Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Versesis one of the most controversial postcolonial novels, which among a plethora of themes seems to mainly focus on the notion of hegemonic power. The Satanic Verses can partly be read as a denunciation of the British hegemony in which social injustice, racial discrimination and violence, in its different forms, exerted upon marginalized and stigmatized people (such as non-European expatriates) are legitimized by the dominant group and understood as something conventional and normal by the subjugated people. Moreover, this novel encourages the readers to criticize religion as a political tool with the help of which the dominant group can make groups of people subservient to authority. This part of my essay is related to the criticism of hegemony as such. Employing Gramsci’s analysis of hegemony, this paper begins with an investigation of the relationship between the figure of a migrant, violence and cultural hegemony inRushdie’s Britain. In the second part, the link between dream scenes and the ways through which they contribute to the overall argument about hegemony is studied. Finally, the last part of this essay revolves around religious hegemony. Hence, what links all these three sections together is the concept of hegemony and the ways through which hegemonic power is achieved and implemented in this novel.

This thesis is about a specific locality- the Central Methodist Church- and it details the lives and experiences of a large group of migrants who lived within this locality. The study also examines the activities of a wide range of humanitarian organisations that instituted interventions at the church and analyses how individuals’ suffering is dealt with by humanitarian organizations. The individuals who inhabited the church were a product of large-scale structural factors- political conflict, economic decline and fragmentation and social despair. These individuals were however following traditional mobile livelihoods routes that have been part and parcel of the Southern African labour migration history. The central questions that this study examines are how and in what ways experiential suffering is dealt with and how the different ways and technologies of managing suffering, impinge upon individual and collective subjectivities in the specific locality of the church. In addition the study examines the categorizations and representations of indigent Zimbabwean migrants within South Africa and how these representations have been constructed and transformed over time. The findings made in the study are drawn from a year of ethnographic fieldwork, which combined a number of different methods. These included archival research, participant observation, in-depth interviews and narratives with individual migrants, state officials and officials from humanitarian organizations. The study also made use of diaries in order to detail the everyday lives of individual migrants and capture the texture of everyday life at the church. The findings indicate that the migrants emplaced within the Central Methodist Church were not only victims of structural, political and socio-economic factors as has been the common refrain in recent literature but were also victims of the ‘invisible’, silenced, unrecognized and unacknowledged violence and exclusionary nation-building mechanisms and processes in post-independence Zimbabwe and post-apartheid South Africa. The study finds that the ways through which organizations deal with suffering is mediated by numerous factors and humanitarian interventions interact and articulate with the aspirations of individuals in complex and unpredictable ways often with perverse outcomes. One of the key findings that emerges from the study carried out within a specific locality challenges the notion of places such as refugee camps and asylum holding centres as being ‘exceptional spaces’ where individuals are bereft of rights and even their sense of individuality and worth. Rather such places ought to be understood in terms of contextual, material and historical realities. These places ought also to be understood in terms of the meanings that are attached to them by those who inhabit them. In this regard the study shows the Central Methodist church building to be a material and political resource used by the inhabitants and it’s also an economic and political resource utilized by NGOs and other actors. The thesis shows that the ways through which humanitarian interventions are deployed leads to the creation of categories of victimhood and oftentimes these categories are negotiated and constantly reconfigured at times without necessarily interacting with the realities of the beneficiaries in the manner intended. The thesis shows that the everyday lives of indigent individuals are characterized not only by hardships but the manner in which these individuals attempt to assist each are processes fraught with tension and ambiguity. By so doing, the study challenges the romanticization of the lives of the poor which is often depicted as resilient and where the poor assist each other. The thesis makes a contribution to the anthropology of humanitarianism. In addition, the thesis contributes to broader debates on the intersections between migration, indigence, victimhood and the logics and practices of humanitarian institutions.

This thesis identifies and analyses the major patterns of class-based structural violence (based on the differential access to class power) in some of the main areas of social organisation in Britain in the period from 1979 to 2010 (the period of neoliberal consolidation in Britain). It does this by pioneering the empirical operationalisation of a neo-Galtungian concept and typology of structural violence. Additionally, the thesis refines the theoretical lens on structural violence for the primary purpose of improving its ability to reach new insights in the process of the empirical analysis of class-based structural violence. These improvements are to a large extent based on a theoretical and typological synthesis of Galtung’s theory of structural violence with Amartya Sen’s conceptualisation of instrumental freedoms. To avoid a static examination of social structures, my work analyses the dynamics of various forms of structural violence in the analysed period understood as the dialectical interplay of structural and subjective agential factors. The extensive and sustained employment of the concept of class-based structural violence in this thesis through a number of specific case studies contributes to a more integrated understanding of the research problem and verifies the hypothesis about the existence of extensive and systemic class-based structural violence in Britain across several main dimensions of social life. My study also elucidates the character of this structural violence and some of the most prominent causal mechanisms by which it is reproduced. This initial cartography of class-based structural violence in Britain also identifies a number of new research questions in relation to the analysed topic.

The world’s understanding of HIV/AIDS is grounded in biomedicine and shaped by cognitive psychology. Both biomedicine and cognitive psychology bonded with historically top-down development mechanisms to create ‘prevention’ strategies that obscured from vision the root causes of the pandemic. Within this hierarchy, bio-medicine and the cognitive psychological conception of human beings silenced indigenous voices and experiences of communities fighting HIV/AIDS. This is most certainly true in the case of Sub-Saharan Africa. This research explores the emergence of the Community Capacity Enhancement – Community Conversations prevention approach that places community dialogue, and the voices of communities, at the forefront of the battle to end HIV/AIDS and deconstruct and challenge the forms of structural violence that hold prevalence rates in their place. Within these spaces, oral traditions, indigenous knowledge, and resistance illustrate new and complex pictures of the viruses’ socio-economic impact and provide new foundations for community generated movements to curb the virus.

The world’s understanding of HIV/AIDS is grounded in biomedicine and shaped by cognitive psychology. Both biomedicine and cognitive psychology bonded with historically top-down development mechanisms to create ‘prevention’ strategies that obscured from vision the root causes of the pandemic. Within this hierarchy, bio-medicine and the cognitive psychological conception of human beings silenced indigenous voices and experiences of communities fighting HIV/AIDS. This is most certainly true in the case of Sub-Saharan Africa. This research explores the emergence of the Community Capacity Enhancement – Community Conversations prevention approach that places community dialogue, and the voices of communities, at the forefront of the battle to end HIV/AIDS and deconstruct and challenge the forms of structural violence that hold prevalence rates in their place. Within these spaces, oral traditions, indigenous knowledge, and resistance illustrate new and complex pictures of the viruses’ socio-economic impact and provide new foundations for community generated movements to curb the virus.

This study offers an ethnographic account of the Brazilian protest movement that erupted in June of 2013. I conducted fieldwork in Rio during this time, including unstructured interviews, participant observation, unobtrusive observation, and collection of narratives to gain an understanding of what people living in Rio believe about these protests and social movements in general. The initial motivation for the protests was an increase in public transportation fare, but the movement quickly evolved into a fight for citizenship rights. With the upcoming mega-events in Rio (World Cup and Olympic Games), the city has spent billions of dollars on construction that many people think is unnecessary and ultimately useless. Brazil is a country rife with socioeconomic inequality, and many citizens lack access to having their basic needs met. Protesters in Rio argue that this money could be better spent on providing health care, education, and other fundamental necessities to the city’s population.

Education is one of the main priorities for both past and present global development goals, and making sure access is granted to all children is vital. However, when looking at education for children with disabilities, access is not as easily provided as for their non-disabled peers. In Cambodia, children with disabilities have a strong legislative protection despite low enrolment rates. This thesis looks further into how, and why children with disabilities in Cambodia are not in school. The empirical results based on an ethnographic study suggest that structural violence, which is violence operating indirectly through institutions and structures in society, obstructs access to education through the mechanisms of social exclusion, oppression and lack of agency. The obstructing forces are deeply rooted in the structures of the Cambodian society and physical barriers are linked to attitudinal barriers where the presence of disability causes stigmatisation that breed discrimination and exclusion. This thesis adds violence as a variable of interest when it comes to looking at development from the perspective of disability studies.

Background After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, there was a significant need for basic services such as health, water, food, sanitation, school, protection and security in the largest camp in Port-au-Prince, Park Jean Marie Vincent (PJMV). PJMV IDP camp was located in the commune of Cité Soleil; a slum in Haiti labeled as a red zone and widely regarded as the most insecure place on earth. As a result, the camp residents were left to live on their own contradicting the humanitarian principle of humanity and impartiality. Strong solidarity developed amongst camp residents leading them to organize themselves in order to decrease structural violence. Zanmi Lasante (ZL), a healthcare and human rights organization that works with poorest and most vulnerable communities in Central Plateau, would cross the red zone to accompany the camp residents by providing training, materials, and resources to set up aid activities. Using a qualitative methodology, this study will describe the activities ZL completed and present the outcomes of those activities. This study will argue that the ZL accompaniment helped to decrease structural violence and chaos and allowed the camp residents to persevere. Methods This study is based on a personal story and experience of the researcher in PJMV IDP camp after the 2010 Haitian earthquake. We collected data from semi-structured interviews with 5 ZL staff, 7 camp leaders, and 5 camp residents. The researcher conducted a narrative analysis to recreate a collective memory from four viewpoints: 1) Zanmi Lasante staff; 2) camp leaders; 3) IDP camp residents and 4) the researcher. The researcher used processual methods of qualitative research to identify themes and exemplar narratives to compare and contrast these multiple viewpoints. Results The interviews offered multiple viewpoints on the activities in the camp both before and during the time ZL was active. Activities included creating and staffing a health clinic, training community health workers, establishing a nutrition center, ensuring HIV-AIDS care, and launching a response to the cholera outbreak. In addition, ZL conducted other kinds of activities that put health in the social context, including building a water purification system, establishing a tent village, creating a school program, launching an initiative to protect women from sexual violence, and advocating for food and sanitation. The researcher finds that those additional activities generated good outcomes such as health, security, job creation, capacity building, community engagement and participation, and community empowerment. ZL used a collaborative approach, integrating accompaniment into all activities by working with local residents, leaders and other organizations. This accompaniment decreased structural violence and helped camp residents to be more self-sufficient. The study also explores the challenges of accompaniment as responsibilities for these activities were shifted from ZL to the camp residents and local leaders. Conclusions The goal of this study is to describe the activities conducted by ZL in PJMV from January 2010 to January 2012 and how the approach of offering aid using the accompaniment model impacted the social context in the camp. The researcher recommends that humanitarian aid from within and beyond a disaster affected community be geared toward supporting and partnering with local communities and local organizations. In this way, humanitarian aid will strengthen local communities in a way that may be sustained once these organizations leave.

This qualitative phenomenological study was designed to gain an in-depth understanding of the lived experiences of Nigerian citizens on corruption and conflict. A review of the literature found a gap in the understanding of the lived experiences of participants on corruption and conflict in Nigeria, and this study was designed to fill that gap. Using a purposeful sampling method, the investigator targeted 20 Nigerian citizens who have experienced corruption and conflict. The phenomenological method provided the basis for a reflective structural analysis that exposes the meanings and essences of the lived experiences of the participants on corruption and conflict in Nigeria. Participant interviews showed that many Nigerians encounter bribery on a daily basis because of the following reasons: they were encouraged by a perceived culture of greed, a culture of impunity, a culture of impropriety and a culture of no accountability. All of the participants indicated the need to survive the harsh realities of living in Nigeria. The study revealed a broad variety of corruption and conflict situations in Nigeria. This dissertation adds value and richness to existing body of knowledge, which suggested to policy makers, advocates and civil society of the need to develop policies and strategies to stem corruption as part of a wider strategy for resolving the negative conflicts that currently characterize the socio-political and economic landscape of Nigeria. Overall, as part of the major contributions and objectives, this dissertation illuminated the psychological impacts of corruption and conflict in Nigeria. In other words, this research bridged the gap between the social structural understandings and impacts of corruption and the personal component.

This thesis examines the role of structural violence in the contemporary transition to adulthood of street involved youth. Anchored in structural social work, the study understands the origin of social problems and of violence to be structural rather than individual. Conducted in two phases, the study used participatory action and arts-informed methods, group discussions, and semi-structured interviews. Autonomy, a key component of the contemporary transition to adulthood, was central to the research results. The findings demonstrated that structural violence works to misrepresent or to nullify street involved youths’ expressions of autonomy. Structural violence affects how they exercise and manifest their autonomy as well as how their autonomy is represented or socially valued. The findings made visible the invisible structural violence, illuminating social causes of individual problems. Accordingly, to better support street involved youth and the development of their autonomy during their transition to adulthood, the study proposes recommendations for practice, policy, and research that target systems level change.