No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

The Great Barrier Reef is regarded as one of the natural wonders of the world and is recognised as having World Heritage significance. The wealth and complexity of its natural attributes form the basis of a rich and complementary human history. However, management of the region is focused on the conservation of natural attributes, sometimes at the cost of human interests and cultural values. This is symptomatic of the way in which many heritage properties are managed and is a source of problems in the identification and interpretation of heritage. There is a need to better understand the human dimensions of such 'natural wonders' to ensure effective management. In order to address some of these issues, this thesis explores visitor experiences and knowledge of the Great Barrier Reef with a particular focus on the non-local experiences and knowledge that underpin the region's global recognition. One of the major issues for management is the mutable nature of heritage values. This research therefore seeks to develop an understanding of how such heritage values are formed, transformed and sustained over time. It takes an historical approach to understand the ways in which visitor knowledge of the Reef has been constructed and transmitted both temporally and spatially. Methods novel to heritage assessments are developed and implemented to identify and contrast visitor experiences in the past and those of the present. The study focuses on visitor sensory experiences of the Reef as a means to understand knowledge of place. A concept of sensuousness is defined and used to understand how knowledge of place is constructed through the human senses, and communicated within and between generations. The research identifies a number of significant changes in the way in which visitors have constructed and understood the Great Barrier Reef. These include the creation of idealised Pacific islands at the expense of an Australian location and character; the transformation of the dangerous underwater world into a controlled and benign coral garden; and the synecdoche of the coral garden as representative of the Reef as a whole. Central to these constructions is the way in which simulacra are used to create experiences that are increasingly both dislocated and disembodied. As a consequence visitor knowledge of the Reef has shifted from sensuous perception of the Reef as a place or series of places, to the construction of imaginative and photographic simulacra that manifest as experiences of space and non-place. Through the exploration of this case study, the thesis makes a contribution to both theoretical and methodological issues in heritage studies.

In this thesis, I discuss the constraints and mediations on political discourse in the Ethiopian Diaspora in North America. I use the amateur sports federation, the Ethiopian Sports Federation in North America (ESFNA) as a site for this analysis, looking both at the online media campaign carried out when a split occurred in the institution and its 2017 tournament. The sport’s federation is a space for the diaspora to unite and pass down the cultural forms that distinguish it to the next generation. I argue that the political discourse of the diaspora is constrained by how the diaspora continues to (re)define its self in relations to the memories and imaginations of its homeland and its desire to remain a united and distinct community. Chapter 1 provides an analysis of the migratory history of the Ethiopian diaspora in North America. This history pinpoints the diaspora’s reproduction of a unifying hegemonic Amhara national identity that is not supported by the current ruling party in Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). This is the history fuels the memory and imagination of the homeland that informs the mythico-histories that it produces to define the types of politics are supported or tolerated in the diaspora. Chapter 2 discuss the use of mythico-histories by anti-government groups in their campaign to boycott against the All Ethiopian Sports Association One (AESAONE)’s tournament. These narratives reveal the formation of an alliance between the apolitical sports’ federation ESFNA and aggressively anti-government groups in the diaspora. Finally, in Chapter 3 I analyze the symbiotic relationship between these anti-government groups and ESFNA and some of the way it shapes the political discourse at the 2017 ESFNA tournament. The tournament is a mediated space in which ESFNA’s apolitical unifying mission and the anti-government group's message are able to exist together.

The concept of choice as it applies to the American educational system has been a topic of intense discussion in recent years. Since the development of this central institution, the freedom of scholastic choice has been an intricate part of the United States’ academic landscape. However, scholars have noted a recent shift as the country has started to take a more neoliberal approach to schooling. In order to better understanding of the concept of choice on a more individualistic level, I conducted a number of personal interviews with parents raising their children in the small rural town of Port Townsend, Washington. My exploration found that while the abundance of academic programs put strain on the educational system on a communal level, on a personal level the ability to have choices was vital for many families. Educational options are shaped by the needs community they serve, often providing flexibility and protection for families who simply want their students to have the best possible future. Thus, I conclude that while the concept of choice may be debated on a nationwide theoretical level, on a personal level it remains a complex but necessary tool for families to ensure their children’s happiness and success.

This study investigates children’s peer culture, social networks and the role that kids’ food plays in peer exchanges during middle childhood. During this stage children develop social competencies as they join peer groups with other children and become socialized into children’s peer culture. In order to immerse myself within children’s culture, I conducted ethnographic fieldwork at two afterschool programs providing care for elementary school children. I investigated friendships, social networks and exchanges among third through fifth grade children at the programs. The study included participant observation and participatory group interviews with a sample of the children at both sites. The findings reveal how children use exchange of snack foods, candy and toys to build social connections among peers. The results indicate that children are active participants and creators in their peer cultures. They manipulated adult norms to structure oppositional identities as children. One tool for identifying with peers and gaining social acceptance are kids’ foods, which are processed food items marketed for children. Kids’ food served as a form of social currency in expressing friendship and connection. For the children in this study, food provided for edible consumption, entertainment and symbolic connection to peers. The results of this research demonstrate the need to approach child nutrition promotion from a cultural and social view point of children, not only based on physical and health motivation.

Why do original/grassroots branding efforts occurring on a local level continue to proliferate despite the existing market saturation created by larger corporate entities? Using existing theoretical frameworks associated with “do it yourself” (DIY) culture, this thesis explores cultures and themes associated with skateboarding, including the production and consumption of brands of skateboarding products; the use of space and spatiality by skateboarders; and, finally, changes in skateboarding. I conducted ethnographic interviews within a network of skateboard entrepreneurs in the Florida skateboard community, seeking to understand why they start brands, their perceptions of their entrepreneurial efforts, and how these businesses operate. Drawing from historical, visual and interview data, I identify the roles that branding efforts play into the formation of skateboard culture. The project analysis creates an understanding of skateboard culture that explores skateboard identity at the intersections of consumer/citizen, individual/citizen and the politics of larger capitalist structures and the entrepreneurial efforts of local business.

This dissertation develops a political ecology of suburban peasants to describe the lives of Haitian farmers residing in a neighborhood on the margins of Port-au-Prince. The category of suburban peasants has been well described for Chinese small-scale farmers but has yet to be applied elsewhere as an analytic category. Using participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and in-depth, key informant interviews, an ethnographic account is provided of changes in agricultural practices made by Haitian peasants as a result of environmental changes that impact their ability to make a living in contemporary Haiti. Farmers’ primary concerns are related to an increased need for agrochemicals because of declining soil fertility, but increased fertilizer prices make this a significant barrier to their economic activities. In addition, the influx of non-Haitians into the neighborhood has resulted in less available land to farm. In many cases worldwide, these two challenges have led to out-migration patterns, either within-country rural-urban migration or to another country altogether. Yet, in the study site this is not happening. The changes in agricultural practices that the Dounet peasants have made, like changing to wage-based labor and occupational multiplicity, have also created greater poverty, in which they are more vulnerable to the risks associated with environmental change while at the same time rendered immobile in the face of future extreme environmental events. This study uses the suburban peasant concept to explore how environmental changes simultaneously intersect with urbanization processes like the enclosure of land and changes in rural land use.