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Articles 1 - 30 of 33
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Jules Verne Constructs America: From Utopia To Dystopia, Dana L. Radu
Jules Verne Constructs America: From Utopia To Dystopia, Dana L. Radu
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
In my dissertation, I examine visions of the United States in Jules Verne’s (1828-1905) Voyages extraordinaires (1863-1905). Of the sixty-four novels that make up that series, twenty-three, over one-third, feature American characters or take place on American soil. I demonstrate that in his early novels (1863-1886), he presents the United States in an optimistic and utopian light, while in his later novels (1887-1905), his depictions of the United States take on a pessimistic and dystopian aspect. In also showing that Verne had been influenced by utopian socialists Henri de Saint-Simon (1760-1825), Charles Fourier (1772-1837) and Étienne Cabet (1788-1856), I provide …
Curing Violence: Prescriptions For Justice And Peace In Colombia, Marissa Crawford
Curing Violence: Prescriptions For Justice And Peace In Colombia, Marissa Crawford
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
As the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos sits across the negotiating table from the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), justice as a conduit for peace has dominated discourse on remediating the legacy of more than 50 years of internal conflict. Justice, however, like the conflict itself, is contested in both meaning and substance. This thesis will approach the topic of justice from both a human rights and transitional justice perspective, arguing the need for systematically disentangling the concept in its international, domestic, and grassroots iterations. It will contend that transitional justice policy will more effectively be designed if …
Power And Proximity: The Politics Of State Secession, Elizabeth A. Nelson
Power And Proximity: The Politics Of State Secession, Elizabeth A. Nelson
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
State secession is a rare occurrence in the international system. While a number of movements seek secession, the majority fail to achieve statehood. Of the exceptional successes, many have not had the strongest claims to statehood; some of these new states look far less like states than some that have failed. So what accounts for these secessions? I argue that the politics of regional actors drive the process. If a secessionist movement does not have the support of actors in the region, it will not achieve statehood. There are three mechanisms through which regional actors can determine outcomes: (1) they …
Feeling Political: Affect, Emotion, And Ethics In Western Political Theory, John Mcmahon
Feeling Political: Affect, Emotion, And Ethics In Western Political Theory, John Mcmahon
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
What conceptual and methodological resources would it take for political theory to be able to more deeply analyze the emotional and affective dimensions of political life? In this dissertation, I articulate interdisciplinary work on affect and emotion into political theory in order to realize four linked objectives: first, to develop a method of reading and interpreting political theory capable of tracing the theoretical work done by affect and emotion in works of political thought; second, to reassess the boundaries of the political theory canon in terms of the thinkers that ‘count’ as part of that canon as well as the …
Internet Access And Freedom: Constructing And Reacting To Transnational Norms About Internet Diffusion And Use, Heather L. Katz
Internet Access And Freedom: Constructing And Reacting To Transnational Norms About Internet Diffusion And Use, Heather L. Katz
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
This dissertation explores how demands for Internet access have taken shape in the international system and to what degree a right to access or the Freedom to Connect (F2C) can be said to exist. It also studies how states have responded to demands related to access and Internet penetration. A review of the literature reveals that most work concentrates on violations of users’ rights on the Web and bypasses questions about whether and how users can access this vital piece of technology. Utilizing discourse analysis, the study shows that the F2C is being framed by a diverse range of actors …
“God Is Near": American Theocracy And The Political Theology Of Joseph Smith, Alan P. Koenig
“God Is Near": American Theocracy And The Political Theology Of Joseph Smith, Alan P. Koenig
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
The Mormon prophet Joseph Smith established the quintessentially “American religion” according to religious critics like Harold Bloom, perhaps the last major religion to emerge in the Western world. Founded during the rise of Jacksonian Democracy, early Mormonism espoused many populist and egalitarian tenets, yet behind Smith’s theology of an ever more exalted path to individual godhood lay an extraordinary politics demanding a new, theocratic hierarchy. This dissertation will discuss how Smith’s apocalypticism and exceptional politics of continual revelation confronted a pluralistic Protestant society with the superseding aim of creating a uniquely American kingdom. As a political theorist, Smith’s apocalyptic theology …
Transnational Indigenous Migration: Racialized Geographies And Power In Southern Highland Ecuador, Victoria Stone-Cadena
Transnational Indigenous Migration: Racialized Geographies And Power In Southern Highland Ecuador, Victoria Stone-Cadena
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
This study examines the shifting landscape of social and economic inequalities in the remittance-dominated region of southern highland Ecuador, focusing on the transformations brought about by increased international migration since the early 2000s. The broader question is whether or not transnational migration has facilitated political and social upward mobility among indigenous communities. More specifically I ask: in what ways does indigenous identity figure in contemporary international migration practices, how does transnational indigenous migration complicate bounded notions of rural indigenous life, and how might the strategies employed by indigenous migrants transform social and economic inequalities in two small towns in the …
Assessing Social Protection Arrangements In Angola And Mozambique, Andre Cavaller Guzzi
Assessing Social Protection Arrangements In Angola And Mozambique, Andre Cavaller Guzzi
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
I examine the extent to which the involvement of international development actors in poor and post-conflict countries can override the influence of the domestic political elites on the outcomes of social protection programs. I compare the outcomes of social protection arrangements in two post-conflict countries, Angola and Mozambique. They have different levels and kinds of international involvement, which I define based on the involvement of post-conflict UN peace operations and their dependency on foreign aid. While Mozambique had a UN operation and has been dependent on foreign aid, Angola did not have a UN operation after its civil war and …
An Analysis Of The Organizational Structures Of New Types Of Children's Associations In Relation To Changing Views Of Children's Capacities As Citizens, Bijan Kimiagar
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
The goal of this study is to learn how new types of children’s associations around the world are organizing themselves and how their organizational structures reflect contemporary understandings of children’s capacities as citizens. The purpose is to identify different types and qualities of participatory children’s associations and how each affords opportunities for children to exercise their right to freedom of association, develop capacities for self-governance in groups, and promote the principles of inclusion (non-discrimination) and equity (fairness). To this end, I document and analyze diagrams of organizational structures that members of different children’s associations created during the Article 15 Project …
Refractions Through The Secular: Islam, Human Rights And Universality, Zara Khan
Refractions Through The Secular: Islam, Human Rights And Universality, Zara Khan
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Universal human rights (HR) are often theorized as philosophically neutral. Because they do not espouse any particular theory of the human being, it is argued, they can be reasonably appropriated by all. In this thesis, I explore HR’s universality claim, by focusing on the discourse’s secular foundation. In the universal human right to freedom of religion, I find a distinctly modern grammar of ‘religion,’ one that separates ‘religion’ from politics and power, law from morality, and the public and private realms. The modern concept of religion also espouses a secular theory of the human, insofar as the human is defined …
Normalization Policies With Cuba: Implications For Political And Economic Reform, Ramona N. Khan
Normalization Policies With Cuba: Implications For Political And Economic Reform, Ramona N. Khan
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
For longer than the past half century, the relationship between the United States and Cuba has been one of antagonism, mistrust, betrayal, hostility and defiance. Decades of mutual hostility arising from Cuba’s post revolution adoption of an economic system that emulated that of the Soviet Union, along with the long history of U.S. interference in Cuba’s domestic and international affairs that predated the Castro revolution and continued afterward, have resulted in this rancorous relationship. Cuba’s move to communism shortly after the Castro regime came to power was regarded as a threat to both democracy and capitalism by the United States, …
Interstate Alliances Of The Fourth-Century Bce Greek World: A Socio-Cultural Perspective, Nicholas D. Cross
Interstate Alliances Of The Fourth-Century Bce Greek World: A Socio-Cultural Perspective, Nicholas D. Cross
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
This dissertation offers a reassessment of interstate alliances (συμμαχία) in the fourth-century BCE Greek world from a socio-cultural perspective. Although there are a number of studies of ancient and modern alliances that approach the topic from a politico-military perspective, this is the first to apply a socio-cultural perspective to classical Greek alliances. By considering the subject in its own context, from the primary literary and epigraphic sources rather than modern theoretical models, this study aims to identify how contemporaries understood and represented their collaborative activities with other poleis. This approach leads to insights that challenge the widespread notion that classical …
Empty Metal Jacket: The Biopolitical Economy Of War And Medicine, Sandra Lee Trappen
Empty Metal Jacket: The Biopolitical Economy Of War And Medicine, Sandra Lee Trappen
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Empty Metal Jacket: The Biopolitical Economy of War and Medicine undertakes study of how global conflict and violence shape the entire range of social production, from commodities and culture to social goods and social theory. The research presented in this work draws from cutting-edge theories in body and science studies, in addition to theories of affect and biopolitics to address how war became a problem solving paradigm in medicine. Combat casualties are shown to serve as a material nexus for medical knowledge production. Although the focus here is on medicine and medical innovation in particular, these developments are connected to …
The Transatlantic Oarsmen Cooperative: Doubling Down On A Transatlantic Financial Regulatory Regime, Joselyn Muhleisen
The Transatlantic Oarsmen Cooperative: Doubling Down On A Transatlantic Financial Regulatory Regime, Joselyn Muhleisen
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
This project argues that, in the wake of the 2007-09 financial crisis, the United States (US) and European Union (EU) are doubling down on finance-led domestic growth strategies and that this is their goal in constructing a transatlantic financial regulatory regime. The regime’s goal privileges the input of industry actors over other civil society actors. The construction of this regime is in response to pressure from emerging markets and to service domestic industry actors after the financial crisis. The regime is intended to allow the US and EU to maintain their dominance within the international financial regulatory regime and continue …
Losing Values: Illiquidity, Personhood, And The Return Of Authoritarianism In Skopje, Macedonia, Fabio Mattioli
Losing Values: Illiquidity, Personhood, And The Return Of Authoritarianism In Skopje, Macedonia, Fabio Mattioli
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
On May 17, 2015, over 50,000 people took to the streets of Skopje, the capital of the Republic of Macedonia, protesting against Prime Minister Gruevski and his party, the conservative neoliberal Internal Revolutionary Organization of Macedonia (VMRO). After nine years of authoritarian government, it was the first significant demonstration in which the population demanded accountability for Gruevski's despotic system of rule. This dissertation is the story of how Gruevski's system of power was built and why it lasted for so long. I argue that a series of failing financial processes, which included the use of illiquidity, created the material and …
Better Work And Global Governance, Paul Alois
Better Work And Global Governance, Paul Alois
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
This dissertation is a case study of Better Work, a program run by the International Labor Organization and the International Finance Corporation. It aims to improve working conditions and productivity in the apparel industry. The purpose of this case study is to examine the role that international organizations can play in global governance. The research presented here comes from interviews, document analysis, and an examination of quantitative data on factories’ working conditions. In-person interviews were conducted in the United States, Switzerland, Vietnam, and Indonesia; many phone interviews took place with individuals in other countries. Both publicly available documents and internal …
Claiming Time: Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, And Adam Smith On Freedom And Futurity, Jennifer Corby
Claiming Time: Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, And Adam Smith On Freedom And Futurity, Jennifer Corby
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
This dissertation engages the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Adam Smith through the lens of time. By first analyzing their earlier works on the nature of self-consciousness, it demonstrates that each offers a theory of subjectivity that, despite important differences, shares a singular point of distinction from those that typified early modern thought. Against the predominant view that human freedom necessitates immaterial agency, each theorizes a materialist agent that is able to overcome the determinism of the material world by way of the temporal nature of subjectivity. Each understands self-consciousness to be constituted by an extension of memory …
The South African Elderly: Neglect, Social Contribution And The Hiv/Aids Epidemic, Alessia Frisoli
The South African Elderly: Neglect, Social Contribution And The Hiv/Aids Epidemic, Alessia Frisoli
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
With a slowing fertility rate and an increasing longevity, the world population is aging. Both developed and developing countries have seen their elderly become more numerous with an increasing burden on their financial, medical and social system. Many scholars have suggested immediate change of policies to contain the predicted crisis that will affect the health care and the pension schemes in the next decades. However, few have investigated the positive role that the seniors play contributing to society, beyond the complications caused to the economy and welfare system. This thesis will support the argument that the elderly, if appropriately cared …
Social Ties And State Formation In Post-Soviet Central Asia, David Siegel
Social Ties And State Formation In Post-Soviet Central Asia, David Siegel
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
This dissertation examines state formation in newly or recently independent states. Why are state authorities able to exert control over provincial areas in some cases but not others? How do the national authorities of newly independent states build centralized bureaucracies, control state cadre, and ensure deference among their regional subordinates? Why do they sometimes fail? I answer these questions by focusing on the social ties of state officials in the periphery. Specifically, I argue that where the state’s regional officials are socially embedded in local communities, the process of administrative centralization will proceed unevenly and incompletely. It is only by …
Mobilizing For Capitalism: How Islamic Civil Society Makes A Market Economy Possible In Turkey, Dean G. Schafer
Mobilizing For Capitalism: How Islamic Civil Society Makes A Market Economy Possible In Turkey, Dean G. Schafer
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
This thesis asks how international actors – in this case, the IMF and World Bank – advance their neoliberal projects. Specifically, it looks at the local context. How do economic reforms pass from IMF policy into national law? Who does the IMF cooperate with? What strategies are used, and what makes them effective for enacting and legitimizing policy? It starts by looking at the history of political mobilization in Turkey after WWII, when it took its first IMF loan. Turkish political parties have commonly sought electoral success through populist economic policies built on patron-client relationships. However, economic populism is a …
Struggling To Learn, Learning To Struggle: Strategy And Structure In The 2010-11 University Of Puerto Rico Student Strike, José A. Laguarta Ramírez
Struggling To Learn, Learning To Struggle: Strategy And Structure In The 2010-11 University Of Puerto Rico Student Strike, José A. Laguarta Ramírez
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
From April 2010 to March 2011, the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) underwent a two-phase strike sequence against neoliberal austerity measures. Altogether, that process resulted in the eventual concession of all of the students’ main demands, an unprecedented feat at the UPR, and a rare one in Puerto Rican history in general. In this dissertation I seek to cast light on this improbable event by examining, first, how neoliberalization patterned and contoured the choices facing the century-old UPR student movement. Second, I explore how interactions within the movement, including the framing contest among leadership teams and their interaction with the …
Headhunting: Evaluating The Disruptive Capacity Of Leadership Decapitation On Terrorist Organizations, Ted Clemens Iv
Headhunting: Evaluating The Disruptive Capacity Of Leadership Decapitation On Terrorist Organizations, Ted Clemens Iv
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Leadership decapitation -- the practice of removing a leader from a position of authority through targeted killing (i.e. assassination) or arrest -- has long been a feature of counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency strategies the world over. Still, how effective is the practice of leadership decapitation in actually bringing a halt to, or even impeding, terrorist activity? Can removing top leaders of terrorist enclaves from power disrupt their groups to the point of organizational degradation or dissolution? And lastly, because no two terrorist groups are the same; when a terrorist group experiences leadership loss, how can the group be expected to react? …
Neighborhood And Community Change In Brooklyn's Sunset Park, Anthony G. Aggimenti
Neighborhood And Community Change In Brooklyn's Sunset Park, Anthony G. Aggimenti
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Significant demographic changes within New York City’s neighborhoods have served as an impetus for civil strife, community activism, and political debate. While much attention has been dedicated toward the gentrification occurring in Harlem or Williamsburg, emerging trends indicate that the Brooklyn waterfront neighborhood of Sunset Park is also undergoing a shift. Drawing upon the theoretical frameworks of human ecology, the urban growth machine, and gentrification, the paper posits that Sunset Park is a neighborhood in transition. A three pronged quantitative, historical, and qualitative analysis examines major demographic changes in Sunset Park including the increase in Chinese and Mexican ethnic immigrant …
"They Have Sold The Clouds": Queering Indigenous Politics In Colombia, Taylor O. Ramsey
"They Have Sold The Clouds": Queering Indigenous Politics In Colombia, Taylor O. Ramsey
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
In a study of Colombian politics, I use a queer theoretical lens to explore the relationship between the state and two specific indigenous groups from Northern Colombia to better understand the state and power relations embedded in it. I look for queer temporalities, spaces, and nonnormative practices that arise out of how the law interrogates and interacts with indigenous people using a queer theoretical lens as a critical methodology. I argue that the Colombian state's interactions with indigenous groups create queer spaces/conceptual borders, particularly with regard to law and the state's ability to biopolitically regulate its citizens. It is within …
The Politics Of Court Driven Morality Policy: A Comparative Analysis Of Abortion And Same-Sex Marriage 1971-2015, Korey L. Hughes
The Politics Of Court Driven Morality Policy: A Comparative Analysis Of Abortion And Same-Sex Marriage 1971-2015, Korey L. Hughes
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
My dissertation had two principal components. First was the development of an argument outlining the five critical differences between abortion and same-sex marriage policy, which highlight the current insufficiency of the existing morality politics framework. These differences were: the duration of the issue, whether it demonstrated an incrementalist of a punctuated equilibrium theory of policy change, the scope of conflict, the degree of institutional entrenchment within the two parties, and the social construction of stakeholders. I then advanced five hypotheses to explain why these differences between the two policy areas in both process and outcome existed, for the purpose of …
The Dream Defaulted: Foreclosure, Crisis, And Hope In Baltimore, Maryland, And Detroit, Michigan, Heidi M. Rafferty-Reijm
The Dream Defaulted: Foreclosure, Crisis, And Hope In Baltimore, Maryland, And Detroit, Michigan, Heidi M. Rafferty-Reijm
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
In the United States, the late 2000s were a time of crisis that tested many urban decision-makers. The recession that started in 2007 was defined by a severe crash in the housing market and the proliferation of mortgage foreclosures across the country. Foreclosures occurred in urban, suburban, and rural communities, but had a particularly devastating impact on larger, older cities and their low and moderate-income neighborhoods. These cities had been dealing with economic and population decline for half a century. In many of their urban neighborhoods, foreclosures affected as many as one in four households and added yet another challenge …
Politics Between And Within Us: Authenticity And Theatricality In Modern Political Thought, Daniel J. Mccool
Politics Between And Within Us: Authenticity And Theatricality In Modern Political Thought, Daniel J. Mccool
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
This dissertation details the ways in which two distinct models of politics — the politics of authenticity and the politics of theatricality — have influenced political rhetoric and activity in America and beyond. The focus on authenticity in politics goes back to the ancients, yet it has taken on greater political significance in the modern era. Morally-charged language of “telling the truth”, or “being oneself” in politics has meant that public judgment and analysis has increasingly focused on the interiority of the speaker: one’s intentions, feelings and consistency, rather than on the persuasive case one is attempting to communicate. In …
Empowerment From Within: Supporting Palestinian Women’S Struggle Against Violence, Ortal Bensky
Empowerment From Within: Supporting Palestinian Women’S Struggle Against Violence, Ortal Bensky
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Recent reports by the United Nations and local non-governmental organizations present a troubling increase in incidents of violence against Palestinian women in Palestine. These are cases of domestic violence, where the attackers are Palestinians, and political violence, where the attackers are Israeli settlers and soldiers. These violent incidents include attacks on body and property. Most incidents are neither dealt with by the Palestinian authorities nor by the Israeli government and judicial system. There is not sufficient international pressure to enforce justice. The purpose of this study is to offer alternative ways to prevent violent crimes, enforce relevant laws, and provide …
The Politics Of Middle Class Decline And Growth In Industrialized Democracies, 1980 To 2010, Young-Hwan Byun
The Politics Of Middle Class Decline And Growth In Industrialized Democracies, 1980 To 2010, Young-Hwan Byun
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
This research explains why some industrialized democracies have experienced middle class decline while others have experienced middle class growth since the 1980s. The prevailing political science literature based on the median voter theory predicts that middle class decline should not occur in democracies, whereas economic theories fail to explain national variation of middle class decline by attributing the decline to common developments such as globalization or technological change. I analyze data from the Luxembourg Income Study Database, the Comparative Welfare States Dataset, and the Comparative Welfare Entitlement Dataset, and demonstrate a significant partisan effect on middle class decline. I argue …
Richard A. Posner: A Study In Judicial Entrepreneurship, Sean J. Shannon
Richard A. Posner: A Study In Judicial Entrepreneurship, Sean J. Shannon
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
This dissertation analyzes the role of Richard Posner, one of the most prolific and innovative legal thinkers over the past forty years, as a judicial entrepreneur in his efforts to persuade the legal academy and judiciary to incorporate economic principles into the judicial decision making process in market and non-market areas of the law and legal discourse and thereby to re-examine the role of the judge. Though political scientists have explored the entrepreneurial activities of policy makers and political actors, they have given little attention to the role of judges as judicial entrepreneurs. This dissertation develops a comprehensive theoretical understanding …