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This thesis project focused on exploring protracted impediments among Syrian refugees in Lebanon, and examined the varying perspectives among stakeholders in the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon, looking at the international significance of their current public discourse and its consequent implications. This project was conducted with the purpose of contributing to the existing literature, but most importantly, it was conducted with the hopes of contributing to the stabilization phase being carried out by several organizational partnerships on the ground by providing relevant information focused on sustainability, capacity building and nonsectarian approaches. Notably, this project hopes to expose impediments in overlooked unofficial settlements in the Tamnine el Fawka Area, settlement #53415-01-007 and settlement #53415-01-011 in the Beqaa Valley Province, Lebanon. The information collected in this project was obtained through interviews, focus groups and an extensive observation process for four months throughout Lebanese territory. Funded by the UO Sandra Morgen Fellowship.

Si l'idée de l'Etat fragmentaire, voire de la désintégration de la place de l'Etat au centre de la décision publique, s'est développée récemment dans les Etats modernes suite à la mondialisation, la particularité du Liban indépendant est qu'il a été créé en 1943 comme Etat segmentaire. Subséquemment, la problématique de la décision économique publique au Liban, notamment la place de l'Etat en son centre s'est imposée depuis l'indépendance avec une grande ampleur, précisément avec le choix du confessionnalisme politique (1943) et, plus tard (1948), du libéralisme économique comme systèmes de gouvernance politique et économique pour le jeune Etat. Cette thèse s'efforce d'analyser la formulation des politiques économiques dans le pays depuis 1943 jusqu’à fin 2016, par le truchement de l'approche des réseaux d'action publique. Le réseau de la décision économique publique dans le pays tel que constitué depuis l'indépendance et qui a subi peu de transformations, sera ainsi le facteur d'influence le plus adéquat pour expliquer le choix des politiques économiques au Liban, par conséquent comprendre et analyser le contenu de ces politiques. En identifiant les acteurs du réseau de la décision économique dans le pays, leurs caractéristiques, leurs rapports de force, stratégies d'action et interactions avec le contexte exogène socio-politico-économique, nous avons essayé de comprendre pourquoi les politiques économiques au Liban répondent-elles davantage à des intérêts catégoriels qu'à l'intérêt général. Les politiques fiscale et de change dans le pays seraient dès lors interprétées et analysées comme extrants naturels du réseau de la décision économique publique au Liban. Un réseau qui s'approche du model du réseau clientéliste d'action publique avec des particularités retenues pour le cas libanais. / If the idea of fragmentary state, or even of the disintegration of the state's place at the center of public decision-making, has developed recently in modern states following globalization, the particularity of independent Lebanon is that it was created in 1943 as a segmental state. Subsequently, the problem of public economic decision-making in Lebanon, especially the state's place at its center, has been imposed since independence with great amplitude, precisely with the choice of political confessionalism (1943) and later on economic liberalism (1948), as political and economic governance systems for the young state. This thesis attempts to analyze the formulation of economic policies in the country since 1943, until the end of 2016, by adopting the policy network approach. The public economic decision-making network in the country as constituted since independence, and which underwent little transformations, will thus be the most suitable factor of influence to explain the choice of economic policies in Lebanon, therefore to understand and analyze these policies content. By identifying the actors of the economic decision-making network in the country, their characteristics, their balance of power, strategies and interactions with the exogenous socio-politico-economic context, we have tried to understand why economic policies in Lebanon respond more to categorical interests than to the general interest. Tax and exchange rate policies in the country would therefore be interpreted and analyzed as natural outputs of the public economic decision-making network in Lebanon. A network that approaches the clientelist model of public policy network with particularities retained for the Lebanese case.

This thesis analyzes the process of civil wars and political crisis in Lebanon in a historical context, covering the period starting from the civil war of 1860 until the Doha Agreement in 2008. This thesis defines confessional system as a type of democracy implemented in multi-religious societies, which did not change along two centuries in Lebanon. This study aims to establish a different approach on questions such as how far confessionalism can contribute to internal strives and political crisis in Lebanon. The thesis claims that the confessional system that was posed as a solution after civil war periods is the main resource of intercommunal conflicts and this system is open to the manipulation of the foreign actors for their own interests. This thesis also claims that if the national citizenship is applied instead of confessional system, and if Lebanese people unify in terms of national identity, civil wars, political crisis, and foreign intervention could be prevented.

ix, 179 p. / This thesis, based on field research in Lebanon, explores how the confessional nature of the Lebanese state affects the construction of civil society. It elaborates on the state's role as a social service provider and its legal and bureaucratic relationship with the Lebanese NGO community while also exploring how the state's role as a service provider is perceived in the Lebanese media. Pulling from a variety of archival sources in Lebanon, this thesis surveys 26 Arabic language newspaper articles published between 2006 and 2008. It also utilizes a myriad of primary sources including government and donor documents, unpublished NGO studies and statistical data. This thesis argues that confessionalism inhibits the state's capacity to provide social services efficiently. The politicization of these services conditions the relationship between the state, sectarian political parties and the NGO community. This phenomenon is reproduced in the Lebanese media and allows confessional relationships to infect civil society. / Committee in charge: Dr. Anita M. Weiss, Chairperson; Dr. Alexander B. Murphy, Member; Dr. Frederick S. Colby, Member

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We live in a society where preconceived notions about religious schools and indoctrination are many but the rules regarding a non-denominational education are strict. It is of great importance to get a better understanding of religious schools and their effect on the pupils that attend them. The aim of this study is to analyze whether or not the compulsory religious education on a private religious school in the south of Sweden is non-denominational. In order to get a greater understanding of the impact on the pupils’ religious identity, Henri Tajfel’s theory of social identity is used. A total of eight observations, three interviews and collected materials such as previous tests regarding Islam, Christianity and Judaism have been gathered and discussed with the help of Tajfel’s theory and other previous research. The results show that some denominational elements could be found in the compulsory education and that the school at hand had an impact on their pupils’ Muslim identities. With these results, my ambition is that teachers that read this study will be more reflective and critical of their own teaching. It is possible that some teachers do not notice that their own religion or beliefs are shining through their teaching and could potentially effect the pupils. However, if teachers start to reflect upon their teaching and the impacts it could have on a pupil these denominational elements could be prevented.

Ce travail s'intéresse à la question du sport au sein de la société libanaise. Dans un pays qui a accueilli la sixième édition des Jeux de la Francophonie dans un contexte politique très instable, comment comprendre les retombées post-évènement. Y en a-t-il eu ? Ici où il n'y a ni équipe nationale ni champions, comment et pourquoi le sport se crée-t-il dans l'imaginaire collectif ? Le sport joue-t-il un rôle particulier ? En fait-on usage politique ? Un usage orienté vers la cohésion nationale ou bien un rôle de prolongement des conflits confessionnels et politiques ? La première partie de notre thèse décrypte une très grande partie des mécanismes de l'organisation de Jeux de la Francophonie à Beyrouth. Elle posera le cadre, le contexte et abordera certains éléments de manière très détaillée. La deuxième partie questionnera la pratique sociale du sport et l'école comme lieu de transmission. Elle s'articulera autour d'une enquête réalisée auprès de mille Libanais. Elle tentera de déconstruire la matrice pour donner des éléments de réponse. La troisième chapitre propose de mettre en perspective les données récoltées à propos du spectacle sportif et de la pratique sociale. Nous aborderons alors les questions de structuration du sport libanais et de nationalisme sportif / This work tackles the issue of sports in the Lebanese society knowing that Lebanon hosted the sixth edition of the Francophone Games in a period of political turmoil. Has there been any post-event fallout? How and why the sport is created in the collective imagination? Does it play a particular role? Is it used for political purposes, in order to achieve national cohesion or extend sectarian and political conflicts? The first part of our thesis decrypts, to a great extent, the mechanisms of the organization of the Francophone Games in Beirut. It will encompass the framework, context and some of the event component in details. The second part will cover the social practice of sports and the school as a place of transmission. It is structured around a survey conducted among a thousand Lebanese people. It will attempt to rebuild the array in order to provide answers. The third chapter proposes to put into perspective the collected data regarding sport events and social practice. Then we shall discuss the issues of structuring the Lebanese sport and sport nationalism

Scholars have become increasingly aware of the need to understand the religious context of early modern natural philosophy. Despite some great strides in relating certain areas of Christian doctrine to the study of the natural world, the category ‘natural theology’ has often been subject to anachronism and misunderstanding. The term itself is difficult to define; it is most fruitful to think of natural theology as the answer to the question, ‘what can be known about God and religion from the contemplation of the natural world?’ There have been several erroneous assumptions about natural theology – in particular that it only consisted of rational proofs for the existence of God, that it was ecumenical in outlook, and that it was defined as strictly separate from Scriptural revelation. These assumptions are shown to be uncharacteristic of the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth century. The study of natural theology needs to be better integrated into three contexts – the doctrinal, confessional, and chronological. Doctrinally, natural theology does not stand alone but needs to be understood within the context of the theology of revelation, justification, and the effects of the Fall. These doctrines make such a material difference that scholars always ought to delineate clearly between the threefold state of man (original innocence, state of sin, state of grace) when approaching the topic of ‘natural’ knowledge of God. Confessionally, scholars need to recognise that the doctrine of natural theology received different treatments on either side of the sectarian divide. In Catholicism, for instance, there were considerable spiritual benefits of natural theology for the non-Christian, while in Protestantism its benefits were restricted to those saved Christians who possessed Scriptural insight. Chronologically, natural theology does not remain uniform throughout the history of Christian theology but, being subject to changes occasioned by philosophical and theological faddism and development, needs to be considered within a particular locus. Research here focuses on late sixteenth-century orthodoxy as defined in confessional and catechismal literature (which has been generally understudied), and demonstrates its application in a number of case-studies. This thesis begins the work of putting natural theology into these three contexts. An improved understanding of natural theology, with more rigorous and accurate terminology and better nuanced appreciation of confessional differences, makes for a better framework in which to consider the theological context of early modern natural philosophy.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:06:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 JoseMTJR_DISSERT.pdf: 1250053 bytes, checksum: 1c2730a4bd584ab86c235050f38b5f11 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-09-23 / This dissertation aims at investigating the book Ariel (1965), written by Sylvia Plath, as a kind of performative and ritual poetry that fragments and reconstructs the personal experience, manipulating the memory of the autobiographical body as a way to rehearse and restore subjectivity. We propose that, in Ariel, the hyperbolic, transcendent and parodic transfiguration of real episodes, used as literary substance, corrupts and subverts the specular idea of a confessional truth usually related to the writer s work. Our objective is to examine signs of confluence between Sylvia Plath s poetry and performance art, departing from de idea that the spectacularization of the self, the exhibition of private rituals, the theatricalization of autobiographical circumstances and the undressing of one s craziness and vulnerability are mutual procedures to the poet and the perfomer. Simultaneously unfolding between the inside and the outside of the poem, Sylvia Plath s real suicide and the death and rebirth rituals performed in the literary text appear as symbolic elements that might reveal the performer s liminal space, where reality and representation coexist, and where the performative testimony does not frame only the real subject s body but also his/her infinite possibilities of being restored through art. / Esta disserta??o prop?e investigar a escritura do livro Ariel (1965), de Sylvia Plath, como um tipo de poesia perform?tica e ritual que fragmenta e reconstr?i a experi?ncia privada, manipulando a mem?ria do corpo autobiogr?fico como forma de ensaiar e restaurar a subjetividade. Nossa proposta assume que, em Ariel, a transfigura??o hiperb?lica, par?dica e transcendente de epis?dios reais, utilizados como mat?ria liter?ria, subverte e corrompe a id?ia especular de uma verdade confessional habitualmente relacionada ? obra da escritora. Nosso objetivo ? examinar pontos de conflu?ncia entre a poesia de Sylvia Plath e a performance art, partindo da id?ia de que espetaculariza??o do self, a exibi??o de rituais ?ntimos, a teatraliza??o de circunst?ncias autobiogr?ficas e o desnudamento da loucura e da vulnerabilidade do sujeito, s?o procedimentos comuns ? poeta e ao performer. Desdobrando-se simultaneamente entre o dentro e o fora do poema, o suic?dio real da poeta e os ritos de morte e ressurrei??o performados no texto liter?rio afiguram-se como elementos simb?licos capazes de revelar o espa?o liminar do performer, onde o real e a representa??o coexistem, e onde o testemunho perform?tico n?o emoldura apenas o corpo real do sujeito mas suas infinitas possibilidades de restaura??o atrav?s da arte.