Cette thèse vise à reconstituer la genèse et le développement des politiques publiques du handicap (1956-1982), dans une perspective croisée entre l'Espagne, l'Argentine et le Brésil. La méthode de l'histoire croisée nous incite à envisager la singularité de la trajectoire nationale des politiques publiques en fonction de l'étendue du champ des possibles imaginés à l'échelle internationale et des normes diffusées par les organisations intergouvernementales. A la sortie de la seconde guerre mondiale, les organisations intergouvernementales (ONU, OMS, OIT) promeuvent un nouveau projet d'innovations sociales dans le domaine de la réadaptation, qui s'inspire des expériences anglo-saxonnes et scandinaves. Ce projet est qualifié de " moderne " afin de discréditer les méthodes européennes de la rééducation développées après la première guerre mondiale. Nous le qualifions de modernité nord-atlantique de la réadaptation. Il se caractérise avant tout par une légalité libérale dans le domaine de l'emploi (refus des mesures de quota appliquées aux entreprises privées, placement sélectif, constitution d'ateliers protégés pour les personnes jugées peu productives), mais aussi par le principe de coordination des politiques sectorielles, et par une tendance à l'égalisation des droits entre toutes les catégories d'invalides. L'objectif de notre thèse est de comprendre les mécanismes et les limites de l'internationalisation de cette modernité nord-atlantique dans ces trois pays. A l'échelle nationale, les multiples acteurs qui construisent les politiques publiques du handicap s'approprient les principes de la modernité nord-atlantique pour les défendre ou les contester.

De la fin du XVIIème siècle jusqu'à l'abolition de 1848, l'île Bourbon, dans le Sud-Ouest de l'océan Indien, a connu un système esclavagiste marqué par une codification et des pratiques des différents pouvoirs dévalorisant ou niant les structures familiales des esclaves. A côté d'autres moyens de résistances serviles comme le marronnage ou la révolte, il apparaît, grâce à la reconstruction des familles esclaves, que ces formes d'organisation ont permis à une population provenant de razzias en Afrique ou à Madagascar, puis fortement créolisée, de retrouver son humanité, en investissant le champ de la parenté dont les pouvoirs civils ou religieux la privaient. Si un nombre restreint de familles furent reconnues, comme à l'époque de la Compagnie des Indes, la majorité des esclaves vécurent au sein de familles marrons, ignorées et méprisées. Elles apparaitront au grand jour après l'abolition de l'esclavage en 1848. La natalité fut reconnu importante au sein du groupe des esclaves mais accompagnée d'une forte mortalité infantile. Lieu privilégié de transmissions de valeurs culturelles et linguistiques, la famille esclave, quelles qu'en soient les formes, a permis à de très nombreux esclaves de survivre à un système inhumain, les exclus de la parenté appartenant essentiellement aux groupes ayant connu la destruction de leur système familial, à Madagascar ou en Afrique.

"Filles de la misère", les coopératives agricoles ont accompagné les agriculteurs à travers les changements économiques, politiques et sociétaux depuis le début du XXème siècle. Outil économiques au service du développement de leurs adhérents et de leurs territoires, elles n'ont cessé de prouver leurs capacités d'adaptation face aux transformations de l'agriculture, à la création de l'Union européenne ou à la mondialisation des échanges. Cependant, leur modèle associant les membres au processus décisionnel de l'entreprise a pu souffrir de ces évolutions impliquant une diversification de l'activité, la création de filiales,l'ouverture à des partenaires non-coopérateurs. La place des adhérents est donc à nouveau à considérer, leur loyauté étant un atout indéniable pour les coopératives agricoles.Cette étude se fonde sur l'analyse des procès-verbaux des assemblées générales de cinq coopératives agricoles. Elle propose de faire de l'histoire une force dans la gestion des adhérents : construisant des connaissances, elle peut alimenter une communication éclairée à destination des membres. Enfin, il est proposé de réaliser ce travail de recherche et de valorisation de manière coopérative, afin de mutualiser les moyens nécessaires.

This dissertation demonstrates how the cross-disciplinary application of methods and tools from archaeology, philology, and engineering can yield insights into ancient water-supply systems and help to solve problems associated with their precise function and with their description in ancient literature. Conventional calculations determine the flow properties of seven ancient long-distance pipelines. Components of the water-supply pipeline at Aspendos are simulated with a commercially available Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software package (FLUENT® by Fluent Inc.) that is widely used in the design and research of complex flow systems. The application of CFD clarifies the interaction of water and air during the filling process of a pipeline. The project establishes a methodology using state-of-the-art computer simulation tools for the investigation of these systems. The combination of the numerical results with the insights derived from a comparison of Latin technical documents with ancient Greek medical texts answers conclusively some long-term questions that have been plaguing aqueduct research for a long time. The simulation makes visible the flow of water in the pipeline, disproving the long-term misunderstanding that entrained air will form bubbles in the flowing water column that lead to pressure transient. It is possible to explain the function of lateral holes in the sides of pipe segments. The calculated volume flow rates for each pipeline allow estimates about the population sizes for the cities supplies by the aqueducts. The creation of a computer-based methodology for the study of ancient aqueducts will enable scholars to investigate, compare, and catalogue a wide variety of ancient hydraulic systems.

Canada participated in the Far Eastern Advisory Commission, later the Far Eastern Commission, overseeing the occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1952. In the face of resistance from the United States government generally, and from General MacArthur specifically, Canada and the Far Eastern Commission achieved little success in moderating United States policy. Because Canada’s position was always influenced by its concern for future multilateral bodies and its overwhelming need to maintain good relations with the United States, it displayed little independence on the Far Eastern Commission.

As part of a major defence review meant to streamline and re-prioritize the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), in 1969, the Trudeau government decommissioned Canada’s last aircraft carrier, HMCS Bonaventure. The carrier represented a major part of Maritime Command’s NATO oriented anti-submarine warfare (ASW) effort. There were three main reasons for the government’s decision. First, the carrier’s yearly cost of $20 million was too much for the government to afford. Second, several defence experts challenged the ability of the Bonaventure to fulfill its ASW role. Third, members of the government and sections of the public believed that an aircraft carrier was a luxury that Canada did not require for its defence. There was a perception that the carrier was the wrong ship used for the wrong role. In sum, the decision to decommission the Bonaventure was politically attractive because of economic reasons, but was made based on strategic rationale.

This thesis broadly explores the complex relations between commodity circulation, modes of visuality, landscape experience, and hierarchies of place in the Yellowhead Pass and Robson Valley areas of east-central British Columbia during the period 1910-1975. By examining a wide array of sources, including some that are banal, fragmentary, and indirect, it shows that views of that space and the numerous rural communities located within it have been structured and mediated by modem networks and systems of transportation and communication, beginning with transcontinental railways and ending with transprovincial highways. It demonstrates that the shifting ways in which places in this corridor-region have been connected to and separated from these lines of circulation, and also the associated ways in which they have been seen (and not seen) by people travelling along them have played vitally important roles in both the routines and possibilities of residents' everyday lives, and their local, place-based identities.

This thesis documents three polychrome, geometric mosaics that were discovered in the Praetorium of the Trajanic Roman fort at Humayma in southern Jordan. Patterns used in the mosaics are swastika meanders, quatrefoil rosettes and interlocking circles, while colours used are beige, red, and two shades of blue. The mosaics can be confidently dated to the initial construction of the fort, between A.D. 111 and A.D. 114. I document the excavation and present state of the most southern mosaics in Jordan, and place them in their regional and social context. By comparing the patterns employed with other similar mosaics, both geographically and temporally, I shed light on the early development of mosaics in the region. I argue that the Roman military employed local craftsmen to construct the mosaics and that evidence of craftsmen training is visible in details of the mosaics. The social and cultural context of the Humayma mosaics is reconstructed by examining both other local examples, and comparanda from the wider, Mediterranean corpus of mosaics, including sites such as Delos, Olynthus, Antioch, Pompeii, and Ostia. The focus is on the extent of diffusion of the specific motifs employed. Interpretation of the mosaics at Humayma will concentrate on such issues as patronage, craftsman training, and indications of regional wealth.

The Russian people and the steppe nomads have maintained a symbiotic relationship for 2600 years that was undeniably fluid; however, for the most part mental and sometimes physical barriers have been erected in Russian society and historiography in an attempt to deny or suppress many aspects of Russia’s “Asian” features or historical past. This thesis aims to bring to light the fluidity and cross-cultural exchanges of this relationship, the substantial influences of steppe societies on Russian society and history, as well as to examine the motives and ideologies behind Russia’s anti-nomadic sentiments that ultimately shaped and censored Russian national history. The invaluable benefits of nomadic and steppe customs in Russian society and on Russian identity have previously been ignored, dismissed or downplayed in Russian historiography, and revisionist historians hope to reverse this and introduce the concept that the rise of the Russian nation would not have been possible without the influence of steppe nomadic societies.

By the mid-nineteenth century academics began to replace the accomplishments in schooling for middle and upper class girls in Britain. Immigrants brought both models to Vancouver Island. Angela College, a religious school clinging to the past, represents the old; Norfolk House, an urban largely day school, and Queen Margaret’s, a country boarding school with some day students, illustrate the two types of the new, reformed schools. This study draws on personal accounts, archival records, and contemporary newspapers to show that parents chose private schools for reasons of ethnic preservation, upward social mobility, and dissatisfaction with local public schools. A comparison of the founding, governance, finance, buildings and grounds, curriculum, headmistresses and teachers, students, parents, and succession plans revealed similarities and striking differences. Parental preference for strong leadership, scholarship, and character-development enabled Norfolk House and Queen Margaret’s to survive; the lack thereof combined with poor management doomed Angela College to failure.