This thesis is based on seven weeks of fieldwork in Central Region and Western Region in Ghana and discusses how UNESCO listed forts and castles in the area shall be preserved and used today. Through in-depth interviews with important stakeholders and through observations at forts and castles the intention is to unveil what conflicts are present and also how heritage is being negotiated among these actors. A key issue is whether the sites shall be regarded as commodities or as public memorials. Working with the theoretical concepts of space, place and heritage and how these can be understood in the chosen context the thesis seeks to explain how different actors are able to transform the way these edifices are being used. The thesis’ contribution and what makes it relevant is especially how it illuminates that heritage is constantly being re-produced as a response to input from stakeholders. It also stresses the challenges in how to deal with heritage property in the contemporary planning context.

abstract: At present, the ideological bias in the human enhancement debate holds that opponents to human enhancement are primarily techno-conservatives who, lacking any reasonable, systematic account of why we ought to be so opposed, simply resort to a sort of fear-mongering and anti-meliorism. This dissertation means to counteract said bias by offering just such an account. Offered herein is a heuristic explanation of how, given a thorough understanding of enhancement both as a technology and as an attitude, we can predict a likely future of rampant commodification and dehumanization of man, and a veritable assault on human flourishing. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Philosophy 2012

In this essay, I bring together the Swedish debate concerning tax subsidized household services – the so called RUT-deduction – with feminist care ethics, here represented mainly by philosopher Virginia Held. The first and main question asked, is how a care ethical argument against increased trade in housework can be formulated. The idea of the relational character of care as well as care representing an irreplaceable value, leads to the following argument: An increased trade in housework leads to less care and weakened care relations and this implies a loss both to individuals and to society. The second question posed, concerns the reach of the argument above: both with respect to what kind of housework that can reasonably be seen as part of the practice of care as well as within what type of relationships the idea of care practice applies. In this part I conclude that there is no ground for drawing a sharp line between housework which is, and housework which is not, part of care practice. The arguments presented are relevant for the discussion about what kind of gender equal society we should strive for. If justice is seen as a value superior to care, full time paid work for women as well as for men can be seen as a reasonable route towards gender equality. If the value of care and of care relations is placed alongside justice, other solutions than commodification of housework may be seen as needed.

A naturalização do caráter mercantil da saúde no Brasil possui estreita vinculação com sua história. Antes do Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS), a saúde não era um direito de todos, muito menos uma responsabilidade do Estado e estava restrita a uma parcela da população trabalhadora que pagava para garantir esse benefício. Desde o século passado já se priorizava a saúde privada em detrimento de uma oferta de serviços públicos que abrangesse todas as camadas sociais. Tal fato traduz o processo de reificação e mercantilização da saúde. Esse estudo teve como objetivo analisar os determinantes sócio-históricos mais gerais ligados à questão da saúde como mercadoria e seus reflexos sobre o SUS. A pesquisa foi desenvolvida com 27 participantes, nove secretários de saúde, nove usuários conselheiros municipais de saúde e nove usuários do SUS, distribuídos em nove municípios da Macrorregião Triângulo Sul do estado de Minas Gerais. Para coleta dos dados foram realizadas entrevistas individuais seguindo procedimentos de evocação, enunciação e averiguação. As gravações das entrevistas filmadas ou áudio-gravadas foram transcritas integralmente. A análise das entrevistas foi processada via identificação de conteúdos ex post facto para definição de categorias e unidades temáticas, relacionadas ao processo de reificação da saúde. Tais resultados foram analisados sob a perspectiva do materialismo histórico e dialético. Três categorias temáticas, uma para cada segmento dos entrevistados, agruparam alguns determinantes ligados ao objetivo do trabalho: A) Racionalidades do Sistema Único de Saúde (secretários de saúde), em que foram reunidos conteúdos referentes aos elementos de enfrentamento para a provisão do direito à saúde, apontando racionalidades e intencionalidades que orientam a atuação dos sujeitos no fazer saúde. B) Racionalidades do Controle Social (conselheiros de saúde), relacionada à identificação de processos psicossociais implicados na constituição da identidade com a política pública de saúde e com a memória da luta de classes. C) Relatos de vidas marcadas pela reificação (usuários do SUS), em que os conteúdos referem os conflitos sociais que causam dor, sofrimento e humilhação cotidiana para dezenas de milhões de brasileiros. A análise dos depoimentos nos permitiu identificar que o processo de reificação da saúde pode ser considerado determinante, tanto para a desestruturação do Sistema Único de Saúde, como para a perda da subjetividade e cidadania dos indivíduos. As atividades reificadas em saúde podem ser enfrentadas a partir da formulação de estratégias de organização com a comunidade, cuja síntese realizada com os usuários, permite identificar critérios de enfrentamento com base no cotidiano, dentro do processo saúde/doença / The naturalization of the mercantile character of health in Brazil has close ties with its history. Before the Unified Health System (SUS), health was not a right for everyone, let alone a state responsibility and was restricted to a portion of the working population that paid to ensure that benefit. Since the last century the private health is prioritized at the expense of a public service offering covering all social strata. This fact reflects the process of reification and commodification of health. This study aimed to analyze the broader socio-historical factors linked to the issue of health as a commodity and its impact on the SUS. The research was conducted with 27 participants, nine health secretaries, nine municipal health counselors users and nine SUS users, distributed in nine municipalities of the Macroregion South Triangle of Minas Gerais. For data collection were carried out individual interviews following evocation procedures, enunciation and verification. Recordings of filmed or audio-recorded interviews were transcribed in full. Data analysis was processed by the ex post facto content identification for the definition of categories and topics related to the process of reification of health. These results were analyzed from the perspective of historical and dialectical materialism. Three themes, one for each segment of respondents, grouped some determinants linked to the objective of the study: A) rationalities of the Unified Health System (health secretaries), in which contents have been gathered regarding the coping elements for the provision of the right to health, pointing rationality and intentions that guide the actions of individuals in making health. B) rationalities of social control (health counselors), related to identification of psychosocial processes involved in the formation of identity with the public health policy and with the memory of the class struggle. C) Reports of lives marked by reification (SUS users), in which the contents related social conflicts that cause pain, suffering and daily humiliation to tens of millions of Brazilians. The analysis of testimonies allowed us to identify that the health reification process can be considered decisive for both the disruption of the SUS, as for the loss of subjectivity and citizenship of individuals. The reified in health activities can be addressed from the formulation of organizational strategies with the community, whose synthesis performed with users, identifies coping criteria based on the daily life within the health/disease process.

This thesis intends to demonstrate why commercial surrogacy is not morally justifiable. In order to display the implication of the aim, a normative argumentative method is applied. In the analysis, arguments, and possible counter-arguments of ethical issues of exploitation, commodification, individual freedom and estranged labor in context to surrogacy arrangements is outlined. To strengthen the content of the arguments presented the concept of exploitation, commodification together with the harm principle and the Marxian framework of estranged labor will act as the theoretical framework of the thesis. In the analysis, it is shown that global economic inequalities, and social structures of class and gender make the practice of surrogacy exploitative per se and that the surrogate becomes objectified as she as a person and her body is treated as a commodity. Based on these factors, it is concluded that surrogacy cannot be morally justified.

Orientador: José Alves / Resumo: O caráter destrutivo do capital resultou movimentações para a intensificação do debate ambiental na agenda internacional. Posteriormente a concretização de políticas, teoricamente, voltadas para conservação da natureza, guiadas pelo conceito de Desenvolvimento Sustentável, criou as condições necessárias para manutenção do modo de produção hegemônico, partindo da harmônia entre crescimento econômico e conservação ambiental. No Acre, é a partir de 1999 que concretiza-se o desenvolvimento sustentável enquando elemento político principal de gestão governamental da Frente Popular. Entre os vários projetos apoiados pelo Governo na época, estava a implementação de Programas de Redução de Emissões por Desflorestamento e Degradação (REDD), baseado na venda de carbono para países centrais como meio de garantir o processo de acumulação e expansão do modelo e legitimação da Economia Verde. No Seringal Itatinga, em Manoel Urbano, passa a ser território de implementação dessas políticas, oficialmente, no ano de 2010, com o Projeto Purus de Conservação de Florestas Tropicais. Todavia, os relatos de membros da comunidade afirmam que distante do que inicialmente se propõe, prioriza-se os interesses dos grandes financiadores e latifundiários envolvidos no projeto, formando um cenário de violações territorias, humanas e simbólicas ao impor um modelo de uso da terra que não condiz com o conhecimento tradicional e histórico da comunidade. Portanto, reproduz um modelo de desenvolvimento que utiliz... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The destructive nature of capital resulted in moves to intensify the invironmental debate on the international agenda. Subsequently, the realization of policies, theoretically, aimed at nature conservation, guided by the concept of sustainable development, created the necessary condition for maintaining the hegemonic production mode, starting from the harmony between economic growth and environmental conservation. In Acre, it is from 1999 the sustainable development takes shape as the main political element of government management of the Popular Front. Among the various projects supported by the government at the time, was the implementation of Programs to Reduce Emissions from Desforestation and Degradation (REDD), based on the sale of carbon to central countries as a menas of guaranteeing the process of acumulation and expansion of the model and legitimization of the Green Economy. At Seringal Itatinga, in Manoel Urbano, it officially becomes the territory for the implementation of these policies in 2010, with the Purus Tropical Forest Conservation Project. However, the reports of community members state that far from what was initially proposed, the interests of the large financiers and landowners involved in the project are prioritized, forming a scenario of territorial, human and symbolic violations by imposing a land use model that it does not match the traditional and historical knowledge of the community. Therefore, it reproduces a development model tha uses a sustai... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Resumen: La naturaleza destructiva del capital resultó en movimientos para intensificar el debate ambiental en la agenda internacional. Posteriormente, la realización de políticas, teóricamente, orientadas a la conservación de la naturaleza, guiadas por el concepto de Desarrollo Sostenible, creó las condiciones necesarias para mantener el modo de producción hegemónico, a partir de la armonía entre el crecimiento económico y la conservación del medio ambiente. En Acre, es a partir de 1999 que el desarrollo sostenible toma forma como el principal elemento político de la gestión gubernamental del Frente Popular. Entre los diversos proyectos apoyados por el Gobierno en ese momento, se encontraba la implementación de Programas para Reducir las Emisiones de la Deforestación y Degradación (REDD), basados en la venta de carbono a los países centrales como un medio para garantizar el proceso de acumulación y expansión del modelo y legitimación de la economía verde. En Seringal Itatinga, en Manoel Urbano, se convirtió oficialmente en el territorio para la implementación de estas políticas en 2010, con el Proyecto de Conservación del Bosque Tropical Purus. Sin embargo, los informes de los miembros de la comunidad indican que, lejos de lo que se propuso inicialmente, se priorizan los intereses de los grandes financistas y terratenientes involucrados en el proyecto, formando un escenario de violaciones territoriales, humanas y simbólicas al imponer un modelo de uso de la tierra que no coincide con... (Resumen completo clicar acceso eletrônico abajo) / Mestre

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Linguistic Landscape (LL) is a rapidly growing area of investigation that concerns itself with the attention to language, cultural objects and images displayed in public spaces. Prompted by caveats of the earlier traditional studies which included counting the visibility of languages, the fixity of signs, coupled with methodological issues that lacked data triangulation, new approaches emerged. In this present study, framed as A Social Semiotic Analysis of Mini-Bus Taxis as Mobilescapes in Cape Town, specific inquiry about the emergence of language use through an analysis of the evolution of messages that are inscribed on taxis that transport people within Cape Town and between Cape Town and other cities around South Africa is made to disentangle these caveats. / 2023

This essay concerns with ways in which is childhood in the relatively small and isolated village commodificated. The research focuses on the way how do local women during pregnancy and in the period after the birth make a layette for their infants. It explores which objects or attitudes are for these women during making the layette important and how these things later enter the interaction of local inhabitans. It shows, that objects socially work mainly on three degrees: during negotiating of own social status, dignity and during the manifestation of love, in the sense of care and concern. Objects are not only the way how to confirm or improve one's social position, but it is also a public manifestation of love. The essay later explores ways, how these factors work in a social life of the village and also the role, which objects play in this proces.

The Value of Jumps: commodification and sportization of parkour Abstract: The subject of this thesis is a young urban lifestyle discipline called parkour. In the past couple of years parkour gained a lot of popularity in Czech Republic. Connected with that is also the exploration of the ways to get parkour into the state of commodity. At the same time parkour as a sport is finding its place in public discourse. An ethnographic research that is the basis for this thesis is following the flowline of two processes - commodification and sportization. Based on data created using participant observation and semi-structured interviews I describe how these processes are manifested, how they are connected and how they are interpreted by the actors on the Czech parkour scene. I argue that both sportization and commodification influence how traceurs and traceuses make sense of their discipline. Both processes seem to play an important role in the construction of authenticity in parkour. At the end I describe certain trends and changes in parkour that can be considered results of commodification and sportization of this discipline. Key words: parkour, commodity, commodification, sportization, lifestyle sport

The Women's Revolution in 2015 has led to a drastic shift in the ways women are portrayed in professional wrestling. The Women's Revolution came as a result of the social unrest over the lack of time women were receiving on the televised shows. Where women's storylines had centered on their sexuality, they are now presented as equal to their male counterparts after the Women's Revolution. Through an exploration of concepts in globalization, commodification, and socially produced spaces, this research seeks to understand and contextualize the Women's Revolution, the degree to which the portrayed women's equality has been achieved, and the resulting impacts of the female superstars overall. I argue that that this "equality" has been achieved through inscribing the traditionally masculine qualities of wrestling to women, has resulted in an unequal distribution of opportunities to particular female superstars rather than equality for all women on the shows, and that phallocentric objectification of the female superstars still occurs in certain aspects of professional wrestling.