This dissertation consists of three essays. Each one seeks to add in the understanding, in a small way, of the factors that contribute to the development of societies. The first chapter explores the decisive facts of technological advancements and the ability of trade to shape incentives to create new techniques destined for the open markets. The second chapter examines the electoral consequence of having a conservative biased source of information and its effects on the desired ideology of representatives. The third explores how using violence, illegal groups can reach their population control goals in their territories. These three chapters seek to answer history, and power relations between different groups determine societies' paths. In the first chapter, I study how access to international markets affects the direction of technical change. I use a historical trade shock that transformed the Spanish textile industry at the end of the 19th century. After Spain effectively forced its colonies to buy manufactured cotton goods in 1891, I document an increase in cotton textile innovation relative to other fabrics. After the colonies' independence in 1898, the difference in textile innovation between cotton and different fabric remained significant. This shows that innovation exhibits a path dependence even without the initial conditions that motivated the increase. I provide price evidence of the strength of the technical change indicating that the rise in relative prices of cotton fabrics boosted the rise in cotton innovation. Together, these results provide some of the first causal evidence on how international trade and foreign markets shape the direction of the technical change. Even more, I show that innovation is possible in peripherical countries. Conditions outside the technological leaders determined the incentives of local innovators to develop technologies needed for those local conditions. In chapter 2, written with Haaris Mateen, we study how the introduction of a biased local TV operator affects electoral results. We use Sinclair Broadcasting Group's (SBG) staggered expansion over 2012 and 2017. This is the largest TV operator in the United States and is known for its conservative slant. We find that in areas exposed to SBG biased news coverage in local TV stations the electoral results experienced changes compared to places where the company did not penetrate. First, we find that penetration of SBG decreased the likelihood of a third-party candidate in the House of Representatives elections yet increased the probability of having a republican candidate as the winner of the seat. On the other hand, in the presidential elections after SBG penetration, the republican party was harmed, and its candidate received fewer votes, thanks to an increase in the voting of third parties. Second, when analyzing the ideology of the winner of the local election, we document a movement to the right, partially motivated by an increase in the probability of electing a conservative republican as representative. Finally, when looking at the mechanism that explains these effects, we find no movements on the democrat candidates but changes towards the right on republican candidates. In those areas affected by SBG, the republican candidate had a more significant likelihood to be conservative and not moderate. Evermore, those republican candidates had an increase in the donations coming from PACs. Together, these results prove that media have differential impacts on the election. It can affect beyond the voters' preferences, and it also affects the decision of which type of candidates run on local electoral races. In chapter 3, together with Diego Martin, we study how non-state actors enforce stay-at-home orders to reduce COVID-19 cases. We argue that Colombian-illegal groups used massacres to enforce social distance rules. Massacres are attacks killing at least three defenseless civilians in one operation. We estimate the effect of those violent events using a synthetic control method. To rule out the channel of massacres for other reasons such as coca production, we compare sub-regions with low conflict before the pandemic and where coca is not suitable for growth. We find that places with massacres reduced the pandemic outbreak by 70 cases per 100.000 inhabitants per week after the second month. We show that the principal channel that explains our results is a reduction on mobility indexes. The first massacre decreased infection levels by reducing individuals' mobility at workplaces. Finally, we show that young population groups experienced the earliest reduction in infection rates, while the old group has the highest decline in infection rates after massacres.

This is a research report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Diversity Studies, in the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. / Prior to and immediately following 1994, South African youth literature has largely focused on atypical groups, especially young people’s participation in political protest and violence (Marks 2001; Ntsebeza 1993; Seekings 1993; Straker 1992; Van Kessel 2000). The challenge for new research is to grapple more broadly with the question of how young people construct ordinary lives and identities amid the changing and transforming socio-cultural, economic and political landscape. As such, this study aimed to focus on the ordinary, quotidian narratives of youth in an extraordinary place of Marikana, where the massacre of striking mineworkers took place in 2012. Face-to-face, individual interviews were conducted with 8 participants (aged between 19 and 31 years) living in Marikana, including people who were born in or had migrated to Marikana. Both structural and thematic analyses were used to analyse the transcribed texts. The structural analysis was used to examine how poverty plays a role in the form of stories told. The thematic analysis focused on the content of the narratives, drawing linkages across participants’ stories to understand how they make meaning of events and experiences in their lives. The themes identified were organised as follows: Marikana (nostalgia about the place of Marikana, and belonging to the place of Marikana), childhood in Marikana and elsewhere (growing up in Marikana, and growing up elsewhere), families and their structure (single-parent headed and transnational families, (grand)mothers as pillars of family, and (inter)generational absence/presence of fathers), education (lack of funds for schooling), and possibilities for the future (dreams and futures deferred, and fantasies of escape). The findings indicate that the trauma and violence of the Marikana Massacre was remarkably marginal in their narratives. Instead, participants stressed poverty as a systemic problem that is far more pervasive in how they (re)produce(d) their stories. This core finding reveals poverty as a perpetual structural violence, a repeated state of trauma that is inflicted on their lives and reflected in their stories. Further findings show that many biological fathers are absent in the lives of their children, mostly due to migration or death. Consequently, sons follow in their fathers’ footsteps, leaving their new families behind (some becoming transnational parents). This produces a prevalent intergenerational absence of fathers in Marikana. As a result, mothers and grandmothers are the main breadwinners and emotional pillars of the family. / MT2017

Although the history of the Eastern Cape has been recorded from the eighteenth century, virtually nothing has been written about the political entity known as the independent Republic of Ciskei (1981 – 1994). This hiatus in our history, coupled with the fact that many of the official records of that period have been destroyed, make it imperative that the role-players of the period be contacted and their evidence be recorded before it is lost to prosperity. This need has motivated the writing of the thesis. The thesis commences with a brief description of the early history and constitutional development of Ciskei. It then has a substantial chapter on Lennox Sebe, the ruler of Ciskei from 1973 to 1990, who is described as the catalyst of Gqozo’s coup d’état. This is followed by a short personal biography of Oupa Gqozo, and his rise to the position of Brigadier in the Ciskei army. On 4 March 1990 Gqozo led the coup by the Ciskei Defence Force that dethroned Sebe. At the outset he ruled in an exemplary manner, but after being misled by South African agents he turned against the African National Congress and his own people. When he established his own party, the African Democratic Movement, and re-instated the hated headman system, civil war followed in Ciskei. Separate chapters in the thesis relate the various traumatic events that occurred during Gqozo’s reign: the killing of Anton Guzana and Charles Sebe; the dismissal of the senior officers of the CDF; the strife during 1991/2; the Bhisho Massacre; its aftermath; the mutiny by the security forces and Gqozo’s resignation on 22 March 1994. The thesis concludes that although Brigadier Gqozo respected the rule of law, and was free of corruption, he was devoid of the necessary academic qualifications, experience and ability, including the necessary insight and foresight, to rule a country. He became paranoid about his own safety and the possible overthrow of his government, and he was too easily swayed by others. In short, Gqozo was inept, rather than evil.

The creative submission for my dissertation includes two of my documentary works: They Will Take My Island, a thirty-minute multimedia collaboration with filmmaker Atom Egoyan for amplified string octet, electronic track, and film, commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and Paper Pianos, a ninety-minute staged collaboration with director Nigel Maister and projection artist Kevork Mourad. The written submission for my dissertation is an examination of the ways in which experiences around transgenerational trauma inform and manifest in my creative practice. I offer a summary of my own family history of survivors of the Armenian Genocide and Lebanese Civil War, as well as a survey of displacement amongst the Armenian community in the past century. Furthermore, I discuss identity processing as diaspora and the act of cultural preservation, as inspired by genocide survivor, composer, priest, writer, and musicologist, Komitas Vardapet. I later examine these ideas in the context of creating They Will Take My Island and Paper Pianos, both of which were constructively motivated by transgenerational survivor’s guilt and draw from extra-musical documentary and horror genre practices.

Cette thèse se propose d'analyser les événements internes à l'Empire ottoman envers les Arméniens de 1894 jusqu'en 1914 aux yeux de l'opinion publique française à travers les sources journalistiques françaises. De 1894, début des massacres des Arméniens jusqu'à la prise de pouvoir des Jeunes-Turcs (1908), comment les années d'Abdul-Hamid II envers la population arménienne furent-ils perçus et quelle fut la vision du gouvernement unioniste (1908-1914) face aux Arméniens ? Voilà un aperçu des principales problématiques qui sera abordé à travers notre étude. / This thesis aims to analyze the internal events in the Ottoman Empire against Armenians from 1894 until 1914 in the eyes of the French public through the French journalists' sources. 1894 start of the massacres of Armenians to the takeover of the Young Turks (1908), how the years of Abdul Hamid II to the Armenian population were they received and what was the vision of the Union government (1908 -1914) against the Armenians? This is an overview of the main issues that will be addressed through the study.

Text in English / This research focuses upon the killing on 16 August 2012, by the South African Police Service, of miners working in Marikana, in the North West Province, in their struggle for a just wage. This experience highlighted the ethical question of the relationship between the employee and the employer. This research investigates this question by reference to the evolution of the doctrine of the “just wage” and the “just price” in Western moral philosophy. The investigation shows that this Western doctrine is a significant basis for an ethical evaluation of the relationship between employee and the employer. However, the doctrine does require expansion by taking the woman as an indispensable factor in labour relations. Also, it requires deepening by engaging in dialogue with other philosophies of the world, in this particular case, the philosophy of Ubuntu. The dialogue with Ubuntu is justified by the fact that the majority of the miners, the actual diggers of the mineral wealth, are born into and nurtured through the philosophy of Ubuntu, even if some may have reservations about it. The dialogue reveals a specific philosophical issue, namely, a clash of the epistemological and moral paradigms. The Ubuntu epistemological-ethical maxim of feta kgomo o tshware motho (if and when one must choose between the continual accumulation of wealth and the preservation of human life then one ought to opt for the latter) is fundamentally at odds with capitalism, an economic system that elevates wealth and money to the status of a deity. A resolution of this conflict is an ethical imperative. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Philosophy)

Ma thèse vise en premier ressort à étudier toutes les questions juridiques concernant la ‘question arménienne’.D’abord, le sujet de l’existence des éléments du crime de génocide en 1915 au niveau du droit international conventionnel a été notre première question à étudier. Ensuite, il était indispensable d’étudier la nature du crime commis envers les Arméniens ottomans en 1915.En plus, est-ce que l’Etat Turc actuel peut-il être responsable d’un crime commis par l’Empire ottoman, selon le principe de la succession d’Etats en droit international, surtout que l’Etat Turc n’était créé qu’en 1923 ? Et en cas de l’existence de cette responsabilité, est-ce que l’Arménie a droit à l’action en responsabilité, surtout qu’au moment de la perpétration du crime, il n’y avait pas un Etat Arménien ? Les victimes étaient des ressortissants de l’Empire ottoman mais d’origine arménienne. Donc il faudra étudier la qualité de l’Arménie pour agir en justice, par des moyens judiciaires ou extrajudiciaires, vis-à-vis surtout du principe de la non-rétroactivité des traités, surtout que dans notre cas, le crime a été perpétré en 1915, alors que la Convention sur le génocide n’a été promulguée qu’en 1948.En fait, notre thèse vise en dernier ressort à rapprocher les deux pays et mettre fin réellement au conflit entre eux, à percevoir ce qui les rassemblent et non ce qui les divisent, et trouver une solution équitable et objective pour les deux pays afin de contribuer à mettre fin à leur litige historique, et cela à travers une étude réaliste, impartiale et basée sur la logique et la nature des choses et des circonstances du fait existantes. / The main purpose of my thesis is to study all the legal issues concerning the 'Armenian question'.First, the existence of the elements of the crime of genocide in 1915 at the conventional international law, made our first question to consider. Then, it was necessary to study the nature of the crime committed against the Ottoman Armenians in 1915.In addition, can Turkey be responsible for a crime committed by the Ottoman Empire, according to the principle of succession of States in international law, especially that the Turkish state was created in 1923?And in case of such responsibility, has Armenia the right to maintain a lawsuit against Turkey, especially at the time of the crime, there was no Armenian state?The victims were citizens of the Ottoman Empire but of Armenian descent.Also, the quality of Armenia to take legal action, by judicial or extrajudicial processes, must be studied, regarding especially to the principle of non-retroactivity of treaties, especially that in our case, the crime was committed in 1915, while the Genocide Convention was enacted in 1948.In fact, our thesis aims ultimately to bring the two countries closer and actually try to help reach the end of the conflict between them, perceive what gather them and not what divides them, and find a fair and objective solution for both countries, in order to help put an end to their historic dispute, and that through a realistic and impartial study, based on logic and the nature of things and the circumstances of the existing.

In 1978 the SADF carried out an airborne assault on Cassinga in Southern Angola. The South Africans claimed that Cassinga was a key SWAPO military headquarters, training camp and logistic base. SWAPO claimed it was a refugee camp and that the approximately 600 people who died in the attack were innocent civilians. The SADF said it had dealt SWAPO a significant military blow; SWAPO said the SADF had carried out a brutal massacre of old people, women and children. This dissertation focuses on the military dimensions of the raid, examining first the military situation in southern Angola and northern Namibia at the time, then looking at Cassinga itself before reviewing the airborne capability of the SADF, considering the decision that was made to launch the attack, describing the planning and preparations, the actual assault, a Cuban counter-attack and the extraction of the South African paratroopers. It concludes with the propaganda claims of both sides before assessing the military significance of the action. / History / M.A.

In 1978 the SADF carried out an airborne assault on Cassinga in Southern Angola. The South Africans claimed that Cassinga was a key SWAPO military headquarters, training camp and logistic base. SWAPO claimed it was a refugee camp and that the approximately 600 people who died in the attack were innocent civilians. The SADF said it had dealt SWAPO a significant military blow; SWAPO said the SADF had carried out a brutal massacre of old people, women and children. This dissertation focuses on the military dimensions of the raid, examining first the military situation in southern Angola and northern Namibia at the time, then looking at Cassinga itself before reviewing the airborne capability of the SADF, considering the decision that was made to launch the attack, describing the planning and preparations, the actual assault, a Cuban counter-attack and the extraction of the South African paratroopers. It concludes with the propaganda claims of both sides before assessing the military significance of the action. / History / M.A.

This thesis aims to open up the realm of what counts as political in the context of the Marikana strikes and subsequent massacre. It does primarily by taking into account the social, political and cultural context of Mpondo workers on the mines. Many narrow Marxist and liberal frameworks have circumscribed the conception of the ‘modern’ and the ‘political’ so much so that political organisation which falls outside of this conceptualisation is often regarded as ‘backward’ or ‘archaic’. It will provide an examination of the history, culture and custom of men, who have, for almost a hundred years migrated back and forth between South African mines and Mpondoland. This not only reveals differing modes of organising and engaging in political action, but also that the praxis of democracy takes many forms, some of which are different and opposed to what counts as democratic in Western liberal democracy. By considering what I argue, following some of the insights from the Subaltern Studies collective in India, to be a subaltern sphere of politics and history, it is possible to better understand the way workers organised and acted. The thesis also argues that most labour and nationalist historiography has been silent on the political contributions of women because of how Marxist/liberal analysis frames struggles through disciplined notions of work and resistance. Rather than objectifying workers as representatives of a homogenous and universal class of people devoid of context, the thesis has linked ‘the worker’ to the community from which s/he comes and community specific struggles, which are supported and sustained, often, by the parallel struggles of women in the community.