abstract: This dissertation argues that scholars need to re-evaluate the place of miscellany in the textual tradition. Through a dynamic close-reading of Zhuang Chuo’s 莊綽 (fl. 1126) Jilei bian 雞肋編 (Chicken Rib Chronicles), using its preface as a guide, this project demonstrates that the value of this text lies not in its historical truth, but in the author’s analyses of historical themes, spoken word, and personal experiences alongside his engagement with the textual tradition and intellectual discourses in the wider scholarly community. Rethinking the way that Song dynasty authors of miscellany create meaning and also the purpose of this corpus allows readers to approach them holistically and creates the potential for multiple readings. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Asian Languages and Civilizations 2016

<p> Many studies have examined private higher education in China as a roughly whole since 1978, or treated the most significant sector of China&rsquo;s private higher education system, the independent college, as a transient phenomenon, while its development has led to a constant progression of private higher education since the late 1990s. This paper adopted the theory of institutional isomorphism and explored how intertwined coercive, mimetic, and normative forces rooted in a dynamic socioeconomic, political, and cultural context shaped the evolution of the independent college in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces in China from 1999 to 2005. The study amplified the progression of the independent college as well as private higher education through a systematic lens, and provided profound examination of this complex social progress that pulled and pushed this evolution of the independent college.</p><p>

This dissertation is an ethnographic study of Taiwan's hip-hop scene and an examination of rap music's emergence as a trenchant form of musical narrative discourse in the post-martial law era (1987 to the present). Its central argument is that performers have invoked rap as a storytelling practice to make sound and sense of the dramatic social and political transformations that transpired in the wake of Taiwan's democratization at the dusk of the twentieth century, and in the years thereafter. My discussion draws on a vibrant archive of materials collected over eighteen months of fieldwork and proceeds from two primary assumptions: first, that Taiwan rap is a narrative genre, with antecedents in an array of Afro-diasporic oral narrative traditions as well as local narrative traditions that employ speech-song techniques; and second, that storytelling can be understood as a process of collaborative social and political engagement that empowers artists and audiences to a sense of agency in the world they see around them. The document is divided into three main parts, the first of which approaches the history of rap in Taiwan as itself a narrative construction, subject to revision and reinterpretation at the hands of multiple authors. In this spirit, it unfolds not one but three distinct histories, each anchored by a different term used locally to designate "rap." The second part of the dissertation examines the people and places that collectively comprise the Taiwan rap community, with a dual focus on demographic representation vis-a-vis the interlocking categories of ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status, and the emplaced qualities of the music vis-a-vis its emergence from specific localities, places of learning, and places of production. The third and final part foregrounds rap’s specificity as a narrative genre to examine more closely the music’s poetics and politics. It considers the stories rappers tell and the means by which they tell them, in the process exploring works that reflect or construct larger narratives about Taiwan as a nation, as well as those that engage smaller, more specifically contextual narratives about relationships, family, school, and work. / Music

The crisis of unity in multiethnic societies may be indicative of strained relations among various ethnic groups. Economic competition by a minority arouses resentment and envy in the dominant group. When the political development lags behind social and economic development, ethnicity is introduced into politics. If the system fails to resolve issues through institutional arrangements violence may become a mode of communication among these groups and the minority may attempt to secede. The case of India provides an excellent example of particularistic associations. The Sikhs have played a significant role in the division of the subcontinent and the development of the economy, Tensions have resulted in violence and counter-violence by both minority and majority groups. India has failed to introduce institutional changes to fulfill the promises made by the secular constitution. The Hindu dominance and discrimination in case of Sikhs can not be denied. While the issues still remain, India faces the risk of secessionist movements not only by Sikhs but also by other regions where minorities feel having been discriminated.

Abstract not available.

Abstract not available.

This thesis examines the interrelation of the government of Afghanistan's quality and communication against a theoretical framework that draws on Bertrand Russell's (1961) Authority and the Individual and Niklas Luhmann's (1990) The Political Theory in the Welfare State. Theories of governance, communication, and participatory democracy are investigated to explore the role of media, people's political participation, citizenry, and civic activism, in good governance. The objective of this thesis is to investigate how communication influences good governance. A qualitative research design is employed, utilizing content analysis of government and non-government documents and in-depth interviews with national and international field experts. The thesis finds that effective communication can enhance the degree of responsiveness, accountability, and transparency in Afghanistan's governance system. It is argued here that effective communication between the government, external players, and the people, can improve governance quality. This thesis provides a formulation of the communication activities of the government of Afghanistan, the Afghani people, and the international community that can playa critical role in changing Afghanistan's current status as a failed state.

<p> In this thesis I argue that Hindu nationalist terminology, particularly the concepts of <i>Hindutva, Samyavada,</i> and national identity, modernized amid currents of globalization and neocolonialism in the early twentieth-century. In the theoretical section, I examine how systems of knowledge and power in India were directly and indirectly affected by the globalization of western modernity. In the primary source analysis section, I discuss three prominent Hindu nationalists and their ideas in support of the argument made in the theoretical section. Veer Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (1883-1966), the philosopher of Hindutva, represented the ethno-nationalistic component to Hindu nationalism and looked to cultural motifs in order to unify the &ldquo;true&rdquo; people of India. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose (1897-1945), the militant hero who formed the Indian National Army and outright opposed the British, contributed the aggressive discourse of nationalist rhetoric. Sarsanghchalak Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar (1906-1973), the supreme leader of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), utilized Hindu nationalist rhetoric in order to mesmerize post-independence Indians and lay the foundation for the future of the RSS. Although these individuals represented a current within Indian nationalist history, their lives and literature influenced the language of Hindu nationalism.</p>

Since the declaration of Education for All (EFA) in Jomtien in 1990 which was reaffirmed in Dakar 2000, it has become widely accepted that education for girls has a profound effect on sustainable development. More importantly women’s education has been linked to low maternal and infant mortality rates in Third World Countries. Studies carried out by a number of scholars established significant correlation between a woman’s schooling and her children’s learning opportunities (Stromquist, 2005, p. 142). They contend that intergenerational benefits resulting from female schooling are considerably higher than from male schooling hence increasing girls’ education and women’s literacy provides enormous benefits to individuals and families. As a result, literacy for women and girls has become a major focus of attention in many developing countries. Notwithstanding this renewed focus on girls’ education and the role of women in development, country strategies such as Bhutan’s Ninth Five-Year National Development Plan have not made significant attempts to adequately define the role of women, and particularly nuns in the pursuit of Gross National Happiness (GNH). Bhutan’s development philosophy, GNH which focuses on social indicators was proclaimed by the King in juxtaposition to the global economic indicator Gross National Product (GNP) as the road map to its mode of development. Ten years after its introduction, the role of women in Bhutan’s development agenda and the pursuit of gross national happiness remain undefined and marginal. This study therefore seeks to examine the existing gaps in Bhutan’s development philosophy with a focus on the role of nuns in national development. Drawing on feminist and critical theories grounded in discourses on gender equity, this study questions whether countries, and specifically Bhutan, have the political will and commitment to transform the lives of rural women, including nuns, by redefining their role in the 21st century focusing on their educational and literacy needs. The study, utilizing frameworks grounded in Women in Development (WID), Women and Development (WAD), and Gender and Development (GAD) discourse, highlights significant gaps in the education sector in terms of support, management, coordination, supervisions, and oversight of the quality of learning at nunneries with a view to drawing attention to critical gender equity issues in Bhutanese society. It concludes by proposing specific recommendations and programmatic actions to address the situation.

Global climate change has emerged a new environmental issue affecting developing countries particularly after the signing of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in June 1992. This dissertation focuses on the factors which motivate Indian responses to global climate change at the international level. The study evaluates the relative impacts of two policy frames in the formulation of India's national climate change policy stance. The concept of "policy frames" refers to the idea that the definition of, and responses to a particular problem are constructed in terms of another more pressing and salient policy concern. A "policy frame" is an analytically constructed policy filter comprised of key, identifiable, policy features and existing resource constraints in a sector. The study traces the evolution of national energy (coal power and renewable energy) and environment sector policies under centralized planning based on a survey of a series of Five Year Plans (1970-1997). Characteristic sectoral policies are identified as constituting an "energy-related development policy frame" and an "environment-related development policy frame" under two distinct phases of national economic development--a managed economy and a liberalized economy. The study demonstrates that the 1991 shift towards phased economic liberalization resulted not only in a new set of energy (coal, power and renewable energy) policies and consequently an altered energy policy frame, but also in a largely unchanged set of environmental sector policies and consequently only a marginally altered environmental policy frame. The study demonstrates that the post-1991 energy policy changes together with existing energy resource constraints, constitute the dominant policy frame driving both the formulation of Indian policy stances at international climate change negotiations and also Indian responsiveness to coal, power, renewable energy, and climate change projects funded by the World Bank and GEF. The study also demonstrates that key features of the energy policy frame functions as a shared cognitive reference for a select group of national policy actors (comprising both policy makers and policy experts), responsible for formulating climate change policy responses. The study highlights the influential role played by very small set of national policy experts who construct national climate change options on the basis of features of the energy policy frame.