This thesis examines non-formal settings for development education by non-governmental organisations (NGOs). I focus on teaching and learning methodologies and on the attitudes and actions generated in learners. The study is informed by transformative learning theory, particularly as developed by Jack Mezirow (2000) and by Paulo Freire (1970). I look at opportunities for non-formal transformative learning in both Britain and in Spain and the use of participative methodologies to develop knowledge and understanding of and attitudes towards global development issues. I consider how such personal transformations might lead to social change and how a postcolonial analysis might affect the way issues are presented. This is a qualitative study informed by interviews with staff from seven organisations in the UK and seven in Spain. Illustrative cases are also provided based on observations of three non-formal educational activities in each country and interviews with learners attending these courses. I found that the extent to which participative critical dialogue was generated by such development education activities varied and depended on a number of factors, including the length of the course and pedagogical styles of the facilitators. Learners showed signs of transformation through the activities. Many talked about increased self-esteem and changes in understanding and attitudes. This had consequential influences on behaviour, particularly relating to more sustainable consumer behaviour and other lifestyle or career choices. I note that, through opportunities for transformative learning, participants also formed networks that could contribute to social as well as personal transformations; this relates to the stated aims and objectives of the NGOs and thus has important policy implications.

Corresponding to the rising threat of terrorism and heightened security concerns throughout Europe, potential parallel communities have come under increased scrutiny and pressure to engage and integrate in the politics and society of the country of settlement. Meanwhile, immigrants and the descendants of immigrants have lived in the countries of Western Europe for up to three and four generations. In this discussion, the tools of intercultural dialogue and citizenship have been proposed to bridge the ‘gap’ between ‘majority’ and ‘minority’ communities, permeating state practices from the national to the local level. This dissertation proposes to contribute to the field of International Relations by examining an often excluded space, that is, the local arena. Moreover, it expands the field in terms of giving attention to the role that youth play in international politics. Using a levels-of-analysis approach and a comparative case study method, comments from students, teachers, and parents in Berlin and London were analysed in keeping with a critical constructivist methodology. I found that, in spite of their different histories and immigration experiences, the perceptions of citizenship and intercultural dialogue have more in common than not. The main contributing factors to their experience appeared to be notions of belonging ingrained in the respective national imaginary in the context of globalization. In each case, the overlapping, intersecting experiences of minority youth cross-cut political and juridical boundaries. Far from being confined to a city district, the ramifications of these intersections are global in scale. From local participation to media culture, minority youth participate in an ongoing navigation of international issues in their day-to-day lives.

The aim of this research is to examine the identities of youth from different cultural background in Malaysia that has been formed through consumption of media. The forces of globalisation reportedly have de-centred the self from the core, leading to multiple, fluid and contradictory identities. Individuals have been displaced from their backgrounds, and have emerged as individuals, in contrast to past collective identities. People are self-reflexive in constructing their sense of self, with the media playing a role in nurturing one s quest for self-identity (Thompson, 1995). This issue is of particular relevance to young Malaysians. Within this locality, young people s lives are deeply embedded in the collectivities of ethnicity, religion and national identity. At the same time, Malaysia has adopted an open economic market. The de-regulation of Malaysia s broadcasting services enables a mass penetration of the global media to influence young Malaysians. This study is interested in examining how these conditions have affected young Malaysians identities through media consumption. While other studies have explored identity through the consumption of the global media by local audiences, such studies have focused on hybridised cultural practices. This study takes into account de-centred identities by examining shifts in values among different ethnicities, as reflected in consumption of global and local television programmes, differentiating this from previous research works. This study draws on Giddens (1990) concept of reflexivity in examining this issue. This study found that the global media plays a significant role in young Malaysians questioning tradition against modernity. They admire life outside Malaysia, and view it as more modern and liberating, compared to the perceived closed life of Malaysian culture. Yet, this does not conclusively show that young Malaysians have completely abandoned local cultures and values. Rather, it shows they can fully adopt values they admire into their lives while continuing to live within the bounds of their parents and community. Young Malaysians have appropriated the various forms of global cultures derived from media consumption as a means of forging their sense of self, which articulates a need to project an individual self rather than emerging from their collectivity. Although religion and ethnicity remain important in their lives, these young people do not see themselves solely restricted by these identity markers alone. Their cultural identity contains characteristics of other global cultures as well. It is an intersection of various forms of identities, negotiated between religion and ethnicity within global youth cultures, diaspora, gender, lifestyles and taste. Young Malaysians can best be described as having in-between identities - global - local subjects borne out of the hybridisation of values from both sources. Ethnic minority Malaysians display two identities, due to their consumption of international programmes. First, overseas Chinese and Tamil television programmes enable youth to hybridise their youth identity into Western-Asian popular youth cultures instead of drawing solely from one or the other. Second, this type of exposure leads young Malaysian-Chinese to have feelings of cultural superiority over the local Malay films and drama.

À l’heure où les débats politiques se cristallisent autour du multiculturalisme, de la peur de la mondialisation et des récentes arrivées de migrants, ceci dans une Europe qui développe un repli sur soi, il semble important de redonner une profondeur historique aux échanges de toutes sortes entre les différentes rives de la Méditerranée. La cuisine en tant qu’objet d’analyse montre comment différents pays ont pu s’influencer mutuellement culturellement au point qu’il est difficile aujourd’hui de déterminer exactement l’origine d’une recette. Cependant, il existe toujours des résistances à certains traits culturels de l’Autre et ceci se voit à travers les habitudes alimentaires. Ce travail de recherche étudie les relations gastronomiques entre la France et le Maroc en utilisant le paradigme du transfert culturel. Il montre comment un aliment ou une recette passe ou non les frontières (culturelles et géographiques) et pourquoi. Pour cela, trois contextes ont été définis. La colonisation provoque une des grandes « rencontres » ayant marqué les deux sociétés jusqu’à aujourd’hui. L’alimentation est en effet au cœur des rapports de pouvoir en contexte colonial. Le deuxième facteur de la « rencontre » entre ces deux sociétés est le phénomène migratoire. Après avoir déterminé ses propres stratégies pour se nourrir lui-même en tant qu’individu, le migrant a un rôle dans les transferts culturels gastronomiques entre son pays et la France, notamment lorsque l’on sait que le secteur de l’alimentation est choisi par beaucoup de migrants marocains pour s’installer en France. Le migrant a un rôle d’innovateur en matière gastronomique pendant que l’on voit aussi évoluer les pratiques des sociétés française et européenne au regard de cette migration. En somme, à travers les pratiques alimentaires, les notions d’intégration, d’assimilation et d’acculturation sont réinterrogées. La recherche se termine enfin par une vision d’ensemble qui est celle de la mondialisation et de la volonté politique du Maroc d’utiliser ses ressources d’ordre gastronomique pour se placer sur la scène internationale. / At a time when political debates are crystallizing around multiculturalism, fear of globalization and furthermore the recent arrival of migrants in a Europe which is developing a withdrawal into itself, it seems important to restore some historical depth to the exchanges between the various shores of the Mediterranean area. Food as an object of analysis shows how different countries have so much culturally influenced one another that it is difficult today to determine exactly from where does a recipe comes. However, there is still resistance to certain cultural traits of “the Other” and this is reflected in one’s eating habits. This research studies the gastronomic relations between France and Morocco using the cultural transfer paradigm that shows how recipes could or couldn’t cross borders (in the cultural and geographical meaning) and why. Three context typologies have been defined. Colonization causes one of the great "meetings" that have marked the two societies until today given that in a colonial context food is in the center of power relations. The second factor of the "encounter" between those two societies is the the context of international migration. Migrants and immigrants have a role in cultural gastronomic transfers between their origin country and France, especially because it is chosen by many Moroccan migrants to settle in France by opening restaurants. The migrant has a role of innovator in gastronomic matters while we also see evolving the French and European companies practices towards this migration. Briefly, through eating practices, notions of integration, assimilation and acculturation are re-examined. Finally, the research concludes with an overall vision of globalization and Morocco's political will to use its gastronomic resources to position itself on the international stage.

To αντικείμενο της παρούσας διπλωματικής εργασίας είναι η μελέτη της συμπεριφοράς των χρηστών της Wikipedia, όταν πραγματοποιούν μια τροποποίηση περιεχομένου ενός άρθρου, σε σχέση με την χώρα καταγωγής τους. Η μελέτη ξεκινάει με μια γενική παρουσίαση των ιστοσελίδων κοινωνικής δικτύωσης με έμφαση στις Wikipedia αλλά και της έρευνας του ολλανδού κοινωνιολόγου Geert Hofstede και τις θεωρίας του περί την ύπαρξη πέντε κοινωνικών διαστάσεων που μπορούν να περιγράψουν αρκετά ικανοποιητικά κάθε κράτος και τους κατοίκους του. Στην συνέχεια, κατασκευάζουμε μια εφαρμογή η οποία αντλεί και συλλέγει δεδομένα σχετικά με τις τροποποιήσεις από πέντε διαφορετικές εκδόσεις – γλώσσες της Wikipedia για 8 διαφορετικά άρθρα και τα κατηγοριοποιεί ανάλογα με το είδος της τροποποίησης. Τέλος, γίνεται η προσπάθεια εξαγωγής κάποιων συμπερασμάτων σχετικά με τον τρόπο συμπεριφοράς των χρηστών που προέρχονται από το ίδιο κράτος συγκρίνοντας τα δεδομένα που συλλέξαμε για κάθε διαφορετική γλώσσα με τις διαστάσεις που έχει μετρήσει ο Geert Hofstede για το αντίστοιχο κράτος. / The subject of this thesis is to study the behaviour of the users of Wikipedia when editing the content of an article, with respect to the country of origin of the user. The study begins with an overview of social networking websites with a focus on Wikipedia and a presentation of the research of the Dutch sociologist Geert Hofstede and his theory of the existence of five social dimensions that can describe quite well each country and its residents. Afterwards, we develop an application that draws and collects data from the article history about the edits of eight Wikipedia articles from five different editions – languages of Wikipedia and classifies them according to the type of the edit. Finally, we attempt to export some conclusions about the behaviour of users from the same country by relating the data we exported for each language to the dimensions measured by Geert Hofstede for the corresponding country.

Le présent travail de recherche porte sur l’asymétrie des échanges interculturels dans les relations partenariales entre des organismes du Nord et du Sud. D’un tâtonnement exploratoire à la constitution d’un cadre d’analyse combinant plusieurs approches, cette recherche s’intéresse particulièrement aux partenariats entre des organisations non gouvernementales, des associations et des entreprises à but socioéconomique françaises et sénégalaises. L’analyse de ces relations partenariales se fait à trois niveaux : autour de l’acteur, ses logiques et les situations de coopération. Elle s’appuie sur des modèles théoriques et conceptuels notamment sur la problématique des rationalités, de la créativité des acteurs et des logiques de partenariat. Les relations partenariales s’inscrivent de ce fait dans ce qu’on pourrait appréhender comme un double mouvement de transaction socio-historique à la fois structurelle et structurale.En effet, le partenariat actuel entre organismes participe d’une métamorphose bien plus globale qui prend en compte les évolutions d’un monde en mutation permanente. Il résulte également d’un processus d’évolution des relations franco-sénégalaises.L’analyse des relations nouvelles et des alternatives de partenariat propose une sociologie des relations partenariales qui questionnent les discours et les pratiques de coopération dans le cadre d’échanges interculturels structurés et semi-structurés.L’analyse proposée permet ainsi de répondre à l’interrogation suivante : ces relations obéissent-elles à des logiques de domination, de réciprocité, de fraternalisme ou d’asymétrie ? / This research work focuses on the asymmetry of the intercultural exchanges within the partner relationships between the North and the South organizations. We particularly put emphasis on partner relationships between nongovernmental organizations and companies with a socio-economic vocation in France and in Senegal.The analysis of these partner relationships is done at three levels: on the partner, his logic and the cooperation situations. This relies on theoretical and conceptual models such as Weber’s (Weber M., 1964) comprehensive approach that emphasizes on rational actions, Boltanski’s, (Boltanski, 1990) normative action analysis model, Mauss’ (Mauss, 2007) reciprocal donation model, Joas’s (Joas H. , 1999) critical theory that highlights the creative nature that human actions have and Remy’s (Remy, 2005/1) social transaction theory. Partner relationships are then part of what could be tackled as a double issue of socio-historical transaction both structural and organisational. In fact, today’s partnerships between organizations are part of a much more global change taking into account the evolution of a permanently changing world. It thus arises on an evolution process of France-Senegal relationships. The analysis of new relationships and other partnership alternatives suggests a sociology of partner relationships that questions the today’s cooperation discourses and practices concerning structured and semi-structured intercultural exchanges. The analysis that we propose makes it possible to answer the following question: Do these relations follow a common sense of domination, reciprocity, fraternalism (Césaire, 1956) or asymmetry ?

Στα πλαίσια των νέων, διαπολιτισμικών κοινωνιών, παρατηρείται το φαινόμενο του επιπολιτισμού το οποίο προκύπτει από τη δυναμική αλληλεπίδραση διαφορετικών πολιτισμών και τη μεταξύ τους επικοινωνία και οδηγεί το άτομο στο να επιλέξει εκείνη τη στρατηγική επιπολιτισμού που θα το βοηθήσει να προσαρμοστεί και να ενταχθεί στην κοινωνία της χώρας υποδοχής με το μικρότερο κόστος για το ίδιο. Από την άλλη, η θρησκευτικότητα είναι ένα διαχρονικό φαινόμενο που συναντάται σε επίπεδο κοινωνίας αλλά και σε επίπεδο ατόμου. Οι διάφορες θρησκείες που υπάρχουν ανά τον κόσμο αλλά και τα φαινόμενα θρησκευτικού φανατισμού που έχουν καταγραφεί ιστορικά και παρατηρούνται ξανά τα τελευταία χρόνια, υποδεικνύουν τη δύναμη που ασκούν οι θρησκείες στους πιστούς τους αλλά και στο σύνολο της κοινωνίας, διαμορφώνοντας στάσεις, ήθη, έθιμα κ.λπ. Η παρούσα εργασία επιχειρεί να ερευνήσει τη σχέση του επιπολιτισμού με τη θρησκευτικότητα στα πλαίσια της διαπολιτισμικής πραγματικότητας. Κυρίως όμως, επιχειρεί να προσδιορίσει τα αποτελέσματα της αλληλεπίδρασης των θρησκειών της χώρας υποδοχής και των χωρών προέλευσης και πως αυτά τα αποτελέσματα επιδρούν στις θρησκευτικές πεποιθήσεις, συνήθειες και πρακτικές των ατόμων. / In the new, intercultural societies, we observe the phenomenon of acculturation, resulting from the dynamic interaction of different cultures and communication between them and that leads the person to choose the acculturation strategy that will help him adjust and integrate in host country’s society with the lowest cost to itself. On the other hand, religiosity is a timeless phenomenon that occurs in social and individual level. The various religions existing around the world as well as the phenomena of religious fanaticism recorded historically and there again the last years indicate the force exerted by the religions to their believers, but also to society by shaping attitudes, customs etc. This study attempts to examine the relationship of acculturation with religiosity in the context of intercultural reality. However, mostly it seeks to determine the effect of the interaction of religions of the host and home countries and how these results impact on religious beliefs, habits and practices of individuals.

This study investigated the communication rules in the family structures of the Maasai and the Akamba cultures with the aim of comparing the core symbols emanating from the rules. The researcher used the qualitative design to identify and compare the communication rules of the rural Maasai of the Rift Valley Province and the rural Akamba of the Eastern Province of Kenya. The study focused on male and female adult individuals in family situations who were familiar with the traditional expectations of their cultures. Data was collected through focus group and in-depth interviews. From the data it was concluded that although the Maasai and the Akamba are from two different ethnic groups of Africa, namely the Nilo-Hamitic and Bantu respectively, the core symbols of their communication rules that are similar far outnumber those that are different. This phenomenon was noted when comparing the different levels of relationship within the family structures, namely, communication between spouses, communication between parents and children, and communication between siblings. One of the important findings of this study is that there are more similarities than differences in the cultures of the Maasai and the Akamba at family level. Therefore, the similarities of core symbols could imply that ethnic differences should not lead to the assumption that cultural practices will be significantly different. However, similar cultural practices or core symbols might not necessarily rule out conflict, as was indeed the case with the Maasai and the Akamba.Another finding was that the most outstanding core symbol in both cultures was respect, which was the fulcrum of most of the other core symbols in the communication rules. / Communication Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Communication)

Communication / MA (Communication)

The overarching aim of this study was to explore the similarities and differences in communication and other cultural practices in encounters between black indigenous Zambians and white Western migrants living in Zambia and the implications of these similarities and differences. The research adopted a qualitative research design, and focus group discussions were used as a data collection tool, using a video recorder to capture the discussions. The focus group comprised of 6 black indigenous Zambians and 6 white Westerners. The collected data was then transcribed from the video records and analysed using thematic analysis. The conclusion to this study is that the culture of black indigenous Zambians and that of white Westerners have both similarities and differences as far as communication practices and other practices are concerned. These similarities and differences influence communication encounters between the people of the two cultures either positively or negatively rendering communication either effective or non-effective. / Communication / MA (Communication)