This thesis studies the junior secondary EPA curriculum and the complex cultural process of teaching and learning of the curriculum. It draws on theoretical frameworks developed in the field of cultural studies and critical pedagogy, particularly works by Michel Foucault, Stuart Hall, Lawrence Grossberg and Paulo Freire. It investigates how the EPA curricular texts attempt to produce the identity characteristic of "rational, sensitive and active citizens" in contemporary Hong Kong through constructing differences that negate the Other. Through analyzing classroom discursive practices, the thesis examines how the curricular knowledge "interpellates" teachers into subject position to talk about the "rational, sensitive and active citizens". The curriculum is a vast textual world where different and even competing ideological imperatives and discourses coexist and circulate. This thesis argues that teachers' discourses about the EPA curriculum and their classroom discursive practices have contributed to the creation of tensions and contradictions within the curriculum discourse. Such tensions and contradictions, coming from teachers' beliefs and the cultural resources they possess, may delimit the regulatory effect of the curriculum discourse. As a result, the regulatory power of the curriculum discourse on "suturing" subject positions that form identities of "citizens" is subject to negotiation, and critical pedagogies have a role to play to open up dialogues among the subject positions made available in the curriculum.

Historically, social scientists have not only marginalized rap music as a viable unit of scholarly analysis, but failed at attempts to understand the thoughts and actions of rap music consumers. This study analyzes the connection between rap music’s (and the artists’) authenticity and how those perceptions of authenticity affect music consumers’ decision making process, thus providing a possible explanation as to why music fans purchase rap music. The goal of this research was to see if the reasons rap music fans provide explaining the rationale behind their purchases match the images and perceptions presumably held by the general public about rap music. A snowball sample was used to survey a total of 30 rap music “experts.” The findings from this study indicate the concept of authenticity is very important in validating not only rap music, but rap artist, rap music fans, and hip hop culture as a whole. The findings from this study provide empirical evidence supporting the importance of authenticity as a construct and the use of rap music as a unit of scholarly research analysis. By justifying the importance of authenticity to rap music and hip hop culture, this research proposes that authenticity may well be used as a means to maintain existing relationships with a fan-base and as a marketing tool used by record companies to attract new fans and generate album sales.

This study examined the positive perceived impacts of cellular phones in the Nigerian society.The purpose of the study was to analyze the impacts of this technology in Nigerian society These impacts analyses were on the perceived changes in safety and well-being amongst users, satisfactions amongst users, and perceived connectivity amongst users of this technology. The researcher used employed facilitators to distribute survey in several cities in Nigeria. One Hundred and twenty-four people participated in survey questionnaires using five scale points. Results were summarized using descriptive statistics at 95% confidence interval level. From the results, the hypothese were retained that underserved customers outnumbered overserved customers in the Nigerians cellular phone usage, cellular phone usage has had some impact on the perceived safety and wellbeing of its users. In addition, the hypothesis also showed cellular phone usage has increased the perceived connectivity between the user and family.

This thesis explores the minority anti-hero on television as it relates to concepts of race and behavioral justification. Previous studies have addressed the ways in which whiteness functions advantageously for popular criminal anti-heroes on television, yet little is known regarding the effects of race for similar characters of color. I hypothesized that accessibility of the criminal stereotype does not allow men of color to inhabit the same immoral status as white characters without penalty. I subsequently analyzed the first season from the Starz series Power and conducted a textual analysis using theories of race and hegemonic masculinity to compare the behavioral justification of Ghost and Tommy, the minority and white anti-heroes featured in the show. Results show that Power develops a dichotomous relationship between the minority and white anti-hero based in work priorities, attitude towards violence, and public image. This relationship ultimately serves to distance Ghost from stereotype and deflect the characteristics onto Tommy, whose whiteness allows him to absorb criminality with less cultural consequence. While this strategy broadens the palatability of the show, I find that it is ultimately harmful for minority representation on television. Implications of media representation and directions for future research are discussed.

Foodways, which in short refers to eating and drinking practices, are constitutive of personal and group identity. In this thesis, I explore the symbolic values of food and drink in group identification processes evolving across North America. Through the cases of poutine, mezcal, and hard cider, I investigate cultural identity formation, negotiation, and transformation; from everyday practices to global interactions. What I develop in this thesis is a rationale that can be actively used by members of a group, as well as by community development practitioners, governments, and industry stakeholders to bolster community capitals and agency through making, supporting or rejecting food and drink ownership claims. In the first article, titled Poutine Dynamics, I explore both the culinary and social status of poutine. First, I identify poutine as a new(er) and distinct way to consume food that is increasingly adopted and adapted, and I propose a working definition of poutine as a new dish classification label in its own. Then, by coupling poutine’s sociohistorical stigma and its growing Canadization (that is, the presentation, not the consumption per say, of poutine as a Canadian dish), I expose two related situations: the ongoing culinary appropriation of poutine and the threat of Quebecois cultural absorption by Canadians. In Poutine Dynamics, I problematize the notion of a “national cuisine” in the context of multinational and settler states. Although the focus is about cuisine, Poutine Dynamics provides elements of analysis regarding how the Canadian nationalist project is constructed and articulated today, in current celebrations of the 150th anniversary of Confederation in Canada. The second article of this thesis, titled Strategic Authenticity: The Case of Mezcal, draws upon the recent major update to the mezcal denomination of origin certification (DO) that was long-awaited and requested by “traditional mezcaleros.” This tour de force in the modification of the mezcal DO leads me to identify the notion of authenticity in food as a powerful rhetorical strategy in social negotiation between groups. Through the case of mezcal, I assert that the tasting experience is the most legitimate group identification path and authentication boundary (as opposed to political, ethnical or religious boundaries) in terms of foodways. The third article, titled The Identity Crisis of Hard Cider, looks at the ongoing cultural affirmation of hard cider from its European counterparts. So far, the research on hard cider in Vermont has looked at the low-level of cider-specific apple production in that state as a supply issue. Instead, I approach this problematic from a demand angle, specifically from the low demand for hard ciders made with cider-specific apples. In this study, I survey the Vermont hard cider industry stakeholders as to possible mechanisms in order to differentiate between hard cider styles, as well as strategies to boost the demand for hard ciders made with cider-specific apples. The implementation of a geographical indication (GI) label was of high interests among participating cider makers. In this study, I also suggest that the hard cider foodways found in Vermont are part of a broader emerging hard cider identity that is taste-based and which crosses political borders within the American Northeast.

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This research explores how Vietnam’s embrace of capitalism and global markets has impacted consumer culture. Through ethnographic research conducted in Hanoi, Vietnam in June-August 2015, this study seeks to interrogate how the political atmosphere in Vietnam coexists with market freedoms in a country which opened its economy to the world during the 1986 Doi Moi (renovation) reforms. Vietnam now conducts a considerable amount of foreign trade with major foreign investment from countries including Japan, South Korea, and Singapore. This study emphasizes the role international relations have played in these developments as Vietnam has embraced partnerships with countries with which it was previously at war. This approach includes a self-reflexive critique of my role in the research process as a young, white American. This research engages conceptually with critical cultural studies and theories of articulation to challenge the assumed evolution of communism to capitalism within modernization theory as well as the global, homogenous spread of neoliberalism by examining how these articulations manifest in everyday life. To this end, this study seeks to explore how changing patterns of consumption brought on by open market economics are articulated with global political relationships. The analysis argues that neoliberalism is applied selectively to maintain single-party politics and an oppressive state formation, and that foreign advertising in Vietnam serves as an index of narratives of progress and economic growth. This research has significant implications for consumerism within developing countries, studies of neoliberalism, and postsocialist state formations.

Seven series of artworks; painted, drawn and performed. These works are presented as affective incorporation exercises, that test modes of aesthetic communication in response to varying political contingencies. The constitutive processes used to develop the work also function as a methodology for my own political radicalization. As an artist I am wagering how to talk, as an activist I am preparing to act. The artworks discussed occur at the crossroads of these desires as enactions of futurity within the subjunctive mood.