This dissertation explores the ways in which various Western yoga teachers have interpreted and presented yoga to an American audience, and how media outlets have represented those yoga practices to a broader American audience between the 1890s and the 2010s. In particular, the case studies illuminate the ways in which contemporary concerns have influenced how yoga teachers and media reports have framed and responded to yoga practices. In this dissertation, I present a series of Western yoga practitioners that embody the most interesting and distinctive representations of popular understanding of yoga for their individual historical moments. Though the chapters do not reflect a linear development, recurrent discourses concerning Orientalism, post- colonialism, race, gender, sexuality, and class in the United States re-emerge in each chapter as different yoga schools respond to local and global concerns. Through these different vignettes, a trajectory of American yoga as taught and practiced by Westerners in the United States historicizes yoga in ways that are often overlooked in favor of the “timelessness” of the practice. / text

This thesis demonstrates the intersection of caste, doctrine, religious authority and monasticism in the Swaminarayan sampradāy, a Hindu devotional tradition founded by Sahajānand Svāmī. Religious traditions affected indirectly or minimally by colonialism or the nationalist struggle have seldom been rigorously studied. This thesis brings attention to the Swaminarayan sampradāy to highlight how pervasive societal discourses like that of caste and internal doctrinal developments, impacted religious developments concerning authority, hierarchy, and power. The reification of a doctrine and the creation of a theological office, coupled with the deification of a monk, Guṇātītānand Svāmī, and his low-caste disciple Prāgjī manifested a fractious environment in which theology, authority and ideas about monasticism came to be contested. Theological ideas drove Prāgjī’s developing community, who adapted their devotion to Prāgjī as a result of stifling institutional politics and a modernizing Gujarat. Prāgjī’s incessant preaching, distinct theological beliefs and own budding community, which adored him, changed the course of Swaminarayan Hinduism in western India.

By 1909, Mexico City had a little more than 720,000 inhabitants, 250 schools, and almost 1,000 pulquerías -drinking establishments serving pulque, a fermented beverage made of the maguey plant. Today, pulquerías have almost disappeared; but just a century ago, people enjoyed gathering there. Since their beginnings in the 1530s, pulquerías became an integral part of the life of Mexico City’s inhabitants. These taverns offered pulque to take out, but far more importantly, a space where men and women drank, talked, danced, and enjoyed themselves as a part of their daily social life. These spaces represented an important place in the city’s lower-class culture and daily life. In this dissertation, I explore the social and cultural development of these businesses. I focus my discussion on the second half of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth century when there was a constant effort of making of Mexico a modern nation like England, France, or United States. Under the influence of liberalism, authorities increasingly sought to control the behavior of the population, especially in the public arena with the goal of creating hardworking and moral citizenry. They saw pulque as the core of social evils, and pulquerías, as centers where inebriated urban masses abandoned their daily routine, procrastinated, and fought. Consequently, authorities strictly regulated schedules, facilities, and all activities taking place in pulquerías. Patrons and owners resisted those regulations in different ways; especially customers, through their everyday practices, developed a vigorous and multi-faceted response to the processes of modernization. 13 Within these places, alcohol consumption fostered an environment of free interaction and gave men and women a platform in which they could demand and contest explanations about the behavior of their neighbors, partners, and coworkers. Their discussions and fights prove to be significant to the understanding of the regulation of the neighborhood dynamics as well as valves of escape during changing times. By analyzing the historical intersections of popular culture, nation building and modernization programs, and lower class responses to these reforms this dissertation contributes to the study of the cultural and social history of Mexico.

This thesis examines the continually reconfiguring response of a youth organization towards a renovation project, Järvalyftet, run by the City of Stockholm in the Million Program suburbs. By analyzing this relationship, I aim to discuss how the youth organization works to mediate inclusion in political and representational spheres. More specifically, I will discuss the intersections between Järvalyftet’s development and the claims of belonging made by the youths upon the particular suburb, Husby, where they resided. My interest lies in understanding the conjuncture and disjuncture of claims that have been made to community, locality, and local knowledge in the interaction between the youth organization and the project Järvalyftet. I argue that the forms of community instigated by the youth organization, which were based on locality and “blackness”, allowed them to position themselves as key proponents of social and political change, as well as mobilize allies in others who identified with those experiences.

This study is aimed at identifying ways in which architecture can facilitate social cohesion and desegregation. The preindustrial vernacular, which has failed to adapt from apartheid ideologies, has been proposed to include social integration as opposed to the creation of segregated environments. This is achieved through the design of an urban waiting room and gateway at the threshold between Pretoria Station and the inner city of Pretoria. The investigation can be summarised as creating entopia, which translates to achievable space, focus on architecture of the every day, cater to real world needs of city users and address problems unique to place and setting - which in the context of Pretoria, includes the promotion of social integration. Copyright 2011, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. Please cite as follows: Heinrich, O 2011, Entopia : creating an urban transition space, MArch(Prof) dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-11292011-162950 / > C12/4/38/gm / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Architecture / unrestricted

The following study examined identity construction and community formation within the comic book fan community on the social media website, Twitter It had three objectives It investigated how comic book fans constructed their respective identities on Twitter, explored how fans came to identify with the comic book community and why it formed, and aimed to discover how the community was maintained and expanded The study applied an ethnographic method that relied on the analysis of dialogue Ten comic book fans (five males, five females) that frequently used Twitter to communicate with other fans were video interviewed It was found that comic book fans constructed their identities using their Twitter biography and profile picture and they all believed they were communicating their true and genuine selves The biography, profile picture, and tweets reinforced the rhetoric of what it meant to be a comic book fan It was this visual and written rhetoric that enabled comic book fans to identify with one another and bring the community into being Without this rhetoric, there is no community The community maintained itself through the continued reinforcement of this rhetoric It expanded itself by bringing comic book fans from different backgrounds, locations, and nationalities together online around a shared interest The study also found that the relationships formed within the community could develop into real friendships, the same caliber of friendship that individuals would normally have with those they knew and met in real life.

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