This study focuses on the way in which the conceptual artists Berni Searle and Jan van der Merwe portray their respective memories of the influence of hegemony on their identity formation. Two conceptual installations of each artist, namely Looking back (1999) and Not quite white (2000) of Searle and Wag (2000) and Ontwortel (2009) of Van der Merwe, are interpreted comparatively according to the portrayal of hegemony, identity (including the artists‟ different sexual and race identities) and their memories of the historic and cultural effects of domination. The reading and interpretation of the installations are guided by the key concepts hegemony, identity and memory and are grounded theoretically from a critical post colonial perspective. Searle and Van der Merwe‟s memories of the influence of power relations and ideology on their conception of art and identity formation are addressed by contextualizing the artists within the South African context. Van der Merwe, as a white Afrikaans speaking man, initially formed collectively part of the Western patriarchate identity norm because of his historic background. His identity is in contrast with Searle‟s brown and female identity which is traditionally viewed and portrayed as different and inferior. Van der Merwe‟s memorial art is therefore mainly that of the unjustified benefiting of the white and male agents of power in contrast with Searle‟s memorial art of colonial and patriarchate domination. / Thesis (MA (History of Art))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013

Many scholars have attempted to reframe our understanding of international law in order to re-establish the credibility of international norms in an age of widespread doubt about the power of law. This study seeks to contribute to this project by examining how the relationship between a specific understanding of modernity and the assumption that the modern state is the only proper location of politics enables a discipline built on idealized categories framing active agency in relation to modern politics. The consequence is not only a tightly circumscribed discipline that constantly reproduces particular understandings of the future potential of international law but also limits what we understand meaningful practices of international law to be. The specific example investigated is that of the Sami, the indigenous and transnationally nomadic people of Fennoscandia. Looking not only at how the Sami have made use of supranational avenues to challenge the sovereignty of the Swedish state (especially in the European Court of Human Rights) in the name of individual human rights, this case suggests that human rights are best understood as a political practice among other political practices rather than as a system of idealized, legal abstractions. The analysis works through a reading of international law as one of many modern political tools that may be used in order to engage political problems of modernity, just as, in other circumstances, we may think about political tools in terms of the possibilities of political contestation about the common interests of a society. One of the common assumptions shared by all the texts and writers under examination involves an understanding of modernity as a structured and ordered teleological process towards the realization of man’s enlightened freedom. Considering the limited possibilities exposed by such texts suggest that if we want to re-imagine what we take international law to be then we must begin with engaging alternative understandings of modernity; more precisely, we must acknowledge the heterogeneity of contemporary experiences. My exploration of the joint implications of the work of Marshall Berman and Dipesh Chakrabarty concludes with a call to avoid reductionist accounts of international law and to think about the modern world as a dynamic, ever-changing and always malleable place, a place in which human experiences continuously alter the political orders within which we operate. / Graduate / 0616 / mkoblanck@gmail.com

Nos últimos anos, o Brasil tem testemunhado o surgimento de uma produção literária com características muito próprias do nosso tempo: seus autores são periféricos (favelados), sua forma e conteúdo derivam do momento de extrema violência que assola grande parte da população. Exemplar desta produção, o livro de Ferréz, Capão Pecado é primeiramente publicado em 2000. O objetivo desta dissertação é analisar o romance, compreendendo-o dentro de um escopo maior, que abarca outros setores, da arte e da política. Para isso, a teoria pós-colonial, assim como um estreito diálogo com uma parte da tradição crítico-literária brasileira são utilizadas. / In the last few years, Brazil has witnessed the appearance of one type of literary production whose characteristics are typical or our times: its authors are from the suburbs (the slums), its form and content derive from the extreme violence imposed to a great part of the population. An example of this literary production, Ferrézs book, Capão Pecado is first published in 2000. This dissertation aims at analyzing the novel, understanding that it belongs to a greater scope, that comprehends other spheres of the arts and politics. In order to do so, the post-colonial theory will be used, as well as a great deal of the Brazilian literary theory tradition.

This thesis aims to describe how Western tourist websites represents India. Although there has been much research on tourism and Western representation of India, no literature is available on how Western tourist websites represents India. This thesis uses three theories, social constructivism, post-colonial theory, and representation theory. Social constructivism is the base for this thesis. Post-colonial theory is used to find out whether the representation of India includes colonial stereotypes or no. Moreover, the representation theory is the center and the main tool to know and explain how Western tourist websites represents India. The design used is a 'case study' as case study design is compatible to explore the representations of India. The method used is a 'qualitative discourse analysis' which helps to provide a critical analysis of the description of India. Main results of this thesis are that Western tourist websites describe Indian economy as a backward economy. It is unclear whether Indian politics is described as undemocratic or democratic. Indian people are described as a mix of traditional, modern, unfree as well as free people. Indian culture is described as ancient and collective.

In early 2022, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its sixth evaluation report on the state of the global climate crisis. For the first time in thirty years global exploitation and colonial dominance was mentioned not only as a "driver of the climate crisis", but also as an ongoing element that exacerbates societies vulnerability to it. However, existing literature that specifically addresses the relationship between colonialism, climate change and women's vulnerability is relatively small and scattered. For these reasons, a multidisciplinary research review (scoping review) was conducted, in order to map the extent of "colonialism" as a contributing factor to women's increased vulnerability in relation to climate change and climate-related disasters. This study brings together literature from different research disciplines to examine how and under what circumstances colonialism is highlighted as an explanatory factor for women's increased vulnerability, as well as in Global North and Global South. The results shows that although the legacy of colonialism is manifested in different ways in different contexts, women's increased vulnerability may be linked to the reproduction of racism and hegemonic social structures with roots in colonial dominance. Finally, it is emphasized that this research overview should be seen as a complement to future studies, with the aim of minimizing women's vulnerability to climate induced disasters in the long term. Future attempts to address individuals' vulnerability should therefore apply a postcolonial lens to understand the specific societal dynamics in a particular context which may worsen the ability of certain groups to deal with the negative consequences of climate change.

No description available.

Recent Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) reforms promoting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) carried out by the Sierra Leonean government has attracted foreign investors into its extractive industry. Access to natural minerals in the country has been ensured through land leases, and the government of Sierra Leone has obtained the opportunity to accumulate revenues through participation on the global market. However, despite increasing state revenues the country remains underdeveloped and unindustrialized, and faces great challenges in promoting public development within state borders. This study aims at illuminating structures of the global economic system and domestic social fabric which may hinder public development in Sierra Leone. Such structures have be illuminated through the application of a qualitative approach including field work, participating observations and open-ended interviews in Kalansogoia chiefdom during May and June 2013. The findings of this study suggest that the international structure of dependency, and domestic formal; informal; informal institutions; and social networks structures hinder public development within Sierra Leone.

Like elsewhere in Europe, the tides of nationalist right-wing rhetoric in Sweden have become instrumental in generating a wave of anti-liberal and anti-immigration sentiments in politics and media. In particular, one branch of right-wing alternative media has become a breeding ground for normalizing such rhetoric. Does the anti-immigration stance in such media disguise racist inclinations? In this thesis we examine the discourse of three right-wing alternative media sites in Sweden to explore the possible employment of different types of racism in their articles. By taking the constructivist viewpoint and adopting the post-colonial conceptions of the 'Self' and the 'Other', racist discourse was analyzed and characterized as either biological or cultural. From these two theories, we derived concepts concerning descriptions of contemporary and ideal Swedish society that will be used as further indicators of racist discourses. In this single case study, 94 articles from Fria Tider, Nya Tider, and Samhällsnytt were analyzed on the topics of immigration, integration and crime through a qualitative content analysis. The results show that most of the articles contain cultural racist discourse.

<p>The aim of this thesis is to elucidate the tension between feminism and nationalism in Israel and to investigate the ways by which such discursive currents mark the identities of Israeli women. The specific field of investigation is Israeli theatre, and the identities examined are dramatic characters created by the Israeli playwright Miriam Kainy. Also examined is the character of the playwright herself. Theatre is being observed as a specific field of society in which the position of women can be clarified. What kind of women characters the Israeli theatre produces is therefore a leading question for this study.</p><p>Feminist theories, focusing on gender aspects of power relations, together with the postcolonial perspective, which considers power relations by focusing on ethnicity and geopolitical aspects, provide the theoretical tools. The social constructionist viewpoint is used since it provides an appropriate understanding of important notions for the thesis, such as <i>nation</i> and <i>identity</i>, considering them as constructions created by discourse. The discourses focused upon are the national v. the feminist discourse and theatre is viewed as a discourse mediator, which is why the dramatic text is the object of the analysis. The specific method of analysis is inspired by Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis.</p><p>The main part of the thesis consists of a discursive analysis of five women characters, constructed within a period of about five decades, namely between the 1950s and 1990s. Each one of these characters consists of an articulation which is considered representative of a specific time-relevant discursive struggle between the two discourses in question. One of the central assumptions of the thesis is that the Israeli national identity is thoroughly masculine. The identity problems it has been causing Israeli women since the time of the pioneers until today are clearly illuminated throughout the analysis. The conclusion emphasises that the subjectpositions being introduced by Israeli national discourse, namely the ways of being a <i>New Jew</i>, an Israeli, collide with those introduced by feminist discourse, i.e. ways of being an independent woman subject. Nevertheless, each and every character demonstrates creative ways of transforming the discourses by aiming at a hybrid formation.</p>

The aim of this thesis is to elucidate the tension between feminism and nationalism in Israel and to investigate the ways by which such discursive currents mark the identities of Israeli women. The specific field of investigation is Israeli theatre, and the identities examined are dramatic characters created by the Israeli playwright Miriam Kainy. Also examined is the character of the playwright herself. Theatre is being observed as a specific field of society in which the position of women can be clarified. What kind of women characters the Israeli theatre produces is therefore a leading question for this study. Feminist theories, focusing on gender aspects of power relations, together with the postcolonial perspective, which considers power relations by focusing on ethnicity and geopolitical aspects, provide the theoretical tools. The social constructionist viewpoint is used since it provides an appropriate understanding of important notions for the thesis, such as nation and identity, considering them as constructions created by discourse. The discourses focused upon are the national v. the feminist discourse and theatre is viewed as a discourse mediator, which is why the dramatic text is the object of the analysis. The specific method of analysis is inspired by Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis. The main part of the thesis consists of a discursive analysis of five women characters, constructed within a period of about five decades, namely between the 1950s and 1990s. Each one of these characters consists of an articulation which is considered representative of a specific time-relevant discursive struggle between the two discourses in question. One of the central assumptions of the thesis is that the Israeli national identity is thoroughly masculine. The identity problems it has been causing Israeli women since the time of the pioneers until today are clearly illuminated throughout the analysis. The conclusion emphasises that the subjectpositions being introduced by Israeli national discourse, namely the ways of being a New Jew, an Israeli, collide with those introduced by feminist discourse, i.e. ways of being an independent woman subject. Nevertheless, each and every character demonstrates creative ways of transforming the discourses by aiming at a hybrid formation.