21st-century Neo-anticolonial Literature and the Struggle for a New Global Order explores the twenty-first-century fiction of five writers and investigates the ways in which their works engage the legacy and evolution of empire, and, in particular, the expansion of global capitalism to the detriment of already-subjugated communities. Taking up a recent call by Postcolonial scholars seeking to address the contemporary challenges of the postcolonial condition, this project traces out three distinct forms of engagement that function as a resistance in the texts. The dissertation introduces these concepts via a mode of analysis I have called Neo-anticolonialism, a counter-hegemonic approach which, I argue, is unique to the twenty-first century but rooted in the anticolonial work of Aimé Césaire and Frantz Fanon. Building on a foundation laid by those activist scholars, this project argues that Neo-anticolonialism necessitates the bridging of discourse and activism; thus, the dissertation delineates the utility of Neo-anticolonialism in both literary scholarship and practical application. Through a close analysis of the fiction of the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Jamaican Michelle Cliff, Amitav Ghosh, a South Asian writer, African American writer Edward P. Jones, and Black British writer Caryl Phillips, the project offers a Neo-anticolonial reading of several twenty-first-century texts. In doing so, I explain the depiction of these instances of resistance as Neo-anticolonial Refractions, literary devices which function as prisms that cast images thus exposing the perpetuation of inequality in the twenty-first century and its direct link to the past epoch. Moreover, each chapter, through an explication of the refractions, reveals how resistance occurs in the face of the brutal reality of oppression and how this cadre of writers engages with the history of empire as well as with its contemporary permutations.

Face2Face is a photographic project realized by JR, an undercover photographer and Marco, a technology consultant, in 2007 in the Middle East context. It consisted of taking the portraits of Israeli and Palestinian people who were doing the same job, printing them in huge formats and putting them on various unavoidable places in Israeli and Palestinian cities. The project was based on the idea that Israeli and Palestinian people were so much similar to each other, as if they were &lsquo / twin brothers raised in different families&rsquo / but that they were not aware of that. Therefore, the artists decided to provide them with images of the other side which would make people be surprised, laugh, stop for a while and think about the other side once again. The artists hoped that such a reworking of the ideas about the other side would hopefully motivate people to enter into dialogue with each other, which would eventually end up in peaceful co-existence. This thesis sets this photographic project as its starting point. It focuses upon its conceptualization of dialogue, which is based on the idea of seeing the other from a new perspective, and compares it with Mikhail Bakhtin&rsquo / s concept of dialogue and Emmanuel Levinas&rsquo / s concept of face-to-face, which are based on the idea of disrupting the self. It then criticizes the project for its neglect of various dimensions which shape Israeli and Palestinian identities, such as diaspora, nostalgia and home and of the heavy burden of the past on these two communities&rsquo / present. As a result, the thesis focuses upon the concept of collective memory at length and then discusses photography at the service of collective memory. Another section is devoted to the analysis of Israeli and Palestinian collective memories. The photographic project Face2Face is discussed all throughout the thesis in terms of its failure to spot the crucial dimensions in Israeli-Palestinian context, no matter how well intended it was.

Drawing on the fieldwork in a village community in Eastern Thailand, Ban Noen PutsaPluak Ked, this thesis explores the complex relationships between processes of globaIisation, representations in the mainstream media and activist media; and villagers' responses to change. The research, summarised here has three interrelated objectives: First, to examine how globalisation and industrialisation are represented in the mainstream and activist media. Second, to investigate the role played by the activist media in promoting counter visions of possible futures. Thirdly, to investigate the practices and ideas that local people have developed to resist or accept globalisation. The research employs a multi-method approach combining ethnographic methods, a questionnaire survey; textual analysis; and focus groups. The findings point to a complex relationship between mediated representations and visions of modernity. They also demonstrate that villagers' responses are strongly stratified by age, length of residence, and relation to the pivot of the new industriaIisation- a major chemical plant and that they remain strongly influenced by the crucial nexus of traditional Thai society, the patron client system. Additionally, content analysis and critical discourse analysis suggest that Thai news television programmes reproduced both the ideology of globalism and the celebration of consumerism. Moreover, the voices of marginalized groups and local people are also absent from the activist media.

This multiple-case study examined the factors that influence activist artists in the production of their work. Four artists who were well established in their careers took part. The research was designed to gain insight into what motivates artists to become activists. The research methodology was rooted in qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological traditions with a descriptive, interpretative and exploratory approach, using data collected from in-depth interviews. This study sought to explore and synthesize common patterns and similarities of activist artists. Seven themes emerged: identity, place, and personality as style, life experience, world issues, community and change. Regarding activist artists using a variety of what is typically considered “style” to present their work, this study concluded that there are similarities that support the notion that activist artists can be seen as a group. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2010-01-27 15:59:37.792

21st-century Neo-anticolonial Literature and the Struggle for a New Global Order explores the twenty-first-century fiction of five writers and investigates the ways in which their works engage the legacy and evolution of empire, and, in particular, the expansion of global capitalism to the detriment of already-subjugated communities. Taking up a recent call by Postcolonial scholars seeking to address the contemporary challenges of the postcolonial condition, this project traces out three distinct forms of engagement that function as a resistance in the texts. The dissertation introduces these concepts via a mode of analysis I have called Neo-anticolonialism, a counter-hegemonic approach which, I argue, is unique to the twenty-first century but rooted in the anticolonial work of Aimé Césaire and Frantz Fanon. Building on a foundation laid by those activist scholars, this project argues that Neo-anticolonialism necessitates the bridging of discourse and activism; thus, the dissertation delineates the utility of Neo-anticolonialism in both literary scholarship and practical application. Through a close analysis of the fiction of the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Jamaican Michelle Cliff, Amitav Ghosh, a South Asian writer, African American writer Edward P. Jones, and Black British writer Caryl Phillips, the project offers a Neo-anticolonial reading of several twenty-first-century texts. In doing so, I explain the depiction of these instances of resistance as Neo-anticolonial Refractions, literary devices which function as prisms that cast images thus exposing the perpetuation of inequality in the twenty-first century and its direct link to the past epoch. Moreover, each chapter, through an explication of the refractions, reveals how resistance occurs in the face of the brutal reality of oppression and how this cadre of writers engages with the history of empire as well as with its contemporary permutations.

Traditional knowledges and ways of living in harmony with the Earth and among species have been disregarded, discarded, and destroyed as industrialisation, capitalism, and globalisation have pervaded, all maintained in part by the Cartesian split which dissociates body from mind, heaven from Earth, nature from culture. These hegemonic layers of control have served to bind the fate of the Earth’s eco-systems, including human life, to the global capital economy which thrives on growth and development at any and all costs. This feminist, arts-informed inquiry brought an embodied lens to the stories of eco-activism and inquired as to the role of embodied ways of knowing and their role in eco-activism and the toll of activism upon women eco-activist bodies. This research inquiry interviewed thirteen women eco-activists, conducted four art-making focus groups, and used embodied reflexivity as part of the analysis process in order to find new understandings and knowledge to add to the limited literature on embodiment, embodied ways of knowing, and women’s eco-activism. Furthermore, this research sought to identify and articulate the ways in which activism practice can be more sustainable for activists and intended to add to the growing awareness body/mind connection and unity consciousness for activists, educators, and others working towards social change. The key findings of this research indicate that embodied knowledges counter fragmented ways of living, foster sustainable practices, and offer guidance and direction to live more harmoniously with, and on, the Earth and to practice activism. It also expands our understanding of women’s embodied ways of knowing and illuminates our understandings of how bodies can guide and show alternate ways of living, and practising activism, that are sustainable. This inquiry further added to the growing awareness of body/mind connection and unity consciousness with a focus on activists, educators, and others interested in finding ways to live with, rather than on, the Earth. / Graduate / 0329 / 0453 / lisa@lisamortimore.com

The premise that the continued existence of organisations in a democracy depends on both the tacit and the explicit approval and opinions of their many publics is fundamental to public relations theory. Furthermore, the challenge of coping with the potential constraints and opportunities of public opinion as an aspect of the organisational environment is essential to contemporary public relations practice. While the term "public opinion environment" appears intermittently in scholarly and trade publications, the dimensions and characteristics of this aspect of organisational environments remain largely unspecified. This thesis explores two challenges--the first is to conceptualise and measure variation in an important aspect of contemporary organisational environments, the public opinion environment, and the second is to investigate the influence of that environment on the critical and often highly exposed relationships between organisations and activist publics. In suggesting a relationship between variation in the environment and the evolutionary pathways of organisational relationships, the perspective underpinning this thesis is both ecological and evolutionary. Ecological analyses of organisations assume that members of a population are affected similarly by environmental change and share a common dependence on the material and social environment. Consistent with this perspective, this thesis explores the public opinion environment and the organisation-activist relationships therein longitudinally at the population level of analysis. The focal organisational population is Australia's major banks, and the period of interest extends from 1981 to 2001. An evolutionary model of organisation-activist relationships (EOAR) is developed, and the propositions derived from this model are explored using a comparative case study approach. These propositions anticipate and specify associations between variations in dimensions of the public opinion environment of an organisational population and the evolution of organisation-activist relationships in the population. Central to understanding the public opinion environment of an organisational population are the issues around which activist publics organise, public opinion develops, and organisation-activist relationships emerge. Then, the public opinion environment is conceptualised as a set of issues that concern Australia's major banks and their publics. Variations in this "issue set," are described using four dimensions: stability (turnover of issues), complexity (the number of issues in the issue set), intensity (volume of media coverage), and direction (favourability of media coverage for the focal population). To explore the propositions of the EOAR model, I have analysed the variations in these four dimensions in relation to the evolution of organisation-activist relationships. To observe and describe this evolution, I have located the state of these relationships on a conflict continuum using relationship-signalling statements made by organisations and activists and published by the media. Three cases studies from the same organisational population, Australia's major banks, are compared over three different but consecutive seven-year periods from 1981 to 2001. The case studies involved the extensive review of industry reports, submissions and other documents from several government inquiries, and scholarly articles, as well as the content analysis of more than 6, 500 newspaper articles published during each of the three case study periods. The findings of this comparative case study suggest that variations in some dimensions of the public opinion environment of an organisational population are associated with the evolutionary ecology of organisation-activist relationships in that population. However, the associations are more complex than was anticipated by the original propositions of the EOAR model; thus refinements to the model are advanced for further investigation. A primary contribution of this study is that it provides the theoretical apparatus and tools to systematically explore, interpret, and measure variation in the issues comprising the public opinion environment and to track the evolving organisation-activist relationships organised around those issues. Because the population level of analysis and a longitudinal lens are applied, this conceptualisation of the public opinion environment effectively captures and specifies the overlapping and persistent nature of issues. The evidence of this study suggests that when issues have emerged in the public opinion environment at the population level of analysis, they are likely to persist as a hub around which publics organise, providing a focus for discussions and debates for years to come. This persistence, "issue-set inertia," has important implications for organisational relationships. Given these conditions, organisations can monitor and manage their responses to issues. However, it is naïvely optimistic at best to accept the contention of issues management consultants and other pundits that organisations can manage the issues themselves. Furthermore, the findings of this study call into question the value of advice that encourages organisations to deal with issues by seeking to avoid engaging with their activist publics and by downplaying the issues in the media.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis contributes to debates regarding the future of organised labour, the ability of global civil society networks to influence the practices of powerful institutions, and the value of non-state forms of corporate regulation. It focuses on the anti-sweatshop movement’s campaigns targeting three transnational corporations (TNCs) which design and market sportswear—Nike, Reebok and Adidas. These three TNCs are members of the Fair Labour Association (FLA), a voluntary, non-state regulatory system negotiated between participating companies and a number of civil society organisations. The thesis assesses how the FLA’s processes, the companies’ own labour programs, and interventions by labour activists are combining to influence sportswear workers’ rights to form trade unions and bargain collectively. The thesis is based on decentred, institutionalist characterisations of the firm and its regulation. From this perspective, an effective system for regulating corporate labour practices must powerfully insert discourses promoting workers’ rights into the internal debates, power plays and resulting regularised processes which produce corporate behaviour. Whereas many theoretical approaches portray voluntary regulatory initiatives as antithetical to state regulation, this thesis is influenced by those institutionalist thinkers who argue that effective voluntary initiatives can help build the political will necessary for regulatory reform by states. Research methods employed in this thesis include interviews with Indonesian workers, FLA board members, company representatives and anti-sweatshop activists. This research indicates labour compliance staff within Nike, Reebok and Adidas have made serious, if inconsistent, efforts to persuade suppliers to respect labour rights. These efforts have been undermined by their colleagues in buying departments, who have intensified demands that suppliers produce cheaply and quickly. Partly as a result of this tension, the labour programs of Nike, Reebok and Adidas have only contributed to improved respect for trade union rights in a relatively small number of sportswear factories, and in some cases these improvements have proved fragile. The FLA’s regulatory system relies on participating TNCs threatening to cut orders if their suppliers fail to comply with the FLA’s labour code. This thesis argues that if TNC compliance staff could also offer incentives—such as higher prices or more stable, long-term ordering relationships—then it would enhance their ability to convince suppliers to respect trade union rights. Such a change would require TNCs to give a higher priority to labour rights than to cost-minimisation. Unfortunately, within Nike, Reebok and Adidas, labour rights and other ethical agendas appear to be in the process of being subsumed into a more dominant discourse associated with profit-making and growth, so that labour compliance staff must establish the “business case” for each aspect of their regulatory work. The anti-sweatshop movement has a loose, networked form of organisation which has proved remarkably successful in putting public pressure on sportswear corporations to accept responsibility for labour conditions in their supply networks. If the movement wants to see substantial improvements in respect for sportswear workers’ trade union rights, then it needs to persuade sports companies to go further and make costly improvements to their labour rights programs. Relatively broad agreement across the movement on a system of rating companies’ progress would likely help achieve this ambitious goal, not least by offering opportunities for re-invigorating the movement itself.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-14T13:27:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1286134 bytes, checksum: 6af1e13d34007bc114abb9e335f3f055 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-02-28 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This thesis seeks to understand the formation of a specific sphere within the fight against AIDS: the field of NGO / AIDS. For this we investigated the relationship between social activism and strategic arrangements involving NGO / AIDS. To analyze this relationship is of vital importance for understanding the genesis of the socio - political NGO, which involves features and modes of action related to the particular situation and the historical context in Brazil and in Joao Pessoa. We use three theoretical concepts - analytical: activism, field and habitus. Using them could verify a variety of conditions which would be the profile of an NGO and activism, as legitimate or not taken in the construction of non-governmental responses to HIV / AIDS. We observed the forms of institutionalization of the field and the disputes it. Still we glimpse aspects of training of institutional and individual actors. The relationship between NGOs in the field of intersectoral / AIDS was observed from two perspectives: NGOs / NGOs and NGO / state. With this work we intend to contribute to knowledge on the current NGO movement / AIDS in Brazil from the presentation of a case: the field of NGOs / AIDS in Joao Pessoa. The methodology used and made by participant observation as a means of experiencing the meanings in the search field, and semi - structured interviews conducted individually with the activists in order to map the discussions and conflicts present in the scene, enabling us to better understand widely in the environment in formed the profiles of activism in the field of NGO/AIDS. / Esta dissertação busca compreender a formação de uma esfera especifica dentro da luta contra a AIDS: o campo das ONG/AIDS. Para isso investigamos a relação entre ativismo social e os arranjos estratégicos que envolvem as ONG/AIDS. Analisar tal relação é de vital importância para se compreender a gênese do campo sociopolítico das ONGs, que envolve características e modos de ação particulares relacionados à conjuntura e ao contexto histórico no Brasil e em João Pessoa. Utilizamos três conceitos teóricos analíticos: ativismos, campo e habitus. Com a utilização deles foi possível verificar uma diversidade de condições sobre qual seria o perfil de uma ONG e do ativismo, tomados como legítimos ou não na construção das respostas não governamentais ao HIV/AIDS. Observamos as formas de institucionalização do campo e as disputas nele. Ainda vislumbramos aspectos de formação dos atores institucionais e individuais. A relação intersetorial no campo das ONGs/AIDS foi observada a partir de dois eixos: ONG/ONG e ONG/Estado. Com este trabalho, pretendemos contribuir para o conhecimento sobre o momento atual do movimento ONG/AIDS no Brasil a partir da apresentação de um caso concreto: o campo das ONGs/AIDS em João Pessoa. A metodologia utilizada e composta pela observação participante, enquanto instrumento de vivência dos significados no campo de pesquisa, e por entrevistas semiestruturadas realizadas individualmente com os ativistas, no intuito de mapear as discussões e os conflitos presentes no cenário, nos possibilitando conhecer de forma ampla o ambiente em que se formam os perfis do ativismo no Campo das ONG/AIDS.

abstract: The passing of anti-immigrant legislation in the state of Arizona over the last decade has exacerbated an already oppressive system perpetuated by globalization and its byproducts, neoliberalism and neoconservativism. The social justice activist educators who live and work with the children and families most affected by these laws and policies must learn to navigate these controls if they hope to sustain their work. I have drawn from Freire's work surrounding the theories of praxis and conscientization to explain the motivation of these teachers, and the sociological theory of Communities of Practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998; & Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder, 2002), to explain how the group, Arizona Teachers for Justice serves as a space of learning and support for these educators. This dissertation is a multiple case study and has employed semi-structured interviews with four social justice activist educators to understand how social justice activist educators in Arizona cope and sustain their teaching and activism, particularly through their membership in groups such as Arizona Teachers for Justice. The teachers in this study are each at different stages in their careers and each teaches in a different setting and/or grade level. This cross section provides multiple perspectives and varied lenses through which to view the struggles and triumphs of social justice activist educators in the state of Arizona. The teachers in this study share their experiences of being singled out for their activism and explain the ways they cope with such attacks. They explain how they manage to fulfill their dedication to equity by integrating critical materials while adhering to common core standards. They express the anger that keeps them fighting in the streets and the fears that keep them from openly rejecting unjust policies. The findings of this study contribute to the discussion of how to not only prepare social justice activist educators, but ways of supporting and sustaining their very crucial work. Neoliberal and neoconservative attacks on education are pervasive and it is critical that we prepare teachers to face these structural pressures if we hope to ever change the dehumanizing agenda of these global powers. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2013