Nancy Pelosi (CA-12) was elected to the House of Representatives in 1987 and was the first female Speaker of the House, originally elected to the position in 2007. Despite the length and significance of her career in the House, there is very little academic literature devoted to the effectiveness of her leadership. In an attempt to fill this research gap, this thesis will raise the following questions; Is Nancy Pelosi an effective Speaker of the House, and has her effectiveness changed significantly over her term as Speaker? For purposes of this research, leadership effectiveness is defined as the Speaker's ability to advance her caucus' legislation and retain her party's majority and power. Leadership style is defined as the actions taken and choices made by the Speaker in order to achieve these goals. To do this, I will utilize the framework developed by Ronald M. Peters and Cindy Simon Rosenthal consisting of 5 normative criteria in which to judge contemporary congressional leadership. In this thesis, I consider leadership episodes that occurred after their work in order to continue the study of Pelosi's leadership and evaluate any changes. I conclude that while she has some effectiveness shortcomings, Pelosi is an effective leader and her leadership style and process has remained relatively constant with few minor changes to account for the quickly evolving political environment her leadership exists within.

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[pt] A presente dissertação tem como objetivo oferecer uma reflexão acerca da necessidade de desenvolvimento institucional dos espaços públicos no mundo globalizado. Para tanto, pretende-se enxergar quais são as perspectivas teóricas oferecidas por Nancy Fraser e como suas ideias podem ser observadas na prática através de um estudo crítico da Comissão para o Status da Mulher (CSW) da ONU. Em um primeiro momento, busca-se fazer um estudo do modelo de justiça global construído por Nancy Fraser em sua obra acadêmica, analisando as categorias de redistribuição, reconhecimento e representação como defendidas pela autora e em contraste com outros autores que dialogam nesta área. Este assunto é dividido em dois capítulos. Um primeiro onde se observa a proposta de integração entre redistribuição e reconhecimento e os problemas decorrentes desta relação e um segundo no qual se busca aprofundar as questões de representação de primeira e segunda ordem à luz de uma nova conjuntura política provocada pelo desgaste do enquadramento institucional vestfaliano e da soberania estatal para resolver problemas de justiça social em decorrência do fenômeno da globalização. No segundo momento, o trabalho pretende investigar a operacionalidade do modelo defendido por Fraser buscando vislumbrá-lo no processo e nos produtos da Comissão para o Status da Mulher (CSW) da ONU, indagando em que medida este espaço reflete uma nova proposta de enquadramento para o conhecimento, a discussão e a decisão de demandas de modo democrático e se - e como - ocorre a integração de políticas de redistribuição, reconhecimento e representação de primeira ordem nas decisões tomadas por este órgão. / [en] The present dissertation aims to offer a reflection on the need institutional development of public spaces in a globalized world. For such, it is intended to see which are the theoretical perspectives offered by Nancy Fraser and how her ideas can be observed in practice through a critical study on the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) of the UN. In a first moment, it aims to make a study of the model of justice constructed by Nancy Fraser in her academic production, analyzing the categories of redistribution, recognition and representation as defined by the author and in contrast with other authors that dialog in this area. This subject is divided in two chapters. A first where it is observed the proposal of integration between redistribution and recognition and the resulting problems of this relation and a second in which is aimed to deepen the question of representation in both first and second orders in the light of a new political conjuncture triggered by the detrition of the Westphalian institutional framing and of the state sovereignty to solve the problems of social justice provoked by the phenomenon of globalization. At the second moment, this work intends to investigate the operability of the model defended by Fraser trying to behold it in the process and in the products of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) of the UN, inquiring in what measure is there a new proposal of framing for the acknowledgment, the discussion and the decision of claims in a democratic way and if - and how - occurs the integration of politics of redistribution, recognition and representation of first order in the decisions taken by this organ.

This master thesis explores health as a primarily active process and what role theoretical and practical medicine should play in health. Health is divided up into four rooms: the room of the theoretician who works in medicine, the meeting between the theoretician and practician, the meeting between practician and patient, and lastly the individual’s cultural room. By phenomenologically unveiling the transmutation of life defined as death within the cartesian framework of mind-body dualism and its influences on modern Western medicine it becomes apparent that health as defined by biomedicine (lack of disease) is a problematic concept in regard to the experience of being ill in the individual’s room, which is the phenomenological starting point. In the West there exists a cultural tendency among both natural scientists and laypersons to use natural science and medical theory to explain and give meaning to individual diseases and healths, which has also lead to a cultural crisis in the ill individuals’ identity as the cartesian mind-body dualism is more complex than two opposing forces – it is more correct to describe this relation of mind and body identity as a ‘trialism’. The thesis mainly rests on the works of Drew Leder and Jenny Slatman; their works on health and illness in relation to cartesian dualism, and on their concepts of authentic materialism and differential materialism respectively, to formulate a phenomenological theory of health (from the room of the individual) understood as primarily an activity. It concludes that health within the individual’s room is an activity in the now that consists in accepting one’s bodily state and the choices one has made in life to land oneself in the body one now experiences. A healthy choice is grounded in a will to be one’s self, to be one’s own body, although one does not coincide with it. The role of practical medicine is to help the individual want to be themselves, their own body, – by working with the two concepts of health presented as the theoretical health (absence of disease) and the phenomenological (will to be oneself).

Drei fast zugleich veröffentlichte Texte französischer Philosophen zu lesen, mag zum Nachdenken über den Zusammenhang auffordern - hier soll einmal bewußt den Unterschieden nachgegangen werden, zum Erweis der Brüchigkeit des philosophischen Diskurses, der von vielen für manifest gehalten wird. Gibt es eine postmoderne, post-strukturalistische, post-analytische Philosophie? Das ist zweifelhaft. Es gibt Fraktionen. Es gibt so verschiedene Autoren wie Jean Baudrillard, JeanFrancois Lyotard und Jean-Luc Nancy.

This essay attempts to listen to meaning in the borderland, and asks in between which faculties and senses, through which we see and/or listen to the world, do we seek sense? My writing is located on this border, or more precisely on the erased border that I call an interspace or an interval, the place where we look for sense in the relation between language, philosophy, politics, and music. I have done this through the reading of three contemporary philosophers: Jacques Derrida, Jean-Luc Nancy, and Angela Davis. Derrida and Nancy have provided me with a theoretical and philosophical background for my approach to Davis’s philosophic and political claims. My analysis sets out from Derrida’s différance and what it reveals in the sign system of language. This is continued through a discussion of Nancy’s question: Is philosophy capable of listening, in all senses of the word? Is the philosopher not someone who always hears? In my reading, this connection is established through the blue notes. Davis, finally, provides me with a support for my claim that we, in the political significance of blues, in the traces of meaning that it contains, might be able to listen to Derrida’s différance. Keywords: Listening, meaning, différance, blues, sonority, blue notes, in between, border, subject, Jacques Derrida, Angela Y Davis, Jean-Luc Nancy. / Denna uppsats syftar till att försöka lyssna till meningen i gränslandet – mellan vilka relationer i våra förmågor och sinnen, av att se och/eller lyssna till världen, söker vi mening? Jag vill skriva om den gränsen, eller mer kanske den utsuddade gränsen i platsen jag kallar mellansfär och mellanrum, som den plats där vi söker mening i relationen mellan språk, filosofi, politik och musik. När vi idag söker mening och talar om varat, om individen och subjektivitet, kan det vara så att vi inte längre kan göra det genom fasta tecken, system och former? Istället för att stanna kvar i ett tillstånd av upprepande och separerande som landar i uteslutande och förtryck, i värdeskalor och normer, istället för att endast höra klassiska notsystem, eller förstå språkliga regler hos fasta teckensystem; kan det vara så att vi idag får vända oss till lyssnandet och mellansfären i de blå tonernas différance för att förstå olika individer och subjektivitet i relation till världen? Genom att göra en analys av Derridas term différance i hans text med samma namn: ”Différance” ur boken Margins of philosophy, ska jag försöka närma mig Nancys bok Listening samt läsa hans text genom tanken på différance i Nancys teori och förståelse om lyssnandet.  För att undersöka hur lyssnande och musik kan få ett praktiskt uttryck, av de teoretiska meningarna vi söker i différance, vill jag använda musikgenrerna blues och jazz och de blå toner som bluesen förhåller sig i och mellan. Min teori är att bluesen kan ge en plats (av flera) för var skillnader möts mellan text, värld och musik; platsen där différance kan lyssnas till, synliggöras och hörs. I den teorin vänder jag mig till Angela Davis bok Blues Legacies and Black Feminism som stöd för bluesens utveckling. Det jag ämnar närma mig hos Davis är just bluesens meningssökande och plats i samhället

La présente étude se concentre sur le travail de Nancy Fraser sur la justice sociale, lequel a suscité beaucoup d’intérêt dans la littérature au cours des dernières années. La reconnaissance et la redistribution sont les deux piliers originaux de son approche: les désavantages dont souffrent les gens dus au dénigrement culturel ou à la privation économique. Ces deux concepts servent à diagnostiquer et fournir le soutien moral aux multiples luttes que les victimes d’injustice entreprennent avec l’objectif d’établir une participation plus égalitaire à la société. Cependant, que peut-elle dire cette approche des groupes qui sont marginalisés et cherchent l’autogouvernance (ou la séparation même) plutôt que l’intégration dans la société? Le travail de Fraser manifeste une résistance envers les droits du groupe, et un silence quant à l’autodétermination. Mon intervention prend comme objectif d’inclure ces formes d’injustice dans son approche, la rendant plus sensible aux dynamiques des groupes et capable de répondre à leurs revendications trop souvent négligées sous prétexte de l’égalité. La question est, l’égalité de qui? / The focus of this study is Nancy Fraser’s work on social justice, which has gained prominence in the literature over the past few years. The two original pillars of her approach are redistribution and recognition – the injustices that individuals face as a result of economic hardship or cultural denigration. These two concepts serve to diagnose and provide moral backing to the multiple struggles that individuals undertake with the aim of a more equitable way of participating in society. But what does this approach have to say about marginalized groups who seek greater autonomy, or perhaps even separation, rather than further participation in society? Fraser’s work has manifested resistance to sanctioning group difference, and silence on the issue of self-determination. I aim to build these claims into her approach, ultimately to render it more sensible to group dynamics and more capable to respond to their demands all too often neglected under the pretext of equality. The question is, equality of whom?

The label ‘Muslim’ is increasingly being used to exclude migrants and non-ethnic Germans from German society. Although this process began after 2000 when Germany’s citizenship laws changed from jus sanguinis to incorporate an element of jus soli and minority subjects could no longer be ‘othered’ by their passports alone, it intensified shortly afterwards due to the terrorist attacks of 9/11 (Spielhaus 2006). Specifically within the German context, the discovery that Mohamed Atta, one of the perpetrators of 9/11, had lived and studied in Hamburg, the foiled bomb plots of 2006 and 2007, and the 2011 Frankfurt Airport shooting all served to buttress this paradigmatic shift from national/ethnic difference to religious. Yet, rather than responding in kind to this identitarian entrenchment, the work of Zafer Şenocak, SAID, Feridun Zaimoglu and Navid Kermani (all minority writers of varying Muslim backgrounds) suggests new ways of thinking about community, identity and religiosity that are fluid, non-foundational and open to an undecided future, which can all be illuminated by Jean-Luc Nancy’s theories of the ‘inoperative community’ (2000 and 1991) and the deconstruction of monotheism (2008).For Nancy, the traditional understanding of community as the fusion of immanent individuals with a common identity must be resisted, as this disguises our actual ontological interrelatedness as ‘singular beings’ who are radically open to one another. This non-foundational approach regards the spacing of interconnected singular beings (their ‘being-in-common’) as the sense of the world, and rejects universalising ideologies that seek to confer sense upon the world from the outside, since these act to close down meaning and divide us up into polarised communities. In Nancy’s terms, whether these ideologies be political or religious, they are both defined by the monotheistic paradigm that operates through a separate ideal world that acts as our world’s guiding principle. This is why Nancy himself rejects the term cosmopolitanism, as its philosophical roots in the metaphysics of the Enlightenment stem from the ideal world of pure Reason. Nevertheless, just as the inoperative community can be understood as a non-foundational route to cosmopolitan solidarities, the deconstruction of monotheism too leaves space for a non-foundational religiosity that resists traditional identities and symbolism. Nancy proposes, borrowing from mysticism, a God not as ‘the “other world” [...], but the other of the world’ (2008, p. 10), that is to say, a religiosity that does not position God as the subject of the world and its organizing principle, but concerns itself instead with glimpsing the divine in the alterity in our world, which results from the very nothingness of its origins. These arguments, that I place at the forefront of post-9/11 debates surrounding cosmopolitanism and religion, can shed light on the literary writing of Şenocak, SAID, Zaimoglu and Kermani, who draw upon the immanentist tradition within Islamic mysticism in order to intimate a non-identitarian religiosity that figures in the alterity of the world and leaves open all possibilities for the future. In this regard, their fiction hints at an affective and worldly spirituality that can be found in love, sex, music and the natural world, which, whilst also serving to dispel stereotypical associations between Islam and sexual conservatism, hints at a post-monotheistic religiosity beyond identity and ideology. Thus, rather than creating a homogenous foundation through dialogue (the approach of the German state and often of interkultureller Germanistik), the non-foundational and cosmopolitan conceptualisations of the self, community and religiosity found in the writing of these authors both undermine the closed identities that are clashing violently across the globe at the start of the twenty-first century and also open up the space for us to imagine new ways of coexisting.