This dissertation is a study of how slave rebellions continue to exert a profound political, affective and cultural influence on postcolonial writers. These writers claim histories and memories of such rebellions as strategic allegories, which enable both articulations of contemporary concerns about neocolonial and neoliberal forms of governmentality, as well as the resistances to such. Through an examination of texts by Ghanaian playwright Mohammed Ben Abdallah, Haitian poet and novelist Évelyne Trouillot, Canadian-Caribbean writer Dionne Brand, and Indian writer Amitav Ghosh, I argue that these narratives demonstrate that our present moment of globalized capital and its accompanying forms of expropriation, though seemingly disembodied and all-pervasive, bear suggestive resemblances to the ethical and political questions raised by the global machinery of slavery. Memories of slave rebellions operate as vital forms of oppositional narratives in these texts, providing writers with an imaginary of a foundational class struggle which threatens the existing status quo. While such narrativizations remobilize the cultural memories of earlier radicalisms, they also point out the failures of such radical imaginaries to move beyond a privileging of certain forms of heroic and heteronormative revolutionary black masculinity. By foregrounding women within the spaces of the slave rebellions, these texts de-masculinize the dominant masculinisms of slave rebellion narratives of previous eras. In doing so, they complicate the notion of racialized class struggles as theaters of supremacy between two classes of men, and challenges the reduction of enslaved women into passive allegories of family, community and nation. / text

1. The aim of the thesis is threefold: i) to present a fully dynamic analysis of leadership among the Baluch in the Persian Province of Baluchistan, ii) to illustrate the sociological distinction (or lack of it) between sacré and profane on different planes in the society, iii) to make some advance in the theoretical treatment of personality as a sociological factor in leadership. 2. The Baluch in general form a linguistic and sub-cultural unit within the broader cultural context of Eastern or Iranian Islam. The Persian Province of Baluchistan, which is roughly coterminous with the area of Persia where the Baluch form the majority of the population, is an isolated area which presents great extremes of altitude, climate and fertility. Natural conditions break the society down into small communities (whether settled or nomadic), and force it into dependence on a combination of agriculture and pastoralism in varying proportions. In almost every aspect of the material culture utter simplicity and dependence on the environment is evident. However, complex patterns of movement and other sociological factors keep all communities and classes constantly in touch with each other, and counteract the fragmenting effect of the the environment. Baluch society within the Province consists of: i) Balush - who are predominantly nomadic, ii) shahri - who are generally peasants, iii) ghulāms - who until recently were slaves, and iv) a superstructure of dynastic families, for which however there is no native term. From the point of view of leadership, there are also four role-statuses: i) kamāsh - who may be secular or religious, ii) maulawi - who is religious, iii) darwish - who is also religious, and iv) "chief" - who is secular, and for which there is no really equivalent native term. Political aspirations invariably function through one or other of these role-statuses, which however cannot be said to form a structure. A chief must be a member of a dynastic family, and is a leader by definition. Holders of the other three role-statuses are only potentially leaders: they may or may not lead in fact. The chief is generally but not necessarily more powerful than holders of the other role-statuses. Every man inherits a tribal name agnatically, and the word for tribe (zāt) is best translated as "birth status". However, the zāt of a man's mother is also an important factor in determining his status. He may only improve his status within limits by his own achievements. There are also institutionalised forms of behaviour for particular occasions and situations, and there is a "formal" religion - Islam. Beyond these factors there is no institutionalisation in the society, and so there is practically no specifically political institutionalisation at all. Furthermore, the terms for the three role-statuses which are named in the society are all of alien origin. 3. This situation makes it impossible to understand and analyse realistically the present framework of political conceptions in the society without taking cognisance both of the history of these conceptions and of comparative material from neighbouring societies, for all of these conceptions have at least archaistic aspects, and in some respects contact with the semantic origin of the term still conditions its use within the society. In general, a zāt represents a group of immigrants to the Province. The people who brought the name "Baluch" and the Baluchi language into the Province appear to have arrived there in the 11th century. There is evidence that agriculture flourished in the Province before the Baluch came, but we know nothing of any pastoral life there before them. The names of the main agricultural settlements were the same before the Baluch came as they are now. There are no other pre-Baluch names in the Province. On the basis of the historical and comparative data available a theoretical model is constructed to demonstrate the synchronic and diachronic contexts of the present situation. This model is particularly relevant to the study of: i) relationships between settled and nomadic and the mixture of various ethnic, cultural, and linguistic groups; ii) the ways in which social stratification may result from such mixtures; iii) how certain political relationships - particularly the feudal relationship - may develop in these circumstances, and, iv) how the constellation and importance of kin and affinal relationships may be affected. 4. The kinship terminology is simple and cognatic. There are strong ties between brother and sister, and between cousins. Brothers and sisters generally inherit equal shares of land, except that the eldest son may be given an extra share. Livestock is gnerally inherited by sons only. Landownership is only of secondary importance to leadership. Marriage preference (for first or only wives) is for "cousins", and the bride-price is high and not affected by the choice of a father's brother's daughter. Some communities and classes are generally monogamous, others generally polygymous, and it is possible to discern a difference in the function and conception of marriage in the two cases. Matri- and patri-locality is better interpreted in terms of the fact that solidary political groupings (formed by marriage or allegiance) are generally more important sociologically than geographical and seological groupings. Among the nomadic Baluch a corollary of the orientation towards kinship, tribal affiliation, etc., is the instability of the individual camp. Marriage and inheritance practices reinforce "class" identity - particularly in the dynastic families where this identity is most important. Similarly, because of these practices, members of dynastic families acquire ownership interests in widely scattered pieces of land, and are therefore encouraged to move about continually. 5. The dynastic families form a superstructure. The chief is generally the paramount leader in a certain area, and has a certain vaguely defined "people". There are communities and areas without chiefs. Holders of the other role-statuses may also function as paramount leaders. Any leader automatically qualifies for one or other of the traditional role-statuses. This essay is concerned primarily with the chief who is seen (by the Baluch) as the most typical form of paramount leader but for whom nevertheless there is no native term. The main functions of the leader are to provide social control and initiative, but he also personifies the prestige of the community. A chief (or other leader) rules generally through kenash, who form the basic political denominators of the society. Neither is directly chosen or elected by the other. The extent of a leader's power depends basically on two factors: i) his "ecological" situation, i.e. parentage, alliance, etc. ii) his "personality", of which the first is little use without the latter, but the latter is to a large extent confirmed by the former. A certain quality attaches to this personality of the leader - particularly in the case of the chief - who has affinities with Weber's "charisma". In the Baluch Period (before 1928), where possible a chief operated from a fort in an agricultural centre, and generally either owed (informal) allegiances to a senior chief, or was owed allegiances by another chief or chiefs. He was traditionally entitled to a tithe on the produce of the land he controlled (apart from his major share of the produce from the land he owned), and service from the pastoralists. In addition to this in many cases he also collected a tax (in origin nourped from the Persian Government) from all sections of the population.

This thesis examines the role of the secular State in the making of modern constitutional government in India and argues that the practice of constitutional secularism is an unrealised pedagogical project whose goal is the transformation of Indian society and its politics. Toleration is the core value defended by the liberal secular State and the Indian State is no exception; however, its institution in the Indian Constitution compels religious groups to reformulate their traditions as doctrinal truths. Through decisions of Indian courts I demonstrate that this is an odd demand made on non-Semitic traditions like Hinduism because even up the contemporary moment it is difficult to cast these traditions in terms of doctrinal truths. Though reformulated religious identities are occluded descriptions of Indian religious traditions, I argue that they have gained considerable force in contemporary India because they were drawn into constitutional government as the problem of accommodating minority interests. Accommodating minority identities was part of an explicitly stated pedagogical project through which the British colonial government was to steward what they supposed to be irreconcilably fragmented 'interests' that comprised Indian society towards a unified polity. Though the Indian Constitution reworked the politics of interests toward the amelioration of social and economic 'backwardness', I argue that the rights granted to the Scheduled Castes, Other Backward Classes, and Minorities continue to mobilise these groups as reformulated religious identities with associated interests. Thus as recognisably occluded accounts of Indian society, I demonstrate that reformed religious identities and indeed the practice of secular constitutionalism functions like a discursive veil that screens off Indian social experience from the task of generating solutions to legal and institutional problems.

Most existing interpretations of the thought of Antonio Gramsci in International Relations and International Political Economy are strongly influenced by the seminal account provided by Cox in the early 1980s. Recovering the hitherto neglected concept of philosophy of praxis, this thesis departs from the 'Coxian orthodoxy' and develops an alternative understanding of Gramsci that sees hegemony as a combination of coercion and consent emerging from the articulation on three overlapping dimensions, respectively involving the interaction of the economic and the political, the international and the national, the material and the ideational. The potential of this approach is illustrated by examining the unfolding of neoliberal economic reforms in Egypt in the past two decades. It is argued that, firstly, the interaction of economic and political factors produced the emergence of a neoliberal authoritarian regime with a predatory capitalist oligarchy playing an ever greater role. Secondly, articulation across different spatial scales brought about a passive revolution managed by the state with the aim of adapting to the globalising imperatives of capital accumulation without broadening political participation. Lastly, the performative power of neoliberalism as an ideology fundamentally reshaped economic policymaking in favour of the rising capitalist elite. This focus on the shift in class relations produced by – and itself reinforcing – neoliberal reforms allows us to understand how the already waning hegemony of the Egyptian regime under Mubarak gradually unravelled. The rise of the capitalist oligarchy upset relations of force both within the ruling bloc and in society at large, effectively breaking the post- Nasserite social pact. Passive revolution witnessed the abdication to the pursuit of hegemony on the national scale, with the attempt of replacing it with reliance on the neoliberal hegemony prevalent on the international scale. The success of neoliberalism as an ideology did not obscure the increasingly inability of the regime to provide material benefits, however marginal, to subaltern classes. Thus, the affirmation of neoliberalism in Egypt corresponded to the failure of hegemony on the national scale.

This thesis studies the role of financial frictions in shaping the consumption and investment behavior in China and its implications on rest of the world. The first chapter uses a panel of Chinese individual level data to show that the inability to borrow against future labour income forces a significant portion of individuals to deviate from a smooth consumption path over the life cycle, which they would otherwise follow. Financial frictions also affect the Chinese corporate sector. The second chapter relates China's current account surplus, as well as productivity differential between state-owned (SOEs) and privately-owned enterprises (POEs), to differences in access to finance. I consider an open- economy DSGE model of the Chinese economy with two productive sectors. I model SOEs and POEs as start-ups which need to borrow in order to begin production. Following a policy-induced asymmetric shock to the borrowing constraints, SOEs are on average less productive than POEs. Because of the lower hurdle rate for investment they face, SOEs end up creating more investable assets than POEs, while, due to more constrained credit availability, POEs save more and invest less than SOEs. In aggregate, this simple mechanism implies investment (driven by less productive SOEs) does not keep up with savings (driven by more productive POEs), resulting in a current ac- count surplus. Furthermore, the savings of Chinese POEs owners in search of investable foreign assets put downward pressure on the world long run real interest rate. In the third chapter, I move from China to an international perspective. This chapter constructed a measure of financial frictions for 41 emerging economies (EMs) between 1995 and 2008 in order to shed light on common factors across countries. Finally, Chapter four shows econometrically that financial frictions pose a serious danger to EMs, by reducing long run economic growth, raising the probability of a crisis, and leading to asset bubbles. Consistent with Chapter 2, I confirm that financial fractions can also help explain the current account position of EMs.

In 1991, following its defeat in the first Gulf War and out of fear of a humanitarian catastrophe, the Iraqi army and state-apparatus were forced to withdraw from the three Kurdish-population governorates in Northern Iraq. This left an administrative vacuum that was filled by the leadership of the Kurdish fragmented guerrilla movement – now a de facto Kurdish state in Northern Iraq, known as the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Instead of achieving their goal of an autonomous (and in the long-term even independent) Kurdistan through insurgency or guerrilla warfare, the Kurdish leadership came to see state- and institution-building as the most efficient path. De facto statehood has had a significant impact on the development of the KRG, its state-building, its interaction with the international community, and its policies. As demonstrated in the growing literature on de facto states, the pursuit of international legitimacy often plays a key role in shaping their conduct and identity, paving the way toward substantial, though fragile, achievements in state-building. The purpose of this research is to contribute to the study of de facto states by exploring the case of the KRG. It argues that the pursuit of legitimacy is essential for the understanding of de facto states, mainly due to its potential to generate interaction between the de facto state and different segments of the international community. Transnational advocacy is found to be particularly significant, including diaspora activism for conveying ideas and encouraging interaction. By examining the evolution of the Kurdish national liberation movement from 1958 to 2010, this research aims to better explain the dynamics that shape de facto states in general, and to contribute to the study of the KRG as a de facto state in particular, including its development, and its domestic and foreign policies.

Health Inequalities and the Right to Healthcare of Negev Bedouin in Israel with Diabetes: A case study of a Marginalized Arab Indigenous Minority Diabetes is one of the world’s most pervasive chronic diseases and there are high rates of prevalence in the Arab world and amongst indigenous peoples. It is widespread amongst older Bedouin in the Negev, who are a marginalized Arab indigenous minority in Israel. This is a multi-method case study using non participant observation in clinic settings, analysis of medical records and semi-structured interviews in a Health Centre and Hospital Outpatient Clinic and household interviews. The fieldwork took place over eight months in 2007. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS and thematic qualitative analysis was conducted using NVIVO 7 with supplementary manual analysis. The conceptual frameworks used are the right to heath and health care approach as set out in UN Special Comment 14 in relation to the availability, accessibility acceptability and quality of health care, as well as neo materialist, materialist and socio-behavioural explanations of health inequalities linked to lay and professional explanatory models of illness. The findings show that there are limitations on the right to health care in terms of availability of clinics and clinic hours, accessibility in terms of distance, language, cost, and information, acceptability in terms of linguistic and cultural differences between staff and patients and quality in terms of medical records, monitoring and appropriate context specific lifestyle advice. The issue of non-discriminatory care needs to be addressed. Explanatory models of illness used by Bedouin and health professionals differ although both reflect awareness of changing lifestyles. These models link to explanations of health inequalities. There are gender differences in how Bedouin men and women understand and live with diabetes which is related to their social status and circumstances. Some aspects of the findings are generalisable to Bedouin in the Arab world and to indigenous peoples in relation to health care provision, health inequalities and explanatory models. However, there were specific areas of health care provision that related to the marginalized minority status and situation of this population in Israel which needs to be addressed and the rights to health and health care framework provides a potential means of monitoring improvement.

The content, style and form of MPs' performances on the floor of both Houses of the Indian Parliament has undergone dramatic change within the last decade. For example, 97% of the productive hours of the Winter (Nov-Dec) 2010 Session were lost due to intense disruption by MPs across the political spectrum seeking to stall the House. Moreover, an increasing number of Bills are debated for less than an hour, if at all, on the floor of Parliament - raising the conceptual question of whether legislation can still be considered one of parliament's key functions in India. These changes require, at the very least, an attempt to re-conceptualize the meaning and significance attributed to various tropes of parliamentary performances, including those which seemingly subvert all notions of parliamentary procedure, decorum and etiquette. In my thesis, I adopt a novel interdisciplinary analytical framework, drawing upon performance studies, microsociological dramaturgy of face-to-face interaction, interpretations of procedural invocations, rhetorical political analysis and the study of political rituals. My primary research question was whether the concept of ritual could usefully be mapped onto performances of debates in the Indian parliamentary context. I then asked what the significance of the absence or presence of rituals in this context would mean. Two case were studies selected for this analysis, namely the Prevention of Terrorism Act (2001- 2004) and the Women's Reservation Bill (1996-2011), informed by a more general ethnography of the Indian Parliament undertaken for this research. Both studies were chosen using the logic of 'extreme case study selection' as these performances exhibit extreme forms of dramaturgical violence, protest and polarized rhetoric that is increasingly reflective of the everyday performances of the Indian Parliament. In my research, I have adopted an interpretivist-constructivist approach to the ethnographic method and have conducted two tranches of field research in New Delhi for that purpose. My analysis demonstrates the presence of a diverse range of rituals of debate being performed simultaneously during the legislative process within the Indian Parliament, namely, procedural rituals, interpersonal rituals and disruptive rituals. These findings corroborate the broader argument that the study of rituals are integral to an understanding of parliamentary processes. Moreover, instead of dismissing certain aspects of performance (e.g. physical obstruction of debate) as being symptomatic of what many scholars have called the 'decline of parliament', my findings support the cause for re-signifying, or re-reading parliamentary disruption as supporting, rather than diminishing, the processes of political representation and widening the spectrum of forms of political action considered as legitimate modes of political deliberation. The evolution of these newer, sometimes disruptive, forms of representative ritual can be read into wider processes of vernacularization and mediatization currently transforming the ethos, identity and modus operandi of the Indian Parliament.

This thesis constitutes an attempt to conceptualise the partition and independence of India and Pakistan in terms of rupture and novelty. The event or transition, which formally occurred in August 1947, is analysed as a rare moment of openness and undecidability. It is argued that a study of the so-called transfer of power—and of the inclusion of the notions of 'Partition‘ and 'Independence‘ as key elements of Indian and Pakistani nation building—ought to contain a recognition of the active labour by the political elites to overwrite the abyssal and ambiguous character of becoming independent and postcolonial. A second argument is that this overwriting was, necessarily, partial, i.e. it left certain groups and subject positions to populate the margins and the in-betweens of citizenship and national identity. The principal implication of the thesis‘ pro-posed theorising is that we need to adopt a new approach to the study of the partition of British India and the ensuing nation and state building; an approach that is sensitive to the constitutive contingency, and the forceful closure of it, which was contained in the moment of transition. In doing the above, the thesis critically engages with literature on the various and multi-layered levels of violence that were inscribed into the politics of belonging. Special attention is, in some parts, devoted to the Indian case. Partly in order to contest some of the sedimented assumptions regarding how to conceive the events in the late 1940s and the early 1950s; partly as a consequence of the primary material that underpins much of the reasoning. In order to demonstrate the above-mentioned uncertainty—both regarding the future trajectory of statehood and what independence actually signified—that the political elites, but also other sections of the two societies, was confronted with, the thesis is to a significant degree the product of archival research carried out at the National Archives of India and at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. It, in addition, draws on a close reading of the Constituent Assembly debates in both India and Pakistan.

This is a study of selected tasks and responsibilities of chief administrators in overseas schools located throughout East Asia. The degree to which their work related tasks presented problems for them and the identification of in-service training areas constituted the focus of the study. Data were collected by questionnaires from 46 chief school administrators whose schools were members of the East Asia Regional Council of Overseas Schools (EARCOS). The data were analyzed through descriptive statistics to determine the degree to which 92 administrative tasks presented problems for the chief school administrator. The selected administrative tasks encompassed five major areas: personnel, curriculum, school administration and business functions, school setting and pupils. In addition, 25 in-service training areas were prioritized according to the degree of value chief administrators felt they would provide. Specific tasks identified as most problematic were: (a) hiring well-qualified teachers from the local community; (b) locating and acquiring school sites; (c) funding new school buildings; (d) providing substitute teachers; (e) providing current and relevant in-service training for teachers; (f) providing programs for gifted, remedial or handicapped students; (g) constructing new buildings; (h) providing hearing, visual, psychological, or other testing services; (i) soliciting financial support; (j) finding local supply sources. In-service training opportunities in the major area of curriculum were identified as being most valuable and additional course work in preparation for an overseas chief school administrator's position was believed to be beneficial by those currently holding chief school administrator jobs. Specific in-service topics deemed most valuable were: (a) curriculum development procedures and writing of curriculum guides; (b) staff management, faculty morale and leadership techniques; (c) hiring practices, contracts, overseas recruiting and organizations providing support services; (d) teacher evaluation, supervision and dismissal procedures; (e) development and implementation of in-service training and school improvement plans; (f) curriculum alternatives such as International Baccalaureate, ESOL, "A" and "O" levels, and Advanced Placement programs; (g) pupil support services such as counseling, testing services, gifted and remedial programs; (h) methods of communication, public relations techniques and community liaison projects; (i) economics, budget development procedures and school business office and accounting practices; (j) comparative education--evaluating academic programs from various countries.