The racialized realities faced by Black students provide an impetus to examine the controversy over Canada's first Africentric Alternative School, approved on January 29, 2008 by the Toronto District School Board. Newspaper articles, editorials and letters to the editor, as well as speeches by delegations and trustees, provide a rich snapshot of the arguments put forth in the heated political debate. Through the lens of equity and critical race theory, the diverse and divergent stances taken by both proponents and opponents of the school are analysed and understood. A conceptual framework of hidden and public transcripts (Scott, 1990) is used to distinguish arguments that reflect on the lived experiences of Black students from those that reiterate the dominant discourses of liberal democratic societies. The findings emerge as three opposing sets of themes that reveal a transcript reflective of the ongoing salience of racism within ostensibly liberal claims to racial equality.

The racialized realities faced by Black students provide an impetus to examine the controversy over Canada's first Africentric Alternative School, approved on January 29, 2008 by the Toronto District School Board. Newspaper articles, editorials and letters to the editor, as well as speeches by delegations and trustees, provide a rich snapshot of the arguments put forth in the heated political debate. Through the lens of equity and critical race theory, the diverse and divergent stances taken by both proponents and opponents of the school are analysed and understood. A conceptual framework of hidden and public transcripts (Scott, 1990) is used to distinguish arguments that reflect on the lived experiences of Black students from those that reiterate the dominant discourses of liberal democratic societies. The findings emerge as three opposing sets of themes that reveal a transcript reflective of the ongoing salience of racism within ostensibly liberal claims to racial equality.

In this thesis, I examine the case of the Canadian-based multinational mining corporation GreyStar resources Ltd. in Colombia. Angosturas is GreyStar’s large-scale gold mining project in the sensitive wet highland of páramo de Santurbán in the northeast of the Andes. Although GreyStar has undertaken explorations in this area since 1994, Colombia’s Ministry of Environment denied the environmental license to the company to start with extractions in 2011. I suggest that the government’s decision must be understood in the context of massive mobilizations against the project in large cities such as Bucaramanga and Bogotá as well as the principle of sustainable development (hereafter SD). The latter forms part of the 1991 Colombian constitution, and thus, through this legal presence, is considered to provide environmental protection in the country. Despite this government’s recent ruling, GreyStar (which renamed itself ‘Eco Oro’ after the 2011 decision) and other mining companies (e.g. Ventana Gold) have continued their quest to gain permission to begin with extractions in Santurbán. I explore why these continued attempts to persuade the government regarding extraction licensing is possible. In doing so, I critically investigate the principle of SD, which is central to the resolution by which the Ministry of the Environment denies the environmental license to Eco Oro (GreyStar). In other words, this thesis asks why SD allows for the classification of large-scale mining as a ‘common-good’ activity, which has negative implications on attempts to designate certain ecosystems (e.g. páramo) as common-goods on the basis that there are to be sustained as such, and therefore, an unequivocal moratorium on large-scale mining in these ecosystems is necessary. What and whose common-good does large-scale mining in sensitive ecosystems represent? I argue that in the scope of SD, commoditized nature is vulnerable to the volatility of markets and corporate profitability. This thesis is a criticism of SD and the limitations it places on hearing certain kinds of languages and discourses that resist the key assumptions of SD. The case study allows for addressing a gap in the existing literature, which is the distinctive situation of no legally considered ethnic minorities (e.g. small farmers, small miners, and the cities). / Thesis (Master, Cultural Studies) -- Queen's University, 2012-09-24 10:28:50.601

Ce mémoire de maîtrise s’intéresse à la portée et aux limites de la participation publique à la gestion des ressources naturelles. Plus spécifiquement, une étude du cas de la Commission Coulombe est réalisée afin de déterminer, d’une part, dans quelle mesure la participation délibérative a favorisé l’émergence de nouveaux discours et quels ont été ses effets politiques, d’autre part. L’argumentation se fonde sur une approche discursive-institutionnelle et, plus précisément, sur la notion d’arrangement politique développé par Bas Arts et Pieter Leroy. L’étude de la Commission Coulombe révèle que la participation délibérative a permis de renforcer la légitimité des institutions étatiques, elle a encouragé l’émergence de préoccupations et de notions nouvelles, elle a eu des effets sur l’élaboration des règles, des politiques et des programmes et a permis une certaine redéfinition des rapports de pouvoirs entre les acteurs du régime forestier québécois. Ses effets sont cependant ambivalents en termes de démocratisation de la gestion publique. Les pouvoirs publics ont utilisé la Commission pour rétablir leur crédibilité, justifier des décisions impopulaires et faire avancer les grandes orientations du gouvernement. De plus, les acteurs qui ont acquis le plus de pouvoir et les enjeux qui ont émergés de façon la plus marquée sont ceux qui étaient favorisés par le contexte politique de modernisation de l’État québécois. / This master’s thesis addresses the scope and limits of public participation in the management of natural resources. More precisely, a case study of the Commission Coulombe is made to determine, on one hand, how deliberative participation has encouraged the emergence of new discourses and what the political effects of this recognition were. The theoretical approach underlying the argument made in this dissertation is both discursive and institutional. It is based on Bas Arts and Pieter Leroy’s “political arrangement” notion. The analysis of the Coulombe Commission reveals that deliberative participation reinforced the legitimacy of state institutions, encouraged the emergence of new concerns and concepts, had effects on the elaboration of rules, policies and programs and fostered – to an extent – a redefinition of the power relations among the actors of Québec’s forest regime. However, its effects on the democratization of public management remain limited. Government officials made use of the Coulombe Commission to reestablish their credibility, to justify unpopular decisions and push forward the principal orientations of their government. Furthermore, the social actors who gained the most power and the issues who became prominent are those who were advantaged by Québec’s political agenda of state modernization.

Cet essai fut écrit sur le mode de la promenade, d’une promenade accompagnée par les voix, des voix. Parmi elles, celle de Colette, de certains de ses personnages, celles contenues en moi. L’écriture a été libre, a tenté de l’être au moins, en se séparant de l’idée qu’un but précis, qu’une destination finale devait être atteinte. Il s’agissait de me laisser guider par l’errance des mots, par le rythme que prend la plume quand elle pense. De Colette, je ne dis rien, ou presque. Mon but étant de l’entendre, c’est en tant que lectrice que j’ai pris place dans cette réflexion, lectrice amoureuse, c’est-à-dire, guidée par l’En-Amour, conçu comme personnage conceptuel. C’est donc de ce point de vue que les textes ont été abordés, afin de laisser place à la vie, à la mouvance, à ce qui grouille dans l’œuvre colettienne. De cette manière, il me semblait possible d’entrer réellement en relation avec les personnages, mais aussi avec la représentation que je me faisais de l’auteure. Il me fallait garder la poésie de l’écriture de Colette, y entrelacer la mienne et tenter ainsi de donner des mots à une sorte de silencieuse oralité. Et le chemin s’est poursuivi, jusqu’à une vérité relative, vérité de l’En-Amour, donnée et mise en forme par les récits colettiens et leurs sous-entendus. De cette façon, je voyais la possibilité de redonner foi et valeur au(x) discours amoureux comme potentiel(s) de vérité. / This essay was written in the manner of a stroll, a stroll in the company of voices. Among them: Colette’s, certain of her characters’ and my very own inner voices. The writing process was a free-form one, tried to be so at least, separating itself from the idea of a precise goal or final destination to be reached. It was to be guided by the roaming of the words themselves instead, by the rhythm animating the pen when it is thinking. Of Colette, I say nothing, or barely. My objective being to hear her, it’s as a reader that I positioned myself thinking, as a loving reader guided by l’En-Amour, conceived as a conceptual character. The texts have thus been addressed from such a particular point of view, to let life, movement and all that sprouts in the colettian oeuvre its space to bloom. In such manner, it appeared possible to truly relate to both the characters and my own representation of the author. I had to keep alive the poetry of Colette’s writing, intertwining mine along with it, in an attempt to word a kind of unspoken oral form. And the path continued further along, up to a relative truth, the truth of l’En-Amour, given and shaped by the colettian narratives and their understated meanings. This way, I saw the possibility of valuing and renewing faith in a (the) discourse(s) of love as potential truth.

Based on empirical qualitative data collected by interviewing eight elementary school teachers from across four different school boards in Ontario and analyzing new Ontario Ministry of Education policy and guidelines for supporting and programming for English Literacy Development (ELD) students, this research seeks to better understand how teachers’ discourses influence their perception of ELD students’ experiences in elementary schools. In particular, I look at how they view their roles as teachers, the purpose of education and schooling, their personal views on diversity, and how they program literacy for ELD students. The participants’ discourses reveal that although they prioritize having positive relationships with their students, they often struggled to relate positively with their ELD students. Reassessing how the formal school is structured and providing directed professional development on teaching ELD students could work towards creating more positive learning experiences for ELD students in Ontario elementary schools.

Based on empirical qualitative data collected by interviewing eight elementary school teachers from across four different school boards in Ontario and analyzing new Ontario Ministry of Education policy and guidelines for supporting and programming for English Literacy Development (ELD) students, this research seeks to better understand how teachers’ discourses influence their perception of ELD students’ experiences in elementary schools. In particular, I look at how they view their roles as teachers, the purpose of education and schooling, their personal views on diversity, and how they program literacy for ELD students. The participants’ discourses reveal that although they prioritize having positive relationships with their students, they often struggled to relate positively with their ELD students. Reassessing how the formal school is structured and providing directed professional development on teaching ELD students could work towards creating more positive learning experiences for ELD students in Ontario elementary schools.

This thesis explores the location and nature of the power that is deepening and broadening the revolution in modern biotechnologies, and which is inherent in the global governance of one type of genetic resource — plant genetic resources. Plant genetic resources are of increasing importance within the global political economy and ecology because of the power/knowledge networks contributing to, and responding to developments in the biotechnology sector, and concerned with the rampant erosion of biological diversity. The thesis argues that transnational norms, values and knowledge are important aspects of power. Discursive power, and particularly the power inherent in discourses of sustainable development, security and human rights, are a central focus of the thesis. The thesis challenges realist, neo-realist and other structural analyses of power which focus on relative distributions of power at the level of individual states or at the global level.

This thesis explores the location and nature of the power that is deepening and broadening the revolution in modern biotechnologies, and which is inherent in the global governance of one type of genetic resource — plant genetic resources. Plant genetic resources are of increasing importance within the global political economy and ecology because of the power/knowledge networks contributing to, and responding to developments in the biotechnology sector, and concerned with the rampant erosion of biological diversity. The thesis argues that transnational norms, values and knowledge are important aspects of power. Discursive power, and particularly the power inherent in discourses of sustainable development, security and human rights, are a central focus of the thesis. The thesis challenges realist, neo-realist and other structural analyses of power which focus on relative distributions of power at the level of individual states or at the global level.

Ce travail de thèse interroge la ménopause en tant que catégorie et en tant qu’expérience. Il prend pour objet les mécanismes de la « fabrique » de la ménopause et ses effets afin de mettre en évidence comment physiologie et rapports sociaux se nouent. La construction sociale de la ménopause, son traitement social et l’expérience des femmes dans le contexte actuel français sont étudiés à partir d’un double matériau : les discours sociaux portant sur la ménopause et des entretiens approfondis menés auprès de femmes ménopausées. L’étude de la construction de la ménopause dans les discours médicaux souligne, tout d’abord, le caractère fondamental du genre dans la production de cette catégorie, aujourd’hui mise en scène dans des relais culturels (médias et publicités). Nous analysons, ensuite, l’expérience de la ménopause comme un apprentissage. Avec pour objectif de « dénaturaliser » la ménopause, nous éclairons la socialisation dont elle est le fruit et les interactions où s’en réalise l’apprentissage. Enfin, loin d’être un évènement, la ménopause constitue un processus dynamique, informé par des rapports sociaux et produit de représentations. Nous appréhendons l’expérience de la ménopause en tant que trajectoire influencée par différents facteurs qui mettent en jeu les normes d’âge en termes de fécondité, les représentations du corps ainsi que deux interactants clés : le médecin et l’autrui significatif. / This PhD deals with menopause as a category and an experience. It aims to understand the mechanisms through which menopause is “made”, as well as their effects. The social construction of menopause, its social treatment and women’s’ lived experiences in the French context are examined from a double perspective: social discourses about menopause and interviews carried out with menopausal women. Firstly, the social construction of menopause in medical discourses reveals the crucial importance of gender in the production of this category, nowadays extremely dramatized in media and advertisement. We then proceed to analyze menopause as a learning process. In order to “denaturalize” menopause, we focus on the socialization which it is a product of, and the interactions which constitute its learning process. Finally, we examine menopause as a process fashioned by social relationships and representations, a trajectory where norms of age and fecundity, representations of the body, and key interactions with physician and significant other are at play.