In recent years geopolitical developments which involve powerful states clashing have demonstrated the fragility of small states and their positions within the international system. It is evident that changing hegemony has a greater impact on small states than the most powerful ones. This paper aims to research how one can understand - to a certain extent - the intractable situation between the People's Republic of China and Republic of China Taiwan through a Singaporean narrative. The objective is to further develop critical thinking on the issue by applying and testing neorealism as well as defensive realism as a theoretical approach. Realism is considered as the most sufficient theoretical framework to examine the research topic with. The critical assesment is based on empirical research and relevant circumstances as well as a historical dimensions. By analyzing the case of Singapore as a small state in southeast Asia with core elements within realism such as neorealism and defensive realism, it generates further understanding of the Singaporean standpoint in the China-Taiwan issue. The study found with regards to ethnical history as well as military and economic power that China possess, it is evident that further tension and possible escalation of the conflict would have a major impact on Singapore both economically and politically.

The stories about prison are infinite, and ultimately affect our understanding of incarceration. Punishment and prison are also political, and the shape of the penal system is fundamentally different in different countries. In Sweden, prison has been understood as part of the welfare state, and depicted as a rehabilitative measure, employed on the road towards a better society. It is essential to study how punishment is constructed in political and cultural discourse, because of how it affects the understanding and legitimacy of the penal system. Building on previous research on the relationship between punishment and the welfare state, as well as on prison in culture, this study investigates how The Swedish Prison and Probation Service (Kriminalvården) depict their operations in their podcast Without Passing Go and in their advertising campaign in the fall of 2023. Drawing on the concept of Nordic exceptionalism, and a cultural criminological understanding of how fact and fiction blur when it comes to crime and criminal justice, this thesis revolves around what stories of the Swedish carceral system are told in Kriminalvården’s own channels of communication. Ultimately, prison and the work Kriminalvården perform are often legitimized through calling upon welfare ideals, but the study also encountered deviations from this approach. Furthermore, Kriminalvården at times make use of the danger and thrill of prison, reproducing cultural understandings of incarceration, and the inmate is constructed as at times dangerous, and at times reformable. Lastly, the advertisement is discussed, and how it seems to indicate Kriminalvården’s crucial role in ensuring the continuation of our ‘normal’ lives, reproducing notions of normalcy and deviancy. Taken together, the thesis thereby discusses several different aspects of Kriminalvården’s legitimacy-making.

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In reading The story of Edgar Sawtelle, this essay applies posthuman studies with animal studies and disability studies to analyse how the communication between species occur and how boundaries are expanded. Non-verbal language is closely examined and argued to be just as viable as verbal language in the making of relationships and subjects in literature. By applying posthumanism, biological research and a non-anthropocentric way of thinking one can evolve from the notion that humans are the only subjects which matter, something that has been verified because non-human animals never have been given a voice or an acknowledgment of a language. What happens in a novel when the main protagonist is lacking the ability to speak verbally, when verbal language is what has constructed human exceptionalism over all the other species? / Denna uppsats tillämpar posthumanistiska studier med djurstudier och funktionshinder-studier för att analysera hur kommunikationen mellan arter äger rum och expanderar gränser i David Wroblewskis roman The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. Icke-verbalt språk undersöks och argumenteras vara lika betydande som verbalt språk vid skapandet av relationer och subjekt i litteratur. Genom att applicera posthumanism, biologisk forskning och ett icke-antropocentriskt sätt att tänka kan man avveckla tanken om att människan är det enda subjekt som räknas, detta är något som enbart verifierats eftersom icke-mänskliga djur aldrig fått någon agens eller bekräftande att de har rätten till en röst. Vad händer i en roman när protagonisten saknar förmågan till verbalt språk, när det verbala språket är central som verkning i mänsklig exceptionalism?

This study explores how beef consumption and production triggers feelings of risk related to the climate, environment, personal health and animal welfare among the study participants. These feelings are mainly analyzed through the lens of Ulrich Beck’s theories on the risk society. Theories on local, regional and national food as well as carnism are also used to analyze how the feelings of risk differ depending on how the beef is produced. By conducting qualitative interviews with a varied set of informants, this study provides a multiple perspective on beef consumption. Some of the results are that all of the informants have knowledge about different types of risks with beef consumption and production. However, some use this knowledge to change their consumption, while others do not. Furthermore, Swedish beef is believed to be the best when it comes to aspects as the impact on the climate and environment as well as animal ethics. The informants also show concern with the Swedish mass-production of beef, which some of them believe to be purely driven by economical interest rather than concern for animal welfare.

This project examines the foreign policy rhetoric of Bill Clinton in the post-Cold War world. My reading of Clinton’s rhetoric reveals that a change/order binary underwrote his oratory. Clinton defined change as being the underlying guidepost of the post-Cold War international setting. Order was defined through how he could guide, shape, direct, and manage American foreign policy in a sea of change, represented through his use of what I call America’s foreign policy vocabulary. This lexicon is based on three rhetorical components—the definitions of America’s role in the world, identification of the enemies we face, and the grand strategy we use to achieve American interest—have been a resource for presidential foreign policy discourse since America’s founding. Clinton’s use of this vocabulary maintained continuity in its use with his predecessors, but he also modified it in key ways to deal with the changes of the global environment. These modifications positioned Clinton to direct and manage the change to serve American interests which offered a semblance of order for American foreign policy in a sea of international disorder.

Orientador: Prof. Dr. Charles Morphy Dias dos Santos / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do ABC, Programa De Pós-Graduação em Ensino, História, Filosofia das Ciências e Matemática, 2017. / Este trabalho insere uma discussão histórico-filosófica sobre antropocentrismo e evolução biológica. A presente pesquisa tratou de sintetizar afirmações e reafirmações histórico-culturais do ser humano como sendo excepcional em relação ao mundo natural, e coloca-las à luz do evolucionismo, que, por sua vez, reposiciona o Homo sapiens como sendo apenas mais um animal no ramo de diversificação da árvore da vida, desconstruindo excepcionalismos humanos baseados na abstração de tradições intelectuais antropocêntricas. Em seguida o presente trabalho visou traçar um perfil dos estudantes e professores da UFABC acerca de percepções sobre a `evolução biológica¿ e a `seleção natural¿, visando não apenas diagnosticar o nível de conhecimento sobre tais em uma amostra universitária, bem como estudar se esse nível de conhecimento tem relação com posições antropocêntricas sobre o mundo natural. O teste foi criado via ferramenta de formulário da Google Inc e aplicado online através de disparos em listas de emails e rede social. O público de discentes e docentes do ensino superior da UFABC foi de graduação e pós-graduação alcançando todas as áreas disponibilizadas pelos cursos da universidade. O teste alcançou um total de 243 respondentes, dos quais são 166 estudantes e 77 professores. Os resultados mostraram que, na Universidade Federal do ABC, as reações do público-alvo demonstram um bom índice de compreensão científica sobre o evolucionismo. A análise das respostas dadas foi capaz de parcialmente responder a um dos objetivos centrais deste trabalho, o de discutir se há uma relação entre a compreensão indevida da teoria da evolução e concepções antropocêntricas sobre o mundo natural. Em linhas gerais, tal relação foi evidenciada. Ela fica mais clara a partir dos cruzamentos das respostas, onde foi capaz de identificar certas lacunas de formação e um baixo entendimento sobre conceitos centrais da teoria evolutiva. O desenvolvimento deste trabalho propõe ainda que o potencial reflexivo trazido pela compreensão da evolução biológica poderia ser mais evidenciado no ensino de ciência em seus diferentes níveis. / This work presents a historical-philosophical discussion about anthropocentrism and biological evolution. The research synthesized historical-cultural statements about human beings always seen as exceptional in relation to the natural world. It puts these assumptions in contrast to evolutionism, which, in turn, positions the Homo sapiens as simply another animal branch in the tree of life. The debate deconstructs human exceptionalisms based on abstract anthropocentric intellectual traditions. This work also aimed at tracing UFABC¿s students and teachers profiles about theirs perceptions on 'biological evolution' and 'natural selection' subjects, aiming not only to diagnose the level of knowledge on evolutionary theory within a university population-sample, but also to study if the level of knowledge on evolution in the sample is related to anthropocentric positions over the natural world. The test was created via Google Inc form and applied online after social networking and sending the form to email lists. The target was teachers and undergraduate / graduated students from UFABC, reaching all areas available through the university courses. There was a total of 243 respondents ¿ 166 students and 77 teachers. The results showed that at UFABC there is a good scientific understanding on evolutionism. The analysis of the entries given was able to partially respond one of the core goals of this work, which was to realize if there is a relationship between improper understanding of evolutionary theory and anthropocentric conceptions about the natural world. In general terms, such a relationship has been highlighted. It becomes clearer by crossing the answers, and allows us to identify certain educational gaps and low understanding on central concepts of evolutionary theory. The development of this work also proposes that the potential of existencial reflection brought by the understanding of biological evolution could be more evident in science education at its different levels.

abstract: The historiography of the Vietnam War's effect on American society and culture often focuses on the public image of its veterans. Historians and other scholars credit liberal and apolitical Vietnam veterans for reshaping Americans' opinions of those who served. These men deserve significant recognition for these changes; however, historians consistently overlook another aspect this topic. Conservative Republicans in the mid-1970s through the early 1990s made a concerted effort to alter how Americans viewed Vietnam veterans and their performance in the conflict. The few scholars who have examined this issue suggest conservatives wanted to quell Americans' distaste for military endeavors after the loss in Southeast Asia, a concept known as the Vietnam Syndrome. This dissertation argues conservatives' efforts were more complex than simply wanting to break down the syndrome. The war and its loss threatened their understandings of the exceptional nature of the United States. This notion of exceptionalism stemmed from the immense success of the country territorially, economically, and in the international system, accomplishments realized with the assistance of the American military. The performance of the military establishment and its soldiers in the Vietnam War and the negative international and domestic opinions of the country in the wake of this loss threatened those elements of American success that conservatives viewed as imperative to maintaining the idea of exceptionalism and the power of the United States. As a result, a disparate group of conservative Republicans in the post-Vietnam era attempted to alter American understandings of the nation's martial tradition and the concept of martial masculinity, both ravaged by the war. This dissertation adds another layer to the historiography of the effects of the Vietnam War by arguing that conservatives not only shored up Americans' belief in the martial tradition and reshaped the definition of martial masculinity, but that they also significantly influenced Americans' newfound positive opinions of Vietnam veterans. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation History 2014

Abstract This research project explores how notions of Canadian exceptionalism are being challenged and/or reproduced in responses of students of seven Canadian universities to a survey related to internationalization of higher education. The study analyses data from surveys (n=1451) completed by undergraduate students in different disciplines collected between 2013 and 2015. This data is part of a larger database of surveys that was developed within the Ethical Internationalization in Higher Education (EIHE) research project (2012–2016). This research adopts a mixed-methods approach to the analysis of quantitative and qualitative data. A post-representational approach to the methodology of social cartography is used to map two facets of the data. These facets are the general discursive field in which various exceptionalist tendencies are being contested and/or reproduced, and the multiple dimensions of articulations of exceptionalist tendencies. Canadian exceptionalism is in this research understood as a complex set of self-constitutive discursive practices, policies, self-perceptions and assumptions that simultaneously affirm and construct an imaginary of Canadian society and Canadian nationals as morally, ethically and culturally superior by exalting both the nationals’ and the nation-state’s inherent character as already good global citizens. Exceptionalism is used as an umbrella term that joins together several problematic aspects of unexamined ennobled narratives about the nation and national subjects. In this research the concept of exceptionalism is developed by drawing on multiple critiques of different aspects of liberal subjectivities. The findings suggest that exceptionalist tendencies and articulations can be observed in the responses of both international and Canadian students. They also suggest that while critical thinking and engagement with diversity are valued highly by almost all students, the responses in the survey exhibit a high level of ambivalence in terms of how (and to what extent) critical thinking is deployed, while diversity is often constructed in commodified ways that seem to indicate a desire for consumption of the Other’s difference for personal and/or national benefit. / Tiivistelmä Tässä tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan kanadalaista poikkeuksellisuutta koskevien käsitysten haastamista ja/tai toisintamista seitsemän kanadalaisen yliopiston opiskelijoiden vastauksissa kyselyyn, joka liittyi korkeakoulutuksen kansainvälistymiseen. Aineisto (n=1451) on kerätty eri alojen kandidaattivaiheen opiskelijoilta vuosina 2013–2015 ja se on osa laajempaa Ethical Internationalization in Higher Education (EIHE) -projektissa (2012–2016) syntynyttä kyselytietokantaa. Tutkimuksessa hyödynnetään monimenetelmällistä lähestymistapaa laadullisen ja määrällisen aineiston analyysiin. Aineistoa kartoitetaan kahdesta näkökulmasta jälkiedustuksellisen sosiaalisen kartografian avulla. Nämä näkökulmat ovat 1) yleinen diskursiivinen kenttä, jossa erilaisia poikkeuksellisuuden tendenssejä haastetaan ja/tai toisinnetaan ja 2) poikkeuksellisuuden tendenssien artikulaatiot ja niiden moninaiset ulottuvuudet. Kanadalainen poikkeuksellisuus ymmärretään tässä tutkimuksessa monimutkaiseksi rakennelmaksi itseään toteuttavia diskursiivisia käytäntöjä, toimintatapoja sekä ihmisten käsityksiä ja oletuksia itsestään, jotka samanaikaisesti vahvistavat ja rakentavat kuvitelmaa kanadalaisesta yhteiskunnasta ja Kanadan kansalaisista moraalisesti, eettisesti ja kulttuurisesti ylempiarvoisina ihmisinä ylistämällä kansalaisten ja kansallisvaltion luonnetta luonnostaan hyvinä maailmankansalaisina. Poikkeuksellisuutta käytetään ylemmän tason terminä, joka nostaa esiin useita ongelmallisia näkökulmia tutkimattomiin kansakuntaa ja kansalaisia koskeviin ylevyyden narratiiveihin. Poikkeuksellisuuden konseptia rakennetaan tässä tutkimuksessa viimeaikaisen liberaalin subjektiivisuuden eri näkökulmia koskevan kritiikin pohjalta. Tulokset viittaavat siihen, että poikkeuksellisuuden tendenssejä ja artikulaatioita esiintyy sekä ulkomaisten että kanadalaisten opiskelijoiden vastauksissa. Vaikka tulosten perusteella lähes kaikki opiskelijat arvostavat vastauksissaan kriittistä ajattelua ja moninaisuuden kohtaamista, vastauksista välittyy hyvin ristiriitainen näkemys siitä, miten (ja missä määrin) kriittistä ajattelua lopulta hyödynnetään. Tällöin diversiteetti jäsentyy usein kulutushyödykkeen tavoin osoittaen ilmeistä halua käyttää toisen erilaisuutta oman ja/tai kansallisen edun hyväksi.