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We all have stories to share, to build, to pass around, to inherit, and to create. This story - the one I piece together now - is about a Thai-/Bengali-/Muslim-/American-/Feminist looking for home, looking to manage the tension and conflict of wanting to belong to her family and to her feminist community. This thesis focuses on the seemingly conflicting obligations to kinship on the one hand and to feminist practice on the other, a conflict where being a good scholar or activist is directly in opposition to being a good Asian daughter. In order to understand how and why these communities appear at odds with one another, I examine how the material spaces and psychological realities inhabited by specific hyphenated, fragmented subjects are represented (and misrepresented) in both popular culture and practical politics, arguing against images of the hybrid body that bracket its lived tensions. I argue that fantasies of home as an unconditional site of belonging and comfort distract us from the multiple communities to which hyphenated subjects must move between. Hyphenated Asian-/American bodies often find ourselves torn between nativism and assimilationism - having to neutralize, forsake, or discard parts of our identities. Thus, I reduce complicated, difficult ideas of being to the size of a thimble, to a question of loyalty between my Asian-/American history and my American-/feminist future, between my familial background and the issues that have become foregrounded for me during college, between the home from which I originate and the new home to which I wish to belong. To move with fluidity, I must - in collaboration with others - invent new stories of identity and belonging.

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This thesis consists of a series of analytically independent, but conceptually interrelated studies of language ideologies across a number of different discursive terrains. The overarching objective of these interventions is to illuminate the relationship between language, politics and subjectivity from a number of different historical, philosophical, theoretical and empirical perspectives. This, in turn, is pursued with the aim to critically interrogate the ways in which social psychology has traditionally conceptualised and approached language (and language related phenomena), and to explore some of the conceptual, metatheoretical and theoretical requirements for a reconfigured, critical social psychology of language. Towards this end, the following specific themes are explored: (1) the political role language has historically played in South Africa, especially with regards to the articulation and political embodiment of various ethnically, racially and nationally mediated forms of subjectivity (Chapter 3); the politically productive role language has played in the emergence of nationalism, nation-state societies and the modern political order more broadly (and, vice versa, the role nationalism and the modern nation-state has played in delineating language as an ontologically, epistemologically and politically consistent object of state, academic and popular interest) (Chapter 4); (3) the way in which nationally mediated and state-oriented conceptions of language, politics and political subjectivity have been assumed, naturalised and reproduced by traditional social psychology throughout the twentieth century (Chapter 5); and (4) the way in which ordinary discussions about language in an everyday South African setting contribute (by invoking liberal and nationalist discourses, amongst others) to the continued racialisation of language and public space in this country, and to the further legitimisation of linguistically mediated forms of inequality and marginalisation (Chapter 6). In each instance the focus is on language as both constructed and constructive in relation to the emergence of particular social and political orders and their associated subjectivities. The thesis concludes with a reflection on the limits of discourse and ideology as frameworks for the study of language, politics and subjectivity, and develops a number of tentative ideas about language as a corporeal component of embodied and affective subjectivities (Chapter 7). / Thesis (Ph. D.) (Psychology)

There is overwhelming evidence the world over on the pedagogical benefits of learning in the mother language. Zimbabwe recognized this significant role played by the mother tongue in education when a policy enshrined in the 1987 Education Act was enunciated. The language-in-education policy, which was amended in 2006, allows mother tongue usage up to Grade Seven. Contrary to the stated policy, primary school teachers continue to use English as the medium of instruction in primary schools. The purpose of this study was thus to explore the barriers that rural primary school teachers face in implementing the proposed policy in Masvingo District of Zimbabwe. Literature suggests that factors that inhibit implementation of a mother tongue education policy in ex-colonial African countries include state-related factors, uninformed language myths and language attitudes which support the dominant role of English. The postcolonial theory paradigm guided this study since the intention was to conduct the research as well as to contribute to how to generate teachers’ participation in mother tongue policy implementation in a postcolonial context. A qualitative case study was employed where semi-structured open ended questionnaires, focus group discussions and individual interviews were used to collect data. Fifteen rural primary school teachers, three school heads and two District Schools Inspectors were purposefully selected to participate in the study. It emerged from the study that all the participants were not knowledgeable about the stipulations of the 2006 language-in-education policy. The major barriers identified include inadequate policy dialogue, unavailability of educational material resources in the mother tongue, language attitudes and individual teacher concerns which contribute to low self-efficacy. A critical analysis of the barriers to implementation success indicates that they are mainly related to postcolonial mentality where language attitudes are deeply entrenched in people’s minds. Participants believed that the challenges they faced could be resolved and they proposed some intervention strategies. The study recommends that teacher education institutions should spearhead the designing of professional development modules that impart knowledge and skills on the implementation of additive bilingual education in primary schools. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / D. Ed. (Didactics)

Die lateinamerikanischen Sexualwissenschaften und deren Theorien, Handlungsfelder, politischen Bezüge und Forschungsergebnisse sind in Deutschland wenig bekannt und werden in sexualwissenschaftlichen Kontexten kaum rezipiert. Sie liefern jedoch profunde Erkenntnisse zur Frage, wie sich die Politisierung des Sexuellen und die Sexualisierung des Politischen theoretisch erfassen lassen. Dieser Band bietet aus intersektionaler und postkolonialer Perspektive einen ersten Zugang zu den breit gefächerten Theoriedebatten und geht, diskurtheoretisch orientiert, der Frage nach, wie sich die kolonialen Logiken der Differenz in Debatten um Multi- und Plurikulturalität eingelagert haben, wie Differenz hergestellt, reproduziert und regiert wird und wie dies das Verständnis von Sexualitäten und die Zugänge zu sexuellen und reproduktiven Rechten reguliert.

This thesis consists of a series of analytically independent, but conceptually interrelated studies of language ideologies across a number of different discursive terrains. The overarching objective of these interventions is to illuminate the relationship between language, politics and subjectivity from a number of different historical, philosophical, theoretical and empirical perspectives. This, in turn, is pursued with the aim to critically interrogate the ways in which social psychology has traditionally conceptualised and approached language (and language related phenomena), and to explore some of the conceptual, metatheoretical and theoretical requirements for a reconfigured, critical social psychology of language. Towards this end, the following specific themes are explored: (1) the political role language has historically played in South Africa, especially with regards to the articulation and political embodiment of various ethnically, racially and nationally mediated forms of subjectivity (Chapter 3); the politically productive role language has played in the emergence of nationalism, nation-state societies and the modern political order more broadly (and, vice versa, the role nationalism and the modern nation-state has played in delineating language as an ontologically, epistemologically and politically consistent object of state, academic and popular interest) (Chapter 4); (3) the way in which nationally mediated and state-oriented conceptions of language, politics and political subjectivity have been assumed, naturalised and reproduced by traditional social psychology throughout the twentieth century (Chapter 5); and (4) the way in which ordinary discussions about language in an everyday South African setting contribute (by invoking liberal and nationalist discourses, amongst others) to the continued racialisation of language and public space in this country, and to the further legitimisation of linguistically mediated forms of inequality and marginalisation (Chapter 6). In each instance the focus is on language as both constructed and constructive in relation to the emergence of particular social and political orders and their associated subjectivities. The thesis concludes with a reflection on the limits of discourse and ideology as frameworks for the study of language, politics and subjectivity, and develops a number of tentative ideas about language as a corporeal component of embodied and affective subjectivities (Chapter 7). / Thesis (Ph. D.) (Psychology)

<p>This thesis is a human geography study of how local planners prepared, implemented and followed up a dialogue with the inhabitants in Alby, a multicultural community. The planners based their work on the ambition that everything that is done to develop Alby should be anchored among the residents in a democratic manner. This thesis analyses this double interpretation and how it appears in the planners’ work.</p><p>The study uses a combination of different action-theoretic approaches for analysing what the planners did. A normative approach is used together with genealogic approaches on power and rhetoric. To make use of these action theories in a multicultural community the thesis explores radical feminism (situated knowledge) and postcolonial theory.</p><p>Methodologically, the study is based on participatory observation. It analyses how the planners anchor decisions using a subject–object approach. The approach steered the planners into a situation in which their administrative system-world grew at the expense of both a sustainable democratic development and losing contact with the life-world of the local inhabitants. During the meetings the planners came in contact with some local activists. From their situated knowledge, the activists gave practical examples on how to make the planners’ system-world more sensitive to the reality of the inhabitants. The thesis stresses the importance of a life-world perspective on local planning and the potential of local meetings, situated knowledge and phronesis to make the planners’ work sensitive to the reality of the inhabitants.</p>

Cette thèse étudie l’esthétique et l’éthique du témoignage dans le nouveau africain d’expression française voire le roman de la guerre. Au centre est l’enfant comme une catégorie sociale menacée et menaçante. L’enfant africain reste « l’arme » et le « soldat » de choix dans la littérature postcoloniale tout comme il était à l’époque coloniale. Cependant, sa mission est devenue encore plus meurtrière car il est maintenant recruté pour mener des combats militaires soutenus par des idéologies dépourvues de logique. Nous examinons donc les enjeux esthétiques et éthiques du choix de donner la parole à l’enfant pour témoigner de la violence postcoloniale dans les romans d’Emmanuel Dongala, de Tierno Monénembo, et d’Ahmadou Kourouma. Que ce soit par le biais d’une confrontation qui imite la scène judiciaire (Dongala), un débat philosophique, religieux et socio-politique autours du sujet de génocide (Monénembo), ou encore de l’emploi du rire carnavalesque pour témoigner de la tragédie personnelle et collective (Kourouma), nos auteurs font de l’enfant le point de référence à partir duquel l’Afrique pense le présent et l’avenir. Ce faisant, ils démontrent une diversité conceptuelle du témoignage littéraire tant sur le plan esthétique qu’éthique, que nous qualifions de changement paradigmatique dans la littérature d’Afrique noire d’expression française. Ce qui émerge est un double témoignage, d’une part, de l’auteur en tant que témoin des traces, d’autre part, de l’enfant (personnage) comme témoin-victime et/ou comme témoin-bourreau de la violence dans la « postcolonie ». / Thesis (Ph.D, French) -- Queen's University, 2012-03-01 12:40:14.865

This thesis is a human geography study of how local planners prepared, implemented and followed up a dialogue with the inhabitants in Alby, a multicultural community. The planners based their work on the ambition that everything that is done to develop Alby should be anchored among the residents in a democratic manner. This thesis analyses this double interpretation and how it appears in the planners’ work. The study uses a combination of different action-theoretic approaches for analysing what the planners did. A normative approach is used together with genealogic approaches on power and rhetoric. To make use of these action theories in a multicultural community the thesis explores radical feminism (situated knowledge) and postcolonial theory. Methodologically, the study is based on participatory observation. It analyses how the planners anchor decisions using a subject–object approach. The approach steered the planners into a situation in which their administrative system-world grew at the expense of both a sustainable democratic development and losing contact with the life-world of the local inhabitants. During the meetings the planners came in contact with some local activists. From their situated knowledge, the activists gave practical examples on how to make the planners’ system-world more sensitive to the reality of the inhabitants. The thesis stresses the importance of a life-world perspective on local planning and the potential of local meetings, situated knowledge and phronesis to make the planners’ work sensitive to the reality of the inhabitants. / <p>Avhandlingen är skriven på svenska [sv] med sammanfattning på Engelska [en]. Den är resultat av forskningsprojektet Kraftspelet om platserna: samverkansprojekt i våra städer Beviljade medel: 1 444 000 kr, forskningsfond: FORMAS Kontraktsnummer: 25.0/2001-1596 Kontraktstid: 010101-041231 Bakgrund och syfte Etnisk segregation i Sverige återfinns i bebyggelse som har en igenkännbar struktur. Sådan segregation har stått i fokus för kritik och varit mål för diverse åtgärder. Trots olika stora insatser har segregationen bestod genom åren. I takt med det har skepticismen mot att ta emot nya invandrade tilltagit. Syftet med projektet var att studera huruvida tjänstemännens arbete påverkar denna utveckling genom att inom ramen för den så kallade storstadssatsningen följa hur en lokal tjänstemannagrupp agerade för att möta medborgarna. De viktigaste frågor som vägledde undersökningen var bland andra hur tjänstemännen behandlade den mångkulturella befolkningen under mötena, hur de organiserade de urbana samverkansprojekten samt hur de påverkade den lokala demokratiska utvecklingen med sitt arbete. Teori och metod Projektet utgjorde en kvalitativ studie som genomfördes med hjälp av deltagande observation bland en lokal planeringsgrupp, en så kallad områdesgrupp. Observationerna fördes mellan 2001 till 2003 och avgränsades till tjänstemännens officiella möten. Inför avhandlingens slutrapport analyserades ett särskilt urval av mötena. De handlade om en medborgarpanel med vilken tjänstemännen tänkte införa brukarnas inflytande i alla verksamheter. Genom avgränsningen gjordes en djupare analys kring hur tjänstemännen tänkte, planerade, genomförde och utvärderade själva aktiviteten. Projektets teoretiska ram lyfte fram möten som utgångspunkt i arbetet för att behandla ideal och praktik, politik och planering eller förankring och dialog. Å ena sidan analyserades normativa handlingsteorier som lägger tungvikten på vad som bör göras och som anses stå för den så kallade deliberativa eller kommunikativa vändningen. Den vill exempelvis lyfta fram mötet för att göra förvaltningar känsligare för medborgarnas vardag och föreslår olika procedurer för ett dialogbetonat handlande. Procedurerna strävar efter ideala talsituationer som bortser makt och konflikter för att oavsett tid och sammanhang göra procedurerna universell gällande. Å andra sidan analyserades genealogiska handlingsteorier som utgår från studier av det som görs. Dessa vill uppmärksamma tid och kontext genom att dels synliggöra konflikter och maktrelationer som den mest effektiva startpunkten vid analys av möten. Och dels genom att medvetandegöra tid och kontext med retoriska analyser. Dessa utvärderar, överväger och bedömer hur verkliga dialogakter genomförs utifrån vad som sägs, vem som säger vad och till vem det sägs, när mötena ägde rum. Genom att belysa hur tjänstemännen förde dialog analyserades även huruvida de skulle uppmärksamma såväl invånarnas "situerade kunskaper" som vad dessa bestod av i form av praktiska handlingssätt. Huvudresultat Undersökningen visade hur en kombination av faktorer hindrade tjänstemännen från att möta medborgarna och från att deras arbete skulle främja en hållbar demokratisk utveckling. Den första aspekten handlade om ett kraftspel om platsens utveckling som uppstod mellan lokala och regionala perspektiv. Det lokala perspektivet fördes av lokala tjänstemän som arbetade för att främja den lokala integrationen med hjälp av lokala föreningar. Det regionala perspektivet fördes av tjänstemän på regerings- och kommunnivå som ville integrera platsen i regionen med hjälp av en tillväxtkoalition med föreningar som fanns utanför platsen. När den regionala politikens utifrånperspektiv inte utgick från lokala behov och heller inte från lokala förmågor präglades den av internkolonialistiska inslag som försvårade den lokala integrationen. Den regionala politikens utifrånperspektiv tvingade i sin tur lokala tjänstemän att överge ett dialogbetonat arbete för att istället ägna sig åt att förankra en upplevelsesatsning. Undersökningen exemplifierar hur tjänstemännens förankringskultur vilade på ett subjekt-objekt förhållningssätt för att möta medborgarna. Det som skulle kunna bli en dialog övergick i en mycket utstuderad och noggrant planerat förankringsspel. Med spelet filtrerade tjänstemän bort de frågor om integration, jämställdhet, jämlikhet och hållbar utveckling som gav upphov till insatserna. Tjänstemännens egna försök att skapa möten, så som procedurer för medborgarnas delaktighet vilade på subjekt-objektiva antaganden som blev kontraproduktiva för den lokala integrationen, för platsens utveckling och för framväxten av ett starkt civilt samhälle. Tjänstemännens subjektcentrerad förankringsansats vilade i sin tur på en normativ vetenskaplig diskurs som hindrade tjänstemännen från att reda ut hur dialogen uteblev. Undersökningen exemplifierar hur denna diskurs kom till uttryck i tjänstemännens överväganden samt hur den föredrar rationella överväganden före demokratiska värden. Konklusion Under tiden med storstadssatsningen lanserades ett stort antal lokala projekt som skulle utgå från dialog med medborgarna för att byta segregationen. Tjänstemännens arbete fördes med en stor förtrogenhet till rationella och normativa lösningar samt utifråntänkande. Förvaltningarnas lokala strukturer växte sig större utan att förmå möta befolkningen. På grund av förankringsansatsen underminerades medborgarnas delaktighet i många lokala projekt och demokratiprocesser. Förvaltningarna växte medan demokratin krympte. Tjänstemännens resultat påverkade kommunen att avvisa tanken på att nya invandrade flyttade till kommunen. Liknande utveckling i andra storstadskommuner tvingade i praktiken en återvändsgränd i invandringspolitiken. Den uteblivna dialogen stärkte trenderna till ett alltmer fragmenterat samhälle och vidgade grogrunden för strukturell diskriminering, främlingsfientlighet och rasism.</p>