The presented master's thesis titled The Power Rivalry between China and India: Managing the Buffer Zone between the Two States examines the strategic behaviour of China and India with respect to the buffer zone located around their common border. In recent years, it is possible to observe a higher intensity or tension in the mutual relations of China and India on both the regional, as well as global level. In regard to China and India, the buffer zone located near their common border is a distinctive factor of strategic importance that influences the dynamics within mutual Sino-Indian relations. The main pillars of the analysis of China's and India's policy towards each other and towards the common buffer zone present in the thesis are offensive and defensive realism in combination with the geopolitics of buffer zones. From the analytical point of view, the thesis divided into two parts. The first part of the analysis focuses on the common Sino-Indian border and adjacent areas, and whether it is possible to characterized them as the buffer zone. The second part concentrates specifically on China and India and their policies, not just towards each other, but towards the buffer zone as well. Regional interactions of China and India are analysed especially from the perspective of offensive and...

The following thesis focuses on the long-term consequences of Partition of India on a micro-level. The thesis examines the life-history of a family that has been spatially divided owing to the decision of some family members who decided to migrate from India to Pakistan. Current, and past familial relations as well as the relationship of the spatially displaced family, specifically focusing on the relationship of the Indo-Pakistani family parts have been analysed. The life history is understood as a possible way how to explain Partition. Partition is presented in its broader historical-geographical context, specifically, the decolonization of the Indian subcontinent. The thesis incorporates selected approaches that establish a multi-dimensional framework and its interactions. The critical geopolitical approach explains the political standpoints of former political leaders as well as preconditions of Partition. The New histories approach gives way to personal spoken historical testimonies of family members in both countries, that apply nationalised representations of Partition and family ties. Additionally, feminist perspectives insight into how all three generations of the family understand and perceive topics important to the family's history, including how do they define 'home'. From a long-term...

Keywords Mircea Eliade, the influence of India, Romanian literature Abstract The thesis deals with the influence of indian culture and philosophy on the Romanian writer, religionist and philosopher Mircea Eliade. He studied in Calcutta and after his return from India he graduated his doctoral studies of philosophy with thesis called Yoga. This master thesis is defining Indian aspects in Eliade's books. The first part of the thesis focuses on details from Mircea Eliade's life, his relationship to India and on Indian philosophy which is reflected in his writing. That includes the cyclic concept of time which doesn't explain death as the end of life. We talk about reincarnation. The quality of the next life is conditioned by the deeds of the previous life. Eliade is supporting yoga as a way how to separate the spirit from the material world and from the body. The second part of this thesis has an aim to describe some of the Eliade's books which are influenced by India, and to analyze those Indian aspects (The Secret of Dr. Honigberger, Isabel şi apele diavolului and 50 de conferinže radiofonice (1932 - 1938)).

The following thesis focuses on the long-term consequences of Partition of India on a micro- level. The thesis examines the life-history of a family that has been spatially divided owing to the decision of some family members who decided to migrate from India to Pakistan. Current, and past familial relations as well as the relationship of the spatially displaced family, specifically focusing on the relationship of the Indo-Pakistani family parts have been analysed. The life history is understood as a possible way how to explain Partition. Partition is presented in its broader historical-geographical context, specifically, the decolonization of the Indian subcontinent. The thesis incorporates selected approaches that establish a multi-dimensional framework and its interactions. The critical geopolitical approach explains the political standpoints of former political leaders as well as preconditions of Partition. The New histories approach gives way to personal spoken historical testimonies of family members in both countries, that apply nationalised representations of Partition and family ties. Additionally, feminist perspectives insight into how all three generations of the family understand and perceive topics important to the family's history, including how do they define "home ". Key words:...

The screenplay (creative production component) follows Sunny, a young South African Indian woman, who relocates to Cape Town to study fine art. She sets her eyes on a significant award, but makes the critical mistake of falling for her greatest rival. Despite facing crippling cultural expectations and biases, Sunny discovers that being different - and loving who she wants to love - is not a crime, but an imperfect truth. The screenplay explores the protagonist's first year at university, complicated by questions of identity, race, gender, sexuality and their intersection with tradition and culture in contemporary South Africa. Taking the form of a coming-of-age Indie drama (with an artistic twist), the main character embarks on a journey of self-discovery and learning, as she confronts these challenges. The reflective creative explication serves as an accompaniment to the screenplay. It is used to expound upon the creative process of writing the screenplay: highlighting key scenes, beats and decisions whilst interrogating the theoretical frameworks surrounding representations of ‘othered' groups - specifically queer womxn of colour - and their perception in society, aided by the lens of personal lived experience. This is followed by a review of the Indie and coming-of-age genres, in which the screenplay operates. The piece acts as a critical reflection intended to contextualise and justify the creative decisions made in the screenplay, so as to provide a means of accessing the larger themes and concerns at hand.

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In recent years, playing games has become a popular activity for everything from socialising purposes to educating purposes, with billions of players worldwide. However, being able to play games is not evident for people with disabilities. The gaming industry is excluding masses of people by not creating enough accessible games. Indie gaming is a part of the gaming industry that has grown immensely during the last decades. Indie game companies are often smaller studios with independent publications, finances and creativity. Almost everyone has the tools nowadays for making games. Indie game companies do not usually have the resources for engaging as much in accessibility as bigger companies do. Since they are distributing a big share of the games on the market today it is necessary to explore their possibilities of creating more accessible games despite their resource constraints. The research question for this study is “What are the game development challenges that Swedish indie game companies face when implementing accessible design practices, and how can they overcome them?”. This was investigated through a survey study where the researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with employees at seven different indie game companies in Sweden. The results revealed perceived challenges in the tools that the investigated companies utilised, such as challenges in accessibility communication, resource constraints and how they aim to gather player feedback. Other challenges were identified in how the company operates, more specifically in their work tasks and planning of accessibility. Results also contributed to an understanding of how the investigated companies work with accessibility, through how they prioritise tasks and how they receive accessibility information. Possible solutions on how they can overcome challenges were identified, both on an individual and company level, as well as on an industry level for the indie gaming market. The results provided insights into the factors impeding indie game companies and developers from designing for accessibility as well as possible solutions to these challenges. These findings contribute to the understanding of the challenges with implementing accessible design practices and have added a nuanced perspective on the challenges faced by indie game developers and suggest potential directions for future investigation, both in research and in the indie game industry.

Game development has come a long way from its origins back in the 1970s and 1980s, where small development teams worked over a production cycle of months to produce games. As the processing and graphical capabilities of computers and consoles increased, games became multi-million-dollar projects, developed by large teams over a period of many months, sometimes stretching into years. This led to rationalization in the games industry, especially among large studios and developers, resulting in isomorphism and an increasing similarity of games developed by them. In the late 2000s, the indie games industry took off on the back of digital distribution, allowing small teams to develop experimental and innovative game mechanics and put them out without the support of publishers. However, in the last few years, we have seen an increasingly crowded indie games market, introducing many of the risks to the indie industry that were typically associated with large developers. The purpose of this research was to study their impact, and to investigate whether they have led to isomorphism in the indie games industry. The research was conducted via in-depth interviews with five indie developers, followed by thematic analysis of the data collected through these interviews. Analysis of the data revealed the presence of isomorphic forces that impact the design and production of indie games, as well as the presence of “counter-isomorphic” forces, which act as a counterweight to isomorphism.

Through a series of in-depth qualitative interviews and a discourse analysis of academic publications this study explores the definition of indie video games, relationships between queer players and indie video games that they play, and ways in which queer players relate to games in general. The comparison of definitions between academic publications and player interviews shows that “indie” is a vague term that is too broad to define, either relying upon modes of production or becoming impossibly narrow in attempts to describe indie game trends. Instead, a more productive point of discussion seems to be located around affect typical for genres and categories of games, with modes of production being an important but not defining part of the conversation. / Media Studies & Production

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