Wie gehen die städtischen Armen mit Wohnraumverdrängung um? Welche Strategien entwickeln sie? Und welche Elemente bestimmen, welche Strategien die städtischen Armen einsetzen? Um diese Fragen zu beantworten, entpacke ich die Idee von ‚Strategien zur Bewältigung von Bedrohung durch Verdrängung‘, um zu soziologischen Konzeptualisierungen eben dieser Strategien zu gelangen. Dazu nutze ich einige der Konzepte in Bourdieus [1986] Kapitalbegriff sowie die Anwendung von Tillys [1999] Theorie der dauerhaften Ungleichheit als Rahmenkonzept. Empirisch identifiziere und analysiere ich die Anti-Verdrängungs-Strategien der städtischen Armen in den komplexen Wohnsituationen von São Paulo und Istanbul. Der Analyse zufolge wirken sich die ermittelten Strategien zur Vermeidung von Verdrängung oder zur Verbesserung der Wohnsituation langfristig auf die Betroffenen oder den Wohnungsmarkt nicht positiv aus. Im zweiten Schritt der Analyse argumentiere ich, dass die Mehrheit der Strategien mit den Ursachen und Verstärkungsmechanismen der dauerhaften Ungleichheiten übereinstimmt, welche Tilly identifiziert hat. Dadurch entsteht, wie ich in der Arbeit darlege, zwangsläufig der Prozess der andauernden Wohnungsungleichheit, der trotz der Bemühungen der städtischen Armen wenig Aussicht auf Veränderung zeigt. Das heißt nicht, dass die städtischen Armen keine Kämpfe gewonnen haben oder dass sich nicht individuell ihre Situationen verbessert haben, sondern, dass das größere Bild der Ungleichheiten in der Wohnungswirtschaft wenig erfolgsversprechend ist. Selbst wenn einige Menschen beispielsweise Vermögenswerte in Form von ökonomischem Kapital schaffen, scheinen die städtischen Armen dem zukünftigen Verdrängungsdruck nicht zu entkommen. Obwohl die Anti-Verdrängungs-Strategien somit den Verdrängungsdruck teilweise vorübergehend mildern können, untergraben die dauerhaften Ungleichheiten auf dem Wohnungsmarkt eine substanzielle und nachhaltige Veränderung im Interesse der städtischen Armen. / How do the urban poor cope with housing displacement? What kinds of strategies do the urban poor develop? And what elements shape which strategies they deploy? To answer these questions, I unpack the idea of strategies for “coping” with the threat or uncertainty of displacement to arrive at sociological conceptualizations of these strategies – ones anchored in Bourdieu’s [1986] concept of capital as well as the application of Tilly’s [1999] theory of durable inequalities to housing. Empirically, I identify and analyze the anti-displacement strategies of the urban poor within the complex housing contexts of São Paulo and Istanbul by breaking down the housing market into sub-housing markets (housing forms) as they are used by the urban poor in each local context. Combining existing analytic frameworks with my original data, I also speculate about the effects of the identified strategies for the urban poor in terms of durable housing inequalities. According to the analysis, the identified strategies to avoid displacement or improve housing are not positively impacting the urban poor or the housing environment in the long run. To account for this, in the second step of the analysis I argue that the majority of strategies align with the causes and reinforcement mechanisms of durable inequalities that Tilly identified. This is not to say no battles have been won or that no individual situations have improved, but to say that the larger picture of housing inequalities warrants little optimism. Even when some new housing forms create assets in form of economic capital (e.g., land titles), the urban poor don’t seem to escape future displacement pressures. Therefore, although the anti-displacement strategies may temporarily ease displacement pressure, the durable inequalities of the housing market undermine substantial and sustainable change in the interest of the urban poor.

Die universalistische Fixierung auf Wahrheit hat lange Zeit das Verständnis des In-Der-Welt-Seins dominiert und vorstrukturiert. Der Aufstieg des globalen Südens jedoch hat die Vorherrschaft allgemeingültiger Deutungsweisen herausgefordert. Diese Veränderung hat die Bedeutung verschiedener Interpretationsweisen des In-der-Welt-Seins deutlich gemacht. Ein einschneidender Wandel zeichnet sich ab. Die Chance für gegenhegemoniale Ansätze steigt. Diese Untersuchung betrachtet die Grenzen des Verstehens und deren Verschiebungen. Sie diskutiert die Schwierigkeiten, die mit einem Wandel des Denkens verbunden sind, das Ausmaß, in dem Denken vorstrukturiert ist, und die Unabweisbarkeit von Momenten des Wandels. In Übereinstimmung damit sieht die Studie einen Zusammenhang zwischen Verstehen und Emanzipation. Zum Schluss wird die Rolle der Universitäten als Hüter und Verbreiter des Denkens hinterfragt, insbesondere für die gegenwärtige Bewegung, sich für ein Verständnis des In-der-Welt-Seins von den Beschränkungen des hegemonialen Denkens zu befreien. / Universalist fixation on truth has long dominated and pre-structured the analyst’s understanding of being in the world. The emergence of the Global South has given rise to a challenge to the hegemony of one-size-fits-all approaches. The ontological shift has revealed the relevance of different ways of understanding being in the world. A threshold of change has become visible. The potentiality for counter-hegemonic approaches is increasing. This study looks at the limits of understanding, and how those limits can be, and are being, overcome. It discusses the difficulties associated with transformation in thinking, the degree to which thought is pre-structured, and the irrefutability of moments of change. It establishes a link between understanding and emancipation. Finally, it questions the role of the universities as guardians and purveyors of thinking in the present emancipatory movement of understanding being in the world beyond the boundaries set by hegemonic thinking.

abstract: Engagement as a concept and emerging theory has been explored, but key elements have not been clearly described, and as such, work has not been comprehensive in nature. Research was needed to explore the concept and theory of engagement in general, as well its application to the study of volunteer tourism. Additional research was also needed to incorporate youth perspectives of a volunteer tourism program, along with exploration of engagement impacts on program youth. The purpose of this case study was to explore participant engagement in a volunteer tourism youth education program and impacts on program youth as perceived by program participants (volunteer tourist teachers, adult residents, and program youth). Confined within the Engagement Theoretical Framework, data were retrieved from nonprofit documents and websites, researcher observations, individual interviews, and focus groups (two focus groups used participant generated photo elicitation method). Findings suggest participant engagement in a volunteer tourism program is related to the themes of connection, communication, and hope. The primary reason participant engagement in this program is due to the Mpingo (tree), the symbolic bridge between community members and volunteer tourist teachers. This culturally relevant symbol has linkages to the study of signs (or symbols) called semiotics. Through volunteers traveling to this area to teach, this culturally relevant symbol helps to connect, aids in the communication between, and gives hope to, participants. Significant contributions of this study to literature include: volunteer tourist and community member engagement plays an important role in the planning, and the sustaining, of volunteer tourism community development programs today; program youth perspectives about program impacts may result in prospective youth leadership and future adult civic engagement; program skill matched volunteers are likely to be repeat volunteers which leads to group cohesion and program sustainability; and the major theme of hope appears to be a significant motive for program participation in a community development project. In terms of deep meaning ascribed to culturally relevant symbols, this unique finding contributes to engagement research by understanding there are multiple dimensions involved in a diverse group of participants engaged in a specific community program. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Community Resources and Development 2018

I argue that a country’s preferences in an international trade negotiation ultimately reflect the domestic distribution of power across economic sectors not only in the field of the market, but also in the field of society. Fields correspond to arenas of power. Whereas in the market societal actors have economic capital (EC), their position in society determines their identity capital (IC). The more a sector is associated to the dominant conception of national identity, the higher is its IC. Both types of capital impact a sector’s political power (PP). IC manifests itself in the phase of ratification either instrumentally, when in dispute in the political field, or structurally, if embedded in state institutions. Hence, when IC is instrumentalised, only if the coalition in government espouses a social paradigm to which a sector is mostly associated it will be able to convert its level of IC into PP. As ratification shadows negotiation, constraints in this latter phase tend to be false positives in explaining the formation of the national interest. The hypothesis on the role of IC in shaping the weight of sectors’ preferences in trade negotiations is tested along with a process of theory-building through a multi-method structured-focused comparison. For the comparison, two countries were chosen as their societies are diverse in terms of identity, yet each represents a variety of the effects of IC. Brazil and India have identity-based social cleavages that are expressed in structural and instrumental terms respectively. They are key players in the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) multilateral system of trade, having participated of the Doha Development Round of trade liberalisation. Brazil expressed interest for liberalisation as the mostly racially-diverse sectors had offensive demands. In turn, protectionist demands prevailed in India, as defensive sectors are associated to the dominant secularist paradigm of national identity.

This design project takes the form of an illustrated story told from the perspective of a young adult middle-class Swede who feels uncertainty in the face of larger issues in the world. Where do all our stuff come from? Is he buying unethical products? Is he actively making a situation worse elsewhere through his choices? How would you even know, when the consequences of such actions might only become evident far, far away from Sweden? How do you relate to this? What should you do? As the protagonist wants for answers, he decides to try and find out what the situation is really like, and what could be done about it. But, as he would soon find out, the answer is not a simple one… In this work-in-progress story, a middle-class Swede must contend with the fact that he’s part of a subset of humanity that in large part benefits off of the thankless work that may be found in the so-called Global South. In his investigation, he seeks to find answers to important questions. What’s the nature of this economic relationship between the Global South and the Global North? Is it really enough to buy ‘more sustainable’ products to relieve the impact on environments and societies? What are the hidden perspectives and stories that those in the Global South experience every day? How can one try to be a good person and create positive change in the world when faced with overwhelming systemic issues on a global scale? Through the story, the nature of global wealth disparity is illuminated as the Swede tries to make sense of global power relationships in relation to labor and production, and so too offers a reader who may be having similar worries an opportunity to learn. As uncomfortable truths are revealed, a greater systemic issue becomes evident. As economic growth takes precedence over social and environmental wellbeing, who wins and who loses – and where? This is the written thesis section of the project, which seeks to elaborate on the different concepts included in the story, as well as surrounding it. Aspects such as the purpose of the project and target audience are gone over, emphasizing the need to communicate complex subjects to wider audiences while avoiding the act of oversimplification of the issues presented. The methodology of the work is presented, and aspects of the design process are documented. The project cumulates into a digital exhibition with other design students, where a work-in-progress version of the comic book is presented digitally for reading. The end of the thesis features a reflection of the result and the design process in order to identify where improvements could be made, as well as the answers the author of this thesis found in relation to the project questions. In summary, there seem to be an indication that working collectively as opposed to individually may be more effective towards creating positive change, in opposition to individual-focused solutions. Finding appropriate solutions to issues may not have to be found immediately, but may be found through a process affected by several different people in a collective that are able to contribute with their differing skills and knowledge to locate the most appropriate path forward. / <p>Here is an updated version, using the template of the front page that was suggested.</p>

Google Translate’s mission is “to enable everyone, everywhere, to understand the world and express themselves across languages” (Pitman, 2021). But are algorithms capable of leading us beyond the translation of the word toward an understanding of the world? Computational linguistics research has been interested in assessing this kind of real-world effects of technology and invited other disciplines to join their effort. With this purpose, this study examines the ways the algorithmic agency (Maly, 2022) elicits a ‘movement of meanings’ (Silverstone, 1999) when mediating news reports from English to Portuguese – the official language of Brazil, the country with the greatest use of Google Translate (Turovsky, 2016). For that, it investigates how algorithms convert appraisal and semiotic elements that carry ideological stances. The bilingual sample consists of six news articles on the U.S. Capitol attack published in U.S. outlets, two each of right, center, and left political leaning, along with their translations obtained through Google Translate. The analytical framework encompasses Fairclough’s (2003) CDA methods that allow an exploration of how discourses embedded in these texts represent the social phenomena that are being depicted. This lens is complemented by the Appraisal theory (Martin &amp; White, 2005) to investigate how value positions are constructed within texts through evaluation. A third analytical tool is necessary to engage with the ways in which meanings are moved from source to target texts. For this, van Leeuwen’s (2008) notion of recontextualization affords an assessment of the processes inherent to translations. The analysis showed that algorithms neutralized appraisal through lexical choices, changed semiotic elements through recontextualization, and blurred stances by standardizing the target language. The paper, thus, concludes that Google Translate constructed power by renaming reality and enacted it by reshaping evaluations, advancing research that seeks to examine algorithms’ impacts on digital discourse. Speaking from the epistemic locus of the Global South, this thesis proposes a critical reflection on the ideologies concealed by the self-proclaimed discourse of the universality of digital technologies.

Climate change is the worst long-term security issue humans has ever faced. The discourse around the problems and solutions connected to it are predominantly coming from the Global North. On the other hand, it is the Global South who are experiencing the impacts of a changing climate, in the form of floods, droughts, heatwaves, and lack of food, water, and energy. This asymmetrical relationship has rendered the Global South the vulnerable subjects in the current governmentality regime of climate change. Through a governmental lens, this paper analyses the similarities and differences in how climate change as a security and IR issue is problematized, and especially what solutions are seen as viable, across and between the North-South divide. This understudied relationship and its implications, is in this paper exposed and tackled. It shows that the Global North are slowly shifting the responsibility of coping with climate change away from the large GHG emitters, and on to the individuals in the Global South that are worst affected by the consequences of a changing climate. The recently updated NDCs within the Paris agreement supports this view and make up a key part of this paper.

This study examines political engagement among Syrian students at the University of Jordan who are either refugees, asylum seekers or children of Jordanian mothers. By adopting Ekman and Amnå’s conceptualization of political participation and analysing 15 semi-structured interviews, I find that the Syrian students are both engaged in manifest and latent forms of political participation. The engagement is mostly canalised through individual activities rather than collective activities. Most importantly, the engagement is less common in domestic issues than non-domestic issues. When the students are engaged in domestic issues, it is mostly in latent forms of political participation and in private activities not risking revealing their opinions to the general public. Interestingly, I find that the students are interested in Jordan public affairs but that this interest is not transformed into political action aiming to affect Jordanian political decisions. The pattern of political participation in several ways corresponds with the students’ perceptions of risks. The Syrian students associate political engagement in Jordan with perceived risks such as being deported back to Syria or facing racism. Respondents expressed that they were not politically engaged because of the risks that it could entail and engagement in activities connected to Jordan public affairs seems to be perceived as more of a risk compared to being engaged in non-domestic issues. This seems to be particularly true for activities carried out in public. My findings are important as they shed light on political engagement in authoritarian contexts in the Global South and among marginalised non-citizens.

Private military and security companies (PMSCs) are established actors in the global militaryindustry. The adaptation to utilize PMSCs as a complement to national militaries has increased their importance significantly. PMSCs have gained attention due to similarities with outlawed mercenary activity, causing legal implications and difficulties regulating them. However, the risks that PMSC recruits experience are not addressed sufficiently. Thus, this study aims to scrutinize and analyze how PMSCs recruitment relates to risk, which risks exist for the recruits, and how the recruits’ origin affects risks. By developing the idea of Risk-Transfer War with the Global South and Global North concept, the study gains insight into how Risk-Transfer can beextended to the private military industry. The study shows that economic, physical, and political risks are present for PMSC recruits, and the recruits from the Global South are the most affectedby them. The globalized private military industry enables countries that utilize PMSCs which recruit from the Global South, to get a cheaper, more flexible workforce with fewer politicalimplications. However, the Global South recruits are paid less than their Northern colleagues, they are getting little to no recognition for their sacrifices while risking their lives for the secompanies in hopes of a better livelihood. By understanding PMSCs and their recruitmentprocesses better, we can adjust issues in current regulations.

The climate crisis is an urgent threat towards people and planet, and rapid changes are needed to decarbonize the planet. The energy sector is in a current transition to renewable-based energy, which also includes a shift to electric cars. Electric cars are motivated to be the future, which will be beneficial for the economy and the environment. The industry has also received criticism, several human rights violations occur in the supply chains of the electric cars and that it is an industry that risk increasing global inequalities. This study explores the complexity of the car industry’s transition to renewable energy, based on case studies of Volvo, Mercedes, and Volkswagen, and their sustainability work related to the supply chains of electric vehicles batteries. The purpose is to show the relation between companies and power structures, as an exemplification of the possibilities for a just energy transition from fossil fuel-based energy to renewable-based energy. The findings shows that the transition is shaped by economical values, which risks broaden the gap between Global South and Global North. It emphasized that it is an issue that needs a collective effort to change the Status Quo, to create sustainable solutions based on the three pillars of sustainable development beneficial for all, not only the Global North.