Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin. / Mimeograph. Bibliography: leaves 152-161.

The story of the Tricycle Gang begins when I was in pre-school. At the young age of four, my three friends and I decided that we were going to be the only ones allowed to ride the four tricycles on the playground. Our small gang rode around the playground feeling powerful, swinging our shirts above our heads as we chased our classmates around the play structure. As I have grown older, I have recognized the strangeness of my preschool experience. Why would a well to do four-year-old think to form a gang at such and early age? Without much exposure to gangs, where would this idea have come from? My thesis tells the story of my little clique, and then moves to explore the motivations behind joining gangs, especially at a young age, and discusses children’s perceptions of them. I then go on to discuss power structures by looking at the philosophical works of Nietzsche and Machiavelli. Lastly, I put my art in historical and cultural context be examining artists with similar bodies of work. My work is an installation piece in wood and plaster. In my first semester, I will be completing one of the tricycle gangsters sitting on his tricycle, modeled after myself. The tricycle is made of wood and the figure is a plaster cast. The plaster cast will be dressed in clothing reminiscent of the tricycle gang, and then painted one solid color, clothes and all. If my work makes it into the spring show, I will build out the gang to four figures.

Thesis--University of Wisconsin. / Mimeograph. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record.

Queer theory has a fundamental flaw: queer. This thesis seeks to explore the fractured usages, meanings, and scopes of the term queer to uncover the power structures that have been created within and around the term. Specifically, this thesis analyzes the ways in which academic queer theorists, the university system, and LGBTQ+ groups and activists, in an attempt to make the queer useful, perpetuate limiting definitions of the word queer that create power structures that re-marginalize some queer people. Queer, being a reclaimed slur, is sometimes used to describe members of the LGBTQ+ community. It has recently been adopted by a variety of groups to make the term politically useful. In doing so, the term has developed many, often conflicting, meanings. A term that means everything, however, has very little analytical use. Because of this, attempts to make the term queer useful to have unintended implications that re-marginalize some queer people. / Master of Arts

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin, 1966. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

This paper is a qualitative study based on a phenomenological perspective. The purpose of the study has been to examine how the artistic work with a Community Theatre can visualize the beliefs held by young girls in Skellefteå today regarding the power structures that exist in their lives and how they affect them. Furthermore, the study aims to examine how the work of a theater can provide participants with the opportunity to visualize these structures of power to the public. Questions raised in the study concerns the power structures the young girls are experiencing in their daily lives, how they affect them, how to through a theater approach them in an artistic practice and how the participants' experience of existing power structures is influenced by the work of a theater. The study began with a focus conversation about the participants' view of power in different areas. Based on the conversation, we decided to revise and orchestrate a part of Shakespeare's Othello, focusing on jealousy and men's violence against women in intimate relationships. This was rehearsed and performed to an audience during Trästockfestivalen in Skellefteå. The study ended with a further focus conversation which concerned the work of the theater production and how it affected the participants' view of power. The results show that participants believe that it has been useful to work with the power structures in this way. In particular, they have appreciated the discussions and the opportunity of amateurs to work with the profession, and in this work get visibility to real-life, current issues for an audience.

This study is base on the concept of social capital to discuss the dispersion and integration of social capital in different community actions. And try to understand the elements of social capital by the survey of the residents in community action. Further more, to indicate the background, status, participation and role to community organization and activities of all residents. Also, what all can be used in community action, include human, finance and other resources. This study tries to looking for the model of dispersion and integration of social capital through the mobilization of resources in different community action. The purposes of this study are,(1) to research the model and origin of social capital in community, (2) discussing the way to get social capital by the different kind of residents, and how it make the dispersion and integration to social capital, (3) to research why the dispersed social capital integrated to community elites. For these purposes, Chi-San Town is choice to be the area for empirical survey. In the discussion of relative theory, the concepts of social capital, community action theory and social network theory will help to analysis the mobilization of social capital. Through the demand and need to public affair, the assistant network is established in the survey of 214 residents in Chi-San Town. This network is the base structure and relation of the mobilization of social capital. Furthermore, it will be used to examine the effect and degree of resources mobilization in different community actions. The assistant network of public affair can be used to observe the dispersion and integration of social capital. When community action is processing, social capital will be integrated to the elite of residents. Residents will give the resources what the community action can use to the persons who used to assist in the demand for public affair. Through this network, community action will be more efficiency. Different community action will result in different mobilization model and degree for social capital. By this way, social capital can be observed. The social capital embedded personal relationship can be used when community act and integrate to the elite of residents.

Feminist researchers have noted the invisibility of women in power structure studies to date and have suggested that it is the methods of main-stream social science research that systematically obscure women's political activities. The primary objective of this study is to identify and describe the women who participate in the public decision-making process at the community level, as a test of the suggestion that there is a bias in the methods, and as a way of beginning to correct the present lack of knowledge about women's contributions to community politics. There is, however, no accepted theory of community power, and the organization and distribution of power in a Canadian suburban community, a previously unstudied setting, could not be taken for granted. Therefore, the research has been designed to determine both the structure of power in the community and the location of women in that structure. Variations on standard research methods are used to identify men and women active in community politics, and interviews with elected and other community leaders provide data about the leaders, their memberships in key organizations, and their political activities and strategies. Fictitious names are given to the community, some of the local organizations, and the community leaders in order to protect the anonymity of the informants. The distribution of power in the community is found to conform to the elite power structure model. An organized opposition somewhat limits the power of the dominant clique, but this does not constitute evidence of the mutual control that some researchers state is the case in pluralistic societies. A comparison of the data in this and other studies indicates that individuals active in sectors such as business, government and the independent professions, are predominant in all the communities in the comparative survey, no matter what type of community or what methods are used to identify the community leaders. It is suggested that this finding lends weight to the stratification theorists' assessment of the distribution of power in the community. It is concluded that the methods of power structure research are designed to focus on the most powerful members of the community, and active women will be under-reported because, although they are similar to influential men in personal characteristics, women are not often elected to positions of power, they are less likely than men to be members of the associations and institutions through which political power is organized, and they are less often active in the issues that are important to the dominant men. However, main-stream social science research has been designed by men to focus mainly on men's experiences. Women have been classified only in terms of the men in their lives, their political behaviour has been defined in different ways than men's, and researchers and informants alike have not thought of women as influential in public decision-making. By using methods which draw attention to the women who are active in community politics, it is shown that women participate in many ways to shape public policy, from activities that are designed to influence economic issues and land use decisions, to those which influence the type of educational and welfare programs available to the community. Women bring many personal resources to the decision-making process, but lack the organizational resource bases that men use to exert influence and gain political power. Women, like less powerful men in the community, exercise influence in different ways than the men in the dominant clique. It is recommended that the study of women's political experiences be used as a starting point in studying the organization, exercise and distribution of power at the community level from the perspective of relatively powerless individuals and groups. It is hoped that apart from offering women a way to validate their political experiences and to understand the nature of the limitations on their power, such studies will provide the impetus to renew efforts in developing a comprehensive theory of community power. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

This dissertation is a theoretical and interpretative exploration of the prominent themes which are developed in the novel Die olifantjagters by Piet van Rooyen. The study focuses on the spatial aspects of the narrative and attempts to indicate how the novel contributes to the contemporary discourse on ecology and eco-critique. In the analysis of spatiality in the novel, special attention is paid to the dimension of Africa and African ecological issues. These include the typical ecological problems of developing countries, the Western presence in Africa and the dilemma of the indigenous people such as the Bushmen in a rapidly changing environment. Centering around the hunt on one of the last great elephants, the novel is deeply concerned with conservation of natural resources and related issues. The multi-cultural social structures of Southern African countries and the problems arising from cultural interaction, form an integral part of the novel and these are discussed extensively in the dissertation. In addition, the identity crises which the characters experience as a result of the processes of cultural interaction and environmental change, are explored against the backdrop of the political transformation of the subcontinent. Issues of identity are concerned with individual as well as group dynamics and almost the characters are thus involved in the redefinition of their own roles and their places in the world. Colonialism has been replaced by postcolonial ism, but power struggles continue to plague previously colonized countries such as South Africa and Namibia. The novel deals with this situation by depicting the conflicting ideas and ideals of people from developed countries who intend to do good and the viewpoints of the indigenous people of Africa. The novel presents a fresh and honest view of the contemporary situation in Southern Africa and thus contributes to the discourse on post-colonialism ecology, cultural change and the ways in which change affects identity, human relationships and the relation between man and Nature. An interpretation of Die olifantjagters therefore needs to take cognisance of Eco criticism, the debate on post colonialism and the dynamics of the power struggle. In conclusion, the contribution of literature to the contemporary ecological discourse is indicated. In spite of the fact that the novel is part of Western discourse in Africa and as such also part of the system of power relations in modern society, it does highlight the "green issue" and this novel will most probably lead to a greater awareness of ecological issues. / Thesis (M.A. (Afrikaans and Dutch))--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2001

This dissertation is a theoretical and interpretative exploration of the prominent themes which are developed in the novel Die olifantjagters by Piet van Rooyen. The study focuses on the spatial aspects of the narrative and attempts to indicate how the novel contributes to the contemporary discourse on ecology and eco-critique. In the analysis of spatiality in the novel, special attention is paid to the dimension of Africa and African ecological issues. These include the typical ecological problems of developing countries, the Western presence in Africa and the dilemma of the indigenous people such as the Bushmen in a rapidly changing environment. Centering around the hunt on one of the last great elephants, the novel is deeply concerned with conservation of natural resources and related issues. The multi-cultural social structures of Southern African countries and the problems arising from cultural interaction, form an integral part of the novel and these are discussed extensively in the dissertation. In addition, the identity crises which the characters experience as a result of the processes of cultural interaction and environmental change, are explored against the backdrop of the political transformation of the subcontinent. Issues of identity are concerned with individual as well as group dynamics and almost the characters are thus involved in the redefinition of their own roles and their places in the world. Colonialism has been replaced by postcolonial ism, but power struggles continue to plague previously colonized countries such as South Africa and Namibia. The novel deals with this situation by depicting the conflicting ideas and ideals of people from developed countries who intend to do good and the viewpoints of the indigenous people of Africa. The novel presents a fresh and honest view of the contemporary situation in Southern Africa and thus contributes to the discourse on post-colonialism ecology, cultural change and the ways in which change affects identity, human relationships and the relation between man and Nature. An interpretation of Die olifantjagters therefore needs to take cognisance of Eco criticism, the debate on post colonialism and the dynamics of the power struggle. In conclusion, the contribution of literature to the contemporary ecological discourse is indicated. In spite of the fact that the novel is part of Western discourse in Africa and as such also part of the system of power relations in modern society, it does highlight the "green issue" and this novel will most probably lead to a greater awareness of ecological issues. / Thesis (M.A. (Afrikaans and Dutch))--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2001