Since the 1960s, over 65,000 young Canadians have participated in volunteer abroad programs (Tiessen, 2008). Lately, the media and academia have questioned and criticized the benefits of volunteerism as development. This study highlights how issues of power and privilege extend beyond the individual, and reaches into institutional structures. The research design uses Institutional Ethnography (IE) as a method of inquiry, and maps out the social relations between the experiences of seven former youth volunteers and field staff, and their organizations. The aim is to explore how to improve individual and organizational pedagogy in the field of international volunteering, so that equity becomes a commitment by everyone in the development of sustainable and just communities.

Petroleum-based fuel dominates the global energy system despite the fact that this resource is diminishing. Additionally, Small Island Developing States (SIDS) face a number of challenges to development such as resource scarcity, locational isolation, and uneven development. These challenges make it difficult for these nations to compete in the global market for fuel. Incidentally, biodiesel, made from waste cooking oil, can be used in automotive diesel engines or diesel generators for electricity. Currently, these two areas: development in SIDS and biodiesel, are separate topics in the literature and a relationship between the two has yet to be developed. This research will describe how a biodiesel-based energy system can address some of the challenges to development faced by SIDS. One such system in Barbados is used as a case study. Informal interviews and participant observation reveal the benefits and challenges of setting up and maintaining a biodiesel energy system. Also, the potential to scale-up the biodiesel energy system to the national level is assessed. An evaluation framework, derived from the literature, is used to rate the success factors of the existing biodiesel operation and as well as the steps required for scaling up. The results of this study prove the numerous and interconnecting benefits of a biodiesel-based energy system. Biodiesel produced on the island using locally-generated waste cooking oil creates a new local resource, addressing the challenge of resource scarcity, and reduces the demand for imported petroleum-based diesel. The biodiesel system addresses the issue of uneven development by connecting different communities across the island through public participation. However, funding difficulties in the biodiesel operation arose after a change of ownership. This made obtaining methanol, an ingredient in biodiesel production, problematic and ultimately halted production. Based on the findings, it is recommended that community biodiesel-based energy systems include the use of a locally-produced alcohol as a substitute for methanol. Also, operations should be scale-up through decentralization in order to keep equipment costs down and better address the challenge of uneven development faced by SIDS. With proper management and sufficient funding and community support, a biodiesel-based energy system is able to contribute to sustainable development in light of the unique situation present in SIDS.

The purpose of this study was to synthesize emergent agricultural development reports related to post-conflict needs assessments in eight southern Iraqi provinces. This study is an empirical case study of Post Conflict Agricultural Development Assessments and Strategies in Eight Southern Iraqi Provinces. The objective is a systems approach using qualitative and quantitative methods to improve Iraqi agricultural practice, extension and training, community development, security, and policies for governance. The design called for a case study and a description of pre-deployment activities of a military-based civilian assessment team, initial organization and adjustments, and techniques for internal and external communication. Particular attention was given to agricultural specialties, crosscutting constructs, and data collection and analysis protocols in eight provinces in Iraq. Three objectives were identified to achieve the purpose of this study. The first objective was to identify emergent agricultural development themes from each of the eight Iraqi provinces. The second objective was to identify emergent agricultural development trends from each of the eight Iraqi provinces. A third objective was to provide relevant case documentation to assist in future agricultural development/post conflict development efforts. It was found that Iraqi agricultural production lags due to many factors, including counter productive government policies that undermine productivity, distort local economies, and confound security issues and competition via subsidized credit and agricultural inputs. Outdated technology and undertrained producers lacking knowledge of production related areas such as plant and animal genetics, fertilizers, irrigation and drainage systems and farm equipment. Inadequate and unstable electricity availability and provision, degradation of irrigation-infrastructure and management systems, a complete lack of or insufficient access to credit and private capital as well as inadequate market development and network infrastructure have all taken their toll on evolution and improvement of agricultural growth in southern Iraq. It may be that the largest threat to the future of Iraq is not violence, but the diminishing hope of young people caused by their inability to obtain vocational based skills training and the lack of jobs that match such skills. A pervasive lack of job opportunities or perceived lack of job availability may encourage continued civil unrest and possibly continue the insurgency. In order to address this issue, an aggressive youth development focus can make a positive impact in the current society. A majority of youth without useful skills are forced to abandon the farm and move to cities or to pursue other means of earning income in rural areas.

Texas A&M University of the United States and the Institute National Agronomique de Tunisie (INAT) of Tunisia established a collaborative relationship of mutual exchange of information and ideas for the further advancement of both universities. The researcher worked closely with these universities to conduct a qualitative study in Tunisia to determine the effectiveness of agricultural institutions working to further development in that country. The emphasis of the study was on the transference of knowledge and innovations from the research level through extension to the farmers and other end users. The triangle of teaching, research, and extension provided a base perspective. The researcher interviewed 37 respondents, including researchers, extension personnel, administration, professors, and farmers. From data that respondents provided, the researcher used a constant comparative method to organize results into the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the agricultural institutions as a system. Overarching themes included a pointed focus on meeting farmer needs, but this desire was hindered from being carried out fully due to complex communication systems and an organizational structure that did not facilitate change. Hope did abound for Tunisian agriculturalists because the opportunities available through globalization and international collaboration far outweighed any possible threats to development, such as fierce competition in trade and lack of quality water. The researcher also made specific recommendations based on the information gathered in the study. These recommendations were based on the findings of the study, and they were directed to leaders within the Tunisian agriculture system and other agriculturalists wishing to further development in countries facing similar situations as Tunisia.

Petroleum-based fuel dominates the global energy system despite the fact that this resource is diminishing. Additionally, Small Island Developing States (SIDS) face a number of challenges to development such as resource scarcity, locational isolation, and uneven development. These challenges make it difficult for these nations to compete in the global market for fuel. Incidentally, biodiesel, made from waste cooking oil, can be used in automotive diesel engines or diesel generators for electricity. Currently, these two areas: development in SIDS and biodiesel, are separate topics in the literature and a relationship between the two has yet to be developed. This research will describe how a biodiesel-based energy system can address some of the challenges to development faced by SIDS. One such system in Barbados is used as a case study. Informal interviews and participant observation reveal the benefits and challenges of setting up and maintaining a biodiesel energy system. Also, the potential to scale-up the biodiesel energy system to the national level is assessed. An evaluation framework, derived from the literature, is used to rate the success factors of the existing biodiesel operation and as well as the steps required for scaling up. The results of this study prove the numerous and interconnecting benefits of a biodiesel-based energy system. Biodiesel produced on the island using locally-generated waste cooking oil creates a new local resource, addressing the challenge of resource scarcity, and reduces the demand for imported petroleum-based diesel. The biodiesel system addresses the issue of uneven development by connecting different communities across the island through public participation. However, funding difficulties in the biodiesel operation arose after a change of ownership. This made obtaining methanol, an ingredient in biodiesel production, problematic and ultimately halted production. Based on the findings, it is recommended that community biodiesel-based energy systems include the use of a locally-produced alcohol as a substitute for methanol. Also, operations should be scale-up through decentralization in order to keep equipment costs down and better address the challenge of uneven development faced by SIDS. With proper management and sufficient funding and community support, a biodiesel-based energy system is able to contribute to sustainable development in light of the unique situation present in SIDS.

Youth unemployment is a critical issue in Southern Africa, exacerbating poverty, crime, violence, food insecurity, and rural-urban migration. In Botswana, the Young Farmers Fund (YFF) was established to cultivate youth entrepreneurship in agriculture to mitigate these issues. The aim of this research is to explore and explain the experiences, circumstances and knowledge of youth participants and assess the extent to which the program succeeds as a development strategy. To do so, the research establishes a conceptual framework investigating how contextual and individual variables influence the outcomes of participants’ projects. Interviews with program participants and key informants and review of relevant literature expose critical themes. These are examined through content analysis and inform research conclusions. Findings reveal why the program is facing a number of challenges. The research is thus valuable for informing policy and program (re)development and affirms the value and adaptability of the conceptual framework across multiple development contexts. / SSHRC

In the past twenty years an increasing number of Global South nations have vied for the rights to host prestigious and expensive sport mega events. This trend requires significant reflection given the enormous economic costs of these events, which often produce little capital gain for the host nation (Whitson & Horne, 2006). Furthermore, sport mega events are often utilized for their symbolic capital (Belanger, 2009), which sometimes manifests through forcing people from their land for the sake of “beautification” (Davis, 2006). In this project, then, I asked how technologies of power were utilized by FIFA, corporate stakeholders, and the South African government to control people who were marginal to, or impeded the success of, the World Cup in Nelspruit, South Africa. This project consisted of two parts: the first involved constructing a theoretical framework for better understanding power as it operates through sport mega events in general. To this end I employed Marxian notions of the ordering of physical space, Foucauldian conceptions of sovereignty and governmentality, and Agamben’s (1998) state of exception to determine how particular bodies are constituted and controlled through sport mega events. In the second part, I applied this theoretical framework to the events in South Africa to better elucidate how people became displaced and killed because of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. I used South African popular news and documentaries as empirical evidence and conducted a discursive analysis of said news media. Through this coverage it became apparent that the mega event created the conditions in which new forms of rogue sovereign partnerships could arise through a historically and spatially contingent process of capitalism. The rogue sovereigns’ para-juridico-political orders, the discourses and practices of accumulation by dispossession as a tactic and effect of govermentality, and other historical non-capital subjectivities such as racial identity, all contributed to constituting Agamben’s state of exception in which people could be displaced, killed or left to die in the events surrounding the World Cup. / Thesis (Master, Kinesiology & Health Studies) -- Queen's University, 2011-08-25 12:25:02.401

This thesis investigates the problem of analysing religion in the study of international relations (IR), answering the need to build an IR framework that accommodates coexisting evidence for secularisation (the decreasing influence of religion) and sacralisation (the increasing influence of religion) in world politics. Part One lays a conceptual foundation, presenting three arguments. Firstly, three discourses of religion are inscribed across the general discourse of IR: the secular, sacral and integrated discourses. Second, together the discourses comprise the religious structure of IR. This construction encourages a situative approach (asking ???where is religion????) rather than a normative one (which asks ???what is religion????). Third, the religious structure and the situative question combine to form the dynamics of religion model, a heuristic framework that meets the present need in IR to accommodate and differentiate secular, integrated and sacral elements of religion. Part Two operationalises the model via a study of religion in international development, occurring at three levels. At the level of discourse, ???orthodox??? and ???critical??? schools of development are situated within a religious structure, revealing the pervasive nature of religion throughout development theory. At the institutional level, the model is applied to analyse how religion entered the operational sphere of the World Bank Group (WBG). This application differentiates secular, integrated and sacral interests at work within and upon the WBG in the 1980s and 1990s, highlighting in new ways the ubiquity of religion in the development sphere. At the policy level, the model is applied to critically compare three ???faith and development??? partnerships initiated by the WBG in the period 1998-2005. The model is then applied to a partnership between the WBG and the World Faiths Development Dialogue (WFDD), an initiative that began as an integrated vision of religion and development but gradually disintegrated. These studies highlight the significant challenges that exist to incorporating religious dynamics into development orthodoxy. Finally, the model is used to situate religious actors into critical approaches toward the WBG, highlighting the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion of religious actors in the global development agenda. Overall, a new integrative model of religion is thus employed as an organising force in the study of IR and development.

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 1993. / Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

In this thesis I explore the relationships between post-secondary education in the field of international development, and the maintenance and practices of white settler-colonialism at home and abroad. My method is to search for recurring present and absent themes found in French and English course syllabi of the Canadian Master’s Program in Globalization and International Development of the University of Ottawa. Through search strings in 81 syllabi of four mandatory courses taught over an 8-year period, 2007-2015, I find that colonialism is little mentioned, and when it is, it is usually either as something of the past or something geographically distant. I conclude that, for students, academics and others to address settler-colonialism as an obstacle to decolonization, requires (1) acknowledging their current role in naturalizing settler-colonialism, (2) denaturalizing the logics of settler-colonialism, and (3) working to deliberately give up on white settler futures, while other futures (Indigenous futures) are flourishing through the process of decolonization. While this content analysis is only a small and possibly ungeneralizable example of higher education and its simultaneous potential for colonization and decolonization, it nevertheless represents an addition to the few applications of the theoretical field of settler-colonial studies and of its material implications.