No description available.

This thesis is concerned with understanding how the distinct “knowledges” articulated by environmental activists address the places that activists relate to. Through an engagement with the theoretical work of Edward Casey and Doreen Massey, it is argued that humans engage with specific places through an embodied encounter that takes place on the basis of particular evolving cultural traditions. These cultural traditions are influenced by the relations that are encountered in specific places through the course of inhabitation, creating local ecological and social knowledges in the process. Based on this understanding, it is argued that framings of environmental politics by environmental activists in relation to culturally specific scientific understandings of nature are often unable to address the particularity of local social and ecological relations that are contested in specific places. The danger is that contesting environmental politics in terms of the language of nature will de-emphasize the importance of local political relations and the knowledges that are generated in relation to these scales of political engagement. This theoretical argument is developed in connection to a case study of the Perry Ridge blockade, an anti-logging demonstration that took place in the Slocan Valley during 1997. It will be argued that there are important aspects of the politics of environmental activists involved in the Perry Ridge blockade that are based on the knowledge generated through inhabitation of the Slocan Valley. The presence of local ecological knowledge in the Perry Ridge blockade indicates that elements of local activist traditions are subjugated when analyses of environmental politics are understood in terms of abstract cultural discourses such as nature. This conclusion indicates that rural environmental activists are not only engaged in a politics of nature but often also in the messier political processes encountered through inhabitation in places. Given that discourses of nature that are scientifically generated are able to jump scales and impact local political processes, the danger is that the use of such discourses will restrict attempts by local activists to engage in a more thorough way with the complex politics of specific rural places. / Graduate

Thesis advisor: Marc K. Landy / Education - and rural education - was on LBJ’s mind when he declared “War on Poverty” from the front porch of a family cabin in Inez, Kentucky. In 2021, Lyndon Johnson would find his Great Society did not fully come to fruition. In this work, I explore how responsive federal, state, and local bodies of government are to the needs of underresourced schools in Eastern Kentucky’s rural, economically distressed coal counties. National Assessment of Educational Progress (NEAP) scores demonstrate that Eastern Kentucky’s students are behind from the starting-line, thanks to economic, health, and developmental disparities. However, some school districts feature rates of improvement between fourth and eighth grade that exceed the national average, while others stay behind. This project’s central finding is that local investment is the variable most correlated with school improvement. Today, Appalachia remains a place where “working people, and those who wish there was work...battle for dignity and security, for themselves and for their children.” That battle for dignity and security, for better schools and better quality of life, has gone on for decades and continues today. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Scholar of the College. / Discipline: Political Science.

Recent political developments, with the outcome of the Brexit referendum and the election of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States, have revitalized the discussion about so called political cleavages. Drawing upon the work of Lipset and Rokkan, some see the urban-rural cleavage as an explanation to the election outcomes. In a Swedish context it is primarily the increase in electoral support for the Sweden Democrats that has brought up the question. The overarching purpose with this master’s thesis is to explain the role of Lipset and Rokkans theoretical cleavages in Swedish rural politics. Rural politics is considered a most likely-case for finding ideas related to the urban-rural cleavage, a cleavage which is said to have gained a greater importance over the past couple of years. Political cleavages exist when political actors demonstrate cohesive ideas and in a structured matter relate to them. For this reason, the thesis’ subordinate purpose is to describe what ideas parliamentary parties have in the rural political debate. This is done through an idea analysis where problems and solutions presented by the political parties are described and interpreted. The conclusion is that the worker-owner-cleavage is the dominant cleavage in Swedish rural politics. Political parties tend to problematize issues that are a part of the cleavage, with issues such as welfare, regional redistribution, entrepreneurship and taxation. The urban-rural and center-periphery cleavage can only be regarded as secondary and subordinate to the worker-owner-cleavage. However, there are ideas in the debate relating to these two cleavages. Ideas relating to the state-church cleavage is absent in the chosen material.