This dissertation is an a/r/tographic inquiry (Irwin & Springgay, 2008) that explores postmodern picturebooks and writing theory. Postmodern picturebooks have been described as texts that blur traditional literary boundaries and text-image relationships, while employing devices like metafiction and playfulness (Goldstone, 2002; Sipe, 2008). As meaning becomes more ambiguous, readers are positioned as co-constructors of meaning (Serafini, 2005). Research has shown students enjoy reading postmodern picturebooks and constructing meaningful transactions despite the complex nature of these texts (McGuire, Belfatti, & Ghiso, 2008; Pantaleo, 2004, 2007, 2008), but few have begun to explore how these texts are written. Therefore, I used a/r/tography (Irwin & Springgay, 2008) to theorize about the relationship between these texts and what it means to write. As a method of inquiry, a/r/tography is an arts-based approach to research that is interested in how artistic practices produce meaning and a/r/tographers use art to “construct the very ‘thing’ [they] are attempting to make sense of” (Springgay, 2008, p. 159). In this study, I wrote and illustrated a postmodern picturebook and interpreted how this experience generated understandings about what it means to write. In response to the process model of writing (Flower & Hayes, 1981), the data led to representations that offer new perspectives on contemporary writing theory, in particular, the interpretive, public, and situated nature of writing (Kent, 1999). As a result, I use theories of metaphor (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980/2003; Lakoff & Turner, 1989) to critique writing process theory (Elbow, 1973, 1981; Flower & Hayes, 1981) and propose that a/r/tographic inquiry creates openings for new possibilities within the post-process movement (Kent, 1999) by demonstrating how a writer’s evolving questions (Irwin & Springgay, 2008) relate to writing pedagogy.

This thesis examines how context in Derridean signature theory is taboo and underutilized, and calls signature theory to embrace the contaminating mark of context. Signature theory, as proposed by Jacques Derrida and Peggy Kamuf, offers a mere glimpse into Romanticism’s strained relationship with the signature, with a close reading limited to Rousseau. This thesis widens the scope of existing signature scholarship, and expands the context of the signature by focusing on a variety of signatures, events and contexts to reveal that the slipperiness of the signature is a pervasive problem, irreducible to simply just Rousseau. This thesis does not involve a return to the origin, or a search for origins; Part I is a return to the period which Derridean signature theory investigates, in an attempt to interrogate Derrida, Kamuf, and the signature itself; expanding the concept of the signature through its various manifestations of handwork and linework, and weaving together a more complicated, contaminated, and ultimately convincing context for signature theory to begin (again) from. Part II forces signature theory to begin again by putting it into practice. Here, I take Kamuf to task for her failure to fully ‘contract’ the signature. She completely ignores the physical dimension of the word ‘contract.’ Going one step further than simply critiquing her signature practices, I ‘contract’ the signature by having Derrida’s signature tattooed on my body. The tattoo and its location comment on the current limitations of signature theory, and perhaps of academic practice generally; of contracting without touching, and fearing contexts.

This thesis is based on a life history study of two women involved in activism for social change. Broadly guided by life history methodology and feminist and constructivist postmodern theories and approaches, this inter-disciplinary research explores experiences and stories in the lives of these women that evoke the transformative journeys of womens long-term commitments to social change activism, and that portray ways in which personal and social transformation interweave. The stories illuminate how individual courses of action both resonate with and diverge from meta-narratives of social movements, and how they reflect and resist the contexts in which those courses evolve. Reflection on the process of constructing the stories reveals the effects on the participants and the researcher of the inter-subjective realm from which life history arises. The studys practical purpose relating activism, transformative education and postmodernism also leads to experimentation with creative texts that at once provide educational tools and invite participation in the interpretive process. Overall the thesis melds more traditional approaches with more unconventional ones. The study is both provocative and supportive of those working for social change through transformative education and activism.

Since the Industrial Revolution onward, the technology involved in the music arts caused the works to be a lot of copies, production and distribution. Like early LPs, cassettes, and recent CDs, digital format files and so on, not only changed the way of listening and media habits of audience, but also affected the artists' creative thoughts. For this phenomenon, Adorno and other Frankfurt School members who advocated the concept of ¡§culture industry¡¨ thought mass production could lead to a decline in music quality, resulting in kitsch, superficial cultural goods, and losing its authenticity. Is the situation really so pessimistic? Nowadays, the conception of production and consumption of music has been very different from the past. Do we living in the digital age be able to distinguish which is kitsch, and further to interpret the contemporary authenticity of music arts? In this study, I want to focus on the two core concepts: kitsch and authenticity, and the characteristic of music arts to explain. From Benjamin and Adorno's theoretical context, I try to explore how the evolution of technology eliminate the ¡§aura¡¨ of traditional works, and then caused qualitative changes to the classical music and the popular music as representatives of high culture and popular culture. The boundary between the two is getting indistinct with the advent of postmodern context. In addition, I want to reveal the inherent authenticity of the popular culture by discussing the aspect of its rebellious and subversive ideology, and give another interpretation of the kitsch colure in Adorno¡¦s point. Furthermore, the technology revolution provides new perspectives and techniques for musical creation, and also transforms the meaning of kitsch culture. Here, I attempt to clarify producers / creators how to construct the contemporary music aesthetics, and find out the forward strategy of getting rid of kitsch, returning to the populace. Another approach in this study is consumers¡¦ listening models, including attentively static listening and dynamic body senses, to develop a multi dimension authenticity according to the individual¡¦s different situations and listening attitude. Finally, I explore how the special mobile listening model in the postmodern consumer society associated with the Baudrillard's consumption theory, and try to figure out, in the shadow of late capitalism, how to reject integration and incorporation of kitsch culture, and discover the possible practice of being authentic.

<p> In Shop! Daniel Svensson is studying the Public Consume Conversation during the 90´s. Focus is based on two local papers in the Swedish town Norrköping and the Public Media Conversation, which these two represent. What kind of discourses has been dominating this conversation, that is the most important question in Shop! To answer this, Daniel Svensson uses the Critical Discourse Analysis, by Norman Fairclough, as an analytic tool. This method provides him with the possibility to connect the micro level of text with the macro level of the society. But this demands theories of the contemporary society at a macro level. Therefor Daniel Svensson uses, among others, the work of Anthony Giddens and Zygmunt Bauman.</p> / <p>Uppsatsen undersöker utvecklingen av konsumtionssamtalet under 90-talet. Fokus ligger på ett offentligt mediesamtal i Norrköping, vilket i denna studie består av två lokaltidningarna Norrköpings Tidningar och Folkbladet. Detta är även en studie av hur diskurser verkar ideologiskt i befästandet av en viss utveckling. En viktig frågeställning är därmed vilka diskurser som drivit konsumtionssamtalet under 90-talet och hur detta har gått till. Studien är fokuserad på en lokal kontext, med utvecklingen av köpcentrum I Norrköping och behandlingen avdenna i det offentliga mediesamtalet, men har ambitionen att säga viktiga saker om samhället på en makronivå. Den kritiska diskursanalysen används därför som metod, då denna är anpassad för kopplingar mellan textnivå och större sociala processer i samhället. Som teori används bl.a. Anthony Giddens, med teorier om det senmoderna samhället och människans ökade reflexivitet, och Zygmunt Bauman, med sin kritik av ett nutida postmodernt konsumtionssamhälle.</p>

Industrialization and "development" during the last 200 years have led to an increase of pesticides, an intensified use of synthetic chemicals, higher levels of environmental pollution, and more exposure to hazardous working conditions. Environmental toxins, many of which are endocrine disruptors, are stored in fat tissue, increasing reproductive health risks for both women and men. Women’s bodies are particularly vulnerable as sites for creating, growing, feeding, and nurturing the next generation. And yet, women’s lives are consistently devalued, especially in a capitalist economy, so that a woman’s rights to her own reproductive health are no longer guaranteed. In this thesis I first review ecological destruction, environmental policies, and food safety/security issues for women. I then examine neoliberal globalization as an active participant in the destruction of the environment and an attack on global health. I discuss how utilizing feminist theory effectively, and actively, will ensure women the right to their health. I employ postmodern feminist and refigured ecofeminist theory to demonstrate how a feminist perspective is necessary in the development of policies that address the problem of endocrine disruptors in terms of women’s reproductive health and the health of future generations. Finally, I suggest that the precautionary principle must include a feminist perspective to fully succeed.

Compared with its roles in pre-modern societies, traditional music, previously called “folklore,” has been playing very different roles in the globalized world. These new roles, however, are rarely articulated in a systematic manner. While most discourse on the contemporary use of traditional music comes from the case studies of ethnomusicologists, the concept of “intangible cultural heritage,” which is usually associated with the initiatives of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) in safeguarding intangible cultural heritage (including traditional music), provides a new perspective to understand the new roles that traditional music plays in the postmodern world. A systematic examination of these roles is crucial, because it allows an in-depth analysis of the hidden power relations behind the contemporary use of traditional music. Furthermore, with the idea of “salvation from disappearing” being more and more problematic in contemporary practice, the project of preserving traditional music cannot be firmly grounded unless its contemporary values are demonstrated. In order to systematically identify and analyze the contemporary use of traditional music, this paper examines the current literature on intangible cultural heritage and the related international initiatives undertaken by the United Nations and its specialized agencies such as UNESCO and UNDP, in combination with the major issues raised by ethnomusicologists regarding the use of traditional music in creative industries. Using two major case studies–Kunqu and HAN Hong’s new Tibetan music–to demonstrate the aesthetic, political, economic and ethical dimensions of the use of traditional music in contemporary society, I argue that there is a fifth dimension, the social dimension, of the value of traditional music in the postmodern condition. The articulation of this social dimension of the contemporary use of traditional music serves to establish its universal relevance and to identify its unique character that makes it a powerful tool to serve as a counter-hegemonic force. / text

When analyzing the role religion plays in contemporary American society, one is forced to address the notion of secularization. This is a term that broadly refers to the marginalization of religious influence in culture and society that began at the outset of the Enlightenment, sometime during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but, as Peter Berger argues, can actually be traced back to the times of the great Israelite prophets who emerged during the Axial Age (800-200 BCE). Throughout the available literature, proponents of the secularization thesis extend the marginalization of religious influence from the societal level to the level of individual consciousness; however, this thesis contends that these analyses appear to be inadequate in describing postmodern culture. This thesis affirms Lyotard's description of classifying postmodernity as a time exhibiting "incredulity towards the meta-narrative." Thus, this thesis will argue that postmodern culture is not best described as secular. By employing Jacques Ellul's understanding of the sacred and Vincent Pecora's "semantic resonance" of religion, this thesis will provide a more adequate theoretic platform to develop accounts for religion in postmodernity. Through analysis of various deployments of the secularization thesis in the context of Ellul's theory of the proliferating sacred, the adequacy of the available literature that examines secularization in contemporary society will be evaluated. On the basis of this evaluation, proposals for reconsideration of the secularization thesis will be offered. Furthermore, this thesis will locate renditions of the sacred in postmodern society through participation in traditional institutional religion and the proliferation of New Religious Movements by employing a substantive approach. By taking a functional approach, this thesis will analyze the religious dimensions of sports in contemporary American culture. It will become evident that whether one understands religion substantively or functionally, it is clear that the sacred in postmodernity appears to be thriving rather than eroding. This thesis will advocate a phenomenological functional understanding of religion and society and support the astute observation made by Graham Ward in his recent work Theology and Contemporary Critical Theory, that "Religion is once again haunting the imagination of the West."

This thesis aims to emancipate female entrepreneurs from the metanarrative of economic growth which has created a false dichotomy of successful male entrepreneur versus an unsuccessful female entrepreneur. This aim is pursued through a multidisciplinary and critical inquiry that destabilises this metanarrative conceptually and empirically. A critical interrogation of economic studies reveals the embeddedness of the metanarrative in neo-classical economic growth theory. Far from being a true reflection of the entrepreneurial experience, the theory has silenced the innovator entrepreneur in economic theory and replaced him/her with an economic rational manager. Concurrently, a re-analysis of Schumpeter’s theorising suggests that his theories do not subordinate female entrepreneurs as claimed by a number of critical theorists. In contrast, his theorising is emancipatory and offers an alternative theoretical framework to the oppressive neo-classical economic growth theory. Oral history methods are used to capture the voices of female entrepreneurs which have largely been excluded from the literature. The oral history narratives challenge the oppressive homogeneity imposed by the metanarrative of economic growth and illustrate the negative influence of the theoretical foundation of neo-classical theory upon the entrepreneurial experience. The study offers theoretical, methodological and empirical contributions to female entrepreneurship studies by presenting a fresh interpretation of Schumpeter’s theorising; including the voices of the female entrepreneurs; and applying research approaches that break away from positivism which dominates entrepreneurial studies. The study has implications for policy makers and practitioners as it generates knowledge that takes account of the current social and economic changes.

This dissertation describes the nature of what has been called kalām-e jadīd (new theology) in the Islamic Republic of Iran. It argues that there are currently two kinds of “new theologies” in practice. One new theology that is more widely adhered to is an extension of classical theology and stays true to traditional precepts, while the second is postmodern in nature and breaks with tradition completely. The first strand of kalām-e jadīd, referred to as “theology of selectivity,” is represented here by the works of Mohsen Kadivar, the person who epitomizes the intellectual but tradition-bound wave of post-revolutionary theological thought in Iran. The second strand of kalām-e jadīd, referred to as “postmodern theology,” is presented via the works of Abdolkarim Soroush, the most representative thinker of this type of kalām. In making this distinction, this dissertation therefore delineates the different forms of post-revolutionary reformist theology in Iran and presents Soroush’s work in terms of the greater postmodern discourse that feeds his work. The interest and importance placed on Soroush’s work also speaks volumes about the receptiveness of Iranian reformist intellectual communities towards postmodern thought and the possibility of placing these communities within what has come to be known as the postmodern condition. Thus, in essence this project can be seen as a comparative work that also points towards the ideological distance between these two modernizing trends in current Iranian Islamic thought. / text