Just and equitable responses to the disparate impacts of climate change on communities and individuals throughout the world are at the heart of the concept of climate justice. Commodification, in the context of my research, is the process of monetizing nature and livelihoods for the purpose of surplus accumulation and profit maximization. In this study, my aim was to contextualize the concepts of climate injustice, disaster capitalism, and the commodification of lives and livelihoods in the specific setting of disaster vulnerability in southwest coastal Bangladesh. By conducting a case study in Kamarkhola and Sutarkhali regions of southwest coastal Bangladesh, I utilized discourse analysis and content analysis of livelihood interviews, semi-structured interviews, and policy documents to demonstrate the conceptual interrelation among global climate change, climate injustice, disaster capitalism, and capitalist expansion in environmentally precarious areas. I argue that in Southwest Coastal Bangladesh, the vulnerability to disasters stems from a complex and multifaceted layer of social hierarchies and inequalities, entwined with factors such as class and power relations. I also argue that Inequalities in the political, economic, and social realms have a key role in imposing vulnerability on disadvantaged people living in ecologically vulnerable areas. The perpetuation of inequality is sustained by the expansion and accumulation of capital through the dispossession and exploitation of natural resources. The existing approaches to climate change adaptation in the southwest coastal region of Bangladesh are deeply entrenched in neoliberal capitalism. The introduction of neoliberal economic policies, such as the privatization of state lands and the promotion of export-oriented aquaculture, created favorable conditions for capitalist expansion in environmentally vulnerable places through "accumulation by dispossession."

In a prospective post-work society, a select group of citizens participate in a cross-temporal project. As we follow along their journeys, questions arise. How does time move when it is no longer a commodity? What is design in the age of rampant robotics? How do we define creativity? What is wasted potential, and is it possible to be a failure? Most importantly, can fiction teach us anything about reality?

Digital implants have become a new frontier for body hackers, technology enthusiasts and disruptive innovation developers, who seek to service this technology for themselves and to new users. This thesis has explored conditions for future user adoption of human body augmentation with digital implants. The conditions explored were mainly self-beneficial health optimization through technology, self-quantification or convenience scenarios. Applying Diffusion Of Innovation theory, Value-based Acceptance Model and research through design methods were used. The process consisted of quantitative and qualitative data gathering and analysis, using interviews, surveys and iterative prototyping with evaluation. The results show mixed user attitude towards implant usage, mainly depending on users' need for added benefits, whether the user is a technology enthusiast actively using technology for self-beneficial gain or a casual everyday consumer of technology. Certain conditions could affect adoption of implants into mainstream usage, mainly data privacy, regulation, convenience, self-quantification or health management. In order for implants to succeed as a mainstream technology, there needs to be proper secure infrastructure, easy installation and coordinated services that offer individual benefits of health or convenience, with a high consumer confidence in supported services, installation / removal and devices. Several companies are working on offering such a service, in order to evaluate such a proposition, iterative prototypes were created to evaluate a health management scenario as a streamlined consumer service, using a service design blueprint and a related interactive smartphone application prototype.

This thesis discusses the recent construction and anthropological collaboration of the Paris museum: Musée du quai Branly (MQB), an art museum dedicated to showcasing art collections specific to aboriginal and indigenous cultures in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania. The opening of MQB in June 2006 raised a plethora of controversial questions concerning the museum’s methods of curatorial display of the art it has made its primary focus. One of the major issues discussed examines the Quai Branly’s authentic, or inauthentic, representation of certain artworks displayed throughout the museum. Thus, the essay raises the questions: does a non-Western object remain authentic once it is exhibited in a Western society’s art museum? To answer this question, the essay explores the various explanations of art and authenticity in order to reach an understandable conclusion of what constitutes an authentic display of non-Western objects in a Western art museum.

Este trabalho tem por objetivo investigar as análises de Theodor Adorno sobre a mercantilização da cultura a partir da década de 1930, com o intuito de compreender como o conceito de indústria cultural foi sendo esboçado na obra do autor antes de ganhar sua formulação mais conhecida em Dialética do Esclarecimento, escrita em parceira com Max Horkheimer, publicada em 1944 em versão prelimitar e em 1947, na formatação definitiva. Intenciona-se demonstrar que indústria cultural decorre de um programa de pesquisa e reflexão anterior à Dialética do Esclarecimento, voltado para a compreensão da articulação de aspectos econômicos com o âmbito psicológico e cultural que são sintetizados de forma singular no conceito. As reflexões de Adorno, por sua vez, representam uma apropriação particular de influências marxistas, freudianas e weberianas, bem como leituras de Walter Benjamin e de Max Horkheimer. / This study aimed to investigate the analysis of Theodor Adorno on the commodification of culture starting from the 1930s, in order to understand how the concept of culture industry was being sketched in the author\'s work before obtaining its best known formulation as published in Dialectic of Enlightenment, written in partnership with Max Horkheimer, in 1944 in a preliminary version and in 1947, in its final formatting. Our intention is to demonstrate that culture industry originates from a program of research and reflection prior to Dialectic of Enlightenment, pursuing the understanding of the articulation between economics and psychological and cultural, that are synthesized in a unique way in the concept. Adorno\'s reflections, in turn, represents a particular appropriation of Marxist, Freudian and Weberian influences, as well as readings of Walter Benjamin and Max Horkheimer.

Este trabalho tem como foco principal analisar o fenômeno da terceirização de ensino de língua estrangeira bem como suas respectivas práticas educacionais no contexto da educação formal. Trata-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa-interpretativa de cunho etnográfico, realizada a partir de observações de aulas, entrevistas formais e informais com professores, alunos, coordenador e diretor em uma escola particular que pratica a terceirização do ensino de línguas com um instituto de idiomas. As concepções que embasaram as análises realizadas são as das teorias da pedagogia crítica (FREIRE, 1996; GIROUX, 1997) e dos letramentos e multiletramentos ( GEE, 1990; COPE e KALANTZIS, 1996; LANKSHEAR e KNOBEL, 2003). As análises assinalaram que, sob um contexto neoliberal de mercantilização da educação, a terceirização do ensino de línguas foi uma alternativa que visa garantir a qualidade e a produtividade numa visão linguística estruturalista do que seria um ensino eficaz. No entanto, sob uma perspectiva voltada aos objetivos educacionais e de formação do estudante, pertinentes a uma visão de língua como prática social e um lugar onde valores são construídos, essa prática mostrou-se incompatível, considerando as mudanças percebidas na sociedade atual. / This work focuses on analyzing the phenomenon of outsourcing foreign language teaching as well as their respective educational practices in the context of formal education. It is a qualitative and interpretative ethnographical-oriented research held from observations of lessons, formal and informal interviews with teachers, students, Coordinator and Principal in a private school that practices the outsourcing of language teaching with a language Institute. The conceptions leading the analyses carried out are the theories of critical pedagogy (FREIRE, 1996; GIROUX, 1997) and literacy and multiliteracy studies (GEE, 1990; COPE and KALANTZIS, 1996; LANKSHEAR and KNOBEL, 2003). The analysis has indicated that, under a neoliberal context of commodification of education, language teaching outsourcing has been an alternative which aims to ensure the quality and productivity in a structuralistic linguistic view of what should be an effective education. However, under educational objectives, relevant to a perspective of language as a social practice and a place where values are built, this practice has signaled to be incompatible, considering the changes observed in the nowadays society.

The 1970s were a period of renaissance for the crafts in Britain, often referred to as a craft revival. The creation of national organisations and infrastructures to support craft, and define its identity, played a crucial role in this. The received craft revival narrative focuses on the Crafts Council of England and Wales, with its emphasis on raising the status of craft and promoting it as fine art, largely through the efforts the Minister for the Arts, Lord David Eccles. The narrative in Scotland was very different, and is a story that until now remains untold. Scotland had its own national agencies with responsibility for the crafts. But instead of having a focus on the arts, they were tasked with addressing Scotland’s economic decline, and saw an opportunity to develop Scottish craft as both an industry and a product. The emphasis was not on promoting craft as fine art as in England and Wales, but rather on developing craft as commodity. Borrowing from Adamson’s thesis that as a form of cultural production, ‘craft is itself a modern invention’ (Adamson 2013 p. xiii), this thesis will analyse how Scottish development organisations in the 1970s attempted to promote and invent Scottish craft as an industry and product, and how those involved in the making of Scottish craft responded to this. In order to do this, it will examine the origins of the 1970s craft revival in Britain, the legacy of the invention of modern Scottish craft, and the two development agencies tasked with its invention in the 1970s: the Highlands and Islands Development Board, and the Scottish Development Agency. This thesis makes an original contribution by telling the Scottish side of the 1970s craft revival story. It also addresses wider issues that have received little critical attention in craft history, namely the relationship between craft and commodification, and the tension between modernity and tradition in the invention of modern craft.

Este trabalho tem por objetivo investigar as análises de Theodor Adorno sobre a mercantilização da cultura a partir da década de 1930, com o intuito de compreender como o conceito de indústria cultural foi sendo esboçado na obra do autor antes de ganhar sua formulação mais conhecida em Dialética do Esclarecimento, escrita em parceira com Max Horkheimer, publicada em 1944 em versão prelimitar e em 1947, na formatação definitiva. Intenciona-se demonstrar que indústria cultural decorre de um programa de pesquisa e reflexão anterior à Dialética do Esclarecimento, voltado para a compreensão da articulação de aspectos econômicos com o âmbito psicológico e cultural que são sintetizados de forma singular no conceito. As reflexões de Adorno, por sua vez, representam uma apropriação particular de influências marxistas, freudianas e weberianas, bem como leituras de Walter Benjamin e de Max Horkheimer. / This study aimed to investigate the analysis of Theodor Adorno on the commodification of culture starting from the 1930s, in order to understand how the concept of culture industry was being sketched in the author\'s work before obtaining its best known formulation as published in Dialectic of Enlightenment, written in partnership with Max Horkheimer, in 1944 in a preliminary version and in 1947, in its final formatting. Our intention is to demonstrate that culture industry originates from a program of research and reflection prior to Dialectic of Enlightenment, pursuing the understanding of the articulation between economics and psychological and cultural, that are synthesized in a unique way in the concept. Adorno\'s reflections, in turn, represents a particular appropriation of Marxist, Freudian and Weberian influences, as well as readings of Walter Benjamin and Max Horkheimer.

This dissertation aims to determine what should be the appropriate base ethical limits of health care markets in the United States. I argue that because we do not value health care goods and services as commodities, treating them as commodities available for market sale can only be ethical when health care markets accord with at least the principles of honesty, respect for autonomy, and increased access to essential health care goods and services. I begin by establishing the theoretical foundation of my argument by expositing three theories of commodification and ethical markets that critically examine the relationship of goods to the market. Each theory shows how commodification often fails to account for the non-market value(s) we attribute to many goods. I then apply these theories to health care goods and services to show how they are not properly valued merely as commodities, and to lay the foundation of my argument regarding the ethical limits of health care markets. I then argue why honesty, respect for autonomy, and increased access to essential health care goods and services should be considered the base ethical limits of health care markets by examining how each ideally applies to both health care and the market. Lastly, I apply my argument to two health care markets: the pharmaceutical industry and a possible legal organ market. For the former, I show how many of the practices of the pharmaceutical industry violate what I argue should be the base ethical limits of health care markets. For the latter, I show the extent to which a legal organ market in the United States could or would violate these limits.

The overall aim of this thesis is to show how some ideas in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics can be interpreted and used as a productive way to approach a number of pressing issues in bioethics. Articles I-II introduce, and endorse, a social constructivist perspective on rights (as opposed to the more traditional natural rights idea). It is investigated if the existence of property-like rights to biological material would include the moral right to commodification and even commercialisation. Articles III-V discuss similar questions and more specifically champion the application of an Aristotelian virtue ethics perspective. The articles are preceded by an introductory essay on some of the central themes in the Nicomachean Ethics. This section also includes a very brief account of what the connection between virtue ethics and a theory of social construction, including rights, could look like. The thesis seeks to show that if read somewhat creatively many of the ideas in the Nicomachean Ethics make for a highly useful approach to modern moral problems. It should be noted, however, that this thesis in no way claims to be an exegetic, or a complete, study of the Nicomachean Ethics. Article I deals with ownership of biological material from a philosophical, as opposed to a legal, perspective. It is argued that a strand in liberal political theory that treats property relations as socially constructed bundles of rights, as developed by e.g. Felix Cohen and Tony Honoré, is well suited for discussions on ownership of biological material. Article II investigates which differences in biological material might motivate differences in treatment and ownership rights. The article draws on the social constructivist theory of ownership which was developed in Article I. Article III employs virtue ethics to explain why it is morally permissible to donate but not to sell organs such as kidneys. It is suggested that the former action will bring the agent closer to a state of human flourishing. Article IV argues that virtues like philia, justice, beneficence and generosity — traditionally all seen as other-regarding — contain strong self-regarding aspects. The central claim is that these self-regarding aspects of the other-regarding virtues are necessary components of complete virtue and thus that the fully virtuous agent has to act virtuously both in her dealings with herself and others. Article V applies the ideas that were developed in Article IV to the case of living organ donations to next of kin. It is proposed that such an act, although noble and fine, is supererogatory, rather than obligatory, as the donor is morally entitled to be partial to herself. This argument is made against the backdrop of a discussion on some Aristotelian ideas on philia and partiality. / QC 20100709