Since the 1990s, a regional tier of governance has emerged in England, in a country which historically has not been noted for its regional identities. The vying for European Union (EU) structural funds has been seen as a key factor in the mobilisation of regions across Europe. It is within the context of UK membership of the EU, and the effects of the Europeanisation processes, that some scholars have placed the appearance of English regions. Other scholars have sought to explain the growth of English regional governance principally in terms of a response to globalisation. New Regionalism offers an insight into the renewed interest in regions as the focus for economic governance in an increasingly globalised world. With its emphasis on clusters, skills and innovation as a way to promote a competitive advantage, links have been made with New Labour’s economic agenda. Economic rescaling, on the other hand, has been seen to offer a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between the state and the regions. On this view, the state is actively rescaling economic governance in response to the pressures of globalisation, but at the same time still retains its traditional authority. The emergence of governance more generally has also been cited as a factor in English regionalisation. The extent to which the state is being “hollowed out” is a feature of this debate. Again, links have been made specifically to New Labour’s agenda that included plans for devolution for Scotland and Wales and plans for elected regional assemblies in England. This thesis examines the East of England and the South West English regions within the context of these debates. The central argument is that regionalisation in England is a centrally orchestrated process by central government as the nature of governance, but not the state, changes.

Orientadora: Ana Maria Carlos / Coorientadora: Célia Aparecida Ferreira Tolentino / Banca: Antonio Manoel dos Santos Silva / Banca: Antonio Roberto Esteves / Resumo: Neste trabalho, investigamos quatro narrativas ficcionais brasileiras que assumiram de modo ativo para seu arranjo o território sertanejo: Pedra Bonita (1938) e Cangaceiros (1953), do escritor paraibano José Lins do Rego, e Deus e o diabo na terra do sol (1964) e O dragão da maldade contra o santo guerreiro (1969), do cineasta baiano Glauber Rocha. Partimos do pressuposto de que os dois romances e os dois longas-metragens, mesmo que produzidos em um hiato histórico de trinta e um anos, ao elegerem o ambiente rural-sertão comportam e congregam uma inquietação com os rumos que a modernidade periférica assumia no Brasil. Os estilos diferentes de narrar tal espacialidade e de entendê-la mostram as distintas concepções dos autores sobre a política e, consecutivamente, sobre a estética. Buscar apreender nos romances e nos filmes, todavia, estes registros particulares do mundo social fixa a compreensão do espaço literário e do cinematográfico como espaço social, ao mesmo tempo em que exige a interpretação das conexões entre estes espaços e as dinâmicas da vida social brasileira / Abstract: In this research, we investigate four Brazilian fictional narratives that took actively for their arrangement the backland territory: Pedra Bonita (1938) and Cangaceiros (1953), by José Lins do Rego, and Deus e o diabo na terra do sol (1964) and O dragão da maldade contra o santo guerreiro (1969), by Glauber Rocha. We presuppose that the two novels and two films, even if produced in a historical gap of thirty-one years, when they elect the backland space, the narratives behave and congregate an inquietude with the direction that the peripheral modernity assumed in Brazil. Different styles of narrating that spatiality and its comprehension show the authors‟ different conceptions about the politics and aesthetics. Searching to apprehend in novels and movies, however, these private records, fix the literary and the cinematographic spaces comprehension as social space, while require the analysis about the connections between these spaces and the dynamics of Brazilian social life / Mestre

The idea of "region" in America has often served to isolate places from each other. Whether in the nostalgic celebration of folk cultures or the urbane distaste for "hicks," certain regions of the country are identified as static, and culturally disconnected from everywhere else. This title explores this trend and offers alternatives to it. / https://dc.etsu.edu/alumni_books/1005/thumbnail.jpg

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How has the party affiliation of presidential candidates impacted presidential elections in Ecuador? Historically, how have political party candidates and outsiders performed in elections and how has this changed over the last 20 years of democratic history? This case study attempts to answer fundamental questions about the connections between parties and electablility of presidential candidates. In a country with an inchoate party system and a history of populism, personalist candidates have always had relatively high levels of electoral success. Yet, it would seem that preference for unaligned candidates is increasing. After years of domination by political party candidates, the Ecuadorian people elected two political neophytes to compete in the final round of the 2002 elections. Both campaigned as outsiders, with strong opposition to the party system, and both created personal political parties that served as electoral vehicles. The dependent variable, the success of outsider candidates in the 2002 elections, appears to come from three main independent variables: a history of weak and highly ineffective parties, voter alienation from institutions due to continuing political and economic crises, and a political culture that revolves around personalist and populist presidents. Because of these evident trends, outsiders in Ecuador have found favorable situations for messages of opposition to the political system. In addition, appeals to alienated citizens, based on a personal campaign, have proven successful in Ecuadorian elections. Parties appear to become increasingly irrelevant in the executive sphere. After a brief historical orientation, this thesis discusses the impact of the presidencies of Abdala Bucaram (elected 1996, impeached 1997) and Jamil Mahuad (elected 1998, overthrown 2000) as important background for the 2002 election. The hypothesis is that in 2002, alignment with traditional political parties damaged candidates in the presidential elections. This thesis analyzes the presidential candidates that participated in the 2002 campaign, and concludes that affiliating with a traditional political party was a liability for a presidential candidate in the 2002 elections.

The African Union (AU) has pledged to create a continent of peace and solidarity. However, dozens of socio-ethnic conflicts occur across the continent despite the AU's best efforts to prevent them. In this thesis, case studies of Darfur and Western Sahara were used to assess the efficacy of the AU in the realm of peacemaking and peacekeeping. Within each of these studies, AU impediments to peacemaking and peacekeeping on financial, political, and socio-cultural fronts were analyzed. The findings suggest that while socio-cultural conflict continues to proliferate, the AU has neither the financial resources nor the political clout to meet peacemaking and peacekeeping milestones. Furthermore, findings from this research suggest that conflict founded upon socio-cultural diversity undermines the very foundation of regionalism solidarity and therefore compromises the overall application of regionalism as a mechanism for peacekeeping. This in turn stymies the AU from becoming internationally respected for making and keeping the peace.

During the nineteenth century, an artistic trend spread across Europe. As urban centers housed the majority of professional artists, individuals and groups relocated to remote, bucolic areas to form art colonies. Artist colonies are typically defined as a group of artists, generally painters, writers, and composers who worked and lived as a community for a certain period of time1. Artists left their city lifestyles as a response to urbanization and industrialization. In other words, the movement encouraged reform of social, environmental, and economic conditions to prevent the decline of true artisanship. The artistic response personified an underlying utopian theme: preservation of the simple life, nostalgia, and set of values threatened by industrialization. This idyllic impulse eventually spread to America. The American art colonies were mainly located in the Northeastern states, the Southwest and Northern California. The present study seeks to analyze art colonies' transformation from rural settings to urban art communities, particularly Florida's art centers. The study finds commonality among the artist colonies of yesterday and the modern art enclaves of today. Some common themes include: desire for seclusion, camaraderie with fellow artists, and inspiration from a environment and/or nature. Chapter one offers a brief history of art colonies in Europe and the influence of landscapes on artists. Chapter two explores the development of American art colonies and their connection to landscapes and the urban influence of modern art on the artists. Chapter three investigates the history of the most significant art colonies in Florida: St. Augustine, Sarasota, Maitland, and New Smyrna Beach. This chapter also examines how artist enclaves support urban communities economically, culturally, and through diversity; specifically, through examples in small towns transformed into diverse Floridian art communities. Art has always provided a unique historical record of social, regional, environmental, and creative changes. The art colonies and communities discussed in this thesis show how the artistic impulses for creativity attract individuals to places and transform them into important art centers. 1 Nina Lubbren, Rural Artist Colonies in Europe, 1870-1910 (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press 2001), 2.

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<p>Uppsatsen har till syfte att undersöka huruvida MERCOSUR är en aktör på den internationella arenan och om dess tilltagande utveckling kommer kunna bidra till ett ökat interregionalt samarbete. Uppsatsen ska uppnå syftet genom att svara på två frågeställningar: 1) Kan MERCOSUR definieras som en aktör på den internationella arenan? 2) Kan MERCOSUR ses som ett nytt regionalt block och därmed ingå i interregionala samarbeten?</p><p>Uppsatsen går igenom nya regionala blockens uppkomst och vad som skiljer dem åt från andra frihandels avtal. Uppsatsen är en komparativ analys som använder sig av två modeller för att svara på frågeställningarna. Den ena är Björn Hettnes dynamiska modell som beskriver en förändringsprocess. Den andra modellen består av fem kriterier, vilka definierats av Bretherton och Vogler och definierar ett aktörsbeteende. Denna typ av modell är, till skillnad från Hettnes, en statisk modell som används för att definiera grundläggande egenskaper. I samband med Bretherton och Voglers kriterier undersöks fundamentala begrepp, så som actorness och regioness, för att på underlätta analysen om huruvida MERCOSUR agerar som en aktör. För att kunna förstå uppkomsten och utvecklingen av regionala block undersöks hur EU skapades och uppkomsten av Europeiska värderingar samt en introduktion till regionala sammanslutningar i Latinamerika. EU är det äldsta regionala blocket vars gemensamma politik innefattar både ekonomiska och politiska mål. EU stödjer hela den regionala utvecklingen i Latin Amerika och dess interregionala politik bygger på dialog och samförstånd vilket gynnar sammanslutningarna i kontinenten. Speciellt har utvecklingen i MERCOSUR varit av intresse. MERCOSUR har blivit sedd som ett alternativ till det USA drivna projektet FTAA.</p>