Cynicism is one of the most frequently used, but most polysemic, words in the modern lexicon. This dissertation attempts to shed some light on a dark subject by tracing the idea of cynicism from the late eighteenth century to the late nineteenth century and early twentieth in order to construct a multi-faceted theory of modern cynicism which is in turn applied to, and modified by, the writings of H. G. Wells, Joseph Conrad, and George Bernard Shaw. The genealogy of cynicism that I construct in the first chapter draws upon existing research in the area as well as original research from a range of books and articles published from 1790 to 1895. This genealogy shows that the idea of cynicism takes shape largely in relation to the nineteenth century’s anxieties about the social and subjective consequences of modern culture. In the remaining chapters, I examine each writer’s understanding of and engagement with cynicism and explore the ways that each participates in, modifies, or rejects the pessimistic form of modern cynicism associated with the fin de siècle. I suggest that in rejecting the pessimistic form of realism typical of the period, Shaw comes closer than other authors to recovering a salutary neo-Cynicism; I also argue that he perceived, but was not able to overcome, the subjective barriers to political change that more recent theorists have associated with twentieth-century cynicism. / Thesis (Ph.D, English) -- Queen's University, 2010-05-17 16:38:24.165

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2005. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file viewed on (November 27, 2006) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

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Syfte: Vi vill med vår studie utforska hur utbrett missnöje är på arbetsplatser. Genom att studera det psykologiska kontraktet vill vi förklara hur det påverkar missnöje när kontraktet bryts. Metod: Vår studie är en kvalitativ metod med en abduktivt forskningsstrategi. Vi har utfört både kvalitativa intervjuer och enkäter för att samla in vårt empiriska datamaterial. Teoretiska perspektiv: Vi har grundat vår teori inom psykologiska kontrakt, organisationscynism och kommunikation. Dessa tre områden har vi relaterat till vårt insamlade empiriska material Empiri: Vi har intervjuat tre stycken personer på tre olika företag  inom företagsledning för att få ett perspektiv på hur arbetsgivare upplever missnöje på arbetsplatsen. Intervjuerna har vi sedan kompletterat med enkäter från 91 stycken respondenter som vi slumpmässigt har valt ut. Resultat: Studien har visat att missnöje är ett utbrett problem på arbetsplatser. Vi anser att arbetsgivare inte uppmärksammar missnöje i den bemärkelsen de borde göra. Enligt vår studie visar det sig att arbetstagare har fler förväntningar på arbetsgivaren än vad denne tror och att arbetstagare också känner mer missnöje över arbetsgivarens agerande än vad arbetsgivaren är medveten om. Slutligen kan vi konstatera att arbetsgivare borde arbeta mer aktivt med psykologiska kontrakt och att uppmärksamma när missnöje uppstår. Stort Tack! / Purpose: The purpose with this study is to create an understanding in how widespread dissatisfaction is in worklife. By studying the psychological contract we want to understand how dissatisfaction appears when the contract has been broken. Methodology: The study has a qualitative and abductive approach. We have collected our empirical data through qualitative interviews and forms. Theoretical perspectives: Our theoretical material has been grounded in theories about the psychological contract, organizational cynicism and communication. These three areas have we connected with our empirical data. Empirical foundations: We have done three interviews with three people with leading position at different companies to get their view on the matter of dissatisfaction. As a complement to the interviews we have done questionnaire studies to understand the perspective of the employees. Conclusion: The result of the study has shown us that dissatisfaction is a widespread problem in the workplaces. We argue that the employer does not give enough attention to this type of matter and that they should. Our results show us that the employee have more expectations, so called psychological contracts, than the employer is aware of. Also we have seen that the employer’s way to act has been a strong contributor to the employee’s dissatisfaction, which therefor needs to be considered. Finally we can establish that the employers should work more active with psychological contract and give more attention to dissatisfaction.   Thank you!

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Louisville, 2004. / Department of Sociology. Vita. "August 2004." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 64-67).

Thesis (Ph. D.) University of Missouri-Columbia, 2006. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on August 1, 2007) Includes bibliographical references.

The Enlightenment was funded by a utopian hope that increased knowledge of nature as a mechanism could create the conditions for lasting peace and widespread happiness. The twentieth century, however, has been marked by catastrophes hitherto beyond imagination. This thesis examines two critiques of enlightenment that suggest this development is not accidental either to the concept of enlightenment or to the course it has taken in modern Western societies. The development in question follows from tendencies within enlightenment itself. I provide an exegetical account of Horkheimer and Adorno's analysis, in their collaborative work Dialectic of Enlightenment, of the regressive moment in enlightenment, which, for them, is owed to the entanglement of rationality and domination. Next, I examine Peter Sloterdijk's analysis, in Critique of Cynical Reason, of the ambivalent social reception of enlightenment that results in the phenomenon of modern cynicism, which must be contrasted with its ancient namesake that I render, following the translation of Sloterdijk, as "kynicism". In each of these works the way forward for enlightenment hinges upon cultivating a relationship between nature and the subject that is not based on dominating opposition: nature as a mechanism for human purposes or as the suppressed inner nature of the subject. Horkheimer and Adorno's solution is the recovery of reflection on nature within the subject. I show that this is insufficient to meet the challenges posed by modern cynicism that Sloterdijk reveals to be a late development of enlightenment. It is for this reason that Sloterdijk asks us to recall the legacy of Diogenes of Sinope. Sloterdijk finds in Diogenes a critical consciousness that resists the "melancholic stagnation" of cynical society and retains the utopian spirit of enlightenment.

My project uncovers and explores the democratic sources of political cynicism. I contest the conventional view that the expanding gap between the near-universal acclaim accorded democratic principles and the near-total absence of democratic political practices is a product of either “market society” or liberal political systems. Instead, I argue that the particular form of the contemporary contempt for all-things-political - the reflexive assumption that politics is necessarily corrupt and even absurd - is inscribed in modern democratic culture. In relation to the sublime freedom and equality of the idea of democratic openness, democratic political action and association cannot but be experienced as impoverished and unfree. In this sense, I argue that democracy is self-subverting, undermining the possibility of political argument and reform. I conclude by sketching out a prescription in the American context for robust democracy based upon this diagnosis. By rhetorically reorienting self-perceptions about what we are doing when we engage in politics around the elevated but not transcendent notion of participating in an ongoing constitutional project, we can transform our anti-political dispositions. Beyond issues of political legitimacy, I argue that the symbolic order of the Constitution might foster political vitality by framing a politics experienced as potentially meaningful and worthy of respect. One might say that I offer Madisonian means to Jeffersonian ends. / text

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2005. / Advisors: Dr. Gerald R. Ferris and Dr. Wayne A. Hochwarter, Florida State University, College of Business, Dept. of Management. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed June 16, 2005). Document formatted into pages; contains xii, 145 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:33:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2009-09-21Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:45:32Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 sobreira_aeg_dr_prud.pdf: 4095678 bytes, checksum: 2eb19d24ff594fa90fd20b7dd6de942f (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Este trabalho visa analisar a possibilidade de ensinar geografia por meio do paradigma educacional anarquista. O trabalho foi dividido em duas partes contendo a primeira o construto teórico geral da tese nos seguintes eixos interrelacionados: pesquisa educacional em geografia, conceituação de ideologia, Teoria Crítica da Escola de Frankfurt, Geografia Crítica e apreciação histórica e teórica das experiências das pedagogias socialistas da Liberdade, Radical e Libertária Anarquista. Dentro do texto está situada a filiação ideológica entre o anarquismo social e a Crítica da Razão Cínica. A aproximação da educação libertária com a geografia é feita através dos postulados educacionais dos geógrafos anarquistas Elisée Reclus e Piotr Kropotkin. Na segunda parte do trabalho são incluídos os aspectos teóricos e práticos atuais que delimitam a pedagogia anarquista e o que deve considerar um projeto de escola libertária. Com a reunião dessas informações se avalia como a geografia pode ser incluída na educação libertária se não existe uma epistemologia anarquista de geografia contemporânea Diante disso, apresentam-se alguns teóricos que oferecem elementos para constituir uma proposta de anarcogeografia ou geografia anarquista, que embora seja viável deixou de ser um problema essencial. O estudo empírico se restringe à visita e entrevista com a escola democrática Summerhill (Inglaterra), da vivência na escola anarquista Paideia (Espanha) e do relato de cinco professores de geografia no Brasil. O conjunto referencial teórico, prático e empírico reunido permite dizer que a geografia realizada em escola convencional é incapaz de produzir os efeitos éticos, racionais e políticos comprometidos com a sociedade porque essa instituição é antagônica a esses propósitos. O princípio basilar da educação antiautoritária é que ninguém tem o direito... / The proposal of this study is to evaluate anarchist education paradigm using in geography teaching. The first part have are historical and theoretical explanations and in the second part have practical aspects of anarchist education and a design project to anarchist education community and geography place in it. The education research teaching geography and ideology concept and Critical Theory (Frankfurt school) and Radical Geography are the basis to discuss socialist pedagogies like radical, democratic and anarchist education experiences. The research project includes to study Piotr Kropotkin and Elisée Reclus statement about learning geography and to analyse why anarchism have not advanced in geography thought nowadays. The information collected is using to evaluate how anarchist education can be learning if there are not anarchist geography to base in it. The reports from five teachers, Summerhill Schools (UK) and Escuela Paideia (Spain) point out empirical references about free education and its possibilities to be applied in state education. The perspective arising from this account is used to offer a trenchant critique of some ways to teaching geography in the anti-authoritarian education with self-government based in democratic meetings. And have no-sense to teaching to imposing fragments of science by curriculum of school. The result is that is impossible to use anarchist paradigm in conventional education but teacher can be able to resist against fascism at school and improving freedom quotas committed with own individuality and collective and mutual practices.