Quelle a été l’évolution ces dernières décennies du rapport des mouvements sociaux (MS) québecois aux catégories de l’action politique que sont la question nationale, la forme parti et les rapports entre mouvements? La plupart de ces dimensions de l’action politique mouvementiste ont suscité une importante attention de la part des sciences sociales, lorsqu’il s’est agi d’étudier les décennies 1960 et 1970. L’intérêt pour l’étude de ces catégories de l’action des MS des décennies suivantes s’est quelque peu tari, à la faveur d’un récit de la déploration regrettant l’époque glorieuse de la Révolution tranquille et les tumultueuses années 1970. Notre thèse propose de se réapproprier la trame historique d’un demi-siècle d’action politique des MS, en cherchant à repérer les modalités du cheminement de trois mouvements (syndical, féministe, communautaire) sur ce terrain, au travers de l’étude minutieuse des mutations de leur culture politique. Cette dernière a subi d’importantes interpellations et remises en question, sous l’influence de divers facteurs, au cours des dernières décennies. Un de nos arguments centraux est qu’il y a eu au sein des MS québécois un cheminement dans la façon d’aborder la sphère politique et la transformation sociale, cette évolution traduisant chez eux un processus d’apprentissage, à savoir une forme de développement du rapport à l’action politique. Celle-ci se voit conférer le statut de compétence développée dans le quotidien des mouvements, sur le tas, donc par essais et erreurs. Notre enquête sur le terrain a permis de dégager des résultats traités de façon à la fois chronologique et taxonomique, relatifs à nos trois dimensions de l’action politique. Successivement, chacune d’elles fait l’objet d’un chapitre : les rapports entre MS, la question nationale, la forme parti (incluant les élections). Dans chaque cas, l’examen de l’évolution se donne pour tâche de dégager les éléments de bilan faits par les militants et militantes, puis d’exhumer les acquis, souvent tacites, en termes de connaissances politiques. Cette recherche permet de dégager précisément en quoi il y a eu développement du rapport des MS à l’action politique, en outre à l’initiative du mouvement des femmes, dont l’influence a été déterminante.

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The purpose of this study was to identify certain experiences among Swedish scholars towards their use of Wikipedia. The goal was to create a deeper understanding of how audiences with academic professions experience Wikipedia as a place to share knowledge with other individuals. This study was done through the perspectives of the ANT theory (Latour, 2005) and the User-Gratification theory (Katz et al., 1973). The method of choice was a mixed method research where the primary choice of method was qualitative interviews with seven Swedish scholars and one expert interview consisting of an employee at the Swedish Wikimedia foundation. This material was analyzed through a thematic analysis. Some of the findings from the interview was also analyzed through a computational network analysis to provide deeper insight into the concept of Wikipedia.    The research showed that there is a variated view on the scholar’s role on Wikipedia. While some of the participants criticized the structure in which the information was produced, some raised awareness into the importance to provide society with reliable and scientific knowledge in which important decisions can be based on. Different actors within the network of Wikipedia were identified which provided a deeper insight into the variety of individuals and non-human elements that work together to generate content on Wikipedia. A few of these actors and their relationships between one another was also visualized during the study. This provided even further analytical insight to Wikipedia as a platform. The overall view among the participants showed that there is a lack of incitement on how and why scholars should contribute to Wikipedia in Sweden. The results also showed that there are a variety of ways in which the platform of Wikipedia can be viewed depending on personal use the website. The cultural approach to Wikipedia was discussed in the context to how Wikipedia can provide society with information and how this might act as a form of cultural heritage online. / Syftet med denna studie var att identifiera vissa erfarenheter bland svenska forskares användning av Wikipedia. Målet med studien var att skapa en djupare förståelse för hur mediepubliker med akademiska yrken upplever Wikipedia som en plats att dela kunskap med andra individer. Studien genomfördes med hjälp av de olika perspektiven som de teoretiska utgångspunkterna ANT teorin (Latour, 2005) och användare-belönings teorin (Katz et al., 1973) bidrog med. Valet av metod blev en blandad metodforskning där det primära metodvalet var kvalitativa intervjuer med sju olika svenska akademiker och en expertintervju med en anställd på Wikimedia Sverige. Det insamlande materialet blev sedan analyserat genom en tematisk analys. Vissa delar av det insamlade materialet blev senare också analyserat genom en nätverksanalys av data för att bidra med djupare kunskap kring konceptet Wikipedia.    Studien visade att det finns en varierad syn på forskarens roll på Wikipedia. Medan vissa deltagare kritiserade strukturen som informationen produceras i, utryckte sig andra kring vikten av att bidra med trovärdig kunskap till samhället som sedan kan ligga till grund för olika beslut. Olika aktörer inom Wikipedia identifierades vilket också bidrog till en djupare insikt i den variation av individer och icke-mänskliga element som jobbar tillsammans för att skapa material på Wikipedia. Vissa av dessa aktörers relationer med varandra identifierades också genom olika typer av visuella element som framställdes under studien. Detta bidrog således också med en djupare analytisk insikt kring Wikipedia som plattform. Den allmänna synen bidrog också med insikt i den bristen på incitament kring hur och varför forskare bör bidra med sin forskning på Wikipedia i Sverige. Resultaten visade också att det finns en mängd olika sätt individer kan skapa sin bild av Wikipedia genom sitt personliga bruk av plattformen. Den kulturella approachen till Wikipedia diskuterades också genom kontexten hur plattformen kan bidra samhället med information och hur detta kan uppfattas som ett kulturellt arv online.

Bipolar disorder is a condition rarely approached in anthropological research, and even less so through the eyes of people living with the disorder. Therefore, to focus on understanding the experience of the state in-between episodes, here referred to as a “white space”, is rare and in need of further examination. The aim of this study was to explore the various experiences of a “white space”, how it is constructed, disrupted, and maintained. The thesis is also an attempt to look at what factors affect these experiences using the anthropology of becoming, and concepts of power and agency. With the interviews of eleven individuals that have experienced different lengths of “white spaces”, a representative of a non-profit organization, a clinical psychologist, and minor participant observation, the author explores the complex views, interpretations, and experiences of a life within a “white space”. Apart from the sub-field of medical anthropology, the thematic framework and concepts involve the anthropology of becoming, agency, and power to explain and discuss the “white space” experience. The analysis shows that a “white space” has many different forms and that agency and power have a great impact on the experience. What the author also discusses in the analysis is the dynamic between what they define as knowledge-production and knowledge-sharing, alongside agency and power in relation to these “white space” experiences. The author emphasizes the importance in using these concepts to further understand and affect the experiences of “white spaces” positively. The conclusion summarizes the findings and emphasizes the need to explore this form of research further.

This is a project that takes inequality as its starting point to ask not why it persists in all its myriad forms, but rather how we might better understand its resiliency in order to re-orient our responses. It asks how we can re-imagine one another and work across asymmetrical divides in ways that move us towards substantial forms of social justice, actively disallowing the entrenchment of hierarchical valuing systems, and how we can engage with literature as part of reconfiguring ‘equality’ in the process. These questions are traced through Indigenous women’s literatures in Canada and black South African women’s literatures as sites of deeply textured resistance and re-imagined relationality. My analysis focuses on select texts from the 1980s to present in two primary archives: from Indigenous Canada, The Book of Jessica: A Theatrical Transformation (Maria Campbell in collaboration with Linda Griffiths) and Monkey Beach (Eden Robinson); and from South Africa, Mother to Mother (Sindiwe Magona) and Coconut (Kopano Matlwa). I use conversation as my methodological and thematic compass for seeking modes of enabling comprehension across perniciously unequal systems of making meaning and considering the possibilities for transformative knowledge production and textual interpretation at sites of unequal intersubjective exchange. I employ an uneasy comparative practice that I base on horizontal forms of juxtaposition within conversational structures, and I argue that conversation’s generative instability and risky uncertainty open onto hopeful possibilities for transformative change. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This project examines a small selection of the literatures by Indigenous women writers in Canada and black South African women writers to conceptualize anti-oppressive approaches to working across differences in both literary/scholarly and activist/lived contexts. It uses conversation as a critical methodology for engaging four primary texts and practicing an uneasy comparative method based on horizontal forms of juxtaposition rather than vertical relations of evaluative power: Mother to Mother (Sindiwe Magona) and The Book of Jessica (Maria Campbell and Linda Griffiths); and Coconut (Kopano Matlwa) and Monkey Beach (Eden Robinson). The overall aim is to re-imagine forms of engaging across difference along a range of registers – racialization, gender, nation, class, language, and geographical location – that create conditions for more expansive and substantive forms of social justice than are currently visible. The project draws on feminist, Indigenous, postcolonial, critical race, and related areas of scholarship with an orientation towards social justice.

This thesis carries out empirical investigations of the possible impacts of institutions relating to different aspects of innovation, namely incremental innovation activities, collaborative research and development (R&D) activities and radical innovation outcomes. It comprises three studies. The first empirical study focuses on examining the impact of financial constraints and intellectual property rights (IPR) protection on incremental innovation. Using firm-level data from transition countries and employing a two-step probit model with endogenous regressors, this study provides evidence that both financing constraints and strong IPR protection are negatively associated with the incremental innovation activities of firms. Results also confirm that financing constraints faced by firms are significantly influenced by the overall levels of development of financial institutions within a country. The second empirical study looks at the effects of contracting institutions and intellectual property institutions on firms’ collaborative research and development (R&D) activities in developing and transition countries. By employing the Cragg double-hurdle model, this study finds that efficient contract enforcement has a positive effect on the likelihood of firms engaging in R&D partnership and the intensity of firms' expenditures on collaborative R&D. On the other hand, the decision of firms to participate in R&D partnerships and their level of expenditure on collaborative R&D are adversely affected by the strength of IPR protection. The third empirical study investigates the influences of a set of institutions on producing new-to-the-world technologies, as measured by patents. This study is conducted by using a large panel dataset of 98 developed and developing countries over a period of 23 years. Building on the idea production framework, the unconditional quantile regression (UQR) estimates of this study show that along with key research inputs (i.e., existing knowledge stock and resources devoted to R&D), the strength of IPR protection, quality of governance and functioning of financial institutions are also significant determinants of the patent output of a country. The UQR methodology also demonstrates that the effects of institutions on patent production are heterogeneous throughout the various quantiles of patent output distribution. This thesis, therefore, offers an example of how the new institutional economics (NIE) theory is applicable in analysing innovation performances. The findings of this thesis propose useful policy directions that can assist policymakers and managers in accelerating innovation and technological development. / Ministry of Public Administration, the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh

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This paper considers the symbiotic relationship between iconic visual representations of the Holocaust – specifically film and Holocaust sites – and processes of Holocaust memorialization. In conjunction, specific sites and objects related to the Holocaust have become icons. I suggest that specific Holocaust sites as well as Holocaust films can be perceived as elements of one and/or multiple translocal assemblage/s. My focus in this analysis is on the role of knowledge production and witness creation in Holocaust memorialization. It is not my intention to diminish the role of Holocaust memorialization; rather, I seek to look beyond representational aspects, and consider the processual relationships involved in the commemoration of the Holocaust in institutions, such as memorial sites and museums, as well as through elements of popular culture, such as films. Furthermore, I analyze the tangible and intangible layers of memories and meaning present in Holocaust films and sites through the lens of palimpsests. These conceptual frameworks allow me to consider how visual representations of the Holocaust, such as film, and site inform each other? How are specific representations of Holocaust sites and objects shaping and informing the commemoration of the Holocaust in the 21st century? / Graduate / 0326 / 0335 / 0751 / myriamt@uvic.ca

During the last decades “Climate Change” has become a vital topic on national and international political agendas. There it is presented as an irrevocable fact of global impact and thus of universal relevance. What has often been neglected are local discourses of marginalized groups and their specific contextualization of “Climate Change” phenomena. The aim of this project, to develop another perspective along these dominant narratives, has resulted in the research question How is social reality reconstructed on the phenomenon of “Climate Change” among the “Emerging Black Farmers” in the Swartland region in Western Cape, South Africa? Taken as an example, “Climate Change Knowledge” is reconstructed through a case study on the information exchange between the NGO Goedgedacht Trust and local small-scale farmers in the post-Apartheid context of on-going political, social, economic and educational transition in South Africa. Applying a constructivist approach, “Climate Change Knowledge” is not understood as an objectively given, but a socially constructed “reality” that is based on the interdependency of socio-economic conditions and individual assets, including language skills and language practice, sets of social norms and values, as well as strategies of knowledge transfer. The data set consists of qualitative data sources, such as application forms and interview material, which are triangulated. The rationale of a multi-layered data analysis includes a discursive perspective as well as linguistic and ethical “side perspectives”. Epistemologically, the thesis is guided by assumptions of complexity theory, framing knowledge around “Climate Change” as a fluid, constantly changing system that is shaped by constant intra- and inter-systemic exchange processes, and characterized by non-linearity, self-organization and representation of its constituents. From this point of departure, a theoretical terminology has been developed, which differentiates between symbols, interrelations, contents and content clusters. These elements are located in a system of spatio-temporal orientation and embedded into a broader (socio-economic) context of “historicity”. Content clusters are remodelled with the help of concept maps. Starting from that, a local perspective on “Climate Change” is developed, adding an experiential notion to the global narratives. The thesis concludes that there is no single reality about “Climate Change” and that the farmers’ “Climate Change Knowledge” highly depends on experiential relativity and spatio-temporal immediacy. Furthermore, analysis has shown that the system’s historicity and social manifestations can be traced in the scope and emphasis of the content clusters discussed. Finally the thesis demonstrates that characteristics of symbols, interconnections and contents range between dichotomies of direct and indirect, predictable versus unpredictable, awareness and negligence or threat and danger, all coexisting and creating a continuum of knowledge production.