The debate concerning the legitimacy of artistic research that has taken place over the last two decades is notable for the way in which it has drawn attention to rival 'representational' and 'performative' conceptions of thought. In the early stages of the debate, critics such as Durling, Friedman, Elkins and Biggs employed broadly representational arguments in a quasi-legal context of judgment to suggest that processes of artistic research were in some sense unrecognisable when attempts were made to see them through the conceptual lens of 'research'. In contrast to this, advocates of artistic research, such as Haseman, Bolt, Sullivan and Slager proposed that research arising out of artistic practice possessed distinctive qualities - conjoining interests in the experimental, the experiential, and the non-representational, with a set of predominantly transformative aims. Haseman et al have likewise suggested that the concerns of the practitioner-researcher, at least in the context of the arts, are mainly ontological as opposed to epistemological in character - seeking to explore, reframe, or contest existing states of affairs in a broadly performative fashion. Whilst supporters of artistic research often stress the requirement for new ways of thinking to accommodate the specificities of practice-led research, many of the concepts that are employed in an attempt to understand the aims and concerns of artistic research have a long 'process-philosophical' lineage. Process philosophy has been present as a minor current in Western philosophy since as early as 540 BC and through the influence of luminaries such as Dewey and Langer, it has long been associated with education in the arts. Process philosophers typically emphasise both the ontological priority of change and the relational constitution of entities. From the perspective of process philosophy, the world of stable and enduring things arises out of a differential play of interacting forces that admit of multiple and contingent patterns of relation. With this in mind, the contemporary anti-essentialist arguments that are often utilised in the defense of artistic research are positioned in this thesis as examples of process-philosophical thinking, paving the way for an application of the post-structuralist, process-philosophical thought of Gilles Deleuze to the debate concerning the legitimacy of practice-led research. An interesting and long running feature of the legitimacy debate has been the failing of participants on both sides of the discussion to critically engage with their opposition - preferring instead to construct rather idealised, ghostly positions, which ultimately sidestep the specificities of the situation. In an attempt to address the lack of sustained critical confrontation between oppositional voices in the discussion, this thesis attempts a close qualitative engagement with a prominent skeptical position. To this end, the work of Michael Biggs and Daniela Büchler is interrogated from a conceptual, aesthetic and relational perspective, revealing its Wittgensteinian and Kantian roots, and subjecting them to critical scrutiny from the perspective of Deleuzian thought. Biggs and Büchler, have developed a markedly critical voice in the legitimacy debate, importing the early hostility towards practice-led research that arose out of a predominantly North American design community into the context of UK, Dutch and Australian discussion. Biggs and Büchler are much cited within the literature on artistic and practice-led modes of research and they have been influential in the framing of policy. The critique of Biggs and Büchler that is developed in this thesis begins from the observation that their work embodies a broadly conservative emphasis upon representation and recognition, and that it is expressive of what Deleuze describes as the 'dogmatic image of thought'. It is argued here that Biggs and Büchler's resistance to the affective and the performative is pervasive, serving to colour their approach to philosophy, art and aesthetics and to place them at odds with the largely material-experiential, and transdisciplinary interests of many artistic researchers. With this in mind, a series of aesthetico-conceptual strategies are employed in order to problematise Biggs and Büchler's position and to stage an encounter between a process-pragmatism of the left (as typified by the philosophy of Deleuze), and a linguistic-pragmatism of the right (as typified by the philosophy of Wittgenstein). This thesis makes a number of claims to knowledge. Primarily it aims to demonstrate that the justification of artistic research need not be separatist or isolationist in character, but that in demonstrating the overlap between traditional and non-traditional forms of research we need not dispense with artistry or neglect the artefact's performative work. In this sense it aims to show how characteristics sometimes considered specific to practice-led research have a more generalised, if somewhat understated presence in the context of more traditional modes of enquiry. In a similar vein, it aims to demonstrate how a broadly traditional, written thesis might be explored in the spirit of practice-led enquiry - drawing attention to a range of textual, imaginative, conceptual and speculative devices that might enable us to explore the intensities of a problem space, and to investigate the ways in which aesthetic devices might also perform active work in the context of an argument. Ultimately this results in a questioning of the separation of artefact and argument that is characteristic of much discussion of practice-led research. Methodologically the thesis is distinctive in its sustained critical engagement with a single oppositional voice, which is also intended, through a process of extrapolation, to problematise a more generalised positivistic current of thought emanating primarily from the discipline of design. Lastly, the philosophical critique of the Wittgensteinian underpinnings of Biggs and Büchler's position also facilitates a contribution to Deleuze studies - addressing the breadth of Deleuze's concept of relation and critically interrogating the thought of Ludwig Wittgenstein - the philosopher for whom Deleuze seemed to harbour the strongest antipathy, but of whom he was also the most reticent to speak. Whilst it is clear that there has been much interest in the potential application of Deleuze since the inception of the legitimacy debate, and whilst it is clear that the employment of Deleuze as primary theorist in practice-based-research projects is in the ascent, to date there has been little work that is explicitly focused upon the resonance of Deleuzian thought with respect to the productive context, or the legitimacy of the practice-based PhD.

The female characters in Shakespeare’s 2 Henry VI and Richard III; Rowley’s All’s Lost by Lust; Fletcher’s The Tragedy of Valentinian; Rowley, Dekker, and Ford’s The Witch of Edmonton; and Brome and Heywood’s The Late Witches of Lancashire curse their enemies because, as women, they have no other way to fight against the injustices they experience. At once an extension of the early modern belief that words are “women’s weapons,” and dangerously beyond the feminine ideal of silence, the curse, as a performative speech act, resembles the physical weapons wielded by men in its potential to cause serious harm. Using Judith Butler’s theory of gender as performative and J. L. Austin’s theory of performative utterances, this thesis argues that curses function as part of the cursing woman’s performative identity, and by using speech as a weapon, the cursing woman gains a measure of social agency within the social order even if she cannot change her place within it.

Development and land use change diminish the quantity of natural habitat, impacting negatively on the number of animal and plant species – biodiversity. Concern about the consequences of these losses has led to calls for mechanisms which allow development to proceed only when no net loss of biodiversity can be assured, such as biodiversity offsets. Markets for biodiversity offsets are being tried as mechanisms for achieving this societal objective in the most efficient manner possible. Theoretically, this thesis develops a framework connecting the Polanyi-inspired notion of the economy as an instituted process, and concepts developed by Callon and colleagues in the Social Studies of Finance literature. This framework is used to analyse the emergence, development and expansion of markets for biodiversity offsets. Using qualitative methodologies, the research examines in detail three existent biodiversity offset markets: Species Banking (United States), Impact Mitigation Regulations (Germany) and Biodiversity Offsets (England). The emergence of markets for biodiversity offsets is shown to be the result of performativity of economics. Changing representations of biodiversity, anchored on economic sciences, lead to policies which create economic experiments, such as markets for biodiversity offsets. Because these markets are historical and geographically contingent, the economic experiments emerge in the context of preexisting regulations and traditions, resulting in variety of forms of organising biodiversityoffset markets. To bring biodiversity to the market involves measuring and quantifying externalities. This requires the creation and development of market agencements – assemblages of agents and market devices – to commodify biodiversity. These agencements constitute the technical infrastructures upon which the markets are built, but they too are contingent of pre-market practice. This creates tensions between the role of agents and the role of devices inside the market infrastructure. Biodiversity offsets are shown to not maintain their commodity status beyond certain geographical and geopolitical boundaries. The result is the creation of mutually exclusive market nodes, between which no trade takes place. Despite common origins and infrastructures, the local markets do not exchange between themselves. This thesis contributes a framework for the analysis of market emergence, in which two literatures are used to complement each other’s limitations. As a result, the thesis is able to conceptualise how a common generative mechanism results in variety of economic organisation. It also demonstrates that it is possible for markets to share a regulatory and technical infrastructure, but not exchange between themselves and expand.

O presente texto consiste em uma apresentação de reflexões acerca da problemática da utilização ora do aspecto substancializante do gênero ora da identidade de gênero como critério para discernir e decidir as práticas parentais. Tomando a experiência trans como recorte empírico, desenvolverei uma reflexão sobre como o gênero se articula com o desempenho parental, dentro de um contexto de legitimação social e política. A ideia central do texto é problematizar as parentalidades trans em sua relação com o gênero, analisando as concepções de paternidade e maternidade que perpassam a experiência gestacional. Teoricamente, de um lado, pretendemos discutir a possibilidade da parentalidade ser um ato performativo, utilizando a teoria de performatividade de Butler e fazendo aproximações das discussões sobre funções materna e paterna propostas por Lacan. De outro lado, utilizaremos os conceitos de performatividade e paródia como uma proposta que escapa ao discurso heteronormativo. Para tanto, foram utilizadas entrevistas semiestruturadas com homens trans. O fenômeno trans joga com a produção e recriação de novas relações sociais. Torna-se possível reinventar as relações de gênero dentro de um domínio heterossexual, fazendo-nos questionar a binariedade a que o sistema sexo/gênero está submetido, porém a parentalidade é ainda reconhecida por uma assimetria de gênero: o pai e a mãe / This study aims at presenting reflections on the problematic use of the substantial aspect of gender as well as gender identity as a criterion for discerning and deciding parental practices. Taking the transgender experience as the empirical excerpt, a reflection on how gender articulates with parental performance within a context of social and political legitimacy will be developed. The main idea of the text is to problematize the transgender parenting in its relationship with gender, analyzing the conceptions of paternity and maternity that permeate a gestational experience. Theoretically, we intend to discuss the possibility of parenting as being a performative act, using Butlers performativity theory and linking it with discussions about the maternal and paternal role proposed by Lacan. On the other hand, the concepts of performativity and parody as a proposal that escapes heteronormative discourse will be used. For that matter, semi-structured interviews with transgender men were used. The trans phenomenon plays with the production and re-creation of new social relations. It becomes possible to reinvent the gender relations within a heterosexual domain, making us question the binarity to which the sex / gender system is submitted, being represented by the gender asymmetry in parenthood: the father and the mother

O gênero é uma construção social, entretanto, ainda hoje ele é compreendido através de uma visão essencializadora e naturalizadora que se baseia em um aparato de saberes biológicos para reiterar a existência de um alinhamento entre gênero, sexo, prática sexual e desejo. Se enquadrar nesse alinhamento significa estar em consonância com as normas vigentes na nossa sociedade, e todos(as) aqueles(as) que fogem ou provocam nele deslocamentos são tidos(as) como inferiores e indesejáveis, não sendo reconhecidos como seres inteligíveis e estando, então, passíveis de exclusão. O objetivo principal desse estudo constitui em compreender a relação entre a construção parodística das personagens Drag Queens e a construção social dos papéis de gênero, dando prosseguimento à tentativa de desvendar as trajetórias e as compreensões sobre o gênero em pessoas que se encontram fora dos limites impostos pela lógica binária que valida apenas a existência do masculino e feminino, colocando-os como opostos e passíveis de categorização.2 Através do ato estético-político da construção da figura da Drag Queen acredita-se ser possível estar e cruzar a fronteira dos gêneros, tendo uma identidade ambígua ou indefinida e explicitando o caráter artificialmente imposto das identidades fixas, sendo um meio para mapear dispositivos que funcionem em prol da ruptura das ontologias e possibilitem outras formas de vivências que resistam às categorizações socialmente construídas, trazendo potência para a promoção de uma multiplicidade de possibilidades de existência / The term gender is a \"social construction\", however, it\'s still currently understood through an essential and naturalizing vision which is based on an apparatus of biological knowledges to reaffirm the existence of an alignment between gender, sexual orientation, sexual intercourse and desire. Fitting in with such alignment means being in consonance with actual social standards, and all those who avoid or arouse displacements are considered smaller and unwanted, not being recognized as intelligible human beings and, thus, being subject to exclusion. The main goal of this thesis consists on building a relation between the travesty/burlesque construction of the Drag Queens\' characters and the social construction of gender roles, continuing on in the attempt to unravel trajectories and understandings regarding the gender of people who find themselves outside the limits imposed by the binary logic which only validates the existence of male and female genders, placing them as opposites and eligible for categorization3. Through the aesthetic-political act of the construction of the Drag Queen\'s figure it\'s believed it\'s possible to be on and across the genders\' border, possessing an ambiguous or undefined identity and exposing the artificially imposed character of the fixed ones, therefore being a way of mapping devices that work for the rupture of ontologies and enable other ways of living which are able to stand up to socially constructed categorizations, bringing about enough power to promote the plurality of other possible existences

This essay examines how J.K Rowling´s tendency to draw on intertextuality creates a relegation of female characters in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2014). By examining the link between intertextuality and the creation and portrayal of certain female characters in the most selling book series in history, Harry Potter, it is clarified how the use of intertextuality relegates female characters to retrogressive social constructs of gender. The three characters studied in this essay are Fleur Delacour, Molly Weasley and Petunia Dursley. The approach used is mythological criticism, an approach focused on the search for universality in a multitude of modern and historical texts. The main concepts used in this essay are the archetypal woman, postmodernity, gender performativity, myth, and intertextuality. Judith Butler´s concept of gender performativity is combined with Graham Allen’s definitions of intertextuality and postmodernity to understand how and why female characters in Harry Potter are relegated. Evidence has been collected from published journals, books, and encyclopedias. This essay explains how relegation is caused by shining light upon the link between character creation and the myths that the character builds upon. J.K Rowling has used archetypical female roles, such as the siren, the wicked stepmother or the mother, when creating her characters, thus relegating them to past beliefs of femininity, such as the woman as being exotic and dangerous. By examining both myth and postmodern texts such as Harry Potter one can gain a deeper understanding on how intertextuality can cause a postmodernist text to reflect past notions of femininity that would be viewed as retrogressive in a postmodern and postcolonial society.

Syftet med denna studie är att utifrån ett genusperspektiv studera hur barn representeras i realityserien Unga mammor. Med utgångspunkt i genus, framing och representation har jag genomfört en kvalitativ semiotisk analys och en framinganalys på fem medverkande familjer i 31 utspridda avsnitt i serien. Resultaten har pekat på att barnen representeras utifrån stereotypa könsroller, som placerar flickor i feminina fack och pojkar i maskulina, där det finns en acceptans för flickor att överskrida de osynliga gränserna könen emellan men en rädsla för pojkar att göra detsamma. Det har visat sig att barnens attribut, framför allt kläder, spelar en betydande roll i konstruktionen av deras kön. Jag ställer mig kritisk till Unga mammors representation av barn och ifrågasätter seriens roll i att normalisera könskoder. De normbrytande avvikelser som får synas förblir undantag. / The purpose of this study is to from a gender perspective study how children are being represented in the reality show Unga mammor. I have from the outset gender, framing and representation driven a qualitative semiotic analysis and a framinganalysis of five participatory families in 31 scattered episodes throughout the series. The results have shown that children are being represented from stereotypical gender roles, that places girls in feminine boxes and boys in maculine, where it is accepted for girls to overrun the invisible barriers seperating the sexes but a fear for boys to do the same. It has shown that childrens attributes, especially clothes, are playing a substantial role in the construction of their gender. I am critical towards Unga mammors representation of children and question the series role in normalising gender codes. The norm-breaking anomalies that are shown remain exceptions.

Onlinespel fortsätter att växa för varje år och har på ett decennium gått ifrån att vara en trevlig sidosyssla till att tas som arbete. Nutida studier visar att den stereotypiske gamern inte längre existerar. Gruppen gamers är en diversifierad grupp människor ifrån alla världens länder, båda könen inräknade. Trots detta är dock sexism fortfarande väldigt vanligt förekommande inom gamingkulturen. Denna studie syftar till att undersöka hur könsroller upplevs för de som definierar sig som kvinnor. Frågeställningarna som ligger till grund för studien är hur könsroller reproduceras online samt hur de upplevs påverka den enskilde, vilka förväntningar som könsrollerna medför på individen i en grupp online, och hur maktstrukturer samt rådande hegemoni upplevs styra online och påverka individen i sitt vardagliga liv. Resultaten visar att målgruppen generellt upplever sig marginaliserade på den virtuella arenan. Detta främst genom orealistiska förväntningar, annorlunda förutsättningar, sexistiska strukturer och orimliga skillnader i bemötande efter att deras kön offentliggjorts. / Online games continue to grow for each year and in a decade, it has gone from being a nice side activity to for some, classified as work. Contemporary studies show that the stereotypic gamer no longer exists. The gamer group is a diverse group of people from all the world's countries, including both sexes. Nevertheless, sexism is still very common in gaming culture. This study aims at investigating perceived gender roles in regard to people who define themselves as women. The questions underlying the study are how gender roles are reproduced online and how these perceive to influence the individual, what expectations gender roles bring to an individual in a group online and how power structures and current hegemony are perceived to govern online and affect the individual in their daily life. The results show that the target audience generally feels marginalized on the virtual arena. This mainly through unrealistic expectations, different conditions, sexist structures and unreasonable differences in treatment after disclosing their gender.

付記する学位プログラム名: デザイン学大学院連携プログラム / 京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(総合学術) / 甲第21920号 / 情総博第2号 / 新制||情総||1(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院情報学研究科社会情報学専攻 / (主査)教授 吉川 正俊, 教授 大手 信人, 教授 松井 啓之, 教授 椙山 泰生 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Philosophy / Kyoto University / DGAM

Masters of Art / This mini thesis is an exploratory study of the lived experiences of bisexual and lesbian women in the Western Cape with regard to how they claim agency and negotiate their individual sexualities. Using mixed methodologies this study aims to look at the ways in which bisexual and lesbian women negotiate their sexuality in a landscape dominated by heterosexual discourses. Also considered are the contradictory ways in which these women assert their roles as lesbians and bisexual individuals and how these roles serve to simultaneously reinforce and challenge the dominant order of heterosexuality. The conflicting views of the respondents are documented which further demonstrates the complexities surrounding sexuality. This research identifies and explores both international and local research already conducted on alternative sexualities and address the lack of black researchers' conduct of these studies on the African continent. The study also records an acknowledgement of the researcher's reflection that she too holds contradictory views on some of these issues.