The Impact of Global English in Xinjiang, China: Linguistic Capital and Identity Negotiation among the Ethnic Minority and Han Chinese Students

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-08

Three essays in labor economics and applied econometrics

Méthodologie:Cadre conceptuel: Principal-agent

European Union Approaches to Human Rights Violations in Kosovo before and after Independence

This article examines European Union (EU) approaches to the question of human rights violations in Kosovo before and after its proclamation of independence, in February 2008. While the 1999 NATO-led humanitarian intervention in the region was often justified as necessary due to the continuous abuses of human rights, perpetrated by the Serbian forces against the ethic Kosovo Albanians, the post-interventionist period has witnessed a dramatic reversal of roles, with the rights of the remaining Serbian minority being regularly abused by the dominant Albanian population. However, in contrast to the former scenario, the Brussels administration has remained quite salient about the post-independence context – a grey zone of unviable political and social components, capable of generating new confrontations and human rights abuses within the borders of Kosovo. Aware of this dynamic and the existing EU official rhetoric, it is possible to conclude that the embedded human rights concerns in Kosovo are not likely to disappear, but even more importantly, their relevance has been significantly eroded.

CAST OFF: MARITIME LABOR IN AMERICA FROM 1935 TO 1955

Many studies have observed the precipitous decline in American shipping following the Second World War. Most focus on changes in maritime policy and the upsurge of flags of convenience. Yet this interpretation relegates mariners to a footnote. This thesis argues that America abandoned its seamen years before it abandoned its merchant marine, and that the labor story is an integral and largely overlooked dimension of the industry’s broader decline. It explores how the status and makeup of American seamen underwent monumental shifts from 1935 to 1955. Increased nationalization, improved conditions, and a patriotic cause boosted the standing of the industry, but federal and union intervention also changed the composition of the workforce and even eroded seamen’s status. These greater controls on mariners negatively affected the industry and this work contends that labor played a role in the transformation, and even decline, of the overall American Merchant Marine.

A tributação direta das sociedades na União Europeia: perspetivas futuras

Na União Europeia a harmonização da tributação direta não tem acompanhado a harmonização da tributação indireta, sobretudo quando a análise se centra no Imposto sobre o Valor Acrescentado, o qual se encontra harmonizado. Esta situação fica a dever-se, essencialmente, à exigência da regra da unanimidade, por um lado, e ao receio dos Estados Membros da perda de soberania fiscal, por outro. No sentido de atenuar esta dicotomia, a Comissão Europeia, após a análise de diversas soluções para a tributação direta unitária das sociedades, aprovou, em 2011, uma Proposta de Diretiva relativa a uma matéria coletável comum consolidada do imposto sobre as sociedades (MCCCIS). Este modelo assenta na utilização de uma fórmula de repartição da matéria coletável, aplicada às sociedades e grupos de sociedades, que resulta da conjugação de diversos fatores: vendas, trabalho e ativos. À quota-parte da matéria coletável que cabe a cada Estado Membro, é aplicável a taxa interna (ou nacional) de imposto sobre as sociedades. Verifica-se que ainda existem algumas imprecisões e aspetos menos consensuais que necessitam de ser aperfeiçoados. Estuda-se a Proposta de Diretiva em pormenor comparativamente com normativo português, chegando-se à conclusão que, em termos substanciais, são maiores as convergências do que as divergências. Apresenta-se um exemplo prático que serve para fundamentar as tomadas de posição dos Estados Membros relativamente à adoção da MCCCIS e, recorrendo a cenários, chega-se à conclusão que os ganhos e as perdas estão diretamente relacionadas com a quota-parte da MCCCIS que corresponde a cada Estado Membro. Apesar de todas as virtudes e tendo em consideração todas as condicionantes deste regime, conclui-se que não se afigura uma realidade imediata e linear a adoção, por parte dos Estados Membros, da MCCCIS.

“FOR THE UNION MAKES US STRONG”: PROTEST MUSIC IN THE 1989−90 PITTSTON STRIKE

Music making was a common practice during the 1989−90 strike against the Pittston Coal Company, an action led by the United Mine Workers of America. The types of music made varied greatly based on the contexts in which musicians and protesters were participating. In this thesis, I discuss how performers and audiences engaged with the music of the Pittston strike, with a focus on how different participatory and presentational contexts included music with similar or the same lyrics to achieve different goals. I argue that the musicians’ understanding of the people around them as potential participants, audiences, or inherent audiences shifted their use of music as they worked to use music strategically and effectively for the strike. The musical methods and considerations of the Pittston strike protesters have had a lasting impact on more recent protest movements.

Proceedings of the ... convention of the American Flint Glass Workers' Union.

Description based on: 39th (1915)

Networking among female ethnic minority entrepreneurs

The labor market in the multicultural society is a major arena where the interrelation of gender and ethnicity is expressed in processes of discrimination, sexism and racism. For women from ethnic minorities, one way to avoid these problems is to work in migrant enterprises. As this may ease tensions related to ethnicity, it does not solve gender-related problems like the subordination of women and the perception of female migrants as ‘just’ daughters, mothers and wives by male co-migrants. Female ethnic minority entrepreneurship may be the way to escape such processes. In the Netherlands, 25% of all ethnic minority entrepreneurs are female. However, little is known about their socio-economic background and the way they perceive their businesses. Moreover, there is a theoretical haphazardness concerning the phenomenon female ethnic minority entrepreneurship. Although recently researchers have opted for an integral theory called the ‘mixed-embeddedness’ approach as to explain ethnic minority entrepreneurship through a combination of personal, sociocultural and structural factors, the role of gender still seems to be underexposed in this theory. Likewise, the literature concerning entrepreneurial networking has hardly interfered with both gender and ethnicity. Therefore, this paper provides a state of affairs concerning the research and literature on ethnic minority entrepreneurship, gender and networks. It argues that a better understanding of female ethnic minority entrepreneurship requires further scientific attention and that a contribution needs to be made to theory development regarding the interrelation of ethnicity and gender in entrepreneurship and in entrepreneurial networks particularly.

Marxists in the age of Palmer: a genealogy of ‘anti-politics’

The decline of trust in Australian political institutions and the rise of anti-political sentiment, most dramatically represented by the phenomenon of Clive Palmer, has been largely perplexing to the Australian left whether in its labourist, green or revolutionary varieties. In recent years support for Labor and the Greens has fallen, union membership has continued to stagnate and the revolutionary left has failed to break out of its campus enclaves despite a global crisis of capitalism. This article provides a critical examination of a minority trend within the Australian left that seen the rise of ‘anti-politics’ as a positive development. Leading figures in this have been Tad Tietze, Elizabeth Humphrys, Marc Newmann and anonymous blogger The Piping Shriek. Their work has been critical of attempts to revive traditional institutions of the left and has argued that the organised left has become committed to a project of state management of individual behaviour. This line of argument represents a distinctive critique of politics that echoes themes espoused by John Anderson and Sydney libertarianism. This article applies Michel Foucault’s genealogical approach to explain the revival of libertarian themes on the left and their particular resonance within Sydney political culture.

An extended approach to adjust inconsistent minority peer- and self-assessment scores of teamwork using assessor’s reliability

Teamwork is generally assessed either solely by academic staff or by both academic staff andstudents themselves confidentially as well as collaboratively. Peer- and self-assessments have beenused primarily to assess teamwork process and teacher assessment to assess teamwork product.Peer- and self-assessments are useful to elicit team members’ contribution towards teamwork and toconvert team mark into individual marks, provided the scores are reliable (the extent to which thescores are consistent). However, not all peer- and self-assessment scores are reliable. Anecdotal andliterature evidence suggest that there are several cases of inconsistencies in these scores. Individualcontribution scores given by teammates to an assessee (including himself/herself) can sometimesvary significantly due to both intentional and unintentional reasons. Simply using total individual ratingscores without considering an assessor’s reliability to estimate individual contribution factors cansometime results unfair grades and becomes hindrance to learning through teamwork.PURPOSEThis study proposes an extended approach to adjust inconsistent and/or distorted minority peer andself-assessment scores of teamwork using standard normal probability concept.APPROACHIn order to adjust inconsistent and/or distorted minority peer-and self-assessment scores of teamwork,an extended approach has been proposed. The approach uses the reliability of assessor’s scores ofan assessee using standard normal probability curve. The evaluation of the extended approach isconducted by comparing with the existing approaches using two case examples of peer- and selfassessmentof teamwork where minority team members’ scores are inconsistent.RESULTSThe evaluation of the extended approach shows that the proposed method is superior to the availableapproaches in order to adjust inconsistent peer- and self-assessment scores for special cases wherescores of minority team members are inconsistent. The extended approach helps both to automaticallydetect such scoring anomalies and to adjust the scores so that the fairer contributions to the teamworkwould be obtained and utilised.CONCLUSIONSThe extended approach is useful in that it helps both to automatically detect scoring anomalies and todevise the methods to adjust them. However, the approach does not address the issue of scoringinconsistencies by majority of team members as it uses average score as a basis for identifyinginconsistencies. Moreover, the approach needs to be implemented in the real teamwork environmentin order to identify the impacts of these scoring adjustments in teamwork process and teamworkproduct.