本研究以一个曾经在文革中施暴的红卫兵──李乾的生命传记为个案，以布迪厄的社会实践理论为理论框架，探讨主体参与文革与记忆、反思文革的实践，以及对文革意义的理解，进而理解一系列红卫兵实践（尤其是暴力实践）的逻辑。不同于已有文革研究的精英史和社会史路径，本研究试图发展一种传记取向的文革研究路径，分析个体生命经验与其所处社会情境，红卫兵的惯习与其所处的场域的复杂关系，由此更深刻地理解文革以及无产阶级专政的政治文化。 / 首先，本研究聚焦这些红卫兵文革初期对文革的认知、情感机制与行动策略，指出其实践如何受制于无产阶级专政场域与惯习的作用，如何再生产无产阶级专政的政治文化，即再生产无产阶级专政的象征秩序、权力技术、话语方式与组织机制，如何再生产文革"武斗"的直接暴力与"文斗"的话语暴力。并且，本研究试图说明早期"造反者"的"造反"动力来自其与老红卫兵在革命资格竞争中的"相对剥夺感"；这种"造反"并不是为了反抗主流的象征秩序，而是努力争取自身在这套象征秩序中的优势位置和资本。 / 其次，本研究探讨主体生命经验中关键性的暴力事件──"一二.五"事件的实际发生过程，分析"一二.五"事件中这些红卫兵对暴力的认知与情感，以及暴力如何被合法化及赋权，其中的专政对象──"流氓"是如何被建构与想象的，由此揭示特定的政治文化脉络中主体的贱斥动力以及这一暴力实践的逻辑。红卫兵暴力惯习的形塑，不仅受制于文革的革命场域的作用，更受制于建国以来历时性的无产阶级专政场域的作用；同时，这一惯习的运作又在维持和再生产无产阶级专政的政治文化。 / 此外，本研究探讨主体在"一二.五"事件后，如何在一系列社会互动的过程中，逐步实现了意识的转化和主体性变迁，如何从符号中介的生命经验中引入新的认知与情感机制重新理解"一二.五"事件、文革以及无产阶级专政的政治文化。这种批判性的反思实践与主体所处行动场域中的社会位置以及所能接收的多元的、异质性的符号资源密切相关，可以形塑主体惯习的转化，生产新的社会实践以及相应社会关系的改变。 / 最后，本研究试图将当下民间文革记忆与反思实践置于文革与后文革、毛时代与后毛时代的连续性与转型的关系之中，指出为民间记忆与反思实践赋权的政治文化意义。这一反记忆实践不仅打捞普通人被遗忘的、被边缘化的文革记忆，也介入对历史与现实的批判，积极争取个体对历史的话语权，与对现实政治、文化的参与权。 / Taking the life biography of a former Red Guard Li Qian who committed violence during the Cultural Revolution (CR) as a case, this research employs Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of social practice to explore the Red Guards’ participatory, mnemonic and reflective practices during the CR, as well as their understanding of the CR, with the aim of further understanding the logics of the Red Guards’ practices (especially their violent practices). Different from the traditional approaches of political history and social history, this study attempts to develop a biography approach to study the CR. It analyzes the complex relations between individuals’ life experiences and their social contexts, between the Red Guards’ habitus and the specific field, to understand the political culture of the CR and the Proletarian Dictatorship. / First, this study focuses on the Red Guards’ cognitive and emotional mechanism and action strategy during the early days of the CR. It investigates how their practices are subject to the conditioning of the field and habitus of the Proletarian Dictatorship, how they reproduce the political culture of Proletarian Dictatorship in terms of its symbolic order, power technology, discourse mode, and organizational mechanism, and how they reproduce the physical and discursive violence of the CR. This thesis also maintains that the dynamics of the early "rebels" were derived from their feelings of relative deprivation in the contest with the old Red Guards for revolutionary recognition. These "rebels" did not aim to resist the mainstream symbolic order, but to strive for the dominant position and capitals in the symbolic order of the CR. / Second, this study probes into the actual process of the "December Fifth" Event that was the most important life experience of Li Qian. It analyzes the Red Guards’ cognitive and emotional mechanism towards violence, how the violence was legitimized and empowered in this event, and how the images of the so-called "hooligan" were constructed and imagined. It reveals the dynamic of the subject’s abjection in the context of the specific political culture, and the logic of the violent practice. On the one hand, the Red Guards’ violent habitus was not only subject to the conditioning of the field of the Proletarian Dictatorship but also to the conditioning of the field of the CR. On the other hand, the operation of the violent habitus also maintained and reproduced the political culture of the Proletarian Dictatorship. / Third, this study examines how Li Qian realized the transformation of the consciousness and subjectivity through a series of social interaction. It also taps into his new cognitive and emotional mechanism developed under the symbolic mediation of his actual life experiences, thus understanding the "December Fifth" Event, as well as the political culture of the CR and the Proletarian Dictatorship. The critical reflective practice was closely related to the subject’s social position in the specific field and the diverse, heterogeneous symbolic resources that he absorbed. They shaped the transformation of the habitus, producing new social practices and the corresponding changes of social relations. / Finally, by putting the practices of popular memory and reflection on the CR into the continuity and the transformation between the CR and the Post-CR, and between the Maoist era and the Post-Mao era, this thesis emphasizes the political and cultural significance of these practices. These counter-memory practices not only dig into and revive the forgotten and marginalized memories of the CR, but also engage with historical and contemporary criticism, and actively assent the ordinary people’s rights to speak their histories and to participate in the current politics and culture. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / 袁梦倩. / Parallel title from added title page. / Thesis (Ph.D.) Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2015. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 268-283). / Abstracts also in English. / Yuan Mengqian.

Techronomicon Techronomicon is a science fiction novel that examines far-future military actions from several different perspectives. Human beings have colonized several planets with help from the enigmatic and more technologically advanced Zhir, who gave spaceships and habitable worlds to those they deemed suitable and their descendants. The Joint Expeditionary Force is the military arm of the Universal Faith, called in when conflicts arise that the Faith decides are beyond the local government and militia and require their intervention. Leneveldt and Roader are JEF officers assigned to Operation Techronomicon, investigating what seems to be a Zhir-built defence shield around the planet Lassana. Another JEF company sent to Kalaabhavan after the murder of the planets Confessor-General loses its CO to a land-mine, and Lieutenant Hellerman reluctantly accepts command. Chevalier, a civilian pilot, takes refugees fleeing military-run detention camps on Ararat to a biological research station on otherwise uninhabited Lila. The biologists on Lila discover a symbiote that enables humans to photosynthesize, which comes to the attention of Operation Techronomicon and the JEF's Weapons Research Division. Leneveldt and Roeder, frustrated by the lack of progress on Lassana, are sent to Lila to detain the biologists, who flee into the swamps. Hellerman's efforts to restore peace on Kalaabhavan are frustrated by the Confessors, and his company finds itself besieged by insurgents. The novel explores individuals' motives for choosing or rejecting violence and/or military service; the lessons they learn about themselves and their enemies; and the possible results of attempts to forcibly suppress ideas.

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This dissertation analyzes the production of the Concrete and Madí artists, who were active in Argentina in the 1940s and 50s. Concrete and Madí artists proposed, for the first time in this country, the need for an art that was completely different from representational and expressionist art, and they believed that their "inventions," both visual and linguistic, could foster social change. Many aspects of the journal Arturo, published in 1944, and of Concrete and Madí art continue to be a puzzle, such as their relation with past and contemporary artistic and intellectual productions, their relation with the volatile Argentine political climate of the 1940s and 50s, and their ultimate artistic significance. This study interprets the propositions of these artists as responsive to phenomena they experienced in an immediate manner in the time and place in which they lived. The dissertation thus contextualizes Concrete and Madí art in five scenarios: publications by Spanish emigres and Argentine writers which explored the concepts of "automatism" and "invention;" discourses about "Nazism" and "democracy," and about "civilization" and "barbarism" that emerged through literary periodicals of the mid-1940s; political propaganda displayed under the rule of Juan Domingo Perón (1946-1955); the development of modern-looking and functional architecture fostered by Peronist architectural policies; and the artists' dialogues with the ideas of musicians then living in Argentina and Brazil. Ultimately, the dissertation constructs dialogues between specific instances of Argentine cultural and political history of the 1940s and 50s, and a selection of Concrete and Madí works and writings.

Since the emergence of the Internet, scholars have had mixed opinions regarding its role in influencing levels of political participation. Two frameworks, the mobilization and the reinforcement theses, were created from these opposing views. The introduction of social networking websites (such as Facebook) offers new platforms with which to test these opposing theories on. This study investigates the Facebook group ―Canadian‘s against Proroguing Parliament,‖ to determine: 1) what the members' motivations were for participating in the group, 2) whether the group attracted formerly marginalized voices to participate on the group, or simply reinforced those who were already active in the political process, and 3) whether the participation of members on the group translated into offline or real world political participation. The findings suggest that the group‘s members had a variety of reasons for joining the group. As well, the findings suggest that the group both mobilized reinforced its participants. Finally, the data indicates that in some instances, the group‘s members translated their online participation into real world political activity. / 171 leaves ; 29 cm

This thesis explores the ways in which modern history-writing practices reiterate race-based categories of citizenship. To investigate these practices across time, I have examined discourses produced by the United Farm Women of Alberta (UFWA) in 1925, and discourses produced by the contemporary magazine American Renaissance (AR). The UFWA were concerned with the promotion and definition of citizenship, and in so doing laid race as a foundation of Canadian identity. AR is a magazine that concerns itself with white nationalism in the contemporary United States. Drawing upon Avery Gordon and Wendy Brown’s theories of history and haunting, I have situated these discourses in imaginative relation to one another, illuminating the “past” in the present. I have also critically examined how I am complicit in reproducing the historical practices under study; as an architecture of history, haunting helps to imagine alternatives for the study of history and social life, particularly our own. / vii, 160 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm

HIV/AIDS is a deadly disease that needs to be addressed with immediate effect before serious damage can occur. Because the government has a responsibility over the health of its citizens, everybody expects the government to take a lead in the fight against this epidemic and from the look of things the government's strategies are not making the desired impact on the epidemic. The author attempted to highlight that the South African government has not played a satisfactory role in the fight against this pandemic, which threatens to alter history to a degree not seen in the world.

M.A. (History) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

This dissertation analyzes several topics related to political life in ethnically divided societies. In chapter 2, I study the relationship between ethnic social conflict, such as protests, riots, and armed inter-ethnic violence, and bloc partisan identification. I find that protests have no effect on bloc support for political parties, riots increase bloc partisan identification, and that armed violence reduces this phenomenon. In chapter 3, I analyze the factors that influence the targeting of ethnic groups by ethnic parties in social conflict. I find some empirical evidence that conditions favorable to vote pooling across ethnic lines reduce group targeting by ethnic parties. In chapter 4, I analyze the effects of ethnic demography on ethnic party behavior. Through a qualitative analysis of party behavior in local elections in Macedonia, I find that ethnic parties change their strategies in response to changes in ethnic demography. I find that co-ethnic parties are less likely to challenge each other for power under conditions of split demography. In fact, under conditions of split demography, I find that co-ethnic parties have political incentives to unite behind a single party because intra-group competition jeopardizes the group's hold on power.

This study examines the ways in which museums and memorials within South African society commemorate events of the past. Various examples of museums and memorials are chosen and identified according to the ways in which they embody postmodern or modern thought. Postmodern and modern museums are deconstructed according to various post-structural tenets so as to arrive at a broader understanding on how they are able to remain a continuously relevant and vital part of contemporary society. / Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology / M.A. (Art History)