In response to reductionist neoliberal approaches to organizational change that have been prevalent in American education since the 1980s, some educators have begun to employ a whole-systems approach to improving student learning. These approaches, based in complexity sciences, recognize the nonlinear, unpredictable nature of learning and the interconnected relationships among myriad factors that influence the teaching/learning that occurs in schools. In the summer preceding the 2011-2012 school year, a cohort of educators from California Unified School District participated in a 10-day training regarding human systems dynamics (HSD) and complexity thinking. Their goal was to build adaptive capacity throughout the district in the pursuit of improving student learning. Through analysis of the interviews from seven target participants from this training, this study investigates what target participants report regarding their use of HSD methods and models in their work in schools across the 2011-2012 school year. Findings indicate that target participants displayed distinct arcs of use of HSD methods/models. In addition, findings suggest that target participants’ need for support in learning and implementing HSD methods/models, the influence of systemic and individual history, and the role of agency affected their “arcs of use.” This study illuminates the ways in which HSD methods/models support both organizational change efforts and the ways in which teaching/learning occur in the classroom, including the applicability of HSD methods/models in building collaborative cultures and in helping students develop the kinds of thinking required in the use of 21st-century literacies.

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is the leading professional organization for registered dietitians (RDs)--globally--with over 75,000 members. Professional organizations are often overlooked in communication scholarship. However, the Academy offers a rich setting for researching occupational identities, health activism, and neoliberalism. I used semi-structured interviews to explore how taken-for-granted discourses, power relationships, and unquestioned norms are challenged, reinforced, and (re)constructed within the Academy. Specifically, this study analyzed two challenges to the Academy and the dietetics profession: claims to professional expertise and a debate surrounding the Academy's corporate sponsorship. My findings suggest that the profession, which happens to be predominantly female, is struggling with issues of marginalization. RDs described their expertise through a rhetorical turf war--in which they defined themselves against nutritionists--to help elevate their profession. Further, I found that the Academy has a sub-group of health activists that are unified through their holistic approach to nutrition. These health activists attempted to address complaints about the Academy's corporate sponsorship program but lacked a unified vision for their efforts. By researching the Academy, I hope to contribute new understandings about how professional organizations, discourses of expertise, and corporate sponsorship contribute and influence the public's understandings of health and nutrition. While my results have practical and theoretical implications for RDs and the Academy, they also have broader implications for understanding power relationships and hidden discourses within our complex, dynamic food system.

After the Second World War, the service sector in many countries, including the highly developed and the developing countries, started growing and making up the bulk of the economies of those countries. Some of the factors for that radical change are: the changing patterns of government ownership and regulation, privatization, technological innovations, servitization, internationalization, globalization, etc. The purpose of this article is to investigate and to suggest a classification of the existing literature in the field of service economy. The results of the systematic review of the area of the service economy are presented in a thematic order. Moreover, the findings are connected with the economical schools of thought - welfare state and neoliberalism. The key findings reveal that the social, economic, and technological changes brought by the Third Industrial Revolution were essential for the dissemination and development of the service sector.

This thesis explores the emergence and proliferation of public consultative bodies (PCBs) in contemporary Russia. Created by the government and regulated by law, PCBs are formal groups of NGO leaders, academics, journalists, entrepreneurs and public figures selected by the state, that perform advisory, monitory and support functions to government departments and individuals at federal, regional and municipal levels. The concept of obshchestvennyi kontrol’ (public scrutiny) is employed by Kremlin to refer to the dual activities of oversight and assistance, which PCBs are intended to enact. First appearing ten years ago with the foundation of the Federal Public Chamber in 2004, there are now tens of thousands of PCBs in operation across the country. This thesis constitutes the first systematic analysis of PCBs in English. It uses a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approach in order to explore the extent to which the portrayal of PCBs in government discourse corresponds to the practices enacted through these institutions in three regional case studies of Moscow, St Petersburg and Samara. It finds that although PCBs are presented by federal and regional leaders as means for citizens merely to assist the authorities in the performance of tasks decided by the state, in practice PCBs can enable citizens modestly to influence policy outcomes and occasionally to shape public agendas. They therefore cannot be dismissed as mere ‘window dressing’ for the authorities. The thesis shows that PCBs were created as part of the market reform of the Soviet-era public sector, in which processes of privatisation, outsourcing and decentralisation reduced the state’s ability to make public policy without input from domestic non-state actors. It argues that the limited participation in governance afforded to citizens through PCBs exemplifies practices of ‘authoritarian neoliberal governance’, a concept that captures the attempts by the state to control policy outcomes produced through new public participatory mechanisms arising from the marketization of state bureaucracy. Although the thesis focuses on the case of Russia, the concept of ‘authoritarian neoliberal governance’ raises the question of the existence of commensurable mechanisms in other non-democratic polities.

This thesis examined to what extent a particular class of highly mobile professionals has internalized the contemporary discourse of corporate global nomadism, proposed by the researcher as an example of the kind of corporate discourses that are emerging to encompass the ideology of neoliberalism and which are inscribed in a particular genre of popular managerial and globalization literature through prescription of ideal attitudes and forms of behaviour. The researcher selected a representative sample of corporate texts that comprises books by management gurus and popular writers on globalization and corporate websites by consultancy firms, and collected personal narratives or life stories from a sample of professionals who in the pursuit of work have relocated internationally more than once. These texts were cross-analysed to identify how the discourse of corporate global nomadism is manifested, whether in similar or contradictory ways. This analysis combined the methodological framework of critical discourse analysis with narrative analysis, with a particular emphasis on deconstruction and intertextuality. A characteristic feature of this study is the use of online communication technologies to encompass research participants who are geographically dispersed. The principal original contribution to knowledge of this dissertation is the relationship made between the contemporary discourse of corporate global nomadism and the ideology of neoliberalism. The methodologies and methods used in the elaboration of this research are also important contributions. The most prominent finding of this study is that the attitudes of the research participants towards their own mobility are contradictory as their self-representation from the standpoints of the context of work and the private sphere are discursively confronted. This dissonance in the narratives represents struggles in the life of the research participants as they attempt to meet corporate demands for continuous global mobility. The findings of this study show that despite the persuasive power of certain corporate discourses they are not passively assumed by individuals, meaning that the hegemony of neoliberal capitalism as a dominant ideology underlying modern organizations is not absolute, because individuals consciously or subconsciously resist and challenge the messages it conveys.

Over the last twenty-five years, fuel poverty in England has successfully transitioned from niche academic interest to mandated concern of the state. More recently still, government have opted to charge energy suppliers with primary delivery responsibility for fuel poverty programmes. The original contribution to knowledge made by this thesis is in offering a novel comparative analysis of the potential for the state and energy suppliers to effectively support fuel poor households. This research offers one of the first academic assessments of the new suite of policies championed by the coalition government formed in 2010. It is also amongst the first pieces of work to apply and critically assess the new official metric for fuel poverty, the Low Income, High Costs definition. By assessing delivery choices against the tenets of neoliberalism identified as guiding recent UK governments, the work further takes into account the motivations of policymakers. A diverse methodological approach is applied, incorporating policy evaluation, quantitative analysis, synthesis of existing literature, and professional engagement. This research establishes that in passing the Warm Homes and Energy Conservation Act 2000, politicians did not appreciate the demands of the commitment to eradicate fuel poverty by 2016. Subsequently, supplier obligations initially intended as a means of mitigating climate change have become the primary policy tool for tackling fuel poverty. The evidence presented here suggests, however, that suppliers are inherently poorly suited to this task for a variety of reasons: their access to the data required to successfully identify fuel poor households is limited; they fund activity in a manner that is unavoidably regressive; and the extent to which they are able to deliver programmes more efficiently than the state is, particularly for economic interventions, subject to question. It is consequently argued that, whilst supplier obligations are likely to appeal to an austerity-driven, neoliberal government as an expedient means of keeping expenditure away from the public purse and of limiting the role of the state, this work demonstrates that increased government involvement and greater political ambition will be required if fuel poverty policies are to be successful.

Since the 1970s, when neoliberal policies and changing consumer patterns began remaking cities, scholars have conducted research about gentrification. In New Orleans, these studies have helped explain the demographic and economic shifts in some neighborhoods. However, there has been limited focus on the built environment aspects of gentrification in New Orleans, specifically the interpretation of the external aesthetic shifts in streetscapes as part of the gentrification process. This thesis examines the relationship between these aesthetics, primarily graffiti and street art, and the gentrification process, as perceived by various stakeholders in two New Orleans neighborhoods: St. Roch and Bywater. Using empirical, qualitative evidence, this thesis argues that graffiti and street art signify a culture and aestheticization of gentrification. Research methods for this thesis include participant observation, semi-structured interviews and discourse analysis. Keywords: Gentrification, New Orleans, Bywater, St. Roch, graffiti, street art, neighborhood change, blight, disinvestment, revitalization, creative class, neoliberalism, race, authenticity

Esta pesquisa tem por objetivo analisar as condições de proletarização e precarização dos trabalhadores da educação a partir da dinâmica do orçamento da secretaria de Educação do Estado de São Paulo e as relações desta com a implementação das políticas educacionais neoliberais, propostas por um conjunto de governos oriundos do mesmo partido político (PSDB - Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira), com um alinhamento substancial no que tange ao papel do Estado e sua racionalização a partir dos anos de 1990. Parte-se de dois conceitos fundamentais na análise da sociologia do trabalho, proletarização e precarização, comumente tomados como sinônimos. Sobremaneira, definem-se para representarem elementos distintos no cotidiano do professorado paulista. Essa distinção foi necessária para se compreender um elemento que esta pesquisa tomou como central em um projeto neoliberal: o controle do projeto educacional. Sendo assim, proletarizar abarca as condições do processo entre a subsunção formal e real dos professores, na medida em que o capital avança na construção de um neosujeito. Não há espaço para o pensamento crítico e para a liberdade de cátedra no projeto neoliberal. A contradição entre o crescimento real do orçamento da educação e a redução constante nos salários iniciais e um plano de carreira construído para ser galgado, submetendo-se aos conteúdos, métodos e resultados que a secretaria impunha, somados a uma política de bonificação e verticalização das relações internas, nortearam esta pequena contribuição à compreensão do Estado neoliberal. / This article has for objective to analyze the conditions of proletarianization and precariousness of education workers, based on the budget dynamics of the State of São Paulo Department of Education and its relations with the implementation of neoliberal educational policies proposed by a set of governments of the same political party (PSDB), with a substantial alignment regarding the role of the State and its \"rationalization\" from the 1990s. It is based on two fundamental concepts in the analysis of the sociology of labor, proletarianization and precarization, commonly taken as synonyms. Rather, they are defined to represent distinct elements in the everyday life of the São Paulo teacher. This distinction was necessary to understand an element that this research took as the central element in a neoliberal project: the control of the educational project. Thus, proletarianism encompasses the conditions of the process between the formal and real subsumption of teachers, as capital advances in the construction of a neosuject. There is no room for critical thinking and academic freedom in the neoliberal project. The contradiction between the real growth of the education budget and the constant reduction in the initial salaries and a career plan built to be submitted, submitting to the contents, methods and results that the secretariat required, together with a policy of bonus and verticalization of the internal relations, guided this small contribution to the understanding of the neoliberal State.

Este trabalho se interessa pelas reconfigurações na ordem do simbólico em sociedades latino-americanas a partir do início dos anos 1990 em vista do processo transnacional de hegemonização do capitalismo pós-industrial a partir da aplicação de políticas neoliberais. Na tentativa de interceptar efeitos de sentido produzidos sob essa conjuntura, nos centramos num determinado campo da produção de bens simbólicos: a música popular (MP). O objeto se especificou a partir de um recorte de produções da MP latino-americana que: i) participassem das disputas simbólicas em torno do rock considerado nacional nesse contexto, e ii) fossem definidas ou se auto definissem a partir de noções como mistura, fusão, hibridismo etc. Nossa pergunta norteadora foi, então: nas condições de produção em que foram formuladas, em que medida e de que modo as relações de dentro-fora, que necessariamente devem funcionar sob a noção de mistura, são determinadas, nas produções musicais de interesse, pelo funcionamento de uma dicotomia local vs. forâneo, característica da própria formação das culturas latino-americanas? Como a natureza do próprio objeto não admitia conclusões sobre predomínios, desenvolvemos um estudo comparativo de dois casos, em busca de regularidades discursivas: as bandas Bersuit Vergarabat (Argentina) e Chico Science & Nação Zumbi/Nação Zumbi (Brasil). Nosso objetivo foi, então, investigar como se determinavam discursivamente o local e o forâneo em suas produções. Para isso, analisamos um corpus de canções de cada uma das bandas, além de outros tipos de materiais presentes nos próprios álbuns das agrupações, assim como entrevistas, reportagens e documentários realizados com seus integrantes. Estudamos, a princípio, como a determinação de local e forâneo se dava na construção do próprio fazer criativo/musical como objeto de discurso, com especial atenção à relação de tal construção com gêneros ou tradições musicais. Ao realizar tal abordagem analítica, chegamos também à observação de que a tematização da desigualdade social parecia ser decisiva na determinação discursiva de local, em ambos os casos estudados. Essa observação nos levou, então, à articulação de um segundo eixo de análise a partir de um conjunto de canções reunido em vista dessa questão. De modo geral, nosso trabalho assume uma perspectiva materialista de análise de discurso, mas mobiliza também conceitos de outras linhas teóricas de abordagem ao discurso e à enunciação. As análises realizadas focaram, fundamentalmente: a cenografia enunciativa, especialmente quanto à correlação entre instâncias de pessoa e lugares de dizer; e a constituição de objetos discursivos, buscando refletir constantemente sobre a textualização do interdiscurso e abordando mecanismos como a cadeia correferencial, as construções relacionadas ao contraste, os papeis temáticos, entre outros aspectos da materialidade discursiva. Além disso, no tratamento às canções, buscou-se considerar, no interior do dispositivo analítico, também aspectos da materialidade musical e corporal (performática) da canção. / This paper is interested by the reconfigurations in order of the symbolic in Latin American societies across the beginning of the 1990s in view of the transnational hegemonizing process of post-industrial capitalism through the application of neoliberal policies. In the attempt to intercept effects of meaning produced under this conjuncture, we centered on a specific field of the production of symbolic goods: the popular music (MP). The object was specified through a clipping of Latin American MP productions that: i) took part in the symbolic disputes surrounding rock considered \"national\" in this context, and ii) were defined or self-defined through notions like \"mix\", \"fusion\", \"hybridism\" etc. Our guiding question was, therefore: in the production conditions that were formulated, to what degree and in what way the inside-outside relations, which should necessarily function under the notion of \"mix\", are determined, in the musical productions of interest, by the workings of a \"local\" vs \"foreign\" dichotomy, characteristic of the very formation of Latin American cultures? As the nature of the object itself did not adopt conclusions about predomains, we developed a comparative study of two cases, in search of discursive regularities: the bands Bersuit Vergarabat (Argentina) and Chico Science & Nação Zumbi/Nação Zumbi (Brasil). Our objective was, then, to investigate how the \"local\" and the \"foreign\" were discursively determined in their productions. For that, we analyzed a corpus of songs from each of the bands, besides other types of materials present in the aggrupations own albums, as well as interviews, reports and documentaries made with their members. We studied, at first, how the determination of \"local\" and \"foreign\" occurred in the construction of the creative/music making itself as an object of discourse, with special regard to the relation between such construction with genre or music traditions. By effecting said analytic approach, we also reach the observation that the thematizing of social inequity seemed to be decisive in the discursive determination of \"local\", in both of the cases studied. This observation brought us, then, to the articulation of a second angle of analysis through a conjunction of songs gathered in view of this issue. Generally, our work acquires a materialist perspective of discourse analysis, but also mobilizes concepts of other theoretic threads of approach to discourse and enunciation. The analysis performed focused, fundamentally: the enunciative scenography, especially in regard to the correlation between instances of person and places of speaking; and the constitution of discursive objects, seeking to constantly reflect on the textualization of interdiscourse and approaching mechanisms like the coreferential chain, the constructions related to the contrast, the thematic roles, among other aspects of discursive materiality. Moreover, in regard to the songs, it was sought to also consider, in the interior of the analytic device, aspects of the musical and corporal (preformistic) materiality of the song.

O presente trabalho trata da recente reestruturação do complexo automotivo brasileiro, seu reflexo na economia e na organização sindical, bem como da sua relação com as tranformações mundiais, a partir da ascensão do ideário neoliberal no ocidente, da difusão da acumulação flexível e das transformações na organização operária e sindical. No Brasil, as medidas econômicas determinadas pelo FMI, Banco Mundial e OMC e implantadas com rigor pelos governos brasileiros desde 1990, promoveram mudanças intensas na economia, resultando no aprofudamento da recessão, no desemprego, na desnacionalização e em falências. No caso da indústria automobilística, a ausência do governo na determinação da economia permitiu que o poder de decisão das montadoras se concentrasse nos planejamentos estratégicos das respectivas matrizes. Além disso, a abertura de mercado provocou a falência de metade das empresas de autopeças nacionais, a desnacionalização das grandes empresas brasileiras de excelência e mais de 100 mil desempregados em todo o complexo automotivo. Desta forma, as autopeças nacionais vêm perdendo o poder de barganha e se restringindo ao fornecimento de peças e componentes de menor valor agregado, pois as montadoras, reestruturando a cadeia produtiva, estabeleceram contratos com fornecedores de sua região de origem. Por fim, a política do governo de atração de IEDs, promoveu a Guerra Fiscal, com financiamento de bancos nacionais, fazendo com que as montadoras investissem em novas fábricas, desenhando uma nova organização espacial do setor no território brasileiro. A reestruturação produtiva nas fábricas antigas das montadoras incidiu sobre a eliminação de mais de um terço dos postos de trabalho nas montadoras, desde 1990. Por outro lado, a transformação na organização sindical tem sido acompanhada pelo fortalecimento do sindicalismo de resultados, em detrimento dos sindicatos combativos. / This work deals with the recent reorganization of the Brazilian automotive complex, along with its repercussion on the economy and the union organization, as well as its relation with the world changes, starting from the rise of the neoliberal thought in the occident, the flexible accumulation diffusion and the changes on the laborer union organization. In Brazil the economic proceedings established by the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO, and put into effect by the successive Brazilian governments since 1990, caused intense changes in the economy, which intensified the recession, the unemployment, the denationalization and the bankruptcies. In the case of the automobile industry, the absence of the government on determining the economy made that the fitting companies power of decision were concentrated on the strategic planning of the respective head offices. Besides, the market opening caused the bankruptcy of a half of the national enterprises which deal with automobilistic parts, the denationalization of the major excellence Brazilian companies and more than a hundred thousand unemployed workers in the whole automotive complex. So the national enterprises which deal with automobilistic parts are losing their power to negotiate and they are also becoming limited to provide components that have a lower aggregated value, once the fitting companies, as they reorganize the productive chain, established contracts with the providers of their original region. Finally the government policy, attracting IEDs, cause the Guerra Fiscal (Fiscal War), using financial loan of national banks. So the fitting companies had to invest in new assembly lines, projecting a new special organization of this sector in the Brazilian territory. The productive reorganization in the former assembly lines of the fitting companies was reflected on the elimination of more than one third of the necessary positions in the fitting companies since 1990. On the other hand, the changes in the union organization have been followed by the strengthening of the result unionism to the detriment of the combative unions.