This thesis reflects my interest in the role that non-local ideologies play in Third World progressive organizations, as well as my interest in the role of religion in popular political movements. I examine these issues by focusing on a nationally organized Basic Christian Communities program in the Philippines. In this program, which is inspired by Vatican II and liberation theology, reinterpreted Catholic symbols, narratives and practices form the medium for ideological transferal to target populations. The thesis is organized according to the social levels at which the BCC-CO program is represented. At the national level I examine historical, political and cultural influences that shape BCC-CO program formation, and at the diocesan (town) and village levels I focus on processes that promote either change or orthodoxy as the program is put into practice. These include: the interaction of BCC-CO activists with local knowledge, practices, and goals of elites and peasants; the role of program mediators; and, degrees of indigenization and resistance at the local levels. Finally, I evaluate the potential of the BCC-CO program to promote local level social and political change. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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Faculty of Humanities School of Literature and language Studies 0314877y acostantino@yahoo.com / This research project aims to examine the relations of power evident in an English pamphlet (the source text) dealing with issues of sexual and reproductive health (including HIV/AIDS) in South Africa, and its Portuguese translation (the target text). A Critical Discourse Analysis model is used to study the articulated structure of the texts in social and historical terms as well as in linguistic terms. In carrying out such a critical examination of these pamphlets, which reflect institutional beliefs, I am guided by the fact that their conditions of production, distribution and consumption can reveal intricate power relations.

The aim of this paper is to position art within the realm of the everyday for the purposes of establishing the critical/political capabilities of art practice in a post-aesthetic information-based age. In this way, art can be conceived of as a 'technology' which, having been placed in a situation/site, assumes an agency in the engagement of the subject within the dialectic tension of everyday conflict - the background in which the day to day micro-political decisions are made. I use the figure of the walker to examine the potential of a phenomenological approach to the interpretation of a theory of art and everydayness - it is the sensate nature of the walker which is valuable to the perception and interpretation of daily conflicts and dilemmas. The potential of the politically informed walking subject is to 'read' in a discriminating way the fragmented codes of complicity with which the individual/artist relates to or engages with the invisible monumentality of more powerful forces. This paper positions both art and viewer within a space which can no longer be seen as the perspectival unifying limitations of the traditional grid but as a fluid and multidimensional topology of power relations. It is within this context that the social-relational networks are predicted on unavoidable complicities and tacit agreements which are the substance of art and critical action / Master of Arts (Hons) Visual Arts

Violence against teachers in Swedish schools, according to recent reports has increased and there have been many studies to investigate the situation for teachers. The surveys show that teachers are especially vulnerable to students. This study aims to examine the relationship between a number of teachers and their students to study the power relations that exist in the classroom. This is to see what violence is an expression of and also how violence is perceived by the teachers. The issues that are central in this study are: What is the importance of dialogue in the relationship between these teachers and their students? Is there power relations between teachers and their students? What is the violence against teachers and expression of? Is there any connection between dialogue, power relations and violence? The theories of the materials in this study was analyzed using power relations theories of the historian of ideas Michel Foucault and Philosophy Doctor Anders Persson, who to some extent has his theoretical basis in Foucault’s power relations. The material is interviews with four teachers in upper secondary schools and analysis of the results is my interpretation of the material by applying the theories of power relations. The study shows that the dialogue is important for these teachers in their relationships with their students. There are power relations in the classroom and at school, in the form of disciplinary authority vested in the school. Violence is something that rarely occurs and the violence can be seen as a resistance of students against the exercise of power that occurs at school and in teaching.

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In this thesis, I use Foucault’s methods of discourse analysis and genealogy, and my own experiences as a Paralympic athlete, to analyze and critique the power relations of the Paralympic Movement. In Chapter 1, I contextualize my study by discussing relevant literature in Critical Disability Studies, Sociology of Sport and Adapted Physical Activity, and by introducing my methodological and epistemological frameworks. In Chapter 2, I analyze two historical accounts of the Paralympic Movement to demonstrate how they discursively represent, reproduce and justify Paralympic power relations. In Chapters 3 through 5, I use genealogy to critique Paralympic power relations: analyzing their systems of differentiation, types of objectives, instrumental modes, forms of institutionalization and degrees of rationalization. This analysis brings to the forefront how discourses of empowerment reproduce, justify and conceal the increasingly rationalized structures that enable Paralympic experts to act upon the actions, bodies and identities of those experiencing disabilities.

The privatised interactions between doctoral student and supervisor as they jointly work on the text are the subject of my thesis. To investigate this important yet neglected aspect of supervision, I use data obtained from interviews with seven doctoral supervisory pairs in the social sciences, arts, and humanities in an Australian university. My methodology comprises a series of close-ups to explore feedback relations within supervision and the ways in which meanings are played out for both supervisors and students. The interpretive approach draws upon Foucaultian theory, critical discourse analysis, and (post)critical theory traditions. Accordingly, the power asymmetries between supervisor and student are seen as productive – in the sense of creatively fertile - and not merely synonymous with prohibition or disempowerment. Within five interpretive chapters, I engage with the productive and problematic aspects of supervisory relations, making visible how supervisory feedback assists in the formation of students’ scholarly identities. My analysis examines how the pressures to ensure the production of timely and disciplined thesis texts are impacting on feedback relations. It also examines various ambiguities and tensions such as those embedded in the supervisor’s position as ‘pastor’ and ‘critic’, between asymmetrical and relational power, between the promotion of authorship/autonomy on the one hand, and the preservation of the canon on the other. My discussion highlights the ways supervisors, notwithstanding their authority, attempt to mediate the power disparity through mechanisms such as standing back, withholding and filtering feedback, or using the invitational strategies of ‘under offering’ which downplay the disciplinary nature of their work. I also reflect on what makes acceptance or resistance more or less likely and what promotes/hinders the transition to and reliance on students’ own expertise. Overall, the interpretations I offer suggest that the exercise of power is never straightforward, is opaque and ambiguous and susceptible to misunderstanding and unpredictability. My research thus reveals a picture of social relations that is less orderly and transparent than assumed in the institutional literature and associated guidelines. In particular, the research qualifies the current institutional faith that PhD research/writing is a transparent process, within which supervisors can be trained in the ‘skills’ for providing effective feedback so students can work at an efficient pace and produce predictable results.

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