Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Keyword
-
- Gender (2)
- Neoliberalism (2)
- Public Policy (2)
- Security (2)
- Afghanistan (1)
-
- African-American Studies (1)
- African-American women (1)
- Al Qaeda (1)
- Al qaeda (1)
- American Colony (1)
- American Politics (1)
- American Presidency (1)
- BLM (1)
- Black Lives Matter (1)
- Boundlessness (1)
- Cabotage Law (1)
- Capitalism (1)
- Capitalism Reevaluated (1)
- Capitalist Realism (1)
- China (1)
- Civic and Community Engagement (1)
- Civil Society (1)
- Civil-military relations (1)
- Civilian supremacy (1)
- Class Fragmentation (1)
- Clientelism (1)
- Climate change (1)
- Colonialism (1)
- Communism (1)
- Correction officers (1)
Articles 1 - 30 of 31
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
Caring Without Sharing: Philanthropy's Creation And Destruction Of The Common World, Amy B. Schiller
Caring Without Sharing: Philanthropy's Creation And Destruction Of The Common World, Amy B. Schiller
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
This dissertation explores multiple ways philanthropy builds and undermines the common world. Political science treatments of philanthropy have focused mainly on its role in the development of civil society, with a recent turn towards critiques of philanthropy as an instrument of elite power and tension between private wealth and democratic governance. In this dissertation, I examine how philanthropy can foster enduring spaces of human flourishing, or reduce beneficiaries to objects of pity, surveillance and domination. I trace philanthropy's evolution from ancient to contemporary contexts and propose a framework for philanthropy to, under certain conditions, build and care for the common …
The Origins Of The Jones Act Of Puerto Rico, Stephanie Mercedes
The Origins Of The Jones Act Of Puerto Rico, Stephanie Mercedes
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
After the Spanish-American War that ended in 1898, Puerto Rico was given to the United States by Spain as a war booty, becoming a US colony. The first law ever created by the United States to control Puerto Rico was the Foraker Act (also known as the Organic Act of 1900). This established a civilian government in Puerto Rico. It also extended the federal government rulings to the island. After its creation, the Puerto Rican population began to wonder what their political status was since nothing was concretized until the Jones Act was signed. The Merchant Marine Act of 1920, …
Infinity Wars: Post 9/11 Superhero Films And American Empire, Peter J. Bruno
Infinity Wars: Post 9/11 Superhero Films And American Empire, Peter J. Bruno
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
In the last two decades, superhero films have accounted for some of the most popular and financially lucrative films of all time. This thesis analyzes some of the aesthetic and ideological dimensions of various superhero films following their post 9/11 boom. Beginning with America’s response to the events of 9/11 and a subsequent retreat into a Manichean world of good versus evil, I introduce the term “empirical reality” in order to account for the ways daily American life is shielded from the worst effects of U.S. foreign policy. On screen this manifests by perpetuating the myth of the “clean war” …
The Diffusion Of A Movement Moment: Labor Organizing In The Shadow Of Occupy Wall Street, Pamela Whitefield
The Diffusion Of A Movement Moment: Labor Organizing In The Shadow Of Occupy Wall Street, Pamela Whitefield
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
There is widespread agreement that the Occupy Wall Street mobilization reshaped American public life. The mobilization which took the stage on September 17, 2011 decried corporate abuse, rising inequality, and political corruption. Since its emergence in 2011, there has been a proliferation of scholarship on this critical movement episode. Conspicuously absent in this body of research, particularly within the field of social movement studies, is any focus on labor specifically as it relates to movement “spillover,” diffusion, or consequences. Through a set of case studies, this research examines the extent to which Occupy Wall Street alters the political opportunity structure …
Claiming The Remains Of The Past: The Return Of Cultural Heritage Objects To Colombia, Mexico, And Peru, Pierre Losson
Claiming The Remains Of The Past: The Return Of Cultural Heritage Objects To Colombia, Mexico, And Peru, Pierre Losson
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
My research explores the reasons why three Latin American states (Colombia, Mexico, and Peru) claim the return of cultural heritage objects from holding institutions in the Western World, such as museums and universities. The literature on returns and restitutions, which focuses on questions of ownership and possession of objects, opposes two conceptions of cultural heritage: on the one hand, the internationalists argue that the location of a cultural object must be decided according to the interests of science and education, for the benefit and in the name of humankind; on the other hand, the nationalists consider that cultural heritage is …
Clientelism And Democracy In Turkey And Mexico: The Impacts On Regimes Of Political Party Exploitation Of Housing Tenure In Informal Settlements, David J. Henry
Clientelism And Democracy In Turkey And Mexico: The Impacts On Regimes Of Political Party Exploitation Of Housing Tenure In Informal Settlements, David J. Henry
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Scholars have identified the abuse of state resources as one of the primary indicators of whether a country will democratize. Clientelist networks are critical to how incumbents exploit state assets to remain in power. When the informal relationships of clientelist parties undermine the formal institutions of the state, the regime is no longer democratic, even where competitive elections take place. Alternately, if a ruling party in such hybrid regimes loses its monopoly on state power, it creates an opening for other parties and social groups to push for democratization. Mexico and Turkey are critical case studies on how clientelist parties …
Sounds Of Alter-Destiny And Ikonoklast Panzerist Fabulations, Mette Christiansen
Sounds Of Alter-Destiny And Ikonoklast Panzerist Fabulations, Mette Christiansen
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
This study is a multifaceted attempt to complicate ideas about study, to think about the critical potential and social implications of certain kinds of stories, and how we might effectively disrupt and reinvent notions and techniques of critique and resistance in the names of hope and social transformation. It looks at the creative practices of Jazz musician and other-worldly being Sun Ra, the dual philosophies of “Ikonoklast Panzerism” and “Gothic Futurism” of an artist known as Rammellzee, and the concept-engineering of theorist and artist Kodwo Eshun, in an attempt to think through how radically unconventional forms of study might make …
Black Women At Work In Corrections In The Era Of Mass Incarceration: Documenting Demographic Changes In The New York City Department Of Correction, Carolyn Fisher
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Recent work has popularized the idea that mass incarceration arose in the wake of the civil rights movement to maintain the social and economic subordination of African Americans previously enforced under Jim Crow. This discussion has not accounted for the many black Americans working in corrections, particularly in large metropolitan jail systems. This paper documents the increase in black women working as correction officers and administrators in the New York City Department of Correction since the late 1970s and explores the implications of this growth on the strict racial argument about mass incarceration. Using administrative and archival sources, it argues …
Exploring Political Action And Socialization Through Group Improvisation Within The Music Of Frederic Rzewski And Cornelius Cardew, Marcel Rominger
Exploring Political Action And Socialization Through Group Improvisation Within The Music Of Frederic Rzewski And Cornelius Cardew, Marcel Rominger
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
In the late 1960s, socialist composers, Cornelius Cardew and Frederic Rzewski, each established ensembles with the purpose of performing works consisting of experimental forms of improvisation. By employing group improvisation, and including untrained, non-musicians within their performances, they strove to use these ensembles as a model for society itself; this model includes a dissolution of the hierarchy among performers and the barrier between performer and audience. Improvisation helped music resist commodification by the culture industry or appropriation by authoritarian regimes for the purpose of propaganda. This dissertation aims to explore how Cardew and Rzewski constituted effective socialization and political action …
History Of Military Interventions In Political Affairs In Pakistan, Hina Altaf
History Of Military Interventions In Political Affairs In Pakistan, Hina Altaf
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Military interventions in political affairs have hinder the process of democratization within countries like Pakistan. This single case study of Pakistan discusses why the military intervened into domestic affairs by discussing political, economic and social conditions within Pakistan after partition from India. This study shows that heavy reliance on the military post- partition decreased civilian authority and increased military supremacy. Moreover, this study also shows the shift from direct to indirect military intervention within Pakistan and concludes that the military will continue to influence political affairs indirectly if the elected civilian government threatens its interest.
Presidential Power: Assessing The Unitary Executive As The Strongest Determinant Of Presidential Success, Maxwell J. Fuerderer
Presidential Power: Assessing The Unitary Executive As The Strongest Determinant Of Presidential Success, Maxwell J. Fuerderer
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
The Unitary Executive Theory, which implies that the president should have plenary authority over executive branch functions, and is the sole arbiter of executive power, can be attributed to increasing the powers of the presidency and overall making a president more successful in his policy endeavors. I have concentrated my research to contextualize different variables for presidential success, including prior experience, bureaucratic loyalty, historical context, and, most importantly, the unitary executive. I apply these determinants to two case studies to determine which are most effective. Using the examples of Andrew Jackson and Jimmy Carter, I show how their contrasting uses …
Youth Voice And The Promise And Peril Of Affirmative Governmentality: An Analysis Of New York City’S Borough Student Advisory Councils, Hillary R. Donnell
Youth Voice And The Promise And Peril Of Affirmative Governmentality: An Analysis Of New York City’S Borough Student Advisory Councils, Hillary R. Donnell
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
This study addresses civil society and the state’s shifting approach towards the incorporation of youth in governmental decision-making since the 1990s, and the recent ascendance of youth voice councils as a method of civic engagement. It uses the New York City Youth Leadership Council Initiative and the Borough Student Advisory Councils as case studies. Relying on the author’s ethnographic participant observation and youth-voice frameworks, the paper provides an analysis of the individual, organizational and systems level effects of the New York Department of Education’s BSAC program. Further, the paper discusses affirmative governmentality as a lens through which to critically examine …
Cosmopolitan Democracy: Re-Evaluation Of Globalization And World Economic System, Muhammad Dalhatu
Cosmopolitan Democracy: Re-Evaluation Of Globalization And World Economic System, Muhammad Dalhatu
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
This thesis examines cosmopolitan democracy theory as a method of addressing the problems of globalization. I begin by introducing the concept of “cosmopolitan democracy.” I then proceed to discuss contemporary political climate and its relation to critiques of globalization. Finally, I conclude by examining the elaborations of cosmopolitan democracy by various theorists as a way of addressing these problems. Chapter 1 introduces the work of David Held who introduced the concept in his book, Cosmopolitan Democracy and the Global Order: Reflections on the 20th Anniversary of Kant’s “Perpetual Peace.” Cosmopolitan democracy refers to global governance through democratic theory. Held …
Sweeping Exposures: Lead Poisonings And Black Working Poor Populations In The United States, Shirley Reid
Sweeping Exposures: Lead Poisonings And Black Working Poor Populations In The United States, Shirley Reid
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
The focus of my thesis is to explore some of the realities that the impoverished urban black poor populations face in America today. The goal of my thesis is to illustrate how poverty is reproduced within impoverished neighborhoods through the idea and mechanism of lead exposure, by recognizing how specific exposure to the element lead and its by-products is both a symbol and a material cause of black urban poor illness and disability. There is no mistake that people living in the U.S. are aware of the social injustices against black populations in the form of racial injustice. However, …
Imagined Futures: Feminist Science Studies In An Era Of Climate Change Denial, Emily K. Crandall
Imagined Futures: Feminist Science Studies In An Era Of Climate Change Denial, Emily K. Crandall
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
What space is there for critical approaches to science in a context where the authority of science to say anything meaningful, or to prescribe, appears to be somewhat tenuous—in other words, in a moment of rampant climate change denial? To answer this question against the backdrop of the common refrain that the problem is one of capitalism vs. the climate (e.g. Naomi Klein 2014), I examine cases where debates about science, economistic organizational arrangements, and political clashes between neoliberals and environmentalists come together, while insisting on the view, following critical engagements with the sciences, that the sciences and their societies …
The Role Of Women In Terrorism, Zeynep Bayar
The Role Of Women In Terrorism, Zeynep Bayar
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
The main purpose of this paper is to understand what motivate women to join terrorist groups and why these organizations prefer to work with female terrorists. Although each woman has different reasons to involve in terrorist groups, this research demonstrates 'religious, political and personal' reasons as the major motivating factors. This study also focuses on the question of why women are the targets of terror recruiters. In order to answer these, the research analysis examines 'psychological, gender, and media' factors as major recruitment reasons of terrorist organizations. This study also analyzes the similarities and differences between female terrorists' profiles of …
Swedish Migration Politics: Have The Sweden Democrats Taken Over The Political Agenda?, Sofia Sedergren
Swedish Migration Politics: Have The Sweden Democrats Taken Over The Political Agenda?, Sofia Sedergren
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
The Sweden Democrats’ anti-immigration rhetoric has gained increased influence over Swedish politics in recent years as mainstream parties have adopted an increasingly restrictive attitude towards immigration. Despite this rapprochement to the Sweden Democrats, mainstream parties continue to articulate their opposition to the party. My thesis examines if and how the Sweden Democrats have impacted mainstream parties’ immigration rhetoric in their election manifestos, and if changes on immigration postures have impacted political issues related to immigration, such as foreign policy and welfare; I also assess if the Sweden Democrats have introduced new policy issues and views to the political discourse. I …
How Black Lives Matter Has Influenced And Interacted With Global Social Movements, Arelle A. Binning
How Black Lives Matter Has Influenced And Interacted With Global Social Movements, Arelle A. Binning
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a chapter-based and member-led organization created out of grief by three queer black women. This thesis examines the international impact of BLM. I conducted telephone interviews with activists and advocacy organizations who have organized activist networks and/or won struggles against institutional racism outside of the United States. These activists are located in Kenya, South Africa, Brazil, Australia, India, Spain, The Netherlands, Sweden, and Paris. I conclude that BLM has inspired the creation and supported the continued development of organizations advocating for national and transnational social and racial justice on a global scale. BLM in spite …
The Role Of The Intelligentsia In The Collapse Of The Ussr: Soviet Intellectuals And The Idea Of The West, Alma Boltirik
The Role Of The Intelligentsia In The Collapse Of The Ussr: Soviet Intellectuals And The Idea Of The West, Alma Boltirik
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
A lot of scholars wrote about the causes of the collapse of the Soviet Union, paying close attention to economic, social, political, institutional, and external forces, which are undoubtedly important. Yet, almost none of them sufficiently addresses the essential cultural and ideological aspects, which gave rise to the new thinking embraced by Gorbachev and ultimately influenced his policies of glasnost and perestroika. This thesis argues that the revival of a particular social stratum known as the Soviet intelligentsia developed new critical ways of thinking about the country’s present, future, and its domestic problems. The main claim is that the process …
The Growing Middle Class And The Absence Of Democracy In China, Danni Mei
The Growing Middle Class And The Absence Of Democracy In China, Danni Mei
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Contrary to the prediction of modernization theory, the vibrant Chinese economy and its growing middle class have not brought democratic change to the authoritarian country. This work sheds light on the puzzle of the absence of democracy in China despite a fast-growing middle class. The study argues that the key to explaining the middle class’ inert political behavior is to be found in its fragmentation. It is necessary to disaggregate the political, economic, and social positions of different subgroups of the Chinese middle class—government officials and party cadres, private entrepreneurs of small or medium businesses, professionals, and white-collar employees—and the …
American Digital Election Infrastructure: Policy, Risks, Options, Tyson S. Himes
American Digital Election Infrastructure: Policy, Risks, Options, Tyson S. Himes
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Why is US digital election infrastructure (DEI) in a vulnerable state and what are the possible options to better secure it? To answer these questions systematically, federal policy and current DEI are analyzed through a risk management lens, including both elite and democratic models of risk management. This analysis suggests that DEI is at risk because federal policy currently enables states to use Direct-Recording Electronic (DRE) voting machines without a paper trail and allows states to manage their own risk environment with respect to digital voter registration databases (VRDs). This in turn produces significant variance in outcomes in levels of …
Between Politics And Morality: Hans Kelsen's Contributions To The Changing Notion Of International Criminal Responsibility, Jason Kropsky
Between Politics And Morality: Hans Kelsen's Contributions To The Changing Notion Of International Criminal Responsibility, Jason Kropsky
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
The pure theory of law analyzes the legal normative basis of jurisprudence. According to its author, Hans Kelsen (1881-1973), the study of law as a science can only arise once “alien elements” associated with sociology, politics, ethics and psychology are extracted from strict legal cognition. But what happens when the international sphere of law that possesses the special quality of holding state officials accountable for core international crimes requires intrusion by extra-legal sources? Does Kelsen’s structural edifice collapse? Or is it reconstituted? In examining how international criminal responsibility, a test case for Kelsen’s positive law claims derives its legitimacy, this …
A Politics Of Boundlessness, Fernando Orellana
A Politics Of Boundlessness, Fernando Orellana
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Spirituality has nothing to do with politics. Nonetheless, there is a functional relationship between them. Although spirituality supposes a disposition against boundaries – of experience and consciousness – and politics appears to involve the definition of limits insofar as they enable political action and meaning, these two distinct dimensions of human existence are not in opposition to each other. Politics here can be characterized as a kind of vectorization: the inscription of a gesture – as a force with magnitude and direction – into an intelligible (political) matrix. When we talk about politicization, we are concerned with the investigation of …
Cyborgean Horizons: Gender, Disability And Technology In Olympic And Paralympic Sport, An Intersectional Approach, Stephanie O'Neill
Cyborgean Horizons: Gender, Disability And Technology In Olympic And Paralympic Sport, An Intersectional Approach, Stephanie O'Neill
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
This paper examines two types of embodiment and its verification in the context of contemporary sports: sex/gender-verification testing in the Olympics, and the International Paralympic Committee’s multi-tiered grading system for assessing disability, the premises of which raise important questions for feminist and disability theory, as well as for the increasing and increasingly integrated role that technology plays in both the Olympics and the Paralympics. I outline the 80-year history of policing the gender binary in international sport and its controversies, with particular attention to the Castor Semenya case, and the implications for intersex and transgender athletes. I examine the history …
Why Is The Black Population Of Central Brooklyn, The Mecca Of Black Nyc, Diminishing?, Jamell N.A. Henderson
Why Is The Black Population Of Central Brooklyn, The Mecca Of Black Nyc, Diminishing?, Jamell N.A. Henderson
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
This research looks at three possible reasons that might help to explain this unfortunate exodus. The first approach is through health and examines trends in environmental, mental and physical (general) health. I will explore statistics involving the health and well-being of Central Brooklyn, how the environment plays a disparate role in the poor health and lack of access to services of its African-American residents in comparison to other regions in Brooklyn. The second task is to ask how economics or “racial capitalism” plays a role by looking at gentrification, cooperative economics, and the income inequality in Black Central Brooklyn. The …
Afghanistan: The Crossroads Of Conflicting Regional Interests, Sabera Azizi
Afghanistan: The Crossroads Of Conflicting Regional Interests, Sabera Azizi
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Despite 45 years of conflict, violence still thrives unwaveringly in Afghanistan. In a war charged with ambitious domestic actors and destructive regional states, peace is nowhere in sight in Afghanistan. The interaction between the actors of a conflict play a significant role in shaping the course of a war. Likewise, the interaction between the Taliban and Afghanistan’s regional states play an important role in intensifying the war. How are regional actors emboldening the Taliban? What roles do hostile regional states play in the Afghan war? This paper answers these questions by unprecedentedly identifying and examining all of the regional states …
Shared Deliberations: Learning From The Voices Of Social Justice Lawyers On Their Aspirations, Challenges And Roles, Ian Head
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Lawyers in the U.S. who attempt to advocate for social justice issues, often on behalf of those communities most targeted by government institutions and oppressive legal systems, have unique perspectives into the challenges of using the law to create transformative change. This thesis examines the voices of over a dozen attorneys fighting not only on behalf of their clients, but also wrestling with how to best use a set of legal tools not meant for dismantling systems of power. Listening to how these legal advocates navigate their roles inside a system of laws created to consolidate rather than distribute power …
Refugees From Somalia, Burma/Myanmar And Iraq: Navigating New Lives In The Us In Post-9/11 Context, Ivona Boroje
Refugees From Somalia, Burma/Myanmar And Iraq: Navigating New Lives In The Us In Post-9/11 Context, Ivona Boroje
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
This thesis engages with the relationship of the US with refugees, with a focus on the reception and perception of refugees resettled in the US after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Three groups that have resettled in the US in large numbers after 9/11, namely refugees from Somalia, Burma/Myanmar and Iraq groups have had divergent experiences, shaped by factors such as race and/or ethnic identity, religion, cultural norms, expectations about life in the US, histories of their places of origin and the relationship of the US with that place of origin. This thesis attempts to compare the experiences …
Ungodly Freedom: How Philosophers Rise And Empires Fall In The Work Of Leo Strauss, Eli Karetny
Ungodly Freedom: How Philosophers Rise And Empires Fall In The Work Of Leo Strauss, Eli Karetny
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
This dissertation argues that to fully understand the work of Leo Strauss, scholars must look beyond the Platonic and Machiavellian elements in Strauss and explore how Nietzsche’s ideas about nihilism, the will to power, the eternal return, and the ubermensch influence Strauss’s critique of modernity, his understanding of the relationship between philosophy and politics, and his redefinition of the philosopher as a prophetic lawgiver. This study examines the Nietzschean origins of Strauss’s hierarchical theory of freedom, which vests reimagined philosophers with the authority to create truth and meaning. I argue that Strauss’s concept of philosophy and corresponding pedagogy cultivates new …
Police Reform In Ukraine Since The Euromaidan: Police Reform In Transition And Institutional Crisis, Nicholas Pehlman
Police Reform In Ukraine Since The Euromaidan: Police Reform In Transition And Institutional Crisis, Nicholas Pehlman
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Why does reform of law enforcement remain so elusive in post-communist countries like Ukraine, despite political upheaval, a public mandate for reform and substantial international assistance? Which components contribute to the success and sustainability of a police reform and which factors produce political will from political leaders to implement the difficulties of police reform? This dissertation argues that in addition to massive corruption and the politics of insecurity, the greatest challenges to reform of Ukraine’s law enforcement system is political competition, resulting in the politicization of law enforcement institutions and law enforcement policy. Political competition is based in Ukraine’s fractured …