The conceptualist view of property is based on the conceptual system or hierarchy of rights conceived by Grotius and developed by the pandectists. It rests on the assumptions that ownership is neutral and timeless. As such it has a number of abstract, timeless and universal characteristics, namely absoluteness, uniformity and exclusivity. Combined with liberalism, this concept of property becomes the guarantee of liberty and equality. The first part of this study shows that not only are the assumptions historically unfounded, but this conceptualist view of property made liberty and equality for women, in particular, impossible. The liberal, conceptualist property concept is a modernist construct that cannot guarantee either liberty or equality. The question then becomes whether constitutionalism can do what conceptualism cannot- can die constitutional protection of property guarantee liberty and equality. The second part of this study suggests that the answer to this is an "it depends" kind of answer. It depends on the structure of a constitution, underlying philosophical, political and, above all, hermeneutics theories employed by courts. In the South African context courts need to reject the private-law conceptualist view of ownership in favour of a constitutional property concept. This last-mentioned concept should be based on the values and normative context of the 1996 constitution. As such it involves value choices and making a political stand. Courts need to abandon conceptualist frameworks and decide on the proportionality of limitations on property. The conclusion to this study suggests that a feminist understanding of human beings as socially constructed and constrained, so that democracy alone cannot provide an answer to the counter-majaritarian dilemma, is necessary far an understanding of property. The creative tension provided by the feminist conflict between a political agenda and a respect far contexts may provide a framework far adjudicating an property issues. / Private Law / LL.D.

A dissertação aqui presente procura cartografar a produção artística da brasileira Regina Vater, desde seu período de formação durante os anos 60 no Rio de Janeiro, até meados da década de 90, quando já fixara residência nos EUA. Vater é contemporânea de um período fértil da produção plástica nacional, tendo participado tanto dos pressupostos figurativos dos anos 60, até os conceitualismos dos 70, culminando assim nas décadas seguintes em um ecologismo artístico votivo que se perpetua até os dias atuais. Nesse percurso, deu-se ênfase nas relações entre sua produção artística e o movimento feminista brasileiro, procurando com isso estabelecer vínculos teóricos e críticos com as principais questões feministas em voga e as práticas artísticas conceitualistas e de vanguarda. / The dissertation presented here seeks to chart the artistic production of the Brazilian artist Regina Vater, since her formation during the period of 60`s in Rio de Janeiro until the mid-90´s, when she already set residence in the U.S.. Vater is contemporary of a fertile plastic production in the country, taking part in both figurative assumptions of 60´s, until the conceptualism of 70´s, thus leading to the following decades in an artistic votive environmentalism that is perpetuated to this day. In this course, was placed emphasis on the relationship between artistic production and Brazilian feminist movement, seeking to establish theorists and critics links with the principal feminist issues and practices in vogue and the artistic avant-garde and conceptual.

En 1977, Philippe Thomas (1951-1995) débute un travail qui se situe entre l’art et la littérature et qui conservera cette double dimension d’une œuvre procédant tant du voir que du lire. Il l’élabore en lui donnant une dimension narrative dont l’intermédialité, le réseau de ramifications intertextuelles et l’accumulation de travaux qui relèvent du dispositif construisent un récit à la forme discontinue. Participant d’une écriture des événements et s’appuyant sur une mise en parallèle de la présentation artistique et de l’énonciation, le projet de Thomas est celui d’une fiction du faire qui cherche à éprouver la frontière entre les mondes réel et fictionnel. Notre étude souhaite répondre aux objectifs d’une première monographie d’artiste et s’attache à décrire l’ensemble de l’œuvre de Thomas afin d’en reconstruire le parcours à l’aide d’un certain nombre de notions clés. Elle prend sa source dans la bibliothèque de cet artiste qui définit l’art comme un processus de recherche, comme une expérimentation du langage. C’est l’œuvre en train de se faire que nous observons, en nous intéressant à sa genèse et à ses conditions de réalisation. Et ce, afin de définir la posture d’auteur qui se dessine dans la spécificité d’une pratique artistique demandant la prise en compte tant de l’œuvre que de ses marges. Si le projet de Thomas met en place la disparition de l’auteur par le biais d’un protocole de signature de ses ready-mades, notre thèse rappelle qu’il s’agit d’une absence toute paradoxale : l’artiste caché par ses personnages demeure omniprésent et par là, participe de la redéfinition de l’auteur malgré la déclaration de sa mort une décennie plus tôt. / In 1977, Philippe Thomas (1951-1995) begins a practice situated between art and literature, and his works will conserve this dual dimension by proceeding both from the act of seeing and from the act of reading. Through intermediality, a network of intertextual offshoots, and an apparatus formed by the accumulation of works, he constructs a discontinuous narrative. Participating in event-based writing and relying on parallels between artistic presentation and enunciation, Thomas’ project is a fiction of making that seeks to test the frontier between real and fictional worlds. This study seeks to fulfill the need of a first monograph on the artist, and it describes the entirety of Thomas’ oeuvre so as to reconstruct his artistic career with the aid of a certain number of key notions. My first source is the library of this artist, who defines art as a research process like an experimentation of language. I observe the oeuvre as it is being constructed, by focusing on its genesis and on the conditions of its production. I do this in order to define an authorial posture shaped by the specificity of an artistic practice which requires consideration of both the works it produces and its margins. If Thomas’ project carries out the death of the author through a protocol of signatures of his readymades, my dissertation emphasizes that this is a paradoxical absence: the artist hidden by his personas remains omnipotent, participating in the redefinition of the author in spite of the declaration of his death a decade earlier.

[pt] Figura-chave da chamada arte conceitual, o artista norte-americano Dan Graham iniciou sua trajetória artística em meados da década de 1960 muito por acaso. Convidado por amigos, tornou-se sócio da John Daniels, galeria em Nova York bastante ativa, mas de vida breve. Falido, viu-se obrigado a retornar à casa de seus pais em Nova Jersey. Durante a viagem de trem, pôde observar a nova cidade. Dessa experiência surgiu Homes for America, notório ensaio fotográfico sobre as habitações em massa dos subúrbios norte-americanos, que integra um primeiro conjunto de trabalhos do artista destinados a revistas. Algum tempo depois, Graham ingressou na Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, dando início a um período em que seu interesse se volta para o vídeo, a performance e a instalação, interrompido por Public Space/Two Audiences, trabalho realizado para a Bienal de Veneza de 1976 que impõe ao artista uma autocrítica. A despeito de seu êxito, Graham reconhece que a instalação se aproximara em demasia do conceito de cubo branco. Como saída para o impasse, adotou a ideia de plano da cidade, passando a propor projetos de intervenção urbana até iniciar, no começo dos anos 80, seus pavilhões. Levando em conta a obra de Graham, ampla e diversa em seus meios, a tese é monografia que tem por objetivo realizar um estudo analítico sobre a prática do artista, definida, a meu ver, nos termos de um modelo crítico-conceitualista. / [en] Key figure of the so-called conceptual art, the North American artist Dan Graham began his artistic career in the mid-1960s quite by chance. Invited by friends, he became a partner of the John Daniels, a gallery in New York very active, but short-lived. Bankrupt, he was forced to return to his parents home in New Jersey. During the train ride, Graham can saw the new city. From this experience came Homes for America, notorious photographic essay on mass tract housing of North American suburbs, which is part of a first set of works for magazines. A while later, Graham joined the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, starting a period in which your interest turns to video, performance and installation, interrupted by Public Space/Two Audiences, work done for the Venice Biennale in 1976 that impose the artist self-criticism. Despite its success, Graham recognizes that the installation was near of the concept of the white cube. As out of the impasse, he adopts the idea of city plan, going to propose urban interventions projects, starting in the early 80s their pavilions. Considering Graham s work, broad and diverse in its mediums, the thesis is a monograph that aims to carry out an analytical study of the practice of the artist, defined, in our view, in terms of a critical-conceptualist model.

This study investigates the extent to which subversive practices of conceptual art can be identified in contemporary works. It attempts to understand if, despite the widespread understanding of conceptual art as a mainstream in today's art scene, there may still be examples of contemporary practice that are as deviant and challenging to the notion of art today as those that came at the forefront of the conceptual art movement.       The standard historical definition of 'conceptual art' generally refers to the artistic movement taking place between 1966 and 1972. The aim of this study, however, is to give an account of its development both prior to and beyond that narrow temporal window, seeking to identify both the roots and the legacy of the philosophical aspects of conceptual practice.       The study traces these roots to the actions of Duchamp, who shifted the focus from aesthetics to a more cognitive valuation of art, by designating an everyday object as an artwork; an action that paved the way for the notion that, rather than being skilled craftsmen, artists are the authors of meaning, and artworks are the creation and transmission of ideas.       This ‘Duchampian’ approach which pushes and explores the boundaries of art within the framework of the artwork themselves has also influenced the selection of works for analysis. Like most other contemporary artworks, Michael Mandiberg's After Sherrie Levine and Banksy’s The Walled off Hotel, are considered conceptual in the sense that they work to transmit ideas to the viewer, but yet, like Duchamp’s ready-mades a hundred years earlier, they sit beyond commonly accepted understandings of the formal boundaries of the artwork, thus risking not being perceived as artworks at all. For that reason, these works potentially constitute radical practices that could be understood as questioning the limits of art making today.       From a theoretical point of view the study engages in hermeneutics and constructivism in order to construct an analysis of these two artworks relating their websites as well as artists’ intentions to the philosophical notions of conceptual art. The results show that the After Sherrie Levine is a critique of Levine's aura as well as of the art institutions. It also proposes that artistic appropriation as an art form can have an instrumental value in exploring the limits of art making. It further shows that it is possible to create art that is neither exclusive nor mysterious. The analysis of The Walled off Hotel shows that while operating as a local company with an ambition to lead the creative resistance movement in the West Bank through art, the hotel also constitutes a political satire with real effects in the area. The thesis proposes that this work is deviant and ‘organic’ in the way it renegotiates both the role of the artist and the very notion of 'art' itself.        Thus both After Sherrie Levine and The Walled off Hotel can be regarded as rather ‘Duchampian’ practices today.

The study of the phenomenon of religion is a field that has many challenges regarding what its object of study is and how to observe and interpret the different religious phenomenon in a way that reflects both its origin and how its practiced. The study is carried out through a philosophical approach. In this essay Lua Nazerian intends to address the four different theoretical perspectives: Critical Religion Theory, Cognitive Sciences of Religion, Positive Psychology and Platonic Idealism. The two former ones are well established theoretical frameworks in the study of religion, while the two latter ones are lend from the field of psychology and philosophy to test whether they could be used as analytical tools in the study of religion. Moreover the perspectives different view on the human nature in particular are further examined through the lens of the subcategories: Materialism, Conceptualism and Realism. Furthermore, by adding the two subcategories of 1) a virtuous life 2) transcendence, the essay examines whether the perspectives touches on these topics which seems to be central concepts in the majority of religious doctrine. Finally, some possible conclusions of the perspectives inherent premises impacting the understanding of religion are carefully examined and presented. Suggested further studies to be done cross-disciplines, such as religious studies, positive psychology and philosophy. Also by a combination of descriptive and prescriptive approach within religious studies.

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This historical work focuses on the theory of photography. It is divided into three autonomous episodes chronologically correspond to three historical stages. These parts are connected with one genealogies of one possible reading of the photography. The first part deals with the historical circumstances and causes of the birth of photography. The second phase describes the later period of history of the Weimar Republic and photographic movement of Neue Sachlichkeit. The last part concentrates on Düsseldorf School of Photography and its current followers. These historical eras combines the aesthetic issues of cult and conceptual values, which is demonstrated on the way how read the photographic medium as a specific aesthetic phenomenon.

Die Dissertation vergleicht die Konzeptkunst in New York und den Moskauer Konzeptualismus am Beispiel zwei ihrer zentralen Vertreter: Joseph Kosuth und Ilya Kabakov. Beide haben unter dem Titel "The Corridor of Two Banalities" 1994 gemeinsam eine Installation realisiert. In Kosuth und Kabakov fanden die Zeitgenossen und Nachfolger sowohl ihr Vorbild als auch Gegenbild. In komparatistischer Perspektive werden Probleme diskutiert (z. B. das der (Selbst-)Referentialität), die die Diskussion über konzeptuelle Kunst begleiten, und konzeptuelle Kunst als Scharnier zwischen Moderne und Postmoderne erscheinen lassen. Konzeptkünstler betrachten kunsttheoretische und -historische Überlegungen in demselben Maße als selbstverständlichen Teil ihrer künstlerischen Arbeit, wie Kunst als universelle Kategorie für sie ihre Selbstverständlichkeit verloren hat. Sie setzen sich mit deren Rahmenbedingungen auseinander, die diktieren, was zu einer bestimmten Zeit und an einem bestimmten Ort als Kunst wahrgenommen wird. Die Dissertation konzentriert sich daher auf die Frage, wie Kosuth und Kabakov die (Konzept-)Kunst diesseits und jenseits des Eisernen Vorhangs selbst konzeptualisieren. Unter Einbeziehung der Rezeptionsgeschichte wird untersucht, welche Vorstellung von Autor- und Leserschaft Kosuth und Kabakov entwerfen, vom welchem Werkbegriff sie ausgehen und auf welche sprachphilosophischen Modelle sie sich dabei beziehen. / The thesis compares the Conceptual Art in New York with the Moscow Conceptualism while using the example of two of their greatest representatives: Joseph Kosuth and Ilya Kabakov. Together, they have created an installation entitled "The Corridor of Two Banalities" (1994). For their contemporaries and successors, Kosuth and Kabakov served as models or just the opposite. In a comparatistical perspective the thesis discusses problems (e.g. the (self-)referentiality) which go along with the debate about conceptual art and which let the conceptual art appear as a link between modernism and postmodernism. For conceptual artists, theoretical and historical considerations of art form an evident part of their artistic work to the same degree as art as a universal category has lost its self-evidence for them. They examine its frame conditions which dictate what is being considered as art at a specific time and in a specific place. Hence the thesis focusses on the question about the ways Kosuth and Kabakov conceptualise the (Conceptual) Art on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Taking into account the reception history it examines which concept of author- and readership Kosuth and Kabakov formulate, which definition of artwork they have assumed and which models of philosophy of language they refer to.

An appropriate regional cooperation environment makes a vital contribution to the social and economic development of every country in the region. This research thesis focuses specifically on the growing lack of appropriate regional cooperation models in developing countries, and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is used as a case study. The research highlights some key issues on the development of the appropriate regional cooperation models. The research information is obtained on the research areas through questionnaire surveys to respondents from South Africa, Tanzania, and Mauritius on the current regional cooperation model and the perceived ideal one. The conclusions drawn are that the regional cooperation models envisaged to be in use in the SADC differ significantly from the theory, which results in inappropriate focus on the requirements of the majority of the states. This is primarily due to the use of inappropriate regional cooperation models. The indications are that traditional market-type integration models, which are used as a “default model” without major adjustments, are inappropriate within the developing countries context, owing to the existence of a fundamental incongruence between the assumptions and requirements of such models and the needs and realities prevailing in Southern Africa. Southern Africa does not satisfy the foremost prerequisites of successful market integration. Despite the considerable advantages the models might have gained in other developed regions, they often fail to meet the requirements of the developing countries. In measuring the satisfaction regarding the current regional cooperation adhering to the requirements of the majority of states, it becomes obvious that the SADC population is generally not satisfied with the results regarding the current regional cooperation. In order to meet the requirements of the majority of states, SADC regional cooperation needs to focus on the appropriate regional cooperation. This requires an understanding and management of three classes of factors, which are environmental factors, capacity factors, and regional organisational factors. The three classes of factors together affect the participation rate of the states. / Business Leadership / DBL (Business Leadership)