Minority Question in the Nigerian Governmental Process

Given the monumental friction, tension and acrimony occasioned by minority question in Nigeria’s governmental process, the paper is aimed at encapsulating the dynamics of minority question as it affects/impact the governmental process of Nigeria. It argues that minority question in Nigeria, just like other parts of the developed world, including Australia for example, reinforces itself in the culture and pervasive nature of ethnicity, defined in terms of group interest, sectional polarization, self-esteem and identification. Findings revealed that, Ethnicity is therefore considered as the epicenter of minority agitations as each of these groups struggle not in the nation’s interest, but in the interest of identifiable groups and regional hegemony for recognition and control oil resources. The paper concludes that the minority question cannot be divorce from governmental processes, because it has become a part of socio-political fabric of the Nigerian state, hence, the need for a virile federal structure that recognizes and responds positively to the interest of the minor groups is essential. The paper is a survey of literatures from existing works of scholars, generated to enhance the understanding of the subject matter under review; as such the methodology is strictly based on content secondary data.

Ação pública na formação e transformação do destino turístico de Porto de Galinhas: um estudo dos referenciais no período de 1970 a 2010

The central interest of this thesis is to comprehend how the public action impels the formation and transformation of the tourist destinies. The research was based on the premise that the public actions are the result of the mediation process of state and non-state actors considered important in a section, which interact aiming for prevailing their interests and world visions above the others. The case of Porto de Galinhas beach, in Pernambuco, locus of the investigation of this thesis, allowed the analysis of a multiplicity of actors on the formation and implementation of local actions toward the development of the tourism between the years 1970 and 2010, as well as permitted the comprehension of the construction of the referential on the interventions made. This thesis, of a qualitative nature, has as theoretical support the cognitive approach of analysis of the public policies developed in France, and it has as main exponents the authors Bruno Jobert and Pierre Muller. This choice was made by the emphasis on the cognitive and normative factors of the politics, which aspects are not very explored in the studies of public policies in Brazil. As the source of the data collection, documental, bibliographic and field researches were utilized to the (re)constitution of the formation and transformation in the site concerned. The analysis techniques applied were the content and the documental analysis. To trace the public action referential, it started by the characterization of the touristic section frontiers and the creation of images by the main international body: the World Tourism Organization, of which analysis of the minutes of the meetings underscored guidelines to the member countries, including Brazil, which compounds the global-sectorial reference of the section. As from the analysis of the evolution of the tourism in the country, was identified that public policies in Brazil passed by transformations in their organization over the years, indicating changes in the referential that guided the interventions. These guidelines and transformations were identified in the construction of the tourist destination of Porto de Galinhas, of which data was systematized and presented in four historical periods, in which were discussed the values, the standard, the algorithms, the images and the important mediators. It has been revealed that the State worked in different roles in the decades analyzed in local tourism. From the 1990s, however, new actors were inserted in the formulation and implementation of policies developed, especially for local hotelkeepers. These, through their association, establishes a leadership relation in the local touristic section, thereby, they could set their hegemony and spread their own interest. The leadership acquired by a group of actors, in the case of Porto de Galinhas, does not mean that trade within the industry were neutralized, but that there is a cognitive framework that confronts the actors involved. In spite of the advances achieved by the work of the mediators in the last decades, that resulted in an amplification and diversification of the activity in the area, as well as the consolidation at the beach, as a tourist destiny of national standout, the position of the place is instable, concerned to the competitiveness, once that there is an situation of social and environmental unsustainability

A estrutura de poder tradicional no stricto sensu: o caso do mestrado profissional em Administração Pública em Rede Nacional - PROFIAP

This study approaches bureaucratic organizational structures with the aim to understand the adherence procedure to virtual technologies in the stricto sensu educational administrative process. Thus, the author navigates through the formation of these organizations in Brazil with the intent to demonstrate the bureaucratic organizational culture and the consequent form of domination of those who detain power. In this epistemological construction, the author explores the culture s bureaucratic environment and the organizational power. In the analyses, it was observed the technological phenomenon in the ODL s administrative environment, which can explain the adherence procedure to structures and technological instruments for stricto sensu courses that, hypothetically, dilutes the traditional inherited organizational axiom. Therefore, it was utilized as object of study the Professional Master s degree in National Scale Public Administration PROFIAP, hence analyzing the documental content and the legislation related to institutionalization as well as the positioning of professors/coordinators and of the director of CAPES/MEC. Considering this axioms, it was concluded that the bureaucratic structures can admit ODL in the stricto sensu s environment. However, this can only be done as long as the adherence does not imply in a dilution of the traditional forms of power and institutional bureaucratic inherited dominance, as well as the alleged hegemony of the governmental structure in the educational administration adopted in person by the stricto sensu courses in Brazil

Chinese Men and "Leftover Women" : How do Chinese Men Position Themselves in Relation to the Concept of Labelling Women as "Leftover"?

In recent years there has been a resurgence of gender inequality in China. Today, women are pressured to get married by the state and their social surroundings, as they told if they remain unmarried and have the "three highs"; high age, education and salary, they will become leftovers on the marriage market. Previous research on the concept of labelling women as "leftover" has 4 shown that labelling women as "leftover" can have several different negative impacts. In this thesis, both the theory of masculine hegemony and the theory of symbolic interaction have been used. The concept creates a hegemonic masculinity as it is a normative practice that promotes the subordination of women. However, as the concept is based on the notion that all Chinese men, or at least those of relevant social standing, would find the "three highs" undesirable, it is relevant to see how Chinese men in fact do position themselves in relation to the hegemonic masculinity on an individual level. In symbolic interaction, the concept of gender is created through social construction when people attach special meanings to the sex of a person, a process which is called "doing gender". Therefore symbolic interaction is used to see what special meaning Chinese men attach to women having the "three highs" and masculine hegemony to put their answers into a larger context. If it could be shown that Chinese men do not comply with the hegemonic masculinity, Chinese women would not have to feel obliged to adjust to the hegemonic masculinity and thereby making it easier for them to pursue higher education, high paying jobs and marrying at a later age. However, as this thesis is a qualitative study, and therefore a limited number of data subjects, the generalizability of the result should not be exaggerated. The interviews that were conducted for this thesis showed that the data subjects were familiar with the concept and that they considered it to be natural for there to be women China labelled as "leftover". Nevertheless, in relation to their own marital choices, the data subjects did not attach the negative meaning as set out by the hegemonic masculinity, a result which to some extent was confirmed by the data subjects’ experiences and other control questions. The result is interesting, and enforces Connell and MesserSchmidt’s theory, that even though a hegemonic masculinity is normative, not everyone has to comply with it. As the cornerstone of the concept is that Chinese men find women with the "three highs" undesirable, the result of the study shows that there is a need for the concept to be further examined and questioned.

Lucrecio, "De rerum natura": Sentido y coherencia del prólogo

El prólogo del De rerum natura de Lucrecio (1.1-148) parece ser un tema gastado: ha sido tratado decenas de veces tanto por su excelente calidad como por los problemas que plantea. Pero esperamos poder dar un nuevo sentido y solución a ambos aspectos. En primer lugar, el himno a Venus no es una mera convención, sino que respira sentimiento religioso; Venus no personifica a la naturaleza, sino al placer y la felicidad y ni la hegemonía que se dice ejerce Venus, ni las plegarias que contiene el himno contradicen la teología epicúrea. Todavía más, nos parece que el himno constituye una auténtica epifanía religiosa muy propia de la teología epicúrea. En segundo lugar, suponiendo que el autor ha tomado como tema compartido los schemata o grados de dificultad de la intellectio retórica en el texto de 1.50-148, se intentan solucionar las dificultades de coherencia del texto.

Widening participation in higher education: the role of professional and social class identities and commitments

Since the neoliberal reforms to British education in the 1980s, education debates have been saturated with claims to the efficacy of the market as a mechanism for improving the content and delivery of state education. In recent decades with the expansion and ‘massification’ of higher education, widening participation (WP) has acquired an increasingly important role in redressing the under-representation of certain social groups in universities. Taken together, these trends neatly capture the twin goals of New Labour’s programme for education reform: economic competitiveness and social justice. But how do WP professionals negotiate competing demands of social equity and economic incentive? In this paper we explore how the hegemony of neoliberal discourse – of which the student as consumer is possibly the most pervasive – can be usefully disentangled from socially progressive, professional discourses exemplified through the speech and actions of WP practitioners and managers working in British higher education institutions.

La emancipación no es inefable

El pensamiento social crítico tiene una nueva demanda. Le urge revisarse en sus conceptos fundamentales, dialogar con las experiencias de los movimientos sociales y hacer valer el recurso del método: el hacer conceptual radical del pensamiento y la acción social por una emancipación humana. Desde la experiencia de trabajo del Grupo América Latina, Filosofía Social y Axiología (GALFISA) se exponen algunos elementos alcanzados y construidos en conjunto y que compartimos para seguir narrando juntos la emancipación. Abstract The critical social thought has a new demand. Is urgent to review its fundamental concepts, dialogue with the experiences of the social movements and give value to the resource of the method: Of making radical conceptual of the thought and the social action for a human emancipation. From the experience of the Latin America, Social Philosophy and Axiology working group (GALFISA) some elements that where reached and built together are exposed, elements that we shared in the continuing task of narrating together the emancipation.

Dissonant Belonging and the Making of Community: Native Hawaiian Claims to Selfhood and Home

In 1898 the United States illegally annexed the Hawaiian Islands over the protests of Queen Liliʽuokalani and the Hawaiian people. American hegemony has been deepened in the intervening years through a range of colonizing practices that alienate Kanaka Maoli, the indigenous people of Hawaiʽi, from their land and culture. Dissonant Belonging and the Making of Community is an exploration of contemporary Hawaiian peoplehood that reclaims indigenous conceptions of multiethnicity from colonizing narratives of nation and race. Drawing from archival holdings at the University of Hawaiʽi, Mānoa and in-depth interviews, this project offers an analysis of public and everyday discourses of nation, race, and peoplehood to trace the discursive struggle over Local identity and politics. A context-specific social formation in Hawaiʽi, “Local” is commonly understood as a multiethnic identity that has its roots in working-class, ethnic minority culture of the mid-twentieth century. However, American discourses of race and, later, multiethnicity have functioned to render invisible the indigenous roots of this social formation. Dissonant Belonging and the Making of Community reclaims these roots as an important site of indigenous resistance to American colonialism. It traces, on the one hand, the ways in which Native Hawaiian resistance has been alternately erased and appropriated. On the other hand, it explores the meanings of Local identity to Native Hawaiians and the ways in which indigenous conceptions of multiethnicity enabled a thriving community under conditions of colonialism.

Papel do PCT na diferenciação pedagógica e curricular de alunos com DEA/Dislexia

O presente estudo partiu de preocupações da prática relacionadas com o papel do PCT no desenvolvimento pedagógico e curricular sobretudo de alunos com dislexia. No sentido de se responder à pergunta de partida: “de que forma a diferenciação pedagógica e curricular dos alunos com DEA/Dislexia, é contemplada no PCT?” elaborou-se um quadro teórico onde se começou por discutir o papel da escola recorrendo inclusivamente à sua perspectivação histórica. Esta permitiu perceber a escola actual nomeadamente nas tensões entre os processos de massificação escolar conducentes a uma hegemonia do currículo e os processos de flexibilização curricular. O nosso interesse principal situou-se nestes últimos pela sua importância para a diferenciação curricular e pedagógica na sala de aula necessária para os alunos com dislexia. A formação dos professores desempenha neste contexto uma grande relevância, pelo que lhe atribuímos elevada importância. Utilizando como instrumentos de recolha inquéritos por questionário articulados com a análise dos PCTs inquirimos uma amostra de vinte e oito professores de um agrupamento de escolas do distrito de Santarém sobre a sua percepção face à dislexia e à importância dada à utilização do PCT. Os dados recolhidos e tratados permitiram verificar que nem os PCT são encarados como um instrumento de diferenciação curricular e pedagógica, resultando em algumas contradições entre o que se diz fazer e o que se faz efectivamente, nem a DEA/Dislexia é encarada como um problema, que apesar de real não se vê contemplada, de forma explícita nos PCT. Desta forma, consideramos que o estudo realizado (embora limitado no tempo e espaço) permite desvendar algumas das suas representações mostrando uma forte relação entre a ausência de formação e o impacto que esta lacuna tem nas práticas docentes.

Dos caminhos de água aos caminhos de ferro: a construção da hegemonia de Natal através das vias de transporte (1820-1920)

At a time of changes on the territory during the 19th century, the political and socioeconomic elites of the province and later State of Rio Grande do Norte evolved a discourse in order to justify the permanence of Natal as a city holding a status of capital. In this work we analyze the means employed by the ruling classes to impose their wish to raise Natal to an outstanding position among the existing cities by intervening on the territory during a period of one hundred years (1820-1920). During that time, which was characterized by changing commercial flows and technological development, the elites interventions were essentially directed to the implementation of modes of transportation, especially the railway. We try to understand the reinforcement of Natal as a capital city not only in political and administrative terms, but mainly in a commercial and symbolic manner, through the discourse and interventions undertaken by the local administrative elites, who stimulated the creation of a set of relations on the territory that also imprinted visible marks in the capital s urban fabric. These interventions were based upon the establishment of an infrastructure for exporting the State s production, firstly through and despite the Potengi River, and later on by the construction of railways. Although the project of Natal s hegemony had been outlined before the establishment of the railway network, in both cases the ultimate objective was to reinforce and develop the capital city as a commercial urban center to the detriment of other cities

Whiteness and news: the interlocking social construction of "realities"

This dissertation examines how mainstream U.S. journalism consistently serves white racial interests and the racial status quo, or what I call white incumbency, despite its push for diversity and its stated aims to improve coverage of nonwhite communities. It is based on an in-depth ethnographic study of two daily newspapers and extensive one-on-one interviews with 61 journalists. I found that although journalists strongly identify with the need for more diverse coverage in newspapers, they emphasize individual and personal stories that avoid recognition of historical racial power imbalances, exhibiting what Ruth Frankenberg calls power-evasive race cognizance. Journalists also demonstrate a number of often contradictory identifications and self-understandings about themselves and their work, such as commitments to diversity and not taking sides, but these conflicts are almost always resolved in favor of white incumbency. Journalistic conventions and practices, such as the watchdog function and its emphasis on public institutions, routinely produce stories that replay and reinforce racial hegemony by portraying nonwhites as problems or people seeking “special privileges.” Also, journalistic repertoires about those conventions and practices avoid interrogations of journalists’ ongoing complicity in the maintenance of white incumbency.

Defensive realism and the Concert of Europe

Why do great powers expand? Offensive realist John Mearsheimer claims that states wage an eternal struggle for power, and that those strong enough to seek regional hegemony nearly always do. Mearsheimer's evidence, however, displays a selection bias. Examining four crises between 1814 and 1840, I show that the balance of power restrained Russia, Prussia and France. Yet all three also exercised self-restraint; Russia, in particular, passed up chances to bid for hegemony in 1815 and to topple Ottoman Turkey in 1829. Defensive realism gives a better account of the Concert of Europe, because it combines structural realism with non-realist theories of state preferences.

Ação pública na formação e transformação do destino turístico de Porto de Galinhas: um estudo dos referenciais no período de 1970 a 2010

The central interest of this thesis is to comprehend how the public action impels the formation and transformation of the tourist destinies. The research was based on the premise that the public actions are the result of the mediation process of state and non-state actors considered important in a section, which interact aiming for prevailing their interests and world visions above the others. The case of Porto de Galinhas beach, in Pernambuco, locus of the investigation of this thesis, allowed the analysis of a multiplicity of actors on the formation and implementation of local actions toward the development of the tourism between the years 1970 and 2010, as well as permitted the comprehension of the construction of the referential on the interventions made. This thesis, of a qualitative nature, has as theoretical support the cognitive approach of analysis of the public policies developed in France, and it has as main exponents the authors Bruno Jobert and Pierre Muller. This choice was made by the emphasis on the cognitive and normative factors of the politics, which aspects are not very explored in the studies of public policies in Brazil. As the source of the data collection, documental, bibliographic and field researches were utilized to the (re)constitution of the formation and transformation in the site concerned. The analysis techniques applied were the content and the documental analysis. To trace the public action referential, it started by the characterization of the touristic section frontiers and the creation of images by the main international body: the World Tourism Organization, of which analysis of the minutes of the meetings underscored guidelines to the member countries, including Brazil, which compounds the global-sectorial reference of the section. As from the analysis of the evolution of the tourism in the country, was identified that public policies in Brazil passed by transformations in their organization over the years, indicating changes in the referential that guided the interventions. These guidelines and transformations were identified in the construction of the tourist destination of Porto de Galinhas, of which data was systematized and presented in four historical periods, in which were discussed the values, the standard, the algorithms, the images and the important mediators. It has been revealed that the State worked in different roles in the decades analyzed in local tourism. From the 1990s, however, new actors were inserted in the formulation and implementation of policies developed, especially for local hotelkeepers. These, through their association, establishes a leadership relation in the local touristic section, thereby, they could set their hegemony and spread their own interest. The leadership acquired by a group of actors, in the case of Porto de Galinhas, does not mean that trade within the industry were neutralized, but that there is a cognitive framework that confronts the actors involved. In spite of the advances achieved by the work of the mediators in the last decades, that resulted in an amplification and diversification of the activity in the area, as well as the consolidation at the beach, as a tourist destiny of national standout, the position of the place is instable, concerned to the competitiveness, once that there is an situation of social and environmental unsustainability

La pregunta: una experiencia pedagógica de liberación

Desde un análisis crítico y reflexivo de la educación, se hace necesario preguntar por el sentido del lenguaje en los procesos formativos que hacen parte del acordona­miento ideológico de esta sociedad dirigida por la razón instrumental hacia los princi­pios del consumo y la competencia. Poner en este contexto el lugar de la pregunta por el lenguaje es, necesariamente, preguntar por el lugar y el propósito de la pregunta en la educación. ¿Tiene lugar la pregunta en la hegemonía de un modelo capitalista que se extiende a la concepción mercantilista de la educación? ¿Qué intencionalidades le subyacen a la pregunta como acción polí­tica en la que se le da apertura al diálogo con criterios ético, político y propositivo? En este texto, me propongo desarrollar estas inquietudes desde el horizonte de indagación de la pregunta como una ex­periencia pedagógica de liberación, en la cual se trazan retos epistémicos y estéti­cos de relevancia en los propósitos de una educación con responsabilidad social, y en el compromiso de un maestro con claridad práctica y discursiva frente a su papel como sujeto político

A estrutura de poder tradicional no stricto sensu: o caso do mestrado profissional em Administração Pública em Rede Nacional - PROFIAP

This study approaches bureaucratic organizational structures with the aim to understand the adherence procedure to virtual technologies in the stricto sensu educational administrative process. Thus, the author navigates through the formation of these organizations in Brazil with the intent to demonstrate the bureaucratic organizational culture and the consequent form of domination of those who detain power. In this epistemological construction, the author explores the culture s bureaucratic environment and the organizational power. In the analyses, it was observed the technological phenomenon in the ODL s administrative environment, which can explain the adherence procedure to structures and technological instruments for stricto sensu courses that, hypothetically, dilutes the traditional inherited organizational axiom. Therefore, it was utilized as object of study the Professional Master s degree in National Scale Public Administration PROFIAP, hence analyzing the documental content and the legislation related to institutionalization as well as the positioning of professors/coordinators and of the director of CAPES/MEC. Considering this axioms, it was concluded that the bureaucratic structures can admit ODL in the stricto sensu s environment. However, this can only be done as long as the adherence does not imply in a dilution of the traditional forms of power and institutional bureaucratic inherited dominance, as well as the alleged hegemony of the governmental structure in the educational administration adopted in person by the stricto sensu courses in Brazil