Increasingly, nationalist ideals are being applied by large numbers of politically unrecognized or unsatisfied ethnic communities. The appearance of movements demanding ethnic autonomy in a number of different states worldwide has helped to renew scholarly interest in nationalism. Even in Canada, there was a sharp rise in the political acumen and influence of Aboriginal groups. The resurgence of ethnic nationalism has, indeed, become one of the most striking political developments in recent decades. As a result of these events, questions are being raised about how the relationships between Aboriginal peoples and Canadian governments and society should be structured. At issue are the challenges that ethnicity and nationalism pose. Yet in spite of a genuine willingness amongst a majority of Canadians to reevaluate their place in Canadian society, Aboriginal nationalist assertions have remained largely understudied by students of nationalism. A new understanding of the roots, goals, and internal particularities of these unique ethnic movements is needed. From a survey of the scholarly literature of nationalism and Aboriginal peoples in , Canada, new conceptualizations of ethnic nationalism must be developed, ones which recognize that not all forms of assertion are destructive and dismembering to the larger political community. If Canadians are to find meaningful ways of accommodating these challenges, then incentives must be found and mechanisms developed to both preserve the wider unity of the state and help facilitate the autonomous development of Aboriginal nationalist communities. Recognizing that there are multiple ways of belonging to Canada and realizing Aboriginal self-government are such forms of accommodation.

While Canada is often called a pluralist state, there are no sustained studies by political scientists in which aboriginal self-government is discussed specifically in terms of the analytical tradition of pluralist thought. Aboriginal self-government is usually discussed as an issue of cultural preservation or national self-determination. Aboriginal identity is framed in terms of cultural and national traits that are unique to an aboriginal community and selfgovernment is taken to represent the aboriginal communal desire to protect and preserve those traits. Is such an understanding of what motivates aboriginal self-government accurate, or does it yield an incomplete understanding of the complex phenomenon that aboriginal selfgovernment in Canada represents? The political tradition of pluralism allows for analysis of aboriginal self-government that addresses questions left unattended by the cultural and nationalist frameworks. Pluralism is often viewed as a public arrangement in which distinct groups are given room to live side by side, characterized by mutual recognition and affirmation. At the same time, there are different faces of pluralist theory and each addresses questions about the recognition and affirmation of aboriginal self-government in different ways. Those three contemporary faces can be distinguished by the labels communitarian, individualist, and relational. The major hypothesis advanced is that aboriginal self-government is better understood if an "identification" perspective on aboriginal identity is adopted as opposed to a "cultural" or "national" one and if that perspective is linked to a relational theory of pluralism as opposed to a communitarian or individualist one. The identification approach examines aboriginal identity not in terms of cultural and political traits, but in terms of identification with, and political commitment to, an aboriginal community. Relational pluralism in turn, examines the challenge of aboriginal self-government in terms of power differences within aboriginal communities and between aboriginal and Canadian governments. Applying these approaches to aboriginal politics in Canada confirms their suitability. Contrary to what previous scholarship has assumed, aboriginal self-government should not be seen primarily as a tool to preserve cultural and national differences as goods in and of themselves. The politics of aboriginal self-government should be seen as involving demands to equalize current imbalances in power so that aboriginal communities and the individuals within them can construct aboriginal identities according to their own design.

The nation-state has for a long time appeared to have eluded the attempts of scholars to encapsulate its essence in theory. Rather than propose another attempt at encapsulation, this dissertation represents a form of geographical supplementation to these efforts. As a work of geography it focuses on the negotiation of nation-states, and, in doing so, traces a double displacement of encapsulation. Primarily, the four major studies comprising the dissertation represent geographical research which, using a wide range of archival and contemporary media material, makes manifest the irreducible complexity of the negotiations in, over and between nation-states at the end of the twentieth century. Focused on Canada and the USA, these studies trace how a diversity of cultural as well as political-economic processes come together in the inherently geographical negotiations of First Nations struggles, Canadian constitutional politics, continental free trade developments, and American patriotism. These are negotiations where no one process fully encapsulates an explanation of the events and where their collective but contested territorialization calls out for an open-ended and anti-essentialist analysis. Secondarily, while the dissertation's first and more central work of displacement is enabled by poststructuralist critiques of essentialist explanation, its other displacing effect comes in the form of a geographical deconstruction of so-called poststructuralist theory itself. This represents an attempt to turn the elusive nature of the nation-state vis-a-vis theory into a living and politicized site for investigating the limits of poststructuralist theorizing. Overall, the geographical investigations of the dissertation illustrate the value of anti-essentialist arguments for furthering geographical research into the nation-state while simultaneously calling these epistemological innovations into geographical question. Using such questioning to critique the limited geographical representation of the nationstate, it is concluded that geographers cannot not persistently examine such limits.

Principals come to their current positions with their own beliefs about their role, about their practice, and about other educational issues related to the nature of education: schools, teachers, students, community, and professional growth. These and all other factors that influence how principals think about their job are what I refer to as "principals' professional beliefs." This study demonstrated that principals bring to change initiatives their professional beliefs and those beliefs influence how they interpret the language of the change initiative, how they conceptualize the change, and how they plan for enactment of the policy change. I used a multi-case study approach to examine how eight principals in a school district that was undergoing a district policy change, thought about their enactment of the change at the school level. I identified three groups of principals: (1) supporters of teacher decision making, (2) facilitators of shared values, and (3) promoters of mutual respect. These principals differed in their involvement in the negotiation of the way the change would be carried out in the school, how much and what kinds of support they offered to teachers, and the degree of autonomy they allowed teachers in determining how the change would be implemented. Three questions guided the study: (1) What factors influence principals' responses to a change in school district policy? More specifically, what are the professional and context-specific issues the principals consider as they interpret a school district policy change and plan for their own action in carrying out that change process? (2) How do principals enact the policy changes in their own schools? (3) What impact did the principals perceive that the policy change had on their enactment of their role? This study provides insights into how principals understand and interpret educational policy language, how they work toward the development of collaborative relationships and collegial cultures, and how their professional beliefs inform their practice. The policy change and the language of the policy is mediated through principals' professional belief systems as they determine how they will enact the policy change. This study disputes findings in existing literature and contributes to our understanding of change in schools by recognizing that principals play significant roles in change at the school level.

This thesis is focused on determining the rate at which the climate of western North America (WNA) has changed in recent history, and looks at the impact that projected future climatic changes will have on a large glaciated watershed in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. The rate of change over WNA is quantified for 485 climate stations for the period 1950-2005 using indicators developed by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Results of the analysis show statistically significant historical trends across the study area. To gauge the effect of climate change on glaciers, a mass balance model was developed and integrated with the University of Lethbridge GENESYS hydrometeorological model. GCM future climate scenarios were used to model change in the Upper North Saskatchewan River Basin through 2100. Results forecast dramatic declines (> 80%) in total glacier area, ice volume, and streamflow contribution by 2100. / ix, 137 leaves ; 29 cm

Phenotypic characterizations demonstrated that diversity among 19 naturalized North American and 5 commercial Kura clover ( Trifolium ambiguum M.B.) rhizobial strains was limited. Growth chamber and field evaluations indicated the superiority of North American isolates, increasing foliage accumulation by 30% when compared to commercial inoculant strains. Nitrogen fertilization, however, produced greater accumulations in all evaluations. Genetic diversity among 128 isolates from the lower Caucasus was significant. Nodulation specificity of rhizobia from the lower Caucasus was demonstrated to be more complex than what was reported in the literature, as plants of different ploidy levels and even of different species were, in some cases, nodulated by the same isolate. Specificity of a given rhizobial strain varied depending on the isolate. This study identified naturalized North American rhizobial isolates that are more efficient than currently used commercial strains and increased the genetic diversity of Kura clover rhizobia currently available.

This paper examines the Buddhist ritual Wesak---commemoration of the birth, enlightenment, and death (or parinibbana) of the Buddha---and its social function in creating Buddhist identity. A socio-historical survey of early Wesak rituals and case studies of Sri Lanka and North America provide examples of the development of Wesak as a ritual. This socio-political interpretation of Wesak reflects the consolidating nature of ritual through its interactions with other political and religious systems, and offers a glimpse into the emerging ecumenical form of Buddhism in North America.

No description available.

This study sought to describe the emergent interaction system of letterboxing in North America. Letterboxing is a hobby that can trace its roots to treasure hunting and orienteering. A letterbox is a container holding a logbook and carved rubber stamp found by following clues. Participants use the stamp to make an imprint in their personal journal, and in turn, they record their personal stamp and a message in the letterbox's logbook. Letterboxing has been growing rapidly in North America since its start in 1998; currently 21,498 letterbox clues are listed on just one of the hobby's largest websites. I recruited 355 participants for this study through invitations on websites used by letterboxers. I conducted the research using a combination of descriptive qualitative methods and qualitative analysis of data from three open-ended questions gathered on an online survey instrument. I designed survey items to gather data that described the participants and their behaviors including demographics, participation activities, and communication activities. I then analyzed these data using frequencies, percentages, and cross tabulations. Participants in the study were predominantly white, female, under the age of 50 and educated. I used content analysis of survey data obtained through open-ended questions to identify impetus, motivation, and emergent behaviors. The impetus for participation varies from hearing about it from a friend or relative to publications and broadcasts. Others stumbled across letterboxing via Internet searches or by finding a letterbox in the woods unintentionally. The "thrill of the hunt," hiking, and a love of the outdoors are primary motivations for participation. Made possible by the interconnectivity of the Internet, an informal collective has emerged that embraces individual variants and claims it for its own in an online learning community. Community activities such as gatherings, web rings, talk lists, discussion boards, and postal letterboxing bring participants together, increase engagement, and build community around similar interests. Collaborative innovations, or emergent interactions of participants, create new forms of letterboxing and lead to experimentation, probing, learning, and enhancement of individual experience. A model of emergent interaction is presented in the conclusion section. / Department of Educational Studies

The eastern Miami Indians have been involved in an intense, dynamic process of cultural definition during the past fifteen years. Adding to the nucleus of retained culture, the Miami are selecting particular aspects from both their traditional ideological and material pasts while they are simultaneously incorporating new ideas and practices in order to define Miami identity. The eastern Miami process of cultural revitalization, currently characteristic of many Indian tribes, has manifested itself in various ways. There are many variables involved in determining the cultural revitalization process specific to the Miami. Of particular interest are the manifestations of cultural revitalization and its relationship to political processes. / Department of Anthropology