Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-01T18:29:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 renata_lopes_arcoverde.pdf: 584232 bytes, checksum: 4e24390bbce6fd6d08e5d19a7779dfa1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-04-23 / Some fields of knowledge have been highlighted in the study of self-harm, such as medicine (especially psychiatry), psychology and psychoanalysis. These areas differentiate the acts of harming oneself as part of a specific culture or religious ritual from those recognized as pathologies or dysfunctional behavior. The last ones are considered as acts of self-destruction produced by individuals who need assistance so that they can stop self-injuring. Partimos do pressuposto de que a autolesão é um modo de subjetivação construído e transformado por diferentes discursos dependendo do contexto sociocultural em que acontece. Assuming that self-harm is a form of subjectivity produced and transformed by different speeches, depending on the social context in which it takes place, this study intends to analyze, using the post-structuralism perspective, messages left on Orkut virtual communities by people who self-harm and discuss their experiences in that social network. Results indicate discourses in common with the aforementioned fields of knowledge and with religion, as well as definitions of self-harm as art, a privileged way of expressing emotions or even a source of pleasure. Some internet users claim for the right to use their bodies as they please since it is meant to be their territory of intervention and their only, what can be understood as a movement of resistance to the rule of having a docile body. In conclusion, it is understood that the subjects involved with self-harm relate to their bodies and with virtual communities as means of producing identities. / Alguns saberes têm se destacado no estudo da autolesão, entre eles a medicina, (notadamente a psiquiatria), a psicologia e a psicanálise. Estes campos do conhecimento diferenciam os atos de ferir a si mesmo como parte de uma cultura específica ou ritual religioso das práticas autolesivas que são atribuídas a patologias ou disfunções. Estas últimas são consideradas como atos de autodestruição produzidos por pessoas que precisam de intervenções de especialistas para que deixem de ferir-se. Partimos do pressuposto de que a autolesão é um modo de subjetivação construído e transformado por diferentes discursos dependendo do contexto sociocultural em que acontece. Assim, a intenção deste trabalho é analisar, à luz da perspectiva pós-estruturalista, mensagens de pessoas que se autolesionam e discutem a sua experiência em comunidades virtuais da rede social Orkut. Resultados indicam que além dos discursos em comum com os citados campos de saber e com a religião, há ainda quem defina a autolesão como arte, maneira privilegiada de expressão das emoções ou mesmo fonte de prazer. Alguns internautas reivindicam o corpo como território de intervenção pertencente unicamente a si próprios, reclamando o direito de utilizá-lo como bem entendem, no que se pode caracterizar como um movimento de resistência à norma de ter que apresentar um corpo dócil. Por fim, compreende-se que os sujeitos envolvidos nessa prática relacionam-se com seu corpo e com as comunidades de que participam enquanto locais de produção de identidades.

Focusing on the readmission agreement between Sweden and Afghanistan, this study aims to enhance our understanding of why and how states use readmission agreements and the discourse underpinning these practices. Based on interviews with key officials working in the Swedish deportation infrastructure, the findings show that the agreement is presented as a successful measure resulting in a more predictable process and increased forced returns. The agreement is a critical technique for minimizing disruptions in the deportation corridor to Afghanistan, however, not without interruptions due to the infrastructure’s reliance on many elements and the complexity of bilateral cooperation. The discursive practices, including “problem” representations and assumptions justifying the agreement, can be questioned considering that most Afghans abscond or travel to another Schengen country instead of returning. The absence of an agreement evaluation further necessitates calling the increased governmental focus on readmission agreements into question. The study contributes to deconstructing governmental rationalities through a novel methodology of studying deportation and readmission.

This thesis is focused on ethics and subject in postmodernism and poststructuralism. The thesis contains methods of analysis, interpretation and comparison. These methods are primarily focused on French authors of the second half of the 20th century. In the text, there are answered questions like: "How society, knowledge and thiking of certain period affected the freedom of human being? What mechanisms exist in the language function structures that affect human way of thinking? What are the possibilities for individuals, to emancipate against the influence of powerfull government institutions and their strategies?" The aim of the thesis is to make an ethics rules that will be taken like an alternative to the codified normative morality. It shows the differences between modern universalism and posmodern pluralism. The dualism is interpreted primarily in the way of thinking of J.-F. Lyotard. There is also interpretation of dualism throught Deleuze and Guattari philosophy that is formulated due to theory of arborescent and rhizomatic structures. Most of the thesis is based on Michel Foucault's phylosophy of normalization and disciplining of a subject and authoritatively established ethics. The main topic of this thesis is Foucault's ethics based on the relationship of self to itselfs. This self-reflexive...

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This paper examines critical perspectives on Body Mass Index (BMI) in ongoing societaldiscussions, focusing on poststructuralism, gender, consumer society, and race. Using fatstudies, intersectionality theory, and poststructuralism, the research integrates Foucault'spower theories. Analyzing six scholarly articles, the study categorizes BMI criticisms,emphasizing Foucault's biopower concepts as key to understanding societal regulation. Theparadox of power is evident as the slim body signifies self-discipline in a consumer-drivenculture valuing control. The paper also highlights BMI's critique for disregarding gender andrace, originating from the white male body, and immerses into historical associations. Thefindings of this paper uncovers how the discourse on BMI is connected to commercialinterests, politics, and economics, influencing power dynamics. In conclusion, the studyunderscores the link between BMI discourse, poststructuralism, and self-discipline, whilerevealing its limitations in a diversity context, with gender and race influencing criticism.Power, commercial interests, and societal politics emerge as crucial within this discourse.

The thesis is about Sweden’s approach on social sustainability in public policy. The Swedish New Reform derives from the EU Directive 2014/24/EU on public procurement, including policies and legislations on social aspects, labor-law, and environmental considerations. The aim is to analyse how social sustainability through contemporary public procurement laws and policies is being formulated and potentially realised in Sweden. The ontological theoretical framework and methodological approach will be derived from post-structuralism. More specifically, the theoretical approach Governmentality developed through the Foucauldian approach and Carol Bacchi’s methodological WPR-approach facilitating a policy analysis. The sources are a combination of qualitative decision-making and non-decision-making material. The decision-making material includes the Swedish National Public Procurement Strategy, The Swedish Public Procurement Act, and the EU Directive. The analysis makes visible how social aspects are represented and subjectivized. The research highlights potentials for increased social sustainability and risks of de-prioritization depending on formulations of mandatory or optional characteristics. Theoretically speaking, interests of neoliberal-, capitalist market- and alternative social democratic rationale contributes to multiple social unsustainabilites. Resulting in plural realities of how to best increase social sustainability. The concluding discussion highlights that rationalities influence realisations of social sustainability antagonistically. Increasing the understanding of these core rationalities is essential to increase social sustainability through public procurement.

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Text in Afrikaans / This study investigates postcolonial aspects of the prose oeuvre of André P. Brink, with specific reference to his historiographical texts `n Oomblik in die wind, Houd-den-Bek, Die eerste lewe van Adamastor, Inteendeel, Sandkastele and Donkermaan. The texts can be described as links in a textual history of South Africa: a history corresponding to the official version, revisioning it in an imaginative way. The texts also criticize political (mal)practices, and the pre-colonial, colonial and postcolonial social contexts of the country are critically scrutinized. The texts offer suggestions for a new political dispensation. Since the seventies the Brink oeuvre has developed a multi-dimensional postcolonial approach. Aspects of post-colonialism, post-structuralism, magical realism and feminism as articulated in the texts, are analyzed and interpreted. Brink's investigation of problems concerning historiography, and the relation between history and fiction, comprised an important aspect of the research leading to this report. / Afrikaans & Theory of Literature / D.Litt. et Phil

This is a monograph on the South African artist Diek Grobler. The aim is to contextualise the artist‟s oeuvre up to 2009 and to explore the visual metaphors in his art. Grobler has a fascination for stories. He blends tales of traditional Western mythology, African mythology, Christian religion, folklore and magical realism into narrative artworks. Through visual metaphors the artist comments on the everyday human dramas that surround him – be they political, social, psychological or cultural. Furthermore, he adds an element of surprise to his sketches of human drama, by infusing them with irony and humour. My research reflects the diverse nature of Grobler‟s oeuvre as it investigates works from various artistic genres such as painting, sculpture, illustration, performance art, avant-garde theatre and animation. It also examines a blend of different artistic media such as ceramics, oil paint, gouache, pastels, scraperboard, earthenware, 2D computer animation, puppetry, and stop-motion animation. / Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology / M.A. (Art History)

Selves and Others: The Politics of Difference in the Writings of Ursula Kroeber Le Guin has two founding premises. One is that Le Guin's writing addresses the political issues of the late twentieth century in a number of ways, even although speculative fiction is not generally considered a political genre. Questions of self and O/other, which shape political (that is, powerinflected) responses to difference, infuse Le Guin's writing. My thesis sets out to investigate the mechanisms of representation by which these concerns are realized. My chapters reflect aspects of the relationship between self and O/other as I perceive it in Le Guin's work. Thus my first chapter deals with the representations of imperialism and colonialism in five novels, three of which were written near the beginning of her literary career. My second chapter considers Le Guin's best-known novels, The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) and The Dispossessed (1974), in the context of the alienation from American society recorded by thinkers in the 1960s. In my third chapter, the emphasis shifts to intrapsychic questions and splits, as I explore themes of sexuality and identity in Le Guin's novels for and about adolescents. I move to more public matters in my fourth and fifth chapters, which deal, respectively, with the politicized interface between public and private histories and with disempowerment. In my final chapter, I explore the representation of difference and politics in Le Guin's intricate but critically neglected poetry. My second founding premise is that traditional modes of literary criticism, which aim to arrive at comprehensive and final interpretations, are not appropriate for Le Guin's mode of writing, which consistently refuses to locate meaning definitely. My thesis seeks and explores aporias in the meaning-making process; it is concerned with asking productive questions, rather than with final answers. I have, consequently, adopted a sceptical approach to the process of interpretation, preferring to foreground the provisional and partial status of all interpretations. I have found that postmodern and poststructuralist literary theory, which focuses on textual gaps and discontinuities, has served me better than more traditional ways of reading / English Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (English)