A minor theory of the transit of materiality into discourse, Via Campesina.

In this thesis I explore how the material properties of plant seed enter the political discourses of the international peasant coalition the Via Campesina and coalition member the National Fanners Union of Canada (NFU), querying how this process might be employed as a resource for a transformative eco-social politics. I employ several post-structural theoretical constructs, configuring them together as a "minor theory". This minor theory provides the basis for a "minor" reading of three sets of Via Campesina and NFU texts. The aim of these readings is to track the movement of seed from a local agricultural concern to a transitive political one, across both the material and discursive registers. In surfacing the presence of the seed's physical properties in the three texts, I highlight the distinctions between the constraining seed of corporate industrial agriculture, and the social and agroecological opportunities resulting from what I call a "Seed Event".

Understanding the polyvocality of autism discourse : a critical autoethnographic approach

Currently, much of the autism literature supports the notion that Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) is a deviation from what is considered "normal" and, accordingly, that it is in need of early remediation. This thesis explored alternative constructions of autism and pathology by drawing on theorists from other disciplines, such as cultural studies (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987, 1965, 1972, 1975,1980, 2003), critical psychology (Parker, 1995, 2002, 2005, 2007), disability studies (Danforth,1997, 1999, 2000; Skrtic, 1995, 1996) and anti-psychiatry (Basaglia, 1987). In an attempt to show how our accounts of the world encompass constructions rooted in language and our own histories of thinking about topics that interest us, this research took an autoethnographic approach to understanding autism discourse. Instead of denying the researcher's existence and personal investment in the research, the author attempted to implicate "the self in the research by acknowledging her own assumptions, biases and ideologies about autism discourse and practice. Thus, tensions between the self and other, personal and political become woven into the fabric, creating a personal, subjective, and partial account of the phenomenon. This research was intended to explicate and interrogate some of the taken-for-granted Truths which guide our practices with people with autism. This alternative critical framework focused on understanding autism as a discourse and explored the way these dominant autism constructions function in society. Furthermore, positioning "the self in the research was meant to illustrate the fundamental need for self-reflective practice in the social sciences.

Depopulating the Political Sidelines: CBC News Online Forum and Public Spheres in Canada

The subject of the Internet's potential to foster a public sphere has become a growing area of research in the social sciences in the last two decades. My research explores comments made by participants on the CBC News online politics forum during the May 2011 federal election in Canada. Based on conditions proposed by Jurgen Habermas in his concept of the public sphere and operationalized by Lincoln Dahlberg in his pioneering study of the Minnesota e-Democracy listserv, my thesis explores the potential for the CBC News online forum to foster a public sphere for Canadians. While examining the CBC News online forum against the criteria of the public sphere, I also interrogate Habermas' concept of a universal public sphere using the works of Nancy Fraser and other scholars, who argue for multiple public spheres.

In distrust we trust : analysis of academic apocalypse

The paper concentrates on trust as a research topic that receives increasing attention from the side of different social disciplines. The author of this thesis attempts to identify the reasons of this phenomenon, as well as the decline in usage of the concepts conveying a congenial idea, such as, solidarity, cooperation, social cohesion, social capital or connectedness. The key hypotheses, such as paradigmatic change within the social sciences, emergence of risk society, proliferation of the postmodem condition, new infonnation and communication technologies and the crisis of democracy are considered through the works of the authors who now mainly responsible for the shaping of the discourse of trust. The concepts of Luhmann, Putnam, Sztompka, Fukuyama and Hardin are analyzed from an epistemological viewpoint in its ontological and political implications. The primary goal of the paper is to overview trust from the methodological viewpoint, illustrating the limitations of the concept as a research strategy as weII as it advantages in the epoch when the social sciences acquire a status of moral disciplines.

Comparing ESL electronic and face-to-face pre-writing conferences and first drafts : discourse, participation, and idea transfer /

This study was a comparative investigation of face-toface (i.e., proximate) and computer-mediated written (i.e., graphic) pre-writing conferences. The participants in this study were advanced English as a second language students. The 2 types of conferences were compared in terms of textual features, participation, and the . degree to which they were on topic. Moreover, drafts written after the 2 types of conferences were compared in terms of textual features, and the degree to which they were related to the conferences. Students produced an equivalent amount of discourse in an equivalent amount of time in the 2 types of conferences. The discourse in graphic conferences displayed greater lexical range, and some evidence suggests that it was less on-topic. Both these results likely occurred because the graphic conferences contained more discourse demonstrating interactive competence. Participation in graphic conferences was found to be as balanced or more balanced among students, and among students and the group leader combined. Overall, the drafts produced after the 2 types of conferences were of equivalent length and topical range, but some evidence suggests that drafts written after proximate conferences were more related to the conferences.

Effects of computer-mediated communication and face-to-face communication on the quantity and quality of discourse produced by English as a second language students /

The effects oftwo types of small-group communication, synchronous computer-mediated and face-to-face, on the quantity and quality of verbal output were con^ared. Quantity was deiSned as the number of turns taken per minute, the number of Analysis-of-Speech units (AS-units) produced per minute, and the number ofwords produced per minute. Quality was defined as the number of words produced per AS-unit. In addition, the interaction of gender and type of communication was explored for any differences that existed in the output produced. Questionnaires were also given to participants to determine attitudes toward computer-mediated and face-to-face communication. Thirty intermediate-level students fi-om the Intensive English Language Program (lELP) at Brock University participated in the study, including 15 females and 15 males. Nonparametric tests, including the Wilcoxon matched-pairs test, Mann-Whitney U test, and Friedman test were used to test for significance at the p < .05 level. No significant differences were found in the effects of computer-mediated and face-to-face communication on the output produced during follow-up speaking sessions. However, the quantity and quality of interaction was significantly higher during face-to-face sessions than computer-mediated sessions. No significant differences were found in the output produced by males and females in these 2 conditions. While participants felt that the use of computer-mediated communication may aid in the development of certain language skills, they generally preferred face-to-face communication. These results differed fi-om previous studies that found a greater quantity and quality of output in addition to a greater equality of interaction produced during computer-mediated sessions in comparison to face-to-face sessions (Kern, 1995; Warschauer, 1996).

The Midnight express phenomenon : a historical materialist approach to the reception of the film Midnight express /

This thesis examines the Midnight Express phenomenon focusing on the film's reception by audiences in Europe, North America, and Turkey between 1978-2003. Using and enhancing the "historical materialist approach" to film reception developed by Janet Staiger, the thesis considers the historical determinants of the film's nationally and culturally differential readings in different periods and of the transformations in those readings. The thesis argues that while Midnight Express was most likely read in the late 1970s as an attempt to reaffirm American social identity by projecting Turks as an instance of the negative Other, there has been an important shift in the reception of the film in the West during the 1990s due to the changes in the discursive contexts in which the film has been circulating. One does not observe any specific reference to Turkish prisons as a part of the issue of human rights violations in Turkey in the initial reception of the film by European and American critics, whereas these issues appear to be important constituents of a particular reception of the film in the West in the present. The thesis explains this shift by pointing to the constitution of a particular discourse on human rights violations in Turkey after 1980, and especially throughout the 1990s, which has become a part of the discursive repertoires of the Western audience. Therefore, the thesis argues that today, Midnight Express functions as a more legitimate political statement about Turkey in the eyes of some Western audiences than it had been in the 1970s. On the other hand, parallel to the increasing desire of Turkey to connect itself to the West, particularly to become a member of the European Union, one observes an immense increase in the belief in and defense against the negative effects of Midnight Express on Turkey's international representation since the 1990s. The historical and current discourses that audiences, both in Turkey and abroad, bring into play suggest that these audiences engage with Midnight Express by assuming or denying not only the subject positions constructed by the film text but also certain history-specific extra-filmic subject positions produced by other social and discursive formations.

Rights jurisprudence and the charter : evaluating the changing structure of Canadian federalism /

Abstract . Rights jiirisprudence in Canada dates back as far as Confederation in 1867. Between this date and 1982, the organizing principle of Confederation - federalism - has kept this jurisprudence solely within the supremacy of Parliament, subject to its confines and division of powers. After 1982, however, a new constitutional organizing principle was introduced, when Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau introduced the patriation initiative, touted as the "people's package". Individual rights and freedoms were now guaranteed by the Constitution. Citizens of Canada now had a direct link to the Constitution via the Charter and there were now two significantly different organizing principles within the constitutional order widch created an unstable coexistence. This instability has led to a clash between judicially enforced Charter rights and federalism. The Charter has since had both a nationalizing and centralizing effect on Canadian federalism. This thesis explores the relationship between rights and federalism in Canada fix)m Confederation to present day by comparing the jurisprudence of pre and post Charter Canada. An analysis of Supreme Court's (and its predecessor's, the JCPC) decisions shows the profound effect the Charter has had on Canadian federalism. The result has been an undermining of federalism in Canada, with Parliamentary Supremacy replaced by Constitutional supremacy, and ultimately. Judicial Supremacy. Moreover, rights discourse has largely replaced federalism discourse. Canadians have become very attached to their Charter, and are unwilling to allow any changes to the constitution that may affect their rights as political elites discovered the hard way after the collapse of the Meech and Charlottetown Accords. If federalism is to remain a relevant and viable organizing principle in the Constitution, then governments, especially at the provincial level, must find new and iimovative ways to assert their importance within the federation.

Revisiting girlhood : defining a postmodern/popular feminist culture /

It has bee1l said that feminism is dead, but in fact feminism is alive in popular cultural fonlls that offer pleasure, style, fUll and advice, as well as political messages that are internalized alld continuously enacted in the lives of North American female youth. This thesis discusses popular feminism with respect to mainstream girls' cultural discourses in music alld magazine reading. Specifically this thesis examines the importance of Madonna, Gwen Stefani, and the Spice Girls, in addition to the numerous girl magazines available on the market today, such as Seventeen and YM. Focusing on the issue of the feminine versus feminist polarity and its importance to girls' culture, this thesis attempts to demonstrate how popular feminism can be used as a mode of empowerment and illustrates the mode of consumption of popular feminist texts that frames female selfimage, attitude, behaviour and speech. Through the employment of popular feminist theories and a discourse alld semiotic analysis of musical lyrics, performance and style, in addition to magazine reading and advertisements, this thesis highlights the use of active media reading and being by girls to gaill an understanding with regards to social positioning and postmodern political identity. More fundamentally, this thesis questions how popular feminism disables, questions and critiques popular ideologies ill a patriarchal society.

National energy policies of the Federal Republic of Germany and Canada in the 1970s and 1980s: are economic and/or environmental concerns responsible for change?

The thesis presents a comparison of the national energy policies of the Federal Republic of Germany and Canada from 1973 until the late 1980s. The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether economic and/or environmental concerns were responsible for changes in the· West-German and Canadian national energy policies. Furthermore, the feasibility of implementing a soft energy path in West-Germany and Canada is examined. For better comprehension of the policy-making process and implemented changes in the national energy policies of the two states, the West-German and Canadian parliamentary systems and the political cultures were compared. For the analysis, several events with international impact were taken as guidelines. Furthermore, based on statistical data, the West-German and Canadian energy production and consumption were analyzed. With reference to these results the degree of the de facto changes in the national energy policies were analyzed. In addition, the thesis discusses the possibilities which a soft energy path offers to both national governments to renounce themselves from the dependencies on a few energy resources. The thesis reveals that changes in the West-German and Canadian national energy policies, in their energy production and consumption are correlated to various world events. In particular, governmental reponses security of energy supply by the two international oil crises of 1973 and 1979/1980 demonstrate that changes in the West-German and Canadian national energy policies were implemented in reaction to economic concerns than environmental ones. With the policies "away from oil" and "off oil", the West-German and Canadian government implemented the i i substitution of oil through various diverse energy supply resources. However, energy savings concepts and policies were initiated through the first oil crisis in 1973. The world recessions in 1975 and 1982 had no 'profound impacts on the agenda of West-German and Canadian energy policies. As a consequence of the stagnation or the negative growth of the world economic market, changes in their energy production and consumption can be perceived. However, the West-German and Canadian energy production and consumption intensified with the augmentation of the world economy. During the period of study, environmental concerns were taken into account in the energy policy agendas of the Federal Republic of Germany and Canada but they were not of primary concern. wi thin the decade of. the 1980s notably more environmental considerations were taken into account in the energy policies of the two states. The two nuclear reactor accidents in 1979 and 1986 sharpened to various degrees West-German and Canadian public discourse of present energy supply mix and attitude towards energy production and consumption. The statistical data reflects yet no changes in the energy policies in regard to the position of nuclear power. However, in the next several years possible changes can be observed through statistical data, because the planning, the construction and possible phase out of nuclear power requires several years. Finally, the thesis reveals that the implementation of a soft energy path requires profound changes in the consumer behaviour. As several studies indicate, a soft energy path is technological and economically feasible for the Federal Republic of Germany and Canada, its implementation remains to be a political decision.

Native women, theory and research : contexts and contestations

In this thesis I outline a critical approach to interpreting the considerable academic literature on Aboriginal women in North America. I locate the scholarship concerning Native women within an understanding of three developments related to a philosophy of science: (I) paradigmatic shifts concerning the philosophy of science, (2) materialist-idealist debates and (3) transitions in feminist theory characterized by what is tenned the shift from second to third wave feminism. My exploration of emergent themes suggests that the elements indicated above provide overlapping frameworks within which most scholarship about Indigenous women is positioned. I illustrate my finding that employing critical discourse analysis and postcolonial feminism as both method and theory provides a useful approach in attending to intersecting experiences of 'race, class, and gender.' I view these intersecting experiences as central to the socio-political positioning of Indigenous women within contemporary feminist theorizing. I conclude my thesis by reflecting on the conceptual struggles I experienced in fonnulating and organizing the thesis and the significance of my underlying epistemological position and value-orientation as both a feminist and Native woman.