Anotation: The thesis deals with the history of urbanism and sustainable development and their synthesis. It focuses on both theoretical and practical aspects, using case studies and examples it demonstrates the possibilities and limitations of both. Culturological approach and critical review of the topics form an integral part of the work. Key words: urbanism, sustainable development, cultural anthropology.

<p>From 2008-2012, a dramatic upsurge in incidents of maritime piracy in the Western Indian Ocean led to renewed global attention to this region: including the deployment of multi national naval patrols, attempts to prosecute suspected pirates, and the development of financial interdiction systems to track and stop the flow of piracy ransoms. Largely seen as the maritime ripple effect of anarchy on land, piracy has been slotted into narratives of state failure and problems of governance and criminality in this region. </p><p>This view fails to account for a number of factors that were crucial in making possible the unprecedented rise of Somali piracy and its contemporary transformation. Instead of an emphasis on failed states and crises of governance, my dissertation approaches maritime piracy within a historical and regional configuration of actors and relationships that precede this round of piracy and will outlive it. The story I tell in this work begins before the contemporary upsurge of piracy and closes with a foretaste of the itineraries beyond piracy that are being crafted along the East African coast. </p><p>Beginning in the world of port cities in the long nineteenth century, my dissertation locates piracy and the relationship between trade, plunder, and state formation within worlds of exchange, including European incursions into this oceanic space. Scholars of long distance trade have emphasized the sociality engendered through commerce and the centrality of idioms of trust and kinship in structuring mercantile relationships across oceanic divides. To complement this scholarship, my work brings into view the idiom of protection: as a claim to surety, a form of tax, and a moral claim to authority in trans-regional commerce.</p><p>To build this theory of protection, my work combines archival sources with a sustained ethnographic engagement in coastal East Africa, including the pirate ports of Northern Somalia, and focuses on the interaction between land-based pastoral economies and maritime trade. This connection between land and sea calls attention to two distinct visions of the ocean: one built around trade and mobility and the other built on the ocean as a space of extraction and sovereignty. Moving between historical encounters over trade and piracy and the development of a national maritime economy during the height of the Somali state, I link the contemporary upsurge of maritime piracy to the confluence of these two conceptualizations of the ocean and the ideas of capture, exchange, and redistribution embedded within them.</p><p>The second section of my dissertation reframes piracy as an economy of protection and a form of labor implicated within other legal and illegal economies in the Indian Ocean. Based on extensive field research, including interviews with self-identified pirates, I emphasize the forms of labor, value, and risk that characterize piracy as an economy of protection. The final section of my dissertation focuses on the diverse international, regional, and local responses to maritime piracy. This section locates the response to piracy within a post-Cold War and post-9/11 global order and longer attempts to regulate and assuage the risks of maritime trade. Through an ethnographic focus on maritime insurance markets, navies, and private security contractors, I analyze the centrality of protection as a calculation of risk and profit in the contemporary economy of counter-piracy. </p><p>Through this focus on longer histories of trade, empire, and regulation my dissertation reframes maritime piracy as an economy of protection straddling boundaries of land and sea, legality and illegality, law and economy, and history and anthropology.</p> / Dissertation

Framed through the standardizations of food and generalizations of people, this research explores the shifting ingredients of migrant identities and the ethnic foodways carried with them as they cross the border into the United States. Using ethnographic observational fieldwork, content analysis of menus, and semi-structured interviews with restaurant staff and migrant workers, this study examines the transnational narratives of the day laborer population and their deterritorialized food culture in post-Katrina New Orleans. Further, this research explores this flow of people and culture through a globalization lens in order to achieve a more holistic understanding of the “migrant experience” and how Latinos are both defined and self-defined within an increasingly global context.

<p> This dissertation explores the interface between reflecting on ideals and the action or physical transformation that occurs in the world. Rephrased as a question: What are the appropriate and necessary epistemological pre-requisites for scholars that will increase the likelihood that their praxis succeeds in transforming society away from capitalism towards something that does a better job of assuring social justice? This question is good to organize around but makes for a poor research question because its answer is near infinitely debatable. My research questions then, come down to the following: In what ways can a researcher participate in a deliberate cultural intervention through the utilization of technological systems? What makes these interventions successful and what makes them fail? How does a researcher &ldquo;step back&rdquo; from such a project and draw out lessons for future interventions?</p><p> In service of answering these questions I have developed three &ldquo;sense-making tools&rdquo; to work through this difficult position. A sense-making tool is an epistemological framework that comes short of a theory of causation and instead prioritizes a change in perspective on the part of the individual engaging in praxis.</p><p> Those three tools are 1) capitalism is an emergent phenomenon, 2) recursivity is an epistemology that prioritizes organized complexity over rationalized efficiency, and 3) once decoupled from its main usage in reference to the Internet, the term &ldquo;online&rdquo; is a useful means of describing and understanding humans&rsquo; relationships to networks of communication and economic exchange. These three sense-making tools are applied to two case studies, an open source condom vending machine and a mesh Wi-Fi network. Both projects employed an &ldquo;inverted critical technical practice&rdquo; methodology that brought together engineering&rsquo;s tacit ways of knowing and critical theory&rsquo;s analytic tools to foster a symbiotic working relationship between the two. I fortify this experimental approach with some classic interview and participant observation techniques to ensure sufficient data collection. Taken together, this work tells a story about the importance of thinking deeply about what we as researchers bring to our field sites, both metaphorically and literally.</p><p> By evaluating my own projects and sharing what worked and what didn&rsquo;t I aim to increase the likelihood of achieving successful projects in the future. I have prioritized understanding my case studies and subject position in terms of how to do better work in the future, not necessarily painting a perfect picture of how the world works or even should work.</p>

A sexualidade é uma condição humana presente em todas as fases de vida das pessoas. Neste estudo, objetivei compreender de que forma o tema sexualidade, condicionado culturalmente, é vivenciado na prática da assistência de enfermagem, pelas enfermeiras. Para tanto, adotei como opção conceitual a Antropologia Cultural, uma vez que ela apresenta uma concepção de sexualidade como construção histórica-social-cultural progressiva, singular, dinâmica, flexível e contextualizada, vale dizer, como uma elaboração prória de cada pessoa. A abordagem qualitativa adotada foi o método etnográfico e os dados foram obtidos por intermédio das técnicas do grupo focal e da entrevista semi-estruturada. Emergiram da análise dos dados os descritores culturais, que permitiram a identificação dos sub-temas: construções singulares, tornando-se enfermeira, vivenciando a sexualidade na assistência de enfermagem e descontruções e reconstruções. Acrescentei, nessa análise o capítulo emergindo analogias, que contém um confronto entre a representação do eu-enfermeira e a simbolização das deusas gregas, refletindo a forma como as colaboradoras experenciam o tema da sexualidade no fazer enfermagem. Este estudo viabilizou a expressão dos significados particulares acerca da sexualidade, junto com cada colaboradora; possibilitou perceber que tais significados foram condicionados ao longo da socialização específica de cada uma delas; e mostrou que vivência da sexualideade, na prática da assistência de enfermagem, tem sido singular a cada enfermeira. Isso tem oportunizado semelhanças e diferenças nas experiências, nas emoções e nas expressões vivenciadas no fazer enfermagem em relação a esta temática. Conclui-se ao final, que a interpretação cultural da sexualidade possibilita entender seus significados singulares e a que se relacionam; oportuniza a expressão das diferentes visões de mundo, no complexo contexto cultural da enfermagem; e permite aceitar o sincretismo, concorrendo para uma experiência qualitativamente mais significativa nessa prática e em relação a esse tema, tanto para a enfermeira, quanto para o sujeito do seu cuidado. / Sexuality is a human condition present in all phases of people's life. In this study, I aimed at understanding how the theme sexuality, culturally conditioned, is experienced in the practice of nursing attendance by the nurses. For such, I have adopted as a conceptual option Cultural Anthropology, once it represents a conception of sexuality as historical-social-cultural construction, progressive, singular, dynamic, flexible and contextualized. It is still worth mentioning that is a person's own elaboration. The qualitative approach adopted was the ethnographic method and the data was obtained via techniques of focal group and semi-structured interview. From the data analysis, emerged the cultural reporters, that permitted the identification of the sub-themes: singular constructions, becoming a nurse and experiencing sexuality in nursing attendance, I added, in this analysis the chapter emerging analogies, which contains a confrontation between the representations of the I-nurse and the symbolization of the greek-goddesses, reflecting the way how the collaborators experience the theme of sexuality in performing nursing. This study made viable the expression of the private meanings about sexuality, together with each collaborator; it made possible to perceive that such meanings were conditioned along the specific socialization of each of them and, it showed that the experience of sexuality in the practice of nursing attendance has been particular to each nurse. This has allowed the existence of similarities and differences in the experiences, in the emotions and in the expressions experienced in performing nursing concerning this theme. It is concluded that the cultural interpretation of sexuality makes possible the understanding of its singular meaninigs and what they relate to; it provides an opportunity for the expression of the different views of the world in the complex cultural context of nursing and, it allows for the acceptance of syncretism, running for a qualitatively more significant experience in this practice and, in relation to this theme, both for the nurse and for the person under his/her care.

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This thesis explores the practices of Muslim businessmen and entrepreneurs in Birmingham in relation to their beliefs in a variety of Islamic reformisms, ideals of piety and responses towards charity and philanthropy. The thesis problematizes various streams of Islamic reformisms among different groups of reformist Muslims and elaborates how these groups engage with Muslim businessmen and entrepreneurs in order to establish and assert their identity as ‘authentic and good Muslims' in public spheres. The thesis discusses how reformist Muslim businessmen and entrepreneurs give public performances of their pious lives and how their ideals of piety and living a moral life are reshaped and negotiated among Birmingham Muslims while they search for role models in social and economic spheres of life. Finally, this thesis explores and establishes the links between charity and donation related practices of Birmingham Muslims with their beliefs in any particular reformist interpretation of practicing Islam in everyday life; and how doing charity and philanthropy becomes a site for the public performance of piety. This thesis further explores charity practices of Birmingham Muslims in order to understand the context, motivations and background of Muslim charitable organisations and Muslim philanthropists. One year ethnographic fieldwork was conducted in predominantly Muslim neighbourhoods of Birmingham, UK as part of this anthropological research. This thesis claims its originality by filling the gap of lack of anthropological research on Birmingham Muslims in the context of ongoing anthropological debate on Islamic reformism, piety and charity that has emerged as a result of anthropological researches conducted in other Muslim societies. My argument, in this thesis is that there is an element of Islamic reforms in all forms of different Islamic streams or sects of Muslims. The charity practices of Muslim businessmen and entrepreneurs are highly influenced by their adherence to any interpretation of reformist Islam that too, is greatly influenced by local realities and global trends.

This dissertation is based on eighteen months of field work in Amazonian Bolivia, and situated in the discourse around the construction of indigenous identity in a neoliberal state. It focusses on a lowland people and their historical and contemporary relationship to the state which is aligned to the contemporary indigenous movement. It does this through an ethnographic and historical study of Tacana people, members of an indigenous group who originate in the tropical piedmont of the Bolivian Andes. A central focus of the work is on the relationships which Tacana people have built with different ethnic, social and political groups in their territory. This focus helps to elucidate the overarching issue at the centre of the thesis: the tensions between the Tacana and other indigenous groups, namely highland Aymara and Quechua who have migrated into the region (colonos). The relationship between Tacana and colonos has become increasingly conflictive since the advent of Bolivia's first indigenous president, Evo Morales, which emphasizes its origins in Bolivia's strong highland-lowland regionalism. This thesis therefore also examines the strong regionalist sentiments found in Bolivia, as expressed in the contrasting concepts of camba (lowland) and colla (highland) which are themselves further tied to more recent efforts to forge local identities, such as an Amazonian identity. The thesis shows how these efforts, which transgress local, historical and racial boundaries, entail an implicit criticism by lowland populations of the government in the Andes. A related point is that constructions of race and mestizaje have developed differently in the highlands and lowlands. Through a close analysis of such racial relationships the thesis shows how lowland groups such as the Tacana more readily align with lowland mestizo people than with other indigenous groups, especially those who originate in the highlands. Democratization processes and neoliberal policy changes have created spaces for tensions to take shape here and become clearer by discussions around identity, heritage and belonging, brought up by the indigenous movement and heavily informed by NGOs.

This thesis investigates how families in northern Senegal negotiate between state and Islamic schools. Studies of education strategies within anthropology of education predominantly employ Bourdieu's concept of capital. These studies are useful for illuminating the role of education within people's strategies of social mobility, but tend to render invisible preferences based on non-material considerations like spiritual benefits. To overcome this challenge, this thesis uses economic theory which acknowledges both intrinsic and material factors informing school choice. It draws on fifteen months' ethnographic fieldwork comprising life histories, informal interviews and participant observation. The thesis contributes to several debates in anthropology of development and education. Findings reveal the importance of a caste-like social hierarchy in shaping education strategies, and challenge simplistic predictions common in development discourse about how gender or being Muslim influence educational trajectories. Results also show how education preferences reflect context-specific routes to social mobility. In northern Senegal, lack of formal sector employment makes the secular state school's promises of economic advancement largely inaccessible. Qur'anic schools present a more certain investment for men of privileged social groups who monopolise access to this education, for the prestige of Islamic knowledge and insertion into trade and migration networks. Intrinsic benefits of Qur'anic schooling, like blessing and moral education, also inform school preference. These factors are neglected in development discourse and state education provision - including recent reforms to engage Islamic knowledge to meet Education For All and the Millennium Development Goal – due to secularist and rationalist biases. This undermines families' access to affordable schooling that combines the intrinsic and material benefits which they prioritise, and privileges those who can afford private alternatives. Inspired by applied anthropology committed to social justice, this thesis draws on people's strategies to overcome these challenges to recommend non-formal alternatives to enable education provision compatible with popular worldviews.