Ph.D.--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities, 2012 / The Kenyan political landscape has, since the 1990’s, been tumultuous and characterised by multiple political and social struggles centred on embedding a new constitutional order. This thesis is a qualitative case study of the Ufungamano Initiative, a powerful movement involved in these struggles between 1999 and 2005. Emerging in an environment of deep societal divisions and multiple sites of struggle, the Ufungamano Initiative is a remarkable story of how and why previously disjointed and disparate individuals and groups came together in a ‘movement of movements’ to become a critical contender in Kenyan constitutional reforms. The movement utilised direct citizens’ actions and was directly in competition with the Moi/KANU state for control of the Constitution Reform Process. This direct competition and challenge, posed a legitimacy crisis on the state led process forcing an autocratic and intolerant regime to capitulate and open up space for democratic engagement of citizens in the Constitution Reform Process. But the Ufungamano Initiative is also a story of the limits of social movements. While holding so much power and promise, movements are limited in their ability to effect fundamental changes in society. Even after substantial gains in challenging the state, the Ufungamano Initiative was vulnerable and agreed to enter a ‘coerced’ merger with the state-led process in 2001. The merger dissipated the Ufungamano Initiative’s energy. This study therefore speaks to the power and limits of social movements in effecting fundamental changes in society. Applying a socio-historical approach, the study locates the Ufungamano Initiative within the broader social, economic and political struggles to argue that contemporary constitutional reform struggles in Kenya were, in Polanyi’s (1944) terms, double movement type of societal counter-movements to protect itself from an avaricious economic and political elites. Engaging the political process model, this thesis analyses seventy in-depth interviews and secondary data to explain the dynamics in the rise, operations, achievements and decline of the Ufungamano Initiative as illustrative of how movements emerge, take on a life of their own and sometimes metamorphose into phenomenal forces of change, or just fizzle out.

Thesis (M.M. (Public Policy))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Governance, 2016. / The study focuses on the lived experiences of indigenous and traditional community of Phokeng in the process of urbanising. It is a community affected by unclarified policies and documents to secure their tenure. Phokeng community in Rustenburg is approximately 200 km to the west of Johannesburg. The research revealed that the rural and marginalised of Phokeng is now becoming urbanised and that there is inadequacy of legislation or policy to guarantee security of tenure in an area a under traditional authority. The community has historically depended on oral information and storytelling. A total of thirty informants were surveyed in the community. The study elicited information on informant’s understanding of security of tenure, the role they played to secure tenure to their land. It also probed, their awareness of developmental policies affecting their activities and expectations. The study revealed that people did not have title to the land they occupied but were very content that they were safe from evictions because the traditional leader and his traditional authority provided the guarantee. There is need for further research on why people in traditional authority areas that are in the process of urbanising would be content to live on land on which they do not have registered tenure rights.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in 50% fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Management (in the field of Public Policy). February 2017 / The government of Zimbabwe embarked on a land redistribution programme at the turn of the twentieth century. The programme has been mired in controversy which has culminated in polarisation. The major objective of the land redistribution was to redress historical imbalances and to increase food security by increasing access to fertile and arable land to indigenous people. Due to lack of policy clarity and consensus, the programme has so far been a huge failure. This study sought to interrogate the policy implementation and how this had impacted on productivity on the A1 model of farming in Zimbabwe. Results showed that the programme was adversely affected by lack of political will and lack of policy clarity while it was clogged with political interference. The government had failed to provide sustainable funding to enhance productivity. This had led to despondency among civil servants and beneficiaries of the land reform programme. There is ineffective implementation of policy due to factors such as lack of experienced personnel and unavailability of funding. Polarisation has seen other key stakeholders shunning this programme. Under the prevailing socio-political environment, this programme is set to be an outright failure to enhance food security sustainability. The study unpacked valuable impediments which inevitably, were drivers of poor attainment of the objectives of model A1 farming in Zimbabwe. / MT 2017

Por muito tempo, fruto da filosofia antiga e, de certa forma, também da renascentista, a democracia foi erigida a um modelo de ídolo, um regime perfeito que deveria ser seguido pelos modelos reais. O trabalho de Nietzsche, nessa seara, rompeu com a ideia dos ídolos, dentre eles a democracia, identificando como químera a crença em tais tradições ou modelos perfeitos. Embora seu trabalho tenha sido útil nesse tocante, é certo que Nietzsche é um desconstrutivista. Por essa razão, cabe-nos analisar a questão da idolatria democrática e, com base na genealogia nietzschiana, tentar construir um modelo realizável de democracia. Nas atuais circunstâncias institucionais, a identificação de um modelo de democracia que apresenta graves falhas e ranhuras é imprescindível para saber até que ponto se busca atingir um modelo democrático, ou se a busca, na verdade, representa uma ilusão vivenciada em pleno seio da democracia. Na verdade, a crise institucional brasileira se deve em grande parte às frustrações decorrentes de se perquirir um modelo inalcançável e desafinado com a realidade democrática nacional. E é justamente na fuga de uma democracia idolatra que se mostra pleno o caminho para superação dos fundamentos das insatisfações populares, realçando-se com mais profundidade os aspectos peculiares da democracia em processo brasileira. A própria crise de representatividade é um dos aspectos, como se verá, em que a perspectiva ideal apenas serve para agredir ainda mais a já combalida instituição da representação popular. Sem uma democracia possível, o país lutará eternamente para tentar remediar um ciclo infinito de crise, atacando suas consequências, jamais as causas. O objetivo deste trabalho, para além da descontrução de Nietzsche, foi abordar, de maneira exemplar, alguns aspectos em que o ídolo democracia não advoga em prol das nossas instituições e, na prática, analisar a viabilidade de uma reforma política realista. / For a long time, fruit of ancient and, in a way, renaissancist philosophy, democracy was built into an \"idol\" model, a perfect regimen that should be followed by the real models. Nietzche\'s work, in that field, broke through the idol concept, among them, democracy, seeing like chimera the belief in such traditions or perfect models. Although his work has been helpful in this particular issue, it\'s certain that Nietzsche exercises a deconstruction method. That\'s why it\'s up to us to analyze the democratic idolatry issue and, based on Nietzsche\'s genealogy, try to built an achivable democracy \"model\". In the current institutional circumstances. The identification of a model of democracy that has serious flaws and grooves is essential to know to what extent it seeks to achieve a democratic model, our if the ssek, as a matter of fact, represents an illusion experienced in deep core of democracy. Actually, the institutional brazillian crises is being caused by the frustrations arising from assert an unattainable and discord model with the national democratic reality. And it\'s precisely in the escape from an idolater democracy that the full path to overcoming the fundamentals of popular dissatisfaction shows itself, deeply highlightining the peculiar aspects of the processing brazillian democracy. The crisis of representation, itself, is one of the aspects, as we will see, wherein the optimal approach only serves to further harm the already battered institution of popular representation. Without a possible democracy, the country will fight forever to try to remedy an endless cycle of crisis, attacking its consequencies, never the reasons. The aim of this thesis, beyond Nietzsche deconstructive method, was approach, in an exemplary manner, some aspects where the idol democracy does not advocate on behalf of our institutions and, in practice, examine the feasibility of a realistic political reform.

Thesis advisor: Lisa Patel Stevens / This study uses the construct of design to examine the interplay of texts, tools, and participants to ask, "How are educational environments designed and how do participants interact with designs to create spaces." I approached this question from the theoretical stance that material settings (e.g., schools, classrooms) may be designed for particular uses through institutional norms and purposeful thought (e.g., curriculum guides, technologies, architectural designs), but the way participants take up designs is not given a priori. Using ethnographic methods and spatial theories, I studied the literacy practices of a high school class designed for learning with and through multimodal textual practices, focusing on how this design of learning operated within the institutional norms of a comprehensive urban high school. Data included participant observation, qualitative interviews, and analysis of cultural artifacts, but spatial theories (de Certeau, 1984; Deleuze & Guattari, 1987; Lefebvre, 1991; Soja, 1989, 1996) and theories of design (Kress, 2003; New London Group, 1995) guided the selection and analysis of the data. Stylistically, this dissertation uses video and hyperlinks as a representational tool to illustrate the connections between conceptual fields and to illustrate how meaning is made and conveyed through the added dimensions of multimodality. The dissonance that the teacher's designs caused with the school's available designs is one of the most interesting findings. By breaking temporal and spatial boundaries of what constitutes a class, an academic discipline, and a teacher/student relationship, the teacher and the students used multimodal literacy practices in ways that offered fewer opportunities to assimilate understandings of what and how it means to learn and teach in school into available designs. The participants' interactions with the designs were mediated, however, by their cultural understandings of the purpose of school, their place in the school, and the potential of learning in school. In other words, the rules and grammars of available designs of school were co-constructive in the active designing by the participants. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

Thesis advisor: Kenji Hayao / This thesis explores the motives behind, changes made by, and the consequences of the Japan's 1993 electoral reform that completely overhauled the electoral system. It begins with some background information that leads to the earthshattering event in 1993 that ousted the ruling Liberal Democratic Party from power for the first time since 1955. Then it explains and analyzes the old and new electoral systems. Finally, it concludes with the analysis of the 2003 elections, which was the third and latest election to be held under the new system. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2004. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

Thesis advisor: Andrew Hargreaves / Music teachers occupy a conflicted and contested position in many secondary schools, and music teacher education programs have been given the task of preparing students to enter this challenging environment. This qualitative dissertation study examined the explicit, implicit, and null curricula of music teacher preparation programs in Massachusetts, the processes involved in determining those curricula and the consequences of selecting certain music education content over others. Degree requirements and course descriptions were analyzed across all undergraduate music teacher preparation programs. In addition, a survey was administered to music and education faculty in all programs and members of five institutions participated in interviews. The explicit curriculum in most music teacher preparation programs emphasized the knowledge and skills of performance, specifically the performance of Western art music, as well as the isolation of music content knowledge from pedagogical knowledge. The implicit message delivered by the explicit curriculum was that advanced musical study was intended for the few, and that popular music, world music, and other genres that deviated from the western art music tradition (i.e. - the null curriculum) were of less value. Using Bernstein's and Young's theories from the sociology of knowledge, Goodson's theory of the status and evolution of school subjects, and Siskin's and Ball and Lacey's work in the culture of secondary school subjects as the theoretical framework, the position of music education was explained as a conflicted content area that demonstrated traits of both high- and low-status subjects. Music education's geographic isolation from general education faculty was magnified by the conflicting views that music educators held when compared with their music performance counterparts. The knowledge boundaries of music content had been defended for centuries, and music education's attempt to redefine what counts as valid music and music education knowledge was met with resistance from those who benefited from the familiarity offered by the conservatory-style model of postsecondary musical study. One outlier was identified, a program whose performance emphasis was not based on western art music. Tradition and reform proved to be challenging dual goals for music educators. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

Thesis advisor: Hiroshi Nakazato / This paper is an attempt to study the United Nations through the lens of organizational theory, and in particular, the theoretical framework as outlined by Allison and Zelikow in Essence of Decision, in order to understand the implementation patterns of the UN in regards to the Brahimi Report as reported and analyzed by the Henry L. Stimson Center. The findings of this report conclude that the UN is capable of change as demonstrated by its ability to comply with certain Brahimi Report recommendations, but is resistant to change, due to the structure of the organization. This does not mean, however, that it is fundamentally unable to do so. Attempts at reform must be able to circumvent these obstacles through targeted, direct action, for the Brahimi Report recommendations which received the highest implementation ratings were those incremental organizational reforms that targeted specific aspects of peacekeeping operations. Resistance to change within the UN, be it on behalf of individuals, departments, or Member States, is a huge obstacle to change, further compounding the obstacles to reform that the UN faces simply as an organization. Future reforms must thus be framed in a way that specifically grasps the attention of the groups/members involved in the reform, making the issue as pertinent and sensitive to them as it is for the success of UN peace operations in general. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2007. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: International Studies. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

This thesis is a collection of three essays, each of which analyses an economic institution in one or more developing countries. A careful analysis of institutions is crucial for the understanding of economic performance and for the design of effective policy measures. In the first essay, "On the Structure of Tenancy Contracts" I analyse the effect of crop and tenant characteristics on the form and on the length of tenancy contracts. Using a principal-agent model I show that highpowered incentives are used when, due to the characteristics of the crop, their benefit is high and/or when, due to the characteristics of the tenant, their cost is low. The theoretical predictions are consistent with the empirical evidence from a unique data set of 705 contracts. The purpose of the second essay, "Competing for Protection: Land Fragmentation and the Rise of Mafia in 19th Century Sicily", is to identify the conditions that fostered the development of the mafia. I argue that in the context of 19th century Sicily, land fragmentation was crucial for the rise of mafia. Using a menu-auction model I show that, by inducing landlords' competition for protection, land fragmentation increases the profits of mafia groups even if the assets in need of protection are unchanged. I show that the predictions of the theory are consistent with the available empirical evidence from a sample of 70 Sicilian villages. In the third essay, "Does Financial Reform Raise or Reduce Savings?", we analyse the effect of financial liberalisation on private savings in eight developing countries. To this purpose we construct an index which summarises the reform process and estimate an error correction model for savings. We find that the effect of financial reform on savings is ambiguous. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 1999. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

Thesis advisor: Robin Fleming / Bishop Æthelwold of Winchester (d. 984) was a reformer of Anglo-Saxon monasticism, but he was also deeply concerned with the religion of ordinary English laypeople. Whether in his promulgation of the cult of saints, vast elaboration of the liturgy, or extensive rebuilding of Winchester’s churches, Æthelwold demonstrated an interest in the lay religion that has been consistently ignored by modern scholars who fixate on his monastic zeal. This concern for the laity is natural in the context of Æthelwold’s own interpretation of the English past, as his goal of an all-monastic English Church necessitated a pastoral role for his reformed monks rather than their strict seclusion from the world. Such a goal was possible because Æthelwold initiated his reform program in the mid tenth century, when corporate religious life still provided the bulk of pastoral care in Winchester and the rest of southwest England, and the organized parish system was only a dim possibility as small local churches began to appear haphazardly in the north and east of the country. Æthelwold’s reforms were therefore very different from similar ones taking place on the continent or even in the sees of his fellow English reformers, and he attempted to recreate an imagined English past very unlike the Church that would eventually result a century later. The influence of his students, however, especially Wulfstan Cantor and the prolific Ælfric of Eynsham, shows that Æthelwold’s unusual interest in lay religion had far reaching consequences for the medieval English Church. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History.