1,720,983 research outputs found
The United States’ foreign policy and enabling interstate aggression : a case study of the Moroccan annexation of the Western Sahara
Get PDFThe thesis is a study of the Moroccan state’s actions and rhetoric surrounding the Western Sahara and the role of US foreign policy as a motivating factor in the Moroccan annexation and ongoing administration of this territory. This study focuses on the consequences of the Trump administration’s recognition of Morocco’s annexation of the Western Sahara and acknowledgment of the Moroccan Autonomy Plan for the region. It combines a historical study with an inter-state comparison. In analyzing actions taken on the part of the Moroccan state and the United States, this study incorporates aspects of critical constructivist and postcolonial schools of thought as well as a theoretical understanding of settler colonialism to understand their contemporary manifestations in the Western Sahara. This also incorporates analysis of the history of colonial extractivism inherent to this region’s administration. This is done to understand whether or not United States foreign policy constitute an instigator of interstate conflicts. To conduct this analysis, this study analyzes behaviors taken on the part of the Moroccan state after the United States’ acknowledgment of Moroccan control of the Western Saharan territory during the Trump administration. This study also contextualizes the United States interventionalism during the period of the Cold War and its adherence to Realist theory in positioning itself internationally for its own interests.submittedVersionM-I
Disaster management in Hurricane Maria : voices from the agriculture sector in Puerto Rico
Get PDFIn September 2017, Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico, a Caribbean island territory of the United States, making a significant and lasting impact on the island. The hurricane severely affected the well-being, livelihoods and self-sufficiency of the people with its impact on the agriculture sector. Because of its unique location, Puerto Rico is prone to hurricanes and has a rich history of experiences with these storms, yet the devastation Maria ensued was of a different proportion. Vulnerabilities on the island including financial struggles and weak infrastructure had been present in Puerto Rico leading up to Hurricane Maria. Recovering from the week prior Hurricane Irma, preparation time and resources were limited for Hurricane Maria. The existing risk factors meeting an immensely powerful category 4 hurricane created long-term losses and extended recovery for the agriculture sector of Puerto Rico.
This goal of this study to explore perspectives on the impact and subsequent disaster management of Hurricane Maria on the agriculture sector in Puerto Rico as executed by various key actors involved, from local efforts and NGOs, to government interventions. It is by deconstructing perceptions on disaster relief efforts, particularly from the point of view of local farmers in Puerto Rico, that disaster management efforts during Hurricane Maria are understood. Attitudes about future climate events are another key element of this study along with new movements in agriculture in Puerto Rico. Perspectives on preparatory measures, loss, recovery efforts, climate change and the future of agriculture in Puerto Rico are highlights in this study
A whole story perspective : Norwegian youth reflections on Sustainable Development Goal 4.7
Get PDFWrought with climate instability and social inequalities the future at times appears tenuous, but there is also hope. One aspect of this hope lies in the vision of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 agenda, in particular goal SDG 4.7 and its core concepts of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and Global Citizenship Education (GCE). To ensure youth voices are both heard and utilised in future curriculum development and decision making, critical insight is needed as to how youth today perceive and reflect on the concepts of ESD and GCE. The aim of this thesis is to engage youth with a critical, integrated perspective of ESD and GCE in order to contribute both to pedagogical learning methods and curriculum development from the perspective of those who it is imparted on. Through aspects of Decolonial Theory and critical pedagogy this qualitative research engages with the ‘whole story perspective’ to mobilize youth to think outside the ‘box’ and move between marginalized and mainstream perspectives. Empirical data was collected through two interconnected workshops from three Norwegian Upper Secondary Schools involving a total of 42 students (average age 17). The findings show there is a strong sense from all the youth that a more critical, action-oriented perspective is needed and wanted. Many groups refer to critical thinking, problem solving directly and indirectly indicating the present competencies and approaches do not suffice. The results also reveal that the youth are aware that what they know is not sufficient to contribute to a sustainable and just world. While an awareness that there are other ways of seeing and acting, these are perceived as essentially beyond what they can envision and what their education provides. To conclude, this research calls for a more integrated, critical approach to the core concepts of SDG 4.7, ESD and GCE. The youth call for change, and this is where their hope lies
Anarchists’ self-organized social movement in Athens, during the financial/ social crisis
Get PDFThis study explains the role of Anarchism in the Athens during the Financial and
Social Crisis. Through the definition of Direct Action as anarchism amalgams of tactics and
strategies, the research tries to underlines the alternatives of anarchism in the society. I will
try drawing a picture of the above, through the description of Lela K. 37 squat, as a case
study. It’s one of the oldest housing squats in Greece, and its role throughout the last 30
years of anarchists’ movement, is crucial. The city center of Athens is the physical and
political center of Greece. As long as anarchism doesn’t belong to any kind of State or
Nation, the squat is part of a global anarchists’ movement. The thesis underlines the
challenges of anarchists’ movement face before and during the crisis, from the State but also
from the rising of the Far-Right ideologies.M-D
Staying alive : understanding violent life choices of the ‘pesetas’ in Honduras
Get PDFSince the gang culture emerged in Honduras more than two decades ago, the official discourse has hold marginalized youth and gang members responsible for the prevalence of violence in the Honduran society. The portrayal of them as the main perpetrators of violence have led them to become the prime targets of repressive security measures, and ultimately allowed for their lived realities of victimization to be omitted from the official discourse, while the lived realities of the former gang members, the pesetas, have been silenced all together. This thesis goes beyond the general perception and examines the lived realities of marginalized youth, gang members, and pesetas. It shows how they in the course of their lifetime move along a continuum of violence, constantly shifting between being victims and perpetrators of violence.
The study uses the concepts of ‘dehumanization’ and ‘social death’ to show how the structural constraints of having limited opportunities of a worthy life, and not being recognized as fully human affect the marginalized youth’ choice to take a violent life chance. It reveals the interplay between their structural suffering and victimization, and their active choice to resist oppression and to claim a position and a voice in the society.
This study shows that violence is an important characteristic in the construction of subjectivity, and the main mechanism to reclaim a sense of humanness and respect for marginalized youth. Furthermore, it illustrates how joining a gang can be an active choice to stay alive socially and physically by escaping social marginalization and family negligence, in addition to generating a meaningful life. As gang members, however, they are still as much subjected to being victims as perpetrators of violence, and while they are able to reclaim a sense of humanness, they continue to be dehumanized.
Lastly, the study reveals that becoming a peseta is to return to the path of social death
characterized by insecurity, marginality, and exclusion. Even when the pesetas have a desire to change, they are often forced to reenter the violent life as a mean to survive.
The marginalized youth, gang members, and pesetas continuously move between a violent life chance and the social death in a constant struggle to stay alive.M-D
Towards a participatory renewable energy transition in Latin America : social enterprises and the promotion of decentralized solar energy systems
No full textRenewable energies are indispensable for Latin America to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, mitigate climate change and increase energy security. To reach these goals, the countries of the region trust in large-scale projects, technological advances and sound investment conditions.
“Towards a participatory renewable energy transition in Latin America: Social enterprises and the promotion of decentralized solar energy systems” investigates the limitations and challenges of this techno-economic approach. The thesis explores why the future generation and supply of energy must be embedded in a more participatory framework to be truly sustainable and fair. The Argentinean company Colectando Sol embodies this vision, as it encourages a widespread involvement of citizens in the energy transition through the promotion and production of solar power.submittedVersionM-D
Recognizing women in the struggle for social and environmental justice in the context of the Belo Monte hydropower dam in the Brazilian Amazon
Get PDFIn this thesis, I explain the interlinkages between large dams, women and struggles for social justice within the context of the Belo Monte dam. First, I study how and why women are impacted in different ways by the Belo Monte project, and secondly, I explore how affected women, involved in social movements, react to the effects of the Belo Monte hydropower dam, and what results their struggle has given.
The study is based on a qualitative research methodology. The empirical data derived from semi-structured interviews and analyzed by means of inductive content analysis. The discussion of the results was framed within the three dimensions of social and environmental justice theory (distribution, recognition and participation) and conceptualised in a gender perspective, with a focus on women.
The findings show that people from riverside communities were impoverished by dispossession and maldistribution practises imposed by the construction authorities and also by their collective abandonment of the uprooted people in terms of public services, mitigation- and rehabilitation strategies. These sudden and vast changes affected women severely because of their traditional position as caretakers of the family, linked to their home and community. The forced displacement to inland resettlement-suburbs with lacking public infrastructure and water supply, increased and complicated women´s daily work burdens and ended their incomes from resource-dependent smallholder activities. Existing problems of gender-related violence and sexual abuse increased after the Belo Monte project due to the vast immigration of construction workers and the social confusion the project generated. No adequate measures had been taken to avoid this situation. Being bound to the home and family where the grievances, problems and desolation were most evident, women ended up in the very short end of distributional inequity having to cope and overcome the challenges.
While these impacts are significant, I argue that increased awareness about local women´s lives, losses and claims are important to implement measures to overcome them (Buechler et al. 2015; Dyck 2005), and importantly, to recognize that local women´s interests are different than the ideas powerful decision-makers have for development. To obtain change, it is important to include women´s participation in decision-making arenas in large socio-environmental projects such as the Belo Monte dam, and likewise in the construction of national policies and regulations.
I suggest that by paying attention to women´s lives, voices and actions, one can obtain valuable information about some of the hidden drivers of social and environmental change such as: unjust distribution, misrecognition of difference and exclusion in decision-making processes, which are all obstacles to a move towards equity and justice. In this thesis, I conclude that women´s participation helps building gender-just movements and incorporates women´s claims in political strategies associated with socio-environmental movements; strategies that demand just distribution, recognition and participation in order to confront economic, cultural and political oppression of marginalised groups, with women at the centre.M-IE
Meanings of mining : a political ecologist' approach on the regulation of artisanal and small-scale gold mining in Southern Ecuador
Get PDFThis thesis is concerned with the regulation of artisanal and small-scale mining in Portovelo- Zaruma (P-Z) in the South-Western corner of Ecuador. With the use of political ecology and an ethnographic approach I argue that there are substantial shortcomings to the existent apolitical research on this context and the governmental regulation that is informed by the latter. The thesis analyses the historical trajectory of mining activity in Porto and how it evolved into its current composition. It is argued that the co-existence of different forms of mining is the bedrock for a highly complex situation which governmental regulations struggle to acknowledge and effectively confront. The thesis follows this complexity with a focus on the enforcement of regulation and the responses it creates in the local setting. I argue that current governmental regulations are: 1) problematically affiliated with natural science blaming artisanal miners for the environmental degradation, and 2) representative for a rationality of corporate social responsibility. The outcome of this leads regulators away from acknowledging internal power relations and the political dimension in which this resource governance is embedded. Accordingly, I expose these relations and situate their respective claims and dynamics in divergent epistemological traditions. My objective in this thesis is three-folded: 1) to confront and complement the dominance of apolitical research that obscure the socio-political complexity of the field, 2) to expand on the theory of interlegality in contexts of artisanal and small-scale mining, and 3) to highlight and recognize the importance of situated perspectives in the tradition of political ecologyM-IE
Human trafficking following the 2015 Nepal earthquake : a case study of how a natural disaster impacts people´s vulnerabilities and the role disaster response and recovery plays in countering it
Get PDFHuman trafficking in crisis has reached the international humanitarian agenda the last few years. The humanitarian response to the 2015 earthquake in Nepal was among the first to include counter-trafficking at the onset of a natural disaster. Using the counter-trafficking efforts in the earthquake response in Nepal as a case study the aim of this research is threefold: The first aim is to look at natural disaster impacts the root causes that puts people at risk of human trafficking. The second to look at the counter-trafficking measures implemented in the humanitarian response. Thirdly to look at how social, cultural and political factors affected how the response and recovery efforts reached vulnerable people and how this impacted the root causes that put people at risk of trafficking.submittedVersionM-D
Exhibiting development : artistic expressions and development dilemmas in world expositions since 2005
Get PDFGlobal development is the broad concept of creating a good life for everyone. However, the complex realities of contemporary development and its diverse interpretations and approaches have made it difficult to reach the varying objectives of what makes a life good. The debates within the development field reveal a need to broadly examine and experiment with the concepts and ideas of development, particularly in other spaces and realms. On the premise that aesthetics and creative expression are forces of knowledge production and social change, this study reveals the role immersive art has in catalyzing development dilemmas and the ways art can create alternative spatial, political, cultural, social spaces in which to examine and experiment with the complex realities of development.
As historical broadcasters of wider development discourse and discussion, this thesis attempts to understand the influences behind the temporal and specially built environments at World Expositions. Four distinct pavilion case studies suggest the ways in which these artistic spaces are in dialogue with contemporary development ideas regarding well-being and sustainability over the last twenty years. By using a methodological approach called multimodal visual discourse analysis, I explore the political, historical, cultural, artistic, and design contexts driving the formation of World Expo pavilions as well as their interactive and immersive features. This thesis offers a detailed study of the alternative domains that are communicating and interacting with contemporary global development concepts and suggests a potentially powerful, multifaceted role for arts-based research in the field of global development
- …
