This thesis is a qualitative study of firefighters, and focuses on how firefighters, a predominantly male, white and able-bodied group with popular public support, form tight knit teams on and off the fireground, and their motivations for so doing. It is also a study of gender, which aims to describe and deconstruct masculinity. In part the thesis was undertaken with a view to assisting the fire service (specifically the few women who are firefighters) with its difficulties in relation to equal opportunities. One understanding the thesis provides is that firefighters bond around a common professional ethos: to provide an efficient service to help the public. To achieve this, firefighters form informal hierarchies through which they create protocols for firefighting, thus setting the standards for what comprises a ‘good firefighter’: a label firefighters test themselves against when they ‘get in’ to fight a fire. However, before firefighters can achieve this they must first access the skills of firefighting (which experienced firefighters are pleased to hand on), but only after a newcomer ‘fits in’ with the agendas of the informal hierarchy, some of which have little to do with firefighting. However, there is a second view, and this suggests that ‘fitting in’ and ‘getting in’ to pass the test of being seen as a ‘good firefighter’ also coincides with the way firefighters form their masculinity. This then provides a second common cause amongst firefighters, and so might explain why firefighters gather so successfully under the umbrella of their union to resist their officers’ attempts to deskill and cut the fire service. Cuts would limit firefighters’ ability both to fight fires as they currently do and to pass the test of being a ‘good firefighter’. Thus blocking a third central but unacknowledged element: that of masculinity. This analysis involves a discussion of class, and recognition that antagonistic relations between officers and firefighters are not only economic, but are also about petty dividends involving power, status and gender construction. The conclusion provides a comprehensive overview to suggest that firefighters form their masculinity by acting at work in the way they subjectively judge that they are seen, by themselves, their peer group and the public. In so doing, they set themselves apart from the ‘others’ who cannot meet their expectations. It is these ‘special people’, as identified by both firefighters and others that this thesis has studied, a group of ‘special’ men and women.

Tales of contemporary society, and who gets the right to tell them, is in this internet era something in motion as new platforms for sharing and getting information have arisen. Where traditional media through newspapers, radio or television has historically been so dominant, more and more voices can make it through as access to new platforms increase. In Latin America and in Guatemala, traditional media has been in the hands of the few and the powerful, concentrating economical and political influence that’s wielded through the power of discourse. Seeing this as hegemonic and representing a society where all are not included, alternative media seeks to counter such discourse and power by telling the untold stories by those historically without voice. This study picks up the perceptions, experiences and views of journalists and activists reshaping what we know about media production and the world, all this in a setting, a moment in time in Guatemala, when the structures of hegemonic power are shaken and put into question. By interviewing representatives of a wide scope of the alternative media sector, this thesis gives account for their aims and contributions as well as the general role and importance of alternative media in Guatemala. What it shows us is that alternative media is perceived as a force changing and adding to narratives about prior marginalized issues in the media as well as countering hegemonic power by contributing to empowerment of the citizenry. This study also show us that alternative media is perceived to open up the space for public opinion to a wider group of people in society and that it has a part to play in monitoring media power. Through these conclusions we gain a better understanding for counter hegemonic voices, ideas and movements and their part to play in society.

Pat Tillman—an Arizona Cardinals player who sacrificed everything to serve his country but died in Afghanistan—was initially touted as a true American hero who was killed by enemy fire. In reality, however, the Tillman narrative was based on nothing but military propaganda. This research focused on how mainstream U.S. newspapers used news frames, overall story tone, and news sources before and after the official acknowledgement of the true cause of Tillman's death as fratricide. As hypothesized from C. Wright Mills' "lesser institutions," Antonio Gramsci's hegemony, and Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky's propaganda model, the newspapers generally decreased both direct and indirect references to news frames involving "lesser institutions" (e.g., NFL, Arizona State University) and ideological values (e.g., heroism, patriotism) after the revelation, but they were not critical of the Iraq/Afghanistan wars or the Bush administration at all. In addition, they increased their dependence on official sources and decreased family and friend sources after his cause of death was changed. The results as a whole indicate that in the Tillman saga, the revelation of his true cause of death introduced a significant disruption to the propaganda information system, causing news frames to decrease, but the third filter of the propaganda model—reliance on official sources—was strong enough to overcome that disruptive event and continue to protect the power elite.

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This research explored how white professional men talk about masculinities and their own masculine construction. The study was qualitative in nature and the data was collected via 10 semi-structured individual interviews. Qualitative content analysis was utilized whereby key themes were identified and discussed. Men in relation to self identity, women, emotions, the work environment, and the changing social context reflected the key themes that were evident in the study. These themes explored men in relation to a variety of issues and thus highlighted the multitude of influences which are thought to impact on masculine identity. Various responses from the participants based on defensive, accommodating, and progressive discourses were evident throughout and this further illustrated the diverse and complex nature of masculinities. One of the most relevant conclusions to stem from this study was that although masculine representation seems to be changing in particular spheres, certain hegemonic aspects of masculinity seem to permeate professional men’s discourses. This research highlights and explores the multiplicity of masculine and refutes the notion of masculinity being a singularly fixed concept. The social construction of masculinity is thus affirmed. Various contesting viewpoints are elicited that indicate the complex and, at times, contradictory nature of masculine construction.

A presente dissertação tem por objetivo articular as contribuições de dois marxistas à ciência jurídica, são eles: Eugeny Pasukanis e Antonio Gramsci. Trata-se de esforço para delimitar pontos de diálogo entre ambos, os quais refletiram, cada um à sua maneira, sobre o direito. Apesar de contemporâneos, esses dois pensadores não mantiveram contato entre suas posições teóricas. O diálogo entre as suas reflexões, tendo como fio condutor a abordagem sobre o direito, é o desafio enfrentado nessa pesquisa. Por um lado, com o conceito de forma jurídica, a teoria de Pasukanis busca explicar a especificidade do direito que se desenvolve intimamente conectado às relações de produção e troca do capitalismo. Por outro lado, ao investigar as particularidades que conformam as relações políticas no capitalismo, a abordagem de Gramsci sobre a hegemonia estabelece quadro analítico para o estudo da dinâmica do direito. Da aproximação entre essas análises, apostamos na construção de campo conceitual fértil ao estudo jurídico, capaz de iluminar as questões sobre os limites, as possibilidades de desenvolvimento e os sentidos do direito na sociedade capitalista. / This research aims to analyse the contributions of two marxist authors to the study of Legal Science: Eugeny Pasukanis and Antonio Gramsci. It seeks to delimitate the points of contact, deviation and complementation between these two authors, who came to think about Law in their own different ways. Although contemporaries, Pasukanis and Gramsci did not maintain any contact regarding their theoretical positions. Thus, the attempt to stablish a dialogue between their thoughts, using Law as a common thread, presents itself as the main challenge facing this research. On the one hand, through the concept of juridical form, Pasukanis theory seeks to explain the specificity of Law that arises from its intimate historical connections to capitalisms production and trade relations. On the other hand, by investigating the specificities that shape political relations under capitalism, Gramscis approach to hegemony stablishes an interesting analytical framework for studying the dynamics of Law. By approximating these two concepts of juridical form and hegemony, a rich conceptual field is constructed, enabling a critical analysis that could shed light into some compelling questions in relation to the limits, development possibilities and meanings of Law in a capitalist society.

O tema desta tese é o regionalismo político norte-mineiro da segunda metade do século XX. O objetivo central é compreender a emergência e o desenvolvimento da ideologia das classes dirigentes, identificando os seus principais componentes, sua difusão e assimilação pelo conjunto da sociedade. Foram utilizados como fontes os documentos produzidos pelos órgãos públicos e pelas lideranças e entidades de classe, a imprensa, os trabalhos de escritores regionais e a literatura acadêmica concernente ao tema. A conclusão mais importante é a de que a burguesia regional se organizou como classe, nesse período, tendo evoluído de uma ação corporativa inicial para o exercício da hegemonia, ao final do século XX. Suas concepções, assimiladas e difundidas por intelectuais diversos e por grande parte da sociedade civil, universalizaram-se, estabelecendo os parâmetros para a compreensão da história, problemas atuais e diretrizes para o desenvolvimento do Norte de Minas, encobrindo as relações de classe sob o manto de imagens e conceitos generalizantes, expressando-se como uma ideologia regionalista. / The theme of this doctoral dissertation is the political regionalism in north of Minas Gerais in the second middle of the twentieth century. The main subject is to comprehend the emergency and the development of the ideology of the governmental classes, identifying their more important components, their diffusion and assimilation by society. We explore the documents produced by public institutions and leaders and class entities, press, works of regional writers and the academic literature about the theme. The most important conclusion is that the regional upper class was organized as a class, in that period, evolving from a corporative action to the exercise of hegemony, in the end of the twentieth century. Its conceptions, assimilated and diffused by severe intellectuals and many people of the civil society, were universalized, establishing the parameters to the comprehension of the history, the actual problems and rules for the development of north of Minas Gerais, covering the relations of classes in a veil of images and general concepts, expressing them as a regional ideology.

Dans un contexte international où la faiblesse relative de la superpuissance américaine a permis l'émergence de nouveaux acteurs étatiques qui commencent à modifier l'ordre mondial occidental, les processus d'intégration comme ceux d'Amérique du Sud peuvent être interprétés comme un moyen d'acquérir l'autonomie face aux puissances du monde. Mais jusqu'à présent les efforts des pays pour s'intégrer ont été infructueux. Les divergences entre gouvernements de la région et l'inexistence d'une véritable volonté politique de cession de souveraineté auprès des organismes supranationaux ont remis en cause la faisabilité d'organismes existants comme le Mercosur ou la Communauté Andine. Cependant, malgré plusieurs échecs d'essais d'intégration régionale en Amérique Latine, le pouvoir accru des pays émergents dans l'actuel monde unimultipolaire donne la possibilité d'initier un processus de régionalisation sous l'hégémonie du Brésil. L'hégémonie brésilienne est en train de forger une nouvelle configuration géopolitique en Amérique du Sud, par l'intermédiaire institutionnel de l'Unasur. Cet organisme régional est un reflet de la volonté du Brésil de s'insérer de manière complètement autonome dans le système international, créant ainsi progressivement l'un des pôles de puissance qui donneront sa forme au siècle actuel. / In an international context where the American superpower relative weakness has allowed new state actors to emerge and modify the western world order, the integration processes such as the ones occurring in South-America can be interpreted as a way of becoming independent before the world powers. But until now, the countries efforts to fit in have been unsuccessful. Differences of opinion between regional governments, as well as a lack of real political will of sovereignty cession to supranational organizations, challenged the feasibility of existing organizations such as Mercosur or Andean Community. However, despite various failures of regional integration in South America, the emerging countries increased power in the current unimultipolar world, which makes possible a new regionalization process under Brazilian hegemony. This hegemony is actually creating a new geopolitical configuration in South America, through the Unasur. That regional organism reflects the Brazil's desire to integrate itself in the international system in a completely autonomous way by creating, progressively, one of the determining power poles of this new century.

The thesis explores the relationship between citizenship education and identity in conflict-affected societies, by comparing the teaching of citizenship across different schools in Northern Ireland and Israel. In both societies, citizenship education addresses issues that are deemed controversial, such as the recent or ongoing conflict, citizenship, racism, and sectarianism. The theoretical framework brings together (neo) Marxist, post-colonialist, and critical pedagogical approaches to citizenship education and identity. Fieldwork was carried out in four different schools (Catholic, Protestant, Jewish-Israeli and Arab-Palestinian), using individual interviews, focus group interviews, observations, and document analysis. The major findings suggest that citizenship education at the policy, school, and classroom level is permeated by an avoidance of controversial issues related to the conflict and identity. In both societies, dominant narratives about the conflict glorify and justify violence, preventing a more critical examination of the conflicts. Additionally, educational policies promote a neoliberal/managerialist culture that censors the critical potential of citizenship education by determining that the priority for schools is academic standards and performativity. This limits teachers' ability to develop students' critical political thinking, to address controversial issues, and to challenge racist and sectarian views. However, the data also point to the employment of transformative forms of citizenship education, which became particularly evident among minorities. The thesis contribution is threefold: first, drawing on a (neo) Marxist and postcolonial theoretical framework facilitates a structural examination of the state of citizenship education through the lens of power relations. Second, the multi-level study shows how processes of avoidance and censoring trickle down from the policy level into schools and into classrooms. Third, since citizenship education is permeated by sidestepping and censoring, it is at risk of reproducing the conflict, structural sectarianism and racism, and socio-economic inequalities. The thesis concludes with the assertion that there is a need to provide teachers and schools with political and institutional support through offering training programmes; guidance and more time during the citizenship lesson to teach about controversial issues related to the conflict and identity. It also points at the need to further research pedagogies of critical teachers, who are able to promote transformative citizenship even in an uncongenial political environment that subtly promotes avoidance and censoring.

Orientador: Paulo Ribeiro Rodrigues da Cunha / Banca: Luiz Cláudio Duarte / Banca: Sérgio Luiz Cruz Aguilar / Resumo: Em 1º de abril de 1964, é derrubado o presidente constitucional da república João Goulart, consolidando o Golpe Civil-Militar, depois de uma Crise de Hegemonia. No entanto, o novo período não foi de tranquilidade política, havendo tanto contestações e tentativas de revolta por grupos de oposição quanto disputas entre os grupos políticos no poder, que ficou polarizado entre os "moderados" e os "duros" para definir qual seria o projeto hegemônico dirigiria o Bloco Histórico. De início, muitos participantes e apoiadores do golpe acreditavam que os militares logo devolveriam o poder aos civis. Mas a prorrogação do mandato do General Castelo Branco e a consequente cassação de expoentes históricos civis que apoiaram o golpe como Juscelino Kubitschek, outras lideranças começaram a perceber que um grupo dos militares procurava se hegemonizar no poder e estava conquistando espaço, com projeto político próprio. O Governador de São Paulo Adhemar de Barros entendeu que seria o próximo político a ser cassado. Face à impopularidade do regime devido à crise econômica, ele se alia a vários grupos políticos descontentes distintos, entre os quais a esquerda nacionalista e ligada ao PCB, e a militares descontentes, como o General Amaury Kruel, entre outros, articulando-se com ele à frente de um contragolpe. No entanto, a revolta não aconteceu, e Adhemar de Barros teve o mandato de governador cassado e os direitos políticos suspensos por dez anos. O objetivo deste trabalho é fazer uma retomada h... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: On April 1st, 1964, the constitutional president of the republic João Goulart was overthrow, consolidating the Civil-Military Coup, after a Hegemony Crisis. However, the period was not a political one, and there were both contestations and attempts of riots by opposition groups and disputes between political groups in power, which became polarized between "moderados" (the "moderates") and "duros" (the "brash") to define the hegemonic project that would direct the Historical Bloc. Initially, many participants and supporters of the coup believed that the military would soon return the power to civilians. But the extension of the mandate of General Castelo Branco and the consequent annulment of historical civilian exponents who supported the coup as Juscelino Kubitschek, other leaders began to realize that a group of the military sought to hegemonize in power and was gaining space with its own political project. The Governor of the state of São Paulo, Adhemar de Barros, realized that he would be the next politician to be annulled. Faced with the unpopularity of the government due to the economic crisis, Barros joins several distinct disaffected political groups, including the nationalist and PCB-bound left wing, and disgruntled military personnel like General Amaury Kruel, among others, articulating with him the leadership of a counter-coup. However, the uprising did not happen, and Adhemar de Barros had his governor office annulled, and the political rights suspended for ten ye... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre