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.

The thesis aims to describe the changing position of a nation state in contemporary economic-political structure as a result of globalization processes. The object of interest is the interrelation of state with transnational actors, but also other states with regard to the concept of competitiveness.

Thesis advisor: Min H. Song / This dissertation examines how contemporary Filipino American novels narrate the experiences of immigrant Filipino workers in the US in the context of neoliberal globalization. In particular, I analyze how these novels depict neoliberal global capitalism's re-ordering of urban and suburban spaces in order to create safe spaces for consumption, and the impact of such re-ordering on immigrant Filipino service workers. This re-ordering of space, based on urban management principles pioneered by Disney Corporation that have become dominant across the US and in other places like the Philippines, has widened the gulf between those who have the means to partake of consumption and those who do not. The dissertation argues that the contemporary Filipino American novels under study perform the cultural task of capturing the disturbances brought about by the dizzying shifts in the nature of work, understanding of self, affiliation, and the world, and of reflecting back to their readers their personal and social costs. Chapter One traces the roots of Disneyfication to the world's fairs of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, highlighting the imperialist legacy imbricated in the Disney theme parks' nativist and anti-poor tendencies. I argue that such bias underpin the strategies of Disneyfication that has dominated the US urban landscape beginning in the 1970s. Chapter Two analyzes Jessica Hagedorn's two novels on the Philippines, Dogeaters and Dream Jungle, focusing on her literary representation of the Marcos dictatorship's attempt to use the strategies of Disneyfication to cover over the regime's violent exploitation of its own people in connivance with the then US-dominated global capitalism. Chapter Three discusses how Han Ong's Fixer Chao depicts the transformation of the subjectivity of an immigrant Filipino service worker against the background of New York City's gentrification in the 1990s. Ong uses the motifs of fragmentation, displacement, and conflation of moral good and material goods to present a Filipino American critique of neoliberal global capitalism's ethos of consumerism. Finally, Chapter Four studies Brian Ascalon Roley's American Son and Evelina Galang's One Tribe in terms of the novels' depiction of the immigrant Filipino workers' experience of the strategies of exclusion and control. Both novels delineate formal and informal means of surveillance targeted at Filipino immigrant workers, highlighting the way immigrant Filipino families and communities discipline their members, in particular the young females, to argue for assimilation into the Disneyfied mainstream American society and culture. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: English.

Thesis advisor: Thomas J. Massaro / There is a substantial and growing corpus of literature that describes, with convincing statistics and analysis, globalization as the greatest achievement in the history of our modern world and that it has brought the greatest degree of prosperity and economic growth to poor countries. However, seen from the perspective of the poor and the marginalized, the current globalization has not helped them to end their misery and marginalization; indeed in most cases it has actually worsened their situation. The Christian community cannot remain an idle spectator of this unjust, inhuman and sinful global reality. Analyzed from a Christian theological perspective, it is not only an economic issue but also a moral issue. It is a social sin to violate human dignity, to commodify human labor, and to marginalize the poor. Based on the teachings of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences, the Catholic Bishops Conference of India and some prominent Asian theologians, I contend that dialogue with other faith traditions, cultures and the poor must be an essential part of her mission of humanizing the current globalization. I argue that the Church in India should avoid the presumption that she already possesses a vision of the common good adequate to the Indian society. While remaining committed to gospel values, the Church must be an open-minded listening and learning. / Thesis (STD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

Under the prevailing global capitalist model, increased access to the formal economy for women is touted as a panacea to women´s empowerment and gender equality. Despite an unprecedented increase in women's participation in the global workforce and international labor standards, women are often assigned to precarious and exploitative low-wage work with little opportunity for social mobility. This thesis examines the effects of U.S.-Colombia Free Agreement and Labor Action Plan on women workers in Colombia's cut flower export-oriented industry. The impacts of free trade on women are contradictory, and despite hopes for the Labor Action Plan, women in the cut flower industry have seen little improvement in the working conditions and gender inequality. I explore the ways in which women actively resist exploitation and argue that women face powerful structural barriers to collective action under the imperialist and racist order of the capitalist patriarchy enshrined in Free Trade Agreements.

Dans le domaine de la littérature postcoloniale, les autofictions féminines méritent une attention toute particulière. En effet, la femme migrante se situe dans une double marge littéraire : en tant que migrante mais également en tant que femme et parfois même en temps que minorité. Notre étude comparative se base sur des supports littéraires variés (essai, bande dessinée et roman) et tente de montrer comment ces auteures d’origines très diverses illustrent le passage culturel et langagier des femmes migrantes et le rôle important qu’elles tiennent concernant l’héritage de la mémoire historique et collective féminine. Aussi, cette étude s’interroge sur l’existence d’une identité de genre qui fait partie du bagage culturel des femmes et sur la réponse donnée par les personnages représentant les auteures migrantes face à une identité féminine convenue. C’est, en partie, à travers le thème de la transformation que les personnages révèlent les nouvelles possibilités et définitions de l’ "être femme". / In the field of postcolonial literature, women autofictions deserve special attention. Indeed, the migrant woman is in a literary double margin as a migrant but also as a woman and sometimes even as a minority.Our comparative study is based on a variety of literary materials (essay, comics and novel) and tries to show how these authors from diverse background illustrate the cultural and the linguistic passage of migrant women and the important role they play concerning the legacy of female historical and collective memory.Also, this study questions the existence of a gender identity that is part of the cultural baggage of women and the response of the characters representing migrant authors in front of an agreed identity. This is, in part, though the theme of transformation that characters reveal new possibilities and definitions of “being a woman”.

Este trabalho é uma contribuição teórico-metodológica aos estudos sobre o planejamento regional do turismo em áreas de fronteira, tendo como foco central da pesquisa a Região de Corumbá/MS, na fronteira do Brasil com a Bolívia. Esta região foi apreendida como um subespaço do espaço global, levando em conta seus processos histórico e econômico, bem como a natureza de sua fisiografia. A abordagem do objeto de estudo no campo teórico-metodológico partiu de uma conjuntura global para o plano regional, em seis capítulos. No primeiro capítulo delineia-se um panorama do período posterior à Segunda Guerra Mundial e os seus reflexos sobre a globalização, as fronteiras e a atividade turística. No segundo capítulo, a discussão passa a ser centrada na dinâmica das fronteiras e suas implicações para o turismo, com uma proposta de categorização de tipos de turismo nas áreas de fronteiras. No terceiro capítulo, são discutidas algumas experiências de planejamento regional em áreas de fronteiras sob o enfoque do turismo. O quarto e quinto capítulos voltam-se para a Região Internacional de Corumbá em seus mais variados aspectos, como a localização, a formação natural e os usos sociais, com ênfase ao turismo. O quinto capítulo trata do desenvolvimento do turismo na região em suas diferentes modalidades com destaque para o turismo de pesca. O sexto capítulo indica as perspectivas para a consolidação formal de uma região turístico-fronteiriça integrada, sob a tutela do Estado, o que se entende ser o caminho mais plausível para o desenvolvimento regional desta fronteira. Isso valida a hipótese de que os problemas existentes no setor turístico de Corumbá passam pela construção de uma Região Internacional de Planejamento envolvendo Ladário, Puerto Quijarro e Puerto Suarez. Finalmente, são apresentadas algumas diretrizes para essa construção. / This work is a theoretical-methodological contribution to the studies on regional tourism planning in border areas. The central focus of the research is the region of Corumbá, Mato Grosso do Sul state, on the Brazil-Bolivia border. The region of Corumbá has been recognized as a subspace of the global space, taking into consideration its historic and economic processes, as well as the nature of its physiography, the most remarkable feature of the regional identity. The approach to the study object in the theoretical-methodological field started out from a global conjuncture to the regional plan, in six chapters. The first chapter delineates a panorama of the period after the Second World War and its reflexes on globalization, the borders and tourism. In the second chapter, the axis of the discussion turns to the borders dynamic movement from the second half of last century and especially to the implications on tourism, with the suggestion of a categorization of different kinds of tourism in border areas. The third chapter discusses some experiences of regional planning in border areas, with greater attention to the cases related to tourism. The fourth and the fifth chapters refer to Corumbá International Region, in its varied aspects, such as location, delimitation, natural formation and social uses, with emphasis on tourism. The fifth chapter deals with tourism development in the region in its different modalities, with greater emphasis on fishing. The sixth chapter is the last one. It indicates the perspectives for a formal consolidation of an integrated tourism-border region, under the control of the state, which is understood as the most plausible way for this border\'s regional development. This validates the hypothesis according to which the socioeconomic problems of Corumbá should be faced in terms of the construction of an international region for planning, involving Ladário, Puerto Quijarro and Puerto Suarez. Finally, some directions for this construction are presented.

Nos últimos tempos a literatura empírica tem reportado inúmeras evidências relativas à alterações dos coeficientes da curva de Phillips Novo Keynesiana em diversas economias, dentre as quais reduções dos impactos da inércia inflacionária, do hiato do produto, da inflação importada e elevação do coeficiente das expectativas de inflação. Neste contexto, uma parte da literatura tem atribuído à maior globalização comercial entre as economias uma das principais causas para algumas dessas evidências. O presente trabalho teve como objetivo investigar uma parte deste extenso debate aplicando-o aos dados da economia brasileira. Especificamente, os dois principais objetivos deste trabalho foram: i) investigar se a dinâmica inflacionária da economia brasileira sofreu alguma alteração nos últimos anos em termos de mudanças das magnitudes dos coeficientes da Curva de Phillips Novo Keynesiana; ii) avaliar se a maior globalização comercial da economia brasileira ocorrida ao longo das duas últimas décadas exerceu alguma influência sobre os coeficientes da Curva de Phillips Novo Keynesiana. Ressalta-se que os resultados apresentados para esse segundo objetivo sempre levaram em consideração o significativo aperfeiçoamento da condução da política monetária na economia brasileira desde a implantação do regime de metas de inflação. Com relação ao primeiro objetivo as evidências deste trabalho apontaram que há indicações de redução dos coeficientes da inércia inflacionária e da inflação importada concomitante à elevação do coeficiente das expectativas de inflação. Neste sentido, não se evidenciou alterações significativas no coeficiente do hiato do produto. No tocante ao segundo objetivo, os resultados sugeriram que o aumento da credibilidade tende a reduzir os coeficientes da inércia inflacionária, do hiato do produto e da inflação importada ao mesmo tempo em que eleva o coeficiente das expectativas de inflação. Finalmente, a importância da maior globalização comercial mostrou-se restrita ao coeficiente da inflação importada na direção de ampliá-lo. / Over the latest years, the empirical literature has been reporting several evidences across economies regarding changes in coefficients of the New Keynesian Phillips Curve such as reductions on impacts of inflationary inertia, output gap, imported inflation, as well as an increase in the inflation expectation coefficient. In this context, the trade globalization has been pointed as one of the main causes behind some of those changes. The present paper aims to address part of this broad debate, applying it to the Brazilian economy data. In particular, the two most important objectives were: i) to investigate whether the inflation dynamic in Brazil suffered any significant change over the last years, focusing on the coefficients estimates of the Brazilian New Keynesian Phillips Curve; ii) to evaluate whether the recent greater trade globalization of the Brazilian economy led to any effect on its New Keynesian Phillips Curve coefficients. One should note that the results of this second objective will always be evaluated taking into account the significant improvement in the monetary policy management in Brazil since the implementation of the inflation targeting regime. In relation to the first objective the results found in this paper suggested reductions on inflationary inertia and imported inflation coefficients and increase in the inflation expectation coefficient. Therefore, it was not found any significant change in the output gap coefficient. Regarding the second objective, the evidences pointed the greater credibility tends to decrease the coefficients of inflationary inertia, output gap, and imported inflation amid an increase in inflation expectation impact. Finally, the potential impacts of greater trade globalization showed restricted to higher imported inflation coefficient.

Os movimentos grevistas sofreram o impacto das recentes modificações tecnológicas, da globalização e da terceirização. Antigas estratégias utilizadas pelos trabalhadores para pressionar seus empregadores já não produzem o mesmo efeito que outrora. Novas formas de manifestação estão surgindo o que, naturalmente, provoca novas formas de contraofensiva dos empregadores. O conceito legal de greve já não se mostra adequado, requerendo certo esforço hermenêutico para que os novos movimentos paredistas não sejam considerados irregulares. Além de estudar estas transformações, o presente trabalho se dedica a refletir sobre a postura dos órgãos do Poder Judiciário nesse novo contexto. Após pesquisa dogmático teórica em fontes legais, releitura de textos doutrinários e estudo de precedentes judiciais e de organismos internacionais, concluiu-se que os órgãos judiciais devem apresentar uma atuação voltada a assegurar o exercício do direito de greve. Sugeriu-se, para tanto, que, em caso de dúvida, seja sempre adotada a exegese que assegure a realização das manifestações. / The strike movements have suffered the impact of recent technological changes, globalization and outsourcing. Old strategies used by workers to pressure their employers no longer produce the same effect as before. New forms of workers manifestations are emerging which, of course, provokes new forms of counter-offensive of the employers. The legal concept of a strike is no longer adequate, requiring some hermeneutic effort to recognize the validity of the new kinds of strike movements. In addition to studying these transformations, the present work is dedicated to reflect on the position of the Brazilian Labor Justice in this new context. After a theoretical dogmatic research in legal sources and after reading doctrinal texts and judicial precedents and precedents of international agencies, the conclusion found is that the courts should have an action aimed at ensuring the right to strike. To achieve this goal, the courts should, in case of doubt, adopt an exegesis that assures work stoppage.

Thesis advisor: Lisa Cuklanz / There are strict rules and expectations that govern the world’s idea of femininity and beauty. What are the repercussions of selecting one type of beauty to be ideal on a global scale? After watching the pageant and reading previous scholars’ findings, I argue that the Miss America Pageant presents its participants as women to be admired while its practices objectify women’s bodies. Several myths dictate how contestants should behave and historically diversity has failed to break into the pageant. On a global scale, Miss America has inspired other international beauty pageants, causing countries to compete with one another for the most beautiful woman. Selecting one beauty often times is based purely on appearance, like body type or racial characteristics. The implications of one beauty means that all women, all over the world, feel compelled to meet the standards set by this one beauty, this winner. In turn, women who do not measure up feel inadequate and strive to change their appearances to meet the mold. This model also homogenizes the concept of beauty that previously was diverse and culturally based. Pageants, like Miss America, therefore encourage women to objectify themselves in order to meet an international beauty standard that is historically based on white or western appearances. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Communication Honors Program. / Discipline: Communication.