My thesis examines the work of the German-Jewish writer and intellectual Maxim Biller. It focuses on his literary self representations in his prose texts between 1990 and 2009. Jewish life in Germany has changed significantly since the political events of 1989. This is largely the product of migration and generational shifts within German Jewish communities, coinciding with shifting German identity discourses. The Jewish communities have subsequently become more diverse and ‘visible’. Despite this striking reestablishment of Jewish life and culture in Germany, it is still regarded an inexplicable phenomenon by many Jews from Israel and the US. It is also debatable as to whether this new Jewish plurality has really changed the German perceptions of Jews – or their attitudes and behaviours towards them. Young Jewish writers such as Maxim Biller face the challenge of redefining what it means to be a German Jew and of battling persisting stereotypical perceptions of Jewish identity. In their texts, they are creating spaces of negotiation and representation for their complex Jewish experiences. I argue that Maxim Biller, who has critically commented on German-Jewish discourse for about 25 years, publicly performs and establishes his own identity discourse. As a journalist for big German newspapers and magazines, Biller wrote provocative and controversial articles. Whether willingly or not, through his articles, he helped the German majority to define the Jews as ‘the Other’. He soon grew tired of this role and instead turned to experimental and self reflexive autobiographical prose in order to emancipate himself from this merely illustrative position. This prose is the subject of my analysis: I focus on his latest autobiographical novel, Der gebrauchte Jude (2009), his controversial and now banned first novel Esra (2003), his early short stories from 1990 and 1994 and his first novel Die Tochter (2000). To show how Biller establishes new ways of speaking about the self, I apply both a performative understanding of identity and a hybrid definition of the genre of autobiography as these concepts succeed in representing minority discourse. I want to show how Maxim Biller’s work helps to understand the new German-Jewish self perceptions and illustrates that Jewish plurality has returned to Germany. Through his autobiographical writing, Biller actively contributes to a broader counter-discourse to tendencies of particularism and essentialism as reactions to globalization and migration.

This thesis examines how a hegemonic ideal that I refer to as the ‘able-responsible man' dominates the discourse and performance of masculinity in the city of Nanchong in Southwest China. This ideal, which is at the core of the modern folk theory of masculinity in Nanchong, centres on notions of men's ability (nengli) and responsibility (zeren). It differs from, while not always being in contradiction with, the ideal of the ‘wealthy and worldly man' that many scholars of contemporary China have written about. For my research informants, an exemplary man is expected to excel financially but also to shoulder his responsibilities, first and foremost within the kin group, and then to society and the country. I explore the formation and nuances of this ideal in an economic and social milieu that has been radically transformed by forces such as modernization, labour migration, the one-child policy, and changing ideologies and practices of leisure, individualism, filial piety, gendered power and nationalism. Through ethnographic accounts from teenage boys, men of marriageable age, and married men alike, I show that the hegemonic model is coercive, yet negotiable. These accounts reveal the vulnerabilities of male youth and adults in different circumstances, and the multiple and varying strategies they take as they enact their masculinities. The hierarchical nature of relationships amongst men and between the two genders is complicated by an intersection with other social divisions and individual life trajectories. At the apex of the hegemonic model are the country’s leaders who exemplify for their political subjects what it means to be an exemplary Chinese man in the modern era. The thesis looks into not only what men think of being men and their performance as men, but also at what women think and how they construct and, in some regards, sustain the male mode.

Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Ciências da Educação, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação, Florianópolis, 2013. / Made available in DSpace on 2013-12-05T22:22:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 318154.pdf: 14139807 bytes, checksum: 57988f4f3822c6e2a8c38c326a2c4676 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / A tese faz uma análise de duas propostas pedagógicas desenvolvidas em escolas do campo. A primeira proposta é a das Escolas itinerantes do Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, situadas em acampamentos no Paraná e a segunda é a do Colégio Imperatriz Dona Leopoldina, vinculado aos imigrantes suábios e à Cooperativa Agrária Agroindustrial e está situado na Colônia Vitória, Distrito de Entre Rios, município de Guarapuava/PR. A pesquisa, de abordagem qualitativa, contempla estudo bibliográfico, documental e de campo (envolveu entrevistas e visitas a todas as escolas definidas como objetos de pesquisa, no decorrer dos anos de 2010, 2011 e 2012). A problemática da pesquisa sustenta-se na seguinte formulação: há um movimento histórico que provoca a emergência do MST e dos imigrantes suábios no estado do Paraná, como duas forças que emergem do mesmo contexto no interior da sociedade capitalista, mas que se constituem de forma desigual, nas estratégias de sobrevivência, de organização e de educação. Tal movimento expressa as contradições dessa sociedade, a oposição de classes, correlação de forças e também diferentes possibilidades de acesso ao conhecimento e de organização da forma e do conteúdo escolar, bem como da luta pela emancipação da classe trabalhadora. Salientamos que nesse processo há um movimento de resistência que precisa ser potencializado, pois se opõe ao modelo de escola capitalista. O MST se apresenta como um dos sujeitos coletivos que tem realizado um esforço significativo, permeado de limites e contradições, para construir uma proposta educacional para a classe trabalhadora, que contribua para sua emancipação. Compreendemos que a escola do campo é espaço de disputa e contradição, é tática política na luta de classes, portanto, o controle social dessa escola, quando destinada à classe trabalhadora, deve estar nas mãos dela própria. O trabalho está organizado em três capítulos, intitulados: Contextualização sócio-histórica do movimento da classe trabalhadora na luta pela terra no Paraná; A materialidade das escolas itinerantes do Paraná e do Colégio Imperatriz Dona Leopoldina e Os fundamentos das propostas pedagógicas: a perspectiva do MST e a dos suábios <br>

The purpose of this study is to gain an in-depth understanding of the perceptions of school counsellors in Saudi Arabia with regard to the provision of counselling for students with special educational needs (SEN) and to determine the contribution of counsellors to the development of such students in the context of mainstream secondary boys’ schools in Saudi Arabia. Accordingly, the study employs a mixed-methods approach to explore the perceptions of school counsellors in the country. Quantitative insights are obtained from 138 counsellors working in secondary boys’ schools using a questionnaire designed for the study. Subsequently, qualitative insights are obtained from 12 counsellors who are currently working with students with SEN and 12 counsellors who have never worked with students with SEN using semi-structured interviews. The quantitative data is statistically analysed, whereas the qualitative data is analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Overall, it is found that the qualitative and quantitative findings support each other and indicate that the provision of school counselling in Saudi Arabia for students with SEN requires attention. Salient findings include the existence of systemic issues such as the absence of minimum standards for counsellor recruitment, irregular recruitment practices, and inadequate dissemination of information associated with the purpose, role and function of school counsellors. Moreover, it is found that inadequate training provision and supervision and support mechanisms for counsellors exist, along with a lack of collaboration between departments of the Ministry of Education. Additionally, the findings indicate that the sociocultural environment of Saudi Arabia prohibitively influences the provision of school counselling services, in general, as the Islamic collectivist values with regard to family, hierarchy, secrecy, shame and stigma, are revealed to hinder the provision of counselling in schools. Moreover, counsellors find their work in the schools hampered by their involvement in non-counselling tasks, negative perceptions with regard to the usefulness of their role, lack of awareness about the needs of students with SEN. It is evident that the counselling profession in Saudi Arabia is yet to obtain full professional recognition and status as the country does not have a statutory body to provide support and guidance regarding the professional and ethical practice of counsellors, and to engage with the Ministry on behalf of counsellors. The findings of the study contribute to understanding the current status of the provision of school counselling services to students with SEN in boys’ secondary schools in Saudi Arabia. Suggestions based on the study’s findings are offered to the Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia, to counsellors working with children with SEN, and to the administration and personnel in schools. Suggestions for future research are also discussed.

This study explores the meaning of transnational identity of Chinese student returnees from the UK. The study is set in the context of transnationalism in the new era of globalisation. The scientific importance of this research lies in that it seeks to understand transnational identity in student returnees'experiences under the theory of transnationalism. It fills the research gap by providing a new theoretical perspective and methodological approach to identity. Under transnationalism, the study not only explores identity changes in a particular country and culture, but investigates it in the changing and overlapping countries and cultures, especially in China and the UK. To provide a more nuanced description of student returnees’ identity changes, qualitative methodology is adopted. Each student returnee is interviewed three times based on three different settings: first, based on their personal experiences in the UK; second, based on their personal experiences in China; the final round is the conclusion for the first two rounds. Altogether, 48 interviews were completed and analysed. Data based on the three rounds of interviews (two main settings) are organised into two finding chapters. The study finds that transnational identity is understood as single, composing several dimensions. For this study in particular, student returnees'transnational identity can be explained by four major dimensions: the capacity to build connections between cultures, diaspora consciousness, diaspora values and attitudes, and expansion of behaviours and actions. In terms of the process in which transnational identity is formed, the study also finds that Chinese student returnees went through different phases and levels of changes of transnational identity. More importantly, the complex changes in transnational identity show the interplay between agency and structure(s). On the one hand, Chinese student returnees negotiated their identity of various levels of structures, including society, social group, institutional and virtual levels. On the other hand, although various structures provided the context in which student returnees negotiated their transnational identity, it was student returnees'agency that shaped their sojourn and homecoming experience and further identity changes. In particular, it was the extent to which student returnees mobilized their agency that made the difference. Among many factors shaping different responses in agency, the divergence and convergence between agency and structure played a critical role in making the difference. The findings not only nuance the theories of identity and transnational identity, but also deepen our understanding of Chinese students and student returnees’ sojourn and homecoming experience, in addition to a new perspective into the phenomenon of culture shock and reverse culture shock. Finally, it is suggested that a more concerted effort from supra-national level to individual level is needed to provide Chinese students with more equal, qualified and intercultural education in the UK.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the major perspectives on the social and economic situation of "blacks" in Britain and the U. S. A. As part of this, alternative concepts are suggested which we feel are of greater theoretical depth and relevance than race relations theory. By race relations theory we mean any text which implicitly or explicitly does not treat "race relations" as a concept. That is to say, one which attempts to explain race relations rather than investigate it epistemologically. The race relations perspective justifies itself with reference to the actors' definition of the situation, namely, race consciousness, racism and racial discrimination. We hope to demonstrate that its epistemological and methodological basis generates a formidable theoretical incoherence and unavoidable inconsistencies. Our method is to take the theory at its word and confront its conclusions and propositions with its methodological principles. We then extract the inadequacies and trace them to epistemological assumptions. This procedure is accompanied by a suggested resolution of the problems identified by race relations theory, namely, that to explain the social and economic situation of "blacks" it is necessary to analyse the class structure of capitalist society. In other words, the most theoretically consistent approach would be that whose point of departure is capitalist relations of production. Such an explanation, however, must be prefaced by the analysis of race relations as a concept, i.e. as a term within a specific epistemological and theoretical tradition. This development displaces "race relations" as a theory and paves the way for the posing of different questions about modes of labour exploitation, and capitalist production. Thus the last two chapters are concerned with the explanation of the conditions of existence of social segregation and changes in the processes of labour exploitation via an investigation of the relations of production within the capitalist mode of production.

Tese (doutorado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Ciências Exatas, Departamento de Matemática, 2016. / Submitted by Fernanda Percia França (fernandafranca@bce.unb.br) on 2016-08-08T19:44:56Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2016_AgenorFreitasdeAndrade.pdf: 728043 bytes, checksum: 3c2cabafd04d05f8ed466dda5df2a7ed (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Raquel Viana(raquelviana@bce.unb.br) on 2016-08-25T18:48:48Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2016_AgenorFreitasdeAndrade.pdf: 728043 bytes, checksum: 3c2cabafd04d05f8ed466dda5df2a7ed (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-25T18:48:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2016_AgenorFreitasdeAndrade.pdf: 728043 bytes, checksum: 3c2cabafd04d05f8ed466dda5df2a7ed (MD5) / O presente trabalho contem dois resultados principais. O primeiro trata da seguinte situação. Dada uma palavra w e um grupo G, denotaremos por Gw o conjunto de todos os w-valores em G e por w(G) o correspondente subgrupo verbal. Mostraremos que se w = γn ou w = δn e se G for um grupo tal que para todo g ∈ G exista um número finito de subgrupos de Chernikov C1,...,Ck tais que g Gw ⊆ [ k i=1 Ci , então o subgrupo hg w(G) i é de Chernikov. O segundo resultado principal desta tese aborda o conceito de comutadores coprimos generalizados introduzido por Shumyatsky em [37]. Sobre esse assunto consideraremos a seguinte situação. Suponha que G seja um grupo finito e X o conjunto de todos os γ ∗ n -comutadores ou δ ∗ n -comutadores em G. Mostraremos que se |g X | ≤ m para todo g ∈ G, então a ordem do n-ésimo termo da série inferior de Fitting de G é (m,n)-limitada. ________________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT / This work has two main results. The first concerns the following situation. Given a word w and a group G, we denote by Gw the set of all w-values in G and by w(G) the corresponding verbal subgroup. We show that if w = γn or w = δn and G is a group in which for every g ∈ G there exist finitely many Chernikov subgroups C1,...,Ck such that g Gw ⊆ [ k i=1 Ci , then the subgroup hg w(G) i is Chernikov. The second main result of this thesis addresses the concept of generalized coprime commutators introduced by Shumyatsky in [37]. Suppose that G is finite group and X either the set of all γ ∗ n -commutators or the set of all δ ∗ n -commutators in G. We show that if |g X | ≤ m for all g ∈ G, then the order of the nth term of the lower Fitting series of G is (m,n)-bounded.

This study proposes to examine three strategies of resistance undertaken by ‘Negroes’ and ‘Mulattos/Coloureds’ of African descent in Bermuda, between 1700 and 1834. The first concerns the politics surrounding the poisoning episodes of 1726 to 1731; the second, the rise and fall of revolutionary resistance from 1761 to 1764; and the third, the politics of what will be identified as nineteenth-century radical resistance. Overall, it will chart what has been heretofore implied in the literature on Bermudian history as a change in resistance to the ‘customs of the country’: a change from an era of violent and revolutionary methods and goals to an era dominated by non-violent and non-revolutionary- radical- approaches. Contexts for these changes will also be provided. Three classes of people will emerge as fundamentally connected to each of these strategies. Persons of a ‘Gold Coast’ heritage will be argued as mainly connected with the introduction of poisoning technology. The enslaved merchant-sailor will be associated with the development of a revolutionary conspiracy. Free ‘Negroes’ and free ‘Coloureds’ will be focused on when examining the development of nineteenth-century radicalism.

A presente pesquisa tem como tema central a Comunicação Turística, avançando no seu conceito teórico e conceitual pela movimentação dos sujeitos das classe AB dentro do universo da internet, classificando-os de acordo com o seu comportamento na hora de planejar seus destinos turísticos. A análise exploratória transcorre acerca da potencialidade da segmentação de mercado do turista de alta renda. Inicialmente buscou-se a identificação do perfil dos viajantes a negócios como público-alvo de eventos especializados. Para tal, investigaram-se comportamentos e levantaram-se dados através da Netnografia seguida por uma pesquisa quantitativa que resultou na definição do sujeito a ser investigado. A partir desse ponto, foram realizadas entrevistas em profundidade, utilizando-se da Análise de Conteúdo como forma de compreensão das informações obtidas e inferência dos resultados. Os turistas de alta renda foram classificados em três grandes grupos: os neoprecavidos, representados pela grande maioria, os errantes e os tradicionais. Durante a análise foram identificados como funcionam os sistemas sociais e as escolhas dos canais de comunicação dos indivíduos pertencentes a essas classes, com o objetivo de apresentar reflexão às organizações turísticas que objetivam atrair, através da comunicação, esse perfil de público. De forma majoritária, os viajantes de alta renda se apresentaram extremamente preocupados em utilizar o canal da internet como busca de segurança na tomada de decisões. A utilização de mídias sociais, blogs, sites (ou não), não está condicionada ao nível de conhecimento tecnológico de cada um, mas sim, na percepção de acordo com suas experiências e nível de conhecimento cada canal pode contribuir para atender sua necessidade de segurança durante seus deslocamentos turísticos. / Submitted by Marcelo Teixeira (mvteixeira@ucs.br) on 2014-06-26T12:55:47Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Alessandra Pinto Nora.pdf: 4795641 bytes, checksum: 1005dbdc151db6edc061051a46d70574 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-26T12:55:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertacao Alessandra Pinto Nora.pdf: 4795641 bytes, checksum: 1005dbdc151db6edc061051a46d70574 (MD5) / The present research has as its theme Tourism Communications, advancing in its conceptual and theoretical concept for the movement of the subjects of Class AB within the universe of the Internet, classifying them according to their behavior when planning their holiday destinations. Exploratory analysis takes place about the potential of targeting the tourist market with high incomes who initiated the search for identifying the profile of business travelers as the target audience of specialized events. To this end, the author investigated behavior and gathered data through netnography followed by quantitative study that led to the definition of the subject to be investigated. From this point, in-depth interviews was conducted using the Content Analysis as a way of understanding the information obtained and the inference results. As a result, high-income tourists were classified into three major groups: neoprecavidos, represented by the vast majority, the wanderers and the traditional. During this analysis, we identified how the social systems and communication tools of choice of individuals belonging to these classes in order to present a reflection tourist organizations that aim to attract, through communication, this public profile. In this social study, we took to overcome the understanding that the motivational factors of choices of communication tools, go beyond the use of singular or compound each. So the prince, high-income travelers were extremely anxious to use the Internet as a channel for safety in making decisions. The use of social media, blogs, sites (or not), is not restricted to the level of technological knowledge of every one, but, according to the perception of their experience and knowledge level of each channel can contribute to meet their need for security when traveling tourist.

This thesis explores the impact that legislative changes have had on African Caribbeans competing in Birmingham’s market situations. It also assesses the extent to which educational and labour market success or failure might have influenced their contemporary spatial locations. A mixed methods approach is utilised to examine how the social class position, and spatial patterns, of the city’s African Caribbean population have changed since the early 1980s. The research provides a contemporary update of aspects of Rex and Tomlinson’s (1979) survey, and also Ratcliffe’s (1981) work, which was conducted in 1970s Handsworth. Despite successive anti-discrimination legislation, passed between 1965 and 2010, racist practices in the education, employment and housing markets have persisted. African Caribbean social and spatial mobility are examined in the context of social, political and ideological changes influencing the equality agenda, particularly where racial inequality is concerned. Shifts in the educational and labour market status of Black Caribbeans are articulated using Marxian, Weberian and Bourdieusian notions of social classes: as position, as situation and as disposition, respectively. Social mobility is measured according to the progress African Caribbeans have made in their efforts to obtain higher educational capital, and the extent to which they have exchanged them for occupations in the upper tiers of the labour market. African Caribbean spatial mobility is mapped between 1991 and 2011 and the movement of Birmingham’s Black population, from high to low deprivation urban spaces, is examined. Changes from renting to homeownership, are also analysed as indicators of improvement in Black Caribbean housing tenure. The critical race perspective, of interest convergence, is used to argue that the free market can be appropriated to ameliorate racism. However, it is also acknowledged that African Caribbean community organisations, and those sharing the same focal concerns, must pool their resources to achieve the aim of racial equity.