Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Social meaning and action synthesis'

Abstract This study examines people-centred Thai NGOs trying to help peasants empower themselves in order to compete better in conflicts over land, water, forest, and capital, during the 1970s to 1990s. The study investigates how the NGOs contested asymmetric power relations among government officials, private entrepreneurs and ordinary people while helping raise the people’s confidence in their own power to negotiate their demands with other actors.¶ The thesis argues that the NGOs are able to play an interventionist role when a number of key factors coexist. First, the NGOs are able to understand local situations, which contain asymmetric power relations between different actors, in relation to current changes in the wider context of the Thai political economy and seize the time to take action. Secondly, the NGOs are able to articulate a social meaning beyond the dominating rhetoric of the ‘state’ and the ‘capitalists’ which encourages the people’s participation in collective activities. Thirdly, while dealing with one problem in social relations and negotiation with local environment, the NGOs are able to recognise new problems as they arise and rapidly identify a new political space for the actors to renegotiate their conflicting interests and demands. Fourthly, the NGOs are able to recreate new meanings, new actors and reform their organisations and networks to deal with new situations. Finally, the NGOs are able to effectively use three pillars of their movement, namely individuals, organisations and networks to deal with everyday politics and collective protest.¶ The case studies in three villages in Northern Thailand reveal that the NGOs were able to play an interventionist role in specific situations through their alternative development strategies somewhat influenced by structural Marxism. The thesis recommends that the NGO interventionist role be continued so as to overcome tensions within the NGO community, for instance, between the NGOs working at the grass-roots level and the NGOs working at regional and national levels (including NGO funding agencies); local everyday conflicts; and the bipolar views of a society among the NGOs expressed in dichotomous thinking between ‘rural’ and ‘urban’, ‘community’ and ‘state’, conflict and order, actor and system.¶ The fragmentation of NGO social and environmental movements showed that there is no single formula or easy solution to the problems. If the NGOs want to continue their interventionist role to help empower ordinary people and help them gain access to productive resources, they must move beyond their bipolar views of a society to discover the middle ground to search for new meanings, new actors, new issues and to create again and again counter-hegemony movements. This could be done by having abstract development theories assessed and enriched by concrete development practices and vice versa. Both theorists and practitioners need to use their own imagination to invent and reinvent what and how best to continue.

This paper presents a comparative study of affirmative action policies in effect in seven countries: Australia, Canada, India, the Netherlands, South Africa, United Kingdom, and the United States. Drawing on a wide range of literature, the paper discusses several analytical frameworks that help in describing and accounting for differences between the policies, including the distinction between soft and hard affirmative action, ideological differences, and the social actors expected to adapt to affirmative action legislation. Ultimately, however, it is argued that the greatest insights can be gained by applying the issue definition perspective into the study of affirmative action, in particular by examining the language associated with these policies. Based on the analysis, a typology of affirmative action policies is developed, bringing together the findings of the different analytical perspectives presented in the paper.
Le présent mémoire est une étude comparée de politiques d’action positive en vigueur dans sept pays : l’Australie, le Canada, l’Inde, les Pays-Bas, l’Afrique du Sud, le Royaume-Uni, et les États-Unis. Se basant sur une variété d’études universitaires, le mémoire aborde trois approches analytiques qui ajoutent à notre compréhension des différences entre les politiques : la distinction entre les mesures antidiscriminatoires dites douces et dures, les différences idéologiques, et les acteurs sociaux dont le comportement est visé par la législation. L’argument principal s’appuie sur la perspective théorique de définition de problèmes et soutient que la langue associée avec les politiques d’action positive nous aide à comprendre les différences observées entre ces politiques. Enfin, une typologie de programmes d’action positive est développée à partir des cadres analytiques présentés tout au long de l’étude. fr

Social-ecological systems research is interventionist by nature. As a subset of sustainability science, social-ecological systems research aims to generate knowledge and introduce concepts that will bring about transformation. Yet scientific concepts diverge in innumerable ways when they are put to work in the world. Why are concepts used in quite different ways to the intended purpose? Why do some appear to fail and others succeed? What do the answers to these questions tell us about the nature of science-society engagement, and what implications do they have for social-ecological systems research and sustainability science? This thesis addresses these questions from an interpretive perspective, focusing on the meanings that shape human actions. In particular, the thesis examines how meaning, interpretation and experience shape the enactment of four action-oriented sustainability concepts: adaptive management, biosphere reserves, biodiversity corridors and planetary boundaries/reconnecting to the biosphere. In so doing, the thesis provides in-depth empirical applications of three interpretive traditions – hermeneutic, discursive and dialogical – that together articulate a broadly interpretive approach to studying social-ecological complexity. In the hermeneutic tradition, Paper I presents a ‘rich narrative’ case study of a single practitioner tasked with enacting adaptive management in an Australian land management agency, and Paper II provides a qualitative multi-case study of learning among 177 participants in 11 UNESCO biosphere reserves. In the discursive tradition, Paper III uses Q-method to explore interpretations of ‘successful’ biodiversity corridors among 20 practitioners, scientists and community representatives in the Cape Floristic Region, South Africa. In the dialogical tradition, Paper IV reworks conventional understandings of knowledge-action relationships by using three concepts from contemporary practice theory – ‘actionable understanding,’ ‘ongoing business’ and the ‘eternally unfolding present’ – to explore the enactment of adaptive management in an Australian national park. Paper V explores ideas of human-environment connection in the concepts planetary boundaries and reconnecting to the biosphere, and develops an ‘embodied connection’ where human-environment relations emerge through interactivity between mind, body and environment over time. Overall, the thesis extends the frontiers of social-ecological systems research by highlighting the meanings that shape social-ecological complexity; by contributing theories and methods that treat social-ecological change as a relational and holistic process; and by providing entry points to address knowledge, politics and power. The thesis contributes to sustainability science more broadly by introducing novel understandings of knowledge-action relationships; by providing advice on how to make sustainability interventions more useful and effective; by introducing tools that can improve co-production and outcome assessment in the global research platform Future Earth; and by helping to generate robust forms of justification for transdisciplinary knowledge production. The interventionist, actionable nature of social-ecological systems research means that interpretive approaches are an essential complement to existing structural, institutional and behavioural perspectives. Interpretive research can help build a scientifically robust, normatively committed and critically reflexive sustainability science.

At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Manuscript. Paper 4: Manuscript.

This research examines the practice of Female Genital Mutilation/Circumcision (FGM/C) as a social phenomenon in Singida Region, Tanzania. The aim is to contribute to a deepened cultural anthropological understanding of the function and meaning behind the practice in Singida, and how it reacts to external factors of change, such as human rights-based laws and projects aiming to eradicate FGM/C. This was done by conducting an ethnographic field study, with the help of staff members from the Christian Council of Tanzania (CCT). Through the theoretical framework, aiming to grasp the complexity of FGM/C, aspects such as visible and invisible violence, patriarchal structures, social schemes, anomalies, change and rites, were analyzed on the collected material consisting of semi-structured interviews and participatory observations. From the conducted analysis, it was shown that FGM/C was a deeply imbedded cultural practice which purpose is to (1) enable women to consolidate to womanhood and ensure a full membership in society and (2) cure girls from a disease known as lawalawa. This is because the clitoris is believed to be connected to diseases and to enhance the risk of abnormal behavior that does not belong to womanhood. The thesis shows how lawalawa was fabricated as a reaction towards the ban on FGM/C in Tanzania and how it was used to (unknowingly or knowingly) justify the continuance of the practice. It was also showed that members of societies who engage in FGM/C, are likely to avoid abandoning FGM/C if possible, however change is achievable if it is implemented in a sensitive way with knowledge on local reaction towards external factors of change.

Esta pesquisa investigou o processo de significação docente de professoras participantes do Grupo de Estudos e Pesquisa do Ensino e Aprendizagem da Matemática na Infância (Gepeami) em situação de formação contínua desenvolvida por meio da parceria entre a universidade e a Secretaria de Educação de um município do interior paulista. O estudo fundamentou-se na teoria histórico-cultural e desenvolveu-se mediante o método do materialismo histórico e dialético, envolvendo os participantes do grupo: a formadora, as professoras de educação infantil e dos anos iniciais do ensino fundamental e os estudantes de graduação e pós-graduação. Nosso objetivo geral foi compreender a relação entre a aprendizagem das professoras ao participarem da atividade formativa no/pelo Gepeami e a atribuição de sentidos pessoais ao desenvolverem ações de trabalho docente, pois partimos do princípio de que há uma relação entre as ações formativas e a significação docente. Para tanto, definimos os modos generalizados de ação docente (MGAD) como nosso objeto de estudo por considerá-los o elo entre o pensamento das professoras e suas condutas nas formações no/do Gepeami que pudessem evidenciar a significação docente por meio da expressão verbal, oral e/ou escrita das professoras. Propusemos uma questão nuclear: os MGAD estruturam e revelam a relação entre significado social e sentido pessoal do professor no trabalho docente? Analisamos que, conforme os MGAD foram revelados, revelou-se também o desenvolvimento do pensamento teórico das professoras. Compreendemos que as professoras, ao aprenderem sobre os conhecimentos matemáticos e a organização do ensino nos pressupostos da Atividade Orientadora de Ensino (AOE), desenvolveram novas estruturas do pensamento que lhes possibilitaram modificar sua consciência e personalidade, orientadas para uma personalidade coletiva. Nossos objetivos específicos centraram-se em: a) caracterizar o contexto teórico e prático do processo formativo realizado no/pelo Gepeami; b) compreender em que medida esse grupo coletivo constituiu espaço de desenvolvimento de professores; c) identificar situações desencadeadoras favoráveis à aprendizagem docente. A coleta e produção dos dados ocorreram por meio de filmagens dos encontros formativos, caderno de campo e transcrição e elaboração dos quadros de análise. Orientada pelos princípios do trabalho como atividade de desenvolvimento humano, da intencionalidade pedagógica na organização do ensino e no desenvolvimento do trabalho coletivo, nossa análise buscou ressaltar as ações favoráveis à aprendizagem docente e potencialmente geradoras de significação para os sujeitos envolvidos. Os resultados evidenciaram que as ações de estudo, de escrita do material didático (produzido pelo grupo), de planejamento das tarefas de ensino e de trabalho coletivo, orientadas ao desenvolvimento do pensamento teórico docente, além de possibilitarem o desenvolvimento da consciência e da personalidade do professor, também revelaram o Gepeami com características de grupo que possui institucionalidade e estabilidade
This research investigated the process of teaching significance of teachers participating in the Group of Studies and Research of Teaching and Learning of Mathematics in Childhood (Gepeami) in a situation of continuous formation developed through the partnership between the university and the Education Department in a city located in the state of Sao Paulo. The study was based on historical-cultural theory and developed through the method of historical and dialectical materialism, involving the participants of the group: the teacher, nursery school teachers and early elementary school students and undergraduate and graduate students. Our general objective was to understand the relationship between the teachers\' learning when participating in the formative activity in / by Gepeami and the attribution of personal senses when developing teaching work actions, since we assume that there is a relation between the formative actions and the signification teacher. To that end, we defined the generalized modes of teaching activity (MGAD) as our object of study, considering them the link between the teachers\' thinking and their behaviors in the Gepeami formations that could show the teacher\'s meaning through verbal expression, oral and / or written. We have proposed a main question: do the MGAD structure and reveal the relationship between social meaning and the personal sense of the teacher in the teaching work? We analyzed that, as the MGAD were revealed, it also revealed the development of the theoretical thought of the teachers. We understand that teachers, by learning about mathematical knowledge and the organization of teaching in the presuppositions of the Teaching Activity of Teaching (CEA), have developed new structures of thought that enabled them to modify their consciousness and personality, oriented to a collective personality. Our specific targets were: a) to characterize the theoretical and practical context of the training process carried out in / by Gepeami; b) to understand to what extent this collective group constituted a space for the development of teachers; c) identify enabling situations favorable to teacher learning. The data collection and production took place through the filming of the training meetings, the field and transcript and the preparation of the analysis tables. Following the principles of \"work as a human development activity\", \"pedagogical intentionality in the organization of teaching\" and the development of \"collective work\", our analysis sought to highlight the actions favorable to teacher learning and potentially generating significance for the subjects involved. The results evidenced that the actions of study, writing of didactic material (produced by the group), planning of teaching tasks and collective work, oriented to the development of theoretical teaching thought, besides enabling the development of the consciousness and the personality of the Professor, also revealed the Gepeami with characteristics of group that has institutionality and stability

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Political participation in management councils is constantly a focus of researches that seek to understand the relationships undertaken in this field. However, because it is a very comprehensive theme and suffers cyclical variations in time and space, the results of research about councils are quite divergent. Some of them point to the potential for expansion of democratic mechanisms and political learning space provided by these bodies. Others demonstrate dissatisfaction motivated by distortion of the intended purposes, because in many cases, the councils are made only to comply with regulatory requirements. These analytical differences are important because they open space for research related to the understanding of the action mechanisms and political interaction exerted by its actors. Therefore, this study aims to examine the relationships which involve contacts, ties and connections in the processes of decision making of the counselors of Fundeb in Cascavel - PR. The action of individuals participating in this council is pretty intense. This demonstrated, over time, some progress regarding the purpose of the council that is to oversee the funds invested in public education in the city. Thus, we seek to understand the meaning that the individual attaches to his participation, the implicit expectations in his behavior and the consequences that determine his decision making on this council.
A participação política em conselhos gestores é constantemente foco de pesquisas que procuram compreender as relações empreendidas neste campo. Entretanto, por ser uma temática abrangente e que sofre variações conjunturais no tempo e no espaço, os resultados das pesquisas sobre conselhos são bastante divergentes. Algumas delas sinalizam a potencialidade de ampliação dos mecanismos democráticos e espaço de aprendizado político proporcionados por estas instâncias. Outras demonstram uma insatisfação motivada pelo desvirtuamento dos propósitos pretendidos, pois em muitos casos, os conselhos são constituídos apenas para cumprir com exigências normativas. Essas divergências analíticas são importantes, pois abrem espaço para pesquisas relacionadas à compreensão dos mecanismos de ação e interação política exercida pelos seus atores. Portanto, este estudo tem por objetivo analisar as relações que envolvem contatos, vínculos e conexões nos processos de tomada de decisão de conselheiros do Fundeb da cidade de Cascavel - PR. A atuação dos indivíduos que participam deste conselho é bastante intensa. Isso demonstrou, ao longo do tempo, alguns avanços relativos à finalidade do conselho que é fiscalizar os recursos aplicados na educação pública do município. Sendo assim, procura compreender o sentido que o indivíduo atribui a sua participação, as expectativas implícitas na sua conduta e os desdobramentos que determinam a sua tomada de decisão neste conselho.

Ce travail réinterroge la philosophie sociale critique d’Adorno à partir des concepts de règle et de jeu. Il a pour objectif d’exposer la théorie de la société d’Adorno et d’en questionner les fondements. Ces fondements, telle est notre thèse, peuvent être conceptualisés dans un langage propre à la sociologie de l’action si on les reformule en termes de « règles », de « suivi des règles » et de « jeu » – concepts qu’Adorno lui-même utilise afin de décrire le social, plus précisément la société capitaliste dans laquelle il vivait. Le fameux tout « non-vrai », qu’est la société selon Adorno, peut ainsi être compris comme un jeu réglé par lui-même, indépendamment de l’intentionnalité des acteurs. Cette reformulation de la philoso-phie sociale d’Adorno nous permet de la faire dialoguer avec d’autres conceptions du social (Weber, Ha-bermas, Descombes, Searle et le structuralisme) et de montrer à quel point l’objet d’Adorno diffère de celui de Weber, de Habermas et de Searle alors qu’il est commensurable à celui du structuralisme. La méthode pour saisir cet objet, à savoir les règles non intentionnelles qui structurent le jeu social, est celle de Freud (interprétation, lecture symptômale). Adorno, toutefois, se distingue du structuralisme et aussi de Freud en ce qu’il pense pouvoir établir un lien entre société capitaliste et le social réglé comme un jeu inaccessible aux acteurs : ce jeu est non seulement l’objet de recherche d’Adorno mais aussi l’objet de sa critique. Notre travail s’emploie à étayer la possibilité de cette critique qui ne vise rien de moins que les conditions de possibilité du vivre en commun telles qu’elles ont été établies par la philosophie sociale structuraliste ainsi que par Freud : des règles à effet inconscient qui font en sorte que tous les acteurs ne réalisent ou ne di-sent pas les mêmes significations font l’objet de la critique adornienne. Critiquer ces règles implique de montrer qu’une critique de l’institution verticale des sujets est possible sans détruire ni poser comme abso-lu la subjectivité elle-même. Cette critique devient envisageable à partir du moment où l’on examine la pratique qui est incluse dans le suivi aveugle de la règle : au sein de cette « fausse » pratique – qu’Adorno appelle la pratique d’identification – se dégage une pratique autre qui met en question la soumission aveugle à la règle. Cette pratique critique est également appelée « jeu ». Notre travail se conclut sur l’exposition de cette pratique et de son potentiel critique au sein du jeu qu’est la société capitaliste
This work reexamines the social critical philosophy of Adorno, starting form the concepts of rule and of game. It aims to expose the social theory of Adorno and to question its foundations. These foundations can be conceptualized in a language specific to the sociology of action if they are rephrased in terms of rules, rule-following and game; concepts which Adorno himself uses to describe the social, spe-cifically the capitalist society in which he lived. The famous all "non-true" which society is according to Adorno, can be understood as a game working in itself, regardless of the intentionality of the actors. This rephrasing of the social philosophy of Adorno allows us to dialogue with the other approaches of the social (Weber, Habermas, Descombes, Searle and the structuralism) and to show how the object of Adorno differs from that of Weber, Habermas and Searle, how it is commensurable with that of structuralism. The Method to seize the object, i.e. the rules that structure the unintentional social game, is the method of Freud (interpretation, symptomatic reading). Adorno, however, differs from structuralism and also from Freud’s conception of the social because he thinks that he can establish a link between capitalist society and the social regulated as a game inaccessible to players: for Adorno this game is not only the object of research but also the object of his criticism. Our work goes on to justify the possibility of such criticism that targets nothing less than the conditions of possibility of common living. What was established by structur-alist social philosophy as well as by Freud is the subject of criticism of Adorno: rules whose effects are unconscious, which ensure that all players do not realize or do not say the same meanings. To criticize these rules implies showing that the critique of vertical instituted subjects is possible without destroying subjec-tivity nor positing it as absolute. This criticism becomes possible from the moment you look at the prac-tice included in the blind following of the rule which is the "wrong" practice - Adorno calls this practice of identification ; the right practice included in practice of identification challenges the blind submission to

This research into Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) presents the results of 60 first-person psycho-phenomenological interviews with 30 New Zealand women. The participants were recruited from the Canterbury and Wellington regions, 10 had recovered. Taking a non-dual, non-reductive embodied approach, the phenomenological data was analysed semiotically, using a graph-theoretical cluster analysis to elucidate the large number of resulting categories, and interpreted through the enactive approach to cognitive science. The initial result of the analysis is a comprehensive exploration of the experience of CFS which develops subject-specific categories of experience and explores the relation of the illness to universal categories of experience, including self, ‘energy’, action, and being-able-to-do. Transformations of the self surrounding being-able-to-do and not-being-able-to-do were shown to elucidate the illness process. It is proposed that the concept ‘energy’ in the participants’ discourse is equivalent to the Mahayana Buddhist concept of ‘contact’. This characterises CFS as a breakdown of contact. Narrative content from the recovered interviewees reflects a reestablishment of contact. The hypothesis that CFS is a disorder of action is investigated in detail. A general model for the phenomenology and functional architecture of action is proposed. This model is a recursive loop involving felt meaning, contact, action, and perception and appears to be phenomenologically supported. It is proposed that the CFS illness process is a dynamical decompensation of the subject’s action loop caused by a breakdown in the process of contact. On this basis, a new interpretation of neurological findings in relation to CFS becomes possible. A neurological phenomenon that correlates with the illness and involves a brain region that has a similar structure to the action model’s recursive loop is identified in previous research results and compared with the action model and the results of this research. This correspondence may identify the brain regions involved in the illness process, which may provide an objective diagnostic test for the condition and approaches to treatment. The implications of this model for cognitive science and CFS should be investigated through neurophenomenological research since the model stands to shed considerable light on the nature of consciousness, contact and agency. Phenomenologically based treatments are proposed, along with suggestions for future research on CFS. The research may clarify the diagnostic criteria for CFS and guide management and treatment programmes, particularly multidimensional and interdisciplinary approaches. Category theory is proposed as a foundation for a mathematisation of phenomenology.

This study examines people-centred Thai NGOs trying to help peasants empower themselves in order to compete better in conflicts over land, water, forest, and capital, during the 1970s to 1990s. The study investigates how the NGOs contested asymmetric power relations among government officials, private entrepreneurs and ordinary people while helping raise the people’s confidence in their own power to negotiate their demands with other actors.¶ The thesis argues that the NGOs are able to play an interventionist role when a number of key factors coexist. ...

Cette recherche explore le sens que la « génération de l’information » (20-35 ans) donne à l’engagement. Alors que sociologues et médias ont longtemps brandi des chiffres alarmants concernant la désaffection électorale des jeunes et leur rejet des associations ou groupes de pression usuels, le développement du Web 2.0 semble donner lieu à de nouvelles formes d’action visant le changement social, qui sont particulièrement prisées par les jeunes. Analysant leur recours à des pratiques de manifestations éclairs (flash mobs), de cyberdissidence, l’utilisation du micro-blogging et des réseaux Facebook et Twitter dans le cadre de mobilisations récentes, des enquêtes suggèrent qu’elles témoignent d’une nouvelle culture de la participation sociale et politique, qui appelle à repenser les façons de concevoir et de définir l’engagement. Or, si nous assistons à une transformation profonde des répertoires et des modes d’action des jeunes, il demeure difficile de comprendre en quoi et comment l’utilisation des TIC influence leur intérêt ou motivation à « agir ». Que veut dire s’engager pour les jeunes aujourd’hui ? Comment perçoivent-ils le contexte social, politique et médiatique ? Quelle place estiment-ils pouvoir y occuper ? Soulignant l’importance du sens que les acteurs sociaux donnent à leurs pratiques, la recherche s’éloigne des perspectives technocentristes pour explorer plus en profondeur la façon dont de jeunes adultes vivent, expérimentent et interprètent l’engagement dans le contexte médiatique actuel. La réflexion s’ancre sur une observation empirique et deux séries d’entretiens en profondeur (de groupe et individuels), menés auprès de 137 jeunes entre 2009-2012. Elle analyse un ensemble de représentations, perceptions et pratiques d’individus aux horizons et aux modes d’engagement variés, soulignant les multiples facteurs qui agissent sur la façon dont ils choisissent d’agir et les raisons qui les mènent à recourir aux TIC dans le cadre de pratiques spécifiques. À la croisée d’une multiplication des modes de participation et des modes d’interaction qui marquent l’univers social et politique des jeunes, la recherche propose de nouvelles hypothèses théoriques et une métaphore conceptuelle, le « murmure des étourneaux », pour penser la façon dont les pratiques d’affichage personnel, de relais, et d’expérimentation mises en avant par les jeunes s’arriment en réseau à celles d’autrui pour produire des « dérives culturelles » : des changements importants dans les façons de percevoir, d’agir et de penser. Loin d’une génération apathique ou technophile, les propos soulevés en entretiens suggèrent un processus réflexif de construction de sens, dont l’enjeu vise avant tout à donner l’exemple, et à penser ensemble de nouveaux possibles. La recherche permet d’offrir un éclairage qualitatif et approfondi sur ce qui caractérise la façon dont les jeunes perçoivent et définissent l’engagement, en plus d’ouvrir de nouvelles avenues pour mieux comprendre comment ils choisissent d’agir à l’ère du Web.
This research explores the complex relationship between Web 2.0 technologies and how a younger “information age generation” (20-35 years old) makes sense of social and political engagement. While scholars and pundits have long underlined youth’s low electoral turnouts and its rebuff of traditional organizations, Web 2.0 tools seem to provide a younger generation with interactive platforms that have become crucial components of many social change projects. Analyzing movements supported trough e-mail lists and e-petitions, observing the orchestration of flash mobs, commenting on cyberactivism and the use of social network sites (such as Twitter and Facebook) during recent uprisings, studies suggest networked-based technologies have not only opened up opportunities and repertoires of action, they indicate a new participatory culture. One that calls into question the very meanings and definitions associated with “political engagement” and “social change”. Yet, if a large amount of studies now stress the importance of better understanding such practices, it remains difficult to grasp how and if the web is changing young people’s sense of “engagement”. Very little attention has been given to the evaluative weighting of alternatives, values, and meanings that motivate or impede young people to participate in specific actions for social change. How do young people define “engagement?” How do they perceive the general political, social and media context? How do they perceive their own situation within this context? Suggesting that the ways in which actors choose to mobilize cannot be fully understood without taking into account the meanings and activities they associate with social change, the research explores how engagement is actually experienced, how it looks and feels like for young adults in a complex media environment. Drawing on empirical fieldwork and two series of group and in-depth interviews conducted with 137 young adults (20-35 years olds) between 2009 and 2012, the analysis underlines the multiple factors that shape young people’s perception of political and social participation, how they choose to transform their own societies and how they use social media and Web 2.0 applications when striving to convey change. At the crossroad of two important factors that mark their social and political world – a multiplicity of interaction modes and a multiplicity of participatory practices – the research brings new thoughts to this growing field of study. It offers new theoretical hypotheses that help take into account the role played by virtual networks in the circulation of interpretations and meanings. It also suggests a conceptual metaphor, the “murmur of starlings”, to illustrate how practices of “posting”, “forwarding” and the relational dimensions involved in the everyday sharing of experiences, may translate into “cultural drifts ” – important shifts in collective ways of thinking, acting and perceiving. Looking beyond typical characterizations of a techno-savvy or apathetic generation, the picture emerging from the interviews reveals reflexive sense-making processes that inspire to widen new fields of possibilities. Overall, the research provides qualitative and in-depth insights into what characterizes the way young people perceive and define engagement and opens new perspective for better understanding how they choose to “act” in the Web 2.0 era.

Girls’ education has been promoted by the international development community for over two decades; however, it has proven harder to promote gender equality through education than it has been to promote gender parity in education. Of significance is the global circulation and co-existence of two competing rationales for the importance of girls’ education: economic efficiency and social justice. The cost of ignoring how and why Southern governments and their development partners choose to promote girls’ education is high: an over-emphasis on economic efficiency can mean that the root causes of gendered inequalities in society remain unchallenged, and more social justice-oriented reforms become marginalized. This thesis uses a critical feminist lens to qualitatively investigate the role and significance of human capital, human rights, and human capabilities policy models in the context of the production and enactment of gender equality in education policy knowledge in The Gambia, a small, aid-dependent Muslim nation in West Africa. The purpose of the study was to assess the scope education policies provide for positive change in the lives of Gambian women and girls. Towards illuminating relations of power in and the politics of gender equality in education policy processes, the study compares and contrasts written texts with the perspectives of state and non-state policy actors. The study is based on data drawn from interviews, participant observation, and documentary analysis. The findings suggest that different gender equality in education ideas and practices have been selectively mobilized and incorporated into education policy processes in The Gambia. At the level of policy talk, girls’ education is framed as important for both national economic growth, and “women’s empowerment”. However, the policy solutions designed and implemented, with the support of donors, have tended to work with rather than against the status quo. Power and politics was evident in divergent interpretations and struggles to fix the meaning of key concepts such as gender, gender equality, gender equity, and empowerment. Religious beliefs, anti-feminist politics, and the national feminist movement were identified as important forces shaping gender equality in education knowledge and action in the country.