Tourism visits to sites associated to varying degrees with death and dying have for some time inspired academic debate and research into what has come to be popularly described as ‘dark tourism’. Research to date has been based on the mobilisation of various social scientific methodologies to understand issues such as the motivations of visitors to consume dark tourism experiences and visitor interpretations of the various narratives that are part of the consumption experience. This thesis offers an alternative conceptual perspective for carrying out research into museums that represent genocide and occupation by presenting a discourse analysis of five Lithuanian museums which share this overchig theme using Foucault’s concept of ‘discursive formation’ from ‘Archaeology of Knowledge’. A constructivist methodology is therefore applied to locate the rhetorical representations of Lithuanian and Jewish subject positions and to identify the objects of discourse that are produced in five museums that interpret an historical era defined by occupation, the persecution of people and genocide. The discourses and consequent cultural function of these museums is examined and the key finding of the research proposes that they authorise a particular Lithuanian individualism which marginalises the Jewish subject position and its related objects of discourse into abstraction. The thesis suggests that these museums create the possibility to undermine the ontological stability of Holocaust and the Jewish-Lithuanian subject which is produced as an anomalous, ‘non-Lithuanian’ cultural reference point. As with any Foucauldian archaeological research, it cannot be offered as something that is ‘complete’ since it captures only a partial field, or snapshot of knowledge, bound to a specific temporal and spatial context. The discourses that have been identified are perhaps part of a more elusive ‘positivity’ which is salient across a number of cultural and political surfaces which are ripe for a similar analytical approach in future. It is hoped that the study will motivate others to follow a discourse-analytical approach to research in order to further understand the critical role of museums in public culture when it comes to shaping knowledge about ‘inconvenient’ pasts.

[pt] Esta dissertação objetiva problematizar o conceito de poder presente na filosofia de Michel Foucault a fim de mostrar as suas conseqüências para se pensar o político na Teoria de Relações Internacionais (RI). Busca, desse modo, aprofundar o diálogo com as vertentes críticas que contestam os pressupostos do realismo desde a década de 80. Mesmo se tais perspectivas já obtiveram certa visibilidade na área de Teoria das Relações Internacionais, as teorias que seguem o pós-estruturalismo continuam confinadas às margens do pensamento de RI. A presente dissertação busca, portanto, explorar o conceito chave do pensamento de Foucault, o poder, para expor tanto os pressupostos quanto as implicações de sua utilização para se pensar a política global. Por meio da análise do modo com que Foucault trabalha o conceito de poder, conclui-se que o filósofo apaga, em grande medida, as fronteiras normativas entre os conceitos de poder e violência. Como conseqüência dessa indiferenciação conceitual, Foucault concebe o fenômeno político como campo de forças, como acontecimento estratégico ou como a continuação da guerra por outros meios. Pretende-se, por meio deste trabalho, pensar acerca da desejabilidade normativa de tal concepção política e de sua capacidade de prover um modelo capaz de constituir alternativa ao realismo em RI. A dissertação contrapõe, finalmente, a visão do político de Foucault a visões que outras perspectivas críticas, como aquelas inspiradas pelos trabalhos da Escola de Frankfurt, oferecem para se pensar um novo paradigma teórico e prático para a política global. / [en] This dissertation problematizes the concept of power present in Michel Foucault`s philosophy in order to show its consequences for thinking the political in International Relations (IR) Theory. It seeks to deepen the dialogue with the critical perspectives that question the assumptions of realism since the 1980s. Even if such critical perspectives have already obtained some visibility in International Relations Theory, poststructuralist theories remain confined to the margins of IR thought. This dissertation seeks, consequently, to explore the key concept of Foucault`s thought, power, in order to reveal its assumptions as well as its implications for thinking abou global politics. By means of the analysis of the way Foucault constructs his concept of power, we arrive at the conclusion that the philosopher erases the normative borders between the concepts of power and violence. As a consequence of his conceptual indifferentiation, Foucault conceives the political phenomenon as a field of forces, as a strategic event or as a war continued by other means. This work seeks to question the normative desirability of such a conception of the political and about its capacity to provide an alternative model do realism in IR. This dissertation opposes, finally, Foucault`s vision of the political to visions that other critical perspectives, such as those inspired by the works of the Frankfurt School, offer to help us think another theoretical and practical paradigm for global politics.

A Guerra ao Terror é, até hoje, objeto de vasta literatura que busca entender e explicar suas múltiplas dimensões e suas implicações para a política externa norte-americana. Alinhados à crítica pós-moderna/pós-estruturalista das Relações Internacionais e influenciados por autores críticos como David Campbell, Richard Ashley, Robert Walker, William Connolly, Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe e Richard Jackson, buscamos problematizar o papel dos discursos na construção social da realidade, das identidades e dos interesses com o objetivo de compreender as condições de possibilidade da Guerra ao Terror no pós-Onze de Setembro. Ao adotarmos uma concepção de política externa como prática social de construção de um sistema de representações e de significados, que reproduz uma identidade nacional sustentada em uma ideologia específica, buscamos identificar como os discursos tentam estabilizar e fixar sentidos para impor e naturalizar estruturas de poder dominantes. Assim, interpretamos que a Guerra ao Terror somente se tornou possível devido à existência de um discurso de americanidade capaz de dar inteligibilidade à realidade após a crise de significados do Onze de Setembro. Trata-se de um discurso de americanos sobre americanos e sobre a América que, por meio de formações imaginárias criadoras de realidades, sujeitos, objetos, ações e relações, regula o que pode ser pensado, dito, compreendido e concebido com base em uma posição específica em um determinado momento histórico. Entendemos que tal discurso exterioriza uma formação discursiva específica de genealogia puritana que acaba reproduzida nas práticas de política externa norte-americana. Pelo emprego de métodos de análise discursiva, demonstraremos como o discurso da Guerra ao Terror reproduz a estrutura de significados, narrativas, mitos e representações dos sermões políticos típicos dos puritanos da América Colonial do século XVII: os jeremíadas. Apesar da afirmação quanto à separação entre Igreja e Estado, entendemos que os Estados Unidos da América, por meio de suas práticas de política externa, constroem sua identidade nacional como ideologicamente puritana. / The War on Terror has been the object of a large literature concerned with the understanding and explaining of its multiple dimensions and implications for U.S. foreign policy. However, most of it has been committed to the dominant theoretical framework of the so-called Neo-Neo Debate, and thus not problematizing key concepts like State, identity, interest, and reality. Inspired by the so-called Third Debate, we revisit the subject of the War on Terror inspired by post-modern/post-structuralist critics such as David Campbell, Robert Walker, William Connolly, Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe, and Richard Jackson, among others. Focusing on the role of discourse and power in socially constructing reality, identities, and interests, we attempt to understand the conditions of possibility of the War on Terror in the aftermath of 9/11. We will argue that foreign policy constitutes a system of meanings and representations that (re)produces a national identity based on a specific ideology, in a never-ending attempt to stabilize and fix meanings in order to discursively impose and naturalize dominant structures of power. Therefore, we believe that the War on Terror has only become possible due to the existence of a discourse on Americanness capable of rendering reality once again intelligible after 9/11. It is a discourse of Americans about America and Americans, which, through imaginary formations that create realities, subjects, actions, and relationships, regulate what can be thought, said, understood, and conceived from a specific position in a particular moment in time. We believe that this discourse is made possible by a specific ideological formation of an essentially Puritan matrix which is (re)produced through practices of U.S. foreign policy. By employing methods of discourse analysis, we will show how the discourse on the War on Terror emulates the meanings, narratives, symbols, and representations of the typical Puritan political sermons of the 1600s Colonial America: the jeremiads. Despite claims of separation between State and religion, we believe that the United States of America, through its practices of foreign policy, constructs its national identity as ideologically Puritan.

Urban gardening is a phenomenon that increasingly occupies the limited space in cities. In discourse, urban gardening is constructed as a positive element and as something that can build a productive environment in urban areas. However, using urban space for gardening raises questions about the delimitations of public space. This thesis examines the boundaries for gardening practices in urban public space by mapping out the dominant descriptions of the phenomenon and then analyzing how some articulations make it possible for citizens to claim urban space for gardening. The study uses an ethnographic approach and the empirical material includes participant observations at an urban garden in Stockholm as well as articulations found in the media, interviews, and social media posts as well as participant observations at urban gardens, expos and seminars on urban gardening. The theoretical framework is informed by poststructuralist discourse theory, psychoanalysis and critical geography. The main results show that urban gardens renegotiate boundaries of property due to their semi-public character. Furthermore, affective bindings in the garden create a fantasy of an authentic relationship with nature, which gives force to the positive discourse of urban gardening and makes it possible for urban gardens to inhabit urban public space. / <p>In the printed version of the thesis the series names <em>Linköping Studies in Arts and Sciences, Licentiate Thesis</em> and <em>Faculty of Arts and Sciences Thesis</em> are incorrcet. Correct series name is <em>FiF-avhandling - Filosofiska fakulteten – Linköpings universitet</em>. The series namnes are corrected in the online version of the thesis.</p>

In the 29 years following \"Our Common Future\" by the United Nations, there is considerable debate among governments, civil society, interest groups and business organisations about what constitutes sustainable development, which constitutes evidence for a contested discourse concerning sustainability. The purpose of this study is to understand this debate in the developing economic context of Brazil, and in particular, to understand and critique the social and environmental accounting [SEA] discursive constructions relating to the State-owned, Petrobras as well as to understand the Brazilian literature on SEA. The discourse theory [DT]-based analysis employs rhetorical redescription to analyse twenty-two reports from Petrobras from 2004-2013. I investigate the political notions by employing the methodological framework of the Logics of Critical Explanation [LCE]. LCE engenders five methodological steps: problematisation, retroduction, logics (social, political and fantasmatic), articulation and critique. The empirical discussion suggests that the hegemony of economic development operates to obfuscate, rhetorically, the development of sustainability, so as to maintain the core business of Petrobras conceived as capital accumulation. Equally, these articulations also illustrate how the constructions of SEA operate to serve the company\'s purpose with few (none) profound changes in integration of sustainability. The Brazilian literature on SEA sustains the status quo of neo-liberal market policies that operate to protect the dominant business case approach to maintain an agenda of wealth-creation in relation to social and environmental needs. The articulations of the case manifested in policies regarding, for example, corruption, which involved over-payments for contracts and unsustainable practices relating to the use of fossil fuels and demonstrated that there was antagonism between action and disclosure. The corruption scandal that emerged after SEA disclosures highlighted the rhetorical nature of disclosure when financial resources were subtracted from the company for political parties and engineering contractors hid facts through incomplete disclosures. The articulations of SEA misrepresent a broader context of the meanings associated with sustainability, which restricted the constructions of SEA to principally serve and represent the intention of the most powerful groups. The significance of SEA, then is narrowed to represent particular interests. The study argues for more critical studies as limited Brazilian literature concerning SEA kept a \'safe distance\' from substantively critiquing the constructions of SEA and its articulations in the Brazilian context. The literature review and the Petrobras\' case illustrate a variety of naming, instituting and articulatory practices that endeavour to maintain the current hegemony of development in an emerging economy, which allows Petrobras to continue to exercise significant profit at the expense of the social and environmental. The constructed idea of development in Petrobras\' discourses emphasises a rhetoric of wider development, but, in reality, these discourses were the antithesis of political, social and ethical developmental issues. These constructions aim to hide struggles between social inequalities and exploitation of natural resources and constitute excuses about a fanciful notion of rhetorical and hegemonic neo-liberal development. In summary, this thesis contributes to the prior literature in five ways: (i) the addition of DT to the analysis of SEA enhances the discussion of political elements such as hegemony, antagonism, logic of equivalence/difference, ideology and articulation; (ii) the analysis of an emerging economy such as Brazil incorporates a new perspective of the discussion of the discourses of SEA and development; (iii) this thesis includes a focus on rhetoric to discuss the maintenance of the status quo; (iv) the holistic structure of the LCE approach enlarges the understanding of the social, political and fantasmatic logics of SEA studies and; (v) this thesis combines an analysis of the literature and the case of Petrobras to characterise and critique the state of the Brazilian academy and its impacts and reflections on the significance of SEA. This thesis, therefore, argues for more critical studies in the Brazilian academy due to the persistence of idea of SEA and development that takes-for-granted deep exclusions and contradictions and provide little space for critiques. / Em 29 anos da publicação \"Nosso Futuro Comum\" apresentado pelas Nações Unidas, ainda há um considerável debate entre governos, sociedade civil, grupos interessados e organizações empresariais sobre o que constitui o desenvolvimento sustentável e, portanto, há evidência da contestabilidade do discurso sobre sustentabilidade. A proposta desse estudo é entender esse debate em um contexto de desenvolvimento econômico no Brasil e, em particular, entender e criticar as construções discursivas de contabilidade social e ambiental [CSA] relacionadas à estatal Petrobras, assim como discutir a literatura brasileira de CSA. A análise baseada na Discourse Theory [DT] usa redescrição retórica para analisar vinte e dois relatórios da Petrobras entre 2004 e 2013. Eu investigo as noções políticas através do emprego da metodologia chamada Logics of Critical Explanation [LCE]. A LCE tem cinco passos metodológico: problematização, explicação retrodutiva, lógicas (sociais, políticas e fantasmáticas), articulação e crítica. Os resultados sugerem que a hegemonia do desenvolvimento econômico opera para obscurecer retoricamente o desenvolvimento da sustentabilidade que mantém o core business da Petrobras igualmente concebido como acumulação de capital. Igualmente, essas articulações também ilustram como as construções de CSA operam para servir o propósito da empresa com pouca (ou nenhuma) profunda mudança na integração com a sustentabilidade. A literatura brasileira de CSA sustenta o status quo de políticas de mercado neoliberais que operam para proteger a dominante abordagem do business case para manter a agenda de geração de riqueza num cenário de necessidade sociais e ambientais. As articulações do estudo de caso manifestaram essas políticas, por exemplo, em relação à corrupção, no qual envolveu superfaturamento de contratos e práticas insustentáveis relacionadas ao uso de combustíveis fósseis os quais demonstraram que há antagonismo entre ação e disclosure. O escândalo de corrupção que surgiu após as divulgações de CSA marcou a natureza retórica do disclosure em que recursos financeiros subtraídos da empresa para partidos políticos e empreiteiras esconderam fatos através de disclosures incompletos. As articulações da CSA deturpam um contexto amplo dos significados associados com a sustentabilidade, que restringiram as construções da CSA para principalmente servir e representar a intenção dos grupos mais poderosos. A significância da CSA é, portanto, limitada para representar interesses particulares. O estudo argumenta por mais estudos críticos já que a limitada literatura brasileira sobre CSA mantém uma \'distância segura\' de substantivas críticas das construções de CSA e suas articulações no contexto brasileiro. A revisão da literatura e o caso da Petrobras ilustram a variedade de nomes, instituições e práticas articulatórias que se esforçam para manter a atual hegemonia de desenvolvimento numa economia emergente que permite à Petrobras continuar a exercer significante lucro à custa do social e do meio ambiente. A ideia construída de desenvolvimento nos discursos da Petrobras enfatiza uma retórica ampla de desenvolvimento, mas, na realidade, esses discursos são antíteses de questões políticas, sociais e éticas de desenvolvimento. Essas construções objetivam esconder as lutas entre desigualdades sociais e exploração dos recursos naturais as quais constituem pretextos sobre uma fantasiosa noção de desenvolvimento retórico, hegemônico e neoliberal. Em resumo, esta tese contribui para a antecedente literatura em cinco principais aspectos: (i) a adição da DT para a análise da CSA engrandece a discussão de elementos políticos tais como hegemonia, antagonismo, lógica de equivalência/diferença, ideologia e articulação; (ii) a análise de uma economia emergente como o Brasil incorpora uma nova perspectiva nas discussões dos discursos da CSA e do desenvolvimento; (iii) esta tese também inclui um foco na retórica para discutir a manutenção do status quo; (iv) a estrutura holística da abordagem LCE amplia os entendimentos das lógicas sociais, políticas e fantasmáticas dos estudos de CSA e; (v) esta tese combina uma análise da literatura e do caso da Petrobras para caracterizar e criticar o estado da academia brasileira e seus impactos e reflexos na significância da CSA. Esta tese, portanto, argumenta por mais estudos críticos na academia brasileira devido à persistente ideia de desenvolvimento que taken-for-granted profundas exclusões e contradições e proporciona pouco espaço para críticas.

Essa pesquisa parte da percepção, cada vez mais acentuada, da centralidade que alguns conceitos formulados pelo filósofo Gilles Deleuze e pelo psicanalista Félix Guattari têm tido no pensamento educacional brasileiro. Não é difícil depararmos com apropriações de conceitos tais como nomadismo, devir, cartografia, rizoma, platôs, micropolítica, desterritorialização e tantos outros. A apropriação do conceitual deleuze-guattariano tem produzido deslocamentos e inspirado procedimentos analíticos diversos daqueles que tomaram corpo no início dos anos 1990, no seio dos estudos denominados de póscríticos, abrindo espaço para aquilo que denominamos de experimentações do pensamento. Procurando erigir uma crítica capaz de afectar o leitor e levá-lo a produção um pensamento outro, mais do que conduzi-lo à constatação de uma verdade presente alhures, a produção que tem se valido da filosofia de Deleuze e Guattari assume contornos analíticos até então inéditos, experimentando o intensivo que os conceitos elaborados pela dupla de autores comportam. Diante desse cenário, da imensa miríade de escritos que vemos surgir a cada dia articulando de maneira inusitada o pensamento da diferença de Deleuze e Guattari a tópicos educacionais, faz-se necessário interpelar essa literatura de forma a apreender sua singularidade e os novos procedimentos analíticos resultantes desse cruzamento. Dessa forma, buscaremos apresentar uma problematização dos estudos de cunho deleuze-guattarianos no campo educacional brasileiro, focalizando para tanto os artigos publicados nos 44 melhores conceituados periódicos acadêmicos da área de acordo com a tabela Qualis 2013 entre os anos 1990 e 2013. Orientado por uma abordagem pós-estruturalista em educação, trata-se de um estudo crítico fundamentado nos conceitos de arquivo e problematização, ambos oriundos do legado do pensador francês Michel Foucault; tendo por objetivo apreender as condições de emergência da literatura deleuzeana na seara educacional, tomamos como referência analítica a seguinte questão frente ao fundo documental dos periódicos indexados: de que maneira a produção acadêmica educacional tem experimentado a necessidade de deleuzear ou guattariar ou deleuze-guattariar? / This research aims at developing an analisys about the importance of the concepts formulated by Deleuze and Deleuze-Guattari in Brazilian educational thought. It is not difficult, in academic articles, to come across with concepts such as nomadism, devir, cartography, rhizome, plateaus, deterritorialization and many others. The appropriation of the conceptual deleuze-guattarian has produced displacements and inspired analytical procedures other than those that took shape in the early 1990s , within the study called \"post- critical\" , paving the way for what we call trials of thought. Looking erect a critical able to affect the reader and get him to produce a thought the other , rather than lead him to the discovery of a truth this elsewhere, a production that has been using the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari assumes analytical contours hitherto unpublished , experiencing intensive that the concepts developed by the duo of authors behave . Given this \"deleuzean\" shadow which hovers over the field such as the myriad of writings that we see emerging every day, it is necessary to question this literature in order to set up a possible horizon of dissemination of such thinking in Brazilian education academic production. Therefore, we try to present a problematization of deleuz-guattarian studies in Brazilian educational field, focusing on the top 44 articles published in reputable journals in the area - according to the table Qualis 2013 - between 1990 and 2013. Guided by a post-structuralist approach in education, this research is a critical study which is grounded in an interrogational sitting here on the concepts of file and problematization which comes from the legacy of French thinker Michel Foucault. Our objective is to apprehend the emergency conditions of this Deleuzian literature in the educational studies. We submit the following analytical question to the archive of journals indexed: how educational scholarship has experienced the need for deleuzear or guattariar or deleuze-guattariniar?

A Guerra ao Terror é, até hoje, objeto de vasta literatura que busca entender e explicar suas múltiplas dimensões e suas implicações para a política externa norte-americana. Alinhados à crítica pós-moderna/pós-estruturalista das Relações Internacionais e influenciados por autores críticos como David Campbell, Richard Ashley, Robert Walker, William Connolly, Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe e Richard Jackson, buscamos problematizar o papel dos discursos na construção social da realidade, das identidades e dos interesses com o objetivo de compreender as condições de possibilidade da Guerra ao Terror no pós-Onze de Setembro. Ao adotarmos uma concepção de política externa como prática social de construção de um sistema de representações e de significados, que reproduz uma identidade nacional sustentada em uma ideologia específica, buscamos identificar como os discursos tentam estabilizar e fixar sentidos para impor e naturalizar estruturas de poder dominantes. Assim, interpretamos que a Guerra ao Terror somente se tornou possível devido à existência de um discurso de americanidade capaz de dar inteligibilidade à realidade após a crise de significados do Onze de Setembro. Trata-se de um discurso de americanos sobre americanos e sobre a América que, por meio de formações imaginárias criadoras de realidades, sujeitos, objetos, ações e relações, regula o que pode ser pensado, dito, compreendido e concebido com base em uma posição específica em um determinado momento histórico. Entendemos que tal discurso exterioriza uma formação discursiva específica de genealogia puritana que acaba reproduzida nas práticas de política externa norte-americana. Pelo emprego de métodos de análise discursiva, demonstraremos como o discurso da Guerra ao Terror reproduz a estrutura de significados, narrativas, mitos e representações dos sermões políticos típicos dos puritanos da América Colonial do século XVII: os jeremíadas. Apesar da afirmação quanto à separação entre Igreja e Estado, entendemos que os Estados Unidos da América, por meio de suas práticas de política externa, constroem sua identidade nacional como ideologicamente puritana. / The War on Terror has been the object of a large literature concerned with the understanding and explaining of its multiple dimensions and implications for U.S. foreign policy. However, most of it has been committed to the dominant theoretical framework of the so-called Neo-Neo Debate, and thus not problematizing key concepts like State, identity, interest, and reality. Inspired by the so-called Third Debate, we revisit the subject of the War on Terror inspired by post-modern/post-structuralist critics such as David Campbell, Robert Walker, William Connolly, Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe, and Richard Jackson, among others. Focusing on the role of discourse and power in socially constructing reality, identities, and interests, we attempt to understand the conditions of possibility of the War on Terror in the aftermath of 9/11. We will argue that foreign policy constitutes a system of meanings and representations that (re)produces a national identity based on a specific ideology, in a never-ending attempt to stabilize and fix meanings in order to discursively impose and naturalize dominant structures of power. Therefore, we believe that the War on Terror has only become possible due to the existence of a discourse on Americanness capable of rendering reality once again intelligible after 9/11. It is a discourse of Americans about America and Americans, which, through imaginary formations that create realities, subjects, actions, and relationships, regulate what can be thought, said, understood, and conceived from a specific position in a particular moment in time. We believe that this discourse is made possible by a specific ideological formation of an essentially Puritan matrix which is (re)produced through practices of U.S. foreign policy. By employing methods of discourse analysis, we will show how the discourse on the War on Terror emulates the meanings, narratives, symbols, and representations of the typical Puritan political sermons of the 1600s Colonial America: the jeremiads. Despite claims of separation between State and religion, we believe that the United States of America, through its practices of foreign policy, constructs its national identity as ideologically Puritan.

In the 29 years following \"Our Common Future\" by the United Nations, there is considerable debate among governments, civil society, interest groups and business organisations about what constitutes sustainable development, which constitutes evidence for a contested discourse concerning sustainability. The purpose of this study is to understand this debate in the developing economic context of Brazil, and in particular, to understand and critique the social and environmental accounting [SEA] discursive constructions relating to the State-owned, Petrobras as well as to understand the Brazilian literature on SEA. The discourse theory [DT]-based analysis employs rhetorical redescription to analyse twenty-two reports from Petrobras from 2004-2013. I investigate the political notions by employing the methodological framework of the Logics of Critical Explanation [LCE]. LCE engenders five methodological steps: problematisation, retroduction, logics (social, political and fantasmatic), articulation and critique. The empirical discussion suggests that the hegemony of economic development operates to obfuscate, rhetorically, the development of sustainability, so as to maintain the core business of Petrobras conceived as capital accumulation. Equally, these articulations also illustrate how the constructions of SEA operate to serve the company\'s purpose with few (none) profound changes in integration of sustainability. The Brazilian literature on SEA sustains the status quo of neo-liberal market policies that operate to protect the dominant business case approach to maintain an agenda of wealth-creation in relation to social and environmental needs. The articulations of the case manifested in policies regarding, for example, corruption, which involved over-payments for contracts and unsustainable practices relating to the use of fossil fuels and demonstrated that there was antagonism between action and disclosure. The corruption scandal that emerged after SEA disclosures highlighted the rhetorical nature of disclosure when financial resources were subtracted from the company for political parties and engineering contractors hid facts through incomplete disclosures. The articulations of SEA misrepresent a broader context of the meanings associated with sustainability, which restricted the constructions of SEA to principally serve and represent the intention of the most powerful groups. The significance of SEA, then is narrowed to represent particular interests. The study argues for more critical studies as limited Brazilian literature concerning SEA kept a \'safe distance\' from substantively critiquing the constructions of SEA and its articulations in the Brazilian context. The literature review and the Petrobras\' case illustrate a variety of naming, instituting and articulatory practices that endeavour to maintain the current hegemony of development in an emerging economy, which allows Petrobras to continue to exercise significant profit at the expense of the social and environmental. The constructed idea of development in Petrobras\' discourses emphasises a rhetoric of wider development, but, in reality, these discourses were the antithesis of political, social and ethical developmental issues. These constructions aim to hide struggles between social inequalities and exploitation of natural resources and constitute excuses about a fanciful notion of rhetorical and hegemonic neo-liberal development. In summary, this thesis contributes to the prior literature in five ways: (i) the addition of DT to the analysis of SEA enhances the discussion of political elements such as hegemony, antagonism, logic of equivalence/difference, ideology and articulation; (ii) the analysis of an emerging economy such as Brazil incorporates a new perspective of the discussion of the discourses of SEA and development; (iii) this thesis includes a focus on rhetoric to discuss the maintenance of the status quo; (iv) the holistic structure of the LCE approach enlarges the understanding of the social, political and fantasmatic logics of SEA studies and; (v) this thesis combines an analysis of the literature and the case of Petrobras to characterise and critique the state of the Brazilian academy and its impacts and reflections on the significance of SEA. This thesis, therefore, argues for more critical studies in the Brazilian academy due to the persistence of idea of SEA and development that takes-for-granted deep exclusions and contradictions and provide little space for critiques. / Em 29 anos da publicação \"Nosso Futuro Comum\" apresentado pelas Nações Unidas, ainda há um considerável debate entre governos, sociedade civil, grupos interessados e organizações empresariais sobre o que constitui o desenvolvimento sustentável e, portanto, há evidência da contestabilidade do discurso sobre sustentabilidade. A proposta desse estudo é entender esse debate em um contexto de desenvolvimento econômico no Brasil e, em particular, entender e criticar as construções discursivas de contabilidade social e ambiental [CSA] relacionadas à estatal Petrobras, assim como discutir a literatura brasileira de CSA. A análise baseada na Discourse Theory [DT] usa redescrição retórica para analisar vinte e dois relatórios da Petrobras entre 2004 e 2013. Eu investigo as noções políticas através do emprego da metodologia chamada Logics of Critical Explanation [LCE]. A LCE tem cinco passos metodológico: problematização, explicação retrodutiva, lógicas (sociais, políticas e fantasmáticas), articulação e crítica. Os resultados sugerem que a hegemonia do desenvolvimento econômico opera para obscurecer retoricamente o desenvolvimento da sustentabilidade que mantém o core business da Petrobras igualmente concebido como acumulação de capital. Igualmente, essas articulações também ilustram como as construções de CSA operam para servir o propósito da empresa com pouca (ou nenhuma) profunda mudança na integração com a sustentabilidade. A literatura brasileira de CSA sustenta o status quo de políticas de mercado neoliberais que operam para proteger a dominante abordagem do business case para manter a agenda de geração de riqueza num cenário de necessidade sociais e ambientais. As articulações do estudo de caso manifestaram essas políticas, por exemplo, em relação à corrupção, no qual envolveu superfaturamento de contratos e práticas insustentáveis relacionadas ao uso de combustíveis fósseis os quais demonstraram que há antagonismo entre ação e disclosure. O escândalo de corrupção que surgiu após as divulgações de CSA marcou a natureza retórica do disclosure em que recursos financeiros subtraídos da empresa para partidos políticos e empreiteiras esconderam fatos através de disclosures incompletos. As articulações da CSA deturpam um contexto amplo dos significados associados com a sustentabilidade, que restringiram as construções da CSA para principalmente servir e representar a intenção dos grupos mais poderosos. A significância da CSA é, portanto, limitada para representar interesses particulares. O estudo argumenta por mais estudos críticos já que a limitada literatura brasileira sobre CSA mantém uma \'distância segura\' de substantivas críticas das construções de CSA e suas articulações no contexto brasileiro. A revisão da literatura e o caso da Petrobras ilustram a variedade de nomes, instituições e práticas articulatórias que se esforçam para manter a atual hegemonia de desenvolvimento numa economia emergente que permite à Petrobras continuar a exercer significante lucro à custa do social e do meio ambiente. A ideia construída de desenvolvimento nos discursos da Petrobras enfatiza uma retórica ampla de desenvolvimento, mas, na realidade, esses discursos são antíteses de questões políticas, sociais e éticas de desenvolvimento. Essas construções objetivam esconder as lutas entre desigualdades sociais e exploração dos recursos naturais as quais constituem pretextos sobre uma fantasiosa noção de desenvolvimento retórico, hegemônico e neoliberal. Em resumo, esta tese contribui para a antecedente literatura em cinco principais aspectos: (i) a adição da DT para a análise da CSA engrandece a discussão de elementos políticos tais como hegemonia, antagonismo, lógica de equivalência/diferença, ideologia e articulação; (ii) a análise de uma economia emergente como o Brasil incorpora uma nova perspectiva nas discussões dos discursos da CSA e do desenvolvimento; (iii) esta tese também inclui um foco na retórica para discutir a manutenção do status quo; (iv) a estrutura holística da abordagem LCE amplia os entendimentos das lógicas sociais, políticas e fantasmáticas dos estudos de CSA e; (v) esta tese combina uma análise da literatura e do caso da Petrobras para caracterizar e criticar o estado da academia brasileira e seus impactos e reflexos na significância da CSA. Esta tese, portanto, argumenta por mais estudos críticos na academia brasileira devido à persistente ideia de desenvolvimento que taken-for-granted profundas exclusões e contradições e proporciona pouco espaço para críticas.

This is a thesis presented on the position of the distance education student at a distance education university in the present era. Traditionally, the distance education student has been a sort of Cinderella: marginalised, being constructed as some form of lesser version of the on campus one. A largely invisible part of the higher education system in Australia since 1911, the distance education student has really only come to be foregrounded in university education discourses from 1983 onwards. It was not until then that the distance education student emerged from ‘hidden pools’ identified by Karmel (1975), and since then the construction of this student has undergone a number of modifications, mapped in this thesis. At the same time university education itself has undergone a series of modifications, not least of which has been its taking on mercantilist overtones as investments made by students in their own careers and professional development. The modifications, also mapped in this thesis, have progressed to the stage where the construction of the old distance education student is now one of a flexible learner in a mercantilist system of university education. The notion of distance education and the distance education student has undergone significant shifts, redefinitions and constructions, which are tracked in this thesis. My research has focussed on a number of pertinent questions, based on a study of Deakin University and its practice since its establishment. The thesis draws on a number of works which have been informed by those of Foucault, and I have framed my research questions accordingly. I have asked why and how Deakin University came into being as a distance education provider at tertiary level. What were the conditions of its establishment and progression in relation to the political events, economic practices and communication technology in use over time? To consider such questions, I needed to analyse the changes that I had seen occurring in the context of wider restructurings in university education. These had occurred in the context of government forging a closer interconnectedness between education and national economic aims and objectives at the same time as it demanded greater productivity in the face of commercial and industrial sector pushes for applied knowledge. Poststructuralist philosophical developments offer tools to explore not only questions of power, but the practical outcomes of questions of power, and how the complicity of individuals is established. This thesis explores ways in which such considerations helped to shape the changing constructions of the distance education student from a marginalised, disadvantaged and under-represented participant in higher education to a privileged, well catered for and advantaged learner. These same considerations are used to explore ways in which they have helped to shape university distance education courses from a perceived second-rate form of higher education to a prototype that better captures the essential elements of learning for what has been styled in a postmodern world as the Information Age. Overlaid on these considerations is a changing view of the economics of such provision of higher education. It is anticipated that this thesis will contribute to developing new understandings of the construction of subjectivities in relation to the distance education university student specifically, and to the university student generally, in the postmodern world. The implications of this examination are not inconsiderable for students and academics in a self-styled Information Society.

In this paper Mona Hatoums installation Corps étranger is discussed via a post structuralized method based on associative and semiotic comparisons with vanitas, a post-modern self-portrait, and as a representative for modern visual art. The analyze touches upon pornography, science fiction and the quest for scientific conquest in outer and inner space. Theoretical references are Foucault, Freud, Lacan, Barthes, Dolar, Said and Virilio. Hatoum makes the observer a voyageur with the aid of the latest medical technology, endoscope, which gives her the opportunity to make an introvert self-portrait when she films her own throat and rectum. But at the same time she makes the portrait of us all. I interpret this as a fictious science with postcolonial ideas, and the reference to science fiction is close at range. Hatoum takes the role as the other, the woman or the stranger and might flirt with Jülich interpretation of Corps étranger as a sign of the visual cultures colonisation of the human body’s inside, that is a conscious reference to sexuality, ethics and the search for knowledge and power.