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This dissertation proposes a political reading of the religious revival taking place in Tajikistan following the country’s independence in 1991. It considers the impact of the Soviet legacy on the place of religion in Tajik society and on different modes of religiosity. It also highlights the continuities between the Soviet and post-Soviet eras and the porous boundaries between the religious and secular realms in Tajikistan. First, the thesis describes the specificities of the Soviet secularization process and emphasizes the holistic character of the Soviet ideology. I suggest that the secularization of Central Asia should be understood not as the complete eradication of religion but as the societies’ accommodation to assertive secular policies, which produced a certain understanding of the place of religion in society. The research then looks at the resilience of Soviet values within both institutional and discursive traditions, as well as within individuals’ perspectives on religion. This dissertation avoids reifying the state and accounts for the great diversity of state actors’ strategies and interests as well as within communities. Finally, drawing upon extensive ethnographic fieldwork in Northern Tajikistan, the research depicts the religious revival from a local perspective by addressing the religious experiences of born-again Muslims. I suggest that Islamic values offset the Soviet holistic ideology, which can be explained by the affinities of religious and Soviet moral codes. The research also shows that increasing levels of religiosity contribute to social tensions around the definition of new moral standards in an uncertain socio-economic environment.

This dissertation creates two new theoretical tools to analyze connections between politics and environmental change. The first section develops the concept of Northern ‘shadow ecologies’ to understand the environmental impact of a Northern state on Southern resource management. A Northern shadow ecology is the aggregate environmental impact of government aid and loans; corporate investment and technology transfers; and trade, including purchasing practices, consumption, export and consumer prices, and import tariffs. After outlining Japan’s shadow ecology, the next part constructs an analytical lens to uncover salient Southern political causes of timber mismanagement. This spotlights modern patron-client links between Southern officials and private operators that debilitate state capacity to implement resource policies. Using these analytical tools, and building on extensive primary sources and more than 100 in-depth interviews, the remainder of the thesis examines the two most important factors driving commercial timber mismanagement in Indonesia, Borneo Malaysia, and the Philippines: pervasive patron-client ties between Southeast Asian officials and timber operators; and the residual and immediate environmental impact of Japan. In a continual struggle to retain power in societies with fragmented social control, Southeast Asian state leaders build potent patron-client networks that syphon state funds, distort policies, and undermine supervision of state implementors. In this setting, the state is often unable to enforce timber management rules as implementors -- in exchange for gifts, money, or security -- ignore or assist destructive and illegal loggers, smugglers, and tax evaders. Japan’s shadow ecology has expedited timber mismanagement, and left deep environmental scars that impede current efforts to improve timber management. Post-1990 Japanese government and corporate policy changes to integrate environmental concerns have marginally improved forestry ODA, and contributed to token corporate conservation projects. As well, there is now less Japanese investment, technology, and credit linked to logging. But massive timber purchases from unsustainable sources, wasteful consumption, timber prices that ignore environmental and social costs, import barriers that deplete Southern revenues, and the residual impact of past Japanese practices continue to accelerate destructive logging in Southeast Asia. Sustainable tropical timber management will require fundamental changes to Japan’s shadow ecology. It is also imperative to confront Southern political forces driving deforestation. While reforms will certainly face formidable -- perhaps insurmountable -- political and economic barriers, unless the world community tackles these issues, the remaining primary forests of Southeast Asia will soon perish. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate

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Please note: creative writing theses are permanently embargoed in OpenBU. No public access is forecasted for these. To request private access, please click on the lock icon and filled out the appropriate web form. / Collection of five works of short fiction, addressing issues of migration, motherhood, race, and family. / 2999-01-01T00:00:00Z

The primary/objective of this study was to develop a framework for identification of political environmental issues faced by multinational hotel chains in newly industrialized countries in Asia. To accomplish the objective, key factors having an impact upon these hotel chains were identified using the Delphi Technique. This study was conducted with participation of multinational hotel chain executives and general managers, trade association executives, government tourism officials, hospitality management educators, and industry lawyers. Five Asian countries including Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand were selected as a sample for newly industrialized countries. Key factors in the political environment were identified under four categories: law and regulation, administrative, judicial, and lobbying, based on the classification scheme of the Trends Database developed by the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and state University. A professional panel of 17 members identified 93 key factors for each category in the first round of Delphi. In the second round panel members rated the level of influence of these identified factors using a five point Likert-type scale (5 = very influential, 1 = not influential), and reexamined their ratings in the final round to reach an agreement. All key factors receiving a total of two-thirds of the panel members' votes in the very influential, moderately influential and average influence categories were included in the framework. Finally, a total of 58 factors were agreed to be included in the framework: 26 in the law and regulation category, 14 in administrative, 10 in judicial, and 8 in lobbying categories. / Ph. D.

El Arq. Fernando Teruya nos hablará sobre su trayectoria y participación en el diseño y el planeamiento de proyectos ubicados en las Américas, Asia y Europa.