<p>  </p> <p>This dissertation is a series of articles that put Hannah Arendt’s political thought in conversation with current social and political phenomena, namely the refugee crisis, political action under the circumstances of oppression, and the neoliberal turn in feminism.</p> <p>My first chapter joins the contemporary Arendt scholarship that parallels her account of the refugee condition and the current global refugee situation. I first analyze the image of human rights and plurality in <em>The Origins of Totalitarianism</em> and discuss the cosmopolitan response to the issues raised by Arendt. I then argue that <em>The Human Condition </em>offers an opening for a new understanding of Arendtian action that is not tied to traditional citizenship and will thus be more accommodating of refugees.</p> <p>My second chapter explores the possibility of Arendtian political action under oppression. I offer an analysis of Arendt’s separation of society versus politics and point out the limitation that this distinction places on what forms of action count as properly political. I then argue that in order to overcome this restriction, Arendt needs to recognize that 1) for marginalized groups, navigating both the social and political obstacles involves sacrifices that constitute political action, and 2) our discriminated against identity can become an instrument of political action.</p> <p>My third chapter offers an Arendtian analysis of neoliberal feminism. I begin by identifying three main ways neoliberal feminism strips the feminist movement of its collective, egalitarian, and emancipatory character. I then introduce Arendt’s account of modern capitalist labor, exclusive and inclusive solidarity, and individual self-transformation in the face of systemic obstacles. I use these Arendtian concepts to point out flaws in neoliberal feminism and offer an alternative that promotes the liberatory goals of the feminist movement. </p>

In the Spring of 2018 the Swedish Government announced an intended new law on legal sex change, based on self-identification. The Government’s policy proposal did however, not make it to the parliament as a formal proposition, most likely due to critique from the Council of Legislation. In this thesis, the Swedish government’s problematization of gender identity is scrutinized. The empirical material consists of the Swedish Government Official Report Ändring av det kön som framgår av folkbokföringen Ds 2018:17. A poststructural approach to policy analysis is applied with a focus on how subjects and gender identities are made possible through subject positions identified in the report. By applying a poststructural perspective, this thesis highlights some of the paradoxes of identity-based rights and reflect on how governing takes place through the making of stable and responsible subjects.

This dissertation concerns the socio-cultural politics expressed in the performances of Matthew Barney, Steven Cohen, Marina Abramovic, and the ‘Pop’ artist Madonna. The contention is that these artists mirror and dramatize marginalization and seem to reflect a desire to resolve conflicts experienced between social and psychological identities in contemporary society. The premise of this study is that these performers engage in a ‘dialogue’ with viewers as a form of self-preservation and self-healing. The Performance artists’ measure of socio-cultural tensions suggests the merging of mass media entertainment, theatrical devices and other cultural practices such as fetishism and rituals involving altered states of consciousness, props and allusions to shamanism. An ancient modality of healing, such as shamanism, when appropriated by artists, seems to reflect an urgent phenomenological need of the individual within Western society for overcoming feelings of powerlessness as a type of therapeutic practice. The Performance artists’ Othering is acted out as a survival mechanism addressing and questioning the ‘degradation’ imposed on marginalized individuals who challenge the traditional notion of authentic identity and the ‘classic’ body. / Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology / M.A. (Visual Arts)

After the invasion of Iraq and the destruction of Saddam regime in 2003, the US administration undertook the complete remaking of Iraq as a national-state. The initial steps of the US administration were the quasi eradication of the old Iraqi State. Then, this nation-building endeavor has been based on a federal constitution promoting an Ethno- sectarian power sharing and the attempt to transform what was once a centralized economy into a comprehensive market driven society. However, the post-2003 period had been marked by the rising of identity politics, the constant delegitimisation of the new political order and successive episode of massive violence. Obviously, the question of violence and its apex in 2006-2007, is central to understand the post-2003 period in Iraq. For the first time in Iraqi history, waves of ethno-sectarian violence seriously challenged the possibility of a common life for all the diverse components of the Iraqi society. The Iraqi nation seemed to have been consumed in an existential conflict between components and communal identifications once relatively integrated. Therefore, there is a need to render an analytical account of the aggressive rise of identity politics, the outbreak of violence and finally the episodes of civil war in 2005-2007 in Iraq. This study aims to answer these questions by tracking the different political and social processes that have been at play during the American occupation of Iraq and that lead to the events of 2005-2007. In order to do so, I will consider the dynamical relations that link political institutions, violence and self-identifications in regard to the Iraqi society and Iraq as a National State. This research is built as a case study based mostly on qualitative analysis and the collection of empirical data, interviews, and fieldwork observations as well as primary and secondary sources. I set out to identify actors and processes and determine a complex chain of reactions (a trajectory) that led to the current state of affairs in Iraq. This trajectory could be summarized in few sentences: The destruction of the old Iraqi State and the brutal implementation of Neo-liberal rationality and re- regulations policies by the US occupation ended into a dystopian economy and the creation of an "absent state" (Davis, 2011). Since its very first day, this US lead nation-building endeavor has been flawed by a complete lack of legitimacy and its substitution with coercion by the US and the New Iraqi "State" security apparatus. Meanwhile, the imposition and the institutionalization of Ethno-sectarian affiliations as a principle of political legitimacy contributed to transform the different communities of Iraq into main avenues for access and control of scarce economic and political resources. In a way, US occupation and new Iraqi elites were deflecting the political question of right following a movement similar to what Mamdani and Brown describe as a "Culturalisation of Politics" (2004, 2006). The result was a failure to establish a legitimate and functional political and economic order. This led to the rise of a System of Violence, organized around networks of violence. Within the System of Violence, Culturalisation of Politics would be translated into Culturalisation of Violence. This would contribute to the sectarianisation of space in Baghdad and other localities of Iraq, as well as "manufacturing" (Gregory, 2008) and essentialising sectarian representations and identifications within the society.

The aim of this thesis is to show how Europe is constructed at the intersection between archaeology, money and politics within EU cultural actions. Ever since the 1970s, the European Community has invested money and prestige in the idea of a common cultural heritage for Europe. Alongside symbolic attributes such as the flag and anthem, archaeological sites have been used as rhetorical fuel to create a sense of European belonging, much like in national identity building. As a result, archaeologists and heritage professionals have benefitted from EU funding for restoration of sites, training schools and cooperation projects since 1976. In order to address this mutual engagement, the research in this thesis explores the ways that EU grant systems in culture have fostered specific approaches to Europeanness, and how supported projects have responded to notions about a common heritage. By considering EU officials, expert reviewers, consultants and archaeologists as co-creators of the frameworks they participate in, this study raises the idea of financial ties as a place of interaction. The study takes an ethnographic approach and uses discourse analysis and tools from Actor-Network Theory. The material consists of observations made during an internship at the European Commission, 41 interviews with different actors, as well as policy documents, budgets and collected information about 160 supported projects with archaeological themes. This research demonstrates how the expectations linked to archaeology have turned it into both a problem and a promise in the search for a 'usable past' for the EU. On the one hand, archaeology has functioned as an anchor, mooring the notion of a common heritage to something solid. On the other, because of its strong commitment to nationhood, what archaeology claims for its own has often undermined the very idea of a shared European inheritance. Projects benefitting from EU support have taken advantage of the expectations placed upon archaeology to help create a European identity, using buzzwords and 'application poetry' in their proposals. Many projects continuously used EU goals and symbols in their outputs. Sometimes a European past and present was connected by rhetorically tying archaeological periods (such as the Middle Ages and Roman Era) and phenomena (rock art or landscapes) to the EU political project. This link was more manifest in public settings than in academic ones. Taken together, the considerations brought up in this study show that funding matters. The EU strategy of vagueness, in which instructions and evaluation criteria foremost decide the frames but not the content of the projects, has inspired applicants to 'think Europe without thinking.' Once an application is written and submitted, a chain of translations by different actors works to depoliticise the act of constructing Europe. The EU, just as other funding bodies, has become entangled in the political ecology of archaeology. An entanglement which is unavoidable, but which needs to be critically addressed. Funding sources matter for the way we understand both the past and the meaning of archaeology in the present. / Denna avhandling undersöker hur Europa skapas i gränslandet mellan arkeologi, pengar och politik inom den Europeiska Unionens kulturpolitiska finansieringsprogram. Vid sidan av symboliska attribut såsom flagga och nationalsång har företrädare för den Europeiska Gemenskapen och EU engagerat sig i idén om ett gemensamt europeiskt kulturarv, på ett metaforiskt såväl som ett materiellt plan. Politisk legitimitet har sökts med hänvisning till en mångtusenårig samhörighet. I samband med detta engagemang har arkeologer och kulturarvsarbetare sedan 1970-talet erhållit finansiellt stöd för restaureringsprojekt på platser av europeisk betydelse och transnationella samarbetsprojekt som kan skapa europeiskt mervärde. Studien undersöker banden mellan EU och arkeologi genom att lyfta finansiering som en plats för interaktion och meningsskapande. En etnografisk metod har tillämpats, där empirin består av fältobservationer från en praktikantperiod på Europeiska kommissionen, 41 intervjuer med olika aktörer, samt policydokument och arkeologiska texter. En databas med 160 arkeologiska projekt har även skapats. Diskursanalys och nätverksteoretiska begrepp såsom översättningar och svarta lådan har använts för att lokalisera och begreppsliggöra iakttagelser och meningsfulla skärningspunkter i materialet. Studien visar hur EU-tjänstemän, expertgranskare, konsulter och arkeologer alla deltar i utformandet av arkeologiska problemställningar och byggandet av professionella nätverk. EUs mjuka strategier, inom vilka instruktioner och utvärderingskriterier främst bestämmer ramarna men inte innehållet i de finansierade projekten, har inspirerat sökande att tänka Europa utan att tänka. När en ansökan skrivs och lämnas in startar en kedja av översättningar som leder till att olika aktörer avpolitiserar skapandet av Europa i samtiden. I resultaten framkom att arkeologiska projekt, genom att använda EUs målformuleringar i sina projektansökningar, ofta har utnyttjat EUs förväntningar på arkeologi om att skapa en europeisk identitet. I flera projekt knöts en europeisk samhörighet i det förflutna samman med dagens EUropa. Dessutom fortsatte många projekt att använda EUs mål och symboler i sina outputs. Här var EU-kopplingen tydligare i publika sammanhang än i akademiska. Sammantaget visar studien att val av finansieringskälla spelar stor roll. EUs finansieringsprogram har blivit en del av arkeologins politiska ekologi, en sammanflätning som är oundviklig men viktig att kritiskt uppmärksamma. Dessa band påverkar både vår syn på det förflutna och samhällets syn på arkeologi idag.

Driven by the overarching objective of promoting reconciliation through education, this thesis strives to unpack the first national goal of education set out by the Sri Lankan Ministry of Education, which involves nation building and the establishment of a Sri Lankan identity through the promotion of social cohesion and the recognition of cultural diversity in Sri Lanka's plural society. Within education, history teaching in secondary school acts as the main focus of the research, due to the relevance of this goal to the subject of history as well as the ability of history to shape the attitudes and perceptions of youth. As such, the original contribution of this thesis is the development of an understanding of how the goal of nation building is being carried out through the Sri Lankan education system by focusing on the subject of history, which in turn facilitates an analysis of the identity politics of teaching history in a multicultural post-war society. With the intention of developing such an understanding, the study aims to answer three research questions: 1) What type of nation is being built through history education in Sri Lanka?; 2) How is the ethnic and religious diversity which characterises the Sri Lankan nation being dealt with through history education?; and 3) How are Sri Lankan youth being aided in understanding the sensitive matters which impeded the nation building exercise in the recent past and resulted in the break out of the ethnic conflict? The thesis draws on an inductive approach, using qualitative research and secondary literature. Findings are generated from field work and textbook analysis. Conducted in four different districts around the country chosen based on their ethnic and religious compositions, field work involves the conducting of interviews with youth, history teachers, curriculum developers, textbook writers and other academics. This thesis argues that an ambiguity regarding the composition of the 'Sri Lankan nation' is being created through history education, with it sometimes being characterised as a purely Sinhalese-Buddhist nation instead of a multicultural one. This is most likely because the prominent players involved in the development of the curriculum themselves appear to be conflicted about the monoethnic versus polyethnic nature of the nation, with their views filtering through to the educational materials they produce. It is evident that the history curriculum predominantly contains Sinhalese-Buddhist history, with little information being conveyed about the history of the minority groups. Tamils and Muslims are portrayed as invaders and outsiders since the national story is narrated through the perspective of the Sinhalese-Buddhist community who play the role of the protagonist. With respect to stakeholder reactions, there appears to be a contrast in the attitudes of Tamil and Muslim youth regarding the portrayal of minority history, with Tamils being vocal about their anger towards the perceived bias, but Muslims being reluctant to discuss ethnic matters, preferring to sweep them under the rug. Finally, in terms of the ethnically sensitive matters in recent history, while some are completely omitted from the history lessons, others are narrated through a majoritarian perspective or glossed over by leaving out key pieces of information. Youth are therefore largely unaware of the contentious matters that led to the breakdown of ethnic relations in the country, despite having lived through a brutal ethnic conflict. These findings indicate the failings of the nation building exercise being carried out through history education. Instead of building a strong Sri Lankan identity, this type of education is creating confusion regarding the composition of the nation and adversely affecting the sense of belonging of minority youth. It is also creating a younger generation who are unaware of their country's past troubles. The recent spate of ethnic and religious violence that shook the nation highlight the need to address these weaknesses in a timely manner, with a view to promoting reconciliation through education.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T13:30:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Mariana Malvezzi.pdf: 2313165 bytes, checksum: 1aa60bdda16b1eed61130e694bc717fe (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-11-08 / The present work aimed at the understanding of the quest for sustainability with a view to its links with emancipatory action. It was carried out through two main paths. The first was the scrutiny of the literature to explore the multiple meanings brought about the recent applications of the concept of sustainability in several fields such as economics, sociology, politics, biology and philosophy. The second path was the production of empirical data gathered from the opinion of three professional groups of people who work with sustainability as a theoretical issue and as the target of projects. One group was constituted by scholars, the other by government executives and the last one by enterprise managers. These professionals were subjected to the Q Technique and asked to choose the best action to generate sustainability out of 65 affirmations. These affirmations were taken from proposals found in literature and in governmental and enterprises projects aimed at sustainability. The 65 affirmations belonged to four distinct fields: environmentalism, quality of life, principles and emancipatory actions. The findings confirmed that sustainability is a polysemic concept and that such a characteristic implicates in a wide range of problems comprised in several actions and theoretical fields. Yet, the findings revealed that there is a link between sustainability and fragments of emancipation as exposed in the analysis of the syntagma identitymetamorphosis- emancipation. These findings fostered the exam of the possibility of a green identity politics. That possibility was taken from the exercise of the construction of presupposed green identities which in a dialectical movement are perversely acknowledged at the same time which point out an emancipatory fragment promoting a regulatory action / Com o objetivo de compreender a busca pela sustentabilidade a partir de uma reflexão acerca do potencial emancipatório das ações e reflexões atuais em torno desta temática, o presente trabalho se fundamentou, em duas vertentes igualmente importantes. A primeira vertente, referente ao levantamento teórico na literatura a fim de buscar os recentes entendimentos e predicados implicados por este conceito na economia, na sociologia, na política, na biologia e na filosofia. A segunda vertente utilizada para a compreensão da sustentabilidade foi à realização de uma pesquisa empírica junto a três distintos grupos profissionais que atuam nas discussões teóricas ou com a produção de ações para a sustentabilidade. Estes profissionais foram submetidos à Técnica Q, onde lhes foi solicitado que elencassem 65 metas para a sustentabilidade. A construção das metas validadas pelos participantes foi retirada das discussões teóricas ou projetos voltados a esta temática, gerando quatro categorias de ação: natureza física, qualidade de vida, princípio e emancipação. O resultado obtido através da análise dos dados fornecidos pelos profissionais da academia, do governo ou de empresas privadas reforçou o entendimento polissêmico da sustentabilidade e sua interdependência não apenas de diversos fatores, mas de seus muitos agentes. Além disso, uma análise mais criteriosa, a partir do sintagma identidade-metamorfose-emancipação, permitiu levantar uma importante reflexão acerca da sustentabilidade enquanto uma provável nova política identitária verde. Que como tal, é sujeita a formação de identidades pressupostas verdes, que em um movimento dialético são reconhecidas perversamente ao mesmo tempo em que, ao promover algum nível de regulação, apontam para um eventual fragmento emancipatório

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T13:31:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Thalita Catarina Decome Poker.pdf: 1481628 bytes, checksum: 8c8308175be34acc9bb58ccbe973f375 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-28 / The purpose of this study is to understand the identitarian construction in the life of a 21 years old girl, based on his socialization process, mediated by identity policies. The young lady, called Molly for this study, needed to be sheltered in her childhood and teenage in the Brazilian's shelter system (orphanage). The aim of the study was also to understand her emancipatory chances in the context of the political identities brought by the sheltering institution. For this research we used the qualitative method, specifically the instrument of life history narratives. The utterances were analyzed in the light of the phrase identity-metamorphosis-emancipation proposed by Ciampa (1987), permeated by politics of identity and political identity (Ciampa, 2002), we attempted to work with the themes chosen by the narrator and the characters unveiled. Identity politics imposed on institutional care were discussed in order to prevent the possibility of autonomy for designing obedient subject - incapable of critical and reflective capacity of the hetero-normative. Molly, to tell his story, articulated between what was imposed to maintain the operation of the institution, and the possibilities of denying such policies, which are carried out through the social recognition of teachers of the school and the couple's godparents, to legitimize the condition child as a subject of rights / O presente estudo tem por objeto compreender a constituição identitária diante do processo de socialização mediado pelas políticas de identidade de uma jovem de 21 anos, chamada neste trabalho de Molly, que no período da sua infância e adolescência necessitou da medida de acolhimento institucional, comumente chamado de abrigo. E entender as suas possibilidades de emancipação, frente as políticas de identidade ofertadas na instituição. Para esta pesquisa foi empregado o método qualitativo, tendo sido privilegiado o instrumento de narrativas de história de vida. Os enunciados foram analisados á luz do sintagma identidade-metamorfose-emancipação proposto por Ciampa (1987), perpassada pelas políticas de identidade e identidade política (Ciampa, 2002), buscou-se trabalhar com os temas eleitos pela narradora e as personagens desveladas. As políticas de identidade instituídas no acolhimento institucional foram desveladas de forma a impedirem as possibilidades de autonomia pela concepção de sujeito obediente incapaz de uma capacidade reflexiva e críticas sobre a heterogestão normativa. Molly, ao contar sua história, articulou entre o que foi imposto para manter o funcionamento da instituição, e as possibilidades de negar tais políticas, que se deram por meio do reconhecimento social das professoras da escola e do casal de padrinhos, ao legitimar a condição de criança enquanto sujeito de direitos

Currently, men’s responsibility is the focus of much of the public talk on gender equality in Sweden.This has given rise to a number of organisations carrying the overall ambition to include menin what has traditionally been regarded as a women´s issue. One of these initiatives is called #killmiddag,”dinner for guys”, and can be understood as a call out for men to get together and have intimateconversations with each other in order to free themselves from destructive masculinitynorms. In this thesis, the feminist equality initiative #killmiddag is scrutinized with the aim to findwhat possibilities and restraints the initiative might give rise to in regards to issues connected togender equality. The empirical material consists of the initiatives conversational guides and instructionsalong with a number of press articles published between the years of 2016-2018. In order toanalyze this material, specifically the role of conversations, experience and emotions this thesis usesresearch about therapeutic discourse and how this is linked to contemporary ideals about intimacy.This analysis focuses on how problems and solutions are articulated discursively, and how categorieslike ”gender equality” is filled with meaning. Using research concerning the effects of marketbasedforms of governing, my goal is to further contribute to a discussion about what happens with”gender equality” when market rationalities come to replace conflicting interests in politics. Assistedby a poststructuralist approach this thesis highlights some of the problems in using personalexperience as a source of objective knowledge, and how the use of emotions and intimacy, withtheir inbuilt epistemological fragility, might not necessarily be considered apt when striving for politicalchange.

近代日本將「亞細亞」想像為一個共同體 (imagined community)，在政治、經濟、文化、知識等面向加以呈現，寄託日本自我定位的國族敘事，型塑國家的外交政策與戰略目標。「亞細亞」一度是象徵停滯、落後的符碼，但在1980年代後，隨著日本經濟崛起與區域主義 (regionalism) 勃興，帶有文化意涵的「東亞」轉而成為日本烘托自身優越感的地標，本文即試圖透過對近代日本亞洲論述的梳理和考察，揭示此類話語所反映的認同政治。本文假定，日本對「東亞」的想像空間源自於三重結構，即對抗中華霸權與西方帝國主義的文明論述；以中華帝國為中心、涵括其周邊地區的「前近代」(pre-modern) 朝貢體制與華夷秩序；以及反思西方近代性的知識建構，重建東亞近代性的對話空間。這三重結構轉喻下的日本，呈現三種存在樣態 (mode of being)，即抵抗 (resistance)、鑲嵌 (embeddedness) 與再現 (representation)，三者在不同條件下各有凸顯，但揭示的問題意識 (problematic) 如一，即「東亞」作為對應於「歐洲」或「西方」的「建構的實在」(constructed reality)，擁有與歐洲或西方不同的特質，成為日本據以證成其獨特發展的基底、書寫自我認同的對象，反映知識社群面對他者時的集體焦慮，「東亞」因而在不同時期呈現不同樣態，被賦予不同的政治任務，其間變化必須從「東亞」相對於日本近代化的情境來理解。刻畫西方近代性的「亞細亞」空間與「近代」時間，在知識上予以構連 (articulation) 後，「共同體」的型塑成為日本在東方與西方、自我與他者、區域與全球之間依違擺盪的認同地標，抵抗的意義旨於再現自我，鑲嵌的異化證成抵抗的合法性，而再現最終又回歸鑲嵌的論域。本文的設計重點在於揭示一種研究途徑，透過不同立場的經典閱讀，探討東亞近代性構圖中涉及政治地理學的基本問題，闡述日本的亞洲想像之所以以「共同體」為念，並非地理概念的「亞洲中心主義」(Asia-centrism)，而是日本近代化進程中「東方之故鄉」式的情感體現與文明政治，延伸的軸線則是建構歷史主體的自覺意識，既是彰顯國族敘事的辯證命題，也是自我定位的知識建構。 / Modern Japan regards "Ajia" as an imagined community, and exhibits in the political, economic, cultural and epistemic aspects, commits Japan's nationalist narrative of self-orientation accordingly, and shapes her foreign policy and strategic objectives . In modern Japan, "Ajia" was once a negative term by indicating stagnant, laggard, but in the 1980s, as Japan's economy has been developing rapidly and regionalism gaining popularity, the "East Asia" (Tōa) instead became the symbol of heightening her superiority with its cultural implications, this dissertation is trying to reveal the identity politics reflected by such Asianism discourses. This dissertation assumes that Japan's "East Asia" imagination derived from the following triplet structure that is civilization discourse of resisting the hegemony of Chinese and Western imperialism; "pre-modern" Sino-Barbarian (Hua-Yi) tributary system; and reflection to Western modernity knowledge construction, reconstructing the East Asian modernity for dialogue space. Under the triplet structure, there were three kinds of mode of being in modern Japan: resistance, embeddedness and representation, each had been highlighted under different conditions, but the problematic manifested as one, that is the "East Asia" was a "constructed reality" corresponded to the "Europe" or "the West" with different characteristics, constituted the perceptive understructure of Japan's unique development road, and illustrated in self-identity writing context, underlined the collective anxiety of her knowledge community when faced with "the others". As a result, "East Asia" implied its different significances at different stages, and been given different political tasks, during which the change must be understood from the "East Asia" relative to Japan’s context of modernization. After articulation of knowledge, the spatial "Ajia" and temporal "Kindai" which depicted the Eurocentric modernity, converged on Japan’s "community" imagination that swung between the East and West, self and the others, regional and global identity landmarks. The implication of resistance aimed at self-representation, as alienated embeddedness justified the legitimacy of resistance, and representation returned to the field of embeddedness discourse eventually.