Over the past two decades, a growing number of scholars have begun to explore the cultural politics of toponymic inscription. The current study contributes to the emerging literature on critical place-name studies by examining the cultural and political implications of the recent designation of the “Salish Sea,” a new name given to the water body adjacent to the shared Pacific coastline of Washington State and the Province of British Columbia. Through a critical analysis of archival materials and semi-structured interviews with participants from a variety of different groups, this case study adopts a performative approach to consider the ways in which the naming of places is implicated in the rescaling of public conceptions of “place” through the performative enactment of spatial identities. In doing so, it illustrates the importance of narrative as an integral part of the cultural production of place. Although this new toponym was initially promoted to raise ecological awareness, it also has considerable implications for reshaping the political, economic, and cultural geographies of the region. Furthermore, the findings conclude that when assessing the designation’s impact on the relations between the Indigenous and Settler populations of the area, evidence points to the official naming being representative of an act of “anti-conquest”: an act that glorifies the Indigenous culture while providing no actual exchange of power or opportunity for increased levels of self-determination. / Graduate / 0366 / 0740 / btucker@uvic.ca

In this thesis I contribute to arguments showing how the human body is much more than a vessel that enables us to experience the world through our senses. Our sense of embodiment and our embodied performances give meaning to and shape the world in which we live. I argue that our bodies are crucial to socio-political change and subverting discriminatory cultural assumptions and ideologies. Deviant performances can cause us to be less than intelligible individuals. That is, according to Judith Butler, we become less than intelligible when we do not perform in such a way that meets certain cultural expectations. Dominant expectations are typically implicitly understood to be common-sense values. Unfortunately, many of our implicit values have embedded unjust prejudices that directly affect our thinking and behaviour. These discriminatory implicit values are couched in “the background.” Alexis Shotwell’s expansion of what John R. Searle terms “the background” is particularly useful to understand the political nature of implicitly held beliefs. These discriminatory assumptions couched in the background systematically oppress us. However, the prejudices of the background can be exposed through repeatedly performing our bodies in certain ways. Additionally, our performances can enable us to pool our intellectual resources together and live out the socio-political change we desire. In doing so, performances and identities that were once considered unintelligible can become intelligible and can alter cultural climates. / Thesis (Master, Philosophy) -- Queen's University, 2012-10-09 13:54:49.323

Strategy tools have mainly been conceptualised through a functional perspective, which views tools as passive instruments that aid managerial decision-making. Studies within strategy-as-practice provide an alternative view to this, by arguing that in practice, strategy tools are devices that enable actors to achieve a variety of purposes that transcend the instrumental purposes that dominate mainstream strategy studies. In this thesis, I argue that both views still portray tools as being used instrumentally. In both cases actors are seen to use tools as a conduit through which they may achieve either analytical purposes or more socially related purposes. The common factor across both views is the focus on the intentionality of the managers in using the tools to achieve a certain purpose. Rather than focus on what strategy tools are used for, this thesis explores the other side of the coin by focusing on what strategy tools do. I do so by exploring how the materiality of strategy tools may impact on the strategizing practices of managers during the strategy development process. The aim of the study is to explore the possible performative roles that strategy tools may play during the strategy process and the implications of these roles for the work of strategizing. In this study, tools are viewed as non-human actors – that is, they are not simply conduits that are utilised instrumentally for achieving a variety of purposes in organisations, rather they actively influence the actions and interactions of managers and therefore contribute to the formation of strategy. This inquiry is based on a longitudinal study (2012 – 2015) of the process of strategy making within a large UK financial institution. Focusing on what the members of the Strategy department do during the development and use of a strategy tool referred to as the Horizon scan and tracing the developmental trajectory of the tool throughout the process. The thesis draws on theoretical insights situated at the intersection of economic sociology, the sociology of financial markets and the sociology of technology, more specifically: the notions of performativity and affordances. The methodological approach is qualitative and is based on in-depth semi-structured interviews, direct observations of meetings and workshops and documentary data. The analysis reveals that the strategy tool performed four main interconnected roles which include: enlist participants, reorient temporally, consolidate and persuade. Through performing these roles, the tool shaped the strategizing practices of the strategists in a patterned way, such that the actions and interactions of the strategists reflected the underlying theory within the tool. The findings also reveals that the four roles performed by the tool were underpinned by two main affordances – modular and temporal affordances. Based on the findings, the thesis introduces the concept of an Activation device which refers to strategy tools that instigate or trigger certain actions that result in a co-evolution of the strategy theory within the tool and strategizing practices, where the ‘doing’ of strategy comes to resemble the theory within the tool. The study concludes by presenting a theoretical model of how strategy tools as activation devices shape how strategy is practiced. It therefore contributes to the recent materiality turn in strategy and the nascent literature on performativity in strategy, by reconceptualising the roles of strategy tools and demonstrating empirically, how strategy tools influence strategizing practices through the performative effects they generate.

This thesis uses the theory of abjection to understand differentiations in non-heterosexual identity performances in two distinct spaces - the 2005 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras (SGLMG) parade and its associated press coverage, and latrinalia (graffiti found inside public toilets). At the same time, this thesis also presents evidence for a new concept of neo-normativity, where the stereotypical is normalised, both internally and externally, and actively reproduced. Neo-normativity, in turn, succeeds in explaining the many abjected relationships that between non-heterosexual communities and the stereotypical and quintessentialised performances. At the 2005 SGLMG parade such quintessentialised (or neo-normalised) performances were treated with both contempt - for being stereotypical and narrowly representative of the very diversity of non-heterosexual communities - as well as a tool for attracting commercial sponsorships which have growingly become an integral part to the continued survival of the annual parade. On a different level, another expression of abject was also revealed when these neo-normalised performances are persistently criticised by academics, news reporting and official photography for being stereotypical and non-representative which in itself are both a recognition as well as an ejection of the non-normative aspects of non-heterosexualities. Such an expression of abject was also evident in latrinalia found in several public toilet facilities throughout Greater Sydney were the interplay of desire and ejection were played out in a more covert manner, all the while highlighting the marginality of non-heterosexualities in these presumably heteronormative spaces. This application of abject theory emphasises neo-normative performances as permanently peripheral, a marginality of which makes these performances (and identities) intrinsically Queer.

This studio-based project explores a method of working that assigns agency to paint and process within the medium of painting. Underpinning this exploration is the notion that process driven making could potentially pose as a per formative event. Choreographed yet contingent, the practice investigates the relationship between the potentiality inherent within media and the extent to which this is affected by temporal/ external factors in the determining of outcome. A dialogue between the intentional and the contingent is initiated through a systematic approach that involves manipulation of the constituent elements of paint and the implementation of procedure and protocols as a means to activate conditions of possibility. Central to the research concerns are issues surrounding the ability of media to articulate itself, determine its own temporality and of process and content to operate conterminously. The images produced evidence this investigation as both enquiry and consequence.

What makes identity readable? To answer this question, I examine the constructions of queer, non-German women in three contemporary transnational German films, Aimée und Jaguar, Fremde Haut and Auf der anderen Seite. To become readable, and thus to survive within the socio-political realm of German culture, these protagonists must construct and perform interconnected dimensions of identity— sex, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, language, clothing, and name—that can be located along a hegemonic-defined continuum. But when the characters cannot be read within this framework, they trouble dominant readings and understandings of their positions in this system and disrupt normative conceptions of identity. These threats to the system, however, do not lead to a renegotiation of the protagonists’ identities. Rather, hegemonic German society reacts to the unreadability of these queer figures by violently rejecting them through deportation and/or death.

Aniara is a versified epos written by Harry Martinson in 1956. The story is about a large group of people who are being evacuated from earth to Mars because the earth is radiated. However something goes wrong. They fall out of course and end up on a never ending journey in space. This essay examines the relations between the epos Aniara and Lars Rudolfssons dramatization for Stockholm City Theater, played during the fall/winter of 2010. Through performativity and narrative theories I analyze narrations and characterization in the text and in the play. I analyze ideas of the characters appearances in the play, how the starship Aniara physically is represented on stage and what the dance and the music of the play represent. The essay has evolved to a study around the most important symbols of both the epos and the play – time and space.

Abyss Creations has been creating and selling extremely life-like silicone dolls designed primarily for sex known as Real Dolls since 1996. Since 2001, The Doll Forum has provided an online space where users of Real Dolls are able to connect with one another and discuss a myriad of issues relating to the use of Real Dolls. This thesis explores the specific ways in which members utilize The Doll Forum as a space to discursively construct gender, sexuality, and relationships as they pertain to the use of Real Dolls. Utilizing the theory of performativity, I engage in a Critical Discourse Analysis of one month of posts from The Doll Forum. I argue that through the discussions and images which members post within The Doll Forum, they discursively work to both reinforce and challenge current constructions of gender, sexuality, and relationships. By doing so, members of The Doll Forum use the space to normalize their sexual behaviour, as well as reinforce the performative nature of these constructions.

Abyss Creations has been creating and selling extremely life-like silicone dolls designed primarily for sex known as Real Dolls since 1996. Since 2001, The Doll Forum has provided an online space where users of Real Dolls are able to connect with one another and discuss a myriad of issues relating to the use of Real Dolls. This thesis explores the specific ways in which members utilize The Doll Forum as a space to discursively construct gender, sexuality, and relationships as they pertain to the use of Real Dolls. Utilizing the theory of performativity, I engage in a Critical Discourse Analysis of one month of posts from The Doll Forum. I argue that through the discussions and images which members post within The Doll Forum, they discursively work to both reinforce and challenge current constructions of gender, sexuality, and relationships. By doing so, members of The Doll Forum use the space to normalize their sexual behaviour, as well as reinforce the performative nature of these constructions.

This thesis explores how law is performed in daily life through physical acts. I propose that the body expresses, generates and is intertwined with an understanding of legal normativity. That is to say that law is developed through embodied acts of communication. The thesis, which takes the form of a website, provides a lens through which to see how corporeality shapes our legal landscape. I use text, video and live performance to propose ways to engage with this landscape. I demonstrate that in even the most banal gestures there is a microcosm of norm generation and reproduction processes that can be highlighted by paying closer attention to our daily life practices.