published_or_final_version / abstract / Politics and Public Administration / Master / Master of Philosophy

<p>It was the purpose of this study to demonstrate that the government of Namibia has been seeking to adopt structures and procedures that will contribute to the realization of general national development. Decentralization in any country takes place in a political context and its implementation assumes some political significance, as it is not merely a matter of centralization or decentralization of government functions and procedures, but both centralization and decentralization tendencies exist and reinforce each other in practice. This study argues that the dynamic features of decentralization and its implementation in Namibia have been shaped by central government's view, through the ministry of regional and local government and housing, of the concept decentralization. The objectives of this study were to provide a critical understanding of the theoretical foundation of the concept decentralization.</p>

Arising out of the work of Marshall McLuhan, Eric Havelock, Walter Ong, Jacques Derrida and Gregory Ulmer, among others, it is widely thought there are three stages in the history of human communication: the oral, the literate and the electronic. Nonetheless, debate is ongoing over the integration, ordering and the substantive separation of these stages. An upshot of these debates is that each stage is loosely allied to a particular socio/political structure: hunter/gatherer or tribal societies, nation states, and globalisation respectively. In the current alloying of ‘electronic communication’ and ‘globalisation’ though there is a rising interest in what is termed ‘new regionalism’, or regionalisation, even regionality. Accordingly, Chora-Logic: Electracy as Regional Epistemology examines the possibility of an emerging conceptual alliance (and through reference to two Australian regions a sometimes embodied and situated one) between the embryonic communicational infrastructure of electracy and the age-old spatial scale of the region, a relationship that might just come to represent a means of rethinking the civic and the psychic, the commercial and governmental frameworks of an electro-energised global skein. It may also be a way of reinvigorating a study in the relation of the body (in its capacity as a citizen-subject) to the nation state, especially as all these entities are increasingly though ambiguously constituted in and through globalisation. The method of synthesising and antagonising these relations between electracy and regionalism is through the philosophy of chora, Plato’s conception of embodied place as found in the middle section of the Timaeus, coaxed along by a range of interpretations of this important genesis myth in Western philosophy. In particular, chora is taken up in the work of Gregory Ulmer as a key method in the ongoing conceptualisation of an electrate epistemology. Arising out of these concerns Chora-Logic is an experimental re-configuration of the sovereign, abstracted and disembodied citizen-subject of the Cartesian mould (a significant psycho-political mooring of the literate national character) to one situated both in the virtual density and multidimensional actuality of a particular place (organically conceived of herein as an idiosyncratic mix of psychic, domestic, workplace, local and regional proximities), but whose both [dis][embodied] self-knowledge and world-knowledge are now increasingly realised by access to an electronically arbitrated global/regional polis. In sound-bite terms, the bumper sticker could just as easily proclaim the following inversion: ‘Think and feel chora-logically, act globally’. Finally, the nucleus of Chora-Logic: Electracy as Regional Epistemology is a risky praxis whose experimental eddy (in both formal and content terms) spins within the current ambivalence, uncertainty and fast-paced change in electronic communicative arrangements (electracy), as these are themselves wrapped in the psychic and socio-political variabilities of spatial affiliation, all of which are symbiotically entwined regardless of the historical period and/or the geographical context.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Open University. BLDSC no. DX218747.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

As the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) deepens its economic and political integration, the development of the CARICOM identity is seen as both a natural outgrowth, and as paramount to its success. This is because a regional identity can promote social cohesion and shape political objects, including social policies. Regional identities are also shaped by politics, social relations and personal attributes. Using data from a cross-national survey and semi-structured interviews, this thesis examines the nuances of identity formation in CARICOM. It specifically asks three questions: a) how do intra-regional CARICOM migrants negotiate their identities and self-identify? b) How do intra-regional CARICOM migrants construct their lived-experiences in other CARICOM countries? And c) how do intra-regional migrants rationalize the impact of CARICOM regionalism on their identities? These data are analyzed statistically, and through the interpretations of migrants’ discourses and experiences. The study identifies six factors that determine attachments to CARICOM: education level, citizenship region, the meaningfulness of CARICOM, benefits of CARICOM, belonging in member countries, and the nature of migratory experiences. All these variables moderately impact attachment to CARICOM except perceived benefits, which is strongly associated with identification with CARICOM. Perceptions of benefits also impact how migrants rationalized regionalism and their experiences. Overall, support for regional integration and a regional identity are strong, but the CARICOM identity is weak and non-salient primarily because expectations of benefits do not match lived realities. The deepening of the CARICOM identity are therefore contingent on: people experiencing CARICOM’s expected benefits; the development of policies that address perceived failures; CARICOM rebranding itself and being more engaged with its constituents; and on collaborative actions being taken to embed the regional identity into national ones.

Wilderness is defined as being "a wild or uncultivated region or tract of land, uninhabited, or inhabited only by wild animals" (Oxford English Dictionary 1989). But just how natural is the concept of wilderness? the idea of conserving nature suggests that we think of ourselves as something 'other' than nature, but the truth is that nature is our origin, and although this is often forgotten, it is a connection that is deeply rooted in our being. I am interested in finding an architecture that speaks to our most primal memories, acting to locate humans within nature. Through the creation of 3 mountain refuges, each a point in a larger path of pilgrimage, I will explore the connections that we as humans can share with the Canadian mountain wilderness. / This thesis is sited in Jumbo Creek Valley, British Columbia in the Purcell Mountains.

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Typescript. / Bibliography: leaves 205-213. / Microfiche. / x, 213 leaves ill