Group Material's seventeen-year collaboration began in New York in 1979 through the artists' shared interests in collective, politicized practices and their immersion in a localized network of countercultural activities. While GM's cadre of participants shifted over time (from the dozen who launched its first year to a smaller core comprising Doug Ashford, Julie Ault, Mundy McLaughlin, Félix González-Torres, and Tim Rollins), its practice developed a consistent aesthetic vocabulary in dialogue with major figures of 1980s art and with an eye to 1960s conceptualism and the Soviet avant-garde. GM threw open the class coordinates of art's public and introduced a distinct set of responses to the central problematics of 1980s art: the debates over representation, appropriation, painting, public space, and activism. / History of Art and Architecture

This paper analyzes the Swedish labor market during the interwar and early postwar period within the framework of modern labor market theory. The development of unemployment during this period - according to the commonly cited source of labor union reports - represents a conundrum for research. The unemployment rate rose after the initial diverse shock of 1921 and stayed at a permanently higher level for the rest of the interwar period. This development was reversed after World War Two when the unemployment rate decreased and stayed permanently low for the rest of the postwar period until the oil price chock of the 1970s. In a first step the available sources of unemployment statistics is investigated and compared. The general conclusion is that the labor union reports overestimate the level of economy wide unemployment while being a reasonably good indicator of movements in the rate. While no assertion of absolute levels can be made the conclusion might be drawn that the equilibrium level of unemployment decreased from a higher interwar level down to a substantially lower postwar one. The paper then turns to the overarching question of the possible mainsprings of this development. The concept of the warranted wage - defined as total factor productivity growth divided by the labor share - have been used to explained the development of unemployment in the OECD from the 1970s. The theory pertains that movements in the bargained wage above or below the warranted wage will render movements in the equilibrium unemployment rate. This theoretical framework is used to analyze the Swedish inter- and early postwar experience. The warranted wage in the manufacturing sector and the whole economy is respectively estimated using historical national accounts and growth accounting. The development is then compared to the progress of real labor costs. The conclusion is that the 1920s experienced a negative growth in the warranted wage - and while real labor cost decreased during the period - wages were not cut enough in order to keep profits unchanged for firms. The opposite can be concluded for the succeeding 1930s and 1940s which instead saw a positive evolution of the warranted wage with real labor costs not growing at the same rate. The movements of real labor costs in relation to the warranted wage thus makes this factor a plausible candidate for explaining movements in the unemployment rate during the period understudy.

Thesis (M.S. in Information Operations)--Naval Postgraduate School, 2005. / Title from title screen (viewed Jan. 30, 2006). "September 2005." Includes bibliographical references (p.105-114). Also issued in paper format.

This thesis examines the first seventeen years of the history of the Museum of Modern Art Oxford (MOMA), from its founding in 1965 until c. 1982. It is concerned with the changing relationships between the museum and its audience, focusing on those aspects of the museum's programming that shed light on its role as a public mediator of recent art. This provides a means to consider the underlying values and commitments that informed MOMA's emergence as a leading contemporary art institution. Chapter one examines the museum's relationship to utopian countercultures through the metaphor of the museum as 'garden'; chapter two considers the erstwhile 'permanent' collection and its connection to corporate patronage; chapter three investigates the parallel forces of institutional critique and institutionalization; and chapter four addresses didactic strains in the museum's representation of an emergent multiculturalism. Although dedicated to the history of a single regional gallery, the thematic structure of the thesis provides entry points into historical and theoretical issues of broader relevance. It is based on primary research in the previously neglected archive of what is now known as Modern Art Oxford, supplemented by interviews with artists and former staff members, and by close attention to British art periodicals and exhibition catalogues of the period. It is also informed by critical writings on museums and displays, and by artistic, social and museological histories, allowing the museum's activities to be situated within the cultural politics of these turbulent decades. The thesis suggests that institutional identity - as exemplified by the history of MOMA from 1965-1982 - is porous and discontinuous: the development of the museum over this period is animated by multiple and often contradictory ideals, continuously shaped by pragmatic considerations, and subject to a rich variety of subjective responses.

As more and more critics now write about postmodernism in the past tense, the 'New Sincerity' of a group of late twentieth-century American writers, led by David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Franzen, and Richard Powers, has been championed as one of its successors. In response to these increasingly widespread views, this dissertation argues that much more can be learned about these three writers when we stop thinking of their work within this 'end of postmodernism' discourse. Instead of attempting to make claims about its novelty, this thesis conducts a literary-historical inquiry into the New Sincerity, arguing that its roots extend across postmodernism and reach back to regionalism, in particular from the midwestern provinces that all three authors grew up in and that occupy a central place in their work. Though regionalism's subject matter, small-town America, is commonly believed to have died in the postwar period, it is this 'death of the prairie town' and its symbolic afterlife that have opened up new literary possibilities outside the realm of conventional regionalism. The powerful feelings of loss and nostalgia that its death has engendered are precisely those of which Wallace, Franzen, Powers, and the New Sincerity in general make creative use. The thesis examines how they do so in a series of three extended chapters, each of which focuses on one author. The first chapter pays careful attention to Wallace's re-imagining of the Midwest over the course of his career and reveals how he constantly deviated from the literary trajectory he had outlined in his essay 'E Unibus Pluram,' a key text in the 'end of postmodernism' discourse. The second chapter explores what role the Midwest plays in Franzen's authorial self-presentation and his contradictory attempts to balance 'high-art' status with an anti-elitist image. The third and final chapter gets to the root of Powers's problems with flat characters by examining how he all too readily relies on the Midwest and its stereotypical associations with all-American goodness in his attempts to create endearing characters. Here, as well as in the other two chapters, it is the construction of a symbolic 'heartland' that plays a central role in the creative process behind the author's New Sincerity writing.

Pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale, la capitale étatsunienne connaît une croissance sans précédent et acquiert une position incontestée de quartier général des Alliés. La Washington de 1945 n'a plus rien à voir avec le paysage urbain peuplé mais somnolent de 1939. Suite à la guerre, que va-t-il advenir du District de Columbia ? Nombre d'acteurs de différents types et niveaux veulent avoir leur mot à dire dans le futur de la capitale. La plupart d'entre eux espèrent utiliser la ville pour promouvoir des intérêts particuliers. Au cours des années d'après-guerre, le District est le théâtre de nombreuses joutes symboliques, qui voient s'affronter l'ensemble des acteurs politiques, économiques et sociaux du pays. Les enjeux sont locaux, nationaux ou internationaux, ils concernent l'administration locale, le droit de vote, la ségrégation, les conditions de logement, etc., ils rejaillissent sur Washington à la fois en tant que ville-symbole et que ville habitée. Ces affrontements et leurs résultats incarnent la capitale et dessinent son futur tout à la fois. Nous étudions ici pourquoi et comment ces évolutions se produisent. Le combat pour l'égalité entre Noirs et Blancs dans le District, par exemple, ouvre la voie à des progrès sur le plan national. La lutte contre les taudis se déroule dans le cadre des programmes de redéveloppement urbain souvent associés au déclin des centres-villes. La lutte pour l'autodétermination et les efforts fournis pour développer les rôles national et international de Washington sont d'autres exemples des dynamiques à l'œuvre dans la capitale entre 1945 et 1955. Après une première partie consacrée à la situation dans le District à la fin de la guerre, afin d'exposer les enjeux qui se posent en 1945, nous examinons les spécificités et implications de son rôle de capitale, tant sur le plan national que sur le plan international. La troisième partie porte sur les évolutions urbaines et sociales dans la ville d'après-guerre. / During the Second World War, the Federal Capital of the United States experiences an unprecedented growth and acquires an uncontested international status as the Allied Forces' Headquarters. The Washington of 1945 is a changed city, nothing like the populated but sleepy urban landscape of 1939. In the wake of the war, however, the fate of the city 1 is in question: what will become of the District of Columbia (DC) ? Many different players in the urban, political and social game want to have a say in the future of the capital. Most of them, on a local as well as a national level expect using the city to promote a personal agenda. In the Postwar years, many symbolic battles are fought within the District's boundaries, pitting against each other the country's multiple players. The stakes are local, national or international; concern local policy, voting rights, racial segregation, housing conditions, etc.; reflect on DC as a symbol and as a real lived-in city. These battles and their different outcomes at once embody the city and shape its future. We study why and how this happens. The fight for racial equality, for instance, makes tremendous legal and actual headway in the city between 1945 and 1955, paving the way for progress on a national scale. The fight against the city's slums and substandard housing, however, can't seem to find a solution, which will lead infamous urban renewal programs to often be associated with bleak inner-city future. The fight for home rule and the efforts made to enhance Washington's national and international role are other examples of the significant dynamics at works in the Postwar era.

abstract: Mid-Century ranch house architecture and design is significant to the architectural landscape of the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. The increasing age of the city's post-WWII properties is creating a need for renovation and rehabilitation, and new technologies have created modern conveniences for today's homeowners, changing interior space plan requirements. These homeowners will need guidance to alter these properties correctly and to preserve the home's essential features. This thesis analyzes the design trends and materials used during the mid-twentieth century, and demonstrates methods for applying them to a current renovation project. The research outlined in this document proves that it is possible to maintain historic integrity, include "Green" design strategies, and apply contemporary technology to a modern ranch renovation. / M.S.D. Architecture 2010

abstract: This thesis examines the immediate post-World War II operational strategy of Valley National Bank of Arizona, a Phoenix-based institution in operation from 1899 until its 1992 acquisition by Ohio-based Banc One Corporation (now JPMorgan Chase). For the purposes of this study, the immediate post-war period is defined as 1944 to January 20, 1953, a span that opens with the bank's wartime planning efforts for the post-war period and ends with the 1953 retirement of bank president Walter Bimson. By the end of World War II, Valley National ranked as the largest financial institution in the eight-state Rocky Mountain region, as measured by total deposits. However, post-war regulatory issues, competitor expansion, and an inability to generate deposit volume sufficient to meet subject period loan demands challenged bank leaders seeking to maintain market share and grow company profitability and stock value. In response to these difficulties, the bank focused on a three-pronged operational strategy emphasizing advertising, market-appropriate deposit and loan product offerings, and an aggressive branching and acquisition campaign. This strategy did not result in unmitigated success as the bank did experience a decrease in average deposit account balances, lost mortgage market share, and undertook acquisition activity that later resulted in federal antitrust action. However, by the end of the subject period, the three-pronged strategy employed by the bank did result in an increase in deposit dollar market share, as measured by deposits controlled directly and indirectly by the institution, rising annual net profits, and substantial share price appreciation. The findings related to bank strategy and results presented in this thesis are based primarily upon information found in the 169-box Valley National Bank Collection housed at the Arizona Historical Society. Extensive newspaper research conducted using targeted date range and keyword searches and careful consideration of secondary source materials relating to the bank, the banking industry, and state, regional, and national politics, economics, and culture during the subject period provided additional information used in this study, and corroborated much of the material found in the Valley National Bank Collection files. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. History 2011

abstract: Civic leadership in Phoenix, Arizona promoted the city's performing arts as part of a deliberate plan towards the larger growth agenda after World War II. From the 1940s through the late 1960s, the business and professional leaders who controlled city government served on boards for performing arts groups, built venues, offered financial support, and sometimes participated as artists in order to attract high-technology firms and highly skilled workers to the area. They believed one aspect of Phoenix's urban development included a need for quality, high-culture performing arts scene that signaled a high quality of life and drew more residents. After this era of boosterism ended and control shifted from business and professional leaders to city government, performing arts support fluctuated with leadership's attitudes and the local, state, and national economies. The early civic leaders were successful in their overall mission to expand the city - now the sixth largest in the nation - and many of the organizations and venues they patronized still serve the community; however, the commitment to developing a quality arts and culture scene waned. Today's public, private, and arts and culture leaders are using the same argument as Phoenix tries once again to become a high-technology center. The theory that arts and culture stimulate the economy directly and indirectly is true today as it was in the 1940s. Although the plan was effective, it needed fully committed supporters, strong infrastructure, and continued revising in order to move the vision into the twenty-first century. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. History 2013

Cote d’Ivoire is a country located in West Africa, which is coming out from decades of political and military crises (2002-2011). The country is now coping with its phase of postconflict reconstruction and economic development. One of the important aspects of this phase is the socio-economic reintegration of former combatants who took part in the different conflicts. For this reason the aim of this study was to explore the socio-economic reintegration of former combatants in Cote d’Ivoire. Taking the aim of this study into consideration, the primary objectives were to first look at the situation of the socioeconomic reintegration of former combatants in Cote d’Ivoire and secondly to identify challenges affecting the socio-economic reintegration process.