Literature, particularly institutional approaches, emphasizes that parliamentary systems like Canada have avoided controversial morality policy issues including - and perhaps especially - abortion. This, however, fails to account for historical and contemporary developments in Canadian abortion policy and politics at the federal level. More specifically, it fails to adequately conceptualize how governments engage with abortion in practice, such as with the introduction of the omnibus bills in the 1960s and C-43 in 1989, as well as the increasing use of abortion as a political weapon in election campaigns and party politics. Using framing theory and the concepts of politicisation and depoliticisation, this dissertation fills this gap by unpacking how Canada’s federal governments have managed abortion policy and politics from 1966 to 2019, both in discourse and in concrete actions in parliament. More precisely, the federal government's evolving discourses (stories) and actions on the abortion issue were examined through sources that span the 1960s up to 2019, including parliamentary transcripts (Hansard), parliamentary committee transcripts (Evidence) and reports, cabinet documents, and interviews. This dissertation presents an original typology to facilitate a more dynamic understanding of (de)politicisation. It categorizes politicising and depoliticising movements according to how actors use the dimensions of time, space, and capacity to delay, defer and establish limits to their agency in depoliticising procedural action or discourse, or to emphasize an issue on the agenda, claim jurisdiction or responsibility, and establish authority and capability in politicising procedural action or discourse. This yields a more dynamic understanding of how governments have managed the abortion issue over time, demonstrating how governments and their representatives have used - often simultaneously - both politicising and depoliticising actions and discourses. This management, which may be intended to dampen controversy, can also result in uneasy and even contradictory discourses and actions that may generate new sources of conflict. Capturing this dynamism affirms that governments do not simply "avoid" or "engage" with abortion, but that their positions are unsteady and often contradictory, moving back-and-forth - often simultaneously - in their efforts to manage the issue. Using this typology, this dissertation maps out the evolving discourses and approaches through which the federal government approached abortion over time. It argues that, through the 1960s to 1980s, the government approached abortion as a policy problem that required a legislative solution. Beginning in the 1990s and becoming more prominent in the 2000 election and thereafter, the government began using abortion as a political weapon, which served to demarcate Liberal Party values against conservative parties, and vice versa. This dissertation contributes by expanding (de)politicisation theory through its typology, creating a means to analyse the complex and interactive relationship between (de)politicisation, as well as contributing a Canadian case study to the primarily British and Eurocentric depoliticisation literature. This dissertation also bridges the gap between morality policy literature and (de)politicisation, which may be fruitful for additional study into how political actors manage morality policy issues. Empirically, this dissertation offers a comprehensive history of Canada's federal policy and politics of abortion over the past half century, documenting the significant shifts in the discourses and approaches of federal governments on this contentious issue.

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This article critically analyses transhumanism, an ideological movement that advocates the radical biomodification of the human body in order to overcome our deficiencies and progress towards our next phase in evolution. Following previous criticism against the depoliticization within transhumanism, the article will aim to highlight the difficulty within transhumanism to balance the respect for diversity against the imperative for human enhancement. This paper then turns to the political theory of Hannah Arendt as the theoretical lens to highlight the source of this tension as the ideology’s reductive view of politics. The paper concludes on the difficulties reconciling diversity with human enhancement, as well as raising awareness of the possibility of conscious action in concert related to the use of biomodification technologies advocated by transhumanists.

The motivation for this research comes from the belief that an over reliance on a social constructivist perspective has caused development studies in general, and post-development in particular, to under-theorize the role of discourse in development. A key issue in post-development studies concerns whether or not development organizations depoliticize their interventions. The notion of depoliticization provides a perfect occasion for examining more deeply the role of discourse in development. This research uses the actor-network theory constructivist framework to analyze a USAID funded development program in Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan): Mercy Corps' Peaceful Communities Initiative (PCI). The research approach used in this study involved both traditional ethnographic methods and document analysis. The ethnographic case material comes from multiple field visits to PCI offices in Central Asia and multiple visits to a variety of PCI community sites. The documentary evidence comes from a variety of organization and project specific documents. The embedded case studies demonstrate that materiality cannot be easily separated from sociality and that indeed the two are inseparable. Thus development discourse cannot be solely understood as a social phenomenon but could instead be understood as an assemblage of material elements through which both power and sociality flow.

L’enjeu de la thèse est de repérer et caractériser la circulation, à travers l’utopie de la « ville intelligente », d’un discours favorable à une gestion des affaires publiques apparemment dépolitisée, mais aux multiples soubassements idéologiques : le « populisme technologique ». Cette recherche en sciences de l’information et de la communication explore les différentes significations attribuées à la « ville intelligente », envisagée comme une « formule dans le discours » (Krieg-Planque, 2009). Nous nous interrogerons sur le statut d’utopie pouvant être attribué à la « ville intelligente », à la croisée des utopies urbaines (Picon, 2000 ; Riot-Sarcey, 2002) d’une part, et des utopies technoscientifiques et communicationnelles d’autre part (Breton, 1997 ; Musso, 2003 ; Mattelart, 1999). A cette fin, nous nous appuierons sur l’analyse des discours ayant pour objet la « ville intelligente » en France, sur la période de 2010 à 2017, et plus particulièrement sur l’étude de trois cas de projets de « ville intelligente », dans les villes et métropoles de Nice, Lyon et Paris. / The aim of the thesis is to identify and characterize the circulation, through the utopia of the "smart city", of a discourse favorable to an apparently depoliticized management of public affairs, but with multiple ideological bases: "technological populism" ". This research in information and communication sciences explores the different meanings attributed to the "smart city", considered as a "formula in the discourse" (Krieg-Planque, 2009). We will examine the utopian status that can be attributed to the "intelligent city", at the crossroads of urban utopias (Picon, 2000 ; Riot-Sarcey, 2002) on the one hand, and techno-scientific and communication utopias on the other part (Breton, 1997 ; Musso, 2003 ; Mattelart, 1999). To this end, we will rely on the analysis of the discourses on the smart city in France, from 2010 to 2017, and more particularly on the study of three cases of "smart city" projects, in the cities and metropolises of Nice, Lyon and Paris.

This thesis aims to analyze Czech literary criticism of the 1990s from the perspective of political reading. In the first part, the basic tendencies of Polish literary criticism are introduced: these form a contrast to the Czech context and also problematize some underlying notions of Czech literary historiography. The second part discusses the following terms: politics and police Rancière), depoliticization (Schmitt, Barthes) and ideology (Eagleton). These are adjusted to the specifics of the Czech context. The practical part of the thesis looks at the political interpretation of the critical reception of three novels by Michal Viewegh. The topics of the reception becomes the focus here: the debates around these novels include suppressed political messages such as the fight for the historical narrative of the previous political regime, or the disputes over high and low literature. These reflect the helplessness of the literary field, caused by the pressure of the commercialized book market. This part also looks at the contemporary debates on the so-called authentic literature and two program manifestoes. These examples show that the Czech literary field's proclaimed split from politics is only rhetorical: the result is not its autonomy, but an unreflected heteronomy.

La majorité des travaux en économie sur la Palestine semblent déterminés par le projet, explicite ou non, de surmonter l'omniprésence du conflit entre Palestiniens et Israéliens. Ceci coïncide avec la pensée économique standard qui place le marché au centre de ses attentions, et entend s’affranchir de l’existence de « faits de pouvoir » dans les rapports sociaux. En présentant le politique comme un obstacle au bon fonctionnement de l'économie, le souhait est ainsi exprimé de voir celle-ci s'imposer comme une alternative à celui-là. Ces travaux-là sont dominants ; ils participent à la formulation des politiques et orientent le versement de l'aide financière internationale. J'envisage pour ma part la paupérisation de la société palestinienne comme une conséquence de la politique coloniale de dépossession dont les conséquences sont la dépendance économique mais aussi la perte d'autonomie politique des Palestiniens. Ainsi dès l’époque du mandat britannique, la colonisation de la Palestine par le mouvement sioniste se fait au détriment de la présence arabe palestinienne. En Israël après 1948, puis dans les territoires nouvellement occupés de Cisjordanie et de Gaza à partir de 1967, ce processus de dépossession va de pair avec une intégration économique qui perdure à ce jour. Pendant ce temps, le processus de paix entamé en 1993 participe à l'ébauche d'une région pacifiée et intégrée dans la globalisation néolibérale sous hégémonie américaine. Dès lors le transfert de fonds institué par l'aide financière internationale, l'exhortation faite par la Communauté internationale aux Palestiniens de participer aux objectifs de croissance économique et de développement, ainsi que l'intégration de l'économie palestinienne dans l'économie israélienne et dans la globalisation, sont un moyen éminemment politique d'évacuer en apparence les rapports de domination et d'inviter la société palestinienne à s'en accommoder. En ce sens, l’économie, de même que la politique, doit ici être considérée comme « la guerre continuée par d’autres moyens ». / Most economic studies that have been done on Palestine are committed, whether explicitly or not, to overcome the ubiquity of the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. Indeed, this is in line with standard economic thinking which places the market at the center of its interests, and overlooks “facts of power” in social relations. Yet, at the same time, they manage to show that politics is an obstacle to the flow of the economy, and therefore, express their wish that the latter becomes an alternative to the former. These works are dominant; they contribute to policy-making and guide the spending of international financial aid to Palestinians.By contrast, I consider the pauperization of Palestinian society a result of the colonial policy of dispossession. The consequences of this policy are manifest in the economic dependency of Palestinians, hence the loss of political autonomy. Indeed, since the British Mandate of Palestine, Zionist colonization of the country came at the expense of the Palestinian Arab presence. In Israel, after 1948, and in the newly occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, after 67, this process of dispossession went hand in hand with an economic integration that has continued until this day.In parallel, the peace process that had begun in Oslo in 1993 contributed to the modeling of a subjugated area integrated into neoliberal globalization under US hegemony. Thus, the transfer of funds established by international financial aid, the exhortation made by the international community to the Palestinians to participate in the economic growth and development, as well as the integration of the Palestinian economy in the Israeli economy and in globalization, should be considered highly political strategies to eliminate ostensibly relations of power, and therefore, invite Palestinians to accept their subjugation. In that sense, economics as well as politics, appear to be “war by other means”.

I devote major attention to the Act no. 234/2014 Coll., of the Civil Service, which was accepted despite the veto of the President on 1st October 2014. I briefly characterize the law and in the practical part I analyze and interpret the process of making of this law through a theoretical concept "Multiple Streams Approach". Within the theory I focus on the context of agenda setting to the issue and simultaneously I take into account the role of Policy Entrepreneurs in the legislative process of the Civil Service Act. After reading the reader will have an overview of the process of making the Civil Service Act. The reader will be also familiar with the shortcomings of this Act, for which it was criticized. The theoretical part is used for introducing to the issue. In the theoretical part I outline the historical development of the civil service in Czech Republic and I also briefly characterize the Civil Service Act. Subsequently the reader gets the knowledge about the content of "Multiple Streams Approach" in this part. The practical part of diploma work is enriched by attitudes and opinions of two political actors, who directly attended of discussing the law in Chamber of Deputies. It will be possible to compare the data received from expert survey with the results of the analysis process of making law.

In post-conflict settings real and imagined boundaries do a great deal to determine who is inside and who is outside of state-based narratives of peace and prosperity. Based on case studies in Rwanda and Northern Ireland, I provide an analysis of the post-conflict periods and the impact of neoliberal-styled governance on the dynamics of power. I argue that as power shifted, ‘peace’ also entailed a general social pacification, and prosperity equated to greater private profit. However, top-down social engineering has not contained the entire field of social struggle. I examine micro-level interventions taking place on the margins of mainstream discourse that trouble the moralizing state-narratives that seek to legitimate structural violence. Such spaces facilitate alternative values and practices that contribute to sustained social and cultural resilience, as well as forms of resistance. Post-conflict Rwanda and Northern Ireland have been impacted by both coercive and consensual forms of social engineering. In Rwanda, state-based framework laws and forceful regimes of local implementation rely on stark contingencies of reward and punishment to shape and control behaviour in the public sphere. In Northern Ireland, the power-sharing structure of the Belfast Agreement has reinforced ethnic politics, while depoliticizing and instrumentalizing civil society in support of its neoliberal policies. I present ethnographic research and interviews conducted with community organizations in Northern Ireland (Ikon) and Rwanda (Student Association of Genocide Survivors - AERG) that demonstrates how alternative discourses and practices are emerging in the cracks of these top-down systems. I explore Ikon’s use of creative performances and radical theology to create socially resonant cultural spaces that function as temporary autonomous zones. These TAZs unsettle aspects of individual identity while intentionally seeking to destabilize mainstream power dynamics. Unlike Ikon, AERG faces greater public scrutiny and higher political stakes. They demonstrate an adherence to the dominant social script in the public sphere, while exhibiting micro- level agency through trauma healing, and material support in private day-to-day practices. AERG’s performance in the public sphere creates temporary spaces of encounter that exceed the boundaries of official discourse, making their alternative presence felt while remaining illegible to the dominant surveillance frameworks. / Thesis (Ph.D, Cultural Studies) -- Queen's University, 2014-06-02 11:02:09.033

La réforme de la fonction publique de 1908 constitue un moment décisif dans le développement de l’appareil étatique canadien. En effet, elle rejette un système jusque-là fondé sur le favoritisme, pour introduire les principes du mérite, de l’indépendance et de la neutralité des fonctionnaires, principes qui régissent encore aujourd'hui la fonction publique canadienne. Ces changements se produisent à la suite d’une longue réflexion sur la nature de la fonction publique, amorcée au cours de la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle, qui trouve largement écho dans le monde anglo-américain, mais qui s’est souvent butée à l'intérêt des politiciens pour le statu quo. Même si les grandes idées de réforme de la fonction publique sont connues, voire acceptées par certains dès les années 1870, ce n’est qu’à la suite du dépôt du rapport de la commission royale d’enquête de 1907-1908 que les politiciens y acquiescent en pratique et entreprennent des changements majeurs, en 1908. Le mémoire s’intéresse plus précisément à cette commission royale d’enquête de 1907-1908 et à la réforme législative qui s'ensuit, en 1908, épisode méconnu de l'histoire politique canadienne et assez peu documenté. L’étude cherche tout d’abord à déterminer le contexte politique et idéologique présidant à la création de cette commission d’enquête, puis en examine les travaux en profondeur afin de démontrer comment ses constats et recommandations ont poussé le gouvernement canadien à réformer la fonction publique et les principes directeurs qui en guident l'action. Cela fait, nous analyserons les différents éléments de la réforme elle-même, dans le but de voir comment elle rompt avec les conceptions qu'on entretient jusque-là et comment elle s’inscrit dans un nouveau cadre idéologique, produit d’une vision libérale de l’État. / The 1908 reform of the civil service marked a turning point in the development of the Canadian State, as it rejected a system based until then on patronage and introduced the principles of merit, independence and neutrality of civil servants, principles that remain grounding forces of today’s civil service. These changes occurred after a long reflection over the nature of the civil service. Such reflection, which resonates with the Anglo-American world, took place over the course of the latter half of the 19th century, though it was often obstructed by a politically favoured status quo. Although ideas for reforming the civil service were put forward by some as early as in the 1870s, it is only with the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry 1907-1908 that politicians were finally willing to undertake a comprehensive reform, in 1908. Our thesis focuses on this Royal Commission of Inquiry and on the legislative reform that followed, in 1908, events that have drawn little attention from political historians and are rather underdocumented. Our first aim is to explain the political and ideological context surrounding the creation of this commission. We then analyze how it came to its observations and recommendations, which in turn led the Canadian government to reform the civil service as well as its guiding principles. We then scrutinize the various elements of the reform itself, with a view to showing how it broke free from the beliefs of the time and embraced a new ideological framework, the product of a liberal vision of the State.