Thesis advisor: Curt Dudley-Marling / This critical policy analysis, informed by a qualitative content analysis, examines the ideological orientation of Florida’s A++ Plan (2006), and its incumbent impact upon social reproduction in the state. Utilizing a theoretical framework that fuses together critical theory (Horkheimer, 1937; Marcuse, 1964; Marshall, 1997), Bernstein’s (1971, 1977) three message systems of education and dual concepts of classification and frame, and Collins‘ (1979, 2000, 2002) notion of the Credential Society, the study examines the ideological underpinnings of the A++ Plan’s statutory requirements, and their effects on various school constituencies, including students, teachers, and the schools themselves. The study’s findings show that neoliberal and neoconservative ideological tenets buttress much of the A++ legislation, advancing four particular ideological imperatives: an allegiance to workforce readiness, a burgeoning system of standardization and accountability, the elevation of traditional values and nationalism, and the championing of individual responsibility. Through the control of Bernstein’s three message systems of education, these ideological imperatives deeply impact public education in Florida, and in particular have a disproportionately negative impact upon schools serving high-poverty, high-minority student populations. New initiatives such as the Major Areas of Interest mandate and the Ready-to- Work Program, both of which are heavily influenced by corporate interests, elevate an ethic of economy that commodifies students. At the same time, the legislation ushers in unprecedented levels of curricular and pedagogical standardization that makes comparisons between students and teachers a reality, while commensurately creating a more competitive climate between schools as a means of promoting school choice throughout the state. Further, the legislation advances a vision of society that is strikingly conservative in tenor through the deliberate manipulation of the state’s History and Health curricula, while simultaneously creating programs such as the Character Development Program that espouse a narrowly construed vision of character. Finally, each of the legislative moves described above are undergirded by an increasing reliance not upon the state, but upon the individual who comes to see her or his choices as the sole arbiters of her or his success or failure, absent any possible mitigating, external factor(s). The study concludes with recommendations for further research addressing the manifest effects of neoliberal and neoconservative axioms in education, and a call to action targeted at progressive educators to confront these types of “reforms.” It further recommends that policymakers acknowledge that handing the governance of schools and the curriculum therein over to neoliberal and neoconservative ideologues will result in schools that both overtly value instrumental, corporatist outcomes, and purposefully advance a myopic vision of our nation’s collective memory and system of governing values. The marriage of neoliberalism and neoconservatism is positioned as antithetical to progressive education, and stands to turn back the clock on issues of equity, social justice, and social mobility. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

Purposes The present paper employs public discourses, in the form of policy documents from the OECD, EU and the UN, news and popular media, to explore how economic and political subjectivities simultaneously emerge and are obfuscated in the ubiquitous discourses on education that are dominated by neoliberal ideas (Ball, 2006; Buras & Apple, 2005).  Perspectives and theoretical framework One point of departure are the notions of “interdiscursivity” and “medialization of politics,” which point to how discourses are rearticulated in different contexts, drawing on each other, and thereby both affirming and displacing each other, and to how politics is made intelligible in public media (Fairclough, 1995; 2000). Another point of departure is the notions of assemblages and flight lines (Deleuze & Guattari, 2004). These concepts enable us to understand the neoliberal education discourse as an open, ambiguous and undecided assemblage, and to explore how this assemblage makes possible differing educational aims and subject positions.  Methods The argument is based on discourse analysis of transnational policy documents and news and popular media from different nations. The aim of the analysis is to explore what economic and political subject positions are made possible in these different data sets.  Results and Arguments Although the tenants of neoliberalism are dominant, they are not totally hegemonic. In both the policy documents and the public media data, there are simultaneous articulations of a neoliberal educational discourse and a discourse of education as a tool to enhance democracy and create social justice. Furthermore, these discourses inform and are often intertwined with each other.   The transnational policy documents predominantly articulate education as possibilities. There are, however, salient differences between the OECD and EU documents, and the UN documents. Although all emphasize what education can do for the nations, the former stress education as a prerequisite for economic progress, whereas the latter stress eliminating poverty, fostering democracy, and empowering individuals and subordinated groups. In this way, the OECD and EU documents constitute subjectivities in relation to a market focused on how learners can contribute to a growing economy, whereas the UN documents constitute political subjects who can contribute to society through political interventions.  News and public media are dominated by articulations of an education system in a state of “crisis”. The arguments for these representations and the solutions brought forward are drawn from a neoliberal discourse focused on competition, marketization, free choice, and private initiatives, but there is also a parallel and intersecting discourse of education as a means to give subordinated subjects opportunities for a better life. However, these discourses mainly point to economic rather than to political subjectivities, who hold their future in their own hands by making the right choices and working hard. This is not completely unambiguous, as media representations, especially in the popular media, also depict resistance and constitute subjectivities who subvert the neoliberal hegemony and who insist on the political (Mouffe, 2005). These subversions open the door to notions of education as practices that not only stabilize, but also destabilize and change society. / Class in neoliberal education discourses

Lifelong learning (LLL), a concept dating back to the 1920s, is much used both by the OECD, UNESCO and the EU. But while intergovernmental think-tanks and supranational organisations often use the term in a positive sense, many (not least scholars) are critical of the term. The critique either deals with the lack of a universal definition, that the implicit responsibility for LLL has shifted onto the individual, or that the meaning of the term has shifted from a humanistic one linked to the personal development and a better society to a neoliberal one that involves growth, competition, globalisation and human capital theory. This study is based on interviews with nine trade union representatives on their understandings of lifelong learning. The results showed that while LLL was positively viewed by most, there was virtually no communication vis-à-vis members on the topic, most trade unions have no policy regarding LLL, and responses from representatives were sometimes self-conflicting.

No description available.

This dissertation argues that conventional analysis of business-state relations fails to capture the nuances of networks shaping Egypt's neoliberal reform experience. Instead, it posits that both the 'business-state' and 'domestic-international' divides should be reconsidered - with categories better understood based on the nature of individuals' socio-economic capital (Bourdieu 1986). I argue that only by using such a framework can we make visible insidious forms of resource capture and economic exclusion. On the macro-level, this dissertation tells a story of elite resource capture that occurred alongside Egypt's experience of economic liberalization. While particular attention is paid to reforms of the 2000s, I also trace developments to roots laid by international partnerships and platforms established during the first IMF-led reform project of the Mubarak era in the 1990s. On the micro-level, this is a story of some of the central networks of 'globalizers' (Springborg and Henry 2010) - or individuals who rose to become chief mediators for internationally funded initiatives to empower Egypt's 'private sector.' I examine their ascent in the industrial policy-making space during the tenure of the first businessman cabinet member, Rashid Mohammed Rashid (2004-2011). I focus on the role of these networks in capturing the central 'business development' programs initiated alongside the reforms of the 2000s, which I argue served as platforms for accessing both immediate rent streams, as well as for shaping industrial policies to gain future rents. I then follow a handful of these individuals as they secure one highly controversial industrial policy: the Qualifying Industrial Zones (QIZ) trade agreement between Egypt, Israel and the US. In particular, I highlight the web of individuals and organizations mobilized in the process, providing close examination of the small cohort standing at the center of negotiations. I draw from targeted interviews and participant observation conducted over three years of fieldwork and triangulate findings with printed sources including corporate press releases, leaked US embassy cables and evaluations by international development organizations.

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Departamento de Estudos Latino-Americanos, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Estudos Comparados Sobre as Américas, 2017. / Submitted by Albânia Cézar de Melo (albania@bce.unb.br) on 2017-07-13T14:27:09Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2017_CarolinaAlbuquerqueSilva.pdf: 642637 bytes, checksum: 10ffea32c69b3c4fbede0d79406367e1 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Raquel Viana (raquelviana@bce.unb.br) on 2017-08-25T20:41:19Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2017_CarolinaAlbuquerqueSilva.pdf: 642637 bytes, checksum: 10ffea32c69b3c4fbede0d79406367e1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-08-25T20:41:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2017_CarolinaAlbuquerqueSilva.pdf: 642637 bytes, checksum: 10ffea32c69b3c4fbede0d79406367e1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-08-25 / Os anos 2000 viram emergir, na América Latina e no Caribe, novos projetos de integração regional (ALBA, UNASUL e CELAC), com agendas de trabalho marcadas pela inclusão de temas políticos, sociais e identitários que as afastava do regionalismo neoliberal, centrado nos aspectos econômicos da integração, que imperara na região nas décadas de 1980 e 1990. Este regionalismo heterodoxo, conectado à eleição de governos progressistas e à emergência dos movimentos sociais como atores regionais, tem como principal característica a intenção de construir autonomia para a região em relação às decisões tomadas verticalmente pelos países centrais do sistema-mundo. Suas expectativas chocam-se, no entanto, com a permanência de expressões do regionalismo neoliberal, como a Aliança do Pacífico, e com a manutenção da hegemonia estadunidense e de seus projetos associados à região. Neste contexto, a CELAC diferencia-se por ser a primeira organização, em 200 anos de independências, a reunir todos os países soberanos da América Latina e do Caribe, sem a participação dos EUA ou de países europeus. / Latin America and the Caribbean witnessed, in the first decade of the century, the emergency of new regional integration projects (ALBA, UNASUR and CELAC), whose agendas were characterized by the inclusion of political, social and identity issues that separated them from the economy-focused neoliberal regionalism that prevailed during the 1980s and 1990s. This heterodox regionalism, related to the election of progressive governments and the emergence of social movements as regional actors, has as its main characteristic the intention to build autonomy for the region in relation to the verticality of the decisions made by central countries of the world-system. These expectations, however, run counter to the persistence of old neoliberal regionalism expressions, such as the Pacific Alliance, and the maintenance of US hegemony and its projects towards the region. In this context, CELAC stands out as the first organization, in 200 years of independence, to bring together all the sovereign countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, without the participation of the US or European countries. / La década de 2000 vio surgir en América Latina y el Caribe a nuevos proyectos de integración regional (ALBA, UNASUR y CELAC), con agendas de trabajo marcadas por la inclusión de temas políticos, sociales e identitarios que se apartan del regionalismo neoliberal, centrado en los aspectos económicos de la integración, que había sido preponderante en la región en los años 1980 y 1990. Este regionalismo heterodoxo, conectado a la elección de gobiernos progresistas y a la emergencia de los movimientos sociales como actores regionales, tiene como característica principal la intención de construir autonomía para la región en relación con las decisiones tomadas verticalmente por los países centrales del sistema-mundo. Sus expectativas chocan, sin embargo, con la permanencia de expresiones del regionalismo neoliberal, como es el caso de la Alianza del Pacífico, y el mantenimiento de la hegemonía de Estados Unidos y de sus proyectos asociados con la región. En este contexto, la CELAC se distingue por ser la primera organización, en 200 años de vida independiente, a reunir a todos los países soberanos de América Latina y el Caribe, sin la participación de los EE.UU. o de países europeos.

Ecofeminism has had a nonlinear developmental path. Although it was celebrated as a potentially revolutionary project in the 1970s, by the time climate change and environmental crises had worked their way into mainstream discourse ecofeminism had become practically unheard of. The purpose of this thesis is to reflect on the failure of early ecofeminism and to explore ecofeminism’s potential as a transformative project of the twenty-first century. This thesis is motivated by my own personal experience of ecofeminism as transformative and also by what I would call a recent resurgence of interest in ecofeminism by young students, budding feminists, and fledgling environmentalists that understand the climate and environmental crises as fundamentally linked to the oppressions of colonial capitalist-patriarchy. Recounting the origin, history, and marginalization of the project of ecofeminism, I explore the rift between materialist and spiritual/cultural approaches to argue that the effectiveness of ecofeminism is dependent upon a collaborative recovery from the damages done by extensive anti-essentialism critiques. The onto-epistemology of our current paradigm— defined by neoliberal capitalism and colonial patriarchy—limits response to the environmental crises of our times to that of incremental policy change that is more symbolic than substantive. I argue that, in order to escape the chains of the neoliberal/capitalist/patriarchal subject that are cast upon us by these predatory onto-epistemologies, we must envisage ways to be human otherwise; in reciprocal relationships with more-than-human nature. As a prefigurative project that centres the more-than-human yet maintains a comprehensive intersectional anti-oppressive framework, a contemporary ‘multispecies ecofeminism’ can endow us with this potentiality. In our times of immense ecological degradation and ‘point-of-no-return’ deadlines, ecofeminism is a needed ‘third story’ that resonates as revolutionary with young scholars of the twenty-first century. / Graduate

Since the adoption of neoliberalism, many cities have taken to integrating nature with capital accumulation to create a sense of place. This has been closely tied to urban greening, or green "revitalization." As part of curating this desired character, city governments are working to roll out plans to restore and renew neighborhoods using their natural landscapes through methods such as reforestation, the creation of parks, and commercial development. These cities, deemed Entrepreneurial cities, are increasingly incorporating natural or green spaces into their development of character as part of their branding schemes. This research focuses on the role of nature as the site of economic development and community revitalization within Dallas, Texas. This research examines how the City of Dallas uses nature to attract capital, and how the narratives of development relate to residents' visions for development in the historically neglected Joppa neighborhood in the Trinity River Corridor. Development near Joppa could be an example of how the natural landscape is being used to not only attract developers but also to bring a different ‘class' of resident into the area. By exploring this intersection of nature and capital in Dallas, we can better understand the nuanced ways through which the neoliberalization of nature can lead to deeper social and economic disparities.

No description available.

No description available.