Disciplining democracy: United Nations peacekeeping, international security and democratization in the post -Cold War era

After the end of the Cold War, democratization and good governance became the organizing concepts for activities of the United Nations, regional organizations and states in the fields of peace, development and security. How can this increasing interest in democratization and its connection with international security be explained? This dissertation applies the theoretical tools developed by Michel Foucault in his discussions of disciplinarity and government to the analysis of the United Nations debate on democracy in the 1990s, and of two United Nations pro-democracy peacekeeping operations and their aftermath: the United Nations interventions in Haiti and Croatia. It probes “how” certain techniques of power came into being and describes their effects, using as data the texts that elaborate the United Nations understanding of democracy and the texts that constitute peacekeeping. ^ In the face of the proliferation of unpredictable threats in the last decades of the twentieth century a new form of international power emerged. Order in the international arena increasingly was maintained through activities aimed at reducing risk and increasing predictability through the normalization of “rogue” states. The dissertation shows that in the context of these activities, which included but were not limited to UN peacekeeping, normality was identified with democracy, non-democratic regimes with international threats, and democratization with international security. “Good governance” doctrines translated the political debate on democracy into the technical language of functioning state institutions. International organizations adopted good governance as the framework that made democratization a universal task within the reach of their expertise. In Haiti, the United Nations engaged in efforts to transform punishment institutions (the judiciary, police and the prison) into disciplined and disciplinary machines. In Croatia, agreements signed in the context of peacekeeping established in detail the rules of functioning of administrations and the monitoring mechanisms for their implementation. However, in Haiti, the institutions promoted were not sustainable. And in Croatia reforms are stalled by lack of consensus. ^ This dissertation puts efforts to bring about democracy through peacekeeping in the context of a specific modality of power and suggests caution in engaging in universal normalizing endeavors. ^

On the Problem of Participation in Strategy: A Critical Discursive Perspective

We still know little of why strategy processes often involve participation problems. In this paper, we argue that this crucial issue is linked to fundamental assumptions about the nature of strategy work. Hence, we need to examine how strategy processes are typically made sense of and what roles are assigned to specific organizational members. For this purpose, we adopt a critical discursive perspective that allows us to discover how specific conceptions of strategy work are reproduced and legitimized in organizational strategizing. Our empirical analysis is based on an extensive research project on strategy work in 12 organizations. As a result of our analysis, we identify three central discourses that seem to be systematically associated with nonparticipatory approaches to strategy work: “mystification,” “disciplining,” and “technologization.” However, we also distinguish three strategy discourses that promote participation: “self-actualization,” “dialogization,” and “concretization.” Our analysis shows that strategy as practice involves alternative and even competing discourses that have fundamentally different kinds of implications for participation in strategy work. We argue from a critical perspective that it is important to be aware of the inherent problems associated with dominant discourses as well as to actively advance the use of alternative ones.

The Biopolitics of Gender

This dissertation inquires into the relationship between gender and biopolitics. Biopolitics, according to Michel Foucault, is the mode of politics that is situated and exercised at the level of life. The dissertation claims that gender is a technology of biopower specific to the optimisation of the sexual reproduction of human life, deployed through the scientific and governmental problematisation of declining fertility rates in the mid-twentieth century. Just as Michel Foucault claimed that sexuality became a scientific and political discourse in the nineteenth century, gender has also since emerged in these fields. In this dissertation, gender is treated as neither a representation of sex nor a cultural construct or category of identity. Rather, a genealogy of gender as an apparatus of biopower in conducted. It demonstrates how scientific and theoretical developments in the twentieth century marshalled gender into the sex/sexuality apparatus as a new technology of liberal biopower. Gender, I argue, has become necessary for the Western liberal order to recapture and re-optimise the life-producing functions of sex that reproduce the very object of biopolitics: life. The concept of the life function is introduced to analyse the life-producing violence of the sex/sexuality/gender apparatus. To do this, the thesis rereads the work of Michel Foucault through Gilles Deleuze for a deeper grasp of the material strategies of biopower and how it produces categories of difference and divides population according to them. The work of Judith Butler, in turn, is used as a foil against which to rearticulate the question of how to examine gender genealogically and biopolitically. The dissertation then executes a genealogy of gender, tracing the changing rationalities of sex/sexuality/gender from early feminist thought, through mid-twentieth century sexological, feminist, and demographic research, to current EU policy. According to this genealogy, in the mid-twentieth century demographers perceived that sexuality/sex, which Foucault observed as the life-producing biopolitical apparatus, was no longer sufficiently disciplining human bodies to reproduce. The life function was escaping the grasp of biopower. The analysis demonstrates how gender theory was taken up as a means of reterritorialising the life function: nature would be disciplined to reproduce by controlling culture. The crucial theoretical and genealogical argument of the thesis, that gender is a discourse with biopolitical foundations and a technology of biopower, radically challenges the premises of gender theory and feminist politics, as well as the emancipatory potential often granted to the gender concept. The project asks what gender means, what biopolitical function it performs, and what is at stake for feminist politics when it engages with it. In so doing, it identifies biopolitics and the problem of life as possibly the most urgent arena for feminist politics today.

Disciplinamento do processo e julgamento do mandado de injunção : uma análise sistemática

Analisa o Projeto de Lei nº 6.002/1990 e apensos, que pretendem disciplinar o processo e julgamento do mandado de injunção individual e coletivo. A abordagem e o desenvolvimento da pesquisa serão realizados no contexto da judicialização da política ou do ativismo judicial, questionando-se qual será a efetividade dos limites/parâmetros impostos ao Supremo Tribunal Federal, acaso o Projeto de Lei nº 6.002/1990 e apensos, se transformem em norma jurídica. Tem-se como hipótese compreender se o pretenso disciplinamento limitará o ativismo judicial que retira o protagonismo do Poder Legislativo e o seu papel preponderante de poder legiferante. Os objetivos específicos da pesquisa são examinar a extensão e os efeitos das decisões do Supremo Tribunal Federal no julgamento de alguns mandados de injunção; avaliar se a conduta omissiva do Poder Legislativo causa prejuízos à sua própria imagem e se essa omissão inviabiliza o exercício de direitos, liberdades e prerrogativas constitucionais. A metodologia do trabalho será balizada na análise sistemática dos Mandados de Injunção números 107/1989-DF, 631/2000-MS, 670/2002-ES, 708/2004-DF, 712/2004-PA, 721/2005- DF, 758/2007-DF, 786/2007-DF e 795/2007-DF; na análise do Projeto de Lei nº 6.002/1990 e apensos; na Constituição Federal. O trabalho terá como principais referenciais teóricos e conceituais fontes e bibliografia apropriadas, a exemplo dos doutrinadores Alexandre de Moraes, Cândido Rangel Dinamarco, José Afonso da Silva, José Joaquim Gomes Canotilho,Luís Roberto Barroso e Manoel Gonçalves Ferreira Filho.

Gestão democrática na escola pública: possibilidades de práticas coletivas no ensino de Educação Física Escolar

A Educação Física entrou para o currículo escolar brasileiro há menos de um século, com o objetivo de manter a ordem dentro das escolas, fortalecer e cuidar da saúde dos jovens brasileiros, sendo vista ainda hoje pelo senso comum como veículo disciplinador dos indivíduos e de obtenção da qualidade de vida, utilizando prioritariamente o esporte, com suas regras e técnicas rígidas, para alcançar estes objetivos. No sentido de apontar uma outra perspectiva de Educação Física Escolar, voltada para uma intervenção positiva no processo de transição do indivíduo passivo (disciplinado) para o cidadão ativo (crítico), o presente trabalho irá investigar práticas pedagógicas que visem o desenvolvimento da criatividade, da autonomia e da participação, fatores preponderantes no processo de construção de uma gestão educacional democrática, na medida em que acredito que esta forma de gestão seja fundamental para a transformação da educação inicialmente, mas sem perder o foco da conquista da igualdade e democracia em nossa sociedade.

O processo de construção de campo psicossocial na política pública de saúde mental: uma análise micropolítica da produção do cuidado

Analisa-se o processo de produção do cuidado em serviços de saúde mental na cidade do Rio de Janeiro, tomando como lócus de investigação duas instituições psiquiátricas universitárias, que mantém sua estrutura asilar, com aparente modernização e a rede pública municipal dos dispositivos da atenção psicossocial, os Centros de Atenção Psicossocial, que operam na construção de um novo tipo de referência terapêutica cujo foco de suas práticas coloca o usuário-centrado na cena do cuidado e privilegia as questões de existência dos mesmos quando reconhece esse sujeito em sua singularidade, subjetividade e na diferença de andar a vida. Para tanto, a investigação teve por objetivo a produção de conhecimento atualizado sobre os discursos e práticas que os agentes institucionais veiculam e representam sobre a produção do cuidado nas instituições em questão. No sentido metodológico exploramos os dados do discurso e da prática do cuidar, entendendo que o processo de trabalho em saúde é um conjunto de práticas institucionais articuladas às demais práticas. Desta forma, a pesquisa procurou caracterizar o processo de produção do trabalho do cuidado em saúde mental, no contexto dos serviços. Pretendeu-se compreender os elementos constitutivos que operam esse trabalho, identificando e estabelecendo suas tendências no cenário socioinstitucional. Assim, não se trata de uma avaliação da qualidade dos serviços de saúde mental, mas sim, de uma análise qualitativa das práticas no cotidiano da produção deste cuidado. Observou-se que são múltiplos os sentidos e significados presentes na gestão do cuidado desenvolvida no campo da saúde mental, particularmente, no campo da atenção psicossocial. São ainda vários os desafios no cotidiano dos serviços públicos de saúde mental na construção dos novos modelos técnico-assistenciais. Isso se observa quando se toma o coletivo que o faz, técnicos, usuários e familiares, que tem como referência esse ethos da produção do cuidado, principalmente, na direção ético-estética e política por parte de todos esses na concretização de um equipamento aberto e de base territorial-comunitário.

Interfaces e inquietações no diálogo entre Kierkegaard e Foucault - filosofia antiga, psicologia e processos de subjetivação

A presente tese inicia-se por uma encruzilhada e um segredo: na encruzilhada está a psicologia, entre os apelos instrumentais, antropológicos e neurocientíficos; já o segredo refere-se à quase desconhecida leitura de Kierkegaard por Foucault. Os dois filósofos se inscrevem na esteira da experimentação filosófica, caminho oposto ao da metafísica. Experimentação, aqui, não diz respeito a qualquer empirismo; inspira-se nos exercícios espirituais da Antiguidade grega e romana, e nas práticas da ironia, do cuidado de si e da parresía filosófica. As aproximações possíveis entre o pensamento de Kierkegaard e o de Foucault por esse viés da filosofia antiga, visam a contribuir para uma compreensão da psicologia e de suas práticas que permita o enfrentamento dos dilemas acima referidos, ou seja, os instrumentais, antropológicos e neurocientíficos. O percurso do trabalho tem como ponto de partida as suspeitas direcionadas à psicologia, desde o questionamento colocado por Canguilhem há mais de cinqüenta anos acerca das intenções pouco claras da disciplina, passando pelas críticas aos processos de subjetivação psicologizantes, até chegar ao grave enquadramento contemporâneo que busca convencer os sujeitos de que são, em última análise, nada mais do que cérebros. Os processos de subjetivação engendrados pelas práticas psi se vêem, pois, colocados hoje frente a impasses de difícil solução. Tantas são as suspeitas e temores quanto aos efeitos psi, que os próprios profissionais da área têm, em muitos casos, assumido a posição de que a psicologia se tornou inviável e deve desaparecer. As referências objetivantes ou antropológicas, quando priorizadas pela psicologia, de fato não deixam saídas, tornando urgente o encontro com outros referenciais que possibilitem respirar novos ares. O pensamento de Kierkegaard e o de Foucault surgem como intercessores em face desse horizonte sombrio. Os dois filósofos se dedicaram a tornar o homem atento a si e ao mundo, priorizando saídas singulares e criativas em lugar da reprodução dos modos de ser hegemônicos que ameaçam igualar tudo e todos. Desnaturalizadores do presente e avessos às grandes especulações teóricas sobre a vida, escreveram obras que é preciso experienciar, mais do que simplesmente ler, a fim de captar-lhes a atmosfera e com elas operar. A partir dessa atitude, a psicologia experimental ou interpretativa pode dar lugar a uma psicologia experimentante, que acompanha o cotidiano ao invés de se colocar como uma curiosidade sem paixão. Tal psicologia segue de maneira interessada os movimentos da existência e a apropriação pessoal da verdade, que deixa de ser transcendente, metafísica ou sonhada, e aparece encarnada nas lutas, receios, enganos, ações e tensões do dia-a-dia dos sujeitos de carne, osso e espírito. É na tensão constituinte-constituído que o sujeito se forja, seja ele lançado por Deus, como pensa Kierkegaard, seja, como propõe Foucault, mergulhado nos esquemas e objetivações que toma como naturais: a tarefa do sujeito é tornar-se si mesmo, participando de forma mais livre da própria constituição, exercendo de maneira refletida e ética a liberdade e transparecendo a si mesmo, ao invés de tomar como suas as determinações que lhe são oferecidas. A presente tese visa, portanto, a estabelecer o diálogo entre Foucault e Kierkegaard, pelo viés da filosofia antiga, buscando inspiração para promover, no tempo presente, processos de subjetivação outros que os modos desesperados de ser, e práticas psicológicas mais experimentantes e menos disciplinadoras.

A trichordal temporal approach to digital coordination: the sociomaterial mangling of the CERN grid

This paper develops a sociomaterial perspective on digital coordination. It extends Pickering’s mangle of practice by using a trichordal approach to temporal emergence. We provide new understanding as to how the nonhuman and human agencies involved in coordination are embedded in the past, present, and future. We draw on an in-depth field study conducted between 2006 and 2010 of the development, introduction, and use of a computing grid infrastructure by the CERN particle physics community. Three coordination tensions are identified at different temporal dimensions, namelyobtaining adequate transparency in the present, modeling a future infrastructure, and the historical disciplining of social and material inertias. We propose and develop the concept of digital coordination, and contribute a trichordal temporal approach to understanding the development and use of digital infrastructure as being orientated to the past and future while emerging in the present.

(Un)veiling desire: re-defining relationships between gendered adult education subjects and adult education programmes

My underlying argument, in this paper, is that conceptualisations of power as a commodity, through which the 'disempowered-as-illiterate' subject moves towards becoming an 'empowered-as-literate' subject, forces constructs of identities into a powerful/powerless dichotomy which does not always do justice to diverse experiences. The claimed 'empowering' intentions of adult education programme and policy practice may, in reality, contribute to the dominance of restrictive disciplining and regulatory discursive practices. Moving away from emancipatory trajectories of adult education programmes that allege only liberation from domination, through 'literacy', can promise freedom points to another position of hope. Drawing on Foucauldian analysis, I explore sites of resistance as possibilities of transforming 'structures of understanding' at different levels. Officially validated and recognised transformations, in adult education programme as well as policy understandings, of the 'illiterate' subject may also hope to include choices in postures of autonomy (see Spivak 1996) made by programme participants in other 'fields' of socio-cultural practice linked to their material realities. Subsequently, 'empowerment' of the 'illiterate Indian village woman' cannot solely be imagined as a product of laws, policies and institutional discursive practices (see, for example, Gouws 2005; Rai 2003 on gender mainstreaming and Mosse 2005 on aid policy and practice). The 'illiterate Indian village woman' represented as a site of resistance, throughout this paper, displaces homogeneous representations of the 'illiterate' which situate her in the role of 'dependent' or 'victim', as failed attempts to rob her of her historical and political agency (Mohanty 1996). Through narrating other 'images' of refusal in my ethnographic vignettes, I hope to recognise different individuals' sense of agency, at all levels, as embedded in and evolving through forms of collective action that activate differences in order to develop possibilities and sustain hope for transforming historically rooted discursive practices of inequality. I provide ethnographic accounts of resisting 'literacy' programme participants, based in different villages in Bihar (Northern India), as accounts of resistance impacted on by notions of norms, translating and interpreting Others, networks and empowerment.

Information Disclosure, Market Discipline and the Management of Bank Capital: Evidence from the Chinese Financial Sector

Is there evidence that market forces effectively discipline risk management behaviour within Chinese financial institutions? This study analyses information from a comprehensive sample of Chinese banks over the 1998-2008 period. Market discipline is captured through the impact of four sets of factors namely, market concentration, interbank deposits, information disclosure, and ownership structure. We find some evidence of a market disciplining effect in that: (i) higher (lower) levels of market concentration lead banks to operate with a lower (higher) capital buffer; (ii) joint-equity banks that disclose more information to the public maintain larger capital ratios; (iii) full state ownership reduces the sensitivity of changes in a bank's capital buffer to its level of risk;(iv) banks that release more transparent financial information hold more capital against their non-performing loans. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

A cluster randomised controlled trial and process evaluation of the early years DELTA parenting programme

This paper reports the results from a cluster randomised controlled trial (RCT) and process evaluation of the Early Years DELTA Parenting Programme; a six-week, group based intervention. The evaluation was part funded by DELTA and involved 23 primary schools and 334 parents. Results showed that intervention parents reported increased parental self-efficacy in relation to: knowledge of their child’s development and needs; self-acceptance as a good parent, and; disciplining and setting boundaries. No change was observed in the remaining outcome areas. Parent interviews indicated a high level of programme satisfaction and the main benefits reflected the outcomes measured by the RCT. This small, robust evaluation is commensurate with other similar research demonstrating the effectiveness and reach of short-term, group-based parenting programmes.

Risking peace in the ‘War against the Poor’? Social exclusion and the legacies of the Northern Ireland conflict

Discourses around poverty, dependency and austerity take a particular form when it comes to Northern Ireland which is seen as ripe for economic ‘rebalancing’ and public sector reduction. The Welfare Reform Act 2012 is pivotal in that it provides the muscle for disciplining claimants for a low-waged, flexible labour market. But the Northern Ireland Assembly has not passed the Act or agreed a budget and the return of Direct Rule beckons as a result. The article sheds light on the stand-off over the Welfare Reform Act using data from the 2012 PSE Survey. It demonstrates that the impact of violent conflict is imprinted on the population in terms of high rates of deprivation, poor physical and mental health, and significant differences between those experiencing little or no conflict, and those with ‘high’ experience. In ignoring these legacies of the conflict, the Westminster government is risking peace in its ‘war against the poor’.

Finance, social economics and community development

The last three decades have seen social enterprises in the United Kingdom pushed to the forefront of welfare delivery, workfare and area-based regeneration. For critics, this is repositioning the sector around a neoliberal politics that privileges marketization, state roll-back and disciplining community groups to become more self-reliant. Successive governments have developed bespoke products, fiscal instruments and intermediaries to enable and extend the social finance market. Such assemblages are critical to roll-out tactics, but they are also necessary and useful for more reformist understandings of economic alterity. The issue is not social finance itself but how it is used, which inevitably entangles social enterprises in a form of legitimation crises between the need to satisfy financial returns and at the same time keep community interests on board. This paper argues that social finance, how it is used, politically domesticated and achieves re-distributional outcomes is a necessary component of counter-hegemonic strategies. Such assemblages are as important to radical community development as they are to neoliberalism and the analysis concludes by highlighting the need to develop a better understanding of finance, the ethics of its use and tactical compromises in scaling it as an alternative to public and private markets.

Unbelievable Bodies: Audience Readings of Action Heroines as a Post-Feminist Visual Metaphor

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2013

Apropriação de conteúdos do conhecimento explícito da língua por alunos do 2.º ano do 1.º ciclo do ensino básico

Relatório de Estágio apresentado à Escola Superior de Educação de Lisboa para obtenção de grau de mestre em Ensino do 1.º e 2.º Ciclo do Ensino Básico