The future is constantly growing as a more and more significant matter of interest, both in the academic fields and in everyday conversations. This thesis focuses on a specific perspective of the future: what if cities were no longer static by nature, but cruising across the world? By analysing three works of literary fiction, the aim is to illustrate how fiction, and more specifically ‘anticipation fiction’, can participate in shaping our social imaginaries, the understanding we have of the world, both when it comes to our present and our future. If the influence of future fiction has been shown before, this thesis will focus on the specific imaginary of moving cities in the future, to highlight how those authors imagine the future, covering the historical and geographical contexts of those futures, the urban logic of those moving cities, the social implications that follow, and finally the value given to humanity in those ‘realities’. Because of the fundamentally indeterminate nature of the future, future studies such as this one do not aim for a fixed answer, but rather for a deeper understanding of the relation of influence between present and future, of how the future shapes us just as we shape it.

The purpose of this ethnographic case study was to explore the construction and alteration of Roanoke Virginia's cultural imaginary, as well as the engagement of marginal groups and their concerns in those processes. This research examined these issues through the experiences of key actors involved with the creation of Roanoke's first city-wide arts and cultural plan and the creation and growth of the Roanoke-based Marginal Arts Festival (MAF). Cities around the globe are increasingly engaged in transnational projects of place identification, reconfiguration, and attraction: attracting capital, residents, workers, tourists and attention (Cronin & Hetherington, 2008; Hague, 2005; Jensen, 2005, 2007; Pine & Gilmore, 1999; Zukin 1995). Moreover, cities undertake various kinds of identity projects: on-going, dynamic processes through which spaces are produced and reproduced by conscious strategies of place making and identity building (Nyseth & Viken, 2009). Such initiatives are concerted efforts to establish or extend a particular idea, or imaginary, of a city. This study focused on one kind of urban identity endeavor that has become widespread during the past two decades: the effort to shape and market a creative, culture-rich place, to project a specific urban cultural imaginary. This analysis also responded to a straightforward problem, that of the manner through which people, in places pursuing arts and culture as a primary focus for development, come to terms with differing understandings of art and its role in development. This study identified four principal future paths for the analysis of cultural imaginaries and the practice of cultural development: studying and supporting civic tinkering activities, recognizing the relevance of localized imaginaries and urban identity projects, valuing full participation in the project of the city, and conducting place-specific and critical analyses. / Ph. D.

In an age of shrinking research and development (RandD) budgets, sustaining big science and technology (SandT) projects is inevitably questioned by publics and policy makers. The fusion enterprise is an exemplar. The effort to develop a viable system to produce unlimited and environmentally benign electricity from fusion of hydrogen isotopes has been a goal for six decades and consumed vast financial and intellectual resources in North America, Europe, and Asia. In terms of prolonged duration and sustained resource investment, the endeavor has developed into a huge fusion enterprise. Yet, no practical system for the generation of electricity has yet been demonstrated. This is the paradox at the heart of the fusion enterprise. Why, despite unfulfilled visions and broken promises, has the grand fusion enterprise endured? How can such a long-term enterprise persist in a funding culture that largely works in short-term cycles? Adapting Sheila Jasanoff's thesis of "sociotechnical imaginaries", I examine the relationship of shared and contrasting visions, co-produced expressions of nature and society, and distinctpolitical cultures in the quest for viable fusion. A systematic cultural and technological comparison of three fusion ventures, the National Spherical Torus Experiment Upgrade, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), and Wendelstein-7X, exposes how these projects and the institutions they inhabit frame the goals, risks, and benefits of the fusion enterprise and sustain a common set of fusion imaginaries. Positioned within the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in the United States, the international ITER Organization sited in France, and the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Germany, the three projects are prime examples of big science and technology. Rigorous research and analysis of these cases advance the thesis of the unfulfilled utopian vision of fusion energy that has endured for more than sixty years. / Doctor of Philosophy / In an age of shrinking research and development budgets, sustaining big science and technology projects is inevitably questioned by publics and policy makers. The fusion enterprise is an exemplar. The effort to develop a viable system to produce unlimited and environmentally benign electricity from fusion of hydrogen isotopes has been a goal for six decades and consumed vast financial and intellectual resources in North America, Europe, and Asia. In terms of prolonged duration and sustained resource investment, the endeavor has developed into a huge fusion enterprise. Yet, no practical system for the generation of electricity has yet been demonstrated. This is the paradox at the heart of the fusion enterprise. Beyond articulating a possible path forward for the fusion enterprise, the intent of this study is to inform decision makers who will shape energy strategy for the second half of the twenty-first century.

Cette thèse examine l’imagination des systèmes de mesure de la performance au sein de l’industrie pharmaceutique. Par une observation participante étendue dans une grande entreprise pharmaceutique et des entretiens dans cette industrie, les trois articles de cette thèse explorent les influences intra et extra-organisationnelles qui agissent sur la forme et les raisons des systèmes de rémunération que les sociétés pharmaceutiques utilisent pour leur force de vente. Le premier article considère que les systèmes comptables émergent d’un ensemble d’inscriptions dramatisées qui mettent en scène, encadrent et médiatisent l’interaction entre les différents acteurs, internes et externes à l’organisation, qui participent à la fabrication d’un algorithme de rémunération. Le deuxième article théorise de quelle manière moral imaginaries sont constitués en objets comptables et comment les instruments comptables agissent comme médiateur moral. Il présente les systèmes émergents de mesure de la performance en tant que dispositifs de calcul moral façonnés par les imaginaires moraux contrastés de concepteurs hétérogènes. Le troisième article se concentre sur la manière dont les systèmes de mesure de la performance émergent et se stabilisent dans le contexte des marchés, afin d'explorer les infrastructures comptables au niveau de l’industrie que permettent aux acteurs organisationnels de visualiser, rendre compte et agir sur le marché lorsque ce dernier est invisible à pour ses participants. Pour que les systèmes de mesure de la performance fonctionnent sur un marché, il est nécessaire d’avoir une collaboration au sein du secteur, des opacités construites et des processus de (de)commercialisation de l’identité des acteurs. / This thesis examines the field-level imagining of Performance Measurement Systems in the pharmaceutical sector. By means of an extended participant observation in a Big Pharma company and interviews in the pharmaceutical sector, the three articles of this thesis explore the intra- and extra-organizational influences that act upon the shape and rationales of the compensation systems pharmaceutical companies operate for their sales-force. The first article explores accounting systems as emerging from a set of dramatized inscriptions that stage, frame, and mediate interaction among the different actors, internal and external to the organization, that participate in the fabrication of a compensation algorithm. The second article theorizes in what way moral imaginaries are constituted into accounting objects, and how accounting acts as a moral mediator. It shows emergent performance measurement systems as moral calculating devices that are shaped by, and engage with, the contrasting moral imaginaries of heterogeneous designers. The third paper brings the concern with how performance measurement systems emerge and stabilize in the context of markets, to explore the field-level accounting infrastructures that enable organizational actors to visualize, account for, and act upon the market when the market is invisible to its participants. For performance measurement systems to work in a market, it is suggested, they require field-level collaboration, constructed opacities, and processes of marketization and de-marketization of actors’ identities.

The master's thesis explores the process in which tourist interactions between hosts and guests develop and sheds some light on tourism imaginaries by which these interactions are constructed and produced in an Istrian pension. The ethnography of hosts and guests presented here illustrates how the global and the local are closely intertwined through the process called glocalization (Salazar, 2005) and shows that "the global not only affects, but becomes the local, and vice versa". (Leite, Graburn in Jamal, Robinson ed., 2009: 53) The thesis shows how both the global and the local can take an active part in the process of new meaning-making in the context of tourism. In the pension, there is an ongoing local struggle over tourism imaginaries seeking to redefine the place and people. (Salazar, 2012) The thesis reveals that hosts cannot be viewed as passive victims of their hosts' expectations. They rather can be viewed as active negotiators, negotiating their position in the field of tourism. Key words: globalization, truism, global, local, glocalization, hosts/guests, tourism imaginaries, identity, cosmopolitanism, tourist development Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Why do middle class kids go to middle class schools? It all began with the story of a father’s dream. It was sometime in April in 2008 and I was in the midst of my undergraduate fieldwork. I had been exploring the resurgence in the ‘Gorkhaland’ movement across the hills of Darjeeling in North Eastern India. I had been interviewing various people who had been engaging in hunger strikes in pursuit of the cause. In the process of these interviews and in my general experiences during this time, I was struck by the constant rhetoric that they fought not for themselves or their own futures but for the futures of their children and generations to come. I was staying in the small town of Sukhia about 20 km outside of Darjeeling town. On that particular April day I had found myself temporarily housebound in the home of my host family, in the wake of a sudden tumultuous downpour. The weather it seemed was conspiring against my research, forcing me to postpone another interview. I sat in the kitchen waiting for the weather to pass, sharing an afternoon cup of tea with a side of sliced bread and jam, with Prabin, a member of my host family. Prabin worked in the office of the District Magistrate and thus was a man with a keen eye on local politics. As such, he had volunteered himself to be my unofficial research assistant. It had been a quiet Saturday about the house, as Prabin’s wife Binita and their 3-year-old son, Pranayan, were out shopping in the market. Prabin’s mother and father were visiting other family nearby, and Prabin’s younger brother, Pramod, had travelled into town to collect some supplies for his school. There was no sign of the rain letting up soon so Prabin and I continued to chat. Prabin’s son had recently started school and we were discussing his son’s apparent indifference towards schooling. ‘Everyday he cries! He doesn’t like school very much’. Prabin was convinced that his son would stop crying once he had learned the value of school. I had been working as an English teacher in a small private school and had seen first-hand how parents like Prabin acknowledged the importance of schooling choice, even as their children began their schooling journeys at around 2 years old. Prabin was keen to reinforce the idea that his son’s present school, a small building only 5 minutes’ walk up the road, was just the beginning. Prabin told me that he wanted his son to get a ‘good education’ in contrast to his own schooling experience, which he described as ‘simple’. Prabin told me that he dreamed of his son going to England and making enough money to support the whole family. Prabin knew that if his son was going to fulfil his dream then he would need to succeed at school, but not just any school. ‘I want my son to go to St. Joseph’s School; this is the best school in Darjeeling’. I was aware that there were many schools in Darjeeling, both in the town itself and in the surrounding areas, all of which professed to offer a high level of English medium education, so I was keen to know what made St Joseph’s such a certain choice. ‘Have you been there?’ he challenged me, as if to say that anyone who would lay eyes upon this place would know what he was talking about. ‘We will go there someday; it is a very nice place’. He was keen to emphasize how ‘nice’ this school was even if he had only seen the building from the road. ‘Others schools can teach English but [St. Joseph’s] is more than that. They play all the sport[s], they have good Rector, they have nice student[s], good discipline, this is the right place for my son’. Prabin emphasized that he dreamed of a good life for his son and in order to get there he first had to go to the right school. This was the first time I had even heard of St. Joseph’s School, but it provided a provocative insight into perceptions of the roles of schooling in India today. Prabin’s dream outlined a particular future for his son, which depended upon a foundation within a specific kind of schooling. I was immediately drawn to how he had mapped out a prospective educational trajectory, which leaned on certain intangible aspects of schooling that were perceived to subsequently guide his son towards a certain livelihood. St. Joseph’s had been singled out, as it offered something that others were perceived not to have. Perhaps most importantly of all, Prabin had never been to the school which he dreamed of. His ideas of St Joseph’s were ultimately imagined through an amalgam of stories that he had heard from work colleagues, interspersed with his own fleeting encounters in passing the school building. The imagined view of the school was integral in shaping Prabin’s actions. He was planning for his son’s future around a dream. Prabin’s perspective reflected a wider trend within literature pertaining to the Indian middle class, indicating a certain preference for a particular kind of schooling as being a necessary prerequisite for a specific, ultimately idealised, future livelihood. Donner (2006) identified a similar kind of career mapping amongst middle class Bengali families in Calcutta. The families, particularly the parents themselves, sought to admit their children to particular pre-schools, which were seen as the foundations of a scholastic career. Admission to future primary and secondary education hinged on the previous stage and as such, investment in each stage of the schooling process was vital in establishing the necessary trajectory for their child to progress on to specific occupations that would offer the necessary array of capital - financial, social and cultural – that would lead to a middle class life. What I became interested in was the concept that shapes this process. Why do middle class Indians choose certain schools and not others? What is the apparently intangible quality that leads parents like Prabin to desire St. Joseph’s over all the others? What is it about schools like St. Joseph’s that make them stand out from the range of available schools? It was with these questions that I headed off to St. Joseph’s for some answers.

Cette thèse est une contribution à la théorie des modèles des corps valués. Les principaux résultats de ce texte sont des résultats d’éliminations des quantificateurs et des imaginaires. Le premier chapitre contient une étude des imaginaires dans les extensions finies de Qp. On y démontre que ces corps ainsi que leurs ultraproduits éliminent les imaginaires dans le langage géométrique. On en déduit un résultat de rationalité uniforme pour les fonctions zêta associées aux familles de relations d’équivalences définissables dans les extensions finies de Qp. La motivation première du deuxième chapitre est l’étude de W(F_p^alg) en tant que corps valué analytique de différence. Plus généralement, on démontre un théorème d’élimination des quantificateurs de corps dans le langage RV pour les corps valués analytiques -Henséliens de caractéristique nulle. On donne aussi une axiomatisation de la théorie de W(F_p^alg) ainsi qu’une preuve qu’elle est NIP. Dans le troisième chapitre, on prouve la densité des types définissables dans certains enrichissements d’ACVF. On en déduit un critère pour l’élimination des imaginaires et la propriété d’extension invariante. Ce chapitre contient aussi des résultats abstraits sur les ensembles extérieurement définissables dans les théories NIP. Dans le dernier chapitre, les résultats du chapitre précédent sont appliqués à VDF, la modèle complétion des corps valués munis d’une dérivation qui préserve la valuation, pour obtenir l’élimination des imaginaires dans le langage géométrique ainsi que la densité des types définissables et la propriété d’extension invariante. Ce chapitre contient aussi des considérations sur les fonctions définissables, les types et les groupes définissables dans VDF. / This thesis is about the model theory of valued fields. The main results in this text are eliminationsof quantifiers and imaginaries. The first chapter is concerned with imaginaries in finite extensions of Qp. I show that these fields and their ultraproducts eliminate imaginaries in the geometric language. As a corollary, I obtain the uniform rationality of zeta functions associated to families of equivalence relations that aredefinable in finite extensions of Qp.The motivation for the second chapter is to study W(F_p^alg) as an analytic difference valued field. More generally, I show a field quantifier elimination theorem in the RV-language for -Henselian characteristic zero valued fields with an analytic structure. I also axiomatise the theory of W(F_p^alg) and I show that this theory is NIP.In the third chapter, I prove the density of definable types in certain enrichments of ACVF. From this result, I deduce a criterion for the elimination of imaginaries and the invariant property. This chapter also contains abstract results on externally definable sets in NIP theories. In the last chapter, the previous chapter is applied to VDF, the model completion of valued fields with a valuation preserving derivation, to obtain the elimination of imaginaries in the geometric language, as well as the density of definable types and the invariant extension property. This chapter also contains considerations about definable functions, types and definable groupes in VDF.

J’ai souhaité, dans ce travail doctoral, mener une réflexion sur la société brésilienne actuelle, société issue d’une histoire marquée par la colonisation portugaise et l’esclavage qui, sous la traite transatlantique, a pris un essor considérable. L’époque contemporaine, après avoir entretenue le mythe de la démocratie raciale en plaçant notamment le métissage comme garant de l’unité sociale du pays a reconnu politiquement et institutionnellement une différenciation raciale et sociale de la population, l’existence d’un racisme latent mais bien réel et des inégalités multiples qui se cristallisent et s’illustrent aussi à l’intérieur de l’école brésilienne. Dans le cadre d’une ethnicisation des politiques publiques brésiliennes et l’instauration, à partir des années 2000, des actions affirmatives, outils d’une politique de discrimination positive, des dispositifs institutionnels se mettent en place, tels qu’un système de quotas raciaux, l’instauration dans le cursus scolaire de l’obligation d’enseigner l’histoire et la culture africaine et afro-brésilienne, dans le but d’une réduction de ces inégalités et des conséquences du racisme pour une meilleure intégration de la population noire et métisse brésilienne.A la lumière de la pensée décoloniale latino-américaine, l’enjeu de ce travail était de mettre en évidence l’existence et la perpétuation au sein de l’imaginaire social-historique brésilien d’une colonialité du pouvoir, du savoir et de l’être maintenant des rapports sociaux racistes et racialisés sous couvert d’une vision eurocentrique et occidentale et une norme implicite de l’idéologie du blanchiement. Avec l’appui d’une approche théorique et méthodologique multiréférentielle alliant l’approche socio-historique, la démarche clinique et le cadre théorique de l’Analyse Institutionnelle, et la mise en place, sur le terrain d’étude, Ribeirão Preto, une ville de l’état de São Paulo, d’observations de type ethnographiques et d’entretiens compréhensifs, j’ai présenté une double analyse de mes données de terrain. L’analyse de la parole, de discours, de comportements, de situations vécues et ou relatées a permis de pointer de quelle manière se manifestaient ces différentes formes de colonialité dans et par le parcours de vie et le quotidien des personnes rencontrées. Elle a également mis en évidence une tension entre l’objectif institutionnel affiché et la mise en œuvre sur le terrain d’une politique remise en question et qui pourrait favoriser un paradigme que j’ai nommé intégrant-excluant, s’illustrant par une nécessité d’une auto-identification et d’une catégorisation d’une partie de la population brésilienne, pour bénéficier de l’obtention des mesures intégratrices qui peuvent être perçues et vécues comme excluantes et injustes. Enfin, je propose un travail de conceptualisation autour de la notion de bio-pouvoir et une réflexion autour d’enjeux éducatifs visant à aller vers un processus de décolonialité par une perspective critique interrogeant la déconstruction des significations imaginaires sociales dans une perspective de transformation de l’institutionnalisation de ce paradigme implicite mais bien présent. / In this doctoral work, I reflect on contemporary Brazilian society and how its history has been marked by Portuguese colonization and slavery, which gained considerable ground under the transatlantic treaty. By viewing interbreeding as the guarantor of social unity, thereby keeping alive the myth of a racial democracy, contemporary society politically and institutionally recognizes that populations differ on social and racial grounds. As a result, a latent but very real racism exists, as well as multiple, increasingly apparent inequalities, of which Brazilian classrooms are a reflection. Under the ethnicization of Brazilian public policy and the introduction of affirmative action, which is a tool for a politics of positive discrimination, institutional means were put in place at the turn of the 21st century to reduce inequalities and other consequences of racism, such as a system of racial quotas and the introduction of mandatory African and Afro-Brazilian cultural-historical studies; and all this in an effort to better integrate the black and mixed Brazilian population. This work uses decolonial thinking to prove that, deep down in the Brazilian social-historical imagination, the coloniality of power, knowledge, and being, racialized social relations not only exists, but is also being perpetuated under the guise of a Eurocentric and Occidentalist vision, as well as a norm implicitly rooted in the ideology of “whitewashing”.The work is based on a multi-referential approach, which blends together a socio-historical approach, the clinical process and the theoretical framework of Institutional Analysis. It also puts forward, through field research in Ribeirao Preto, a town in the state of Sao Polo, ethnographical observations and comprehensive interviews, all of which will allow me to present a dual analysis of my field research.Analyzing words, speeches, behaviors, and lived experiences is crucial to understanding that these different forms of coloniality manifest themselves in the daily lives of people. It also proves that there is a tension between institutional aims and the putting in place, in real life, of a politics that calls itself into question and favors what I call an “integrating-exclusive” paradigm. This paradigm is illustrated by the necessity of auto-identifying and categorising a part of the Brazilian population, in an attempt to benefit from the production of inclusive measures perceived and experienced as excluding and unjust.Finally, this work is an attempt at once to conceptualize the notion of bio-power, and to reflect on the educational stakes rooted in attempts to direct us towards a decoloniality process, by way of a critical perspective capable of calling out and pointing fingers at the destruction of social imaginaries. In doing so, we hope to transform the institutionalization of this implicit, yet very real, paradigm. / Eu queria, nesse trabalho de doutorado, refletir sobre a atual sociedade brasileira, uma sociedade que se origina numa história marcada pela colonização e escravidão portuguesa que, sob o comércio transatlântico, tem crescido consideravelmente. A era contemporânea, depois de ter mantido o mito da democracia racial colocando a mestiçagem como garantia da unidade social do país, reconheceu políticamente e institucionalmente uma diferenciação racial e social da população, a existência de um racismo latente mas real e várias desigualdades que se cristalizam e são também ilustradas dentro da escola brasileira. No contexto de uma etnicização das políticas públicas brasileiras e da introdução, a partir dos anos 2000, das ações afirmativas, ferramentas de uma política de discriminação positiva, dispositivos institucionais vão ser aplicados, como um sistema de cotas raciais, a introdução, no currículo escolar, da obrigação de ensinar a história e a cultura africana e afro-brasileira, com o objetivo de reduzir essas desigualdades e as conseqüências do racismo para uma integração melhor da população brasileira negra e mestiça. À luz do pensamento descolonial latino-americano, o desafio deste trabalho foi destacar a existência e a perpetuação, no imaginário sócio-histórico brasileiro, de uma colonialidade do poder, do conhecimento e do ser perpetuam relações sociais racistas e racializadassustendadas por uma visão eurocêntrica e ocidental e uma norma implícita de ideologia do branqueamento. Com o apoio de uma abordagem teórico e metodológico multireferencial que combina a abordagem sócio-histórica, a abordagem clínica e o referencial teórico da Análise Institucional, e o estabelecimento, no território do estudo, Ribeirão Preto, cidade do Estado de São Paulo, de observações de tipo etnográficas e de entrevistas comprehensivas, apresentei uma análisedupla dos meus dados de campo. A análise das falas, dos discursos, dos comportamentos, das situações vivenciadas oucontadas possibilitaram apontar como essas diferentes formas de colonialidade se manifestaram no e por os percursos de vida e no cotidiano das pessoas encontradas. Destacou-se também uma tensão entre o objetivo institucional declarado e a implementação de uma política questionada no terreno que poderia fomentar um paradigma que denominei de integrando-excluindo, exemplificado pela necessidade de auto-identificação e de categorização de uma parte da população brasileira, para poder beneficiar da obtenção de medidas integradoras que possam ser percebidas e vivenciadas como excludentes e injustas. Por fim, proponho um trabalho de conceptualização em torno da noção de biopoder e umareflexão em torno de desafios educativos visando avançar para um processo de descolonialidade por uma perspectiva crítica questionando a desconstrução das significações imaginárias sociais numa perspectiva de transformação da institucionalização deste paradigma implícito mas muito presente

Esta pesquisa busca compreender como as narrativas sobre Porto Alegre são construídas na literatura contemporânea do século XXI. A arte e a literatura participam da construção simbólica por meio de processos dinâmicos, despertam os sentidos, qualificam os imaginários e produzem representações sobre a cidade. As representações sociais, a memória e a cultura, o senso comum, o imaginário social e os imaginários urbanos, são elementos fundamentais para compreender as narrativas produzidas e identificar as representações que formam o imaginário da cidade. Este estudo analisa três obras da literatura brasileira contemporânea sobre Porto Alegre: Quarenta Dias, Imóveis Paredes e Meia Noite e Vinte. A partir daí foram construídos “croquis” simbólicos e mapas representacionais sobre a cidade. Os procedimentos metodológicos aplicados são: levantamento e análise de elementos simbólicos que formam os imaginários da cidade por meio de análise temática e de conteúdo; enquadramento histórico-literário; análise e coleta de citações para formulação de mapas representacionais e “croqui” das obras analisadas. Conclui-se que as narrativas literárias sobre Porto Alegre descrevem uma cidade caótica, de temperaturas extremas, insegura, dominada por desigualdades sociais e pela especulação imobiliária; despreza o patrimônio histórico e arquitetônico Em contraponto, discursos nostálgicos de um tempo recente, descrevem uma cidade segura, pacífica e rica em ofertas culturais quando regida por gestões populares. Ideais de bem viver são também evocados por ações simples e significativas como caminhar pelas ruas para ressignificar a cidade. As representações sobre Porto Alegre nas narrativas literárias contemporâneas se aproximam das narrativas sobre a cidade, veiculadas por diferentes meios (rádio, TV, jornal impresso, entre outros). / This research aims to comprehend how stories about Porto Alegre are elaborated in contemporary literature of the 21st century. Art and literature take part in the symbolic construction via dynamic processes, awaken the senses, qualify the imaginaires and produce representations about the city. Social representations, memory and culture, common sense, the social imaginary and urban imaginaries are elements of utmost importance in comprehending the produced stories and identifying the representations which form the city's imaginaire. This study analyzes works of contemporary Brazilian literature about Porto Alegre. From there, symbolic "sketches" and representational maps about the city were constructed. The metodological procedures applied are as follows: surveillance and analysis of symbolic elements which form the city's urban imaginaries via analysis of theme and content; creation of a historic-literary framework; analysis and gathering of quotations for the elaboration of representational maps and a "sketch" of analyzed works. It is therefore concluded that literary stories about Porto Alegre depict a chaotic city, of temperatures in the extremes, unsafe, dominated by social inequiality and real estate speculation; historic and architectural heritage are despised. On the other hand, a nostalgic speech from recent times depicts a city which is safe, pacific and with plenty of cultural offerings while governed by popular administrations. Ideas of well-living are also evoked by simple and significant actions such as walking by the streets to give, once again, a meaning to the city. Representations of Porto Alegre in contemporary literature are similar to those conveyed via different means of communication (radio, TV, newspapers, along with others).

It has often been claimed that contemporary societies are shaped by globalization; the rapid interconnections of societies, economies, markets, flows and information potentially linking all places in the world to each other. In search for experiences, variation, escape or comfort, individuals are travelling, circulating, and migrating between places, challenging the notions of ‘home’ and ‘away’, ‘everyday’ and ‘extraordinary’. This thesis addresses the ways lifestyle-led mobilities are produced and performed, by studying the mobility trajectories and experiences of Swedes dividing their time seasonally between Sweden and Malta. It explores how movers are faced with a structural framework that both facilitates and directs their choices concerning mobility, and how they interpret and respond to these structures. It also explores the imaginaries, meanings, and feelings for place, identity, and lifestyle that the movers negotiate through their mobility practices and through the links they create and sustain in places. Thus, this thesis is situated in an evolving field of research on lifestyle mobilities. Lifestyle mobilities are here defined as those mobility practices undertaken by individuals based on their freedom of choice, of a temporal or more permanent duration, with or without any significant ‘home base(s)’, that are primarily driven by aspirations to increase ‘quality of life’, and that are primarily related to the individuals’ lifestyle values. The thesis is based on four individual papers exploring different aspects lifestyle mobility. The aim is to understand how production and performance aspects of lifestyle mobilities are related, and how notions of identity and belonging are negotiated in relation to lifestyle mobility practices. The production aspect relates to those structures and frameworks that create, facilitate, or sometimes delimit opportunities for lifestyle mobility while the performance aspect focuses on individual agency and meaning of lifestyle mobility practices. The studies are based on in-depth interviews with Swedish movers in Malta, and focus on how structural frameworks and mediations influence the ways that movers manoeuvre, manipulate or adapt to structures and influences in order to arrange their life context to achieve ‘quality of life’. A second aim focuses on the ways that movers reflect upon their identities and belongings as they travel routinely between two (or more) significant places, and how this may influence mobility practices. It is concluded that structures and mediations are both facilitating and delimiting movers’ space of choice regarding mobility decisions. Through their agency, movers negotiate their space of choice by allocating resources and experience, accessing supportive networks and tailoring their access to entitlements. The production and performance aspects of lifestyle mobility practices are interlinked in complex ways.