Thesis (Ph.D.). / Written for the Graduate Program in Communication Studies. Title from title page of PDF (viewed 2008/05/08). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Melbourne, School of Social and Political Sciences, 2010. By research. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (p. 121-147)

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 1997. / Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Tsarist Russia, the USSR and modern Russia have had unique perspectives on Africa and aid, due to geographical location, changing ideologies, non-colonial history with Africa, the Cold War, alternating aid status of recipient and donor, and a historic view of Africa in a tripartite relationship with the West. Western development discourse evolved to produce a large aid apparatus, accompanied by depoliticised discourse on Africa. The USSR’s discourse on Africa was political. Using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), Discourse Historical Approach (DHA) and a postcolonial approach, with a structural analysis of 262 pages of Soviet newspaper Pravda and discourse analysis of 54 articles, this thesis relates findings to the Russian, Soviet and Western contexts in which the discourses arose. It shows that Pravda used Africa and aid as discursive tools to establish the USSR’s position in the international hierarchy, used Africa as a rhetorical proxy, and carried a theme of “freedom as development”. Similarities between Soviet, Russian and Western representations of Africa, development and aid (for example Africa’s low status) were built on different motivations and assumptions, and used different tools. The USSR’s Cold War rhetoric conveyed a partial and incomplete construction of Africa, aid and development. Pravda conveyed assumptions that all countries, including the USSR, are developing, that the USSR and Africa are comparable and in some ways similar, and that freedom is an overriding aspiration. Constructing development as natural, Pravda constructed a weak link between development and aid, and in general Pravda presented aid as harmful Western aid. Russia’s legacy is an ideology in which Africa is still eternally “developing” but shares this activity with all countries, Africa is weak and yet is Russia’s friend and ally, competition continues between Russia and the West over Africa’s friendship, and aid has mainly humanitarian rather than development value. Socialist ideological discourse of equal nations remains in today’s Communist Pravda. This thesis explores the evolution of perceptions in Soviet Pravda discourse, and makes a substantive analytical contribution to the literatures on development and aid, Russian foreign policy and international relations, and postcolonialism. It increases knowledge of Cold War Africa, and the USSR’s and Russia’s self-perceptions and attitudes towards others. Russia’s status as a non-Western donor and recent aid recipient make its legacy and attitudes of particular interest.

This study focuses on women vendors' perspectives on plastic bag consumption in markets in Mali. It also investigates how women across the urban and rural divide are affected by plastic bag pollution and to what extent women in Mali are included in policy formulation addressing plastic bag issues. I interviewed thirty women vendors in three research sites: Bougouni, Koulikoro and Bamako. In addition, I interviewed five Mali Officials including the Prime Minister and the Minister of Environment. Plastic bags continue to be used widely in all African countries, including Mali. This has created increased environmental pollution as there is no recycling due to the lack of appropriate technology or political will. Reducing the use of plastic bags, and thus pollution, requires social and economic change that may be difficult to implement without involving one of the largest consumers of plastic bags, women, specifically those selling at the market.

Digital games have been used in the international development industry for over a decade, yet they have received little scholarly attention. This dissertation uses the Half the Sky Movement’s (HTSM) digital games as a case study to understand the production and use of games for development purposes. In doing so, it analyzes the games both as texts that extend the discourse of development, and as material objects with important political economic implications. Specifically, it looks at how the narratives embedded in these games disrupt or reinforce dominant narratives already at play in the development industry, and it considers how the private/public relationships created through the production of the games shape game content and impact both the gaming and development industries. The study uses critical qualitative methods, including textual analysis and in-depth interviews, and a political economic approach to complete this work.

abstract: Beneficiary participation has become popular in international development generally, and it is an essential feature of sustainable development. But there are diverse definitions of and motivations for using beneficiary participation, and empirical literature on its effects is underdeveloped. This dissertation aims to clarify what beneficiary participation is and whether there is empirical support for claims about its benefits. I review historical trends in international development that led to the popularity of both sustainable development and beneficiary participation. This review identifies central themes in defining beneficiary participation and motivations for using it. I also developed a new typology of beneficiary participation based on a literature review of how scholars define beneficiary participation. I found that the main dimensions of beneficiary participation are (1) participants, (2) channels, (3) types of inputs, (4) timing, and (5) goals. By making these dimensions explicit, this work helps researchers and development practitioners more clearly describe the types of beneficiary participation they study, employ, and advocate for. To contribute to empirical literature about beneficiary participation, I conducted a case-study of two urban development projects in Bhopal, India. I collected data with a structured survey of project beneficiaries in four slums (two slums from each project) and semi-structured interviews with each project's organizers. And project documents provided secondary data on both projects. The results indicate that local elites did not capture a disproportionate share of either project's benefits, at least with respect to individual household toilets. Because project organizers rather than beneficiaries selected households that would receive toilets, both cases serve as counterexamples to the claim that beneficiaries must intensely participate for projects' benefits to be distributed equitably. Finally, I review academic literature for empirical evidence that supports claims about the advantages of beneficiary participation. There is relatively strong empirical support for the claim that beneficiary participation improves project outcomes, but empirical support for most other claims (i.e., that it helps make projects more efficient, distribute benefits equitably, and sustain project benefits) is weak. And empirical research suggests that one claimed benefit, empowerment, rarely materializes. In general, more empirical research about beneficiary participation is needed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Sustainability 2014

No description available.

This dissertation uses a mixed method approach to examine the determinants of internal remittances that are connected to the social networks of urban migrant street vendors. Urban street markets are a point of entry for many migrants moving from rural areas to cities in the Global South. The qualitative portion of the dissertation uses an ethnographic approach including participant observation, interviews and focus groups to examine the social networks of street vendors in a market in the municipality of Madina, Ghana. The quantitative analysis codes data from the ethnography in order to conduct a social network analysis using quadratic assignment procedure and logistic regression quadratic assignment procedure to analyze the relationship between attributes of street vendors and remittance behavior. Findings lead to several policy recommendations for the international community, as well as locally based non-governmental organizations, microfinance organizations, national and local governments providing funding or designing interventions affecting street markets or working with individual street vendors.

This dissertation represents a year-long (August 2004-August 2005) ethnographic case study of 15 adolescent schoolgirls attending a secondary school in a poor, rural area of Masaka District, Uganda which explores the challenges, opportunities and potential for future identities that were associated with secondary level education. This study includes an extensive analysis of the degree to which the global objective of gender equity in education, prioritized in UNESCO’s Education For All initiative as well as the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, is promoted and/or achieved in the National Strategy for Girls’ Education in Uganda (NSGE). I consider various ideological understandings of international development in general as well as development theory specifically related to gender, and I draw on the Capabilities Approach (as developed by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum) and Imagined Communities and Identities (Benedict Anderson, Bonny Norton) to interpret my findings. My research reveals that girls’ educational opportunities are constrained by many “unfreedoms” (Sen, 1999), such as extreme poverty, sexual vulnerability and gender discrimination, that are deeply and extensively rooted in cultural, historical, and socioeconomic circumstances and contexts, and that these unfreedoms are not adequately addressed in international and national policies and programme objectives. I propose several recommendations for change, including: a safe and secure “girls’ space” at school; mentorship roles and programmes; counselors; comprehensive sexual health education and free and easy access to birth control and disease prevention products, and sanitary materials; regular opportunities for dialogue with male students; employment opportunities; closer community/school ties; and professional development opportunities for teachers. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate