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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
791

Veiled threats : producing the Muslim woman in public and policy discourse in the UK

Rashid, Naaz January 2013 (has links)
This thesis looks at how ‘the Muslim woman’ is produced in social policy discourses in the UK. It is a qualitative study based on interviews, observation and interpretive analysis of policy material. It focuses specifically on initiatives to empower Muslim women in order to combat terrorism which formed part of the UK’s Preventing Violent Extremism Agenda (Prevent). In January 2008 the National Muslims Women’s Advisory Group (NMWAG) was established and Local Authorities were encouraged to fund projects aimed at ‘empowering Muslim women’. The thesis begins by situating the research within a wider policy framework. At the national level it relates to debates on community cohesion, Britishness and multiculturalism; at the global level it relates to the UK’s involvement in the ‘war on terror’. The research examines local inflections in how the initiatives worked in practice, considering the impact of diversity within diversity. A key objective of these initiatives was to ‘give the silent majority a stronger voice’. The thesis considers the extent to which this objective was achieved, particularly in relation to the establishment of NMWAG. Through an analysis of the initiatives overseen by NMWAG it considers how empowerment is conceptualised and, therefore, also by definition, disempowerment. It suggests that empowerment is positioned as individualised in the form of neoliberal meritocratic aspiration. At the same time, however, it is collectivised in relation to religious affiliation; Islam emerges both as a source of disempowerment and as a potential solution. The thesis argues that these initiatives have worked to privilege religion at the expense of other salient axes of difference, particularly those embedded in socio economic and regional variations. Moreover, this privileging constitutes part of a broader gendered anti-Muslim racist rhetoric. Finally the thesis argues that deconstructing the trope of ‘the Muslim woman’ and attending to the differences between Muslim women opens up the possibility of building solidarities across religious boundaries and harnessing an “alternative politics of recognition”.
792

Practicing globalization : mediation of the creative in South Korean advertising

Lee, Kee January 2013 (has links)
The aim of my thesis is to investigate the various ways in which globalization is performed in the locus of the South Korean advertising industry. In doing this, I focus upon the practice of creative advertising which is considered as one of the main practices to perform globalization in the locus. Addressing globalization as performativity means that this study rejects the idea of globalization as an objective structure. Instead, it approaches globalization as discursively induced practices and a transitory construction constituted of aggregate action. However, the actions that build globalization are diverse and situated in time and place. It necessitates this study to ‘follow’ the actors who embody narratives of globalization and produce it in their daily performances of those narratives. In this thesis, I follow South Korean advertising creatives who are an embodiment of a particular type of agency which identifies creative advertising with globalization and modernity. In this respect, their practicing creative advertising is simultaneously practicing globalization and modernity. However, their practice of creative advertising is situated in the South Korean advertising industry and takes place in a network of actors who embody different agencies. It makes creatives’ practice of globalization and modernization by way of creative advertising an ongoing struggle and negotiation. I explore the ways in which creatives’ practice of creative advertising transforms when they are connected to other actors in the network, particularly ad firms and clients; and the ways in which this transformation produces different forms of globalization. In this thesis, globalization appears multiple, contingent and mediated. Various narratives of globalization produce diverse subjects but these narratives are locally mediated. . It is the processes of performing the imaginary ‘global’ that is locally defined. Therefore, globalization is essentially a local product in which local agents practice the local on a new platform.
793

Making situated police practice visible : a study examining professional activity for the maintenance of social control with video data from the field

Rieken, Johannes January 2013 (has links)
This PhD studies the professional practice of policing from a situated perspective. It explores with social psychological theories and methods how officers attend to incidents, showing that discretion exists within the ambiguity of a concrete situation that an officer interprets then and there. With Body-Worn Video(BWV), a head-mounted camera introduced into UK policing in 2007, officers record as part of their practice. Within the framework of Subjective Evidence-Based Ethnography (SEBE) (Lahlou, 2011) self-confrontation interviews of officers with their recordings allow insights into situated decision-making processes. I also became a Special Constable to train as an officer and organised a working group of police on the use of video, to gain insight into institutional factors. Hence,video use in policing is both an object of study and enabler of methodological innovation for this work. The empirical material is analysed to explore the interplay of institutions with concrete situations as displayed in officer recorded footage, focusing in particular on affordances (Gibson, 1986), connotations of action (Uexküll, 1956), sequential dimension (Knoblauch et al., 2006, Sacks et al., 1974) and social encounters (Goffman, 1961). The PhD develops 3 papers. Paper 1 focuses on discretion: crucial to the policing of an incident is whether it is pursued formally or informally. This categorisation occurs in a process where officers anticipate formal outcomes. They therefore often have discretion to construct an incident as warranting a formal response or not. So officers frame the situation as well as respond to it. Paper 2 expands on the formal/informal distinction to consider the trade-offs they have to make under cross constraints. Being able to simultaneously maintain an appearance of control Manning, 1977), adherence to due process, and attend to situational demands is only possible because officers have discretion in the process of co-constructing an incident in the ‘correct’ formats. Paper 3 discusses the relevance of seeing and visibility for policing. It also explores the impact of camera-mediated visibility on officer practice, therefore, addressing the implications of increasing visibility on policing and the biases resulting from using BWV as data for research. As the emphasis on appearance grows, officers lose the discretion that comes as part of interpreting a situation, forcing them to be more mechanistic in how they police incidents.
794

Everyday (in)security/(re)securing the everyday : gender, policing and violence against women in Delhi

Marhia, Natasha January 2012 (has links)
This thesis contributes to the literature seeking to reconceptualise human security from a critical feminist perspective. It argues that security is a field of power, implicated in context-specific ways in the (re)production of gendered violences, and that human security must account for how such violences are (re)produced in and through the everyday. It explores how socially and historically embedded security institutions, discourses and practices are implicated in ‘the (violent) reproduction of gender’ (Shepherd 2008), taking as a case study Delhi Police’s initiatives to address violence/crime against women, in response to the city’s notoriety as India’s ‘rape capital’. Drawing on 86 in-depth interviews and 6 months of observational fieldwork with Delhi Police, the thesis shows that Delhi Police have found innovative ways of doing ‘security’ which depart from its association with (masculinist) authority and protection, and which apprehend violences embedded in the everyday. However, the effects are contradictory and ambivalent. Despite challenging some aspects of gender relations, the policing of violence/crime against women also reproduces conditions which enable and sustain the violence. The thesis explores how police discourses construct violence in terms of vulnerability and responsibility, in ways which both normalise and exceptionalise certain violences, and map gendered safety onto normative ideas of sexual integrity such as to reproduce the heteronormativity of marriage as a compulsory institution for women. It investigates the spatial and temporal distancing through which violence/crime against women is constructed, and the consequent reproduction of class differentiation and identification, and normative gender and sexuality. It considers how the unstable gendering of policing, and police work, intersects with and contributes to such constructions of violence/crime against women, and their discursive effects. The thesis concludes with a qualified and partial recuperation of human security as emancipatory – where emancipation is conceived as transforming oppressive power relations, and power is understood in a Foucauldian sense as pervasive, unstable and productive. It highlights the limits of security, and the relativity of its achievability.
795

Another path? : the consolidation of informal settlements in Buenos Aires through the co-production of services

Goyita, Cynthia January 2013 (has links)
This thesis investigates the issue of co-production; that is, the joint provision of services involving residents, the local government and private providers. Co-production is a commonly used approach to facilitate access to basic services in informal settlements in the developing world. But, rigorous micro-econometric evaluation of its causal effects is rare. This study uses a ‘natural experiment’, possible due to strict technical reasons involved in the provision of gas energy to informal neighbourhoods in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area, to estimate the effects on the social and physical dimension of residents’ investments. Estimates are created at three co-production stages: an initial social interaction stage to introduce the service; the connection stage, and; an impact stage several years after programme completion. The research measures effect on housing improvements, participatory involvement associated with the internalisation of benefits, and suggests the presence of collective capacity for furthering collaborative efforts. The latter can be associated with the significant improvement in the residents’ reported trust in neighbourhood organisations at the different implementation stages. Importantly, the research measures residual effects by legal tenure conditions. Co-production has contributed to an incremental effect only for informal residents’ reported level of trust in the local public sector. Trust in the family, rather than generalised trust, appears as a significant residual effect of the intervention that is positively correlated with the undertaking of housing improvements.
796

Muslims must embrace our values : a critical analysis of the debate on Muslim integration in France, Germany, and the UK

Scalvini, Marco January 2013 (has links)
The continuing difficulty of integrating immigrants, especially Muslims, has led many European political leaders to question the merits of multiculturalism and to promote more commitment towards national values and social cohesion. This thesis aims to examine how these national discourses are interconnected and why they have an exclusionary character. Starting from this point, I draw on a theoretical approach based on a model of mediatised convergence in the European public sphere. Secondly, I reconstruct through a critical discourse analysis, the national debates that have emerged across Europe. I then identify commonalities, by looking into the strategies through which these discourses are articulated. Thirdly, I investigate through content analysis, how press coverage has amplified and reinforced this debate. The cross-national comparison demonstrates a shared concern for how multicultural policies have passively tolerated and encouraged Muslim immigrants to live in self-segregated and isolated communities. This nexus between securitisation and multiculturalism targets first and second generation of Muslims who are assumed, because of their religious and cultural identity, to have authoritarian customs and illiberal values. Conversely, embracing those secular and liberal values that characterise the European ethos is exemplified as the best practice to deal with a correct and safe integration. However, this strategy to reduce integration towards a process of assimilation to majority norms and values risks creating further exclusion, rather than enhancing social cohesion and political belonging. The analysis of national press coverage confirms a shared way of thinking and talking about integration. Despite the political specificity of each national debate, simultaneous coverage across Europe develops reciprocal discursive references on how to achieve community cohesion and manage the migration of Muslims. It can be claimed, therefore, that the more discourses converge across national public spheres, the more they are perceived as stable and consensual. Hence, convergence is a crucial factor to be considered because it allows us to define the boundaries of the European public sphere. However, the study of this transnational debate is crucial not only for scholars of media and communication, but also of European policies and immigration, as this debate involves a larger discussion on how to manage the complexity of relationships between immigrant minorities and the majority in Europe.
797

Remaking the state: education and religious reform in Bavaria under Maximilian IV Joseph, 1796-1808

McCallister, Stephanie January 1900 (has links)
Master of Arts / Department of History / Brent Maner / During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Bavaria embarked on an ambitious program of reform that fundamentally altered the Bavarian state and society. The men responsible for such dramatic changes were Maximilian IV Joseph, the last Elector and first King of Bavaria, and Maximilian Joseph Graf von Montgelas, his closest advisor. Both Max Joseph and Montgelas sought to modernize their government through the removal of feudal remnants and increased participation of the kingdom’s subjects. Reforms in education and religion were central to this endeavor. Education reforms developed the skills necessary for improving society, increasing the state’s prosperity, and instilling a sense of loyalty to the Bavarian king. Religious reforms helped to eliminate prejudice and better integrate the Protestant and Catholic subjects into Bavarian society, particularly in the areas Bavaria gained during the Napoleonic wars. By maintaining a balance between preserving loyalty to the king and increasing participation in the state’s modernization, the Bavarian monarch hoped to reap the benefits of enlightened reform and prevent revolution. Previous histories of reform during the Napoleonic Era have focused on Austria and Prussia but Bavaria deserves attention as well. There is a pendulum-like quality to Bavarian history that swings between reform and reaction. In 1799 when Max IV Joseph and Montgelas came to Munich, reform and self-preservation in the face of the French Revolution and Napoleon, as well as the changing face of the Holy Roman Empire, served as the impetus for reform. Reform in the early nineteenth century allowed the Bavarian bureaucrats to strengthen the power of the king and increase the wealth of the state. Through a careful analysis of the reform edicts, personal papers of Montgelas, and statements from outside commentators, a clearer picture of reform in Bavaria can be pieced together and the true impact of reform during the Napoleonic Period can be seen; reform that made the Bavaria of Max Joseph almost unrecognizable from the Bavaria of his predecessor.
798

Organization of the Reform Party in New Zealand

Hill, Donald Randall January 2011 (has links)
Digitized by Kansas State University Libraries
799

Impact of pro-active land acquisition strategy projects (PLAS) on the livelihood of beneficiaries in Dr Kenneth Kaunda District of the North West Province, South Africa / Khulekani Khumbulani Sithembiso Nxumalo

Nxumalo, Khulekani Khumbulani Sithembiso January 2013 (has links)
The fundamental objective of this study was to determine the impact of PLAS Land Reform Projects on the livelihood (financial, human, physical, natural and social capitals) of beneficiaries. The population of the study included all beneficiaries (97) of PLAS projects within Dr. Kenneth Kaunda District Municipality. Fifty four beneficiaries were randomly selected from all 36 projects and interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Data collected was sorted, coded and analysed using version 21 of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Frequency count and percentage were used to summarize the data. The identified major constraints affecting PLAS projects were found to be: lack of resources (77.9%), lack of finance (77.8%), lack of water (77.8%), lack of incentives (66.7%), lack/poor infrastructure (64.8%) and high inputs cost (59.3%). The respondents indicated that lack of finance was caused by both lack of government support and inability to access credit from financial institutions, Jack of assets and land ownership which could be used as security to secure loans. Binary Logit Regression Model was used to determine factors influencing the impact of PLAS projects on the livelihood of beneficiaries. Five explanatory variables found to be statistically significant were: size of projects (Z=1-.905: P<0.05), purchase price of projects (Z=-2.258: P>0.01), sufficient funding (Z=1.657: P<0.01), established market (Z=2.552: P<0.01) and age of farmers' (Z=-2.697: P>0.05). Wilcoxon Sign-rank Sum Test was used to determine the "before" and "after" impact of PLAS Land Redistribution projects on the livelihood (financial, human, physical, natural and social capitals) of beneficiaries. The findings showed that significant difference existed on the livelihood (social, financial, physical, natural and human capital) before and after participating in PLAS projects. The result indicated an inverse relationship in terms of the impact of PLAS projects on the livelihood of beneficiaries implying that discontinuation or no participation in PLAS projects could reduce livelihood capitals or negatively affect beneficiaries' livelihood. / Thesis (M.Sc.(Agric Economics) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2013
800

Challenges facing higher education curriculum reform, design, and management in the 21st century : an epistemological perspective

Mkhonto, T.J., Muller, A. January 2009 (has links)
Published Article / Higher education curriculum reform is a worldwide phenomenon induced by both the internal and external environments of higher education functioning. While a variety of factors are attributed to these changing environments, this paper focuses mainly on the epistemological domain characterising these changes. As the fundamental "business" of higher education, "knowledge" is perceived in this discussion as the essential terrain in which the competing global-local (glocal) interests and concerns unfold. Based on a case study model of two higher educational institutions with traditionally disparate academic cultures, the paper concludes with a trilogy of models posited as facilitating space for epistemological diversity.

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