The objective of this thesis is to identify ways that international actors can be most effective in influencing policy change pertaining to women’s safety and security in India. Since the 1970s, domestic groups within India and international organizations have focused on promoting gender equality and combatting problematic social norms that beget discrimination and violence against women. This thesis examines some of the programs and campaigns that Indian governments and civil society actors – domestic and international – have implemented to promote the rights and protections of women. This thesis considers examples of finance, social networking, training, education, and information propagation, which are key ways that international actors can participate in efforts to combat prevailing attitudes that undermine the human dignity of girls and women in India. Because violence against women is systemic in nature, and because it is a social malaise that transcends culture, development professionals should frame issues of gender violence in terms of basic human rights. Fundamentally, international organizations are most effective in enhancing the status of women in India by providing grassroots organizations with critical resources to which they would not otherwise have access.

Today’s youth are tomorrow’s leaders’, and for that reason, it is considered important by researchers and practitioners alike to understand how to develop effective leadership skills and characteristics. The purpose of this research was to explore concepts of leadership including leadership development (LD) within an international development through sport context. The Commonwealth Games Association of Canada’s (CGC) International Development through Sport (IDS) administration team created a program called the Capacity Support Program (CSP). The CSP is an internship program offered to recent university graduates to assist in various initiatives intended on building sporting capacity within partnering Commonwealth countries. Participants also known as Capacity Support Officer’s (CSO’s) were immersed within an international environment with a host sport organization (e.g., Barbados National Olympic Committee) for approximately fourteen-months. In this study, interviews were conducted with IDS administrators to clarify and provide further detailed information about the program. In addition, archival material (e.g., pre-departure training manual, website articles, DVDs), interviews with CSO’s, and a debrief focus group session with the CSO’s which discussed their experiences and the various concepts of leadership and LD within an international development through sport context was conducted. Data was recorded and transcribed verbatim. A grounded theory approach, specifically the inductive coding technique was utilized throughout the content analysis procedure. Findings showed that concepts of leadership and LD were 1) a fundamental component of the program and 2) linked to various existing literature on leadership theories (e.g., authentic leadership). Further, findings demonstrated the program design and training were significant components of LD and that the cross-cultural context accelerated LD. These findings and others will culminate in a discussion regarding future studies of leadership and LD.

This thesis analyzes examples of current female circumcision discourse within U.S. feminist contexts and western-based anti-circumcision projects operating in Kenya. This analysis reveals that, despite recent critiques from postcolonial scholars and activists, the knowledge produced around female circumcision perpetuates discursive and material violence against Kenyan Maasai communities. I explore how this violence has persisted in neo/colonial eras as part of the white western feminist ‘care of self’ technique of displacing female abjection through the pleasure of whiteness. I trace how these formations of race and gender have become attached to understandings of genitalia through colonial-era race science, Freudian psychoanalysis and some feminist texts from 1949-1970. I suggest that these western feminist constructions of sexual liberation rely on depicting racialized women as primitive and degenerate. Finally, I argue that these racial and gendered constructions now inform concepts of ‘developed’ versus ‘underdeveloped’ bodies and nations in contemporary international development work.

This research project critically questions the power relations inherent in the use of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a tool for international development. My case study focuses on the partnership between UNESCO and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), which advocates for global gender equality. This discourse analysis seeks to expose the social inequities that may result from CSR by using the theoretical framework of Orientalism and the methodologies of postcolonial feminism and intersectionality. The results suggest that an outdated understanding of gender as the axis of discrimination hinders the attainment of gender equality. Furthermore, Girl Effect type initiatives that promote third-wave feminism are observed to reproduce social inequities through the perpetuation of global capitalism. Key recommendations include a reconceptualization of gender (equality) that accounts for the intersectionality of identities, holistic context specific solutions, and the use of socio-cultural analysis for CSR programming.

This thesis analyzes examples of current female circumcision discourse within U.S. feminist contexts and western-based anti-circumcision projects operating in Kenya. This analysis reveals that, despite recent critiques from postcolonial scholars and activists, the knowledge produced around female circumcision perpetuates discursive and material violence against Kenyan Maasai communities. I explore how this violence has persisted in neo/colonial eras as part of the white western feminist ‘care of self’ technique of displacing female abjection through the pleasure of whiteness. I trace how these formations of race and gender have become attached to understandings of genitalia through colonial-era race science, Freudian psychoanalysis and some feminist texts from 1949-1970. I suggest that these western feminist constructions of sexual liberation rely on depicting racialized women as primitive and degenerate. Finally, I argue that these racial and gendered constructions now inform concepts of ‘developed’ versus ‘underdeveloped’ bodies and nations in contemporary international development work.

This research project critically questions the power relations inherent in the use of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a tool for international development. My case study focuses on the partnership between UNESCO and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), which advocates for global gender equality. This discourse analysis seeks to expose the social inequities that may result from CSR by using the theoretical framework of Orientalism and the methodologies of postcolonial feminism and intersectionality. The results suggest that an outdated understanding of gender as the axis of discrimination hinders the attainment of gender equality. Furthermore, Girl Effect type initiatives that promote third-wave feminism are observed to reproduce social inequities through the perpetuation of global capitalism. Key recommendations include a reconceptualization of gender (equality) that accounts for the intersectionality of identities, holistic context specific solutions, and the use of socio-cultural analysis for CSR programming.

For over 160 years, The Economist newspaper has been one of the most influential, sophisticated, and effective proponents of capitalism. It has consistently championed and conveyed a form of humanitarian political economy to its weekly, global audience of professionals and business and government leaders. The Economist began in 1843 to campaign for free trade in agriculture and to advocate for the emerging regime of capitalism in Britain. Its primary concern during its first two decades centered on agricultural change. This thesis examines those first two decades, from 1843-1863, and The Economists focus on improvement, or capitalist development, in the English countryside.<p> The Economist was a staunch advocate for increased urbanization, private property, and high agriculture a modern system of agriculture that involved scientific techniques, free trade, large landholdings, and significant amounts of capital. It vehemently opposed any attempts to alleviate rural poverty using measures it felt were inconsistent with the principles of political economy and argued rural labourers would be better off if they were forced to sell their labour and submit to the discipline of the market. The Economist repeatedly portrayed this process of capitalist development as beneficial for all and as a natural occurrence, brought about through the free working of the market. Its account contributed to the prominent idea of the success of British agriculture in the 19th century; an idea that has had profound effects on subsequent notions of development.<p> This thesis uses Marxist and Foucauldian concepts to demonstrate that the process of capitalist development in the countryside was not brought about through market forces. Extensive and often oppressive government intervention was needed to dispossess people from the land and to force them into waged labour. Though much of this dispossession had occurred by the 19th century, The Economist performed a crucial role in advocating for policies that cemented capitalist relations of production. The Economists most important function was to spread belief in capitalism by making its inequality and poverty more palatable.

Today’s youth are tomorrow’s leaders’, and for that reason, it is considered important by researchers and practitioners alike to understand how to develop effective leadership skills and characteristics. The purpose of this research was to explore concepts of leadership including leadership development (LD) within an international development through sport context. The Commonwealth Games Association of Canada’s (CGC) International Development through Sport (IDS) administration team created a program called the Capacity Support Program (CSP). The CSP is an internship program offered to recent university graduates to assist in various initiatives intended on building sporting capacity within partnering Commonwealth countries. Participants also known as Capacity Support Officer’s (CSO’s) were immersed within an international environment with a host sport organization (e.g., Barbados National Olympic Committee) for approximately fourteen-months. In this study, interviews were conducted with IDS administrators to clarify and provide further detailed information about the program. In addition, archival material (e.g., pre-departure training manual, website articles, DVDs), interviews with CSO’s, and a debrief focus group session with the CSO’s which discussed their experiences and the various concepts of leadership and LD within an international development through sport context was conducted. Data was recorded and transcribed verbatim. A grounded theory approach, specifically the inductive coding technique was utilized throughout the content analysis procedure. Findings showed that concepts of leadership and LD were 1) a fundamental component of the program and 2) linked to various existing literature on leadership theories (e.g., authentic leadership). Further, findings demonstrated the program design and training were significant components of LD and that the cross-cultural context accelerated LD. These findings and others will culminate in a discussion regarding future studies of leadership and LD.

The poor record of aid operations after the withdrawal of donor support has led to an increasing interest in the topic of sustainability of aid. Making a contribution to this growing topic, the thesis examines the sustainability of the development work carried out by the Vi Agroforestry Programme (VIAFP) around Lake Victoria. By combining an interview study and a policy analysis, the research uses the practice of phasing out support and the experience during the latter (extensive) phase of the Programme as indicators for sustainability. The results show that (1) the coherent and flexible methodology of phasing out support, (2) the emergence of community-based and non-governmental organisations that take over VIAFP’s work after the withdrawal of its staff, (3) the examples of organisational learning that improved the practice of the Programme, and (4) farmer groups overcoming the challenges during the extensive phase, are strong signs of sustainability. However, further attention and work from the Programme is required when it comes to its role after terminating support, the financial sustainability of emerging organisations, women’s rights and the lack of carrying out any research after phasing out support to communities. Finally, the thesis highlights the practices within the Programme that increase its sustainability, as well as recommendations for further improvement.

For over 160 years, The Economist newspaper has been one of the most influential, sophisticated, and effective proponents of capitalism. It has consistently championed and conveyed a form of humanitarian political economy to its weekly, global audience of professionals and business and government leaders. The Economist began in 1843 to campaign for free trade in agriculture and to advocate for the emerging regime of capitalism in Britain. Its primary concern during its first two decades centered on agricultural change. This thesis examines those first two decades, from 1843-1863, and The Economists focus on improvement, or capitalist development, in the English countryside.<p> The Economist was a staunch advocate for increased urbanization, private property, and high agriculture a modern system of agriculture that involved scientific techniques, free trade, large landholdings, and significant amounts of capital. It vehemently opposed any attempts to alleviate rural poverty using measures it felt were inconsistent with the principles of political economy and argued rural labourers would be better off if they were forced to sell their labour and submit to the discipline of the market. The Economist repeatedly portrayed this process of capitalist development as beneficial for all and as a natural occurrence, brought about through the free working of the market. Its account contributed to the prominent idea of the success of British agriculture in the 19th century; an idea that has had profound effects on subsequent notions of development.<p> This thesis uses Marxist and Foucauldian concepts to demonstrate that the process of capitalist development in the countryside was not brought about through market forces. Extensive and often oppressive government intervention was needed to dispossess people from the land and to force them into waged labour. Though much of this dispossession had occurred by the 19th century, The Economist performed a crucial role in advocating for policies that cemented capitalist relations of production. The Economists most important function was to spread belief in capitalism by making its inequality and poverty more palatable.