This dissertation examines the outbreak of depression in the United States through an ethical lens of care and disconnection. Discussions in bioethics and collaborating fields largely speak of mental health as a series of phenomena attributable to individuals, subsequently using terms like 'disease' and 'disorder' to denote abnormality in those persons affected by distress. Alternatively, I respond to the ongoing "crisis of care" through a critique of neoliberalism and biomedicalization. I argue that widespread despair is the result of a collective way of life wherein persons are detached from fundamental physical and psychosocial needs by nature of fallacious cultural commitments and techniques. I implement constructivism to empirically ground a new application of care ethics to be considered by normative ethicists. In addition to merging several established traditions such as feminist philosophy and the capabilities approach, I also contribute a comprehensive model for understanding basic needs and the distribution of caring responsibilities/roles. Further, the project enhances the field of applied bioethics by featuring a practically-specific relational approach that is built from the experiences of those embedded in daily decision-making. The dissertation critiques the theoretical soundness of psychiatric and psychological classifications and the practical efficacy of prominent solutions such as antidepressant medications and various psychotherapies. I further assert that these depictions of mental health misrepresent the experiences of those affected by depression, and thus share their stories of derealization, isolation, frustration, resentment, and hopelessness through a lens of disconnection. These feelings apply to caregivers as well: the commodification of care alongside of the constraints attached to "professionalism" are used to inhibit their autonomy, exploit their labor, and detach them from relationships with charges and other carers. This leads to issues such as moral distress, burnout, and vicarious traumatization, all of which foster despair. Finally, I respond to these collective concerns with a new framework consisting of an expanded account of fundamental needs and an analysis of "care-abilities": the capabilities one has to meet their needs and to fulfill the needs of others who depend on them. I then supplement this account with a detailed distribution of skills and responsibilities attached to the particular caring roles that one might occupy. This ethical framework is intended to be advisory and malleable to contextual practice rather than prescriptive. / Doctor of Philosophy / This dissertation outlines the techniques and conditions which, through persuasion or coercion, direct us towards a particular way of living marked by isolation, alienation, and precarity. This life, I argue, has facilitated an epidemic of depression and related conditions of distress in the United States. We largely consider mental health to be a series of phenomena attributable to individuals, and subsequently use terms like 'disease' and 'disorder' to denote abnormality in those persons affected by distress. Alternatively, I follow a question proposed by Johann Hari, who asks "What if depression is, in fact, a form of grief – for our own lives not being as they should? What if it is a form of grief for the connections we have lost, yet still need?" The dissertation critiques the paradigms of neoliberalism, which refers to the ideology of elevating market theories to state-sponsored and enforced norms, and biomedicalization, an affiliated logic which individualizes and medicalizes all human problems. In response, I develop an ethics of care framework that prioritizes relationships, acknowledges our shared dependencies, and fosters skills for quality care and advocacy. By viewing depression as an affective reaction to social dysfunction, my analysis also challenges conventional interpretations regarding mental health and illness. This project critiques the theoretical and empirical efficacy of modern mental health solutions, details the various challenges and harms experienced by both depressed persons and particular caregivers, and outlines an alternative ethical approach to be used for evaluation and subsequent care.

The eastern state of Jharkhand in India has been the site of contention between Adivasi communities, like the Munda, and the national government. This is a relationship between these communities and centralized, outside power that has existed for centuries in different forms. To understand this ongoing conflict, we need to understand the root causes of contention. Various scholars have traced this to a general rejection by Adivasis of State-sanctioned neoliberal development projects like land-grabbing and mining. I analyze, based on a fifteen month long ethnographic study conducted from May 2017 to December 2018, the meaning of land for the Munda community, and how these meanings underlie the Adivasi-State conflict, based on several forms of qualitative data. I argue that at the core of this ongoing conflict lie questions of identity construction and representation, neoliberal market forces, gender, and a historical narrative of resistance against outsiders. Importantly, to best understand Adivasi politics and their relationship to their local environment, one must actively listen to how these communities represent themselves. / Doctor of Philosophy / The eastern state of Jharkhand in India has been the site of an ongoing conflict between the Munda Adivasi (indigenous) community and the State. This contentious relationship has existed for several centuries and continues until now. Various scholars describe the conflict as the general rejection of the attempts of State and corporate actors to grab lands in order to carry out neoliberal development projects such as mining and hydroelectricity dams in the region. I analyze, based on a fifteen-month long ethnographic study conducted from May 2017 to December 2018, the meaning of land for the Munda community, and how these meanings underlie the Adivasi-State conflict. I argue that the current ongoing conflict underlie questions of identity construction and representation embedded in the historical narrative of resistance against outsiders. More specifically, one must understand the subaltern communities, such as the Munda Adivasi, through their discourses.

Deemed "The Chilean Miracle," President Pinochet under a campaign of violence and terror effectively transitioned the socialist Chilean economy to one of South America's most prosperous capitalist economies. Most recently, Chilean entrepreneur, Sebastían Piñera, won the country's executive office on a campaign of neoliberal expansion in hopes of economic growth and the elimination of poverty. If this election is an indication of Chile's acceptance of aggressive neoliberal policies, then how has the memory of neoliberalism become detached from its violent beginning? Has Pinochet's legacy been (re)constructed in Chilean collective memory? This paper aims to explore this question in two ways. First, it examines ideological formations in Chilean political rhetoric that serve to conceal and transform political memory through discursive structures. Second, it investigates how political rhetoric transformed state violence through a re-narrativization of neoliberalism, which effectively detached neoliberalism from its violent initiation and (re)constructed it as a means of reconciliation and recovery. The findings of this paper suggest that Chilean memory has been (re)constructed for political and economic purposes, which conceal reality and deny alterity. / Master of Public and International Affairs

Contemporary K-12 education reform policies have focused heavily on the teaching profession through increased accountability measures and decreased job security. In the rhetoric of contemporary reform, teachers are often praised as heroes capable of overcoming any obstacles and at the same time blamed for the perceived failures of public schools. This dissertation examines the impact of such policies and corresponding representations on the lived experiences of K-12 teachers in North Carolina, specifically highlighting the strategies through which teachers gain rhetorical agency within the discursive space of reform. To do so, I apply an analytical frame of public sphere theory and employ a mixed-methods approach that combines archival methods and fieldwork (e.g. participant observation and interviews). This dissertation argues that teachers' discourses provide alternative narratives to the dominant view that modifying the teaching profession is a cure-all for educational problems. I first develop a history of contemporary education reform in North Carolina and argue that within these discourses, teachers are represented as heroes able to do more work with less pay under increased scrutiny. Then, analyzing images of protest signs collected at the May 16 teacher rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, I argue that teachers rhetorically perform their professional identities as student advocates, champions of public educators, and political dissenters. As such, they dismantle dominant representations of their profession and advance a notion of public education that values collaboration, equitability, and the public good. Last, I examine how teachers negotiate the tension between their goals and the constraints of policy, arguing that contemporary reform undermines teachers' expertise. At the same time, teachers devise strategies to work toward their visions of public education. Such strategies include building relationships, being persistent, de-prioritizing policy, and cultivating community. / Doctor of Philosophy / Contemporary K-12 education reform policies have focused heavily on the teaching profession through increased accountability measures and decreased job security. In the rhetoric of contemporary reform, teachers are often praised as heroes capable of overcoming any obstacles and at the same time blamed for the perceived failures of public schools. This dissertation examines the impact of such policies and corresponding representations on the lived experiences of K-12 teachers in North Carolina. To do so, I employ an approach that combines archival methods and fieldwork (e.g. participant observation and interviews), and rhetorical analysis. This dissertation argues that teachers’ discourses provide alternative narratives to the dominant view that modifying the teaching profession is a cure-all for educational problems. I first develop a history of contemporary education reform in North Carolina and argue that within these discourses, teachers are represented as heroes able to do more work with less pay under increased scrutiny. Then, analyzing images of protest signs collected at the May 16 teacher rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, I argue that teachers rhetorically perform their professional identities as student advocates, champions of public educators, and political dissenters. As such, they dismantle dominant representations of their profession and advance a notion of public education that values collaboration, equitability, and the public good. Last, I examine how teachers negotiate the tension between their goals and the constraints of policy, arguing that contemporary reform undermines teachers’ expertise. At the same time, teachers devise strategies to work toward their visions of public education. Such strategies include building relationships, being persistent, de-prioritizing policy, and cultivating community.

The aim of this thesis was to study Sweden’s relations with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) from the Korean War to this day. To do so, the focus was put on Sweden’s different motives during that time resulting in the identification of two phases. The first, characterized by an economical interest and the second, by a diplomatic and humanitarian one. Moreover, a non-governmental perspective was presented with the Swedish NGO Institute for Security & Development Policy (ISDP) in focus. This perspective showed the importance of non-governmental actors’ engagement with the DPRK. Finally, the international relations’ theory of neoliberalism was used as a theoretical framework for the thesis. The conclusion is that neoliberalism is correct at explaining the engagement of Sweden towards the DPRK. As one of the western countries with the best relations with the DPRK, we conclude that Sweden has an important role to play in facilitating the dialogue between the international community and the DPRK.

This thesis studies the Swedish Social Democratic Party’s journal Tiden and its ideological changes between traditional social democracy and neoliberalism 1973–1990. Earlier research has shown that this period shaped the contemporary social democracy and society to a great extent. The study is conducted through quantification of the ideological content of articles concerning state, market, and capitalism to get an insight into how the party’s ideology changed during the period. The result has also been compared to the party’s electoral losses in the 1970s. The result shows that the early 1970s were a period characterized by a dominant traditional social democratic ideology. This changed drastically by the end of the ‘70s and in the early ‘80s. At this point, there was a surge in articles that expressed a neoliberal ideology to some extent. This neoliberal tendency peaked in 1990. However, there was not a complete shift from traditional social democracy to neoliberalism. Instead, there was a slow integration of neoliberal views into the old rhetoric. These neoliberal views concerned the market, the extent of the welfare state, and the freedom of choice regarding the welfare state. The view on the working class and capitalism also changed throughout the period. This resulted in a state of social neoliberalism. Social neoliberalism is a practice where conditions for austerity politics, a free market, and private influence in the welfare sector are created through a strong bureaucratic welfare state. This change from traditional social democracy to social neoliberalism is thought to be a result of the new economic and political environment and the party’s electoral losses in 1976 and 1979.

Urban policies are currently shaped by contemporary processes of globalisation including a market-oriented approach to urban development. In Rio de Janeiro there is currently a high rate of urban population growth causing issues such as inequality, informal settlements and lack of access to basic services. Improved urban management is urgently needed which has become an obstacle to overcome by the GoRJ and the World Bank. Participatory methods has become widely integrated into development promoting programs with the incentive to include various key stakeholders in urban policy making. This case study explores issues of how strategies are produced and implemented into the context of Rio de Janeiro. Furthermore, it aims to explore events caused by such strategies. Based on a taken-for-granted premise that participatory methods and market-oriented planning leads to accelerated development, this study calls for a critical examination of how such approaches are carried out in practice.  In communicative planning theory, there is a critical stance towards rational models used in planning systems. The findings of this paper present how neoliberal ideology has formed urban development in Rio de Janeiro and how it contains a rational rethoric. It furher presents ways of how participatory methods can reinforce oppressions and injustices, serving a top-down approach rather than the opposite.

The fundamental preoccupations of this research align with emergent literature on neoliberal conservation—understood as an amalgamation of ideology and techniques informed by the premise that natures can only be 'saved' through their submission to capital and its subsequent revaluation in capitalist terms. This literature shift attention "from how nature is used in and through the expansion of capitalism to how nature is conserved in and through the expansion of capitalism" (Büscher et al. 2012:6), thus opening up a new set of anthropological interrogations. To investigate this phenomenon this work centers on the use of sport trophy-hunting as a neoliberal conservation strategy in the Americas, where recent changes in policy and practice mark the creation of wildlife enclosures in the hands of private capital. Despite the fact that these neoliberal reforms in conservation have the capacity "of repositioning community resources within a new system of meaning, altering the material realities of social relations within the community, modifying human-ecological interactions, and introducing new forms of governance" (MacDonald 2005), little systematic research and social analysis has been conducted exploring this phenomenon. Responding to this gap, this doctoral dissertation examines the social effects of market-oriented conservation through extended ethnographic research among the Comcaac (Seri), a former hunting and gathering society living along the coast of the Gulf of California in the Sonoran desert of Northern Mexico. The research documents the bighorn sheep sport trophy-hunting program taking place in Comcaac territory, in order to better understand the processes contributing to the production and performance of indigenous environmental expertise; in turn, this work produces new insights into how morality, individualism and collective effort are affected by neoliberal logics involved in the management of wildlife, while documenting concomitant local renegotiation of power, knowledge and wealth.

The following thesis examines South Korean history, traditional values and the effects of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis in order to understand the political, economic, and social causes of the increase in adolescent suicides since the turn of the millennium.

This dissertation examines the production of an everyday politics of infrastructure within informal settlements in the Khayelitsha area of Cape Town, South Africa. As residents attempt to meet water, sanitation, and electricity needs through assemblages of informal service connections, in addition to limited formal services provided by the municipality, their material exclusions are articulated as evidence of persistent political marginality. Residents engage in multiple modes of politicized action seeking expansion to formal infrastructure and full inclusion in the promises of citizenship. However, they also face an array of complications created by municipal reliance upon neoliberal policies, practices, and logics. Despite a nominal emphasis on participatory processes of governance and development, municipal approaches to service provision and community engagement produce further marginalization. In order to theorize the intersection of neoliberal urban governance and democratic practice, this dissertation examines participation as the result of complex interactions between everyday experience, urban governance, circulating moral logics, and the work of civil society. The realm of politics emerges as one unbound by parties, NGOs, or social movements; instead, it is read dialectically both into and from the landscape of informality. Across three articles, this dissertation examines participation as a contested terrain of politicized action, shaped by neoliberal practices of governance, post-colonial tensions, and uneven social acknowledgement of experience, knowledge, and action.