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. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

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The term ‘global peacelessness’ is used to describe the impact of persistently high rates of interpersonal violence throughout the world, and particularly violence against women (Flaherty, 2010). This violence is epidemic and constitutes a global health problem and pervasive human rights violation. Responses are critiqued as narrow in scope, reactive and lacking in coordination. The research presented in this thesis contributes to addressing this gap by exploring measures community citizens from diverse backgrounds defined as important to ending violence. Specifically, the research question asked ‘What do community members of Lunenburg County say about the structural and cultural influences on interpersonal violence?’ It links the field of peace studies with the interpersonal anti-violence field and the field of addiction. The meta-analysis that frames this dissertation asserts that grassroots community peacebuilding will involve defining and connecting measures at the local level that can lead to defining and challenging broad, oppressive cultural and structural factors linked to the persistence of violence at provincial, national, and international levels. Situating interpersonal violence within a peacebuilding framework provides a critical lens that moves from a narrow focus on individual responsibility to include a wider analysis of the origins of violence to include social, cultural, economic, and political factors and ultimately compel a collective community response. This emancipatory function of peacebuilding must include a focus on promotion of environments where boys and men, girls and women, can live safe and satisfying lives that include the development of skills that promote nonviolence and peace.

Although matters of faith, religion and spirituality are central to the lives of millions of people in the global South. and many faith based organizations are actively involved in development. few northern academics in the field of international development make explicit reference to religion's role in development. and, if they do, the subject is often subsumed under another category, such as culture. This study seeks to shed light on the interface between religion and international development in Canadian academic institutions: to what extent is the influence -- for good or ill-- of religion or development acknowledged in their programmes, publications, and curricula? This is accomplished by means of an analysis of references to religion in the Canadian Journal of Development Studies (CJDS) and Canadian Development Reports as well as in the course offerings of International Development Studies (IDS) departments at Canadian universities. Findings show that only about 1% of article titles and 2% per cent of abstracts mention the subject of religion in its broadest definition over the twenfy five year history of the CJDS. Of 2,684 IDS courses offered (including courses cross-listed with Religious Studies departments), some 3% mention religion in their titles, and 8% in course descriptions. However, upon closer examination, only a handful of courses directly analyze the relationship between religion and development. Findings from this research are further interrogated in surveys and interviews with key informants, in order to uncover some of the reasons for what is perceived to be a lacuna in IDS teaching and research. Various recommendations are advanced: positivistic biases in academia need to be acknowledged, more research should be devoted towards an area currently understudied, and northern academics must be challenged to consider the religious reality of southern life, for, in Robert Chambers' words, "Whose reality counts?" Clearly the religious dimension of global life needs to be afforded a sharper focus in the programmes, publications and curricula of IDS departments at Canadian academic institutions. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2005.

L'objectif de ce mémoire est d'offrir une ethnographie d'une sous-culture artistique, celle des souffleurs de verre qui fabriquent des pipes destinées à la consommation de cannabis (Glass Pipe Art Movement). En me basant sur les concepts de sous-culture/contre-culture, de marginalité, de communauté virtuelle et de cooptation, je tente de comprendre comment cette culture artistique a pu se propager et quels changements potentiels touchent les pipe makers suite à la légalisation du cannabis au Canada. La recherche est fondée sur une enquête de terrain d'un peu plus de trois mois menée auprès de quinze pipe makers dispersés au Canada (Colombie-Britannique, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Québec) et aux États-Unis (Eugene, Oregon). Mon observation a également été participante, vu que j'ai eu l'occasion d'être initié au soufflage de verre. La réflexion s'est concentrée sur le Glass Pipe Art Movement comme un mouvement artistique innovant à partir de la pratique du lampworking et associé à l'émergence d'un nouvel art world (Becker, 1982), qui est contraint de rester dans une zone grise en raison de l'illégalité de la consommation de cannabis. L'analyse s'est déployée en trois grands axes : l'identification sous/contre culturelle des artistes et leur marginalité revendiquée; le rôle des médias alternatifs dans la constitution de cet art world ; et enfin la cooptation commerciale de cette pratique à l'heure de la légalisation du cannabis. La réflexion finale porte sur la tension formulée par les pipe makers entre la légalisation de leur production et la perte d'authenticité potentielle de leur sous-culture. / The purpose of this dissertation is to offer an ethnographic study of an artistic subculture, the Glass Pipe Art Movement, featuring glass blowers who produce glass pipes to smoke cannabis. Using the concepts of subculture/counterculture, marginality, virtual community, and co-optation, I try to understand how this artistic culture has spread and what potential changes will affect pipe makers as a result of the legalization of cannabis in Canada. The research is based on a fieldwork that spanned just over three months conducted with fifteen pipe makers scattered across Canada (British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec) and the United States (Eugene, Oregon). I also used participant observation, as I had the opportunity to be introduced to glassblowing. My analysis focuses on the Glass Pipe Art Movement as an innovative art movement based on the practice of lampworking and associated with the emergence of a new art world (Becker, 1982), which is confined to a gray area given the illegality of cannabis use. The analysis unfolds along three main axis: the subcultural/countercultural identification of the artists and their self-proclaimed marginality; the role of alternative media in the constitution of this art world; and finally the commercial co-option of this practice with the legalization of cannabis. The final reflection concerns the tension expressed by pipe makers between the legalization of their production and the potential loss of authenticity of their subculture.

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No description available.

Notre thèse, qui se situe dans le domaine de l'ethnologie historique, a pour objectif d'étudier les stratégies missionnaires des jésuites français auprès des Amérindiens et des Chinois au XVIIe siècle. Elle est aussi destinée à cerner les phénomènes des rencontres de cultures distinctes : impacts, chocs, interactions, intégration, transformation, acculturation et syncrétisme ; par ce moyen, elle veut contribuer aux recherches sur le christianisme dans les deux mondes, puis favoriser la compréhension des dialogues et des échanges entre la culture d'origine européenne et les cultures amérindiennes et chinoises. Cette étude commence par une présentation générale de la Compagnie de Jésus et des activités des jésuites en France pour montrer l'origine commune des deux groupes de jésuites destinés à la Nouvelle-France et à la Chine. Elle porte ensuite sur les méthodes de conversion que les missionnaires ont employées pour christianiser les Amérindiens et les Chinois. Attentive au rôle important que les autochtones ont joué dans la rencontre des cultures, elle examine également les réactions des Amérindiens et des Chinois vis-à-vis de l'expansion du christianisme. L'analyse s'appuie sur une base documentaire large et variée que nous avons construite lors de dépouillements faits au Canada, en France et en Chine. Les écrits missionnaires — Relations des jésuites et Lettres édifiantes— constituent les documents essentiels de notre corpus, complétés par des ouvrages de synthèse des missionnaires qui ont prêché en Amérique du Nord et en Chine. Il s'agit principalement, du côté de la Nouvelle France, des écrits de Gabriel Sagard, de Joseph-François Lafitau et de François-Xavier de Charlevoix. Du côté de la Chine, ce sont surtout les ouvrages d'Adrien Greslon, de Joachim Bouvet et de Louis Daniel Le Comte. Pour échapper à une histoire trop longtemps centrée sur la vision des Européens, nous avons exploité les sources d'origine chinoise : les écrits des lettrés confucianistes, des moines bouddhistes et des lettrés convertis. Nous avons également consulté les requêtes des mandarins pour compléter notre corpus. / Québec Université Laval, Bibliothèque 2013