This thesis explores the political use of branding in international relations by focusing on the branding exercises of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the State of Qatar over the last two decades. In most of the existing literature, branding is theorised as a representational and instrumental practice that is strategically used to increase a country's competitive edge. Adopting a critical constructivist lens to the study of International Relations (IR), this thesis challenges this reading and argues instead that branding is a productive and inherently political practice that (re)produces dominant interpretations of state-identity rather than merely describing them. Based on the core constructivist claim that much of politics revolves around the competition to give meaning to the world, this thesis argues that the version of the state promoted through branding is neither neutral nor brand new, but inherently politicised and tied to the conversation and legitimation of the incumbent political regime. Inspired by the ongoing practice turn in IR, the starting point for the analysis is a focus on the display of the state through a range of everyday practices long ignored by IR scholars. In particular, it focuses on how the political leadership in both Kazakhstan and Qatar has used the urban development of their capital cities, the hosting of international sports events, and the construction of 'world-class' universities to present new ideas about their state to various inter/national audiences. Using an original data corpus of multimodal primary and secondary material, the analysis traces how branding practices produce and normalise a certain interpretation of Kazakhstani and Qatari statehood, and then interrogates how we can understand this interpretation as politicised and tied to the interests of the regime. The goal of the analysis is twofold. First, this thesis aims to elucidate how relevant instances of state- branding unfold and travel across different empirical contexts (Kazakhstan and Qatar) and cases (urban development, sports and education). Second, it aims to push current scholarly understandings by (re)conceptualising branding as a genre of contemporary identity politics, and produce broader insights about the characteristics and mechanisms of this increasingly normalised - yet often as politically non-salient dismissed - practice of international relations.

This doctoral thesis is about female rock musicians who are involved in two Swedish non-profit feminist music associations; Rockrebeller, which is situated in Uppsala and She´s Got the Beat in Umeå. The aim of the study is to analyze how the informants describe their lives as rock musicians and as active participants in these feminist music associations. The main issues are musicianship, identity, feminism and gender. The empirical material consists of in-depth interviews with ten informants – five from Umeå and five from Uppsala – and these interviews are complemented by a number of participatory observations. The focus of thesis is on the informants’ self-presentations: their stories and experiences. One central theme is the ways that the informants’ different identities are interlaced and closely knit together in different ways: as feminists, as musicians and as active participants in the associations. Two major themes in my thesis are music and politics and they can be regarded as two sides of the same coin; in order to make it easier for women to play rock music they have become involved in the associations, and this relationship is regarded as a form of political work. The informants have been influenced by punk and Riot Grrrls Movement – a feminist movement that is associated with punk bands and fanzines is sometimes seen as representative of a "third wave feminism". All the informants are members of rock bands, but many are also engaged in other projects, for instance in the role of a singer-songwriter, and these different identities as musicians are often seen as complementary to each other. Rock bands are generally considered to be fascinating but insecure experiences because bands tend to split up with time. Those who are also active musicians outside of the band (most often guitarists) usually regard their own individual identity as musicians as the most important thing; a safe harbor that is always there. Their ideological beliefs are for instance visible in a common vision of the ideal rock band as democratic, anti-hierarchic and where an equality of opportunity exists. Rock music is in some ways used as an expression for an alternative way of life, of rebellion, and is seen as politically subversive. One of the ambivalences of the source material is the kind of identity politics that the associations represent and whose purpose is to improve the gender equality in the field. There is a well-known dilemma involved in this practice; how is it possible to navigate from a marginalized, subordinated position, without using the method of categorizing that may increase the probability of reproducing their own marginalization? Their life as rock musicians is described as enjoyable rewarding, and as a means of expressing their cultural belonging and ideological beliefs, such as feminism. However, the overall picture highlights the pleasures of creating and making music, which serves as an explanation why they strive to make rock music more accessible for women. The descriptions of being in a band and performing on stage are varied and on the whole complex. The group dynamics of the band are portrayed as very meaningful but also trying at times, and playing in front of an audience is described as everything between ecstasy and a nerve-wrecking experience. However, there is an overall adaptation to the norms surrounding rock music; a sense that one has to adjust oneself in order to function as a rock musician. The informants´ statements generally emphasize gender, but from time to time they identify themselves with other male amateur rock musicians.

This dissertation investigates the negotiation of history within the history textbook revision conducted by the Norden Associations between 1919 and 1972. The thesis combines an examination of the discussions surrounding the revision with an understanding of the organization of the revision process to study the negotiations between representatives of different historical cultures and the conditions within these historical cultures.  At the end of World War I, the teaching of history was challenged by internationalists and school­teachers as a chauvinistic and warmongering subject. The war was a catalyst for the emergence of history textbook revisions in general, and in the Nordic countries the war also became a catalyst for efforts to promote Nordic understanding and cooperation. These two outcomes of the war experience merged in the Norden Associations’ history textbook revision. The revision was promoted as both an effort to reach an agreement on a common Nordic history and an effort to present to the international community a peaceful corner of the world.  The theoretical framework of this dissertation draws on the concept of the nation as an imagined community and sees national historical cultures as being reflective of the community at that time and place. The discussions of historical events in the thesis are treated as motifs of a national myth, and they are scrutinized as part of the cognitive, political, and aesthetic dimensions of historical culture. The organizational features of the revision are studied through a network analysis of the organizational field.  Prior to World War II, involvement in the revision was reserved almost exclusively for historians. From the end of the 1950s, however, the initiative shifted towards teachers and teacher trainers. This dissertation shows that the revision was organized with an emphasis on national boundaries even though the revision itself was an effort to transcend these boundaries.  The results of this thesis show that the history within the revision was such an integral part of national identity that it was almost impossible to reach any understanding of a common Nordic history. Most motifs, such as the nation’s founding, liberation, golden age, and decline, within the individual national myths had very little common ground and they often contradicted each other. The debates in regards to historical events were also highly political. The historians involved in the revision process could not see past their own national context and were not able to approach the subject from a purely methodological or scientific stance. Pedagogical issues in the textbooks were almost completely ignored.  In conclusion, the history textbook revision conducted by the Norden Associations should probably be seen as a defense of nationalistic hegemony in the understanding of history and cultural identity instead of as a challenge to that hegemony. In addition, the decline in impact of the textbook revision in the 1960s can be explained as a result of this nationalistic identity giving way to the prosperity of a new hegemony that was more liberal, Eurocentric, and global. / Historia utan gräns: Den internationella historieboksrevisionen 1919-2009

Thesis (MA (English Studies))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This project seeks to analyze the representation of identities in Shiva Naipaul's travel narrative North of South: An African Journey (1978) as encoded in the binaries of primitive / traditional; civilized / modern; settler / native; civic / tribal and neo-colonial / liberated. By analyzing this select series of identities, this project aims to explore the fractured nature of identity as constructed in the post-colony. It will argue that the identities are rendered unstable by the ungrounded nature of the post-colonial space in which they are located. Naipaul concludes his travel narrative by qualifying the postcolonial situation as an abortion of Western civilization in the trope of Conrad's Kurtz. Naipaul implies that any identity in Africa is a simulacrum, a phantom double, a copy of something that was not there to begin with. He attempts to articulate the diverse cultures that he encounters as though he were apart from them without recognizing that he is essentially and inextricably a part of the various cultural articulations themselves. It is easy to criticize Naipaul, therefore, as a non-starter. With the advantages of hindsight, however, it is possible for the contemporary reader to recognize these instabilities as evidence of the post-modern phenomenon in which reality is not an absolute. As a modernist writer, Naipaul's efforts to understand these instabilities of identity as an articulation of culture are circumvented by a Sisyphean struggle wherein he attempts to establish a sense of ontological alterity in the narrative yet implicates himself, as well as his invocation of archival literature and hence his ultimate position of disillusionment, hopelessness and doom. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie projek poog om die verteenwoordiging van identiteite in Shiva Naipaul se reisverhaal, North of South: An African Journey (1978), gekodeerd met die binere van die primitiewe / tradisionele ; beskaafde / moderne; setlaars / inheemse; staats / etniese; en neo-kolonialisme / vryheid, te analiseer. Deur die analise van die gekose reeks identiteite, neig die studie om die gebroke aard van identiteit in In post-koloniale omgewing te ondersoek, en te redeneer dat die identiteite bemoeilik word deur die ongegronde natuur van die postkoloniale ruimte waarin hulle voorkom. Naipaul omvat North of South om die post-kolonialistiese situasie te kwalifiseer as In aborsie van die Westerse beskawing in die metafoor van Conrad se Kurtz. Naipaul impliseer dat enige identiteit in Afrika In simulacrum is, In spookbeeld, 'n kopie van iets wat nooit was nie. Hy poog om die menigte kulture wat hy ondervind te omskryf asof hy van hulle verwyder is, sonder om te besef dat hy volledig deel uitmaak van die geleding van hierdie kulture, en dit is daarvolgens maklik om Naipaul as 'n mislukking te kritiseer. Met die duidelikheid van In moderne leser se terugblik is dit wei moontlik om hierdie onkonsekwenthede as bewyse te sien van die post-modernistiese verskynsel waarin realiteit nie In absoluut is nie. As In modernistiese skrywer is Naipaul se bemoeienis om hierdie onbestendigheid van identiteit as 'n omskrywing van kultuur te verstaan belemmer deur 'n Sisyphiesestryd waarin hy poog om In sin van die andersheid van die aard van die werklikheid in die storielyn te vestig, maar tog impliseer hy homself asook sy gebruik van argiefmateriaal, en vandaar sy uiteindelike posisie van ontnugtering, hopeloosheid en verwoesting.

Trigger warnings as a concept is mainly a tool to make students aware of potentially triggering content in literature and has its origin in internet adaptions of psychological theories of posttraumatic stress disorder. The aim of this essay was to describe and analyse the argumentation in the public debate over trigger warnings in Sweden and to illustrate the fundamental questions relating to education that is highlighted by it. This was done through argumentation analysis and with theories of liberalism and identity politics as poles of a dimension of justice, illustrated by two different perspectives on disability pedagogy. The material chosen consisted of nine articles, radio programs and televised debates. The results show a clear tendency for advocates of trigger warnings to lean towards identity politics and a critical perspective on disability pedagogy in their argumentation, while the critics firmly represented a liberal, universalist perspective along with a compensatory perspective on disability pedagogy in theirs. Three fundamental questions arose in the debate: first, safety in the realm of education, meant as void of feelings of being offended, was viewed as essential by the authors who were pro trigger warnings and as a threat to the sole purpose of education by those who were against it. Second, the importance of a diagnosis for disability pedagogy, where those against stressed the importance of a diagnosis, the lack of which in combination with a request for a trigger warning was viewed as being easily offended. Advocates on the other hand were uninterested in diagnoses. Finally, the relation between free speech and democratic values in the educational system and in the society as a whole, where those authors favouring trigger warnings tended to view free speech as less fundamental than those opposed, who instead saw trigger warnings as a threat.

Many around the world have come to know South Africa as the rainbow nation, yet this notion has been subject to enormous critiques in the political discourse. The rainbow nation was conceived by the Government of National Unity that came to power in 1994, but it failed to materialize. What post-apartheid South Africa has yielded instead is a nation, or an imagined community, where race and ethnicity never receded. Although they are no longer pathological, race and ethnicity have become normative typifications of an overarching identity. Churches in particular have played a major role in creating a new identity. Churches have managed to move beyond the yoke of race and ethnicity enforced during the Apartheid under the Group Areas Act and the Resettlement Acts, and epitomized by the destruction of the vibrant city of Sophiatown and, in its place, the building of Triomf, an Afrikaner imagined community. Churches have led the way in deconstructing the perceived or realized power or disempowerment that is residual to the Apartheid. In reconstructing the community, they have re-imagined an environment where race and ethnicity remain the standard component of the South African national identity. This re-imagining requires that race and ethnicity be constructed as relational rather than hierarchical. Moreover, it requires that one acknowledge the woundedness (e.g., shame, anger, guilt, hurt, humiliation, betrayal, fear, resentment) that racial typifications create. As a social construction, Churches in Sophiatown are fostering this ethical environment where these values are embraced.

Abstract The objective of this doctoral thesis is to examine Anu Kaipainen’s literary strategy and to find out what kind of questions she thematises using the strategy. The articles focus on two novels from the 1960s, seen as routes leading to her production. Perspective is widened towards her other works. This dissertation seeks methodological and contextual routes to the interpretation of the multiple layers and elements present in her novels. The objective is to create a more holistic ‘map’ of her literary strategy and its functions. Mirroring Kaipainen’s allegory of maps, the articles included in this thesis can also be seen as maps drawn at different stages on tracing paper, placed one on top of the other. This ‘atlas’ made of tracing paper depicts the following issues as thematic condensations and clarifying questions connecting the articles: 1) the positioning of a bourgeois female subject in the upheavals of modern life and 2) the heterology of contexts related to these transitions that represent the increasingly complex nature of social reality and challenges in perceiving it. This thesis contextualises and discusses this dialectic tension between post-modern multiplicity and the positioning of feministic identity politics. 3) the third question synthetises the first two: how and in what direction is this tension taken in Kaipainen’s works? This third theme originates from Kaipainen’s allegory of maps, which is a thematic condensation as such and illustrates her literary strategy. The examination of literary strategy carries reflection towards a research result. The literary strategy of Kaipainen’s works from the 1960s and 1970s — the politics of maps drawn on tracing paper — is found to be the answer to the heterology of contexts and the problems in positioning a female subject. The objective of her cartographic strategy is shown to be her political-pedagogic aim to help a (female) subject to position herself in an increasingly complex, fast-changing and globalising world. Ultimately, the objective of her strategy is to awaken or restore the subject’s social awareness and ability to function. This thesis draws a clearer picture of Kaipainen’s literary strategy and the nature of her earlier works. The result is methodological and refers to the routes found relevant in the study of literary strategy: feminist research orientation, Mikhail Bakhtin’s dialogism, and Urpo Kovala’s model of heterological contextualism. The latter outlines this study as its metatheoretical framework, but the objective is also to develop the model of heterological contextualism towards practical analysis. In addition to the abovementioned theoretical routes, this thesis makes reference to Fredric Jameson’s cognitive mapping. / Tiivistelmä Tutkimustehtävänä on selvittää, millainen on Anu Kaipaisen kirjallinen strategia ja millaisia kysymyksiä hän sen avulla tematisoi. Tutkimusartikkeleissa keskitytään kahteen Kaipaisen 1960-luvun romaaniin, jotka nähdään reiteiksi hänen tuotantoonsa. Työn johdannossa tarkastelu laajennetaan kohti muuta tuotantoa. Tutkimuksessa etsitään eri suunnista metodisia ja kontekstuaalisia reittejä Kaipaisen romaanien moniaineksisuuden tulkintaan. Tavoitteena on luoda aiempaa kokonaisvaltaisempi ”kartta” hänen kirjallisesta strategiastaan ja sen funktioista. Kaipaisen karttavertausta mukaillen tutkimusartikkelit ovat kuin eri vaiheissa piirrettyjä, päällekkäin aseteltuja kuultokuvakarttoja. Hahmottuvasta ”kuultopaperien kartastosta” erottuvat temaattisina tihentyminä ja tarkentavina tutkimuskysymyksinä 1) keskiluokkaisen naissubjektin paikantuminen modernin elämän murroksessa ja 2) tuohon murrokseen liittyvä kontekstien heterologia, joka representoi yhteiskunnallisen todellisuuden monimutkaistumista ja hahmottamisen haasteita. Johdannossa kontekstualisoidaan ja pohditaan tätä jälkimodernin moninaistumisen ja feministisen identiteettipoliittisen paikantumisen dialektista jännitettä. 3) Kolmas tarkentava tutkimuskysymys tuo syntetisoivasti yhteen kahta edellistä: millaisin keinoin ja mihin suuntaan tuota jännitettä työstetään Kaipaisen teoksissa? Kolmas tutkimuskysymys nousee mainitusta Kaipaisen kuultopaperikarttavertauksesta, joka on itsessään temaattinen tihentymä ja kuvaa hänen kirjallisen strategiansa luonnetta. Kirjallisen strategian avaaminen vie reflektiota kohti tutkimustulosta. Kaipaisen 1960- ja 1970-luvun tuotannon kirjallinen strategia — ”kuultopaperikarttojen politiikka” — paljastuu vastaukseksi kontekstien heterologian ja naissubjektin paikantumisen ongelmiin. Hänen kartografisen strategiansa tavoitteeksi osoitetaan poliittis-pedagoginen pyrkimys auttaa (nais)subjektia paikantumaan monimutkaistuvassa, nopeasti muuttuvassa ja globalisoituvassa maailmassa. Viime kädessä tavoitteena on herättää tai palauttaa (nais)yksilön yhteiskunnallinen tietoisuus ja toimintakyky. Tutkimus piirtää entistä täsmällisemmän kuvan Kaipaisen kirjallisesta strategiasta ja erityisesti varhaisemman tuotannon ominaisluonteesta. Tulos on myös menetelmällinen osoittaen reitteihin, jotka on kirjallisen strategian avaamisessa relevanteiksi todettu: feministiseen tutkimusorientaatioon, Mihail Bahtinin dialogismiin sekä Urpo Kovalan heterologiseen kontekstualismin malliin. Viimeksi mainittu kehystää työtä metateoreettisesti, mutta kehittelen heterologisen kontekstualismin mallia myös käytännön analyysin suuntaan. Mainittujen teoreettisten reittien lisäksi tutkimustulokseen pääsemiseksi johdannossa sovelletaan Fredric Jamesonin käsitystä kognitiivisesta kartoittamisesta.

La science-fiction chinoise contemporaine gagne une attention considérable de la part du milieu académique et du public ces dernières années. Ce mémoire se concentre sur deux écrivains de science-fiction chinoise représentatifs, Han Song 韩松 (1965–) et Xia Jia 夏笳 (1984–), et examine comment leurs œuvres reflètent de manière critique la société moderne (chinoise) à travers trois sujets : l’identité, le genre et la nation. Les textes analysés sont : « The Passengers and The Creator 乘客与创造者 » et « Beauty Hunting Guide 美女狩猎指南 » de Han Song, « Goodnight, Melancholy 晚安忧郁 » et « A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight 百鬼夜行街 » de Xia Jia. En s’appuyant sur les théories en matière de la subjectivité et du langage ainsi que sur les critiques posthumanistes, le premier chapitre montre que les écrits de Han Song et Xia Jia réfutent le point de vue métaphysique de la possession de soi et produisent une vision critique de la subjectivité humaniste (anthropocentrique). Basé sur la discussion de la politique d’identité dans le premier chapitre, la deuxième partie du mémoire porte sur les représentations de genre dans « Goodnight, Melancholy » et « Beauty Hunting Guide ». Ces deux textes révèlent la construction sociale du genre à travers une narration hautement spéculative. « Goodnight, Melancholy » intègre subtilement la critique de l’hétéronormativité dans l’histoire, et « Beauty Hunting Guide » critique la violence et la consommation interhumaine dans la société moderne (chinoise) d’une manière similaire au « A Madman’s Diary 狂人日記 » de Lu Xun. En discutant les discours sur l’État- nation et le sinofuturisme, nous démontrons au troisième chapitre que les nouvelles de Han Song et Xia Jia illustrent pleinement l’ambivalence du concept de « Chineseness ». En un mot, ce mémoire aborde le pouvoir épistémologique des œuvres de Han Song et Xia Jia qui nous permet de reconceptualiser ce que nous comprenons comme « réalité ». / Contemporary Chinese science fiction has gained considerable attention from academics and the public in recent years. This thesis focuses on two representative Chinese science fiction writers, Han Song 韩松 (1965–) and Xia Jia 夏笳 (1984–), and examines how their works critically reflect on modern (Chinese) society through three topics: identity, gender, and nation. The texts analyzed are: Han Song’s “The Passengers and The Creator 乘客与创造者” and “Beauty Hunting Guide 美 女狩猎指南,” Xia Jia’s “Goodnight, Melancholy 晚安忧郁” and “A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight 百鬼夜行街.” Relying on theories about subjectivity and language as well as posthumanist critics, I argue in the first chapter that Han Song and Xia Jia’s writings refute the metaphysical view of self-possession and produce a critical vision of humanistic (anthropocentric) subjectivity. Based on the discussion of identity politics in Chapter One, the second chapter focuses on gender representations in “Goodnight, Melancholy” and “Beauty Hunting Guide.” I contend that these two texts reveal the social construction of gender through highly speculative storytelling. “Goodnight, Melancholy” subtly integrates the criticism of heteronormativity into the story, while “Beauty Hunting Guide” critiques the violence and inter-human consumption in modern (Chinese) society in a way similar to Lu Xun’s “A Madman’s Diary 狂人日記.” By discussing discourses about nation-state and Sinofuturism, I demonstrate in Chapter Three that Han Song and Xia Jia’s novels fully reveal the ambivalence of the concept of “Chineseness.” In a word, this thesis addresses the epistemological power of Han Song and Xia Jia’s works that allows us to reconceptualize what we understand as “reality.”

The pillars on which this study is based (stands) could be compared with the observations of Ejiofor (1981: 4), who says the modern-and-African political models have not been sufficiently discovered, developed, and operated in African states. One thinks that the social and political behaviour of African people are in conflict with the present day political structures and institutions. Political and economic actors fail to harness the knowledge, attitudes, and responses with the indigenous values. Own to these reasons the present political dispensations in Africa are misconceived and ill-adapted to their reality. Hence, the call for detailed study of home-grown African values as a means to redress these imbalances has become inevitable. This study is based on Igbo cultural solidarity as a means to address and achieve rural development in Africa. Meanwhile, this study attempts to re-ignite and re-echo ‘people-based’ and understood ‘home-based’ models of achieving rural development as focused on Okigwe-Owerri-Orlu political divisions among the Igbo of South-eastern Nigeria. / Development Studies / M.A. (Development Studies)

Cette thèse étudie l’esthétique et l’éthique du témoignage dans le nouveau africain d’expression française voire le roman de la guerre. Au centre est l’enfant comme une catégorie sociale menacée et menaçante. L’enfant africain reste « l’arme » et le « soldat » de choix dans la littérature postcoloniale tout comme il était à l’époque coloniale. Cependant, sa mission est devenue encore plus meurtrière car il est maintenant recruté pour mener des combats militaires soutenus par des idéologies dépourvues de logique. Nous examinons donc les enjeux esthétiques et éthiques du choix de donner la parole à l’enfant pour témoigner de la violence postcoloniale dans les romans d’Emmanuel Dongala, de Tierno Monénembo, et d’Ahmadou Kourouma. Que ce soit par le biais d’une confrontation qui imite la scène judiciaire (Dongala), un débat philosophique, religieux et socio-politique autours du sujet de génocide (Monénembo), ou encore de l’emploi du rire carnavalesque pour témoigner de la tragédie personnelle et collective (Kourouma), nos auteurs font de l’enfant le point de référence à partir duquel l’Afrique pense le présent et l’avenir. Ce faisant, ils démontrent une diversité conceptuelle du témoignage littéraire tant sur le plan esthétique qu’éthique, que nous qualifions de changement paradigmatique dans la littérature d’Afrique noire d’expression française. Ce qui émerge est un double témoignage, d’une part, de l’auteur en tant que témoin des traces, d’autre part, de l’enfant (personnage) comme témoin-victime et/ou comme témoin-bourreau de la violence dans la « postcolonie ». / Thesis (Ph.D, French) -- Queen's University, 2012-03-01 12:40:14.865