Migration is a continuous process in an increasingly globalized world and African migrants have for a long time migrated to Europe mostly for economic reasons. Due to biased reporting of life in Europe by both western and African media as well as half-truths by Africans living in Europe who seldom tell the whole story of their lives abroad; a lot of African migrants arrive in Europe with a very idealistic image. African migrants thereby risk a lot in pursuit of a better life in Europe. When they finally arrive, a lot of their idealistic expectations are not met, forcing them to be filled with regret and the wish that they had known the full truth before migrating. This study examines an online platform (Surprising Europe’s website), that connects African migrants by inviting them to share stories about their migration experiences in an effort to better inform those intending to migrate. The use of interviews of the producers to better understand the project as well as their intentions, and a narrative analysis of all the 30 articles on the website are analysed. The results indicate that the danger of telling one sided stories contribute to the existing narrative of a western idealistic image of “gold lying on the streets”; as well as an illustration of the authors exhibiting a transformation from people who were formerly Surprising Europe’s audience, now constructing narratives in a collaborative way with the producers. The website therefore demonstrates how an online platform for mediated communication can be used to offer fragmented identities as well as a sense of belonging, offering a voice to the previously voiceless despite their migration status.

Biofuels have caught the attention of the world as a source of renewable energy which can provide energy security, advance rural development, mitigate climate change, and foster international trade. India developed the National Mission on Biodiesel (NMB) as a rural development policy option to produce biodiesel from Jatropha curcas and promoted it as a pro-poor and pro-growth initiative. This thesis examines the emergence, trajectory, and the consequences of the NMB to assess how the NMB worked as a test development policy programme in India. The thesis focuses on the policy-making process in India, particularly the role of narratives in development policy-making and how it leads to blueprint development. It argues that the narratives supporting the NMB were based on shaky scientific facts and did not represent the needs of the rural people. The thesis takes into account that policy processes involve various actors, networks, their interactions and their knowledge, communication of knowledge and politics. It traces the role of various actors such as policy-makers, bureaucrats, researchers, professionals from private companies and NGOs, farmers, and landless labourers involved in the biodiesel mission. This thesis is anchored in the discipline of Science and Technology Studies (STS) and it draws from Actor Network Theory (ANT) and Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) to analyse how the NMB progressed as a test policy model and whether it really was a ‘pro-poor’, ‘pro-growth’ development initiative. Hence this thesis studies how development narratives were used to promote the biodiesel initiative, how networks were created to establish the biodiesel mission as a policy option and advocate its adoption, and in turn how the NMB progressed as a development initiative. As the thesis draws from SCOT the discussion will emphasise on the practices of a society adopting a technology/development initiative, the importance of users (scientists, policy-makers, farmers, labourers, representatives from the industry and NGOs), how users are represented, and in turn how the NMB had an impact on the people adopting it. This thesis contributes to the understanding of the policy-making process of development renewable policies in India and it also examines the apparent inevitability of technological solutions to development challenges. It also contributes to the literature of narratives serving as ‘blueprints’ for development policy-making. Additionally it adds to the literature on biofuels and reveals the complex nature of regional and national networks that comprise a part of the rising Global Biofuel Network.

The following thesis is an analysis of the self-narratives of the parties in the Swedish Riksdag and how these are used to construct the identities of the parties. For this purpose, we studied narrative theory and theories about identity in order to build a framework which would allow us to investigate the narratives of these parties. To identify the core narratives of the parties, we chose to focus on their respective party programs. Based on the results of our quantitative investigation, we chose four parties (Socialdemokraterna, Liberalerna, Miljöpartiet, and Sverigedemokraterna) to study in a more in-depth manner. Having selected these four parties, we utilized theories about narrative and identity in order to identify the constituent parts of the various parties' narratives contained in their party programs. The parties were found to adhere to our theoretical assumptions about how parties ought to construct narratives, albeit in different ways from party to party.

Between Waves is a lyrical memoir that explores the changes I faced in transitioning into American life after growing up in rural England. The book is written in two parts; the first is set mostly in England, the second takes place primarily in Florida. I interweave a present, reflective voice through both parts to challenge the ideas of love, loss, and learning to say goodbye as well as attempting to illustrate how perceptions of each can change over time. The lyrical structure of the memoir allows for swift transition between memories, themes, and locations without limitations of a chronological or linear storyline. The stories detailed throughout the memoir are meditative, subjective perceptions that intend to determine what it means to be a child, a parent, a transplant, and what it means to find home within it all. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Pseudoscience is a collection of nonfiction essays analyzing the origins and methodologies or various pseudoscientific practices against the backdrop of events from the narrator's life that mirror those practices in some way. Pseudoscience is unverifiable. Pseudoscience is unverifiable. / by Mike Shier. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

Merging from the Distance offers a place to display the poems I have created during my tenure as a graduate student. The four sections found within represent different personal aesthetics. My thesis is also representational of a personal chronology, for it was my intention to demonstrate my efforts of contemporary poetry. Many of the poems seek to engage symbiosis by combining different languages, forms, and levels of diction. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

A interação entre diferentes linguagens e meios artísticos é uma das marcas presente no processo de comunicação humana, sobretudo hoje em dia. Um dos aspectos que se destaca nessa interação é a constante revisitação de obras que são re-elaboradas em diferentes suportes comunicativos. É o que ocorre quando temos o diálogo entre os quadrinhos e a literatura, artes que trabalham com a narratividade e que trazem em si peculiaridades que as definem como importantes meios de veiculação e propagação de idéias, valores e ideologias. Nesse estudo procuramos abordar a relação entre os dois meios artísticos destacando se tal diálogo propicia uma reprodução ou questionamento das tradições culturais, atualizando-as (ou não) a partir de sua transposição de uma arte para outra. A partir de teorias que versam sobre quadrinhos, intertextualidade, dialogismo, história da arte e da literatura e outras, traçamos um painel das diversas relações que se estabelecem entre obras criadas nos quadrinhos a partir do material literário, e que se revelam por meio de uma gradação em que temos desde obras que remetem diretamente ao texto clássico literário até aquelas que procuram fazer dos elementos oriundos da literatura um mote para o desenvolvimento de novas produções em quadrinhos. Também num movimento contrário, procuramos mostrar como os quadrinhos fornecem material para a criação de obras na literatura e como sua linguagem múltipla pode atuar em conjunto com o texto literário para a construção de obras mistas. / The interaction between different languages and artistic circles is one of the main issues in the process of human communication, especially today. One thing that stands out is that the constant interaction revisiting of works that are re-elaborated in various communication media. This is what happens when there is a dialogue between comics and literature, both arts which work with narrative and are filled with peculiarities that define them as important means of transmitting and spreading ideas, values and ideologies. In this study we tried to address the relationship between those two media arts, highlighting the questions concerning whether this dialogue provides a repetition or a questioning of cultural traditions, updating them (or not) from this translation of one art to another. Based on theories that deal with comics, intertexture, dialogism, history of art and literature and others, we draw a panel of the diverse relationships established between works created in comics from literary material, which reveal themselves by means of a gradation that goes from works that refer directly to the classic literary text to those who attempt to make the elements of literature a means for the development of new productions in comics. Also in an opposite movement, we try to show how comics provide material for the creation of works in literature and its varied language can co-act with the literary text for the construction of mixed works.

Este trabalho parte do pressuposto de que investigar as linguagens e pensamentos envolvidos nos processos de criação científica, no processo de interpretação do cientista frente aos fenômenos da natureza, pode nos indicar como trabalhar a ciência em sala de aula de maneira que as características epistemológicas deste conhecimento sejam levadas em consideração. Com isto, este trabalho toma uma perspectiva epistemológica. Quando pensamos no ensino básico, em particular, temos a indicação de que uma das dificuldades enfrentadas pelos alunos está relacionada à formalização do conhecimento científico. Isto é ainda mais forte na física, uma vez que este conhecimento tem uma relação muito próxima com a matemática. Mas qual é o papel epistemológico da matemática para a física? O cientista é capaz de interpretar fisicamente a natureza somente usando linguagens e pensamentos formais, especialmente estruturados pela matemática? Nossa hipótese é que a resposta a essa questão é negativa. Encontramos nas ideias do psicólogo Jerome Bruner uma forma de encaminhar nossa discussão. A partir das ideias dele, e do nosso anseio por investigar se pensamentos e linguagens que não são estritamente formais desempenham papel importante na construção da física, levantamos a seguinte questão: Qual o papel das narrativas e da matemática na construção da física? Para delinear uma resposta possível a esta questão, tomamos como contexto da nossa pesquisa alguns \"capítulos\" da construção da Teoria da Relatividade Geral. Nossa investigação mostrou que experimentos mentais importantes no desenvolvimento desta teoria foram construídos a partir dos pensamentos narrativo e matemático. Entendemos que estes dois modos de pensamentos se apresentaram de maneira complementar no contexto estudado. / This work assumes that investigate the language and thoughts involved in scientific processes of creating, in the scientist process of interpretation facing the nature phenomena, can reveal how to work the science in the classroom so that the epistemological features of this knowledge are taken into account. Taking this into account, our work takes an epistemological perspective. When we think in high school, in particular, we have the indication that one of the difficulties faced by students is related to the formalization of scientific knowledge. This is even stronger in physics, which mathematics plays important role. But what is the epistemological role of mathematics to physics? The scientist is able to physically interpret nature only using formal languages and thoughts, especially structured by mathematics? Our hypothesis is that the answer to this question is negative. We find the psychologist Jerome Bruner ideas a way to send our discussion. From his ideas, and our longing to investigate whether thoughts and languages that are not strictly formal play an important role in building physics, raised the question: What is the role of narrative and mathematics in physical construction? To outline a possible answer to this question, we take as the context of our research some \"chapters\" of the construction of the General Theory of Relativity. Our investigation has shown that important thought experiments in the development of this theory were built from the narrative and mathematical thoughts. We understand that these two modes of thought presented in a complementary manner in the context studied.

The following is a collection of personal essays exploring identity during the transformative period of the author's early adult life. It also examines themes of home, inheritance, grief, and loss of faith. It has elements of both humor and drama highlighted through unusual forms and elements of voice. It is about growing up and going home, mixing old traditions with new ones, bringing new insights to old problems, and about having faith, but always on one's own terms. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2015. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

The 'haunted home' has enjoyed a long-standing position as a motif within society, crossing a span of narratives, from anecdotal local stories shared informally between family and friendship networks, to the established Gothic traditions of literature and film. This project uniquely examines the ways in which people who believe their homes to be haunted negotiate the experience of co-habiting with ghosts. It is a qualitative study which has applied a mix of creative methodologies to a number of in-depth case studies in England and Wales. Geographers and researchers in related disciplines have recently expressed interest in the idea of ghosts or haunting, but have tended to focus upon public metropolitan spaces, and to employ the ghost as a metaphor or social figure. In contrast, this project contributes to a growing literature on the material and immaterial geographies of the home, the intangible and affective aspects of everyday life within the particular context of the domestic interior. The project explores the insights uncanny events experienced within this space reveal about people's embodied, emotional, spatial and temporal relationships with 'home' as both physical place and as a set of ideals. It studies the way in which people negotiate experiences which appear to lack rational or natural explanation, and the interpretative narratives employed to explain them. It suggests ways in which different forms of belief influence interpretations of uncanny events. It also suggests ways in which inhabitants of haunted homes negotiate the co-habitation with ghosts through a number of strategies which reinforce their own subjectivity in the face of potential encroachment into their private space.