Thesis (Ph.D.) -- McMaster University, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [329]-361). Also available via World Wide Web.

This dissertation considers the relation between culture and communication with respect to the development of aboriginal media in Canada. It introduces and elaborates a concept of cultural politics with which to interpret the history of contact between aboriginal and non-aboriginal people. This concept is further applied to an analysis of Canadian cultural and communications policy and the intervention of native broadcasters in policy procedures and discourses. The dissertation undertakes a critical review of existing research on aboriginal media. It assesses the usefulness of interpretive tools drawn from poststructuralist philosophy, ethnography and postcolonial theory in understanding the relation between cultural politics and communication practices. These tools are then implemented in the presentation of a case study of Wawatay Native Communications Society, a regional native broadcasting organization based in Northwestern Ontario.

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In this thesis, First Nations popular music is examined as a polysemic sign (or symbolic form) whose meaning is mediated both socially and politically. Native popular music is a locus for the action of different social forces which interact in negotiating the nature and the meaning of the music. Music is socially meaningful in that it provides a means by which people construct and recognize social and cultural identities. As such, First Nations popular music functions as an emblem of symbolic differentiation between Canadian natives and non-natives. Native pop music plays host to a number of political meanings embedded in this syncretic musical form. Struggle over meaning is mediated within the music itself: in the lyrics, in the music, in the juxtaposition of musical styles, and between music and text. Mediation on all of these levels is further influenced by the mass media. Meaning on individual, local and national levels is dependent on the socio-political positioning of both the performers and the audience. Because socio-political positions are themselves fluid, political meanings are also in constant flux. As a polysemic sign vehicle, First Nations popular music is a locus for these various meanings and a site for the construction and deconstruction of political discourse.

In this thesis, First Nations popular music is examined as a polysemic sign (or symbolic form) whose meaning is mediated both socially and politically. Native popular music is a locus for the action of different social forces which interact in negotiating the nature and the meaning of the music. Music is socially meaningful in that it provides a means by which people construct and recognize social and cultural identities. As such, First Nations popular music functions as an emblem of symbolic differentiation between Canadian natives and non-natives. Native pop music plays host to a number of political meanings embedded in this syncretic musical form. Struggle over meaning is mediated within the music itself: in the lyrics, in the music, in the juxtaposition of musical styles, and between music and text. Mediation on all of these levels is further influenced by the mass media. Meaning on individual, local and national levels is dependent on the socio-political positioning of both the performers and the audience. Because socio-political positions are themselves fluid, political meanings are also in constant flux. As a polysemic sign vehicle, First Nations popular music is a locus for these various meanings and a site for the construction and deconstruction of political discourse. / Arts, Faculty of / Music, School of / Graduate

An investigation was carried out in order to evaluate some of the factors which influence the use of dwarf and semi-dwarf apple trees in commercial orchards in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia. Three determining factors were found to be of prime importance: the planting density of the trees in the orchard, the tree form as determined by the pruning and training system carried out and the nature of the rootstock used. In the Doornberg Orchards at Okanagan Centre where the experiments were conducted, semi-dwarf trees on Malling VII rootstock trained as hedgerows and planted at a high density per acre gave the optimum earliest and total yields and returns. The experiments were carried out from planting time up to the end of the sixth growing season. The variety of apple used in the experiment was Golden Delicious. / Land and Food Systems, Faculty of / Graduate

Although the relationship between Canadian and American culture is often discussed in terms of dominance and dependency, there is little cultural scholarship that examines how Canadians interpret American cultural products and how Canadian "replicas" of American products encompass infatuation and imitation of American popular culture while simultaneously offering critique, resistance and parody. By comparing the evolution of MuchMusic and MTV and the "supertext" of the two networks---programming philosophy, musical and non-musical shows, VJ's, and television aesthetics---I address how MuchMusic functions as both an example of uniquely Canadian sensibilities and as an example of Canada's complicated relationship with the United States.

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By extending the study of international trade to include cultural factors, this paper demonstrates that culture has a direct impact on Canadian and US bilateral trade flows with the world. Various cultural factors of Canadian and US's trading partners were examined through a gravity model to determine their impact on 1990 trade flows. The gravity model explains trade between two countries in terms of the economic size of the trading partners and the distance between them. The following cultural factors were added to this base gravity model to test their explanatory power: the stock of immigrants from the trading partner in Canada, whether the trading partner has English or French as a principal language, and each of four cultural dimensions as they were described by Geert Hofstede in his study of national differences in work related values. This study has established that culture does have a significant impact on Canadian and US trade. Inirnigration, English, Hofstede's Individualism/Collectivism, and Hofstede's Uncertainty Avoidance were each found to have significant regression coefficients. Countries with immigrants in Canada trade more with Canada, and English-speaking countries trade more with both Canada and the US. Individualism / Collectivism measures how members of a society relate to one another. It appears that collectivist societies trade more with Canada and the US. Uncertainty Avoidance measures how a society and its members deal with risk and it appears that countries with lower Uncertainty Avoidance ratings (i.e. less risk averse), trade more with Canada and the US. For the business person trying to compete internationally, cultural factors have been a concern for many years. However, this study suggests a prioritization of the cultural determinants of trade. With a greater understanding of the mechanisms through which culture impacts trade, managers can be more effective in the global marketplace.

As environmental issues and the communities that confront them increasingly transcend borders, environmentalists in the North (wealthier countries) and the South (poorer countries) face the challenges of effective communication and collaboration. Acknowledging differences in how environmentalists culturally construct the environment is an important starting point; particularly given the tendency on the part of Northern environmentalists to assume (a) that environmentalism is essentially the same in different cultures i.e., it is all like Northern environmentalism; and (b) that environmentalism is more developed in the North. This study examines and compares the constructed environments of a sample of Mexican and Canadian environmentalists. Some significant differences are identified. The environmentalists in the two countries constructed the environment differently as a result of their distinct histories, economies and use of technology. Cultural constructions of the physical environment overlap with and cannot be separated from constructions of the social, cultural, political and economic environment.