Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 1993. / Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

In this thesis I explore the relationships between post-secondary education in the field of international development, and the maintenance and practices of white settler-colonialism at home and abroad. My method is to search for recurring present and absent themes found in French and English course syllabi of the Canadian Master’s Program in Globalization and International Development of the University of Ottawa. Through search strings in 81 syllabi of four mandatory courses taught over an 8-year period, 2007-2015, I find that colonialism is little mentioned, and when it is, it is usually either as something of the past or something geographically distant. I conclude that, for students, academics and others to address settler-colonialism as an obstacle to decolonization, requires (1) acknowledging their current role in naturalizing settler-colonialism, (2) denaturalizing the logics of settler-colonialism, and (3) working to deliberately give up on white settler futures, while other futures (Indigenous futures) are flourishing through the process of decolonization. While this content analysis is only a small and possibly ungeneralizable example of higher education and its simultaneous potential for colonization and decolonization, it nevertheless represents an addition to the few applications of the theoretical field of settler-colonial studies and of its material implications.

abstract: Universities have played a key, but often understudied, role in international development throughtechnical assistance, the education of international students and the research of critical global issues (Morgan, 1979; BIFAD, 2011). Understanding internationalization in higher education can help uncover nuances of the role that United States (U.S.) universities play in U.S. international development efforts. This paper seeks to answer: “How do internationalization activities differ in public research universities with varying levels of publicness?” The study follows multicase qualitative methodology and a framework from Horn et al. to collect data on 5 dimensions of internationalization, students, scholars, research orientation, curriculum content and organizational support, to compare internationalization at four U.S. public research universities with varying levels of state funding and state change (2007). Case selection is grounded on dimensional publicness theory to provide a theoretical foundation for the variables used: level of state appropriations and percent change of state appropriations. Through a purposeful case selection process, four U.S. public research intensive universities with similar size, endowment and research activity were selected. Results showed that all universities have internationalization efforts across all dimensions but nuances exist in how internationalization is actualized at institutions. Cases with low state funding differed noticeably in student and research characteristics but did not differ in curricular and organizational support. Differences across cases can be explained by an economic rationale for the need to subsidize state budget cuts with full- paying international students and increased research grants. Similarities can be explained by other non-economic rationales that may insulate curriculum and organizational support from budgetary costs. While results demonstrate a clear commitment to internationalization, further research will need to be conducted to determine if results hold true against a dramatic shift in world events since 2017 which include a rise in nationalism, a global pandemic and decrease global standing of the United States. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Global Technology and Development 2020

acase@tulane.edu

This research examined the role of men within the gender and development paradigm and male students’ perceptions of gender-related work in the professional practice of IDEV. The study addressed men’s experiences with both formal and non-formal gender training in IDS within Canadian and US graduate programs. The study asked questions about influential theory, skills and tools relevant to the GAD paradigm. The methods included an online survey of males in IDS graduate programs from five North American universities. Key informants were also interviewed, including faculty members from four universities and two senior level gender advisors working for large non-profit organizations. The findings were presented as four emerging themes: 1) Despite exposure to some gender training opportunities, many male graduate students are not engaged with theory and practise on GAD; 2) The relevance of men in GAD continues to be questioned by the field and men themselves; 3) There is little “buy in” to gender in IDEV by men studying IDS at the graduate level; 4) The field of GAD is primarily operating without the active engagement of men and therefore, is better associated with WID’s “women’s focused” policy and programming, an approach the UN acknowledges to have failed in the past. The study recommends adjustments within IDS graduate studies as well as further research on men and masculinity to strengthen the role of men in achieving GAD’s stated goal of gender equality.

During the past decade, international development discourse has shifted from a narrow focus on aid effectiveness to one of cooperation towards more effective development. A series of High Level Forums have produced a set of principles to guide this new development framework. With the steady increase of international migration, sizeable diasporas who generate a diversity of activities with development implications in their homelands have formed outside of developing countries. Recognizing their importance and potential for development, several developed country bilateral donors have engaged these emerging development actors, including the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Analysis of their policies and programs reveals a set of emerging themes and lessons learned that identify the need to challenge conventional ways of thinking about the nature of development partnerships in order to move towards more effective development.

During the past decade, international development discourse has shifted from a narrow focus on aid effectiveness to one of cooperation towards more effective development. A series of High Level Forums have produced a set of principles to guide this new development framework. With the steady increase of international migration, sizeable diasporas who generate a diversity of activities with development implications in their homelands have formed outside of developing countries. Recognizing their importance and potential for development, several developed country bilateral donors have engaged these emerging development actors, including the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Analysis of their policies and programs reveals a set of emerging themes and lessons learned that identify the need to challenge conventional ways of thinking about the nature of development partnerships in order to move towards more effective development.

Master of Arts / Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work / Gerad D. Middendorf / The label “fair-trade” might seem to be a definitive designation: either a product is or isn’t. In fact, a continuum exists, resultant mostly from the participation in fair-trade by diverse groups of producer organizations, buyers, certifying organizations, and consumers. Therefore, the way fair-trade is perceived and practiced cannot be presumed to be homogenous. In order to better understand the complexities of fair-trade, a qualitative study was carried out to examine one fair-trade product and its producers. Two Nepalese handmade paper companies, Bhaktapur Craft Paper (BCP) and Get Paper Industry (GPI), were studied to gain insight into the producers’ perceptions, interpretations, and practices of fair-trade. This study also assesses the impact of fair-trade affiliation on the socio-economic conditions of producers and workers. To provide the opportunity for comparison, the cases of BCP and GPI were also compared, where possible, to those of a non-fair-trade company, Bagmati Paper Industries (BPI). The study finds that the fair-trade producer organizations were affiliated with fair-trade networks primarily to promote their business by way of the multiple and committed trading partners involved in fair-trade. Also, affiliation seemed to have positive impacts on the overall business of the paper companies, contributing to growth in sales over the years. Likewise, different training programs sponsored by fair-trade organizations, such as Fair Trade Group Nepal and World Fair Trade Organization-Asia, and fair-trade buyers also contributed to the capacity enhancement of producer organizations. The producers in the paper companies lacked an understanding of fair-trade due to a lack of participation in decision making, a high level of illiteracy among producers, and because management did not consider producer awareness of fair-trade as significant. The study finds positive impacts of fair-trade involvement on the producers’ socio-economic position: a company’s participation in and practice of fair-trade is positively related to improvement in the socio-economic conditions of producers. Considering wages, work-hours, working conditions, and job satisfaction of workers, the fair-trade companies were determined to more favorably affect workers’ lives than the non-fair-trade company.

This thesis is about the life chances and trajectories of ex-combatant and other youth in post-war Monrovia, Liberia. In it I present the results of a qualitative inquiry into the relationship between shifting structural conditions and youth agency in the aftermath of 14 years of civil war. Much of the literature concerned with ex-combatant “reintegration” remains a-theoretical and fails to situate their experience within the contours of transition from structures in armed groups to structures in post-war society. It is rife with normative assumptions about how ex-combatants should “return” to civilian life. The ex-combatant trajectories detailed in this study challenge this literature reflecting neither “reintegration” nor “return.” Instead, they highlight how ex-combatants negotiate a complex environment in which structural norms, values, and relationships converge and conflict after war. To demonstrate this, the thesis presents an analysis of the relationships between structural constraints and youth agency among youth who fought, and others who did not. In so doing, it provides a situated analysis of post-war society which is often missing in the literature concerned with ex-combatants. The empirical material shows the significance of interdependent relationships at the level of the family and the household. It is “wealth in people” at this proximate level that supports survival and enables socio-economic mobility, with implications for social respect. Without patronage through family and kin, socio-economic possibilities diminish significantly. This means that options available to many ex-combatants are limited after war, as they are often unable or unwilling to be incorporated into families and former communities. Their navigation of the post-war social terrain reflects efforts to survive and maintain respect through patrimonial relationships within and outside of their structured networks from war. Some retain the status and respect they achieved in war through relationships maintained from their years of conflict. Others were able to survive and achieve respect through new or renewed relationships with families and extended kin. Life chances and trajectories emerge from embedded positions within structured social relations that are produced and reproduced in the aftermath of conflict. With this work, I argue that social processes are vital to any theorisation about life after war.

The research underpinning this work took place in the context of two rural water and sanitation projects carried out in the Eastern Region of Ghana. The focus of study was on the way engineers can make water and sanitation projects more sustainable. In particular, emphasis was placed on the broad range of non-technical factors engineers need to incorporate into the design of water and sanitation systems and the processes they need to follow in order to achieve this, looking specifically at the implications of community participation for design process, project management and health and safety management. The current high failure rate of rural water and sanitation projects provided the impetus for carrying out this work. There is an urgent need to improve engineering ability to provide vital life-saving infrastructure in developing countries as this infrastructure is a pre-requisite for poverty reduction. A critical realist perspective framed the research to allow socially constructed realities to be combined with scientific and technical facts, and to allow inquiry in a ‘real world’ scenario where variables cannot be controlled individually. The research questions were explored through the author’s involvement in two community development projects involving water and sanitation system implementation. The key methods employed were interview, both informal and group, observation and reflection. The contribution to knowledge made by this investigation is an increased understanding of the relevance of social and cultural context for engineers engaged in rural water and sanitation infrastructure provision through exploration of these issues in a particular context. Also examined are health and safety aspects of rural water and sanitation projects where the community participate in construction. Whilst health and safety had been explored in a developing country context there is a lack of previous work looking at these issues in a community self-construction context. It was found that a broad range of factors need to be considered in the engineering design of water and sanitation systems if projects are to have a chance of being sustainable in the long term. In order to understand and design appropriately for the context of rural projects with direct community involvement it is necessary to adapt the engineering process to incorporate community participation fully into the design and construction of water and sanitation facilities. Where communities are involved in construction particular issues arise with regards to health and safety management; many of the issues originate in the socio-cultural context and motivations for community members to engage in hazardous construction activities need to be understood and considered to properly manage the construction process. To truly incorporate the ideas of local communities into engineering design, engineers need a greater awareness of the assumptions they hold arising from their scientific outlook. Further research is required in different contexts in order to more clearly define the boundaries of the findings of this study and begin to overcome the limitations of the case study method. However, this research contributes to understanding how engineers can improve their designs of water and sanitation infrastructure and the processes they use to create more sustainable projects by looking at these issues in one particular context. This contribution adds to understanding of how a lack of access to water and sanitation infrastructure in rural regions of developing countries can be overcome, which is ultimately necessary to meet the Millennium Development Goals and as a pre-requisite to reducing poverty in the developing world.