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Sociology

Western University

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Neoliberalism

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The Embodied Rhetoric Of Cognitive Labour, Shubhayan Chakrabarti Oct 2023

The Embodied Rhetoric Of Cognitive Labour, Shubhayan Chakrabarti

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation traces the roots of neoliberal selfhood to the rationalist ontology of modernity in the 1600s. The historical tension between materialism and immaterialism is expressed in the historicisation of work into Fordism and post-Fordism where embodied factory toil is apparently replaced by immaterial work, recalling Descartes’ mind-body split. If post-Fordist work addresses the Marxist critique of alienation in its emphasis on entrepreneurial inner selves, it does not explain the post-Fordist preoccupation to efficiently “Taylorise” the body through obsessive productivity. I argue that the factory prevails in the entrepreneur’s adoption of factory efficiency as a learnt behaviour from the Fordist …


Neoliberalism, Race And Empowerment: A Study Of Microenterprise Programs In Toronto And Los Angeles, Julie N. Young Apr 2021

Neoliberalism, Race And Empowerment: A Study Of Microenterprise Programs In Toronto And Los Angeles, Julie N. Young

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation focuses on microenterprise in Toronto and Los Angeles. Two related research objectives are pursued in this dissertation. The first and overarching question concerns empowerment. 1) To what extent do microfinance and microenterprise programs empower their clients? The second broad theme concerns neoliberalism. How is the experience of empowerment shaped by neoliberalism? To gain further insight, I consider the following questions. 2) What are the objectives, intended outcomes and structures of microenterprise programs? 3) Who are the key actors in the space and are there any patterns in relation to race, gender and class? 4) What role does structural …


"We Do This Too": Black Mothers' Engagements With Attachment Parenting In Britain And Canada, Patricia Hamilton Nov 2017

"We Do This Too": Black Mothers' Engagements With Attachment Parenting In Britain And Canada, Patricia Hamilton

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis examines black mothers’ engagements with attachment parenting (AP), an increasingly popular parenting philosophy. AP promotes the development of secure attachment between parent (mother) and child, through practices such as breastfeeding, babywearing and bed-sharing. Coined by William and Martha Sears in the 1980s, AP has garnered increasing attention in a neoliberal context, a political rationality that centers the economic and emphasizes self-responsibility, consumption and individualism as defining features of ‘good’ citizenship. In the context of neoliberal retractions in welfare state spending, AP emerges as a particularly apt parenting philosophy as it identifies childrearing as a solution to social ills. …


The Value Of Postsecondary Education: Human Capital Theory In Ontario's Postsecondary Education Discourse 1962 - 2005, Adam M. Jog Aug 2015

The Value Of Postsecondary Education: Human Capital Theory In Ontario's Postsecondary Education Discourse 1962 - 2005, Adam M. Jog

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Contemporary understandings of postsecondary education systems are informed by a globalization discourse that incorporates human capital theory to explain the economic importance of postsecondary education institutions in the global economy. In this study, the influences of human capital theory and of liberal education in Ontario’s postsecondary education discourse are examined through a content analysis of government-commissioned reviews of Ontario’s postsecondary education system from 1962 to 2005. In particular, I hypothesize that instances of human capital theory would increase over that time period while instances of liberal education would decrease. The results of the content analysis clearly demonstrate that instances of …


Guilty Subjects: The Biopolitical Function Of Guilt In Neoliberal States, David Miller Aug 2015

Guilty Subjects: The Biopolitical Function Of Guilt In Neoliberal States, David Miller

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis examines the function of guilt as an emotion and affective state in the production of voluntary servitude. Drawing on psychological research into the effects of guilt, as well as the theories of Friedrich Nietzsche, Michel Foucault, and Judith Butler, I argue that guilt is instilled within the population by a particular political arrangement of relations of power (the State form of social relations) via a controlled process of subjectivation. As such, guilt should be read as a distinctly biopolitical mechanism of control. Additionally, I argue that the emotional experience of guilt works to attach individuals to their own …


The Money Of Qaroon And The Patience Of Ayoub: Women And Land In Egypt's Mubarak Resettlement Scheme, Dina Najjar Sep 2013

The Money Of Qaroon And The Patience Of Ayoub: Women And Land In Egypt's Mubarak Resettlement Scheme, Dina Najjar

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation addresses the challenge of achieving increased empowerment and equality for Egyptian women. The dissertation tests the assumption that land access (through both joint and full titles) increases empowerment and equality for women in two desert resettlements of Sa’yda and Intilaq, part of the massive Mubarak Resettlement Scheme (MRS). In particular, the dissertation identifies: 1) how land access could empower Egyptian women and 2) women’s experiences with land access in the MRS. Findings reveal that land access is indeed the most promising route for women’s advancement in life, but the desert land required patience and financial assets. Land access, …