This thesis examines scientific, technological, and organizational innovations in Newfoundland's saltfish industry between 1887 and 1937. Since entering the orbit of European capital in the fifteenth century, Newfoundland's economy and society was organized around the export of saltfish (salted and dried cod) to consuming markets in Southern Europe and Latin America. By the nineteenth century, saltfish production was organized primarily around the small-scale fishing family financed by merchant capital. This mode of production consistently produced a large aggregate amount of saltfish of highly uneven quality. By the late-nineteenth century, however, this production system was placed under pressure as consumers in the key European markets demanded uniformly high quality saltfish, and Newfoundland's competitors began providing it. Using archival and secondary sources, this thesis examines attempts to improve and modernize saltfish production in Newfoundland over a fifty-year period, beginning with the formation of the first Fisheries Commission in 1887.I argue that saltfish producers had to confront and overcome "the problem of fluctuation." This refers to both the biogeophysical processes controlling the quantity of cod extracted (reproduction, predation, ocean dynamics, etc.) and the biogeophysical processes determining the quality of saltfish produced and consumed (decomposition, preservation, socio-biology of consumption). In contrast to many studies of the political economy of fishing, and inspired by agrarian political economy, I develop a theoretical framework called "aquarian political economy" that expands the analytical focus beyond extraction to include the entire circulation of capital. Between 1887 and 1937, I document a number of attempts at reshaping biogeophysical processes to suit the dynamics of capital accumulation in the "upstream" (pre-extraction) and "downstream" (post-extraction) phases of production. These innovations proceeded by way of introducing abstract, scientific forms of measure, which identified and helped render biogeophysical processes as amenable to human control. I define these innovations as moments in an expanded conception of the "real subsumption of nature under capital." Although many of these innovations and interventions were defined by false starts and only partial success, I conclude that this period witnessed a shift in the notion of expertise from practical experience on the ocean to techno-scientific managerial knowledge behind the desk. Through my empirical research and theoretical framework, this thesis makes a contribution to the political economy of fishing, critical resource geography, and the historical political economy of Newfoundland.

This thesis traces the changing conceptions and uses of myth in the poetry and prose of Percy Shelley. Its main argument is framed from a critical-theoretical perspective inspired by Dialectic of Enlightenment by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer. From this methodological standpoint, the study of myth can be related to other aspects of Shelley’s work, like his understanding of history and the problem of necessity and agency. The body of the dissertation is divided into three main parts, each of which is constituted by a series of shorter chapters. The first part deals with the mutually constituting negation of myth by enlightenment, where simultaneously several different but related conceptions of myth are produced and the preliminary principles of enlightenment advanced. Shelley’s earlier conceptions and uses of myth are identified (personification, euhemerism, and allegory), and compared to those of his probable sources as well as of useful analogues, among whom David Hume, William Godwin, the Baron d’Holbach, and John Frank Newton are given special attention. These conceptions of myth are also situated in their intellectual contexts in the fields of eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century mythography and theological debate. At the same time, the philosophical underpinnings of Shelley’s earlier writings (naturalism, scientism, and necessitarianism) are brought to light, and interpreted as having been strategically advanced in his critique of myth and religion. The main subject of the second part is the partial reification of enlightenment as a narrative of natural history. The interaction of theological debate and natural history of religion is explored in the light of literary form and pragmatic situation. Shelley’s political and social writings are described as a natural history of civil society based on political economy, and are situated within the historiographical tradition developed in the Scottish Enlightenment by authors like William Robertson, Adam Smith, Adam Ferguson, and John Millar. These narratives contained embedded within themselves an early concept of sociological necessity, and developed in opposition not only to sacred history but also to the classical narratives of individual political agency. I argue that this historiographical framework became problematic for Shelley in the wake of the Manchester massacre, since it was at odds with his pacifist values and utopian expectations. The final part treats of the reincorporation of some elements originally suppressed in the critique of myth. Shelley’s later mythical dramas are read as an alternative representation of history to that of natural history, where a new conception of collective political agency was developed. Simultaneously, a new concept of truth as praxis is identified as emerging in some of Shelley’s political writings, whereby the truth value of myth and poetry could be reassessed as that of a guide for political action. Finally, I argue that Shelley’s debate with Thomas Love Peacock concerning the social function of poetry catalysed the process by which the attributes of myth were transferred to poetry, and the latter was set against science and other expressions of the calculating faculty.

L'État de droit se présente comme un ensemble de règles juridiques qui limite la puissance souveraine et préserve les droits individuels. Avant que la Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen de 1789 n'acquière en France une véritable autorité constitutionnelle, la loi naturelle légitimait le politique. Si Rousseau a donné à la loi un fondement philosophique avec la volonté générale, Montesquieu a accordé à la concurrence une fonction primordiale dans la reconnaissance conjuguée de la liberté et de la propriété des hommes. A cette époque, l'économie donnait à l'intérêt particulier une importance toute nouvelle et la concurrence entre les hommes devenait même un modèle pour l'organisation politique. Alors que Montesquieu et les économistes associent l'autorité du souverain et l'expression libre de l'intérêt particulier, la société doit reposer d'après Rousseau sur le droit politique. Si les philosophies de Montesquieu et de Rousseau se rejoignent sur les questions du respect de la liberté et de la sûreté des personnes, l'une détaille les principaux modes d'organisation politique et prescrit de limiter la puissance de l'exécutif, l'autre pose la toute-puissance du souverain. Cependant, l'histoire des différents apports philosophiques, anthropologiques, économiques et juridiques du XVIIIe siècle permet de nuancer, sans les diminuer, leur influence politique sur les thèmes de l'intérêt particulier et de l'intérêt général, tels qu'ils sont aujourd'hui discutés, en France, par des juristes. / The Rule of Law is a group of legal rules which limit the sovereign power and preserve the individual rights. Before the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789 established a genuine constitutional authority in France, the natural law legitimized politics. At that time, the economy gave to the interest more importance to individual interest and competition between men became a model for the political organization. While Montesquieu and the political economists combine sovereign authority and the self-expression of the vested interest, Rousseau founded society on political right and identified the general will as the guiding principle of political acts. If political philosophers Montesquieu and Rousseau agreed on the respect of freedom and the safety of people, the former detailed the main methods of political organization and called for a restriction of the executive power while the latter confirmed the all- mighty sovereign. The history of the different philosophical, anthropological, economical and legal inputs allows us to moderate the political influences of Montesquieu and Rousseau on the main themes of vested interest, general interest - discussed nowadays in France by legal experts - without reducing them.

There is consensus in media scholarship that in the best conditions, the media can play fundamental roles as institutions of the public sphere in both established and fledgling democracies. This study applies the critical political economy of the media approach to explore the manner in which the mainstream press in Zimbabwe ‘mediates’ the country’s postcolonial transition through coverage of political contests and political debate. It assumes that how the press frames these pivotal features of democracy is a significant pointer to its role in relation to the public sphere. While on the one level examining patterns of media framing of elections in the selected six newspapers over a period spanning over two decades, on the other level the study explores the relationship between the press and centres of political and economic power in the transition. This is done with a view to establishing the role and influence of these relations on media functions. What emerges from this study is that both the state and fractions of capital informed the manner in which the press ‘mediated’ Zimbabwe’s transition. The state was particularly the most influential power centre which, as its legitimacy waned after the first decade of independence, adopted authoritarian and predatory tendencies with the effect of polarising media along highly partisan forms of ‘oppositional’ and ‘patriotic’ journalism. Where nodes of critical-analytical journalism appeared, as did ‘independent nationalist’ journalism in 2000, they were nipped in the bud by unrelenting political and economic constraints. The study’s major finding is that restrictive media policies aimed at constructing Zanu PF hegemony through the press, as well as pressures from fractions of capital and sections of civil society vying for control of state, combined to seriously compromise the press’s mediation of the political contestation in the transition. It also notes the press’s institutional inability to actively assert its powers of agency against structural constraints, and explains this as a partial inheritance from lethargic Rhodesian institutions such as the Rhodesia Guild of Journalists. Overall, the thesis argues that to nurture a media system that approximates the ideal of a multi-layered and differentiated public sphere which best serves an array of citizens’ interests, Zimbabwe would need radical reforms at the levels of media policy and media practice.

By examining a sector of the economy that was exposed to increased imports more than four decades ago, Crumley illuminates the economic pressures, resistance, and reform that help to shape Russia's agrarian sector today. Contents: The impact of trade on Russian agrarian institutions: an introduction -- Conceptualizing alternative approaches to institutional change in Russia -- Soviet agrarian institutions and interests -- Administrative and organizational changes as agrarian reform, 1972-1990 -- The decentralization of decision-making institutions in the era of market reforms, 1990-2002 -- Government incentives, traditional values, and the shaping of agrarian interests -- Changes and constraints in agrarian institutions. / https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu_books/1037/thumbnail.jpg

Political Economy in Practice: Career Contributions of Dwight Billings to Appalachian Studies Dwight Billings has contributed to shaping the conversation in Appalachian studies over the past forty years through his academic focus on political economy and his commitment to equity in who’s at the table in that conversation. The presenters will discuss his career contributions as scholar, teacher and mentor, social justice activist, and colleague.

This thesis is an examination of enski list, arguably the first magazine published exclusively for women between the wars in Croatia, and Yugoslavia. To fully understand the place, meaning and the impact of this magazine on everyday lives of its readers, with the study of the content I also include examination of the role of its editor and the first Croatian woman journalist Marija Jurić Zagorka. Finally, this thesis examines readers' responses to the content, their opinions, interactions between the readers and the editor, as well as interactions between the readers themselves for the overall assessment of the significance of enski list in the history of popular women's press in Croatia, and Yugoslavia. This thesis is a historical project which uses two theoretical approaches to study of media: feminist political economic approach, and the feminist critique of the public sphere. By combining these two theoretical standpoints I illuminated some of the ways in which media participate in everyday lives of people, specifically marginalized groups, in this case women. Situating the study within the historical context of the interwar Yugoslavia, and interwar Europe was important for understanding of this project, and its research questions. In this study I used multiple methods: (a) textual; (b) historical and biographical and, (c) audience study. In the larger part of this study which is a narrative discourse analysis of the content of enski list, I was also inspired by the interpretive ethnography of texts. I connected ethnography to feminist theory and political economy, to circumstances of gendered everyday practices and to circumstances of media culture production, all within the specific historical context. In this study I found that women in the changing socio-political and economic context expressed their relation to capitalism and modernity in different ways, sometimes exerting their critiques and the refusal of the existing patriarchal structures and sometimes seeking inclusion within the structures, with the intent to practice primarily gender equality by direct participation. Finally, the analysis of enski list has told an important story of the place of media, and the women's press in particular, in initiating, carrying, and challenging traditional and emerging discourses in the hope that they would contribute to the ways in which society can be imagined differently.

This document is an ethnographic account of one researcher's experience during an election season spent with one candidate. The document considers the history of political anthropology as a subfield of anthropology, the deployment of ideology and hegemony as theoretical concepts, and includes a brief history of Tampa and Hillsborough County politics. The document attempts to make connections between the practical necessities of campaigning, with reference to the processual approach of examining micro-political process, and theoretical issues related to the subject of political anthropology, notably the concepts of ideology, hegemony, and the subject of elites in human social organization.

This study focuses on how terminal diagnoses impact individuals and families within the Hispanic/Latino community. Hispanic/Latino hospice caregivers, Hispanic/Latino non-hospice caregivers and physicians participated in the study, which explores the utilization of hospice by Hispanic/Latino terminally ill individuals. The data collected from 30 semi-structured interviews, ethnographic participant observations, and archival data were analyzed using structured and statistical analysis. Verbatim transcripts were examined through a combination of ethnographic and content analysis. Barriers related to language and culture, as well as immigration, are critical themes that impact access to healthcare. The physicians' discourses relate patients' responses to terminal diagnoses, including the Hispanic/Latino patients' perceptions of hospice services. My research also ascertains how caregivers of Hispanic/Latino hospice patients cope with their loved ones' terminal diagnoses, structural organizational barriers to hospice utilization as well as cultural factors that contribute to the under-utilization of hospice services by this population. The findings indicate that higher incomes, higher education, and fewer years in the United States mainland directly affect healthcare decisions and treatment choices at end of life. Female gender and identity also directly impact access to health care, especially hospice services, at the end of life.

The rise of earnings inequality in the United States has garnered attention in both the political and academic spheres. Recently progressive politicians have pointed towards the divergence of wages and labor productivity as a source of this inequality. known as the productivity-pay gap as a source of the rise in inequality. This paper analyzes that divergence with a regression model that evaluates the change in compensation that is attributable to increases in productivity. Results were somewhat surprising with productivity accounting for a larger portion of the growth in wages for the period after 1972 when the divergence in the two growth rates began than in the time between 1948 and 1972 when they were said to grow together. Additionally, results showed more wage growth was attributable to increases in productivity in goods producing sectors like manufacturing, utilities, and construction than financial intermediation in the services sector. However standard errors across our model were relatively large making it difficult to say with certainty the size of effects observed. Future research should seek to better define productivity in the service sector to determine whether other factors like education, occupation or area of residence affect the level of wage growth attributable to compensation.