Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Full text release at OhioLINK's ETD Center delayed at author's request

Thesis (M.A.)--Baylor University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 116-119).

This project adopts the framework of World Systems Analysis [WSA], formulated by global sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein, to take the entire world system as the unit of analysis. Drawing on the work of Paulo Freire, the seminal theorist of critical pedagogy, this project couples WSA with the analytic lens of public pedagogy to overcome the conceptual limitations of ideology and of various postmodern critiques. Primary media sources are used for purposes of critical political economy, to outline the contours of economic changes and class formations from the first world revolution. A detailed descriptive history of the revolutions that swept across Europe in 1848 recovers narratives from that critical juncture. I discuss prominent public pedagogies via analysis of primary print media sources like the London Times. Focusing on hegemonic shifts in the world system around 1848, I throw light on movement-media cracks in the British Empire, while also uncovering oft-ignored resistance, insurrections and utopian experiments in the Americas. Pedagogies of conspiracy theory and Manifest Destiny legitimated US aggression against Mexico as the former took initial steps toward becoming a world system superpower. Problems and pedagogies from 1848 are also updated and examined in light of the contemporary society-media context to consider cracks in the existing system and learn from the past new possible paths out of the world system’s terminal structural crisis.

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IMF and World Bank Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) include conditional loans granted to developing countries to help them repay their debts while requiring them to undergo specific economic and political reforms. The most common SAP measures include the devaluation of currency, the reduction of public sector size and activities, the removal of subsidies, and the liberalization of trade. While the social impacts of these policies have already been acknowledged and to some degree mitigated, this paper examines their environmental impacts. The various impacts of structural adjustment on the environment are discussed in the framework of four main aspects of SAPs: export promotion, trade liberalization, the shrinking of the state, and increased poverty. <p> This paper argues that the macroeconomic policies promoted by structural adjustment have several direct and indirect impacts on the environment of borrowing countries. Further, without careful consideration of the environmental impacts, degradation is often the result. However, the fundamentally different perspectives and values on debt and development used by the IMF and World Bank and their critics may explain the differences in their conclusions on adjustment. As the IMF and the World Bank are currently experiencing a shift in the way they interact with borrowing countries to emphasize poverty reduction and country ownership of policies, it is possible that this will allow for more systematic and integrated approaches to addressing debt as well as long-term development. In order to minimize unintended harm to the natural resource base of these countries, economic, social and environmental issues should be addressed together. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning

In this thesis, I construct a model of citizenship education inspired by Hannah Arendt’s works, specifically by using her influential book, The Human Condition and notable essay, “The Crisis in Education”. In Arendt’s disapproval of progressive education with its ideal of citizenship education to predefine the future for citizens, I construct my own model of citizenship education, that is for the world. I illustrate how traditional citizenship education teaches citizens to live a life in a perfect utopian society, rather than what my own model of citizenship education does, to teach them to be acting citizens that contribute to what Arendt refers to as the “world”. In order to construct a model of citizenship education, I begin by exploring Arendt’s concept of the world by focusing on her three central concepts that contribute to the world: the public-political, plurality and lastly, action and speech. I then analyze Arendt’s concept of world-alienation to illustrate the aspects that destroy the world. I specifically focus on exploring concepts such as totalitarianism of Nazi-Germany and Stalinist Russia, the evolution of mass society and the rise of the social. I then present and analyze the traditional understanding of citizenship education by discussing its goal and aim, which focuses on teaching children about life and not the world, thereby increasing world-alienation and giving rise to such factors that destroy the world. Next, I study Arendt’s concept of education by focusing on what she believes the crisis in education is and her argument about what education needs to be. In it, I also explore her central components of education, namely, natality, responsibility and authority. After presenting Arendt’s concepts of world, world-alienation and education as well as her criticism of progressive education’s ideals of citizenship education, I construct my own model of citizenship education in three parts. The first part focuses on the qualities political actors need to contribute to the world. The second part proposes that a world-like space be given to children in the classrooms in my citizenship education model so they may acquaint themselves with how the world is like and also learn to respect multiple perspectives and opinions. The third part of my model specifies educators should enhance moral values in a child that, as an adult, will help him to be a better political actor in the public-political sphere.

This thesis purports to critically analyze Wallerstien’s world-systems theory, to test its strengths and weaknesses and establish its reliability as a world politics theory, thereby reviving Marxism in general. The study employs a qualitative research method to go deep into the underlying logic of the theory.In an endeavor to tackle the matter at hand, five criteria of analysis are employed to examine the merits and demerits in specific areas of the theory. This involves looking at the structure of the theory, the period of the emergence of capitalism, the unit of analysis, the coherence of the arguments and processes of the theory and the reliability of the world-systems theory in contemporary world politics. The main conclusion of the study is that the world-systems theory is reliable when used to explain three themes in world politics. These are global inequality, dependency and sovereignty.

No / As this collection makes abundantly clear, the concept of “World Cinema” can be hard to define. To further establish a sensible definition of what “cult world cinema” might be is to stretch, contort and confuse understanding even further. Scholars have made bold attempts at defining what “cult cinema” might be that range from the “informal” to the “intertextual” by way of the “subcultural”. For instance, Karl and Philip French’s notion of cult as an “intense personal interest and devotion to a person, idea or activity” sought to access the devotional, sacramental aspect of engagement with cinema (French and French 1999: 6). A study by Jancovich and colleagues argued that it is the reception of films and their distinction from, and opposition to, the “mainstream” that defines films as “cult” (Janovich et al. 2003: 2). Mathijs and Sexton (2011) later promoted a rich, intertextual sense of what cult cinema might be, while admitting that because the numerous attempts at defining cult cinema approach the subject from the perspective of the vernacular—“highlighting elements that cannot be caught in a description”—any definition of cult cinema must be tantalisingly “intangible” and “intersubjective” (Mathijs and Sexton 2011: 6).

Master of Arts / Department of History / Sue Zschoche / As the world enters the centennial of World War I, interest in this war is reviving. Books, television shows, and movies are bringing the war into popular culture. Now that all the participants of the war have passed away a change is occurring in in American memory. The transition from living to non-living memory is clearly visible in museums, one of the main ways history is communicated to the public. Four museums are studied in this paper. Two exhibits built in the 1990s are in the 1st Infantry Division Museum at Fort Riley, Kansas, and the Chemical Corps Museum in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. The other two exhibits are newer and are the National World War I Museum in Kansas City, Missouri and the Cantigny 1st Infantry Division Museum in Wheaton, Illinois. Findings reveal that exhibits become more inclusive over time to civilian bodies, wounded bodies, and the specific image of “Americans killing Germans bodies.” However, even though there is change some things are turning into myths. The icon of the American soldier as a healthy and strong man willing to sacrifice his life for the country is still a major theme throughout all the exhibits. Finally, there are several myths that America has adopted from its allies. The icons of the bandages over the eyes from the chemical attacks and the horrors of the trenches are borrowed, to a certain extent, from America’s allies. The Americans were only in the war for a limited time and borrowed cultural memories to supplement their own. The examination of the four museums is important because this transition will happen again and soon. Museums must be conscious of the changes occurring during this transition in order to confront the challenges.

The thesis, "General Sikorski and the Polish Government in Exile 1939-43: A Study of Polish Internal Émigré Politics in Wartime", seeks to examine the impact of Polish 'domestic' politics on wartime diplomacy in exile. Foreign policy naturally dominated the exile agenda, but this thesis considers the extent to which internal politics affected the Polish government's ability to pursue its wartime and post-war aims. The thesis considers whether internal divisions in exile and in the Polish resistance undermined national unity and diverted attention away from the war effort to the anticipated power-struggle after liberation. It assesses the degree to which domestic opposition hampered Sikorski's ability to achieve rapprochement with the USSR, the contribution his critics in the Polish army and wartime administration made to the collapse of his Soviet strategy and the extent to which Sikorski's policies failed because they constituted too blatant a contradiction of what the majority of Poles perceived as national traditions or national interests. It also considers whether his inability to impose his vision of post-war Poland on his compatriots destroyed the prospects of a new era of Polish- Soviet relations after liberation. Within this context, the thesis argues the impact of national history and tradition on exile foreign and 'domestic' policy. It assesses the consequences of key features of Polish interwar politics and society on politics in exile. It also examines the general nature of 'politics in exile', the interplay of Polish exile 'domestic' and foreign policy, and the nature and consequences of Sikorski's leadership. Sikorski came to power with a unique opportunity to unite the Poles in the fight for liberation. This thesis examines the impact on Polish history and the history of the Second World War of his failure to achieve this aim.