Globalization and the Marginalization of Educational Purpose: Preparation of Workers and Citizens for the 21st Century and the Vision of Sustainable Futures

Human capital development remains a primary goal of modern schooling. This paper raises questions concerning the link between global economic needs and school-based human capital development. The primary mission of preparing students for the workplace may weaken other educational missions vital in achieving a more sustainable future for humanity.

The discursive construction of Japanese identity and its haunting others

This dissertation examined the formation of Japanese identity politics after World War II. Since World War II, Japan has had to deal with a contradictory image of its national self. On the one hand, as a nation responsible for colonizing fellow Asian countries in the 1930s and 1940s, Japan has struggled with an image/identity as a regional aggressor. On the other hand, having faced the harsh realities of defeat after the war, Japan has seen itself depicted as a victim. By employing the technique of discourse analysis as a way to study identity formation through official foreign policy documents and news media narratives, this study reconceptualized Japanese foreign policy as a set of discursive practices that attempt to produce renewed images of Japan's national self. The dissertation employed case studies to analyze two key sites of Japanese postwar identity formation: (1) the case of Okinawa, an island/territory integral to postwar relations between Japan and the United States and marked by a series of US military rapes of native Okinawan girls; and (2) the case of comfort women in Japan and East Asia, which has led to Japan being blamed for its wartime sexual enslavement of Asian women. These case studies found that it was through coping with the haunting ghost of its wartime past that Japan sought to produce "postwar Japan" as an identity distinct from "wartime imperial Japan" or from "defeated, emasculated Japan" and, thus, hoped to emerge as a "reborn" moral and pacifist nation. The research showed that Japan struggled to invent a new self in a way that mobilized gendered dichotomies and, furthermore, created "others" who were not just spatially located (the United States, Asian neighboring nations) but also temporally marked ("old Japan"). The dissertation concluded that Japanese foreign policy is an ongoing struggle to define the Japanese national self vis-à-vis both spatial and historical "others," and that, consequently, postwar Japan has always been haunted by its past self, no matter how much Japan's foreign policy discourses were trying to make this past self into a distant or forgotten other.

Identity, purpose, and well-being among emerging adult Hispanic women

Few studies apply the Eriksonian model of identity formation to cross-cultural samples (3), even though issues of ethnicity and culture may inform a Hispanic woman's self-concept (Phinney, 1996). Hispanic women may also be influenced by traditional gender role behaviors such as passivity or dependence that are outlined by marianismo (Stevens, 1973). A recent study of a multiethnic sample of emerging adult women and men found that purpose commitment mediated the effects of identity commitment on hope and life satisfaction (Burrow & Hill, 2011). The current research consists of two studies that replicate and expand upon the work of Burrow and Hill (2011). Study I replicated the work of Burrow and Hill (2011) among a sample of emerging adult Hispanic women, in order to assess the extent to which the original findings would replicate in a culturally distinct sample. Study II examined the role of marianismo, ethnic identity, and acculturation on identity commitment among emerging adult Hispanic women. Both studies utilized a sample of 532 female undergraduate psychology students, age 18 to 25, who self-identified as Hispanic and submitted data via online surveys. Both studies used self-report, quantitative data, which was analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results from Study I indicated good model fit and replicated the findings from Burrow and Hill (2011). Specifically, the direct effect of identity commitment on hope was fully contingent upon an individual's level of purpose commitment, while the effect of identity commitment on life satisfaction was not contingent upon an individual's level of purpose commitment. Results from Study II indicated that marianismo, Spanish proficiency, familiarity with Latino culture, and familiarity with American culture demonstrated statistically significant direct effects on identity commitment among emerging adult Hispanic women. Results indicated cultural convergence regarding the association of an individual's identity with well-being through a sense of purpose. Findings also revealed the role of cultural factors in the extent to which Hispanic women commit to a personal identity. Future studies should employ mixed method research designs as a means to better ascertain implications of findings. ^

(Santa) Rita de Cássia na boca do povo de Santa Cruz/RN: identidades culturais em construção

The purpose of this study is to investigate the cultural identities of Santa Rita de Cassia constructed from the representations contained in the speech of Santa Cruz urban area residents, which is located in a harsh part of the State of Rio Grande do Norte. These residents make the story of the Saint full of meaning for themselves, in their daily lives, as well as to the society. This is observed in the narration of Rita de Cassia’s story which has been told in the city over the past one hundred and eighty years, the number of women's names and commercial establishments named “Santa Rita”. In 2010, with the inauguration of the Alto de Santa Rita – a space for worshiping the saint –, the amount of visitors increased in the city, due to the construction and inauguration of a colossal monument representing the image of Rita de Cassia. Then, new social, cultural, religious and political aspects became part of the local reality of the city of Santa Cruz, what made residents have something in common to talk about. According to the interdisciplinary approach of Applied Linguistics, our theoretical background is based on the socio-historical language concept, which understands language as discursive practice. Still theoretically speaking, this study establishes an interface with cultural studies, taking into account the concept of cultural identity in post-modernity society. Discourse analysis proved plural, with a multiplicity of cultural identities ranging from very obedient daughter to wife who suffered because of the husband, from very religious woman to the widow who entered the convent, on to the Saint of the miracles and healings interceding in the lives of the ones who seek for help. It was also observed in the above mentioned investigative path that these identities can be constructed and reconstructed if immersed in a different set of social practices historically determined

Representações discursivas de Câmara Cascudo por Mário de Andrade

This piece of research aims to address the issue on the construction and reconstruction of Câmara Cascudo´s discursive representations in Mário de Andrade´s discourse. In order to describe, analyze and interpret these representations, we recur to some semantic categories from the Discourse Textual Analysis (DTA) by articulating them with other categories, notably, Grize´s Logic (1996,1997), Text Linguistics and Semantics. Therefore, the purpose is to analyze how these representations are constructed discursively, in written letters, by means of semantic categories such as referentiation, predication, modification, connection and spatial and temporal locations. In the theoretical foundation, proposals of Textual Analysis of Discourses, conceived by the linguist Jean-Michel Adam (1990, 2008a, 2011a), Text Linguistics, Semantics and Logic, focusing, especially, on the phenomenon of discursive representations, are articulated. The research approach is of qualitative nature supported by some quantitative data (OLIVEIRA, 2012); option which makes the analysis richer and comprehensive. As a hypothesis, it is presented the fact that these categories used by Mário de Andrade, in his discourse, do not only enable the (re)construction of the interlocutor´s images, discursively constructed, but they also provide a multiplicity of information and viewpoints about the RN writer´s personality. The study corpus is constituted of 20 texts written by Mário de Andrade and sent to Câmara Cascudo between 1924 and 1944, of which 35 fragments were selected and analyzed. However, it can be verified that, in the analyzed corpus, a set of discursive representations is constructed for Câmara Cascudo, from semantic categories proposed for analysis and used in Mário de Andrade´s discourse. These categories enable to construct and reconstruct the representations that emerge in the texts. Therefore, the analysis points out the construction of a set of different representations, highlighting the representation of the writer, the intellectual and the friend.

Gustavo Barroso, o führer brasileiro: nação e identidade no discurso integralista barrosiano de 1933-1937

The purpose of this paper is to analyze how Gustavo Barroso sought to discursively construct what would be the Brazilian spatiality through an Interpretation of national history marked by the Jewish conspiracy theory, a racist doctrine in various aspects dialogued with Nazi doctrine, and the thought the Catholic Restoration. Writing that built a given image of the nation. Writing and producing product that is the source of other discourses that operate on the world, appointing him, enveloping him in a load of meanings. Interpretations of time and space that discursively construct realities and ways of being in the world. For the development of this work we will focus mainly on the analysis of the literature of the period integralist Gustavo Barroso since the year 1933 until the year 1937, as well as undertake an analysis of the Cohen Plan, which we understood to be the heir of a grid of thought that falls in line with the theories of political and racial anti-Semitic plot. Thus, we assume that it is necessary to think of the space also in their political and cultural dimensions, and with an barrosiana significance of national space, expressed in the discursive field, the result of a given historical moment and engaged with certain power relations, which unfold through complex relationships, we understand that Barroso made the reading of the Brazilian nation would be its own representation.

A construção medial no português do Brasil: usos no padrão reclamação digital

This thesis examines the medial construction of the Portuguese of Brazil (PB). It is a construction which describes a causative event in which a non-human subject participant is affected by an action that does not originate from itself. Thus, we are interested in investigating this type of construction, its specific characteristics, motivations and discursive context from its semantic- cognitive and discoursive - pragmatic functions. The research questions are: what is the prototypical structural configuration of the medial construction (MC) in the Portuguese of Brazil? What are its specific discoursive functions? What is the degree of MC transitivity based on the properties proposed by Hopper and Thompson (1980)? We assume that the medial construction has its own structure which particularizes its significant dimension, thus ensuring a certain distance between the one in charge of the event and the affected entity. The theoretical and methodological assumptions is founded on Usage-based Functional Linguistics (FURTADO DA CUNHA; BISPO; SILVA, 2013). It is a research of qualitative- interpretative nature that has prioritized the analysis of occurrences arising from texts produced by users of the Brazilian Portuguese language in effective communicative situation. The database for this study is electronic texts available on the website www.reclameaqui.com.br. The results revealed the existence of different configurations of the medial construction in the Brazilian Portuguese, having as prototypical the one formed by SN + V. From the morphosyntactic and semantic point of view, the construction expresses a subject affected by an action that does not part from itself. As for the pragmatic aspect, the construction expresses an event that seems to have the purpose to emphasize the affected argument and to ignore, intentionally or not, the agent or the causative, since it is irrelevant to the speaker/ listener in the contextual situation.

A leitura e a produção textual no ensino fundamental I: uma proposta de como trabalhar com os gêneros textuais

The little interest in reading and the large presence of deviations in writing observed in the texts of students of the 5th grade of a public school in RN, led us to question the motives of this problem. Thus, the idea to organize and develop teaching sequences with a variety of possibilities of reading and production through the text genres. The practice with the textual genres in elementary school extends the use of reading and writing and improves the quality of learning. In this way, the school, as one of the most active spheres in social practices of the language, we justify this work with the use of text genres as facilitators for teaching and learning the mother tongue. For this purpose, we draw as the main objective to talk about the work with textual genres from the development of didactic sequences, as well as encourage students to take a more reflexive attitude toward language and its uses, as discursive social practices. The development of the study with the text genres was made through the application of didactic sequences in the school context of elementary school classes, from 5th grade. Specifically were chosen, the letter, note, music, poetry, fable and the tale. The study is anchored in the reflections of the following theorists and researchers: Bakhtin (2011), Miller (1994), Marcuschi (2008) and Bronckart (1999) on the text genres; Marcuschi (2005) and Dolz and Schneuwly (2004) that approve a teaching-learning proposal focused on textual genres, giving a meaning to language in the construction of the knowledge and Dolz and Schneuwly (2004) regarding the didactic sequence; other theoretical orientations: PCN (1998), Lerner (2005), among others. The methodology followed the action research guidelines, in a qualitative approach perspective. The instruments of research included questionnaire, observations, readings and productions. The results pointed the students' interest in relation to the activities developed in the didactic sequences and consequently improvement in the students‘ own writings. In this sense, we reiterate the need to contamplate in the teaching activities the diversity of texts and genres and, not only due to its social relevance, therefore the student should be able to use the language in various way and adapt their texts to situations of oral and written interlocution.

La nature du lien organisationnel : une étude de cas selon une approche discursive

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Small-scale Fisheries and the Global Economy: Understanding Common-pool Resource Governance in the Context of Market Pressures, Neoliberal Policies, and Transnational Institutions

The purpose of this dissertation is to contribute to a better understanding of how global seafood trade interacts with the governance of small-scale fisheries (SSFs). As global seafood trade expands, SSFs have the potential to experience significant economic, social, and political benefits from participation in export markets. At the same time, market connections that place increasing pressures on resources pose risks to both the ecological and social integrity of SSFs. This dissertation seeks to explore the factors that mediate between the potential benefits and risks of global seafood markets for SSFs, with the goal of developing hypotheses regarding these relationships.

The empirical investigation consists of a series of case studies from the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. This is a particularly rich context in which to study global market connections with SSFs because the SSFs in this region engage in a variety of market-oriented harvests, most notably for octopus, groupers and snappers, lobster, and sea cucumber. Variation in market forms and the institutional diversity of local-level governance arrangements allows the dissertation to explore a number of examples.

The analysis is guided primarily by common-pool resource (CPR) theory because of the insights it provides regarding the conditions that facilitate collective action and the factors that promote long-lasting resource governance arrangements. Theory from institutional economics and political ecology contribute to the elaboration of a multi-faceted conceptualization of markets for CPR theory, with the aim of facilitating the identification of mechanisms through which markets and CPR governance actually interact. This dissertation conceptualizes markets as sets of institutions that structure the exchange of property rights over fisheries resources, affect the material incentives to harvest resources, and transmit ideas and values about fisheries resources and governance.

The case studies explore four different mechanisms through which markets potentially influence resource governance: 1) Markets can contribute to costly resource governance activities by offsetting costs through profits, 2) markets can undermine resource governance by generating incentives for noncompliance and lead to overharvesting resources, 3) markets can increase the costs of resource governance, for example by augmenting monitoring and enforcement burdens, and 4) markets can alter values and norms underpinning resource governance by transmitting ideas between local resource users and a variety of market actors.

Data collected using participant observation, survey, informal and structured interviews contributed to the elaboration of the following hypotheses relevant to interactions between global seafood trade and SSFs governance. 1) Roll-back neoliberalization of fisheries policies has undermined cooperatives’ ability to achieve financial success through engagement with markets and thus their potential role as key actors in resource governance (chapter two). 2) Different relations of production influence whether local governance institutions will erode or strengthen when faced with market pressures. In particular, relations of production in which fishers own their own means of production and share the collective costs of governance are more likely to strengthen resource governance while relations of production in which a single entrepreneur controls capital and access to the fishery are more likely to contribute to the erosion of resource governance institutions in the face of market pressures (chapter three). 3) By serving as a new discursive framework within which to conceive of and talk about fisheries resources, markets can influence norms and values that shape and constitute governance arrangements.

In sum, the dissertation demonstrates that global seafood trade manifests in a diversity of local forms and effects. Whether SSFs moderate risks and take advantage of benefits depends on a variety of factors, and resource users themselves have the potential to influence the outcomes of seafood market connections through local forms of collective action.

Caring for the Celtic cubs: Discursive constructions of mothers and mothering in the Irish childcare debate

Drawing on an understanding of the public sphere as a multiplicity of communicative and discursive spaces this paper examines the constructions of mothers, mothering and motherhood which emerged in recent debates about childcare in Ireland. Preliminary analysis of these discursive constructions suggest that they are often based on rhetoric, informed by stereotypical assumptions and rooted in frames of reference which mitigate against the emergence of alternative ways of understanding the issues of mothering and childcare. It will be argued that the reductionist and divisive nature of the childcare debate which ensued prior to the 2005 budget, stymied childcare policy development at a time when its unprecedented prominence on the political agenda and the strength of public finances could have underpinned a shift in policy approach. The paper concludes with an exploration of the ways in which feminist scholarship can challenge the Irish model of childcare policy, which continues to be premised on an understanding of childcare and the reconciliation of work and family life as the privatised responsibility of individual women.

Autoritarismes étatiques et régulation religieuse du politique en République démocratique du Congo : analyse discursive de la parole épiscopale catholique sur les élections (1990-2015)

Centrée essentiellement autour de la parole épiscopale congolaise, la présente recherche porte sur les articulations de la religion et du politique dans une perspective limitée au catholicisme en RDC. En prenant pour base empirique la ville de Kinshasa, elle thématise les effets des dynamiques religieuses sur les fermentations sociales et les changements politiques dans un contexte d’autoritarisme. Celui-ci est, dans ce travail, problématisé comme le fait conjoint de l’institution étatique et de l’organisation religieuse catholique. Le choix de cette approche relationnelle basée sur les interactions entre religion et politique, permet d’inscrire ce travail dans le champ d’études des sciences des religions. L’approche retenue s’appuie également sur les avancées de la sociologie politique et éclaire la régulation religieuse du politique, rarement étudiée par les sciences humaines. Cette recherche s’inscrit donc à l’intersection entre l’histoire, la sociologie, les sciences politiques, l’anthropologie, l’analyse du discours, la philosophie et la théologie. Sa thèse centrale est organisée autour d’une question principale : comment la religion participe-t-elle à la régulation du politique dans le contexte d’autoritarisme caractéristique de la RDC ? La réponse à cette question croise l’approche fonctionnelle de la religion et l’analyse des déclarations institutionnelles de l’épiscopat congolais. Elle esquisse les relations entre, d’une part, contextes et événements sociopolitiques et d’autre part, discours et pratiques religieuses. Elle construit la scène religieuse à partir de la trajectoire sociopolitique, économique et culturelle de la RDC entre 1990 et 2015, sous les Présidents J.-D. Mobutu, L.-D. Kabila et J. Kabila. Elle étudie l'offre normative de sens de leurs éminences J.-A. Malula, F. Etsou et L. Monsengwo. L’analyse de la rhétorique de l’épiscopat sur les élections vérifie la plausibilité sociale et l’efficience politique de la parole épiscopale congolaise. Elle se ressource dans la pragmatique de la communication telle que mise en œuvre dans l’analyse argumentative du discours de R. Amossy et dans celle du discours politique de P. Charaudeau. En mettant la focale sur l’objet linguistique « vérité des urnes », la recherche pose au niveau normatif, juridique et éthique, le problème de l’institutionnalisation d’un État de droit en RDC. Les élaborations sur ce dernier niveau s’articulent autour de l’inscription de l’éthique dans l’agir politique. L’examen des modes conventionnels d’action des chrétiens (élections de 2006 et 2011) et non conventionnels (marche des chrétiens de 1992 et 2012) conduit à éclairer les modes de reproduction ou de contestation de l’autoritarisme étatique par l’organisation religieuse. Il permet de promouvoir une démocratie des valeurs et d’action adossée à la parrhêsia. L’introduction de l’aléthique dans la vie publique donne à voir la parole épiscopale congolaise comme un discours ethopoïétique. C’est sur ce point précis que les élaborations de M. Foucault sur la parrhêsia aident à thématiser la capacité de la religion à informer et à influencer la démocratisation de la RDC. De là, la requête formulée pour un nouveau système d’action institutionnelle de l’organisation religieuse, susceptible de promouvoir le courage de la vérité en situation autoritaire. Cette innovation permet de tenir ensemble les valeurs démocratiques et les valeurs de l’Évangile, en les corrélant à la cohérence axiologique, à la probité morale et à l’intégrité existentielle des protagonistes de la démocratisation de la RDC.

La nature du lien organisationnel : une étude de cas selon une approche discursive

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Identity, Purpose, and Well-Being Among Emerging Adult Hispanic Women

Few studies apply the Eriksonian model of identity formation to cross-cultural samples (3), even though issues of ethnicity and culture may inform a Hispanic woman’s self-concept (Phinney, 1996). Hispanic women may also be influenced by traditional gender role behaviors such as passivity or dependence that are outlined by marianismo (Stevens, 1973). A recent study of a multiethnic sample of emerging adult women and men found that purpose commitment mediated the effects of identity commitment on hope and life satisfaction (Burrow & Hill, 2011). The current research consists of two studies that replicate and expand upon the work of Burrow and Hill (2011). Study I replicated the work of Burrow and Hill (2011) among a sample of emerging adult Hispanic women, in order to assess the extent to which the original findings would replicate in a culturally distinct sample. Study II examined the role of marianismo, ethnic identity, and acculturation on identity commitment among emerging adult Hispanic women. Both studies utilized a sample of 532 female undergraduate psychology students, age 18 to 25, who self-identified as Hispanic and submitted data via online surveys. Both studies used self-report, quantitative data, which was analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results from Study I indicated good model fit and replicated the findings from Burrow and Hill (2011). Specifically, the direct effect of identity commitment on hope was fully contingent upon an individual’s level of purpose commitment, while the effect of identity commitment on life satisfaction was not contingent upon an individual’s level of purpose commitment. Results from Study II indicated that marianismo, Spanish proficiency, familiarity with Latino culture, and familiarity with American culture demonstrated statistically significant direct effects on identity commitment among emerging adult Hispanic women. Results indicated cultural convergence regarding the association of an individual’s identity with well-being through a sense of purpose. Findings also revealed the role of cultural factors in the extent to which Hispanic women commit to a personal identity. Future studies should employ mixed method research designs as a means to better ascertain implications of findings.

Guiding public protest: assessing the propaganda model of China’s hybrid newspaper industry

This dissertation presents an account and analysis of published mainland Chinese media coverage surrounding three major events of public protest during the Hu-Wen era (2003-2013). The research makes a qualitative analysis of printed material drawn from a range of news outlets, differentiated by their specific political and commercial affiliations. The goal of the research is to better understand the role of mainstream media in social conflict resolution, a hitherto under-studied area, and to identify gradations within the ostensibly monolithic mainland Chinese media on issues of political sensitivity. China’s modern media formation displays certain characteristics of Anglophone media at its hyper-commercialised, populist core. However, the Chinese state retains an explicit, though often ambiguous, remit to engage with news production. Because of this, Chinese newspapers are often assumed to be one-dimensional propaganda ‘tools’ and, accordingly, easily dismissed from analyses of public protest. This research finds that, in an area where political actors have rescinded their monopoly on communicative power, a result of both policy decisions and the rise of Internet-based media platforms, established purveyors of news have acquired greater latitude to report on hitherto sensitive episodes of conflict but do so under the burden of having to correctly guide public opinion. The thesis examines the discursive resources that are deployed in this task, as well as reporting patterns which are suggestive of a new propaganda approach to handling social conflict within public media. Beside the explicitly political nature of coverage of protest events, the study sheds lights on gradations within China’s complex, hybrid media landscape both in terms of institutional purpose and qualitative performance.