Regardless of one's position on what has come to be called postmodern theory, there is no denying that this theoretical perspective is challenging the legitimacy of many of the traditional concepts of political and social theory. Foremost among these challenges is the opposition that postmodern theory pose to any attempt to provide foundational certainty on which subjectivity, our sense of who we are and our place in the world, can be established. This thesis explores this postmodern "decentering" of subjectivity and argues that is a useful insight for contemporary political theory. Using the work of Judith Butler and William Connolly, I argue that a perspective that refuses to assume any foundational premises on which essential subjectivity can be established leads to a more ethical negotiation of difference and, ultimately, to a re-invigorated democratic ethos that allows for multifarious ways of being to be politically recognized. / Master of Arts

Two fundamental components of causality are the Cause and the Result. In linguistic work the distinction between these aspects is commonly blurred, presumably because the primary research focus has been on describing how language encodes causality. The semantic nature of the component events and the constraints on their relationship are seldom discussed; however, the current work aims to shed light on a broader spectrum of features that underlie the concept. This is an essential foundation for understanding how language communicates Result. The present discussion explores and illuminates the nature of this concept focusing on a relatively open-ended set of linguistic elements that can play a role in shaping a discourse relation in addition to discourse connectives. This is in contrast to the majority of the previous research, which has been quite intensely concerned with investigating a limited collection of well-established causality markers. Also, despite the fact that English has been used in studies on causality both as a control language and a metalanguage, there is surprisingly little work on the semantics of the relations that occur specifically in English, let alone Result relations. By borrowing from several cognitively-oriented approaches and combining empirical data from two written corpora (British National Corpus and the Penn Discourse Treebank) with experimental work, the current study systematically investigates the conceptual and linguistic properties of several closely related Result relation types (including Purpose), along with the joint role of discourse connectives and other discourse elements in conveying the intended sense. The findings indicate that linguistic signals of the conceptual structure of the relation seem to play a more significant role in the interpretation than explicit marking. Two factors emerged as more vital cues than the presence of the ambiguous connective so.  In Purpose relations, a modal auxiliary conveying an intended effect, and in Result relations the presence/absence of an intentionally acting actor are crucial for disambiguation. The multifunctional connective therefore seems to merely satisfy the mandatory marking requirement related to the intrinsically unrealized (‘nonveridical’) nature of Purpose. In Result the presence of an ambiguous marker is to a great extent optional in English. However, discourse markers can also reflect how language users categorize causal event types. This claim has been confirmed in several cross-linguistic analyses, but the lexicon of English connectives has not been systematically investigated from this vantage point. The few existing studies found that the uses of English connectives are quite unconstrained across causal categories. The present work contributes to this line of research and suggests that two unambiguous markers, as a result and for this reason, indeed cover a wide range of causal event types; however, they also exhibit significant tendencies to occur prototypically in certain relation types. The presence and role of an intentionally acting discourse participant behind both real-world and linguistic causally-related events contributes to these tendencies. The contexts that include such a participant are regarded as intrinsically subjective and have been found to manifest surface expressions of subjectivity in previous work on other languages. The current study confirms similar tendencies in the linguistic construal and marking of Result relations in English, which proves that certain language elements partake in establishing the intended interpretation on a par with discourse connectives.  What emerges as a result of this discussion, is therefore an account on how English utilizes the broad category of Result and what linguistic elements are used to convey the array of resultative events.

This thesis explores the trajectory that the developing technological fields of Ambient Intelligence and Persuasive Technologies introduce new intricate relationships beyond fundamental use and availability because they change our abilities to act. Since its classic articulation by Hegel (1927) philosophical explication of the relationship between people and technology states that technology is a mediating factor between people and the world. Associated with this view, which has characterized the resulting phenomenology and philosophy of technology for nearly two decades, is an understanding of technology as a form of alienation. In this dissertation the author shows how this old interpretation of the relationship between a person and their tool has emphasized how the person is active whilst the tool is passive. This traditional distinction fails to grasp the complex interaction between people and technology in the contemporary world. The nature of new technologies and novel theoretical work in this field suggests that this critical framework is now inadequate. Today, technology mediates the relationship between people and the world in increasingly complex and often collective ways. McLuhan (1967) stated: “Media evoke in us unique ratios of sense perceptions. The extension of any one of these senses alters the way we think and act”. As Greenfield (2006) and Fogg (2002) also posit, certain Ambient Intelligence and Persuasive Technologies are in-principle shaping everyday human behaviours in radically new ways. In particular, I explore how new technologies like those developed in the Artificial Companions Project can impact on our understanding of intimacy and identity. Indeed, Ambient Intelligence Technologies may play the role of reference groups (Shibutani 1987), groups who are real or imaginary and whose standpoints are being used as the frame of reference for the human actor. Given that these technologies have continuously reconfigured identification and profiling practices, this analysis rephrases insight of philosophers like Paul Ricoeur (1990), George Herbert Mead (1959) and Helmuth Plessner (1975) to trace how: The construction of our identity is mediated by how we profile others as profiling us. Thus, new technologies can become reference groups, encroaching on our everyday activities and even affecting our moral decision-making processes. As genuine upgrades of our practical space, they are destined to play a larger formative role in people’s lives in the future. Following Heidegger in Das Ding (Heidegger 1951), Latour once framed the wider social role of technologies as res publica or ‘public things’ (Latour 2005). He pointed out that the old German word ‘ding’ etymologically did not only infer ‘material object’ but also to assembly as gathering space - that thing that can bring together what it separates. Following Latour, Verbeek states that technological ‘things’ do not only mediate our existence, but are places where these mediations are made explicit – therefore, Verbeek argues, they are the places where people have to start to discuss and criticise the quality of the ways in which these ‘things’ help to shape our daily lives (Verbeek 2008). This thesis attempts to offer a new approach to this criticism through theoretical comparison and transdisciplinary analysis.

« Nous ? ». Interroger l’apparition diffuse du phénomène collectif, à-plusieurs, « nous ». Utiliser les parenthèses de la méthode (epoché) pour entrevoir le soi du phénomène collectif et échapper aux guillemets métaphysiques, « nous », et à la rature ontologique, nous. Penser le Nous ! depuis l’évolution des différentes réductions phénoménologiques, retracer une histoire de la méthode au travers le phénomène de l’inter-subjectivité. D’abord, par la tentative de la réduction transcendantale à l’objectité d’un « nous transcendantal » obtenu par « analogie accouplante » : envers l’autre comme moi (Husserl). Heidegger et la réduction ontologique à l’étantité comme déploiement de la question d’un Dasein avec des autres (Mitdasein). Lévinas et la réduction éthique au visage de l’autre, pour l’autre. Socialité première, au-delà de l’essence, autrement qu’être, ancrée dans la dissymétrie originaire d’un « nous responsable : Je-Vous, vous-Je ». Enfin, la réduction érotique (Marion) au visage de l’autre aimé, détaché du visage universel de l’éthique car individué par son amour ; lui aussi aimant comme moi : « nous amoureux : Je-Tu, Tu-Je ». Mais pas encore Nous ! Le « nous » transcendantal en reste aux vécus de conscience du sujet constituant. Le Mitdasein n’atteint pas l’autre en tant que tel, nous. L’universel de l’éthique se perd dans l’anonymat et l’érotique comporte la déception du tiers en départ. Pouvons nous penser le Nous ! en phénoménologie ? Tout « Je » est un « nous », tout « Vous » est un « nous », mais Nous !? Qu’en est-il de Nous !? Serait-ce un « nos-otros », un Nos-otros des-plazados ? / “We?”. To question the confusing appearance of the collective phenomenon, ‘by-many’, “we”. Utilize the method’s brackets (epoché) in order to investigate the self of the collective phenomenon and escape thus the metaphysical quotation marks “we”, and the ontological deletion, we. To think the “we” throughout the evolution of the different phenomenological reductions, retrace a history of its method focusing on the inter-subjective phenomenon. First of all, through the endeavor of the transcendental reduction to objectity of a “transcendental we” obtained by “analogical pairing”: towards the other as me (Husserl). Heidegger and his ontological reduction to being-ness as the deployment of the questioning of a Dasein with others (Mitdasein). Lévinas and the ethical reduction to the face of the other, for the other. The initial sociability, beyond essence, otherwise than being, anchored in the original dissymmetry of a “responsible we: I-Thou, Thou-I”. Finally, the erotic reduction (Marion) to the face of the loved one, detached from the universal face of ethics thus individuated by its love ; him loving as me : “enamored we: I-You, You-I”. But not yet We! The transcendental “we” rests in the conscience of the constituting subject. The Mitdasein does not reach the other as such, we. The ethical universal losses itself in the anonymity and the erotic entails the deception of the departing third person. Can we think the We! In phenomenology? Every “I” is a “we”, every “You” is a “we”, but We!? What about We!? Could it be a “nos-otros”, a Nos-otros des-plazados?

This study explores how subjectivity has been represented in a selection of Sorani Kurdish novels from Iraqi and Iranian Kurdistan that were published in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Due to the statelessness and suffering of the Kurds caused by the political and cultural oppression, the first Sorani Kurdish novel emerged as late as 1961 and yet only established itself towards the end of the century. Within such an acute context, the novel became a tool in the hands of Kurdish authors which they utilised to preserve and promote Kurdish identity, culture and language. With the establishment of cultural centres and publishing houses in diaspora during the 1980s, the establishment of a quasi-independent Kurdish region in Iraq in 1991, and the Iranian government’s easing of publication in Kurdish by the mid-1980, the Sorani Kurdish novelists seized the opportunity to redefine the relationship between political commitment and aesthetics and to consider the possibilities for an analysis of different forms of subjectivity. All the twenty-first century Sorani Kurdish novels examined in this research have discarded, to one degree or another, the realist mode of writing which dominated the Sorani Kurdish novel until the early 1990s. That is, experimentation with new modes of writing and narrative techniques are the common feature of the novels examined here. By carrying out a close reading within a contextual framework and by drawing on Mikhail M. Bakhtin’s theory of the novel, narratology, and theories of subjectivity, this study intends to illustrate the newly emergent modes of wriring and discourses in selected twenty-first century Sorani novels and their implications for the representation of reality and subjectivity. This study demonstrates that the Kurdish novelists from both Iraq and Iran all focus their attention on recent events, relevant to each region, and how they changed the ways subjectivity could be imagined and depicted. The more modernist and postmodernist in form and narration the selected novels are, the more fragmented and passive subjectivity is; and the society that is represented in these novels appears to have separated from its high values and ideals.

Poststructuralist accounts of gender provide a useful theoretical space to unpack the workings of power and domination as they structure the organization of our language, representations, concepts, and discourse in general. One significant flaw of this theory is a failure to adequately account for the social realm of embodied individuals, social interactions, and interpretive moments. In this paper, I offer conventional femininity as a particular type of gendered habitus that highlights this theoretical flaw as it necessarily links what is promising and useful about poststructuralist accounts of gender with the physical, social, interactive, and interpretive everyday lives of women.

Orientador: Elizabeth Maria Freire de Araújo Lima / Banca: Rafael de Oliveira Rodrigues / Banca: Marília Aparecida Muylaert / Banca: Roberto Duarte Santana Nascimento / Banca: Cristiane Ferreira Mesquita / Resumo: A partir da perspectiva teórica dos chamados filósofos da diferença e da composição metodológica entre a Cartografia e a Bricolagem, a presente tese intentou acompanhar os processos de criação dos participantes de uma oficina artística voltada para os conhecimentos das artes visuais/plásticas e orientada pelos saberes da Arte/Educação contemporânea, um dos campos do universo artístico que estuda os fundamentos do ensino das artes e que procura articular o fazer, o expressar e o refletir nas práticas artísticas. Através do acompanhamento desses processos criativos, pretendeu-se refletir sobre os efeitos subjetivos que o contato com as artes pôde proporcionar aos seus participantes, na medida em que, a oficina aspirava proporcionar condições de experiência estética e de enlace social, na medida em que entendíamos a oficina como território de existência; configurando-se, desta forma, como um dispositivo de produção e/ou fruição de objetos artísticos, de acontecimentos, de encontros e de subjetividades. A oficina como espaço que abrigava obras em potencial. A oficina ocorreu no Centro de Cultura e Esportes (CEU) do Jardim Itamaraty V em Poços de Caldas (MG), entre 2015 e 2017. Esse território de existência tratou-se de um espaço de ampliação e adensamento da experiência estética como estratégia para a promoção de uma maior acessibilidade ao campo das artes e convivência entre seus participantes - que por múltiplos fatores (sociais, econômicos e culturais, experiências singulares ... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Cartography and bricolage, an attempt to follow the processes of creation of the participants of an artistic workshop directed to the knowledge of the visual / plastic arts and oriented by the knowledge of art Contemporary education, the studies on the fundamentals of the teaching of the arts and the search, articulate the doing, and the concept in the artistic instances. Behind to reverse the creative processes, we wanted to reflect on the subjective effects that the contact with the arts affect its participants, inasmuch as a service aspired to the conditions of aesthetic and social experience of liaison, insofar as we understood a workshop as a territory of existence; thus becoming a device for the production and / or enjoyment of artistic objects, events, encounters and subjectivities. A workshop as a space that housed potential works. The workshop took place in the Center of Culture and Sports (CEU) of Jardim Itamaraty V in Poços de Caldas (MG), between 2015 and 2017. This area of existence was a space of expansion and consolidation of aesthetic experience as a strategy for the promotion of greater accessibility to the field of arts and coexistence among its participants - that by multiple factors (social, economic and cultural, unique experiences of life) - live in conditions of marginality or social vulnerability. In this way, the workshop, in approaching aesthetic artistic practices, presented itself not only as a territory for the production and enjoyment of works or artistic objects, but also as the invention of new devires, new encounters, new compositions of lifestyles, health and subjectivity, especially with regard to sexuality and gender. Thus, with the idea of Aesthetics or Relational Art (widely explored by contemporary artists), it understands a regime of intensive, casual encounter that places... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

Interracial contact in South Africa continues to be fraught with tension. Many investigators have used the contact hypothesis to explore the relationship between contact and prejudice in South African samples, which has revealed the highly complex character of interracial contact. With much of the research on interracial contact being quantitative in nature and comparatively little qualitative work being done, few studies have looked at perceptions of interracial contact and none can be found which have used Q-methodology as the method of investigation. The aim of the study was to uncover groups of people who have similar perceptions about interracial contact in South Africa through the factor analytic process inherent in Q-methodology. Q-methodology is a comprehensive way of looking at people’s views, attitudes, opinions and beliefs on a topic and has both qualitative as well as quantitative dimensions, making it unique method which can shed a different kind of insight into the subjectivities of interracial contact compared to traditional research methods. Q-methodology is explained in some detail and supported as the best approach for exploring perceptions of interracial contact in South Africa given the country’s history of racial segregation and complexity of intergroup dynamics. The study used a non-probability, volunteer sample of 55 undergraduate students at the University of the Witwatersrand. A centroid factor analysis was performed on the data followed by a varimax rotation, which yielded four groups (“factors”) of people with similar patterns of subjectivities on the topic of interracial contact in South Africa. The groups were labelled the experientialists, ethnocentrists, segregationists, and integrationists based on their distinct patterns of perceptions of interracial contact in South Africa.

O estoma causa impacto em várias esferas da vida da pessoa, inclusive na vivência da sexualidade, bem como na vivência do seu parceiro sexual. O tema sexualidade abrange inúmeros aspectos que passam pela fisicidade e subjetividade humana e que envolvem percepções e significados. Conhecer as representações sociais (RS) sobre a sexualidade de pessoas com estoma intestinal definitivo e identificar fatores que potencializam e ou dificultam sua vivência foram os objetivos deste estudo, tendo como referencial teórico-metodológico a Teoria das RS. A análise de conteúdo dos discursos obtidos por meio de entrevistas abertas, realizadas junto a 15 pessoas com estomas intestinais definitivos há um ano ou mais, cadastrados na Associação Vale Paraibana de Ostomizados -Taubaté (SP) permitiu significar três unidades temáticas: O SIGNIFICADO DA SEXUALIDADE, A VIVÊNCIA DA SEXUALIDADE: ANTES DO ESTOMA e RESSIGNIFICANDO A SEXUALIDADE. Demonstrou-se que o estoma intestinal interfere na dinâmica da vivência da sexualidade, desvelando que os significados a ela atribuídos estão ancorados nas histórias individuais de vida, na qualidade das relações pessoais/conjugais estabelecidas na prática e na percepção da sexualidade, apesar do estoma. Por outro lado, demonstrou que são necessárias preparações físicas e psicológicas para que a sexualidade seja reincorporada às práticas cotidianas das pessoas estomizadas. Soluções e estratégias simples e práticas foram adotadas pelos estomizados, facilitando o momento de intimidade, tornando-o mais próximo daquilo que vivenciavam antes da presença do estoma. A indicação da técnica da auto-irrigação associada ou não ao uso do oclusor intestinal foi referendada pelos seus usuários como elemento positivo e diferenciador para a prática da sexualidade após o estoma. Essa indicação pode ser incorporada à prática do profissional de saúde que os assiste, por meio de orientações claras e objetivas, que podem contribuir para facilitar a retomada de importante aspecto da vida humana, minimizar preocupações, medos, ansiedades e sofrimentos. A sexualidade da pessoa estomizada é plurideterminada por fatores que, interligados, influenciam sua compreensão da realidade, sua capacidade de vencer bloqueios crenças, valores pessoais, econômicos e sociais, sua percepção da qualidade do relacionamento conjugal e do acesso a informações, produtos e serviços de saúde qualificados / A stoma affects various aspects of a person\'s life, including sexuality, as well as that of his or her partner. The theme of sexuality encompasses innumerable aspects of human physicality and subjectivity and involves perceptions and meanings. To find out the social representations (SR) on the sexuality of people with permanent intestinal stoma and to identify factors that enhance and/or hamper their lives were the objectives of this study, using the Social Representation Theory (SR) as a theoretical-methodological reference. This study is based on the analysis of the material obtained through open interviews carried out with 15 people who have had permanent intestinal stomas for a year or more, and who are registered with the Associação Vale Paraibana de Ostomizados (Paraiba Valley Association for the Stomized) in Taubaté-SP. The analysis of data allowed for three thematic units: THE MEANING OF SEXUALITY FOR A STOMIZED PERSON, THE EXPERIENCE OF SEXUALITY BEFORE THE STOMA, and GIVING NEW MEANING TO SEXUALITY. This study demonstrated that the intestinal stoma interferes with the dynamics of the sexual experience, revealing that the meanings attributed to it are anchored in individual life stories, in the quality of the personal/conjugal relationships that are established through practice, and in the perception of sexuality despite the stoma. On the other hand, it showed that physical and psychological preparations are necessary for sexuality to be reincorporated as a routine practice by stomized patients. Simple and practical solutions and strategies were adopted by the stomized, facilitating the moment of intimacy, making it closer to what the partners experienced before the existence of the stoma. The recommendation of the self-irrigation technique associated or not to the use of the artificial sphincter, has been attested to by its users as a positive element that makes a difference in the sexual practice after the stoma. These strategies may be incorporated into the health practice of the professional who assists stoma patients, through clear and objective guidance, which can facilitate the resumption of an important aspect of life, and minimize worries, fears, anxieties, and suffering. The sexuality of the stomized person is determined by multiple factors which, interconnected, influence and sometimes define the path that this person will take. Among them are: the capacity of comprehending reality and of overcoming personal blockages and beliefs; personal, economical, and social values; the quality of the conjugal relationship, and the access to information, products, and qualified health services

Esta pesquisa está voltada para o abrigo, modalidade de acolhimento institucional para crianças e adolescentes privados temporariamente do convívio familiar. Desenhada como estudo institucional de um caso, visa ao traçado da subjetividade de um garoto, Fernando, 14 anos, em sua fala sobre si e nas falas a seu respeito. Analisa os discursos, em entrevistas, de: Fernando, seu pai e agentes institucionais do abrigo (duas educadoras, um psicólogo e duas voluntárias), da escola (três professoras) e da Vara da Infância e da Juventude (a psicóloga responsável pelo caso). O método é o de Análise Institucional do Discurso, proposto por Guirado (2010), como analítica da subjetividade; organiza-se em torno dos conceitos de instituição, discurso, sujeito e análise, e operacionaliza a articulação entre o singular e as relações institucionais. As análises das entrevistas foram conduzidas considerando o modo de organização das falas, para configurar os lugares assumidos e atribuídos nas relações que se fazem em seus discursos. Na análise da entrevista de Fernando se configuraram suas necessidades de atendimento, tratadas no interjogo com os discursos de seu pai e dos agentes institucionais. Fernando põe-se como herói solitário e o pai é alçado a principal artífice do impasse que se cria com relação ao tornar-se homem. Ao mesmo tempo, identifica o psicólogo e o gestor do abrigo como sua referência. Em seu discurso, o pai, como um viajante solitário, reconhece no abrigo o melhor para o filho. O psicólogo não identifica em seu fazer uma referência para Fernando. Ressalta-se uma remessa constante de uns a outros no posto de referência em que Fernando, em princípio, os coloca: uma busca em que Fernando mira um, que mira outro, que mira novamente para fora da relação com ele, no atendimento às demandas de ser (homem) na vida. Destaca-se, ainda, que no discurso institucional o pai é falado em sua negatividade: suas carências e seus desvios. Isso se imprime com tal força que acaba por decalcar o pai em Fernando. Na entrevista de Fernando configura-se uma espécie de negligência em que os contornos do saber-fazer não se desenham. No contexto da instituição-abrigo, ora Fernando é cerceado em ações que estariam dentro de seu alcance, ora é legitimado em um exercício de poder que exerce só, por critérios pessoais. No contexto escolar, as características de Fernando, identificadas pelas professoras, entram em estratégias diferentes, e se produz ora um aluno de destaque, por apresentar mais conhecimento, participação e contribuição em aula do que os demais alunos, ora um aluno-disfarce, burro e esperto. A relação de Fernando com a transgressão/agressão surge em referência à imagem ridicularizada do pai, às normas institucionais e à morte, e o contexto escolar é posicionado como ocasião privilegiada para tal aprendizagem. Nesse contexto, essas ações são tratadas com sua expulsão de sala e/ou com mediações de outras instâncias, fora da relação em que a transgressão/agressão acontece. Fernando coloca sua proteção em sua dependência. Nas práticas institucionais não se estabelecem relações que sustentem, com ele, sua proteção / This research focuses on the shelter, modality of institutional reception for children and teenagers temporarily deprived of familiar conviviality. Drawn as institutional study of a case, it aims to the tracing of a boys subjectivity, Fernando, 14 years old, on his speech about himself and on others speech about him. It analyses the discourses, on interviews, of: Fernando, his father and institutional agents of the shelter (two educators, a psychologist e two volunteers), of the school (three teachers) and of the Children and Juvenile Court (the psychologist in charge of the case). The method is that of Institutional Discourse Analysis, proposed by Guirado (2010) as analytic of subjectivity; it organizes around the concepts of institution, discourse, subject and analysis, and operationalizes the articulation between the singular and the institutional relationships. The analyses of the interviews were conducted considering the mode of organization of speeches, to set the places assumed and attributed on relations that are made on their discourses. On the analyses of the interview with Fernando his needs of treatment are configured, treated in the interplay with the discourses of his father and of the institutional agents. Fernando puts himself as a solitary hero and the father is elevated as the main architect of the impasse created in respect to becoming a man. At the same time, he identifies the psychologist and the shelters manager as his reference. In his discourse, the father, as a solitary traveler, recognizes in the shelter the best for his son. The psychologist doesnt identify in his doing a reference for Fernando. It is noteworthy a constant referral from one to another on the reference post where Fernando, at first, places them: a search in which Fernando targets one, who targets another, who targets again outside the relationship with him, at the meeting of the demands of being (man) in life. It is also noteworthy that in the institutional discourse the father is referred of for his negativity: his shortages and deviations. That imprints itself with such strength that it ends up bringing up the father in Fernando. On Fernandos interview a sort of negligence configures itself in which the contours of knowing-doing are not drawn. In the context of the institution-shelter, sometimes Fernando is curtailed in actions that would be on his reach, sometimes he his legitimated in a power exercise that he exercises by himself using personal criteria. In the school context, Fernandos characteristics, identified by the teachers, enter different strategies, and produce sometimes an outstanding student, for presenting more knowledge, participation and contribution in class than the other students, and other times a student-disguise, dumb and smart. Fernandos relationship with transgression/aggression arises in reference to the ridiculed image of the father, to the institutional norms and to death, and the school context is positioned as a privileged occasion for such learning. In this context, those actions are treated with his expulsion from class and/or with mediations of other instances, outside the relation in which the transgression/aggression occurs. Fernando places his protection on his dependency. On institutional practices relationships are not established which sustain with him his protection