This study addresses violent urban disturbances which occurred in England in the early 1980s with particular reference to the Bristol ‘riots’ of April 1980 and the numerous disorders which followed in July 1981. Revisiting two concepts traditionally utilised to explain the spread of collective violence, namely ‘diffusion’ and ‘contagion,’ it argues that the latter offers a more useful model for understanding the above-mentioned events. Diffusion used in this context implies that such disturbances are independent of each other and occur randomly. It is associated with the concept of ‘copycat riots’, which were commonly invoked by the national media as a way of explaining the spread of urban disturbances in July 1981. Contagion by contrast holds that urban disturbances are related to one another and involve a variety of communication processes and rational collective decision-making. This implies that such events can only be fully understood if they are studied in terms of their local dynamics. Providing the first comprehensive macro-historical analysis of the disturbances of July 1981, this thesis utilises a range of quantitative techniques to argue that the temporal and spatial spread of the unrest exhibited patterns of contagion. These mini-waves of disorder located in several conurbations were precipitated by major disturbances in inner-city multi-ethnic areas. This contradicts more conventional explanations which credit the national media as the sole driver of riotous behaviour. The thesis then proceeds to offer a micro analysis of disturbances in Bristol in April 1980, incorporating both qualitative and quantitative techniques. Exploiting previously unexplored primary sources and recently collected oral histories from participants, it establishes detailed narratives of three related disturbances in the city. The anatomy of the individual incidents and local contagious effects are examined using spatial mapping, social network and ethnographic analyses. The results suggest that previously ignored educational, sub-cultural and ethnographic intra- and inter-community linkages were important factors in the spread of the disorders in Bristol. The case studies of the Bristol disorders are then used to illuminate our understanding of the processes at work during the July 1981 disturbances. It is argued that the latter events were essentially characterised by anti-police and anti-racist collective violence, which marked a momentary recomposition of working-class youth across ethnic divides.

Complex Indigenous and racialized poverty exists in Canada. Child poverty obviously has a negative impact on our youth who are served by school systems. As Silver (2014, 2016) and others have demonstrated, poverty can lead to poor educational outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examination the understandings and actions of four superintendents in Winnipeg, Manitoba related to complex Indigenous and racialized poverty. The superintendency is incredibly complex and extremely political, and there cannot be a recipe book from which superintendents can help advance the cause of greater equity for all our students. That said, we can learn from the stories of those who have made a difference, no matter how small or contextualized. We can advance our knowledge to inform how superintendents can contribute to the creation of educational environments in which people challenge, develop, and, in the words of Foster (1986), “liberate human souls” (p. 18). Using a qualitative approach informed by critical theory, this study explores how the superintendents understood issues related to complex, racialized poverty in particular; and how these understandings influenced their work in highly complex, political, and contextual work environments. In this study, each of the superintendents participated in a series of individual interviews and a group dialogue. The study attempts to ascertain (a) what the participants believed about complex poverty and how they have come to these understandings, (b) how they described the socio-political and organizational environments that informed and influenced their work as superintendents and; what they were able and unable do to mitigate the effects of poverty upon students and their communities, and (c) what actions have they undertaken to attempt to address issues of racialized poverty and what else they think should be done in schools, in school systems, and in the greater communities. / February 2017

Framed by insights from critical human geography, political economy, and educational studies, this dissertation offers a critique of the contemporary education reform movement in the United States (hereafter U.S.). The overarching argument made here is that the powerfully positioned individuals and groups at the head of this movement have been less motivated by a desire to actually pursue social justice than by the political expediency that comes with appearing to be doing so. The three papers that follow speak to the existing critical literature on public schooling in the U.S., which argues that the perpetual discussion about how to 'fix' the U.S.'s educational system should be seen as an attempt by its powerfully positioned interlocutors to collapse popular discontent with a variety of persistent social injustices into a focused dissatisfaction with the public schools. This literature has also argued that although the public education system in the U.S. is indeed quite inequitable as it presently exists, and thus an appropriate target for transformation, the education reform movement's efforts to that end have actually reproduced many of the social and pedagogical causes of educational inequity. This dissertation builds on the literature just summarized by demonstrating that the rhetoric of the individuals and groups associated with the education reform movement coalesces around a spatial discourse through which the causes of a variety of social ills are presented as endogenous to the spaces inhabited by the individuals and groups that suffer them with the greatest frequency and intensity. Further, the artificially discrete, enclosed spaces conjured in the name of education reform are enrolled as part of a broader project of legitimizing coercive, individualizing, and competitive-rather than supportive, dialogic, collaborative-forms of pedagogy, and governance more generally.

This thesis defends a conception of equality of opportunity. It comes in two parts. The first part elaborates the conception. It begins by clarifying the concept of equality of opportunity, showing it to be made up of four basic elements: a distributive pattern, a set of subjects, an opportunity obstacle and a distributive object. The conception I build from these elements explains the value of the distributive pattern, equality, in terms of a concern for fairness, takes persons as its subject and takes well-being as its object. The conception presented is partial, rather than comprehensive, in that it does not include a detailed account of an opportunity obstacle. The conception of equality of opportunity that I present can also be characterised as a luck egalitarian principle. My aim in elaborating the conception is to show that it has intuitive appeal; it constitutes a pro tanto moral principle. The second part of the thesis examines the implications of luck egalitarianism in two contexts. It begins by examining the context of gifts, arguing that although luck egalitarianism is highly restrictive with respect to the freedom to give this only confirms that it is a merely pro tanto moral principle. It continues by examining the context of markets, arguing that luck egalitarianism makes intuitively correct judgments in several specified cases. My aim in applying luck egalitarianism is to show that its implications do not give us reason to reject its initial intuitive appeal. I examine luck egalitarianism generally, rather then the partial conception I elaborate, to allow for the possibility that my earlier arguments are wrong in some respect. Overall, I hope the arguments presented provide reasons to accept the conception presented as morally valuable.

LL.M. (Labour Law) / According to Davies and Freedland, “the relation between an employer and an isolated employee or worker is typically a relation between a bearer of power and one who is not a bearer of power”. In other words, the employment relationship is characterised by an imbalance of power and is inherently unjust if employees do not act collectively. Labour law, from a social justice perspective, serves as “a tool to further the interests of social justice” for employees and serves to equalise the balance of power in the relationship between the employer and employees. From a social justice perspective, trade unions and trade union representatives fulfil a vital function as “a primary vehicle through which to achieve social justice” in the workplace. According to Du Toit, it is only when employees act collectively, through trade unions and their representatives, that employees can counteract the bargaining power of the employer. Therefore, the existence of trade unions and their representatives is linked to the realisation of social justice and, it could be argued, the fulfilment of the right to fair labour practices, which is enshrined in section 23(1) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 ...

This thesis probes the land (in)justice in Hong Kong by presenting an archival research which contributes to the inter-disciplinary scholarship of legal geography. It conceptualises the leasehold land system as the legal mechanism in the land (re)development regime and politicises the understanding of land (in)justice by explaining how it is produced and reproduced by the legal mechanism. Drawing on critical realism, Dikeç's spatial dialectics of injustice, Lefebvre's concrete abstraction and several concepts in legal geography, this thesis proposes "spatio-legal dialectics of land (in)justice" as the theoretical framework. Reconstructing the historical geography of this former British colony, through the lens of scalar politics, demonstrates that the legal system and land development have been inextricably intertwined in Hong Kong. Through the legal technicalities of land leases, the Colonial Government transformed the territory of Hong Kong into an exploitable land property, and thus secured the absolute control of land and the effective governance of the society. The expiry problem of the land lease placed the future of Hong Kong as a diplomatic question between China and Britain. The "Tin Shui Wai Myth", situated in the 1980s, reflected the frictions between the two countries. The "Myth" is not only related to the production of the spatiality of injustice as a new town but also associated with the production of the injustice of spatiality because of some legal changes. These legal changes, related to land lease and urban infrastructure, evolved after the Sino-British Negotiation and led the land (re)development regime to be more hegemonic. Understanding Hong Kong as a property jurisdiction, the current problematic of land injustice, under the new constitutional order of the Chinese sovereignty, is elaborated by the thesis of complete exploitation with the concept of urban land nexus. This thesis empirically interprets the mutual constitution of law and urban development, and conceptually engages in the academic debates about (in)justice, law and urban spatiality.

Thesis advisor: Marilyn Cochran-Smith / In this critical ethnography I examined Teach First, the U.K. teacher education program modeled after Teach For America (TFA). Teach First described itself as "a unique business-led programme dedicated to addressing educational disadvantage by placing elite graduates in the schools that need them most" (Teach First, 2010). Teach First was thus problematically positioned at the crossroads of both neoliberal and progressive ideologies. My research addressed this problem by uncovering Teach First's theory of teacher education for social justice by applying a framework developed by Marilyn Cochran-Smith (2010) to interviews, observations, and artifacts that I collected at the 2008 Teach First Summer Institute. I then critiqued this theory using the tools of "Policy Sociology," a British research tradition that examines the political, ideological, and economic assumptions that drive education policy. My research led me to identify Teach First as a "progressive neoliberal" (Lahann and Reagan, in press) organization which is driven entirely by a theory of teacher education for social justice based on the idea of justice as distribution. This theory explains why the staff of Teach First appreciated the organization to have a mission of social justice while at the same time endorsing and promoting neoliberal policies which conflict with many theories of teacher education for social justice that draw from theories of justice as recognition. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

Thesis advisor: Thomas J. Massaro / There is a substantial and growing corpus of literature that describes, with convincing statistics and analysis, globalization as the greatest achievement in the history of our modern world and that it has brought the greatest degree of prosperity and economic growth to poor countries. However, seen from the perspective of the poor and the marginalized, the current globalization has not helped them to end their misery and marginalization; indeed in most cases it has actually worsened their situation. The Christian community cannot remain an idle spectator of this unjust, inhuman and sinful global reality. Analyzed from a Christian theological perspective, it is not only an economic issue but also a moral issue. It is a social sin to violate human dignity, to commodify human labor, and to marginalize the poor. Based on the teachings of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences, the Catholic Bishops Conference of India and some prominent Asian theologians, I contend that dialogue with other faith traditions, cultures and the poor must be an essential part of her mission of humanizing the current globalization. I argue that the Church in India should avoid the presumption that she already possesses a vision of the common good adequate to the Indian society. While remaining committed to gospel values, the Church must be an open-minded listening and learning. / Thesis (STD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

Thesis advisor: Ana M. Martínez Alemán / The contemporary American women's college boasts an illustrious history of providing superior education for women, one that leads to significantly more positive educational outcomes for women than a coeducation college experience (including graduate degree attainment, persistence in science and mathematics, and achievement of high-level positions in many career fields). Recently, a small but vocal group of students who identify as transgender and who are living as male, genderqueer, or transitioning to live as male have emerged as a visible sub-population in many highly selective women's colleges. In this qualitative, phenomenological study of the perceptions of student affairs administrators (n=31) regarding their perceptions of and experiences working with transgender students, these key facilitators of student growth and development expressed beliefs and actions that characterized them almost uniformly as supporters of transgender students. A smaller subset of participants (advocates) took decisive and change-oriented action on their campuses, resulting in a shift of policy and practice. The data indicated that there appeared to be coherence between these two identities and adherence to a philosophy of feminist and/or womanist identity and practices. By effectively navigating what one participant named `discourses of discomfort' about transgender students on campus, participants demonstrated professional identities typified by an ethics of care and social justice in their work, as well as demonstrating practices that were defined by normalizing belonging for transgender students. Implications for practice include continued attention to advancing social justice at women's colleges, enhancement of learning and teaching about transgender lives and identities at women's colleges, and increased commitment to trans-formation of coeducational college environments. Further research about transgender students' experiences at women's colleges, as alumni of women's colleges, and the effects of policy implementation regarding transgender students at women's colleges is warranted. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Administration and Higher Education.

Thesis advisor: Larry H. Ludlow / Teacher preparation programs face an urgent call to prepare high-quality and "highly qualified" teachers who teach all students in an increasingly culturally, racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse student population, and who work toward closing the achievement gap that separates students along these demographic lines. In response, and as part of the current accountability context, there has been greater focus on outcomes in teacher education. Along different lines, also in response to these challenges, there has been an increase in social justice-oriented teacher preparation programs. This dissertation operates within both of these contexts. Specifically, this dissertation examines one of the many outcomes of teacher education for social justice: teacher candidates' changing beliefs about teaching for social justice and the factors that may or may not be related to their change. Using primarily Rasch rating scale and multiple regression analyses, this dissertation examines longitudinal survey data from two cohorts of undergraduate teacher candidates (N=134) who completed the same social justice-oriented teacher education program. By investigating two cohorts of teacher candidates at the time of entry into the teacher education program and again when they graduated four years later, this study investigated individuals in the aggregate, variability within and across cohorts, and change across time. In addition, this research sought to untangle and identify whether reported experiences and perceptions before and during formal teacher education are related to beliefs about and commitment to teaching for social justice. Findings suggest that from the time of entry to graduation, candidates' beliefs about teaching for social justice were significantly more aligned with the concepts and principles endorsed by the teacher preparation program. Additionally, at particular points in time and across time, there were identifiable perceptions and experiences related to their beliefs about teaching for social justice. In particular, the location of the student teaching experience and candidates' perceptions of their teacher education faculty were significant predictors of their beliefs about teaching for social justice. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation.