This study will undertake a critical analysis of the domestic architecture of Gawie Fagan so as to define its uniqueness in the South African architectural landscape, and the contribution the architect has made to the establishment of a place-specific architecture that is nationally and internationally recognized. It will attempt to increase the limited written knowledge of the work of South African architects and to add to the critical debate on South African architecture. The study will employ both descriptive and normative approaches as the built work and writings of Fagan are unpacked. This will be done through an analysis of the dichotomies, tensions and mediations that exist in his architecture. It will demonstrate that there are heterotrophic and typological tendencies present in his domestic oeuvre and that they represent a unique synthesis of the local Cape vernacular and aspects of the Modern Movement. It will attempt to provide a clear understanding of the man and his philosophies and through this process will add to the critical debate on South African architecture. Fagan's work will firstly be contextualized, after which an analysis will be undertaken to determine how external and internal influences have impacted on the design of his houses and how these have contributed to the development of a unique South African architecture. / Thesis (PhD)—University of Pretoria, 2012 / Architecture / unrestricted

The aim of the thesis is to determine whether NAFTA filled original expenctations of its member countries and most importantly, how have their strategic approaches to this Agreement changed. The secondary objective is to examine how the integration could evolve into the future and if there is a chance of achieving higher degrees of integration. The thesis is divided into three main parts. The first part is devoted to regionalism on the North American continent and the gradual emergence of mutual ties between Canada, USA and Mexico. It is devoted as well to the circumstances under which NAFTA was established and to motives of individual countries to enter into this integration. The largest and the most important part is the second chapter, in which are outlined basic provisions of the agreement, then described the results of NAFTA as a whole, and finally there is analyzed development of individual member economies under the influence of NAFTA. The content of the final third chapter are main present problems in connection with NAFTA, there are also outlined possible directions for the future development of integration and potential of its further enlargement and deepening.The last section deals with the question if the strategic approaches of member countries of NAFTA have changed after fifteen years of its existence.

This dissertation develops and demonstrates a new mode of regional literary analysis. I begin by assessing the work of five Canadian literary regionalists from perspectives provided by human geographers and spatial theorists. Although discourses of Canadian literary regionalism vary, I argue that this field has tended to rely upon a reified understanding of regional analysis, a mystified conception of regional identity, and a passive construction of regional space. I offer a means of disrupting these tendencies by re-imagining the process of regional literary analysis. As I define it, literary regionalism is the process of demonstrating patterns in the way that literary texts deploy representations of sociomaterial space to enable performances of identity. This approach foregrounds literature's capacity to elucidate space's social efficacy. It also directs literary regionalism towards a more contemporary understanding of space and identity. In part two I begin to apply my mode of analysis to eight twentieth-century Canadian realist novels by introducing the concept of place. Because place-studies focus on the organization of social relations within a single text, I argue that they offer a useful means of initiating cross-textual, regional analyses. I demonstrate this point by analyzing the relationship between place and gender identity in Charles Bruce's The Channel Shore, and then looking for parallels in the way other novels articulate this relationship. In part three I construct a "region of denial and purgation" by interrogating how and why authors deploy representations of nature to deny the social origins of identity formation. I relate the power such representations have to articulate seemingly epiphanic shifts in identity to the sublime's enduring legacy. Because sublime experience enables characters to reconstitute themselves as new, it facilitates their desires to purge those aspects of their personal histories that have caused them guilt or shame. I conclude that this dissertation makes two contributions to Canadian literary studies. First, it advances a productive dialogue between human geography and Canadian literary studies. Second, by re-imagining the practice of Canadian literary regionalism through alternate disciplinary lenses, this dissertation helpfully foregrounds the heterodox character—and'unexplored potential—of a regional mode of literary analysis. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

Den här uppsatsen behandlar vilka egenskaper det gränsregionala samarbetet Greater Copenhagen innehar samt vilka konsekvenser som dessa upprättar. Studien analyseras i förhållande till planeringsregionala begrepp samt hur dessa tillämpas i samarbetet. Begreppen som valdes för den här analysen var region, regionalism, globalisering, platsmarknadsföring och resiliens. Studiens tillvägagångsätt för analysen bestod av en komparativ diskursanalys mellan svenska och danska aktörer. Även en intervju genomfördes med en lokalpolitiker inom samarbetet. Resultatet omfattar bland annat underliggande spänningar mellan olika kommuner och den svenska staten, en strävan mot att nå egenskaper som tilltalar globaliseringen och skillnader mellan svenska och danska kommuners framförhållning till samarbetet. Studien visar även att region Skånes del i samarbetet leder till egenskaper som betecknas inom regionalisering. Det innebär att samarbetet inte bara är en lokal angelägenhet utan även en nationell och transnationell. Det framkommer även att de egenskaper som skiljer sig finns mellan svenska och danska kommuner är ett hinder för att samarbetet ska kunna nå sin fulla potential. Detta är något som måste åtgärdas för att syftet med samarbetet ska kunna nås.

Includes bibliographical references / One of the political and economic responses to globalisation and the associated rise of multilateral trade agreements is the integration of national markets and their governance within regions. As developing economies have become increasingly integrated into the global economy, the harmonisation of policies and standardisation of regulations to create economies of scale and scope, has been one of the primary strategies to improve regional competitiveness. With the global economy underpinned by a dynamic communication infrastructure, African regional economic communities (RECs) have increasingly recognised the importance of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in realising the vision of regional integration, and as a major determinant of national and regional competitiveness. Despite member states' acknowledgement of the need for regional connectivity, many initiatives across Africa aimed at supporting and establishing harmonised ICT policy frameworks have not had the intended outcomes. Strategies for developing seamless regional ICT infrastructures - necessary for the achievement of universal policy objectives of improved access to, and usage of, affordable broadband services now widely demonstrated to drive economic growth - have not been realised. Through a case study of regional policy-making in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the thesis examines the political economy underlying regional processes and structures for the development and the implementation of ICT policy frameworks, as shaped by epistemic communities. A conceptual framework is constructed as a lens through which to assess the role of capacity building as a tool in foreign affairs in the institutional arrangements within SADC countries and ICT policy outcomes in the region. This reveals the wider political, economic and more specific policy and regulatory constraints hampering the development of the information society from a developing region perspective. Applying a hybrid methodology, empirical information was gathered through quantitative secondary data but using qualitative methods to gather the primary evidence for the case. This evidence from multiple sources is examined through a broad political economy framework to contextualise the research problem and develop a rich narrative of regional integration efforts in the area of information communication technologies in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Following rigorous and extensive gathering of information from face to face interviews following an exhaustive document analysis, detailed coding of the data and triangulation of findings enable d an analysis of how institutional arrangement s in the region -despite the accepted rationale and logic of market integration -have largely failed to achieve the intended IV ICT policy objectives stated in SADC protocols and declarations despite considerable advances in the formal harmonisation of aspects of ICT policy and regulation.

I denna uppsats studeras fyra regionsutredningars argumentation för respektive mot skapandet av storregioner i Sverige. Utredningarna i fråga är Regionsutredningens slutbetänkande från år 1992, Västsverigeutredningens slutbetänkande från år 1992, Ansvarskommitténs slutbetänkande från år 2007 samt Indelningskommitténs delbetänkande från år 2016. Syftet med uppsatsen är att utifrån teorier rörande regionalism, nyregionalism och demokrati studera fyra tidigare regionsutredningars argumentation. De utvalda regionsutredningarna är utförda under åren 1992, 2007 och 2016. Hur ser deras argument ut på området och går de att koppla till uppsatsens tre teoretiska ansatser som är demokrati, regionalism och nyregionalism? Vilka är argumenten som framförts av utredningarna för respektive mot skapandet av storregioner i Sverige. Finns det en samsyn i utredningarnas argumentation vad gäller behovet av en regionsreformering och vad en sådan i så fall skulle innehålla eller har utredningarna helt olika infallsvinklar. Uppsatsens frågeställningar är följande. Vilka är regionsutredningarnas huvudargument för respektive mot en reformering av det regionala systemet? Går det att koppla deras argumentation i betänkandena till teorier rörande regionalism och demokrati? Hur mycket skiljer sig regionsutredningarnas betänkanden åt när det kommer till deras förslag på hur den regionala nivån kan förändras. Går de även utifrån dessa förslag att avläsa vilken av de tre teoretiska ansatserna som haft störst inflytande över utredningarnas beslut? Metoden som denna uppsats använder sig av för att kunna besvara uppsatsens syfte och frågeställningar är en argumentationsanalys som består av fem proargument och fyra contraargument som fungerar som uppsatsens operationalisering av de tre teorierna: regionalism, nyregionalism och demokrati. Uppsatsens slutsatser visar att det finns en beviskraft i de contra- och proargument som tagits fram men att beviskraften är något sämre hos contraargumenten. Det har kunnat klargöras att det finns ett samband mellan utredningarnas argumentation och uppsatsens tre teorier. Slutligen framgår det att samtliga av de fyra regionsutredningarna anser att dagens län är för små för att klara framtidens utmaningar gällande demografi och regional utveckling, där Västsverigeutredningen och Regionsutredningen fokuserat på den regionala utvecklingen och Ansvarskommittén och Indelningskommittén på de demografiska frågorna.

This thesis is based on the theoretical knowledge derived from the European integration experience to conduct a comparative study between the EU and ASEAN. This thesis investigates how endogenous factors affect how exogenous factors influence the EU and ASEAN institution building process within the European Single Market and ASEAN Free Trade Area. It argues that ASEAN members' domestic political interest and national preference formed within their cultural context as a result of their informal institutional economic cooperation. The thesis reviews literature and finds that the European model cannot be simply applied to ASEAN, thus a combination of new regionalism and liberal intergovernmentalism seeks to contribute alternatives to different aspects in the analysis of ASEAN regional integration.

In 2014, Switzerland was ranked seventh among the most successful nations in exerting what political scientist Joseph Nye calls "soft power": the ability to exercise power by attracting favor through economic and cultural influence rather than through coercion. This ability is partly due to the way Switzerland redefined its national identity following an economic decline in the 1970s and rapidly changing demographics, resulting in its repositioning on the international market. Indicative of this shift is the adoption of the pseudo-English word "Swissness" into the Swiss-German language in the late 1990s. The notion of Swissness, initially used in marketing Swiss products, has become instrumental in reframing and reshaping the cultural landscape of the nation. This dissertation examines a particular case of cultural nation re-branding through an ethnographic analysis of the revival of Streichmusik (string music). Streichmusik, which was once a localized musical practice of the mountainous region of the Appenzell and the Toggenburg, has become identified as quintessentially Swiss. By considering the role of domestic cultural tourism, I ask how Streichmusik, a visual and sonic representation of Swissness, is promoted and at times commercialized, and how commodification of the musical practice has affected its performance, reception, and cultural significance locally and nationally. In my analyses, I focus particularly on two keywords, Heimat (homeland) and Heile Welt (ideal or idyllic world), as well as local terminology denoting authenticity to argue that Streichmusik and the region offer a restorative platform for Switzerland. The resultant notions of nostalgia and reclaiming a rural utopia, position Appenzell and Toggenburg as an embodiment of Swissness. Based on participant observation and interviews, this study focuses on the voices of performers, cultural institutions, and tourist organizations to demonstrate how the tensions between cultural preservation and marketing practices at a local and national level provide a reimagined heritage in their attempt to (re)brand both the region and the nation at large. I further argue that having found a new place in the cultural imaginary through Swissness, Streichmusik performers articulate differing relationships with domestic cultural tourism and globalizing market forces at a time of shifting discourses of Swiss national identity. / 2017-05-31T00:00:00Z

In recent times, West Africa has (once again) gained international attention as a region hit by various crises. Islamic extremism; transnational drug economies; the smuggling of people, cars, arms, et cetera; as well as transnational interventions have come to most visibly represent particular contemporary globalization processes in West Africa. Paired with already widespread cleavages due to socioeconomic hardship affecting vast percentages of the West African population, these dynamics point to the (violent) reordering of space, described as de- and re-territorialization, and are based on different — often conflicting — ways of (re-)imagining space in Africa. Moreover, the implications of these dynamics appear to reach far beyond the confines of West Africa — as most dramatically evidenced in debates on the current European “refugee crisis” and the fear of terrorist attacks in Europe. Hence, Western powers have come to consider the perceived destabilization of the region and in particular the seeming proliferation of “weak” or “failed states” as a threat to the territorial organization of the international state system and, as such, have intervened in various ways in order to counter the trend.

No description available.