The globalized neoliberal agricultural regime operates within a neocolonial context and was therefore built upon the ideologies, law, and legacy of the colonial-era. Both capitalism and colonialism, in theory, and in practice, share characteristics that are inherently contrary to the realization of human rights. Given that the human rights framework operates within a globalized capitalist economy, there are systemic barriers to the universal realization of human rights. This thesis holds that the concept of food sovereignty not only highlights this reality but presents a nuanced emancipatory path forward towards a post-capitalist world where universal human rights realization is not only possible but inherent to the functioning of food sovereignty itself. Food sovereignty presents as a praxis for Marxist agrarian theory in establishing an approach to closing the metabolic rift. The existence of the Food Sovereignty Movement also confirms the existence of the metabolic rift as the theoretical disconnect between capitalism and human rights which underpins the current agricultural system. As a concept, it accounts for the systemic obstacles to the universal realization of the right to adequate food while also providing an alternative food system centred on the decisions of small-scale food producers. Contrary to capitalist and colonialist approaches to food production, food sovereignty is concerned with universal access to culturally appropriate nutritious foods produced through ecological means. Through a combination of normative and descriptive claims, this thesis examines the official recognition and realization of the right to food sovereignty as a proxy of Marxist ideology. Food sovereignty empowers the rights-holder to ensure the continued realization of their right to adequate food in underscoring the fact that rights realization is not static in nature but, an ongoing endeavour. As such, the process called for to implement an alternative food system is one of decolonization. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA) / Despite the existence of enough food for the sustenance of the global populace, there are obstacles prohibiting economic and physical access to food. These obstacles are created and maintained by the institutions and social structures that put forth policies encouraging economic and social inequality. The role which small-scale food producers play in global society is integral to the realization of the human right to adequate food. However, the current agricultural system de-values their work. Conceptually, food sovereignty highlights the oppressive nature of the agricultural system and puts forth a response that focuses on small-scale food producers assuming control over the food system. Commodification and exploitation are inherent characteristics of both the capitalist and colonial systems. Food sovereignty aims at dismantling oppressive systems through anti-capitalist and anti-colonial efforts sanctioned by the mobilization and collaboration of oppressed peoples within the context of food production.

Poverty and underdevelopment plague millions of people in the world today. Interestingly, the 800 million people that are currently living on less than a dollar a day correlate very closely with the 750 million people who were under colonial subjugation in 1945. In an effort to understand how the disparities in development came about, the theory of self-determination will be defined and historically assessed. Through qualitative evaluation of the principle and history of self-determination and case studies on three key regions that have never known genuine self-rule, it will become clear that the doctrine of self-determination only ever existed in rhetoric. Resource trap theory will be applied to those who have been plagued by outside rule and a general assessment of the state of self-determination in the world will be given. Lastly, an argument for what right transcendently will be given based on the current state of affairs and on Kantian ethics.

This research study examined perceptions of contemporary effects of colonialism among education professionals in Ghana, and the extent to which education professionals express awareness of colonialism in Ghanaian school systems and contemporary Ghanaian society. An overview of literature in Critical Race Theory, Social Justice Education Theory, Oppression Theory and Post-Colonial Theory provided the theoretical foundation that was used to guide this study. Five factors emerged from this literature review as a framework for analysis of study data. These five factors included discourse, cultural imperialism, linguistic hegemony, racism and internalized racism, and oppression. The study participants included education policy makers, administrators, counselors, teachers, and teacher educators in the educational system of Ghana. A set of thirty-two individual interviews and six focus groups comprised of twenty-seven participants were conducted in which educators described their perspectives of Ghanaian society and Ghanaian educational systems in their own words in response to a predetermined set of twelve questions. A document analysis established a baseline of data regarding the curriculum of Ghanaian schools as presented in curriculum guides, textbooks, and policy statements, handbooks and reports that describe the educational systems in Ghana today. Ghanaian educators expressed the most awareness of colonial legacies related to cultural imperialism, linguistic hegemony, internalized oppression and discourse. The findings suggest that educational professionals in Ghana demonstrate limited awareness of colonial legacies of racism and internalized racism, sexism, classism, ethnoreligious oppression and neocolonialism.

In 2018, the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers (OCSWSSW) implemented an additional screening question for prospective social workers registering with the College, requiring applicants to indicate if there is any sign they have a physical or mental condition or disorder that “could affect [their] ability to practice social work in a safe manner.” This Health Declaration policy was created within a broader context of increasing surveillance and punishment of social workers conducted by the College, on the grounds that fitness to practice social work is a bio-moral-medical quintessence that some possess and others lack, and which social work elites must identify in order to “protect the public.” This thesis undertakes a critical discourse analysis of publicly available documents provided by the College. I draw from critical disability studies, anti-colonial scholarship, and postmodern work to establish the College as an organ of the Canadian settler colonial project. I use the term “safe-ability” – distilling the Health Declaration’s language and that of their other rules, communications, and decisions – calling attention to ideological fiction operating within ableist/sanist and colonial logics, the basis of its authority to punish social workers and “protect” the public. The College uses terms like unfit, incapacity, and incompetence to conjure threat of risk throughout their documentation, showing significant investment in broadcasting lies about disabled people. College disciplinary documents show that social workers have been found to be unfit on the basis of statements about their health, inherent abilities, mental/physical examinations, and even charges of unfit conduct outside the scope of their duties as social workers. Legal and medical discourse is invoked to give the appearance of objectivity and to authorize power. I show that the OCSWSSW perpetrates abuses under cover of the fictitious entity “safe-ability” – a colonist ableist/sanist fabrication used to justify and valorize such professionalizing institutions that ought to be abolished. / Thesis / Master of Social Work (MSW)

No description available.

This dissertation explores the importance of colonial carcerality to International Relations and Canadian politics. I argue that within Canada, practices of imprisonment and the production of carceral space are a foundational method of settler colonial governance because of the ways they are utilized to reorganize and reconstitute the relationships between bodies and land through coercion, non-consensual inclusion and the use of force. In this project I examine the Treaties and early agreements between Indigenous and European nations, pre-Confederation law and policy, legislative and institutional arrangements and practices during early stages of state formation and capitalist expansion, and contemporary claims of “reconciliation,” alongside the ongoing resistance by Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island. I argue that Canada employs carcerality as a strategy of assimilation, dispossession and genocide through practices of criminalization, punishment and containment of bodies and lands. Through this analysis I demonstrate the foundational role of carcerality to historical and contemporary expressions of Canadian governance within empire, by arguing land as indispensable to understanding the utility of imprisonment and carceral space to extending the settler colonial project. In particular, in this dissertation I focus on demonstrating the relationships between historical and contemporary logics, institutions, and everyday practices of imprisonment and carcerality, and the role they play in the reproduction and maintenance of settler colonial governance within the Canadian context. The central contribution I make in this project is the concept of ‘colonial carcerality,’ which I argue is a governance strategy that relies on inflicting ongoing harm to land, and to Indigenous, gender non-conforming and poor people of colour through criminalization. Drawing on the concept of colonial carcerality provides a framework to understand land as integral to the production of carceral space through the racialized, gendered, sexualized and classed hierarchies that make Canada possible as a settler state within empire. I show how that the criminalization of Indigenous persons through relationships to land occurs alongside the production of settler innocence, and that a carceral apparatus is produced through the preservation white heteropatriarchy alongside the subjugation of land. Drawing from the contributions of Indigenous resurgence and Indigenous feminist literature, this concept provides a theorization of carceral space beyond governance that highlights ongoing harm to land, waters and other living beings as a condition of possibility for carcerality within settler colonialism. It further draws from these insights to begin to imagine possibilities for restorative justice that value the life of all living beings as an entry point into understanding decolonial abolition within the settler colony. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Pigmentocracy or colorism refers to the practice of intraracial groups applying a preferential valuation to lighter skin, resulting in a system of contextual privileges and discriminations based on skin color. In India, this phenomenon is informed by numerous factors, including colonialism, the caste system, media, cultural practices, and patriarchy. The fundamental forces contributing to pigmentocracy are explored independently as well as in conjunction with each other in order to elucidate the multifaceted aspects of social organization in India, specifically, the larger effects of imperialism, capitalism, globalization, racism, and sexism as they relate to colorist ideology. Everyday practices and attitudes informed by caste, class, religion, language, region, and customs are also examined in relation to pigmentocracy. Although there are numerous mechanisms that contribute to the complexity of examining pigmentocracy, larger patterns also prevail that allow for a comprehensive understanding of how pigmentocratic notions influence and are influenced by multiple background and demographic conditions. Benefits for those who are on the lighter end of the skin color spectrum are recognized and leveraged in accordance with the systemic logic of being naturally superior. Conversely, often those on the darker end of the spectrum are perceived as inferior, thus perpetuating the superiority of whiteness. Pigmentocracy is detrimental psychologically, physically, and socioeconomically due to the ways in which darker skin is often viewed (by society, media, lighter individuals as well as darker people who subscribe to the belief that white is better) as less attractive, less valuable, less pure, and less clean. For those perceived to be darker, the consequences can include violence, marginalization, and discrimination in areas of employment, education, government, access to resources, psychological trauma, disparities in marital opportunities and conceived notions of beauty, and underrepresentation in media. / Ph. D.

In the face of catastrophic climate change, scholars and activists have sought to fundamentally transform the existing food system in the United States. One solution being offered, repeasantization, seeks to reinvigorate the idea of the small farm accompanied by principles of ecological production. While invoking the term "peasant" promises something potentially new in the US context, where the farmer is hegemonic, this movement could end up reenacting the failures of the homesteading and back-to-the-land movements which reconstituted settler colonial and capitalist relations in the US imaginary. Using literature from peasant studies, development studies, and Marxist theory, I develop a theoretical orientation towards this potential problem which focuses on how the ideas of the peasant and the farmer are part of a dialectic which has regularly reinforced the existing dominant paradigm. Imagining a new way of thinking, I introduce the concept of the "peasant+ imaginary" in order to outline the ways that the general way of thinking about farming and farmers in the US serves the ideological function of 'othering' alternative practices and subjectivities. Through a historiography which focuses on the structural logic and compulsions of settler colonialism and capitalism, I reconstruct the history of the peasant-farmer dyad in the US context. Through a critical discourse analysis of Farmers' Bulletins, I also show how the United States Department of Agriculture reinforced a settler-capitalist farmer subject-formation in the interest of a "national agriculture" which served to marginalize Black, Indigenous, and non-capitalist ways of being. This dissertation is my contribution to literature which seeks to reimagine the US food system, with the goal of creating a truly sustainable agriculture which nourishes the land and the people who work and live on it. / Doctor of Philosophy / In the face of catastrophic climate change, scholars and activists have sought to fundamentally transform the existing food system in the United States. This dissertation seeks to reinvigorate the idea of the small farm in the US by paying attention to important concerns related to environmental justice. Using writings from a range of scholarly disciplines, I develop theory which focuses on how the ideas of the peasant and the farmer are part of an often problematic relationship in the popular imagination. Imagining a new way of thinking, I introduce the concept of the "peasant+ imaginary" in order to outline the ways that current thinking about farming and farmers in the US often reinforced existing "us versus them" thinking, sidelining alternative, more ecological practices. By highlighting three key moments in US agricultural history and excerpts from United States Department of Agriculture's Farmers' Bulletins, I show how the structural logics and compulsions of settler colonialism and capitalism reinforce conventional ways of thinking about agriculture. I also show how the project of building a "national agriculture" after the Civil War served to marginalize Black, Indigenous, and non-capitalist ways of being. This dissertation is my contribution to literature which seeks to reimagine the US food system, with the goal of creating a truly sustainable agriculture which nourishes the land and the people who work and live on it.

What has caused the. African continent to remain fragmented, underdeveloped, and lacking liberal democracies? The present study attempts to quantitatively and qualitatively assess the effect European colonialism has had on sub-Saharan Africa democratic development. The research finds that problems of democratic consolidation in sub-saharan Africa are not necessarily due to the primitiveness of government institutions or trivial ethnic tensions, as generally believed. Instead the case is made that decades of absolute and arbitrary rule under European colonizers has hampered democratic development. Disregard for humanity and civility by the European colonial states made a peaceful transition after independence nearly impossible. The current complex challenges obstructing democratic consolidation in sub-Saharan Africa can be understood by examining the region's colonial history. This research project takes into account the uniqueness of Africa's experience by steering away from the traditional Western approach to truly understand Africa's democratic plight. Extensive qualitative research was conducted in order to determine the reasons why democracy is lacking in a majority of sub-Saharan Africa. The effects of European colonialism, the necessary factors for democratic transition, and why democratization is still limited in the region were all examined. While colonialism may not be the sole reason for sub-Saharan Africa's failed democracies, this research finds that it is the instigator of centuries of social, political, and ethnic strife.

This dissertation is a theoretical and interpretative exploration of the prominent themes which are developed in the novel Die olifantjagters by Piet van Rooyen. The study focuses on the spatial aspects of the narrative and attempts to indicate how the novel contributes to the contemporary discourse on ecology and eco-critique. In the analysis of spatiality in the novel, special attention is paid to the dimension of Africa and African ecological issues. These include the typical ecological problems of developing countries, the Western presence in Africa and the dilemma of the indigenous people such as the Bushmen in a rapidly changing environment. Centering around the hunt on one of the last great elephants, the novel is deeply concerned with conservation of natural resources and related issues. The multi-cultural social structures of Southern African countries and the problems arising from cultural interaction, form an integral part of the novel and these are discussed extensively in the dissertation. In addition, the identity crises which the characters experience as a result of the processes of cultural interaction and environmental change, are explored against the backdrop of the political transformation of the subcontinent. Issues of identity are concerned with individual as well as group dynamics and almost the characters are thus involved in the redefinition of their own roles and their places in the world. Colonialism has been replaced by postcolonial ism, but power struggles continue to plague previously colonized countries such as South Africa and Namibia. The novel deals with this situation by depicting the conflicting ideas and ideals of people from developed countries who intend to do good and the viewpoints of the indigenous people of Africa. The novel presents a fresh and honest view of the contemporary situation in Southern Africa and thus contributes to the discourse on post-colonialism ecology, cultural change and the ways in which change affects identity, human relationships and the relation between man and Nature. An interpretation of Die olifantjagters therefore needs to take cognisance of Eco criticism, the debate on post colonialism and the dynamics of the power struggle. In conclusion, the contribution of literature to the contemporary ecological discourse is indicated. In spite of the fact that the novel is part of Western discourse in Africa and as such also part of the system of power relations in modern society, it does highlight the "green issue" and this novel will most probably lead to a greater awareness of ecological issues. / Thesis (M.A. (Afrikaans and Dutch))--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2001