Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-18T18:55:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 SYMONE DALMA FERREIRA PACHECO.pdf: 528352 bytes, checksum: 6fde9c13e451ef471cbe6e2896e5b233 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-07-10 / This research analyses the Brazilian legal system of social policy, notably its social security branch, advancing a discussion about the impact of neoliberal fit of Brazilian system of social security. Retook a discussion about the historical construction of Brazilian social security since its formal introduction in Brazilian legal system through Elóy Chaves Statute, analyzing the introduction of its recent system enacted by 1987-1988 National Brazilian Legislature until reach recent legal reforms and the constitutional amendment project (2005). The guiding axis of this research was constructed as of the tension pointed between logics of partition, result of 1988 federal constitutional original text and the logic of capitalization, thinking neoliberal background. it drives to the persistence of that tension and possible alternatives imposes to social security system in the begin of this century. / O presente trabalho de pesquisa tratou de fazer uma análise sobre a Seguridade Social, notadamente no seu eixo da Previdência Social, fazendo uma discussão sobre o impacto do denominado ajuste neoliberal sobre o sistema previdenciário brasileiro. Retomou uma discussão sobre a construção histórica da Previdência, desde a sua instituição formal com a Lei Elóy Chaves, passando pela sua instituição do sistema mais recente, gestado na Assembléia Nacional Constituinte de 1987/88, até chegar às mais recentes reformas e PEC paralela da Previdência (2005). O eixo norteador do trabalho foi construído a partir da tensão apontada entre as lógicas da repartição, produto do texto original da Constituição da República de 1988, e a lógica da capitalização, fundamento do pensamento neoliberal. Aponta para a persistência da tensão e as possíveis alternativas que se impõem ao sistema previdenciário neste início de século.

This thesis is located within the discourse of contemporary, participatory performance. It offers a cultural materialist reading of the relationship between neoliberal capitalism and identity, and its adjunct community, to consider the extent to which participatory performance might challenge the individualistic aspects of the neoliberal ideology. The thesis questions what it means to participate in capitalist democracy in the contemporary moment, interrogates how one might exercise participatory agency both within and outside the theatre space and contemplates the function of participatory performance in a period of democratic discontent. I argue that the case-studies contribute to creating communities of individuals thinking about how to develop capitalist democracy in a more egalitarian direction. The thesis primarily employs close performance analysis of nine case-studies that all occurred in the period 2013-2014. These analyses occur across three chapters that each address a differing form of participation. Chapter One considers the significance of the re-presentation of performer acts of participation within demarcated theatre spaces, challenging the concept of the successfully, aspiring neoliberal identity. Chapter Two focuses on acts of audience participation invited within conventional theatre auditoriums to defamiliarise one’s motivations for acting or not. And Chapter Three centres on immersive performance experiences in which the audience member becomes the art object, inviting them to recognise their indebtedness to others. The thread that coheres this broad cross-section of participatory performance practices is their desire to use the act of participation and the platform of performance to reconceive of what it means to do politics by using artistic and cultural means. Collectively, the case-studies advocate the need for continued co-operation with others and the on-going co-creation of meaning, which eliminates knowing, outcome and end-result, to challenge instrumental understandings of political progress. The thesis conclusion asserts this point by considering the shared theatrical techniques employed across the case-studies that destabilise binary modes of thinking to enhance their ethico-political potential. It also reflects on this argument in light of the election of a majority Conservative (neoliberal) government in 2015.

Ecological economics has arisen over a period of three decades with a strong emphasis on the essential need to recognise the embeddedness of the economy in the biophysical. However, that element of realism is not matched by an equally well informed social theory. Indeed the tendency has been to adopt mainstream economic concepts, theories and models formulated of the basis of a formal mathematical deductivist approach that pays little or no attention to social reality. Similarly mainstream economic methods are employed as pragmatic devices for communication. As a result ecological economics has failed to develop its own consistent and coherent theory and failed to make the link between the social and the economic. In order to reverse this situation the social and political economy must be put to the fore and that is the aim of social ecological economics. This paper provides a brief overview of the arguments for such a development. The prospect is of unifying a range of critical thought on the social and environmental crises with the aim of informing the necessary social ecological transformation of the economy. / Series: SRE - Discussion Papers

International efforts to promote REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest-carbon stocks) have enjoyed widespread support in climate negotiations. While proponents of this ‘payments for ecosystem services’ approach proclaim win-win benefits, others critique this commodification of forest carbon for contributing to social and environmental injustices that will undermine conservation and development in the longer-term. In this dissertation I respond to these concerns by critically examining how REDD+ initiatives emerge in the context of Lindi Region, Tanzania. I specifically investigate how REDD+ initiatives interact with local livelihood practices, local forest governance and the drivers of land use in order to interrogate the mechanism’s contribution to local development. I conducted ethnographic fieldwork in two villages, both characterised by relatively large forest areas and ‘shifting cultivation’, where different REDD+ projects are underway. In total I stayed in Tanzania for 11 months and applied qualitative and quantitative methods that resulted in 116 recorded interviews, one focus group discussion, innumerable journal entries from ethnographic interviewing and participant observation, 118 household surveys and data from document analysis. Drawing on debates within international development and neoliberalisation of nature I conceptualise REDD+ initiatives as processes promoting ‘inclusive’ neoliberal conservation. In doing so I point at the inherent contradictions of this mechanism that aims to combine a neoliberal conservation logic with inclusive development objectives. I empirically examine local livelihood practices to question popular notions of land use and argue that REDD+ initiatives must grapple with poverty, intra-village inequality and villagers’ dependence on land for crop production to contribute to inclusive economic development. I follow up on this argument by discussing the importance of material and discursive effects of REDD+ initiatives to the livelihoods of poor, middle income and wealthy households and to forest conservation. I then link these effects to an examination of how power and politics shape the implementation of REDD+ initiatives on the ground, specifically discussing the technically complex and politically contested process of territorialisation and the local practices of community-based forest management. I illustrate how seemingly technical REDD+ initiatives are inherently political, which gives them the potential to contribute to local empowerment. At the same time I question naïve assumptions over community conservation and good governance reforms by showing in detail how community-based forest management institutions are practiced on the ground and how this affects benefit distribution within the villages. My last empirical chapter examines how Conservation Agriculture is introduced in the villages as the best way to reconcile agricultural development with forest protection. I specifically discuss the role of social relations in shaping the dissemination and adoption of this new technology in rural Tanzania. Throughout this thesis I argue that local livelihood practices, power struggles and politics over land and people shape how REDD+ initiatives, as inherently contradictory processes of ‘inclusive’ neoliberal conservation, emerge on the ground and I empirically show what this means to different forest stakeholders.

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Anti-hegemonic social movements have historically had a complicated and conflicting relationship with mainstream media, as it consistently undermines the emancipatory potential of these grassroots revolutionary movements, hence serving the interests of the dominant social forces of the hegemonic order. This work develops a comprehensive and critical analysis of the agency of mainstream media throughout the coverage of Occupy Wall Street (OWS) to understand how and why it consciously and relentlessly worked to neutralize the true dimension of the movement and its occupations, and thus to preserve the neoliberal capitalist world order from the ideological threat and the revolutionary challenge that OWS posed to it. Employing a historical materialist approach based on Gramsci's theory of hegemony - and the emphasis in the consensual aspect of power in the production of the hegemony that it entails - and its use in the study of world orders grounded in social relations, this work aims to investigate the mainstream media's active role in the building of the current neoliberal capitalist historic bloc, and its subservience to the hegemonic social forces throughout every stage of the coverage of OWS and its occupations: from the deliberate lack of interest and the total indifference in the movement to the...

This thesis is about the making of a power plant. It sheds light on how neoliberal ideas shape large public investments in sustainable energy infrastructure. It tells the story of how the City of Copenhagen decided to build what was claimed to be the greenest waste-fired power plant in the world: Copenhill. The plant was to have a ski slope at the rooftop and a chimney puffing smoke-rings. However, conflicting urban visions and rationalities led to a year-long crisis in the project’s planning phase. In the end, Copenhill was built over capacity, which today makes it difficult to match budget and costs. I combined information from internal municipal documents, interviews with decision makers and informal corridor talk to identify the driving forces behind the outcome of the crisis, and the contradictions and complexities of the case. I found that the crisis had roots in the way the public energy company ARC began to act like a private firm, with an entrepreneurial vision. ARC adopted an expansionist growth plan to build a large power plant with iconic architecture. The Copenhill project attracted local politicians wishing to brand Copenhagen as a green world city. However, the city’s Technical and Environmental Administration (TEA) was guided by a managerial vision with a strong sustainability focus. TEA’s analysis showed that there would not be enough garbage in the city to power the over-sized plant. Consequences for economy and environment were seen as potentially disastrous. Supported by city council and government, TEA tried to stop Copenhill. The clash between the two different urban visions led to the formation of two opposing coalitions with each their own rationality. The contradictions between growth rationality and green rationality caused the Copenhill Crisis. The direct intervention of the power élite in support of a growth solution short-circuited the norms of transparent public decision-making. Bowing to political pressure, TEA produced new documents saying that Copenhill would be great for economy and climate. Dark planning practices led to an outcome that was falsely presented as a compromise between green and growth strategies. It was in fact a growth solution, wrapped in green arguments that were not rational. The case study supports a key proposition in theory on the dark side of planning: that rationality is context-dependent and that the context of rationality is power. The case study adds insights to theory by showing the ways neoliberal thought merges with existing socio-economic conditions in space and time, specifically within a Nordic welfare-state context. It shows how public energy companies can face challenges, not only from neoliberal-driven privatization attempts, but also from ideas of iconicity and city marketing. The case study reaffirms the strength of a Flyvbjergian approach to understand the effects of hidden power mechanisms on planning of public energy infrastructure.

<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>

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This study examines the decision-making processes of residents in Turkey’s urban regeneration projects employing a single case study, namely, Çorum’s Kale neighbourhood. Çorum is a city with 250,000 inhabitants located in Black Sea Region. The aim is to uncover the factors influencing residents’ acceptance or rejection of urban regeneration and the role of the Turkish government in shaping their decisions. The thesis utilizes a Gramscian theoretical framework and mainly focuses on the fluid relationship between consent and coercion (Fusaro et al., 2017). Methods used in this research include reviewing relevant project documents and newspapers, various types of interviews including semi-structured, go-along and expert interviews, field observations, and photographic documentation of the neighbourhood, along with Tillmann-Healy’s (2003) “Friendship as method” approach capitalizing on the trust between neighbours and the researcher’s grandmother who resides in the investigated urban regeneration site. The literature reveals that the main factors shaping residents’ decisions both globally and in Turkey are the extent of resident participation in these initiatives, the presence of neoliberal authoritarian governance, residents’ socioeconomic positioning, cultural identity, tenure status, informal land ownership and perception of benefits like expanded infrastructure along with enhanced living standards, as well as their fears of forced eviction and displacement. On top of these factors, in Turkey, residents’ decisions are also shaped by fear of expropriation, religious and ethnic disparities, varying laws with different powers and the combination of neoliberal authoritarian governance with Islam. The empirical findings of this thesis suggest that the central issues causing Kale neighbourhood’s residents to reject urban regeneration are the absence of economic advantages provided by the government, which involves undervaluing their existing properties, reselling newly constructed relatively smaller units with higher prices and indebting them with substantial mortgages for extended periods. All in all, this thesis finds that residents’ decision-making process is multifaceted, involving a complex interplay of diverse factors that often affect them concurrently, underscoring the necessity for a holistic examination of their motivations. The thesis contributes to the existing literature by presenting a nuanced analysis of decision-making regarding urban regeneration in a highly polarized and contentious context. Furthermore, it adds to existing studies by presenting research on understudied, peripheral geography in Turkey, offering valuable insights into urban regeneration processes outside of the urban centers.