidance and recommendations on possible new directions for successful exports to organisations and craftspeople concerned with these issues. Following the abstract and introduction, information on “crafts” as an economic issue in the UK and information about International organisations working for the development of crafts in the world such as UNESCO, the World Crafts Council and Aid to Artisans is given in Section I. Section II starts addressing the question that originated from the findings that arise from the review of the topic in section I followed by an explanation of the method of investigation used to carry out the research. This section will provide the reader with information of the Crafts Council and Artesanías de Colombia, the British and Colombian organisations selected as case studies. This section investigates what are the collaborative efforts and the strategies these organisations have undertaken to help craftspeople export their products. Literature review on the relationship design management and marketing and Internet-based research on craft’s promotion are also analysed. Section III will go on to analyse the critical factors that have an impact on the success of British and Colombian crafts within international markets. I will be attempting to respond the key question by discussing the following issues: Understanding the role of crafts in a consumer society, International organisations Vs national organisations, International markets – obstacles for successful exports, The market link – what it is necessary?, Internet – an economically viable promotional medium. Finally, this dissertation concludes with lessons drawn from current practices, which instruct on possible directions for a Colombian craft export model.

During twenty years of sustained conflict, boys and girls in Uganda suffered a commensurable number of atrocities as abductees in the Lord’s Resistant Army (LRA). In general men have been seen as warriors and fighters whereas women have been seen mainly as “wives” in charge of practical support and catering of the rebels. This is a simplistic perception that has affected the design and delivery of reintegration programmes in Northern Uganda since it does not consider other types of involvement and roles that particularly female combatants performed inside of the LRA. This dissertation draws upon testimony from female ex-combatants and interviews with different organisations working on reintegration of former combatants and local authorities. Primary information, secondary data and theoretical concepts are linked to demonstrate that the approach used in the reintegration of female ex-combatants in Northern Uganda has not included an extensive comprehension of the change in gender roles and relations during the war. As a result, these programmes have largely failed countering stigmatisation and harnessing the social and technical skills learnt by women during abduction, their agency capacity and their economic potential at the community level. This thesis offers some alternatives and recommendations to include a broader analysis of gender roles and ‘capabilities’ in order to contribute to outline hybrid forms of peace and opportunities to reintegrate female ex-combatants into society after six years of relative peace from 2006 to 2012 in the region.