This thesis is a qualitative study of firefighters, and focuses on how firefighters, a predominantly male, white and able-bodied group with popular public support, form tight knit teams on and off the fireground, and their motivations for so doing. It is also a study of gender, which aims to describe and deconstruct masculinity. In part the thesis was undertaken with a view to assisting the fire service (specifically the few women who are firefighters) with its difficulties in relation to equal opportunities. One understanding the thesis provides is that firefighters bond around a common professional ethos: to provide an efficient service to help the public. To achieve this, firefighters form informal hierarchies through which they create protocols for firefighting, thus setting the standards for what comprises a ‘good firefighter’: a label firefighters test themselves against when they ‘get in’ to fight a fire. However, before firefighters can achieve this they must first access the skills of firefighting (which experienced firefighters are pleased to hand on), but only after a newcomer ‘fits in’ with the agendas of the informal hierarchy, some of which have little to do with firefighting. However, there is a second view, and this suggests that ‘fitting in’ and ‘getting in’ to pass the test of being seen as a ‘good firefighter’ also coincides with the way firefighters form their masculinity. This then provides a second common cause amongst firefighters, and so might explain why firefighters gather so successfully under the umbrella of their union to resist their officers’ attempts to deskill and cut the fire service. Cuts would limit firefighters’ ability both to fight fires as they currently do and to pass the test of being a ‘good firefighter’. Thus blocking a third central but unacknowledged element: that of masculinity. This analysis involves a discussion of class, and recognition that antagonistic relations between officers and firefighters are not only economic, but are also about petty dividends involving power, status and gender construction. The conclusion provides a comprehensive overview to suggest that firefighters form their masculinity by acting at work in the way they subjectively judge that they are seen, by themselves, their peer group and the public. In so doing, they set themselves apart from the ‘others’ who cannot meet their expectations. It is these ‘special people’, as identified by both firefighters and others that this thesis has studied, a group of ‘special’ men and women.

According to recent influential scholars of labour studies, the relocation of capital to new sites of investment ultimately leads to the emergence of labour resistance in those new sites of investment. These labour movements together with other civil society formations organize themselves to contest the assaults by capital and in the process form themselves into a countermovement. Swaziland is one of the last bastions of royal despotism in Africa. The monarchy has been able to use its grip on power and its position as a custodian of Swazi culture and tradition to re-invent itself as a local bourgeoisie. The country’s success in attracting investment, though relatively limited, has led to the emergence of a Swazi working class. Recent inflows of investment, mainly from Asia, in the textiles industry led to the creation of 40 000 new manufacturing jobs. This is significant when one considers that Swaziland has a total population of 1 million. The political significance of this shift in the class structure of Swaziland has to be investigated, particularly when one takes into account that the working class as well as the middle class created by the need for a state bureaucracy, has historically been the loci of resistance to the more despotic elements of the traditionalist regime. The argument is this study is that Swazi civil society, which includes the labour movement, has not been able to establish a serious countermovement that can challenge the tinkhundla regime and its capitalist allies. Instead the movement have been riddled with internal structural and organizational problems. On the other hand the royal regime has successfully used an elaborate tinkhundla structure and its monopoly over land, religion and culture to suppress such a movement. The implication is that counter-movements do not necessarily follow the relocation of capital. Other social formations are at play.

Orientador: Maria Orlanda Pinassi / Banca: Adilson Marques Gennari / Banca: Lalo Watanabe Minto / Banca: Marcelo Micke Doti / Banca: Paulo Alves de Lima Filho / Resumo: Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo tecer uma crítica ao governo Lula e sua abordagem da miséria brasileira. Para tanto, concentra-se na articulação entre política assistencial via Bolsa Família à classe trabalhadora, por um lado, e política econômica dedicada à vultosa remuneração às burguesias nacionais e estrangeiras, por outro. Igualmente, destina-se atenção à concepção difundida pelo presidente Lula, além dos representantes do Banco Mundial, segundo os quais a articulação acima referida seria uma "revolução silenciosa". A realização dessa pesquisa contou com o referencial teórico fundado no materialismo histórico, a partir do qual se edificou o campo categorial necessário ao cumprimento dos objetivos listados / Abstract: This research aims to make a criticism of the Lula government and its approach to the Brazilian poverty. To do so, it focuses on the articulation between, on one hand, welfare policy Family Grant to the working class and, second, economic policy dedicated to pay big money to domestic and foreign bourgeoisies. Also, is intended to design widespread attention by President Lula, in addition to representatives of the International Monetary Fund, according to which the link above would be a quiet revolution. The realization of this research was the theoretical framework based on historical materialism, from which the field is built categorical necessary to achieve the objectives listed / Doutor

Orientador: Giovanni Antonio Pinto Alves / Banca: Antonio Carlos Mazzeo / Banca: Ariovaldo Oliveira Santos / Resumo: Esta pesquisa tem como tema investigar a resistência da classe trabalhadora bancária do Banespa contra a privatiza;ão da instituição no contexto da política neoliberal adotada no país. A pesquisa priorizou, especificamente, investigar a atuação da entidade representativa dos trabalhadores do Banco do Estado de São Paulo, a Afubesp-Associação dos Funcionários do Banespa. Destaca-se o movimento de resistência promovido pela associação dos trabalhadores, mobilizando a categoria bancária para impedir a privatização do banco. Neste processo, percebemos uma luta de classes entre capital e trabalho. Debatemos,nesta pesquisa, a conscientização política da vanguarda do movimento bancário, pois sua ofensiva possibilitou uma resposta positiva a sua atuação, juntamente com o sindicato da categoria em favor dos banespianos. Neste contexto, resgatamos um balanço histórico do movimento de resistência bancária, propondo uma análise crítica frente à mobilização desta categoria de trabalhadores. A relevância do estudo aponta para a análise de dados significativos sobre as transformações nas relações do trabalho bancário e enfoca a atuação de organismos de representação dos trabalhadores e do sindicato da categoria bancária, trazendo à memória valores intrínsecos à consciência de classe dos trabalhadores e da sua particularidade. Destaca,também, a pesquisa, que as formas de resistência adotadas pelos trabalhadores bancários, permitiu agir com procedimentos legais e jurídicos que possibilitou resistir à venda da instituição para um grupo financeiro privado, justificando sua ofensiva e promovendo um debate com vários setores da sociedade civil, chamando atenção para aquele momento singular da história brasileira, trazendo à tona discussões político-ideológicas em torno de interesses antagônicos. / Abstract: This research theme is to investigate resistance of Banespa working class against the institution privatization in the context of the neo-liberal political science adopted in the country. It is prioritized, especially, to investigate the entity actuation that represents the State of São Paulo Bank employees, Afubesp (Associação dos Funcionários do Banespa). It is stood out the resistance movement promoted by workers association, mobilizing the bank class to impede the privatization. In this process it is realized a classes fight between capital and work. It is discussed the political consciousness of the bank movement vanguard, for, its offensive enabled a positive answer to its actuation, joined with the trade union in behalf of Banespa employees. In this context, it is recovered a historical examination of bank resistance movement, proposing a critique analysis about this working class mobilization. The importance of this study points to a critique analysis of significant facts about the transformations in the relationship of bank work, and focus on the actuation of organizations that represents the employees and the trade union of bank class, bringing to memory intrinsic values to working class conscience and its particularity. It is also stood out that resistance forms adopted by the bank employees allowed them to act with legal and juridical procedures which enabled them to resist the institution sale to a private financial group, justifying its offensive and promoting a discussion with a number of civilian society sectors, directing people attention to that peculiar moment of Brazilian history, becoming notable ideological and political discussion towards antagonistic interests. / Mestre

This thesis provides a Marxist analysis of the effect of class on historical alienation in Dermot Bolger’s fiction. Therefore, this study examines the influence of Irish history on Bolger’s choice of content, form and technique in order to argue that historical interpretation and literary technique are mediated through class stratifications. Chapter One investigates how The Journey Home challenges received ideas of what constitutes ‘reality’ which has, consequently, led to elements of critical dismissal used to maintain antiquated gaps, silences and notions of ‘reality’. In Chapter Two I look at A Second Life in order to examine how historical ruptures cannot just be seen in the nonlinear structure of Bolger’s novels, but can also be used to expose the silences and gaps that comprise the previously censored personal histories of Bolger’s characters. In Chapter Three I identify structural confines such as definitions, family roles and nationalism as instigating factors that lead to the alienation of those who do not conform to prescribed frameworks and are therefore oppressed by them. I further investigate how oppression also provides the pressure to rupture the linear trajectory of such approved frameworks and produce the nonlinear structure that can be recognised in The Family on Paradise Pier.

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Between 1775 and 1930 Anglo-American and Australian worker politics were centred on the belief that working people endured economic inequality through the unfair social division of wealth. Regardless of political affiliation, contemporary working-class radicals saw the solution to what was variously described as ‘the labour problem’, ‘the economic problem’, or ‘the social problem’ as the return of most or all of a nation’s wealth from those who had accumulated it to those that had originally produced it—a perspective described by North American historians as producerism. Following sections on precursors in British and American sources, the study looks at producerism at two important junctures in the political and economic history of New South Wales: the 1840s, and the period 1890-1930. Both were times of severe or fluctuating economic conditions and political mobilisation. The first period witnessed a middle-class challenge for control of the state. It utilised a constitutional radicalism that enlisted the working classes through cautious use of producerist argument. These producerist references tended to be oblique and muted but nevertheless offer proof of its existence in the colony. The second was one of direct working-class challenge for state power, where producerism’s presence as the guiding force of worker politics was more obvious. Beginning in the depression of the 1890s it looks at how the radical literature associated with Australian socialism, syndicalism and labourism built cases for economic and social justice on producerist foundations. In this way it underlined worker politics until a precipitous post-1930 decline. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Historical analyses of soldiers in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) during the Great War have focused overwhelming on combat experiences and the environment of the trenches. By contrast, little consideration has been made of the non-combat experiences of these individuals, or of the time they spent behind the front lines. Far from military experiences revolving around combat and trench warfare, the letters, diaries, and memoirs of working class men suggest that daily life for the rank and file actually revolved around work, and in particular manual labour. Through a focus on working class men???s experiences in the AIF during the Great War, this dissertation seeks to discover more about these experiences with work in an attempt to understand the broader aspects of life in the military. In this environment of daily work, many working class men also came to approach military service as a job of work, and they carried over the mentalities of the civilian workplace into their daily life in the military. This dissertation thus seeks to understand how workplace cultures were transferred from civilian workplaces into the military. It explores working class men???s approaches towards daily work in two different theatres of war, Gallipoli and the Western Front, in order to highlight the significance of work within military life. Furthermore, it evaluates aspects of this workplace culture, such as relations with employers, the use of workplace skills, and the implementation of industrial relations methods, to understand the continuities between the lives of civilians and soldiers. Finally, this dissertation is not a military history: it adopts a culturalist approach towards the lives of people in the AIF, and in the environment of the Great War, in an effort to place the military experiences of these working class men within the context of their broader civilian lives.

Thesis (Ph. D. in Sociology)--Vanderbilt University, May 2007. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.