Vykstanti pasaulio ekonomikos globalizacija, spartėjantis informacinių technologijų naudojimas, tarptautinių korporacijų plėtra pateikė naujus iššūkius, reikalavimus, standartus ne tik įvairių šalių verslo visuomenei, vyriausybėms, bet ir žmonijai. Verslas, globalizacijos fone, keičiasi vis greitėjančiu tempu ir susiduria su naujais iššūkiais. Pastebimas spaudimas rinkoms bei globalioms įmonėms imtis vadinamo „atsakingo globalaus kapitalizmo“ bei globalių problemų sprendimo. Kaip atsakas į besikeičiančius visuomenės poreikius, globalinių problemų sprendimą, vis labiau plėtojama ir analizuojama įmonių socialinės atsakomybės idėja. Šio darbo tikslas yra išanalizuoti pelno, kaip pagrindinio įmonių veiklos tikslo, ir įmonių socialinės atsakomybės, kurios reikšmė vis auga, optimalaus derinimo galimybes. Darbą sudaro trys dalys. Pirmojoje analizuojama globalinė ekonomika, jos varančiosios jėgos, įmonių socialinės atsakomybės idėjos samprata bei teikiama nauda. Antrojoje dalyje analizuojama kelių tarptautinių korporacijų socialiai atsakingo verslo praktika, teorinių ir empirinių tyrimų padėtis įmonių socialinės atsakomybės klausimais Lietuvoje. Trečiojoje dalyje pateikti įmonių socialinės atsakomybės idėjos supratimo darbuotojų tarpe ir šios idėjos principų taikymo tyrimo rezultatai. / World’s economics globalization, speedy information technologies use, transnationals corporations development introduced new challenges, requirements, standards not only for business society of different countries, governments, but also for humanity. Business, in the context of globalization, is changing in a rapid speed and is facing up with new challenges. There is seen a pressure for global companies to undertake the “responsible global capitalism” and solve global problems. Corporate social responsibility concept is developing and analyzed as a response to changing society needs and global problems solving. The aim of this diploma paper is to analyze profit, as the main purpose of business operations, and corporate social responsibility, which importance is growing, optimal harmonization possibilities. This paper is made of three parts. In the first part of this paper there is analyzed global economy, corporate social responsibility concept and the benefits of corporate social responsibility. In the second part of diploma paper, there are analyzed the practice of socially responsible business of few transnationals corporations. In the third part there are presented research results.

xi, 205 p. / As an increasing number of differentially situated women implicated within the global economy continue to come into contact with each other, a host of opportunities and challenges are inaugurated for feminist praxes across borders and differences. The cycles of dependencies accentuated by globalization come hand-in-hand with concerns about unequal distribution, unequal access to resources, and the rise of fundamentalist ideologies. All these together remind us of the urgency of collaboration and cooperation across differences. At the same time, the presence of differences and inequalities threaten to undermine the spirit for collaboration at any given moment. We, therefore, need analytical frameworks that are able to do justice to our identities and agency within interactive spaces. We also need better evaluative frameworks for theorizing ethical responsibility and political concerns about justice within a transnational space that take these realities into account. I argue for the possibility of a new "critical multicultural transnational feminism" and develop a theoretical framework to anchor this vision in my dissertation. The "critical" component emphasizes the vision for a feminism that is, at once, a self-reflective praxis. The juxtaposition of "multicultural" and "transnational" seeks to emphasize the need for recognizing both the limitations and the importance of borders on our lives. To do this, I articulate an alternative logic of "borders" so as to develop an interactive ontology for thinking about transnationalism and transnational identity. I then take up the project of envisioning the ethical-political project of "solidarity" in the light of this ontology. The philosophical framework that I develop is inspired by the philosophical pragmatism of Mary Parker Follett and Josiah Royce, the existential phenomenology of Simone de Beauvoir, and the work of various postcolonial feminists such as bell hooks, Chandra Mohanty, and Ofelia Schutte. This framework is a feminist pragmatic phenomenology for postcolonial feminist ethics and politics, which can serve as a normative paradigm and a framework of analysis. Finally, I use the framework developed in the dissertation to analyze and evaluate aspects of the international industry in surrogacy-related fertility tourism--a paradigmatic instance of incommensurability and inequality among women within the global economy. / Committee in charge: Bonnie Mann, Co-Chair; Scott L. Pratt, Co-Chair; Mark Johnson, Member; Judith Raiskin, Outside Member

O alvorecer de uma nova realidade econômica global revolucionou as determinantes da competitividade, compelindo empresas e governos a reverem as suas estratégias a partir de ambiente marcado pela dinâmica de uma competição internacionalmente constituída. Por conseguinte, observa-se na virada do século XX para o XXI a formulação de uma nova agenda de desenvolvimento, em que empresas e governos reformulam as suas interações em nova pauta de cooperação, tendo como fenômeno relevante e mediador a internacionalização. Diante desta nova realidade, a pesquisa realizada nesta tese foi voltada a inferir sobre o papel das políticas governamentais específicas e direcionadas à internacionalização no processo de envolvimento internacional de empresas nacionais. Para consecução de seus fins, foram desenvolvidos dois referenciais teóricos, um para interpretação da internacionalização das empresas, que foi tomada como um comportamento empresarial de natureza estratégica, e outro para as políticas governamentais específicas para apoio e suporte deste fenômeno, que foi tipificada em torno de seis dimensões. Como objeto de análise, foi considerado o setor brasileiro de bens de capital mecânicos e os instrumentos de política governamental ora disponibilizados no país para apoiar e dar suporte à internacionalização de empresas. Como estratégia de investigação, optou-se por uma abordagem quantitativa, conduzida por meio da construção de um survey específico para pesquisa, aplicado a 104 empresas do setor, com seus dados analisados pelas técnicas de regressão logística, regressão linear e test-t. Os resultados descortinaram questões pertinentes nas relações entre empresas e governo no Brasil, sugerindo que a política governamental brasileira de apoio e suporte à internacionalização, se ainda não determinante, é em certa medida relevante às empresas estudadas, principalmente quando da análise da diversificação geográfica de mercados na exportação. Como principal conclusão, defendeu-se que os governos devem ser analisados como potenciais recursos que, capazes de serem internalizados pelas empresas, podem promover vantagens indutoras e facilitadoras da internacionalização e tomados como fatores de vantagens associados à origem. / The rising of a new global economic reality revolutionized the determinants of competitiveness, compelling enterprises and governments to review its strategies as from the environment well marked by the dynamic of a competition internationally built. Therefore, at the turn of the twentieth century it is noted the formulation of a new development agenda, where enterprises and governments reformulate its interactions at a new cooperation guideline, having as a relevant and mediator phenomenon the internationalization. Before this new reality, the research realized in this thesis was conducted in order to infer about the role of specific governmental policies towards to internationalization at the international involving process of national enterprises. To achieve its purposes two theoretical frameworks were developed one of them for the interpretation of enterprises internationalization, and the other for the specific governmental policies in order to support this phenomenon, which was typified around six dimensions. As an object of analysis, it was considered the Brazilian market for mechanical capital goods and instruments of government policy currently available in the country to support the internationalization of enterprises. As an investigation strategy, a quantitative approach was chosen, driven by the construction of a specific survey for research, applied to 104 enterprises in the sector with its data analyzed by logistic regression techniques, linear regression and test-t. The results revealed relevant issues in relations between enterprises and Brazilian government, suggesting that Brazilian government policy of support to internationalization, if not determinant, is relevant, in some extent, to the studied enterprises, especially when analyzing the geographical diversification of exporting markets. As a main conclusion, it was argued that governments should be analyzed as potential resources which, capable of being internalized by enterprises, can promote internationalization inducing and facilitator ownership\'s advantages and taken as location\'s advantages factors associated with the origin.

The global economy as we know it is changing: stakeholders' priorities have shifted towards businesses that provide demonstrable impact on their communities and the environment. But are South African Small-, Micro- and Medium- Enterprises (SMMEs) prepared to rise to the challenge of measuring and communicating their impact? The adoption of Impact Measurement among enterprises has scarcely been covered in empirical literature, where the limited research available has put a strong emphasis on impact measurement for investors, and not necessarily the enterprises creating the impact. Furthermore, there is a dearth of information available on the use of Impact Measurement in South Africa, arguably a country desperate for effective, impact-driven capital allocation. Technology provides the opportunity to make Impact Measurement more accessible to these organisations, as it has the power to provide solutions at scale, giving enterprises across the world a unified platform to measure and communicate their impact. This two-phased study leveraged the power of mixed-methods research to gain an understanding of the impact measurement adoption behaviour of South African SMMEs. Phase 1 was initiated with the utilization of a Partial Least Squares – Structured Equation Model (PLS-SEM) based on the framework of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) using a sample size of 90 SMMEs. This was followed by interviewing candidates and using a deductive qualitative research approach to create an understanding of their adoption behaviour based on the Technology, Organisation, Environment (TOE) framework. Furthermore, the second phase of the study made use of a systematic review based on Kuo et al.'s adapted PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses), followed by interview questions regarding user requirements to identify the appropriateness of existing impact measurement technologies in the South African SMME market. The first phase of the study revealed that even though SMMEs are aware of the significant impact they have on society, it is often based on informal measurement techniques and subjective opinion. This is mainly due to a lack of understanding of what impact measurement means, or how to even go about it. Furthermore, this is reinforced by the strong influence of social norms in this emerging impact economy, where there is very little emphasis or expectation to provide robust impact measurement. The main drivers of impact measurement adoption were found to include the affordability, the business' intent on creating impact and that businesses are likely to adopt impact measurement if there is a perceived value in doing so. The second phase of the study revealed that some of the major drivers behind the lack of adoption of Impact Measurement Software is the lack of awareness on available platforms, the lack of understanding of how to measure the impact, and finally the prohibitively high cost of acquiring the software – even though there isn't necessarily one piece of software that fits all requirements, it was found that there are various platforms that do meet the needs of South African SMMEs in some ways. This study has added to the knowledge of understanding the behaviour on impact measurement adoption among South African SMMEs and scoped the field of suitable, available technologies in a time where it is critical to rebuild the economy in a more equitable and impact-driven approach, after the devastating economic impact of COVID-19.

O trabalho versa sobre a certificação de produtos da agroecologia e os regimes de propriedade intelectual. Estes dois processos se tornaram cruciais na economia globalizada contemporânea, evidenciando formas de controle, proteção e administrando atributos de originalidade e autenticidade a produtos. De modo que o comércio de produtos ecológicos e orgânicos apresenta crescimento vertiginoso, mecanismos de verificação sobre processos produtivos foram elaborados conduzindo as práticas de certificação a uma aproximação aos regimes de propriedade intelectual. Geralmente, os selos fornecidos pelas organizações certificadoras têm o objetivo de atestar que os alimentos possuem sanidade e estão livres de agrotóxicos. Entretanto, a hipótese principal dessa pesquisa é que os selos têm um papel ampliado; além de fornecer certificados de credibilidade, eles têm se tornado um dos mais importantes pilares da agroecologia, sendo uma forma de selecionar produtos e produtores, criar barreiras técnicas e de mercado. A certificação, ao tornar o produto apto para os mercados exigentes, cria simbolicamente novos produtos (reinventa), afirma os conhecimentos tradicionais e as experiências dos agricultores e relaciona produtos com pessoas, ideários e símbolos – se constituindo também num modo de agenciar a mercantilização. Os selos ainda fornecem outras credenciais, atestando que existe um estilo de vida do agricultor ecológico que é levado aos mercados por meio dos produtos, função que permanece implícita. Aproximam-se desse contexto os regimes de propriedade intelectual por duas razões. Primeiro, os selos são tratados diretamente enquanto propriedade intelectual sob a rubrica de marcas de certificações, ou seja, são marcas protegidas cujo objetivo é certificar processos e produtos. Segundo, de maneira análoga à propriedade intelectual, pois as certificações são formas de mercantilizar produtos e processos, formas intangíveis e imateriais, ou seja, além de possuir uma função de controle e proteção, elas também mobilizam elementos da ordem da cultura para torná-los comercializáveis. O trabalho analisa o caso do selo participativo e responsabilizado da Rede Ecovida de Agroecologia no Sul do Brasil que, por meio dos próprios agricultores em grupo e em parceria com outros atores sociais, certificam e constroem uma forma não-hierarquizada e descentralizada de fornecer reconhecimento aos produtos. O selo gerado de maneira endógena se articula a formas locais e em rede de controle sobre cultivos, sementes, conhecimentos e territórios, desenhando uma caracterização particular de como propriedades culturais e autenticidades são administradas. A certificação participativa da Rede, ao criar conexões parciais com os regimes de propriedade intelectual, reorganiza a dinâmica relacional da experiência coletiva, problematiza as noções de original/cópia, possibilita reflexões sobre a mercadoria e o fenômeno da reificação e engendra meios para se refletir sobre processos de desenvolvimento e mudança social. / The thesis is about certification of agro-ecological products and intellectual property regimes. These two processes became essential in the contemporary globalised economy, showing forms of control, protection and managing features of originality and authenticity to products. The trade of organic products shows an important increase. Besides, mechanisms of verification were built, making eco-labelling practices to be close to intellectual property regimes. Generally, labels provided by organizations have the goals of attesting the safety of food and the pesticide-free status. However, the main hypothesis is that labels bring up an amplified role. Besides giving credibility, labels have become one of the most important bases of agro-ecology, being a way of choosing products and producers and creating technical and trade barriers. As much as they make safe products for demanding markets, eco-labeling schemes create new symbolic products, highlight traditional knowledge and the peasantry experience, and interweave products to people, ideas and symbols – being also an agent of commoditization. Therefore, labels give other credentials to products. They certify that there is a specific lifestyle embedded in the products, which is also carried out to the markets (an implicit label’s function). The context described above is close to the intellectual property regimes for two reasons. Firstly, the labels are treated as intellectual property under the rubric of certification marks. It means they are protected marks whose goal is to certify processes and products. Secondly, in analogy with intellectual property, certification is a form of commoditization of products and processes, intangibles and immaterial forms. In other words, in addition to their controlling and protecting function, they also mobilize aspects of culture in order to transform them into a commodity form. This work analyzes a case of participatory and shared-responsibility certification which is made by producers themselves. In Rede Ecovida de Agroecologia (organic farming network), they certify and construct a nonhierarquic, decentralized eco-labeling process in order to create recognition for their products. The seal generated in an endogenous way is articulated to the local – and the network-based – forms of control over farming, seeds, knowledge and territories, designing a particular characterization to the manner how cultural properties and authenticities are managed. The participatory certification, while generates partial connections to the intellectual property regimes, reorganize the relational dynamics of the collective experience and the notions of original/copy. Furthermore, it gives new directions of thinking about commodity and the reification phenomenon and brings together opportunities to understand processes of development and social change.

O trabalho versa sobre a certificação de produtos da agroecologia e os regimes de propriedade intelectual. Estes dois processos se tornaram cruciais na economia globalizada contemporânea, evidenciando formas de controle, proteção e administrando atributos de originalidade e autenticidade a produtos. De modo que o comércio de produtos ecológicos e orgânicos apresenta crescimento vertiginoso, mecanismos de verificação sobre processos produtivos foram elaborados conduzindo as práticas de certificação a uma aproximação aos regimes de propriedade intelectual. Geralmente, os selos fornecidos pelas organizações certificadoras têm o objetivo de atestar que os alimentos possuem sanidade e estão livres de agrotóxicos. Entretanto, a hipótese principal dessa pesquisa é que os selos têm um papel ampliado; além de fornecer certificados de credibilidade, eles têm se tornado um dos mais importantes pilares da agroecologia, sendo uma forma de selecionar produtos e produtores, criar barreiras técnicas e de mercado. A certificação, ao tornar o produto apto para os mercados exigentes, cria simbolicamente novos produtos (reinventa), afirma os conhecimentos tradicionais e as experiências dos agricultores e relaciona produtos com pessoas, ideários e símbolos – se constituindo também num modo de agenciar a mercantilização. Os selos ainda fornecem outras credenciais, atestando que existe um estilo de vida do agricultor ecológico que é levado aos mercados por meio dos produtos, função que permanece implícita. Aproximam-se desse contexto os regimes de propriedade intelectual por duas razões. Primeiro, os selos são tratados diretamente enquanto propriedade intelectual sob a rubrica de marcas de certificações, ou seja, são marcas protegidas cujo objetivo é certificar processos e produtos. Segundo, de maneira análoga à propriedade intelectual, pois as certificações são formas de mercantilizar produtos e processos, formas intangíveis e imateriais, ou seja, além de possuir uma função de controle e proteção, elas também mobilizam elementos da ordem da cultura para torná-los comercializáveis. O trabalho analisa o caso do selo participativo e responsabilizado da Rede Ecovida de Agroecologia no Sul do Brasil que, por meio dos próprios agricultores em grupo e em parceria com outros atores sociais, certificam e constroem uma forma não-hierarquizada e descentralizada de fornecer reconhecimento aos produtos. O selo gerado de maneira endógena se articula a formas locais e em rede de controle sobre cultivos, sementes, conhecimentos e territórios, desenhando uma caracterização particular de como propriedades culturais e autenticidades são administradas. A certificação participativa da Rede, ao criar conexões parciais com os regimes de propriedade intelectual, reorganiza a dinâmica relacional da experiência coletiva, problematiza as noções de original/cópia, possibilita reflexões sobre a mercadoria e o fenômeno da reificação e engendra meios para se refletir sobre processos de desenvolvimento e mudança social. / The thesis is about certification of agro-ecological products and intellectual property regimes. These two processes became essential in the contemporary globalised economy, showing forms of control, protection and managing features of originality and authenticity to products. The trade of organic products shows an important increase. Besides, mechanisms of verification were built, making eco-labelling practices to be close to intellectual property regimes. Generally, labels provided by organizations have the goals of attesting the safety of food and the pesticide-free status. However, the main hypothesis is that labels bring up an amplified role. Besides giving credibility, labels have become one of the most important bases of agro-ecology, being a way of choosing products and producers and creating technical and trade barriers. As much as they make safe products for demanding markets, eco-labeling schemes create new symbolic products, highlight traditional knowledge and the peasantry experience, and interweave products to people, ideas and symbols – being also an agent of commoditization. Therefore, labels give other credentials to products. They certify that there is a specific lifestyle embedded in the products, which is also carried out to the markets (an implicit label’s function). The context described above is close to the intellectual property regimes for two reasons. Firstly, the labels are treated as intellectual property under the rubric of certification marks. It means they are protected marks whose goal is to certify processes and products. Secondly, in analogy with intellectual property, certification is a form of commoditization of products and processes, intangibles and immaterial forms. In other words, in addition to their controlling and protecting function, they also mobilize aspects of culture in order to transform them into a commodity form. This work analyzes a case of participatory and shared-responsibility certification which is made by producers themselves. In Rede Ecovida de Agroecologia (organic farming network), they certify and construct a nonhierarquic, decentralized eco-labeling process in order to create recognition for their products. The seal generated in an endogenous way is articulated to the local – and the network-based – forms of control over farming, seeds, knowledge and territories, designing a particular characterization to the manner how cultural properties and authenticities are managed. The participatory certification, while generates partial connections to the intellectual property regimes, reorganize the relational dynamics of the collective experience and the notions of original/copy. Furthermore, it gives new directions of thinking about commodity and the reification phenomenon and brings together opportunities to understand processes of development and social change.

O trabalho versa sobre a certificação de produtos da agroecologia e os regimes de propriedade intelectual. Estes dois processos se tornaram cruciais na economia globalizada contemporânea, evidenciando formas de controle, proteção e administrando atributos de originalidade e autenticidade a produtos. De modo que o comércio de produtos ecológicos e orgânicos apresenta crescimento vertiginoso, mecanismos de verificação sobre processos produtivos foram elaborados conduzindo as práticas de certificação a uma aproximação aos regimes de propriedade intelectual. Geralmente, os selos fornecidos pelas organizações certificadoras têm o objetivo de atestar que os alimentos possuem sanidade e estão livres de agrotóxicos. Entretanto, a hipótese principal dessa pesquisa é que os selos têm um papel ampliado; além de fornecer certificados de credibilidade, eles têm se tornado um dos mais importantes pilares da agroecologia, sendo uma forma de selecionar produtos e produtores, criar barreiras técnicas e de mercado. A certificação, ao tornar o produto apto para os mercados exigentes, cria simbolicamente novos produtos (reinventa), afirma os conhecimentos tradicionais e as experiências dos agricultores e relaciona produtos com pessoas, ideários e símbolos – se constituindo também num modo de agenciar a mercantilização. Os selos ainda fornecem outras credenciais, atestando que existe um estilo de vida do agricultor ecológico que é levado aos mercados por meio dos produtos, função que permanece implícita. Aproximam-se desse contexto os regimes de propriedade intelectual por duas razões. Primeiro, os selos são tratados diretamente enquanto propriedade intelectual sob a rubrica de marcas de certificações, ou seja, são marcas protegidas cujo objetivo é certificar processos e produtos. Segundo, de maneira análoga à propriedade intelectual, pois as certificações são formas de mercantilizar produtos e processos, formas intangíveis e imateriais, ou seja, além de possuir uma função de controle e proteção, elas também mobilizam elementos da ordem da cultura para torná-los comercializáveis. O trabalho analisa o caso do selo participativo e responsabilizado da Rede Ecovida de Agroecologia no Sul do Brasil que, por meio dos próprios agricultores em grupo e em parceria com outros atores sociais, certificam e constroem uma forma não-hierarquizada e descentralizada de fornecer reconhecimento aos produtos. O selo gerado de maneira endógena se articula a formas locais e em rede de controle sobre cultivos, sementes, conhecimentos e territórios, desenhando uma caracterização particular de como propriedades culturais e autenticidades são administradas. A certificação participativa da Rede, ao criar conexões parciais com os regimes de propriedade intelectual, reorganiza a dinâmica relacional da experiência coletiva, problematiza as noções de original/cópia, possibilita reflexões sobre a mercadoria e o fenômeno da reificação e engendra meios para se refletir sobre processos de desenvolvimento e mudança social. / The thesis is about certification of agro-ecological products and intellectual property regimes. These two processes became essential in the contemporary globalised economy, showing forms of control, protection and managing features of originality and authenticity to products. The trade of organic products shows an important increase. Besides, mechanisms of verification were built, making eco-labelling practices to be close to intellectual property regimes. Generally, labels provided by organizations have the goals of attesting the safety of food and the pesticide-free status. However, the main hypothesis is that labels bring up an amplified role. Besides giving credibility, labels have become one of the most important bases of agro-ecology, being a way of choosing products and producers and creating technical and trade barriers. As much as they make safe products for demanding markets, eco-labeling schemes create new symbolic products, highlight traditional knowledge and the peasantry experience, and interweave products to people, ideas and symbols – being also an agent of commoditization. Therefore, labels give other credentials to products. They certify that there is a specific lifestyle embedded in the products, which is also carried out to the markets (an implicit label’s function). The context described above is close to the intellectual property regimes for two reasons. Firstly, the labels are treated as intellectual property under the rubric of certification marks. It means they are protected marks whose goal is to certify processes and products. Secondly, in analogy with intellectual property, certification is a form of commoditization of products and processes, intangibles and immaterial forms. In other words, in addition to their controlling and protecting function, they also mobilize aspects of culture in order to transform them into a commodity form. This work analyzes a case of participatory and shared-responsibility certification which is made by producers themselves. In Rede Ecovida de Agroecologia (organic farming network), they certify and construct a nonhierarquic, decentralized eco-labeling process in order to create recognition for their products. The seal generated in an endogenous way is articulated to the local – and the network-based – forms of control over farming, seeds, knowledge and territories, designing a particular characterization to the manner how cultural properties and authenticities are managed. The participatory certification, while generates partial connections to the intellectual property regimes, reorganize the relational dynamics of the collective experience and the notions of original/copy. Furthermore, it gives new directions of thinking about commodity and the reification phenomenon and brings together opportunities to understand processes of development and social change.

The thesis deals with economic development of People's Republic of China the country's role in global economy and its foreign direct investment. The initial chapter introduces the concept of development of a country from a general and economic point of view. The second part of the thesis aims to describe the current situation in China and focuses on concrete parts of its development. The purpose of the final chapter is to analyse the flow of foreign direct investment from China.

This thesis deals with the analysis of problems of transnational corporations. It is defined which positive and negative effects can transnational corporations have on the host country mainly in economic and political terms and to what extend and in what ways can the national states regulate their activities. This work presents the largest non-financial transnational corporations in the world and in the developing countries and the largest financial transnational corporations in the world. They are weighted by their size, geographical and sectoral distribution. A special attention is paid to the region of Central and Eastern Europe. At first this thesis deals with FDI flows that are associated with the mentioned region. In addition, it focuses on the reasons of entry of corporations from the West to the region and on the effects of their action. Space is also given to the transnational corporations with the headquarters in the monitored region.

The global economy infuses every aspect of our day to day lives, from the clothes we wear, to the food we eat, to our political choices. And with its ability to “mutate, shudder and shatter” (Dicken et al), the unpredictable ruptures associated with the global economy elude our ability to grasp its impact and to govern its activities. So how, as citizens, do we imagine governing ourselves when ‘nobody appears to be in charge any longer’? How does our understanding of the state apparatuses– the legislation, regulations, policies –speak to people’s day to day experience in their communities? This research addresses two broad questions: how are communities responding to externally generated ruptures and how do they govern themselves in response? I propose that responding coherently to rupture events is inhibited by community members’ lack of awareness of the complex interrelationships of the constituent elements of the economy, and secondarily, a tendency to see the state as the primary site of governance. Through interviews, surveys, and documentary research, this interdisciplinary study (political science, human geography, sociology and history) examines how three British Columbia communities – Tumbler Ridge, Tofino and Gabriola Island – were affected by recessionary ruptures and how they responded. Each of these communities exists within Indigenous spaces. Understanding how communities perceived their relationships with their Indigenous neighbours grounds the stories within the historical impacts of colonization, although it is not part of this thesis to investigate both sides of the ‘settler’-Indigenous relationship in these communities. By telling the story of each community’s response to rupture over time and comparing their trajectories, I draw conclusions comparing each community’s response and the outcomes. I pursue four areas of investigation: the degree to which communities understood their relationship with what I call the “capital economy” and others refer to as the market or capitalist economy, and how that understanding affected their response to rupture; how attitudes toward place shaped community responses to rupture; how community perceptions about their local economies affected the decisions they made and the strategies they employed to address economic and social challenges; and how the deployment of governance at various scales impacted the socio-economic health of the communities. The communities embraced a range of strategies from individual autonomous action, to networked autonomous action, to the creation of place-based governance entities as sites for action. Their effectiveness was determined by three factors. First of these is the degree to which communities saw the state as the locus of political action and the market economy as the primary agent for achieving community health and wellbeing had consequences for life control, self-determination and self-governance. Second is the extent to which the community was willing to work outside of the normative governance structures (normative in the sense that the state and corporate decision-making are commonly accepted as the primary and proper sources of governance and problem-solving) affected their ability to consider and create adaptive strategies that could respond to the unpredictable mutations of global capital. Finally, the failure in some communities to understand the ongoing impacts of colonization hampered their ability to create meaningful and ultimately productive relationships with their Indigenous neighbours, relationships that may have opened up valuable avenues to the wellbeing of all parties. I conclude that effective governance strategies capable of seeing communities through unpredictable ruptures will require five capacities: building on deeply situated knowledge; developing relationships across interests and social strata; employing ‘loose’ structure strategies; adopting approaches based on incremental persistence; and learning from Indigenous self-governance aspirations. Developing these local capacities will lay the foundation for a broader scope of political action. / Graduate