Sociological explanations for human conduct usually place major ontological and epistemological emphasis upon either discursive or material relations without ever establishing or adequately specifying the validity of this dichotomy. Early texts by the Critical Realist philosopher Roy Bhaskar address this forced separation by creating an integrated ontological and epistemological field that provides a more detailed and precise theoretical ordering to agents, objects, and entities. Undertaking a developmental critique of Bhaskar’s arguments, this thesis extends Critical Realism’s role as theoretical ‘underlabourer’ and creates an expanded theoretical framework that balances discursive and material accounts. Utilising the sophisticated analyses of the structure and operation of discourses found in the work of Michel Foucault alongside the innovative arguments for aleatory materialism developed by Louis Althusser, a critique is established that shows discursive, material, and social relations to be complex, immanent, and, importantly, mutually constitutive. In each theory three core concepts of events, emergence, and the extra-discursive are shown to not only be present but also to operate as the main means of explaining social change. The result of integrating Critical Realism, Foucault, and Althusser in this sympathetic but non-syncretic form is the generation of a non-reductionist materialism combined with discursive relations. On this basis, social change is shown to be the result of restructured discursive and material relations of which human agents are only one part. The thesis provides an illustration of the theoretical argument with an empirical component which examines the formation and decline of the British nuclear industry between its inception in the early 1950s to the year 2000. The conclusion is that the form taken by nuclear energy is not entirely determined by any single one of political, economic, or scientific forces but is, instead, the product of multiple and complex interactions of immanent discursive and material relations that are, importantly, mutually reinforcing. / Thesis (Ph.D, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2012-09-27 12:38:25.909

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During a municipal election in 2010, Canadian citizens used a blog to enact an ad hoc campaign funding disclosure request of all candidates. After the election, the municipality implemented formal legislation requiring campaign funding disclosure on their own website. This thesis is a case study that explores how two technologically mediated transparency practices were constituted within and outside the scope of legislation. I draw on Andrew Pickering's (1995) notion of the mangle of practice and Karen Barad's (2003) concept of intra-action to conceptualize these transparency practices as a mangle of entwining intra-connected phenomena. In my exploration of policy in practice I deconstruct transparency practice through a discussion of how transparency mechanisms and social media characteristics intra-act and transform each other into a practice that supersedes the original intent of the ad hoc request and formal legislation. This research queries assumptions about transparency practices and contributes to establishing an interdisciplinary methodology for policy evaluation in technologically mediated environments. / Graduate / 0617 / paganda@gmail.com

With this scientific essay I examine, what I choose to phrase as, music-centered educational practices in contemporary Swedish preschool. Using two personal experiences of these practices as empirical data, I aim to discern what types of philosophical and musicological ideas have helped shape their formation. One of the experiences used as empirical data is centered around a traditional educational practice, the song-gathering, and the other around an experimental practice of my own devising, the music-machine. Using my own term, music-centric educational practice, I explore different views on why music ought to be seen as a productive and valuable tool in regards to children’s education and development. I also compare the two main views, music as means to gain general knowledge and music as means to handle existential questions, only to find that they have more in common than one might think. The crucial factor is whether or not the teacher is aware of, and is able to handle, the philosophical implications. The essay is aimed to explore three main questions: What constitutes as the existential dimensions of music and what impact they might have on music-centric teaching, which criteria needs to be met in order to facilitate meaningful music-centric teaching and lastly what separates the idea of an existentially inclined music-centric teaching from the ideas of teaching-practice in a traditional sense. The essay, in its entirety, is an example of musico-philosophical thinking. I examine these questions with a view on music as a living organism, deriving philosophical ideas from new materialism and try to pin-point moments, where it could be argued that the impact of music is effecting and altering a persons state of mind. These instances I identify, using Roland Barthes terminology, as being in a state of jouissance. / Med denna vetenskapliga essä undersöker jag, vad jag vill kalla för, den musikcentrerade undervisningspraktiken i dagens svenska förskola. Med utgångspunkt i två egenupplevda situationer söker jag förstå vilka bakomliggande filosofiska och musikologiska idéströmningar som format dessa praktiker. Den ena situationen som används som empiriskt underlag kretsar kring en traditionell undervisningspraktik, sångsamlingen, och den andra kring en experimentell praktik som jag själv utformat, musikmaskinen. Med hjälp av mitt egna begrepp, musikcentrerad undervisning, utforskar jag olika idéer om varför musiken bör ses som ett produktivt och värdefullt verktyg i relation till barns bildning och utveckling. Jag jämför också de två huvudsakliga tankarna, musik som redskap för allmänbildning och musik som redskap för att hantera existentiella frågor, och finner att de båda synsätten har mer gemensamt än en först kan tro. Den avgörande faktorn är huruvida läraren är medveten om, och kan hantera, de olika filosofiska implikationerna. Denna essä är avsedd att utforska tre huvudfrågor: Vad som utgör musikens existentiella dimensioner och vilken konsekvens dessa har för den musikcentrerade undervisningen, vilka förutsättningar som krävs för att kunna bedriva en meningsfull musikcentrerad undervisning och slutligen vad som skiljer idén om en existentiellt betonad musikcentrerad undervisning från idéerna om undervisningspraktik i traditionell bemärkelse. Essän, i sin helhet, blir således ett exempel på musiskt-filosofiskt tänkande. Jag undersöker dessa frågor med en förståelse av musik som en levande organism, vilken är hämtad ur ett neomaterialistiskt perspektiv, och försöker peka ut de ögonblick då musiken kan sägas påverka och förändra en människas sinnestillstånd. Dessa ögonblick kallar jag, för att använda Roland Barthes terminologi, som förknippade med ett tillstånd av jouissance.

De fortes contraintes juridiques, morales et coutumières pesaient sur les femmes de la fin du « long » 18ème siècle en Grande Bretagne. Les écrits féminins s’en ressentaient autant du point de vue des stratégies littéraires que de l’intrigue. Pour contourner les interdits et les tabous dont l’écriture féminine devait tenir compte, certaines romancières eurent recours à une satire ingénieuse qui ridiculisait les travers d’une société qui leur interdisait le sens critique. L’étude du contexte permet de faire la lumière sur le pourquoi et le comment de leurs stratégies satiriques. C’était l’époque des Lumières anglaises et écossaises, du début de la Révolution Industrielle et de la formation des classes moyennes. L’économie s’épanouissait et requérait une première « consommation de masse ». Synecdoques de la femme à vendre ou qui cherche à l’être, l’objet et l’argent sont les deux aspects d’analyse critique qui sous-tendent la structure de ce travail. La théorie de la re-création esthétique à la réception de Wolfgang Iser sert à souligner l’écart de réception possible entre le lecteur d’alors et celui de nos jours, et ensuite à susciter, investigations dans le contexte à l’appui, une émotion nouvelle à la lecture de ces ouvrages vieux de deux siècles. La théorie de la consommation de Baudrillard est choisie parce qu’elle facilite une compréhension de certains comportements autour de l’objet de personnages satirisés dans les romans. / Heavy juridical, moral and customary constraints weighed on women at the end of the « long » 18th century in Great Britain. The impact of such constraints on feminine writing touched the various literary strategies as well as the plots in the novels. In order to get round the taboos set by patriarchy - taboos that only touched the world of women – a few women writers used an ingenious kind of satire that ridiculed the faults of a society that forbade them any right to criticise. Researching the context allows us to understand the motives and the techniques of their satirical strategies. This was the time of English and Scottish Enlightenment, the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and the making of the middle classes. The economy was flourishing and led to a first wave of “mass consumption”. As synecdoches for women for sale or who wanted to be sold, objects and money are the two sides to the critical analysis that underlies the structure of this thesis. Wolfgang Iser’s theory of aesthetic re-creation by the reader is used to underline the possible gap in reception between at least two communities of readers and then, through investigation in the context, to arouse new interest for the works by Burney, Austen and Ferrier, some of them really unknown to most. Baudrillard’s theory of consumption has been chosen because it facilitates the reader’s understanding of the characters’ behaviour with respect to objects when the characters in question are the target of satire.

O presente trabalho busca, por meio de uma análise crítica da teoria da dependência, estabele-cer os princípios metodológicos e os elementos centrais para a aplicação do aludido referenci-al teórico ao caso concreto brasileiro das últimas duas décadas. Para tanto, resgata-se os de-senvolvimentos anteriores da teoria, buscando desde suas origens na escola estruturalista da CEPAL, com os trabalhos de Raúl Prebisch e Celso Furtado, até a sua consolidação nas duas vertentes marxistas da teoria da dependência, os neomarxistas, com as contribuições de Ruy Mauro Marini, e os cardosianos, a partir da análise das obras de Fernando Henrique Cardoso e Enzo Faletto. É realizada, então, uma crítica metodológica das referidas vertentes marxistas, com o intuito de extrair dos escritos precedentes aquilo que poderia servir de base para a construção de uma teoria adequada tanto à situação histórica atual quanto às interpretações contemporâneas da obra de Karl Marx. Por fim, com base nas críticas realizadas, busca-se construir uma nova proposta para a análise, em que a categoria da dependência se constrói como síntese das relações de exploração, subordinação e vinculação entre países centrais e periféricos. Para que a referida categoria e suas múltiplas determinações sejam compatíveis com a realidade brasileira contemporânea, utiliza-se para a sua construção de dados referentes às relações econômicas entre o Brasil e os Estados Unidos nos últimos vinte anos. / Through a critical analysis of the dependency theory, the present work attempts to create the methodological principles and core elements for the usage of the aforementioned theoretical framework to the Brazilian case of the last two decades. To do that, the prior developments of the theory are rescued, since its origins in the structuralist school of ECLAC, with the work of Raúl Prebisch and Celso Furtado, until its consolidation in two different Marxists strands of dependency theory, the Neo-Marxists, with the contribution of Ruy Mauro Marini, and the Cardosians, through the work of Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Enzo Faletto. Then, a methodological critic of these Marxists strands is done, in order to extract what could be used as base for the construction of an adequate theory both to the present historical situation as to the contemporary interpretations of the work of Karl Marx. Finally, based on these critics, a proposal for a new framework is made, in which the dependency category is built as a synthesis of relations of exploitation, subordination and linking between central and peripheral countries. For this category and its multi-determinations to be compatible with contemporary Brazilian reality, data concerning about the relations between Brazil and United States in the last twenty years are used in its construction.

xiv, 144 p. : ill. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / This dissertation examined what may account for materialism's relations with psychosocial maladjustment (PM). Materialism is a multi-faceted construct that may differentially involve behavioral tendencies or beliefs and values. Facets of materialism involving beliefs/values are embedded in Unmitigated Self-Interest (USI), a multi-faceted worldview orientation broader than materialism. Study 1 explored whether facets of materialism had distinct patterns of correlations with different aspects of PM and whether relations between facets of materialism and aspects of PM are restricted to facets of materialism alone or are due to broader effects of USI. Study 2 examined whether facet(s) of USI beyond materialist beliefs/values were also associated with PM. Study 3 used longitudinal analyses to examine temporal relations among materialism, USI, and various aspects of PM, examining whether facets of materialism or/and USI were antecedents and/or consequents of PM. In Study 1, undergraduate participants ( n = 839) completed measures of USI, PM indicators, and seven facets of materialism. Multiple regressions indicated that each facet of materialism demonstrated a distinct pattern of correlations with aspects of PM, suggesting that it is useful to treat each facet as a separate construct. Hierarchical regressions indicated that beyond materialist beliefs/values, USI uniquely contributed to PM. In Study 2, members of a community sample ( n =610) completed a 13-facet USI scale and various PM indicators. Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that beyond materialist beliefs/values, Machiavellianism and hedonism were likely to be associated with PM. In Study 3, members of a community sample ( n =610) completed measures of facets of materialism, USI, and PM indicators at two time points. Results indicated that relations between materialism and PM are generally bi-directional. However, somewhat more support existed for materialism as antecedent to rather than consequent of PM. Moreover, relations between materialist values/beliefs as the antecedent and PM as the consequent appeared to be partially accounted for by USI. which contributed additional predictiveness of PM. Furthermore, relations between USI and PM appeared to be unidirectional: USI was found to be the antecedent rather than the consequent of PM. Implications for future research are discussed. / Committee in charge: Gerard Saucier, Chairperson, Psychology; Holly Arrow, Member, Psychology; Warren Holmes, Member, Psychology; Lynn Kahle, Outside Member, Marketing

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:31:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2009-03-12Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:41:53Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 eidt_nm_dr_arafcl.pdf: 1557446 bytes, checksum: 8aad39aa80d9317c0749c074b427da7b (MD5) / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / O objeto desta pesquisa bibliográfica centra-se na relação entre a função social da educação e o desenvolvimento das funções psicológicas superiores, em especial, o pensamento. Considerando, por um lado, a importância desta temática desde os autores escolanovistas até os dias atuais, e, por outro lado, a pouca produção sobre o assunto a partir da obra de Leontiev, constituiu-se como o objetivo deste trabalho investigar as proposições acerca do desenvolvimento do pensamento nas obras de Dewey, Piaget e de defensores contemporâneos do aprender a aprender, como Perrenoud, Delval, Schön e Tardif, que mantém sua filiação filosófica ao pragmatismo e ao liberalismo; em contraposição à produção de Leontiev, cujo fundamento filosófico encontra-se no materialismo histórico dialético. A fim de atingir este objetivo, submeteu-se à prova cinco hipóteses: 1) as proposições teóricas que fundamentam o “aprender a aprender”, concebendo o desenvolvimento do pensamento mediante a mínima apropriação dos conhecimentos científicos, não ultrapassa os estreitos limites do pensamento empírico; 2) a alienação que impera na sociedade de classe capitalista engendra oportunidades educacionais também de classe e nela, o ideário do “aprender a aprender” desponta como ferramenta ideológica para a formação da classe trabalhadora; 3) a teoria psicológica marxista de A. N. Leontiev encerra as possibilidades para a decodificação do pleno desenvolvimento humano na mesma medida em que evidencia os limites impostos pelo capitalismo a este desenvolvimento; 4) o ideário pedagógico hegemônico na atualidade – o “aprender a aprender” – pretere a análise radical da sociedade capitalista, bem como a análise do desenvolvimento do pensamento como síntese de múltiplas determinações; e, por fim, 5) parte dos autores brasileiros que defenderam... / The aim of this paper focuses on the relationship between the social function of education and development of higher psychological functions, in particular, the thought. Whereas the one hand, the importance of this topic since the authors escolanovistas until the present day, and, secondly, the low production on the subject from the work of Leontyev, is the objective of this work and investigate the the propositions on the development of thought in the works of Dewey, Piaget and Tardif, which keeps its membership to philosophical pragmatism and liberalism, as opposed to the production of Leontyev, whose philosophical foundation is in the historical dialectic materialism. To achieve this goal, it was tested five hypotheses: 1) the theoretical propositions underlying the learning to learn conceiving the development of thought through the minimum ownership of scientific knowledge does not go beyond the narrow confines of the development of empirical thinking; 2) the alienation that prevails in the high society engenders educational opportunities that are also high, the idea of learning to learn – emerge as ideological tool for the formation of the working class; 3) the theory of A. N. Leontiev, for its philosophical foundations, the possibilities for terminating the decoding of the full human development shows the same extent as the limits imposed by capitalism to this development; 4) the hegemonic ideology in the present - the learning to learn-radical overlook the analysis of capitalist society and the analysis of the development of thought as a synthesis of multiple determinations, and, finally, 5) from the Brazilian authors who defend dissertations and theses in the Graduate Program in Education in the period from 1987 to 2004 and who announced support the theoretical yield of A. N. Leontyev overlooked the radicalism of his Marxist philosophical grounds, making... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:24:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010-09-01Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:12:34Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 silva_sm_me_arafcl.pdf: 381695 bytes, checksum: 3f3cc1094e3ee702c53d32660d4a162f (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / O objetivo deste estudo é investigar a fundamentação teórica/filósófica presente nos Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais (BRASIL, 1997). Nesse sentido, tomamos como fenômeno social a ser analisado “a formação para a cidadania”, anunciada em tal documento como o eixo norteador da educação escolar. Para a realização da análise proposta, tomamos como ponto de partida as seguintes questões: Quais são os fundamentos teóricos/filosóficos que orientam a reforma curricular da década de 1990, mais especificamente, a formação para a cidadania como eixo norteador da educação escolar nos PCN’s? Nossa hipótese, é que a reforma curricular e a eleição da cidadania como eixo norteador da educação escolar, tem como objetivo a busca do consenso social, visando a formação de uma “nova” sociabilidade, que se adapte as condições sociais vigentes, a qual faz parte de um conjunto de reformas estruturais promovidas no capitalismo contemporâneo segundo os princípios do neoliberalismo. Do ponto de vista teórico-metodológico, a pesquisa foi desenvolvida com base nos pressupostos teóricos do materialismo histórico-dialético. Os resultados da pesquisa revelam os fundamentos que orientam a educação escolar e a formação do indivíduo na sociedade atual / This study aims to investigate the theoretical and philosophical construct in the National Curricular Parameters (Brasil, 1997). In effect, we took as the focus of our analysis the social phenomenon “the formation to the citizenship”. In the document above this is announced as the guiding principle of the schooling. To accomplish this analysis we took as the starting point the following question: What are the theoretical and philosophical constructs that guide the curriculum reform of the decade of 1990, specifically the formation to the citizenship in the National Curricular Parameters? Our hypothesis is that the curriculum reform and the choice of the citizenship as the guiding principle of the schooling aim to discern a social consensus. This fact has as its objective the formation of a “new” sociability that can be adapted to the current social conditions and that is part of a set of structural reform done in the contemporary capitalism according to the principles of neoliberalism. From the theoretical-methodological point of view, this research was developed based on the theoretical assumptions of the historical and dialectical materialism. The outcomes of this research reveal the constructs that guide the schooling and the formation of the individual in the present society

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-16T14:48:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1426770 bytes, checksum: 5e9483885097e3dd757300efd15d0c3f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-05-15 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This dissertation is focused on the subjective well-being on consumption in their expanded perspective, investigating this phenomenon in the types of experiential and material consumption and materialism in this context. It is observed that the scope of consumption is fairly representative for the attainment of well-being of individuals, and the question of whether and how consumers reach the happiness who seeks in the market is a key concern, as actions aimed at the welfare of the consumers should be encouraged. Recognizing the presence of the phenomenon of happiness in individuals, but noting that some have higher levels of happiness than others, become increasingly relevant try to understand the factors that bring welfare more effectively in subjects, identifying the reasons that drive happiness in some people more than others. Thus, this research aimed to identify whether the experiential consumption is able to generate higher average levels of subjective well-being in the people than consumption of material goods, intermediating in the study the verification of individual's level of materialism. Consequently, the study provides an alternative vision for the pursuit of happiness on consumption through experiential consumption, in opposition to the materialistic view of the pursuit of happiness by means of material goods. Therefore, we developed an initial review of the literature addressing the topic subjective well-being, focusing on its historical aspects and its developments nowadays and in the consumption arena, in addition to addressing the theoretical perspectives of the types of experiential and material consumption as well as the implications of materialism in this context. Thus, with the constructs "Experiential Consumption Happiness", "Material Consumption Happiness" and "Materialism" defined from the theoretical perspectives, it was necessary validation of measurement instruments since the survey-based studies that had been made in the international context. Therefore, first of all the scales have gone through a process of reverse translation from English into Portuguese, in order to adapt the meaning of the items. Then the questionnaire was applied to the first sample, with 94 students, in order to make adjustments and improvements of the survey instrument to the next sampling. The second sample was composed of questionnaires collected online, reaching the margin of 253 respondents. This sample allowed the consolidation of the constructs in terms of validity and reliability of the scales used. Subsequently, we analyzed the mean differences in the types of experiential and material consumption in groups with high and low materialism. Generally, results indicate that the average of happiness in experiential consumption are significantly higher than in the material consumption in low materialism group, while the average of happiness in consumption experiential are smaller than the material consumption at high materialism group, and this difference is not significant. / Esta dissertação tem como tema central o bem-estar subjetivo no consumo em sua perspectiva ampliada, investigando esse fenômeno nos tipos de consumo experiencial e material e o materialismo nesse contexto. Observa-se que o âmbito de consumo é bastante representativo para o alcance do bem-estar dos indivíduos, e a questão de se e como os consumidores alcançam a felicidade que procuram no mercado é uma preocupação fundamental, pois ações que visem o bem-estar do consumidor devem ser estimuladas. Reconhecendo a presença do fenômeno da felicidade nos indivíduos, mas observando que alguns possuem níveis de felicidade mais elevados que outros, cada vez mais se faz relevante tentar desvendar os fatores que trazem bem-estar de forma mais efetiva nos sujeitos, identificando os motivos que impulsionam a felicidade em algumas pessoas mais do que em outras. Assim, a presente pesquisa visou a identificar se o consumo experiencial é capaz de gerar médias mais elevadas de bem-estar subjetivo nas pessoas do que o consumo de bens materiais, intermediando-se no estudo a verificação do nível de materialismo do indivíduo. Consequentemente, o estudo possibilita uma visão alternativa para busca da felicidade no consumo pela via do consumo experiencial, se contrapondo à visão materialista de busca da felicidade pelos bens materiais. Portanto, foi desenvolvida uma revisão da literatura abordando inicialmente o tema bem-estar subjetivo, discorrendo sobre seus aspectos históricos e desdobramentos na atualidade e no consumo, além de abordar as perspectivas teóricas dos tipos de consumo experiencial e material, bem como as implicações do materialismo nesse contexto. Dessa forma, com os construtos Felicidade no Consumo Experiencial , Felicidade no Consumo Material e Materialismo definidos a partir das perspectivas teóricas, foi necessária a validação dos instrumentos de mensuração, visto que os estudos de base dessa pesquisa haviam sido feitos em contexto internacional. Portanto, primeiramente as escalas passaram por um processo de tradução reversa, a fim de adaptar o sentido dos itens originalmente do inglês para o português. Em seguida, foi aplicado o questionário em um primeiro estudo, com 94 estudantes, a fim de efetuar ajustes e adaptações do instrumento de pesquisa para a próxima fase. O segundo estudo foi composto por questionários coletados online, alcançando a margem de 253 respondentes. Essa etapa permitiu a consolidação dos construtos em termos de validade e confiabilidade das escalas utilizadas. Posteriormente, foram analisadas as diferenças de médias nos tipos de consumo experiencial e material nos grupos com alto e baixo materialismo. De maneira geral, os resultados indicaram que as médias de felicidade no consumo experiencial são significativamente maiores do que no consumo material no grupo de baixo materialismo, enquanto que as médias de felicidade no consumo experiencial são menores do que no consumo material no grupo de alto materialismo, sendo que essa diferença não é significativa.