As the economic, political, and cultural forces of globalization continue to proliferate throughout the international community, the concept of sovereignty will be increasingly challenged with the task of grappling with the problems of governing these forces. This thesis examines Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's characterization of how globalization will be governed — imperial sovereignty — in their vast work, Empire. In doing so, Michel Foucault's theoretical construct of bio-power is analyzed as it relates to the constitution of sovereignty, and how it subsequently can benefit international relations theorists' understanding of how power may be implemented to help effectively govern, protect, and promote life on a global scale. Yet, Empire is not without its shortcomings. Its nebulous take on imperial sovereignty is too ephemeral; there is no conception of a center to Empire, no institutional arrangements that articulate the use of power. The role of "big players" such as the United States must be taken into consideration in addressing the future prospects of governing the forces of globalization and the populations exposed to these forces. Ultimately, it appears that the best hopes for such governance lies in wedding the national self-interests of states in seeking security to the use of international institutions for more humanitarian intervention. Such a union grants force and structure to an international community otherwise devoid of authority and order. / Master of Arts

Over the past several years, the physical appearance of pregnant and new mothers has been evolving within Western society. In particular, celebrity mothers who are templates for contemporary ideals within society (Tyler 2011) experience heightened levels of surveillance and normalizing practices. The shifting ideal, maternal form illustrates how the bodies of women continue to be subjected to discipline and control within society. Furthermore, the flourishing of consumer culture within some neoliberal societies pressures women to consume in order to fully realize their maternal identity. Increased articulation of individual identity through consumption, coupled with increasingly specific appearance standards, narrow the scope of what idealized motherhood embodies. In order to best investigate the issue of the shifting, ideal maternal form, various issues of tabloid magazines will be analyzed. Relying on social constructionism in conjunction with Foucault’s theories of the disciplining of docile bodies and biopower, along with Lyotard’s desire-based, libidinal economy, the literature on the public presentation of maternal bodies will be analyzed with focus on newly developed, rigorous appearance and fitness standards for mothers. Additionally, how these disciplinary practices function within neoliberal climates that champion desire-based consumption, freedom, liberty, individualism and self-subjectification will also be investigated. A cultural analysis of thirty-seven tabloid publications from 2012 to 2013 will be examined for both visual and written discourse pertaining to the cultural construction of ideal motherhood. Through this analysis the interplay between the two seemingly contradictory messages of excessive, desire-based consumption and restrictive, corporeal discipline will be explored in order to gain a better understanding of how these incongruous scripts affect the lives of mothers today. / Thesis (Master, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2013-09-26 13:25:26.234

This Thesis is a theoretical attempt to analyze the emergence of Autism as a discourse and, through it, the emergence of the Autistic Subjectivity. My primary aim is to create a kind of history of the different modes by which autistic persons become subjects. I am following a post-structuralist methodology, based on Michel Foucault’s work on the birth of psychiatry and institutions, his analysis of power relations, his ideas on the objectification and subjectification of the individual, and finally his notions of governmentality and bio-power. More specifically, I am making use of the Foucauldian techniques of Archaeology and Genealogy in order to investigate the birth of Autism through, the psychiatric discipline, psychoses, classificatory systems and the Asylum of the late Eighteenth and Nineteenth century. Under the same methodological strand, I am treating the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), in relation to Autism, as a disciplinary tool and as a discursive event. I present the existing knowledge on Autism and more specifically on the ‘impairment in social interaction’ and ‘in pragmatic language’. Finally, I attempt an analysis of Autism as a apparatus, through its episteme, mechanisms, and elements. I give an overview of the two main epistemologies on Autism, that of psychoanalysis and TOM (Theory of Mind) and I introduce the notions of bio-power and governmentality as drive mechanisms, which inform the elements of the apparatus and turn them into regulators of the autistic subjectivity. I am making an analysis of specific elements that I recognize as most important for the objectification and subjectification of the autistic individual; these are: autobiographies and educational institutions. Moreover, I discuss how through a continuum of truth discourses, strategies of intervention, and modes of objectification, the Autistic individual finds itself in a battle of modes of power, where it either consents to normalization or shields its ‘pathology P’ by disobedience and resistance. Finally, I argue that the deconstruction of existed discursive entities and their reconstruction upon a different epistemological basis leads to a rethink of Autism in terms of Education. What is needed is an emphasis to the notion of παιδεία (paideia), which aims to the creation of free and self-fulfilled human beings, rather than exclusively to the notion of εκπαί δευσις (ekpaideusis), that gives emphasis to the development of capabilities, and in the case of autistic children, to the creation of docile, marginalized bodies.

Contrary to many major sporting leagues such as the NHL, NFL, NBA, and MLB, or the Olympic Games as a whole, the professional tennis industry has not been individually scrutinized in terms of governance, social control, and surveillance practices. This thesis presents an in-depth account of the major governing bodies of the professional tennis circuit with the aim of examining how they govern, control, constrain, and practice surveillance on tennis athletes and their bodies. Foucault’s major theoretical concepts of disciplinary power, governmentality, and bio-power are found relevant today and can be enhanced by Rose’s ethico-politics model and Haggerty and Ericson’s surveillant assemblage. However, it is also shown how Foucault, Rose, and Haggerty and Ericson’s different accounts of “modes of governing” perpetuate sociological predicaments of professional tennis players within late capitalism. These modes of surveillance are founded on a meritocracy based on the ATP and WTA rankings systems. A player’s ranking affects how he or she is governed, surveilled, controlled, and even punished. Despite ostensibly promoting tennis athletes’ health protection and wellbeing, the systems of surveillance, governance, and control rely on a biased and capitalistically-driven meritocracy that actually jeopardizes athletes’ health and contributes to social class divisions, socio-economic inequalities, gender discrimination, and media pressure. Through the use of top-players’ accounts, it is also shown how some players resist certain governing, controlling, and surveillance practices designed for their benefit, while others understand and accept the resultant constraints as part of their choice to be a professional tennis player. / Thesis (Master, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2013-11-12 09:25:44.284

A política de Assistência Social, a partir da Constituição Federal brasileira de 1988, busca construir uma trajetória distinta das antigas propostas assistencialistas e tuteladoras das políticas construídas até então. Ao possibilitar o acesso aos serviços assistenciais através de uma proposta de direito social, propõe que as ações tenham como pressuposto a autonomia dos usuários do Sistema Único de Assistência Social (SUAS). As noções de poder, sujeito, resistência e liberdade, foucaultianas permitem problematizar esta política como uma estratégia de bio-poder. Neste estudo problematizamos como a autonomia dos usuários do SUAS está presente nas práticas profissionais dos técnicos da Assistência Social. Para tanto, focamos algumas práticas técnicas da assistência, como a orientação a respeito de direitos sociais aos usuários do sistema, a geração de trabalho e renda, o apoio técnico à família e o desligamento dos usuários do serviço. Foi através do “olhar técnico” que estudamos as ações relacionadas à produção de autonomia dos usuários do SUAS e utilizamos como estratégia metodológica a intervenção fotográfica. A fotografia coloca-se nos jogos de poder indicando visibilidades e invisibilidades do cotidiano do trabalho. / The policies of social work from the Social Work Organic Law (1993) aims to build a distinct path form the old proposals of assistantship and protection built so far. By providing access to care services through a proposal of social law, it postulates that the policies have the autonomy of the users as central assumption of the Unified Social Assistance System (USTS). The notions of power, subject, resistance and freedom in Foucault inquire this policy as a strategy of bio-power. In this study, we question how the autonomy of the USTS´s users is present in the practice of Social Work professionals. For that we focus in some techniques of assistantship and guidance as orientations for the social rights of the users of the service, generation of employment and income, technical support to the family and the conclusion of the assistantship. It was user´s autonomy and we use photographic intevention as a methodological strategy. The photographi is located in the games of power indicating the visibilities and invisibilities of every day work.

Abstract Although advances in clinical approaches to depression have led to improvements in treatment outcomes, for individuals experiencing depression, the process of negotiating access to medical, financial and social resources remains a significant challenge. In the process of this negotiation, individuals must choose to accept or reject social and medical labels, subsequently coming to enact roles of dependence, rejection or empowerment. This thesis is the final product of a qualitative research inquiry into the lived-experiences of those who have experienced depression and their families and carers. Using principles of narrative theory and a “guided, in-depth” approach, testimony from 11 participants was obtained through a one-on-one interview, a family interview and a focus group discussion. A model entitled “Power, Agency and Performance” is proposed as a way to explain how Foucauldian notions of power and agency, combined with Durkheim‟s concept of declassification can influence the individual‟s ability to construct pathways of empowerment towards recovery. Using Foucault‟s bio-power concept this thesis argues that depression exists within an Interactive Space that includes clinical, government and social contexts. A model entitled “The Interactive Space of the Contexts of depression” is presented to explain the concept of Interactive Space. According to this model, the individual must interact in simultaneous relationships with and within these contexts, which are themselves also involved in dynamic relationships with each other. Specific issues of consequences within the clinical context, deinstitutionalisation, carers and families, and church Involvement are also raised and discussed. Through this thesis, I argue that although there may be biological and psychological elements, depression must also be seen equally as a social phenomenon. Further research into depression, therefore, must not focus solely on symptoms, causes and potential cures, but also on how individuals can be empowered to construct pathways towards recovery.

With a post-structural approach and an analytical focus on processes of governmentality and biopower, this study is concerned with how discourses of health are contextualized in educational practice and interaction between educators and participants in workplace health promotion (WHP) interventions. Of concern are issues of the discursive production, regulation and representation of power, knowledge and subjects as gendered beings in workplace health promotion interventions. The methods for generating data are participant observation, interviews and gathering of documentation pertaining to four different workplace health promotion nterventions. Based on these data, the thesis offers an analysis of the health discourses drawn on in the interventions and the technologies of power and of the self by which the participants are governed and invited to govern themselves in the name of health. It also asks what practices and positions that thus come to be made available or not to the participants. Two health discourses are identified: the biomedical discourse and the wellness discourse. Both discourses are drawn on in all four studied interventions, the biomedical discourse being the dominating discourse drawn on. The biomedical discourse is informed by scientific ‘facts’ and statistics and is underpinned by a notion of risk. The wellness discourse is informed by an understanding of health as a subjective embodied experience and is underpinned by a notion of pleasure. Drawing on these discourses, the responsibility for health is placed with the participants and the healthy participant/employee is constituted as a rationally motivated risk-avoider and disciplined pleasure seeker who is both willing and able to actively make ‘good’ choices regarding their lifestyle. Furthermore, and informed by essentialist and heteronormative ideas about gender, the ideal healthy person is modelled on a male norm, representing women as the deviant Other.

The main aim in this study is to understand how gendered subjectivities are constructed in political thought in early republican Turkey. In this respect, problematizations on gender, the main themes utilized in these problematizations and the operation of patriarchy in these intellectual activities are analyzed in the study. In doing so, the texts published in eight journals between 1929-1946 are examined employing a post-structuralist feminist theoretical framework, to which clarifications are proposed drawing on the works of Michel Foucault and Hannah Arendt to make it befit the particular aims of the study. It is argued in the study that the political discourses prevalent in early republican era utilized gender in producing utility and docility from individuals and in advancing the population quantitatively and qualitatively. At the heart of the problematizations and discourses on gender differences was the aim of structuring the public and private lives of the individual men and women in such a way that they become politically, socially, economically, culturally and, most importantly, biologically productive. This led to a transformation in the models governing theforms of patriarchal production of and control on gendered individuals and patriarchal power relations began to be modeled after disciplinary power, instead of sovereign power, that is (re)public(an) patriarchy began to become the dominant form, instead of private patriarchy. As a result, new forms of social control and new frameworks for organizing the roles of individual women and men in public, social and private realms emerged.

A política de Assistência Social, a partir da Constituição Federal brasileira de 1988, busca construir uma trajetória distinta das antigas propostas assistencialistas e tuteladoras das políticas construídas até então. Ao possibilitar o acesso aos serviços assistenciais através de uma proposta de direito social, propõe que as ações tenham como pressuposto a autonomia dos usuários do Sistema Único de Assistência Social (SUAS). As noções de poder, sujeito, resistência e liberdade, foucaultianas permitem problematizar esta política como uma estratégia de bio-poder. Neste estudo problematizamos como a autonomia dos usuários do SUAS está presente nas práticas profissionais dos técnicos da Assistência Social. Para tanto, focamos algumas práticas técnicas da assistência, como a orientação a respeito de direitos sociais aos usuários do sistema, a geração de trabalho e renda, o apoio técnico à família e o desligamento dos usuários do serviço. Foi através do “olhar técnico” que estudamos as ações relacionadas à produção de autonomia dos usuários do SUAS e utilizamos como estratégia metodológica a intervenção fotográfica. A fotografia coloca-se nos jogos de poder indicando visibilidades e invisibilidades do cotidiano do trabalho. / The policies of social work from the Social Work Organic Law (1993) aims to build a distinct path form the old proposals of assistantship and protection built so far. By providing access to care services through a proposal of social law, it postulates that the policies have the autonomy of the users as central assumption of the Unified Social Assistance System (USTS). The notions of power, subject, resistance and freedom in Foucault inquire this policy as a strategy of bio-power. In this study, we question how the autonomy of the USTS´s users is present in the practice of Social Work professionals. For that we focus in some techniques of assistantship and guidance as orientations for the social rights of the users of the service, generation of employment and income, technical support to the family and the conclusion of the assistantship. It was user´s autonomy and we use photographic intevention as a methodological strategy. The photographi is located in the games of power indicating the visibilities and invisibilities of every day work.

O presente trabalho tem por objetivo analisar a noção de causalidade biológica da doença mental através dos discursos eugênicos e higiênicos nas décadas de 1920 e 1930 no Brasil. Para tanto, selecionamos a revista Archivos Brasileiros de Hygiene Mental. Esta revista foi escolhida por ser produzida pela Liga Brasileira de Hygiene Mental, uma instituição bastante representativa destes discursos neste período, e também por ser uma revista editada no Rio de Janeiro, nosso recorte geográfico. A revista foi produzida de 1925 a 1947 e o período selecionado para sua análise foi o de 1925 a 1935. Para tal propósito, utilizamos um referencial teórico foucaultiano, especialmente no que tange às discussões em torno do tema do biopoder. Acreditamos que uma análise histórica, necessariamente desnaturalizante, dos discursos psiquiátricos desse período no Brasil, possa contribuir para a compreensão de certas peculiaridades dos discursos psiquiátricos atuais, a fim de possibilitar uma revisão das concepções estabelecidas de tratamento, incitando a ressignificação das experiências de saúde e adoecimento e, conseqüentemente, de propostas terapêuticas. / This work has the objective of analyzing the notion of biological causation, attached to mental illness, through eugenics and hygienics discourses during the decades of the 20s and 30s in Brazil. To achieve such aim, has been selected The Brazilian Archives of Mental Hygiene magazine. This periodical has been chosen because it was produced by the Brazilian League of Mental Hygiene, a very representative institution on eugenics and hygienics discourses from the selected period, and because it was published in Rio de Janeiro, city elected for research. The magazine was published from 1925 to 1947 and the period chosen for its analysis goes from 1925 to 1935. On this way, the theory of Michel Foucault has been used as reference, especially concerning the debates around the biopower. We believe that a historical analysis of the psychiatrics discourses from this period in Brazil can contribute with the comprehension of some peculiarities founded on contemporary psychiatrics discourses, in order to enable a revision of established conceptions of treatment, instigating the retrace and remake of health and illness experiences and, consequently, of therapeutic propositions.