On the base of the theoretical concept of hegemony, the work tries to discover whether the United States and China can be considered a leaving, respectively rising hegemonic power in Africa. The theoretical part is based on the conception of hegemony by Immanuel Wallerstein and Robert Gilpin and sets an analytic framework for the identification of four groups of indicators - political, economic, military and cultural ones. The results of the research confirmed China as a rising hegemon and United States as an actual hegemonic power in Africa.

MA (English) / Department of English / Studies have shown that there is an increased awareness and direct engagement with masculinity/masculinities creation in South African fictional novels written in the post-2000 epoch. The sensitivity to the construction of black men’s masculinities creation in fiction has been necessitated by what some scholars have termed focusing away from struggle literature and a constant misrepresentation of what black masculinity creation entails. The study placates itself around Connell and Messerschmidt’s (2005) theory of the creation of power and hegemony around men, opening spaces to explore power relations between ideal masculinity and non-hegemonic masculinity and between men and women. The study engages with novels authored by young black authors whose ideas of masculinity creations have not received academic attention. This study argues that while there are still reflections of stereotypical black men, there is a distinct breed of man seeking to perform and transcend hegemony but face a crisis as old traditions still hold. The selected primary novels for this study are Angela Makholwa’s The 30th Candle, (2009), Black Widow Society, (2013), Cynthia Jele’s Happiness is a Four Letter Word, (2010), Zukiswa Wanner’s Men of the South, (2010), Thando Mgqolozana’s A Man who is not a Man, (2009), Un-importance (2014) and Songeziwe Mahlangu’s Penumbra(2014). / NRF

Since the inception of the first modern Canadian carceral structure in 1835, the prison library has existed. The condition of the prison libraries in Canadian federal institutions, as well as the diversity and quantity of their content has changed dramatically over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The modern-day federal prison library mirrors, in many ways, its “outside” Canadian public library counterpart. This thesis does not attempt to dispute or affirm the likeness between the Canadian prison and public library. Instead, in this thesis, I examine the evolution of the library from a space that reinforced hegemonic carceral control to a space where inmates could seek refuge and sanctuary. The first half of the thesis charts the emergence of the library as a, what I have termed, space mercy. This conceptualization of the library is inspired by Douglas Hay’s concept of mercy, in criminal law, as an ideological tool to reinforce hegemony. In the second half of the thesis I present a case study of the William Head Institution on Vancouver Island. Through the consulting of inmate publications, interviews, questionnaires, and other primary source material I posit that the prison library has evolved into a site of sanctuary. This term is taken from Laura Madokoro’s public history project Sites of Sanctuary. The site of sanctuary differs from the space of mercy in a number of ways and marked a distinct shift in the function and use of the prison library, by inmates, in Canada’s federal carceral institutions. / Graduate / 2021-07-20

Magister Artium - MA / The #FeesMustFall (#FMF) movement is an important moment in South Africa as it provides insight into the evolution of the relations between state and civil society. An inquiry into the 2015/2016 student protests at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) shows the contradictions that persist in South African society twenty years after apartheid. The study examines the reaction of the state to the dissent embodied by #FMF demands. Drawing on Gramsci and Althusser the study develops a framework against which #FMF is assessed, in order to test whether the movement was counter-hegemonic, if so, to what extent. The assessment is done using a qualitative approach to the research; i.e. auto-ethnography, which relies on the experiences of the author, as a tool of data collection. The selection of this technique is informed by the proximity of the author to the protests, and scarcity of prior research done on the UWC #FMF case. Also, the study uses primary data such as media statements, media articles, YouTube videos, speeches, interviews and personal communications as a means to triangulate the auto-ethnographic data. The data gives insight into the origins of the movement at UWC, the motivations of, and the tactics employed by the leaders. The movement at UWC shuts down the campus, blocks national roads, marches to the airport and even disrupts exams in attempts to see its mission through; a mission of Fee Free Education. Finally, drawing on the framework from Gramsci and Althusser this study notes the persistence of contradictions such as access to higher education in democratic South Africa. It shows the battle for hegemony between the state and civil society and identifies the dominance of the state, and how it deals with those who challenge it. To this end, #FMF does embody some counter-hegemonic quality. However, the study also reveals how #FMF carries out its actions in the boundaries of hegemonic institutions such as the constitution and the university. Hence, the extent of #FMF’s counter-hegemony went as far as affecting the operations of the university and not the structure thereof. As such, #FMF, like other radical civil society agents of its kind, is an example of issue based and temporary counter-hegemony. Although significant, it is not necessarily that which would see the complete overthrow of the university, or the state for that matter.

The main aim of diploma thesis "China - real threat for American hegemony?" is to answer the question whether China is trying to threaten American position of world hegemon. After the dissolution of USSR and the fall of Iron Curtain USA became the only world superpower. Balance of power theory assumes that the occurrence of leading actor in the system will invoke attempts of others to balance the power of the leader, or to weaken him. In current world political system there are powers whose power potential is growing. One of them is China, mainly because its fast growing and prospering economy. Author of the thesis works with the concept of hegemony based on hard and soft power and three types of exercising of power - three faces of power - as means of achieving its goals. Author analyses Chinese use of hard and soft power resources, that can be classified under three types of use of power. All policies are then examined from "balance of power" theory view. Author tries to find out which one of behavior "balancing" attempts to balance, weaken USA or "bandwagoning" - support of USA is prevailing in Chinese policies. According to the prevailing tendency of Chinese behavior towards USA the author is capable to state whether China can be considered as a threat for US hegemony.

In recent years, hunting and agrarian communities have increasingly risen in opposition to nature conservation policy that is perceived to infringe on their traditional ways of life. They charge ‘conservationists’ with having a disproportionate influence on policy and maintain that the state system now disenfranchises their needs and interests. In this paper, we suggest this particular brand of resistance can be illuminated by neo-Marxist social movement framework (Cox and Nilsen, 2014) on the dialectic of movements-from-below and movements-from-above, competing for hegemony in the context of an organic crisis of the system. Our paper examines the role of Swedish hunters’ activation of a counter-hegemonic ‘good sense’ to oppose the hegemonic common sense established by wolf conservationists in the state system. The case of Swedish hunters rising in resistance toward the newfound hegemony of wolf conservation is hence resolved as the rise of a right-wing movement from below, mobilized on the basis of defensive, conservative and agrarian values. The novel contribution of this paper lies in its examination of the (often) self-professed limits of hunters’ distinctively agrarian good sense, in light of their own reluctance as an oppositional social movement from below. Not only do hunters exhibit considerable reluctance in regard to their own ‘movement’ identity and ambivalence in regard to hegemony. But we argue that from a conceptual perspective the empowerment of a counter-hegemonic good sense as in traditional resistance studies can, at best, result in a dialectical reversal of movement positions with conservationists, without appropriate mediation or compromise. This leads us to some brief recommendations from democratic theory to mediate between the below and above movements of hunters and conservationists.

AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION OF PHILLIP JULIUS WANYERKA, for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in ANTHROPOLOGY, presented on 25, February 2009, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: CLASSIC MAYA POLITICAL ORGANIZATION: EPIGRAPHIC EVIDENCE OF HIERARCHICAL ORGANIZATION IN THE SOUTHERN MAYA MOUNTAINS REGION OF BELIZE MAJOR PROFESSORS: Dr. Charles A. Hofling and Dr. Don S. Rice This project investigates the nature of Classic Maya (A.D. 300-900) political organization from the hieroglyphic inscriptions of sites located in the Southern Maya Mountains Region of Belize, Central America. Using recent models of political integration as suggested by Grube and Martin (1994, 1995, 1998a, 1998b, 1998c), as well as by Rice (2004), I have sought to understand and define the basic political principles that operated during the Classic Period. In my view, Classic Maya political organization was structured by a combination of hegemonic practice informed by Maya calendrical science, namely the 256-year cycle known as the may. Scholars have struggled in their attempts to define and reconstruct Classic Maya political organization. Most of the previous approaches to this issue have been derived from anthropological theory based on various social, geographic, economic, and political factors observed or deduced from the archaeological record or from ethnographic analogies to pre-industrial peoples far-removed from Mesoamerican cultural tradition. Both Martin and Grube, and Rice's political models are based on the ethnohistoric descriptions and analogies to Postclassic and early Colonial Period Maya, the Mixtecs, and the Aztecs as well as the decipherment of several key hieroglyphic expressions that indicate agency, alliance, subordination, and warfare. This approach may explain how Classic Maya polities operated intra-regionally and how they interacted inter-regionally using the Maya's own written inscriptions as the basis for interpretation. The strength of this approach is its ability to illuminate possible avenues of archaeological research by revealing epigraphic relationships that can then be tested. By combining the methods of epigraphy, archaeology, and a direct historical approach to the hieroglyphic inscriptions of this region, I have not only been able to reconstruct the dynastic history of sites in the region, but I have also been able to reconstruct the political affiliations and hierarchies that existed among sites in this poorly understood region of the southern Maya Lowlands. The data presented here are restricted to the four major emblem-glyph-bearing sites in the region that recorded hieroglyphic texts: Lubaantún, Nim Li Punit, Pusilhá, and Uxbenká.

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The reclaiming of land can provide for heated controversy between communities. The controversy at the outset may seem simple, but is actually quite complex involving hegemonic factors such as social, political, and economic influence. One such factor is the media. This research examines media coverage via framing in a battle between the United States Navy and the Hawaiian people to claim ownership of a Hawaiian island named Kaho'olawe. This research analyzes 519 newspaper articles from two Hawaiian newspapers--The Honolulu Star Bulletin and The Honolulu Advertiser--over a seven-year period. Six framing devices--advocate, economic, environment, Hawaiian, military, and political--are devised and implemented. This analysis shows that media frames change over time, when a frame changes so does the tone of the article, and each level of article showed different frame usage. For example, the headline of an article tended to use the political frame most. In addition, this analysis is one of the first to examine the use of pictures within each article and between newspapers. The findings suggest that the media's coverage of land debates needs to be examined further to include the use of media frames, quotes, and pictures.

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