Across two studies I examined how making an intergroup ideology salient affected White Canadians’ openness to persuasive appeals and their support for increased government funding to provide clean running water to First Nations communities. In Study 1, 247 White Canadian participants were exposed to either multicultural or colour-blind ideology or no ideology and read six strong arguments in favor of increased government funding. Participants then rated their support for increased funding. Results revealed that White Canadians exposed to multiculturalism allocated less government funding to the issue than did those in the no-ideology condition. In Study 2, 74 White Canadian participants completed all the same measures except they did not read the strong arguments prior to rating their support. Results revealed that White Canadians exposed to multicultural or colour-blind ideology showed greater support for government funding than did those in the no-ideology condition. Implications are discussed. / October 2015

The phenomenon of Terrorism has perplexed and fascinated policy makers and scholars. While there has been significant amount of research on Terrorism, the dynamics or Pathologies of Terrorist Target Selection have received less attention, with few comprehensive treatises on the subject. In this paper, I review and critique existing literature on the subject, while offering a different perspective and model for this dynamic. First, I introduce a contemporary definition of terrorism and establish a framework for the analysis of Terrorist Target Selection. In Chapter 2, I posit that accurate Target Selection Forecasting Techniques need to account for the Adaptive Learning Mechanisms that Terrorist Groups adopt and existing case studies on the subject. Chapter 3 undertakes a critical literature review of Target Selection Case Studies. In Chapter 4, I suggest new research proposals that adopt this theme. In conclusion, I offer what we believe is a novel approach to understanding Terrorist Target Selection and argue that such a model should be flexible enough to work across the various Ideological Silos that Terrorist movements are bracketed into in the current Geo-Political Environment. / text

published_or_final_version / English Studies and Comparative Literature / Master / Master of Philosophy

No description available.

This dissertation examines the negotiation of language ideologies and identity construction amongst university intermediate level Spanish Heritage Language (SHL) learners in the U.S. Southwest. Combining sociolinguistic and ethnographic methods with discourse analysis, this study seeks to provide deeper insight into the linguistic practices and the negotiation of language ideologies that takes place amongst SHL learners. Data from participant observation of interaction in the SHL classroom throughout the semester, questionnaires, interviews with students and instructor, and student focus group discussions were used to analyze discourses about language and the multiple values placed on English and Spanish in general, and on standard and local varieties of Spanish in particular. More specifically, this study analyzes, through the application of Bourdieu's (1991) notions of linguistic capital and symbolic power, how SHL learners negotiate these values and discourses as they study their heritage language. In addition, this study examines performances of identity observed during interactions within this group of SHL learners, recognizing the construction of multiple social identities, including bilingual, heritage learner and ethnic identities, as a dynamic and complex process that is recurrently shaped by interaction and the negotiation of competing language ideologies.

Lietuvių ir latvių literatūra bendrame pasaulio literatūros kontekste išsiskiria kaip unikali terpė, išauginusi savitą rašytojų kartą. Skaudi abiejų šalių istorinė patirtis leido kurtis ypatingai literatūrinei erdvei, reprezentuojančiai baltų kultūrą, jos raidą, vystymosi tendencijas ir formas. Supančiota sovietmečio ideologinių pančių lietuvių ir latvių literatūra stengėsi nenutolti nuo tikrojo meno sampratos, kurio nevaržytų jokie ideologiniai rėmai ir kuriame neliktų būtino tikrovės vaizdavimo bei iškreiptos vertybių sistemos. XX a. antrosios pusės baltų literatūroje kaip itin saviti ir novatoriški iškyla Saulius Šaltenis, Visvaldis Lamas ir Margeris Zarinis. Tai rašytojai, kurie naujai ir moderniai pažvelgia tiek į patį istorinį laiką, tiek į pačią literatūrą. Kritikuodami to meto ideologiją, jie kuria netikėtą meninių ieškojimų ir išraiškos priemonių kupiną sistemą. Atskleisdami absurdišką to meto tikrovę, sutrūkinėjusius žmonių tarpusavio santykius, pakitusią individo savivoką, autoriai į savo kūrybinį lauką įveda groteską ir ironiją kaip būdą pasipriešinti naujai santvarkai ir nevaržomai leidžia kalbėti apie draudžiamus dalykus. Latvių rašytojas V. Lamas vienas pirmųjų savo kūriniuose atskleidžiantis absurdišką sovietmečio sistemos gyvenimo modelį ir parodantis suluošintą individo būtį. Drąsus ir kritiškas žvilgsnis į to meto realybę atveria skaudžias ir tragiškas individo dvasines patirtis. Moderniosios lietuvių prozos pradininkas S. Šaltenis savo kūryboje aprėpia... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Both Lithuanian and Latvian prosaic creation work is being distinquished as breeding-grounds of unique litterateur generation in context of whole global literature. The Balts culture and its developing tendency forms were represented and overspread throughout a pecular literature in accordance with grievous historical experiences in these countries. While being fettered by the Soviet ideology, Lithuanian and Latvian prosaists tried not to alienate from the conception of valued art, so they have their ideological framework in requirements to disclose a misunderstanding human value system of the ‘real‘ Soviet regime. The latest time of 20th century in the Balts literature is defined as an uprise of prominent prosaists having their own trend-setting characters: Saulius Saltenis, Visvaldis Lamas and Margeris Zarinis. These authors are characterized as individuals with their new and modern approaches both into the same historical time and literature. In criticizing the ideological system of the Soviet regime, an unexpected search in expressive art system is being composed. The unreasonal viewpoints of the reality, human bust-ups, and changed standpoints into a personal self-image are being described by the authors with some methods of art expressions, i.e. grotesque and irony, as the ways of human resistance against the new regime and unallowed level. A Latvian writer V. Lamas it is noteworthy said to be the first prosaist whose description of a human existence and an... [to full text]

<p>I develop and justify a measure of polarization based on pairwise differences between and within groups, which improves on previous approaches in its ability to account for multiple dimensions and an arbitrary number of partitions. I apply this measure to a roll-call based ideological mapping of U.S. legislators to show that while the contemporary Congress is polarized relative to mid-century levels, the current state is not historically unprecedented.</p><p>I then estimate the ideology of public opinion using survey respondent thermometer evaluations of political elites and population subgroups. I find that party affiliation is polarizing in this space, but that alternate partitions of the electorate, along racial, educational, and other socio-demographic lines, are de-polarized.</p><p>Finally, I estimate a two-dimensional latent space based on social identity trait co-occurrence. I show that positions in this space are predictive of survey respondent ideology, partisanship, and voting behavior. Further, I show that when conceived in this way, we do observe a polarization of the social space over the last half-century of American politics.</p> / Dissertation

Empress Dowager Cixi is one of the most widely recognized leaders of late Qing China, and she has been the major subject of numerous non-fiction and academic publications in Europe and North America. This, however, does not mean that Western knowledge on Cixi is strong. Although certain books, particularly those written by Cixi’s closest associates, do provide valuable information describing who she was, most of these books, along with many others, also contain fabricated claims about her as well. As a result, falsities have become heavily intertwined with factual records of Cixi in Western publications. This thesis attempts to re-examine these Western works in order to reach a correct understanding of Cixi’s life. In particular, this study demonstrates how a few major ideological trends, such as imperialism, Orientalism, sexism, and feminism, have influenced Western publications on Cixi and brought either bias or insights into the literature on her. / Graduate / 0332 / 0578 / 0582 / dchen@uvic.ca

No description available.

This thesis analyses ideas of gender in the Swedish radical right. The aim of the study is to see if there are any differences or similarities in the way gender is being formulated by a populist radical right party as the Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna), the extreme right party, Party of the Swedes (Svenskarnas Parti) and the extreme right movement Swedish Resistance Movement (Svenska Motståndsrörelsen). Ideas of gender are presented in the theory chapter which is used later on in the analysis to compare with the radical right organisations of Sweden. To fulfil the aim we have performed a comparative ideological analysis between the three organisations and the base for our analysis is texts from each organisation’s webpage. The study shows that the ideological differences concerning gender between populism and extremism in the Swedish radical right are relatively small