Dissertations / Theses: 'State, The – History – 21st century'

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Trisel, Joel B. "Small-scale Opera: History and Continuing Relevance in the 21st Century." Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1428438349.

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Ruffing, Jason L. "A Century of Overproduction in American Agriculture." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2014. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc700066/.

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American agriculture in the twentieth century underwent immense transformations. The triumphs in agriculture are emblematic of post-war American progress and expansion but do not accurately depict the evolution of American agriculture throughout an entire century of agricultural depression and economic failure. Some characteristics of this evolution are unprecedented efficiency in terms of output per capita, rapid industrialization and mechanization, the gradual slip of agriculture's portion of GNP, and an exodus of millions of farmers from agriculture leading to fewer and larger farms. The purpose of this thesis is to provide an environmental history and political ecology of overproduction, which has lead to constant surpluses, federal price and subsidy intervention, and environmental concerns about sustainability and food safety. This project explores the political economy of output maximization during these years, roughly from WWI through the present, studying various environmental, economic, and social effects of overproduction and output maximization. The complex eco system of modern agriculture is heavily impacted by the political and economic systems in which it is intrinsically embedded, obfuscating hopes of food and agricultural reforms on many different levels. Overproduction and surplus are central to modern agriculture and to the food that has fueled American bodies for decades. Studying overproduction, or operating at rapidly expanding levels of output maximization, will provide a unique lens through which to look at the profound impact that the previous century of technological advance and farm legislation has had on agriculture in America.

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Gao, Ming. "Pro-forma consistency : the construction of the relationship between China's social organizations and the state in the 21st century." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2012. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/3820/.

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The purpose of this thesis is to understand the changing nature of contemporary China's state and society relationship by focusing on the construction of the relationship between newly emerging non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the state. The term "construction" refers to the process in which China NGOs emerge, struggle for existence, negotiate with state organizations and other social agents. In this process, how China's NGOs link with the state policies of both local and national levels, practices of both local government officers and the government organizations of superior branches is of the most interest. It has been found that Chinese social organizations often come to be congruent with the state at both local level and national policy level. Through the articulatory elements, which are the theoretical tools borrowed from post-Marxist theories, the state and the social organizations are integrated as if they are in a coherent whole under the macro state policies. Such pro forma consistency between state and social organizations provides legitimacy and room for social organizations to develop their own values and practices, which actually do not completely coincide with the state dominant orientations. A civil society constituted by social organizations with different value pursuits is likely emerging in China.

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Smith, Shannon Tucker. "Megatrends in Higher Education." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2008. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc9028/.

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Utilizing the theory of John Naisbitt's 1982 Megatrends, this study identifies eight trends for the future of higher education using content analysis of generalized print media reports for three bell-wether states. For the period of 2001-2005, generalized reporting for three newspapers, the Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, CA, the Miami Herald from Miami, FL, and the Denver Post from Denver, CO, included over four thousand articles and covered 21 primary topics and over 200 secondary topics. Eight trends emerge from the content analysis. Trend 1, from the ivory tower to the public domain, identifies increasingly critical public scrutiny of higher education standards and curricula. Fight or flight, Trend 2, reveals more consistent no-tolerance policies for student behavior. Trend 3, scholar to celebrity, reveals an increasingly public role for university presidents. Academic freedom to academic flexibility, Trend 4, identifies a tightening of academic freedom policies for university staff and faculty. Trend 5, pay now, learn later, focuses on increased popularity of pre-paid and tax free plans for saving college tuition. Fraternity party to fraternity accountability, Trend 6, identifies increased scrutiny of Greek organizations and Greek life within the university environment. Trend 7, tenure to temporary, reflects the growing trend of hiring more part-time faculty rather than hiring faculty for tenure track positions or full-time instructor jobs. Lastly, campus to cyberspace, Trend 8, identifies the continued success of online instruction at the university level.

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Brewer, Angela. "Beyond Rocking the Vote: An Analysis of Rhetoric Designed to Motivate Young Voters." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2007. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc5209/.

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Attempts to solve the continued problem of low youth voter turnout in the U.S. have included get out the vote drives, voter registration campaigns, and public service announcements targeting 18- to 25-year-old voters. Pay Attention and Vote added to this effort to motivate young voters in its 2006 campaign. This thesis analyzes the rhetorical strategies employed by the Pay Attention and Vote campaign advertisements, measures their effectiveness, and adds to the limited body of knowledge describing the attitudes and behaviors of young nonvoters. This thesis applies a mixed method approach, utilizing both rhetorical criticism and quantitative method. The results of both analyses are integrated into a discussion which critiques current strategies of addressing the youth voter turnout problem and offers suggestions for future research on the topic.

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Ryder, Marianne. "Forming a New Art in the Pacific Northwest: Studio Glass in the Puget Sound Region, 1970-2003." PDXScholar, 2013. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/1096.

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The studio glass movement first arose in the United States in the early 1950s, and was characterized by practitioners who wanted to divorce glass from its industrial associations and promote it as a fine arts medium. This movement began in a few cities in the eastern part of the country, and in Los Angeles, but gradually emerged as an art form strongly associated with the city of Seattle and the Puget Sound region. This research studies the emergence and growth of the studio glass movement in the Puget Sound region from 1970 to 2003. It examines how glass artists and Seattle's urban elites interacted and worked separately to build the support structures and "art world" that provided learning and mentoring opportunities, workspaces, artistic validation, audience development, critical and financial support, which helped make glass a signature Puget Sound art form, and the role that artist social networks, social capital, cultural capital and cultural policy played in sustaining this community. In particular, the research seeks to explore the factors that nourish a new art form and artist community in second-tier cities that do not have the substantial cultural and economic support structures found in the "arts super cities" such as Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco. This study contributes to the growing literature on artist communities, and the roles played by social capital, cultural capital, urban growth coalitions and policy at different stages of community development. Results can assist policymakers in formulating policies that incorporate the arts as a form of community development.

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Tuffin, Zoe. "Claiming Shakespeare for our own: An investigation into directing Shakespeare in Australia in the 21st century." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2014. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1285.

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Shakespeare has been performed on Australian stages for over two hundred years, yet despite this fact, in Australia we still treat Shakespeare as a revered idol. It seems that, as a nation of second-class convicts, consciously or not, we regard Shakespeare as a product of our aristocratic founders. However deeply buried the belief may be, we still think that the British perform Shakespeare ‘the right way’. As a result, when staging his plays today, our productions suffer from a cultural cringe. This research sought to combat these inhibiting ideologies and endeavoured to find a way in which Australians might claim ownership over Shakespeare in contemporary productions of his plays. The methodology used to undertake this investigation was practice-led research, with the central practice being theatre directing. The questions the research posed were: can Australian directors in the 21st century navigate and reshape Shakespeare's works in productions that give actors and audiences ownership over Shakespeare? And, what role can irreverence play in this quest for ownership? In order to answer these questions, a strong reference point was required, to understand what Shakespeare, with no strings attached to tradition and scholarly reverence, looked and felt like. Taiwan became an ideal reference point, as the country is a site for unrestrained and strongly localised performances of the Shakespearean tradition. The company at the forefront of such Taiwanese productions is Contemporary Legend Theatre (CLT). Wu Hsing-kuo, the Artistic Director of CLT, creates jingju (Beijing opera) adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays, the most renowned of which is his solo King Lear, titled Li Er zaici. The intention of the practice-led research was to use the ideas gathered from an interview with Wu and through watching a performance of Li Er zaici, to form an approach to directing Shakespeare in Australia today, which was free from the restrictions commonly encountered by Australians. The practical project involved trialling this approach in a series of workshops and rehearsals with eight actors over eight weeks, which ultimately resulted in a performance of an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. Wu’s approach generated a sense of ownership over Shakespeare amongst the actors and widened their dominant, narrow concept of Shakespeare performances in Australia to incorporate a wealth of new possibilities. Yet, from this practical experiment, the strength and depth of the inhibiting ideologies surrounding Shakespeare in Australia was made apparent, as even when consciously seeking to remove them, they formed unconscious impediments. Despite the initial intention, a sense of veneration towards Shakespeare’s text entered the rehearsal process for Romeo and Juliet. This practice-led research revealed that as Australians we have an almost inescapable attachment to Shakespeare’s text, which ultimately begs the contrary question: in order to stage an irreverent and owned production of Shakespeare in Australia, how much of Shakespeare and his traditions must we abandon?

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Lee, Jirye. "Stage of Her Own: Autobiographical Solos by Women in New York City in the First Decade in the 21st Century." The Ohio State University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1494288492098892.

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Wellborn, Brecken. "Musicals and the Margins: African-Americans, Women, and Queerness in the 21st Century American Musical." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2018. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1404583/.

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This thesis provides an overview of the various ways in which select marginalized identities are represented within the twenty-first century American musical film. The first intention of this thesis is to identify, define, and organize the different subgenres that appear within the twenty-first century iterations of the musical film. The second, and principal, intention of this thesis is to explore contemporary representations of African-Americans, women, and queerness throughout the defined subgenres. Within this thesis, key films are analyzed from within each subgenre to understand these textual representations.

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King, Marvin. "A Black/Non-Black Theory of African-American Partisanship: Hostility, Racial Consciousness and the Republican Party." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2006. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc5264/.

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Why is black partisan identification so one-sidedly Democratic forty years past the Civil Rights movement? A black/non-black political dichotomy manifests itself through one-sided African-American partisanship. Racial consciousness and Republican hostility is the basis of the black/non-black political dichotomy, which manifests through African-American partisanship. Racial consciousness forced blacks to take a unique and somewhat jaundiced approach to politics and Republican hostility to black inclusion in the political process in the 1960s followed by antagonism toward public policy contribute to overwhelming black Democratic partisanship. Results shown in this dissertation demonstrate that variables representing economic issues, socioeconomic status and religiosity fail to explain partisan identification to the extent that Hostility-Consciousness explains party identification.

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Province, Terry Paul. "An Investigation Into the Factors Leading to the Closure of 40 Private Four-Year Colleges between 1965 and 2005." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2009. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc12186/.

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This study searches for a set of common indicators that contributed to the ultimate closure of 40 colleges and universities between 1965 and 2005. From research on related literature, a set of 31 contributing factors was identified by published experts and observers in higher education. That set of indicators was then used as a list of 31 questions answered by data found in newspaper articles, professional journals, published research work, published institutional records, data taken from the Department of Education, data taken from IPEDS, data published in historical recounts of the colleges of interest, etc. The data was accumulated in the form of yes/no responses to the 31 questions. Although the study involved only 40 colleges and universities this population represents the majority of institutions that pass the restrictions of limitations and delimitations described in the full document. The complete data set was processed using SPSS which produced ANOVA tables and level of statistical significance for each indicator question. The results indicate that out of the 31 original indicator questions there were two groups of statistically significant indicators. The larger group of indicators having statistical significance at the .05 level encompassed the smaller group having statistical significance at the .001 level. There were ten indicators in the first group with significance at the .05 level and seven in the second group with significance at the .001 level. Both groups conform to Bowen's revenue theory of cost associated with the operations of colleges and universities. The first group also has a cultural values component observed by a number of the experts cited in this study. The second is very tightly associated with Bowen's revenue theory of cost and Bates and Santerre's for profit theory of economics. Future research needs to be done to investigate the effect of such use of those indicators and to cause change in their use by educating those entities who are informed by those indicators.

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Cusworth, Fran. "Boomtown wives: a novel and, The stage and backdrop: essay on the history of the Hopetoun-Ravensthorpe region, A great madness: essay on the social effects of WA's 21st century resources boom." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2008. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1849.

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This thesis comprises a novel entitled 'Boomtown Wives', and two essays entitled 'The Stage and Backdrop', and 'A Great Madness'. These works are about the Western Australian mining boom generally and the remote seaside town of Hopetotm in particular: my thesis explores how overseas demand for Australian commodities shapes the lives of a boomtown's residents. While this is a story with its micro focus on the personal, its broader focus is on a time of historic change, both national and international. The current mining boom, while documented in the media, is yet to surface in Australia's contemporary literature. Its importance in our economic lives is barely reflected by its presence in our cultural lives. Mining towns and their surrounding environments have traditionally been used in the arts as symbols of alienation or loss, or depicted as part of a bygone era. I set out to write about how it is to live in a mining town now, in the midst of a boom. I didn't want to write about eccentric or displaced characters fleeing a mainstream life with which they couldn't cope. I wanted to write about the people I could see in the mining town where I lived: family people with dreams of getting ahead financially and professionally. I wanted to use the techniques of successful commercial fiction to write a dynamic and sometimes humourous story about three women's lives, and at the same time to capture the panicked greed of the resources boom. In my story, people arrive in Hopetoun from all over the world with the hope of making their fortunes. Laetitia is married to a mine manager, fighting to earn trust and friendship in a town where her husband holds so much power. Cityslicker Jasmine is married to a mine recruitment supervisor, and has consented to this move in a bid to restore her husband's trust after her infidelity. Brigid is a struggling mother of three, trying with her tradesman husband Jack to clear crippling debts. The women join forces to open a cafe and as this sleepy town struggles to cope with the influx of mine workers, they fight to hold their marriages together and stay true to themselves. Tensions mount over an Aboriginal sacred site and a lost child, and the escalating boom drives mine workers to new extremes. This is a story about living amid the giddy heights of a resources boom, knowing that one day the bust will come. The first essay, 'The Stage and Backdrop', examines the history of the Hopetoun-Ravensthorpe region, focusing on Aboriginal, mining and women's history. The second essay, 'A Great Madness', looks at the Western Australian mining boom of the early 21st century, and its influence on lifestyles and the economy, focussing in particular on the increased use of fly-in-fly-out workforces, labour shortages and overstretched infrastructure. Both essays illuminate ways that research into the history of mining and the Hopetoun region influenced the creation of my novel.

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Gurr, Kevan L. "An Analysis of the Newspaper Coverage of Latter-Day Saint Temples Announced or Built Within the United States from October 1997 Through December 2004." Diss., CLICK HERE for online access, 2005. http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/u?/MTGM,34946.

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Dirickson, Perry. "School Spirit or School Hate: The Confederate Battle Flag, Texas High Schools, and Memory, 1953-2002." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2006. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc5467/.

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The debate over the display of the Confederate battle flag in public places throughout the South focus on the flag's display by state governments such South Carolina and Mississippi. The state of Texas is rarely placed in this debate, and neither has the debate adequately explore the role of high schools' use of Confederate symbols. Schools represent the community and serve as a symbol of its values. A school represented by Confederate symbols can communicate a message of intolerance to a rival community or opposing school during sports contests. Within the community, conflict arose when an opposition group to the symbols formed and asked for the symbols' removal in favor of symbols that were seen more acceptable by outside observers. Many times, an outside party needed to step in to resolve the conflict. In Texas, the conflict between those in favor and those oppose centered on the Confederate battle flag, and the memory each side associated with the flag. Anglos saw the flag as their school spirit. African Americans saw hatred.

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Rhidenour, Kayla. "Ideographs, Fragments, and Strategic Absences: An Ideographic Analysis of ." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2008. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc9742/.

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This study examined the ideograph of through an analysis of the Bush Administration's rhetoric as well as visual photographs of Iraqi civilian deaths. The project argues that the psycho-dynamic rhetoric of the Bush Administration during a time of visual censorship lead to the dehumanization of Iraqi civilian deaths during the War in Iraq. The method consisted of a textual analysis of the Bush Administration's rhetoric and continued with a content analysis of news media's photographs. The author argues that critics gain a deeper understanding of the disappearing dead phenomenon of Iraqi civilians by examining ideographic fragments of psycho-dynamic rhetoric.

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Toji, Simone. "The way of the unfinished : approaching migrant lives in São Paulo through resonance." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/9785.

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In following several international migrants in the city of São Paulo, I found that inarticulate moments of hesitation, uncertainty, or suspension punctuated their trajectories. These fleeting and subtle instances revealed that people's lives were pervaded by a certain ‘messiness' that pointed out the limits of understanding life and the world through scientific standards of generalisation and coherence. Requiring a different attitude concerning the making of anthropology, ‘messiness' compelled my ethnographic account to admit that: firstly, people, places and situations, held a ‘mystery' that my efforts of scientific disclosure could never clarify completely; secondly, each attempt to live in the world became a very singular experimentation. In order to ethnographically do justice to the ‘mystery' and ‘singularity' I found in the lives I followed in São Paulo, this account found in Levinas's work inspiration to develop a phenomenological approach. This phenomenological approach combined two movements. The first movement searched for a way of incorporating the faltering occasions of inarticulacy in people's lives through imagination, signalling the limits of understanding these lives through objective knowledge, and proposing to appreciate them through processes of human recognition. This procedure was crafted as a ‘poetics of resonance', an aesthetic operation converting lived experience into written expression in a way that imagination can offer a sense of what it is to live a particular life or experience in its richness. The second movement in this phenomenological approach refers to the recognition of a human life in its singularity, attempting to substantiate it ethnographically in the form of particular ‘life-journeys', which is an approximation to what Levinas described as ‘uniqueness'. As follows, seven specific life-journeys are presented, organised as ‘journeys of being', ‘in-be(ing)tween journeys', and ‘journeys of becoming', according to the elements of affiliation each research participant stressed in their respective course shared with me. From the richness of these ethnographic particulars, insights for migration and urban studies were derived from the phenomenological approach undertaken. The ethnographic evidence questioned a sense of complexity based on categorisation in migration studies and suggested that for the portrayed life-journeys a concept of immensity is more appropriate than a concept of identity. Concerning theories about the urban, the mobility manifested by the life-journeys in São Paulo and beyond conveyed, not a city of ethnic neighbourhoods, but a city of ‘rough' experimentation, according to people's positionality and their ability to find their own ways in the city and in the world.

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Cicchetti, Pasquale. "A long way home : cinema and the cultural map of America, 2001-2011." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/11866.

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This thesis addresses a set of transformations in the symbolic construction of America, as reflected by a number of films released during what is commonly referred to as the post 9/11 period. Following a rich debate in the field of American literary studies, the study investigates the self-image of the nation as projected by four representative films of the decade. Throughout the chapters, the central hypothesis of the thesis is that the cultural symbology of the nation, its symbolic map, continues to act as a territorialising force within the diegetic universes of the texts. In so doing, the meta-narrative of America stands in opposition to a deterritorialising tendency that - as a body of recent critical scholarship attests - inform the post 9/11 context, a tendency borne out of a new, shared awareness of historical violence within the national community. As it displaces codified social boundaries, and established links between individual and communities, such deterritorialising rhetoric threaten the symbolic coherence of the world. The conflict between long-standing symbologies of the nation and the impact of a new cultural milieu thus emerges in the cinema as a representational impasse, whose different textual outcomes are addressed in the main chapters of this thesis. In order to investigate the interplay of different symbolic maps, the present study focuses on four spatial signifiers - the house, the village, the city and the land - and derives its methodological tools from a body of scholarship largely comprised within the so-called 'spatial turn'. The terms of this theoretical engagement are specified in the first part the thesis, while the conclusion expands on the direction of the research, and connects the study to other related disciplinary discourses, both in Film studies and American studies.

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Musty, Emma. "A short history of lines." Thesis, Aberystwyth University, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2160/c4aa2292-b43a-4d1f-bb59-b3cea766cb02.

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Makarenko, Tamara. "The crime-terror continuum : modelling 21st century security dynamics." Thesis, Aberystwyth University, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/2160/d4300e92-aede-405d-9ee4-fa7d503ed62e.

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The main aim of this thesis is to introduce a new way of thinking about security within International Relations by developing a model that can be used to explain the relationship between terrorism and organised crime. Referred to as the crime-terror continuum (CTC), the model identifies six major points of convergence between the terrorist and criminal worlds. The crime-terror continuum seeks to move away from the traditional confines of International Relations as encapsulated within realist thought. After providing an overview of the limitations of traditional theories, and a working definition of terrorism and organised crime, this thesis applies an alternative conceptual framework - based on a combination of applicable assumptions about security presented by the Copenhagen School, Ken Booth and Mohammed Ayoob - to an understanding of the threats posed by terrorism and organised crime. It also incorporates the understanding of the contemporary security environment provided by the globalisation and netwar proto-paradigms as a way to go beyond debates about concepts by seeking to understand the operational and organisational dynamics of contemporary security threats. Paying special attention to the argument that non-state actors can be equal to state actors in the security domain, this thesis highlights that competition over state functions and territory continues to play an integral role. The alternative view of security and the CTC are subsequently applied to two case studies: Russian Organised Crime and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. Despite illustrating different aspects of the CTC, these case studies highlight the ability of the conceptual framework and the CTC to explain and understand the post-Cold War security environment.

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Willman, Kate Elizabeth. "New Italian epic : history, journalism and the 21st century 'novel'." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2015. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/77618/.

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This study examines the recent literary phenomenon known as the New Italian Epic, a label coined by Wu Ming 1 in a document called the Memorandum in 2008. Wu Ming 1 used the label New Italian Epic to describe a corpus of Italian texts, mainly published after the year 2000, that are an unusual mix of genres, styles and media, and that have a renewed sense of political and ethical commitment. After describing the phenomenon and outlining the main theoretical underpinnings to my analysis of it, I examine the Memorandum in detail, in order to individuate the ideas that will resurface throughout the study, related to postmodernism, new technologies, history and memory studies, epic, realism, and the role of literature in society. This is followed by a periodisation, which traces developments in recent history and literature that influenced the New Italian Epic phenomenon, including the Cannibal and migrant writers of the nineties, the violent events at the G8 protest in Genoa in 2001, and the political and cultural climate in Italy in the new millennium. I go on to analyse three key themes that particularly stand out in the New Italian Epic texts – the recurring theme of the death of the father, the use of the historical novel form, and texts that seem to be journalistic, but sometimes change or distort reality – each of which is accompanied by close reading of two or three novels from the New Italian Epic corpus, and compared to other previous or contemporary cultural developments in Italy and abroad. I conclude by considering the interactions between literature and film in the twenty-first century, and suggest that the ‘unidentified narrative objects’ we have seen throughout the study seem to be a particular product of our times.

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Feinman, David Eric. "Divided government and congressional foreign policy a case study of the post-World War II era in American government." Master's thesis, University of Central Florida, 2011. http://digital.library.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/ETD/id/4891.

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The purpose of this research is to analyze the relationship between the executive and legislative branches of American federal government, during periods within which these two branches are led by different political parties, to discover whether the legislative branch attempts to independently legislate and enact foreign policy by using "the power of the purse" to either appropriate in support of or refuse to appropriate in opposition to military engagement abroad. The methodology for this research includes the analysis and comparison of certain variables, including public opinion, budgetary constraints, and the relative majority of the party that holds power in one or both chambers, and the ways these variables may impact the behavior of the legislative branch in this regard. It also includes the analysis of appropriations requests made by the legislative branch for funding military engagement in rejection of requests from the executive branch for all military engagements that occurred during periods of divided government from 1946 through 2009.
ID: 029809199; System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader.; Mode of access: World Wide Web.; Thesis (M.A.)--University of Central Florida, 2011.; Includes bibliographical references (p. 110-112).
M.A.
Masters
Political Science
Sciences

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Hayes, Jacqueline. "Fighting for Protections| Challenging the 21st Century Sweatshop in New York State." Thesis, State University of New York at Albany, 2017. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10682549.

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This dissertation examines how neoliberalism and immigration enforcement between 1980 and 2010 changed the nature of ‘sweated’ work in the U.S. This dissertation focuses on the particular case of Latino undocumented workers in New York State and the organizations fighting to win them protections. In order to answer my research questions, I conducted 30 semi-structured interviews over the course of 2 years (2013–2015), examined immigration enforcement data, and analyzed U.S. immigration and welfare policies between 1980 and the present. Research interviews made clear that both the lack of social and legal protections alongside the threat of immigration enforcement have a definitive impact on working conditions in low-wage sectors. Staff and volunteers from worker justice centers and immigration rights organizations also emphasized the fact that some of the old protections that were hard fought and won by prior generations of labor activists are ill-suited to address the needs of low-wage, non-citizen workers who face a number of new challenges. By focusing on undocumented Latino workers and worker centers in New York State this dissertation shifts the conceptual lens from a particular ‘worksite’ to the forces—historical, legal, and social—which make sweating possible once an individual enters a workplace. This dissertation contends that the specters of wagelessness and deportation collaborate to ensure the flexibility of undocumented labor and that these are the distinctive features of the contemporary U.S. sweatshop.

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Porter, Anthony G. "China's modus operandi for the 21st Century." Quantico, VA : Marine Corps Command and Staff College, 2005. http://handle.dtic.mil/100.2/ADA491923.

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Thesis (Master of Military Studies)-Marine Corps Command and Staff College, 2005.
Title from title page of PDF document (viewed on: Jan 6, 2010). "CSC 2005" "Subject Area Topical Issues" Includes bibliographical references.

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Mabweazara, Rangarirai Moira. "The 21st century academic library: the case of three state universities in Zimbabwe." The University of the Western Cape, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/11394/6466.

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Magister Library and Information Studies - MLIS
The advent of the 21st century and its dynamic information environment have changed higher education considerably including the library spaces. Library patrons, namely undergraduates, postgraduates, and academics are placing heavy demands on academic libraries requiring support in research, teaching and learning. As a result, academic librarians globally have undertaken major re-evaluations of what they do and how they do it, to ensure relevance amongst their diverse user communities. The new information landscape is fraught with controversies that prompt opposing perspectives towards change acceptance amongst librarians. In Zimbabwe, academic libraries seemed to be lagging behind regarding changes presented by this information landscape. Given this context, the study sought to understand how librarians are adjusting to the 21st century environment against the expectations of the students and academics. The Diffusion of Innovation Theory crafted by Rogers (2003) and the McKinsey 7S model propounded by Waterman, Peters and Phillips (1982) were used as theoretical and conceptual frameworks. The research further applied a conceptual framework from the literature to determine the expectations of students and academics of the academic library in the 21st century. For data collection, the study adopted a case study design and a mixed methods approach using Web-based questionnaires, follow-up interviews and website content analysis. Data was collected from students, academics and librarians at three selected Zimbabwean universities. All data collecting tools were pre-tested amongst librarians, academics, postgraduate and undergraduate students prior to collecting data. Data collected using questionnaires was analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and Microsoft Excel while interview data was analysed using thematic text analysis. Findings of this study revealed that the Midlands State University Library had to a larger extent embraced new trends which are in-line with the 21st century environment compared to the National University of Science and Technology and Lupane State University libraries. The Library and Information Science qualification remains important in service delivery among academic librarians. Inadequate funding, limited time due to multitasking, slow uptake of new concepts and limited knowledge and skills were barriers to keeping up with new trends amongst librarians. Academic librarians collaborated with academics in collection development, Information Literacy Skills (ILS) teaching and uploading theses and research papers into the Institution Repository (IR).
2018-12-14

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Reese, Justin Y. "Information communication technology, state building, and globalization in the 21st century regional frameworks for emerging state assistance." Thesis, Monterey, Calif. : Naval Postgraduate School, 2008. http://edocs.nps.edu/npspubs/scholarly/theses/2008/Dec/08Dec%5FReese.pdf.

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Thesis (M.S. in Defense Analysis)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2008.
Thesis Advisor(s): Berger, Marcos. "December 2008." Description based on title screen as viewed on January 29, 2009. Includes bibliographical references (p. 71-77). Also available in print.

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Siddiqui, Shariq Ahmed. "Navigating Identity through Philanthropy: A History of the Islamic Society of North America (1979 - 2008)." Thesis, Indiana University, 2014. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3665939.

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This dissertation analyzes the development of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), a Muslim-American religious association, from the Iranian Revolution to the inauguration of our nation's first African-American president. This case study of ISNA, the largest Muslim-American organization in North America, examines the organization's institution-building and governance as a way to illustrate Muslim-American civic and religious participation. Using nonprofit research and theory related to issues of diversity, legitimacy, power, and nonprofit governance and management, I challenge misconceptions about ISNA and dispel a number of myths about Muslim Americans and their institutions. In addition, I investigate the experiences of Muslim-Americans as they attempted to translate faith into practice within the framework of the American religious and civic experience. I arrive at three main conclusions. First, because of their incredible diversity, Muslim-Americans are largely cultural pluralists. They draw from each other and our national culture to develop their religious identity and values. Second, a nonprofit association that embraces the values of a liberal democracy by establishing itself as an open organization will include members that may damage the organization's reputation. I argue that ISNA's values should be assessed in light of its programs and actions rather than the views of a small portion of its membership. Reviewing the organization's actions and programs helps us discover a religious association that is centered on American civic and religious values. Third, ISNA's leaders were unable to balance their desire for an open, consensus-based organization with a strong nonprofit management power structure. Effective nonprofit associations need their boards, volunteers and staff to have well-defined roles and authority. ISNA's leaders failed to adopt such a management and governance structure because of their suspicion of an empowered chief executive officer.

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Crompton, Lee. "Preparing for future combat environments : optimising physical conditioning for the 21st century soldier." Thesis, University of Central Lancashire, 2018. http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/25369/.

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Preparing for the operational environment is a fundamental principle of military doctrine. This thesis looks at current and historical military practice and aims to determine future training initiatives to help better prepare the soldier for conflict conditions. Whilst the future of military conflict will always be determined by politics, the potential reaction time can be very short, so we must be in a position of continuous training for operations, with optimum ramp up opportunities for readiness. During operations in Afghanistan the campaign Formation Operational Readiness Mechanism (FORM) Fitness Doctrine (CFFD) provided guidance for the physical preparation of all ranks, tailored to the specific requirements for Operation HERRICK. Building on the success of CFFD, we must re-analyse our physical preparation for operations philosophies to align them with the requirements of contingency. Whilst the exact physical requirements for future operations are inherently unknown, it is essential that we derive appropriate physical training (PT) philosophies and methodologies to efficiently and effectively promote physical fitness and injury resilience.

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Encinas-Valenzuela, Jesus Ernesto. "Mexican foreign policy and UN peacekeeping operation s in the 21st century." Thesis, Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10945/2502.

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On December 1, 2000 a new administration took over the presidency of MeÌ xico. This event was especially anticipated because the new president, Vicente Fox, was coming from a different party than the PRI, the old official party. The arrival of President Fox brought important changes in the way of governing; with the moral obligation to be different, since the beginning of his administration one of the main goals was incline to pursue a more dynamic participation by Mexico in the political issues of the world. This was to be accomplished by taking up several measures that included enhancing economic trade with the United States and other nations, world summits in Mexico, improvement of human rights and others. Among those plans one attracted special attention when Mexico asked for a seat as a non-permanent member in the UN Security Council for the period 2002-2003 the third time in Mexican history. There were divided opinions on the subject because Mexico would be directly involved in UN decisions concerning internal situations of other countries, something that goes against the foreign policy principles of MeÌ xico. Eventually this discussion opened doors for other topics; one of them was the possibility of Mexico participating actively in peacekeeping operations by sending troops overseas; this initiated a biter debate in the political sphere. This study analyzes Mexican Foreign Policy and the historical perspective of the foreign principles stated in the Mexican Constitution[alpha]s article 89, followed by a discussion of their influence and interpretation in the politicalmilitary environment before and during the administration of President Fox. The study includes the analysis includes the new social and political scenario that MeÌ xico is facing in order to determine the odds and obstacles when dealing with military participation overseas. As MeÌ xico takes its place in the community of nations, the country[alpha]s leadership needs to search for possible options and test whether the new Mexican political apparatus has the flexibility to address current threats and requirements for international security. An analysis on the capabilities of the Mexican Armed Forces is also necessary in order to determine their capacity to execute multinational operations. Finally bring out the real benefits and/or risks from getting Mexico involved in these kinds of operations are identified.

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Smith, Olga. "Between reality and fiction : the art of French photography since the 1970s." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2012. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.610275.

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Rodgers, Michael E. "NATO from shadow to substance--the formative years--insights for the 21st century." Thesis, Monterey, Calif. : Naval Postgraduate School, 2007. http://bosun.nps.edu/uhtbin/hyperion-image.exe/07Jun%5FRodgers.pdf.

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Thesis (M.A. in National Security Affairs)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2007.
Thesis Advisor(s): Donald Abenheim. "June 2007." Includes bibliographical references (p. 51-58). Also available in print.

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Gow, Michael. "Professing hegemony : academia and the state vision for higher education in 21st century China." Thesis, University of Bristol, 2012. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.601181.

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Utilizing a theoretical framework drawing on Gramsci's theory of hegemony; Jonathan Joseph's critical realist 'duality of hegemony'. and Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of habitus, capital and field, this thesis aims to promote an understanding of Chinese HE reform and development within the wider context of China's teleological modernization project. It aims to understand how agential hegemonic projects and the corresponding HE reform policies and initiatives are mediated through the Chinese HE context; how deeply-rooted structurally hegemonic conventions and practices impact upon this process of mediation; how competition over resources strategically deployed by the state mobilizes individual actors in the field of Chinese HE and directs their efforts to accumulate various forms of capital, and how such mass action results in the propulsion of the Chinese HE sector on a trajectory which contributes to the achievement of national development objectives. Methodologically, the thesis adopts Burawoy's extended case method, incorporating critical discourse analysis of policy documents, interview data, and ethnographic participant observation to facilitate a theoretically informed analysis of the reform and development of Chinese HE. This reflexive approach has the overarching objective of reconstructing Gramsci's theory of hegemony to take into account the particularities of the Chinese case. The thesis ultimately characterises the Chinese HE sector as a robust social institution in service of the integral Chinese state and which combines elements of consensus building and dissent negation to contribute to a limited, as opposed to expansive, hegemony. The constraining effect of cultural structures, practices and conventions effect the negation of dissent and reduce the requirement for explicit coercive interventions, while consensus is actively negotiated around ideas that centre on national solidarity and the provision of opportunities for the accumulation of economic, social, cultural and symbolic capital. This capacity for dissent negation without recourse to explicitly coercive means is viewed as arising from the distinctly differentiated modes of association prevalent in Chinese society, rooted in Confucian norms and values, and which characterize social relations in the field of Chinese HE and in wider Chinese society.

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Boswell, Katherine. "Finding common ground : state leaders' perceptions about transforming postsecondary education for the 21st century /." Digital version accessible at:, 1998. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/utexas/main.

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Henry, Owen. ""Twitter Diplomacy": Engagement through Social Media in 21st Century Statecraft." Oberlin College Honors Theses / OhioLINK, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=oberlin1338307388.

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Ortega, Selena. "Chavez Ravine and Boyle Heights| 20th and 21st Century Displacement of Mexican Communities." Thesis, California State University, Los Angeles, 2017. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10245743.

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This study examines and analyzes displacement, under the guise of redevelopment, in urban Mexican communities in Los Angeles-- Chávez Ravine (1944-1959) and Boyle Heights (2000-2015). This investigation also chronicles and interprets the urban renewal process as a systematic attack on the Mexican working- class and disenfranchisement of their communities. This analysis presents qualitative evidence to show the individual impacts associated with involuntary displacement. Furthermore these cases of displacement blocked the economic mobility of displaced residents of Chávez Ravine and Boyle Heights and the impact extends beyond those directly displaced. Beyond gentrification, a review of these cases, within approximately seven decades of displacement patterns, reveal the broader politics of contesting Mexican social and economic status in Los Angeles. Redevelopment maintains an economic and social order that intergenerationally disadvantages Mexican populations.

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Levi, Rachel M. "A Digital Crisis? Art History and Its Reproductions in the 20th and 21st Century." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2015. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/689.

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This thesis analyzes the emergence, presence, and use of digital reproductions in the scholarship of art history and how these reproductions impact individual encounters with art. It will address matters related to the authenticity of reproductions, the development of modern technologies, and the rise of new media, reflecting on issues related to integrating technology into the discipline and proposing how to deal with the digital reproductions in the study of art history.

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Wong, King-tung, and 黃競東. "Reinventing the real: transfigurations of cinematic kung fu in the 21st century." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2011. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B47849885.

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Kung fu is a cinematic genre investing on the discourse of the “real”. From Kwan Tak Hing, Bruce Lee, Jacky Chan, Jet Li to Donnie Yen, cinematic representations of kung fu are inextricably intertwined with realism – real techniques, real fighting and real body. This paper is a theoretical reflection of “real kung fu” as a cultural imaginary and its transfiguration since the 1950s. The discussion will focus on recent developments of the genre in two major industries – digitalization of kung fu in Hollywood and recent return of kung fu masters in Hong Kong through coproduction. Through a parallel analysis of kung fu productions in a global context, this project outlines and predicts possible reinventions of the genre in the first decade of the 21st century. On the one hand, the notion of “real kung fu” is reinvented by digital technology. By applying Jean Baudrillard’s idea of “simulacra and simulation” to the context of kung fu cinema, Leon Hunt’s tripartite scheme of authenticity and Edward Said’s Orientalist discourse are (de/re)constructed in an age of digital production. Through a scrutiny of The Matrix (1999) and Kung Fu Panda (2008), I will demonstrate that the convergence of digital cinema and digital gaming creates a new spectatorship that redefines kung fu with an alternative understanding of body, time and space. On the other hand, the Ip Man trilogy (2008-2010) and Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen (2010) show that there is a possible return of kung fu masters in local martial arts co-productions. Instead of a nostalgic return to the established genre in the 1970s, these realist kung fu films reinvent the genre by synthesizing different paradigms of realist styles and renegotiating the longstanding difficult relationship between nationalism and modernity.
published_or_final_version
Comparative Literature
Master
Master of Philosophy

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Reid-Bunch, Jan. "Critical leadership traits and characteristics of rural Mississippi community college presidents for the 21st century." Diss., Mississippi State : Mississippi State University, 2006. http://library.msstate.edu/etd/show.asp?etd=etd-07072006-160405.

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Kharroubi, Safwat. "The foiled state : a critical assessment of western donor aid provision and state-building in Palestine in the post-Oslo period." Thesis, Swansea University, 2012. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.678553.

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Cochran, Graham Ralph. "Ohio State University Extension competency study developing a competency model for a 21st century extension organization /." Columbus, Ohio : Ohio State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view.cgi?acc%5Fnum=osu1243620503.

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France, Angela. "Hide : a 21st century woman's response to the first person in poetry." Thesis, University of Gloucestershire, 2015. http://eprints.glos.ac.uk/3871/.

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This thesis, titled ‘Hide: A 21st century woman’s response to the first person in poetry’ is a creative and critical examination of the challenges and benefits of the first-person approach in poetry. It is in two parts, consisting of a collection of sixty poems and a critical investigation into the research leading to, and engendered by, the poems. Hide is a place from which to observe, hide is skin, hide is deliberate concealment; all of these meanings can be seen to reflect some of the concerns examined in both the creative and critical parts of the thesis. ‘Hide’s’ layers of meaning directly engage with what 'I' we choose to conceal and what 'I' we choose to show, as well as residing on the boundaries between privacy and exposure. The poems spring from investigations of my central concerns of autobiography, family history, the workings of memory, and ancestral knowledge in the form of ‘cunning’. The poems are an active investigation into the challenges and benefits of the ‘I’; the approaches and techniques for using it as well as the reasons for, and strategies involved in, avoiding the ‘I’. The critical part of the thesis is an auto-ethnographic study of the poems in the collection, together with examination of the difficulties faced by women writing in the first-person. The research includes thematic analysis of published reviews, and examination of the critical landscape within which women are writing.

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Engzell, Christofer. "_{Islamic banks in the United Kingdom} : Growth in the 21st century." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Ekonomisk-historiska institutionen, 2008. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-88134.

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Lin, Syaru Shirley, and 林夏如. "National identity, economic interest and Taiwan's cross-strait economic policy 1994-2009." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2010. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B43761896.

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Gutkowski, Stacey Elizabeth. "Religious violence, secularism and the British security imaginary, 2001-2009." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2010. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.608941.

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Hadi, Amirul. "Islam and state in seventeenth century Aceh." Thesis, McGill University, 1999. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=36599.

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The present dissertation studies the Islamic nature of the Acehnese state in the seventeenth century---a subject much neglected by area scholars and Islamicists alike due to the hybrid nature of Southeast Asian Islam. It examines not only the state's Islamic institutions but also its political culture and policies towards Islam. The Acehnese theory of kingship during the period under study manifests a decidedly Islamic character. Deemed to possess both political and religions authority, the office of the sult&dotbelow;an was viewed as necessary and its incumbent responsible for both the prosperity of his people and the enforcement of Islamic dogma. The court's policies towards Islam, given outward expression in elaborate religious rituals and ceremonies, reveal an imperial tradition in which the ruler himself was the head of the Muslim state, despite the apparent admixture of Southeast Asian elements. Other more traditional Islamic institutions were also fundamental to the Acehnese state. The 'ulama' played a significant role in both the religions and political spheres, while Islamic law became a dominant part of the judicial system, alongside adat (customary law and royal edicts/tradition). Jihad as well served to define the ideology of the state. In spite of its Southeast Asian appearance, therefore, the Islamic nature of the Acehnese state was more evident than in many other Muslim states in the region, such as fifteenth-century Melaka and seventeenth-century Mataram, a situation induced by geography, historical Islam, and the nature of Acehnese tradition.

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Santos, Emanuelle Rodrigues dos. "Late postcoloniality : state, violence and wealth in the literatures of early 21st century Portuguese-speaking Africa." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2016. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/84460/.

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This study is a comparative analysis of the representations of State, violence and wealth in early 21st Century novels belonging to the literatures of Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe. It departs from a dialogue with the international criticism of these national literatures and with the field of postcolonial studies to produce a critical intervention which responds to these two wide fields of academic inquiry. As a result, this work argues for a transformation in both fields. It proposes that both the critique of African Literatures written in Portuguese and the field of postcolonial studies must turn their attention to the post-independence internal dimension of these countries in order to promote a much needed refashioning of the concept of postcoloniality.

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Cochran, Graham R. "Ohio State University Extension Competency Study: Developing a Competency Model for a 21st Century Extension Organization." The Ohio State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1243620503.

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Lee, Jason Eng Hun. "'All is not Well in the world' : critical cosmopolitanism in twenty-first century fiction." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10722/197089.

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This thesis considers how contemporary American and British novels at the turn of the century attempt to conceptualize global human, political, economic and ecological risks through different levels of global connectedness. Taking a theoretical approach, the thesis offers up the notion of critical cosmopolitanism as a form of literary critique that might help to connect the field of literature to current sociological debates about globalization and cosmopolitanism. Critical cosmopolitanism is summarized here as follows: a predisposition towards cosmopolitan ideals but also a self-reflexive awareness of its perceived ideological and narrative shortcomings; a desire to conceive of a planetary self-conscious by maneuvering across and between spatial containers like the nation-state; an attempt to map disjunctive flows of global capital onto various narrative ‘worlds’; a type of narrative reflexivity that is transferred onto the reader. The thesis comprises of two parts. Part 1 considers how the war on terror discourse problematizes novelists’ attempts to imagine planetary connectedness, and their struggles to imbue their readers with a self-reflexivity as an act of critical cosmopolitanism. Chapter 1 discusses the representational challenges that 9/11 presents to the novelist in terms of historicity, and outlines some of the prevailing metanarratives/counternarratives that are projected by them. Chapter 2 considers how alterity is used to critique or negotiate representations of the terrorist persona in novels by Don DeLillo, John Updike and Mohsin Hamid. Pointing to flaws in their narrative forms, these novelists enable their reader to transcend certain ideological boundaries which are denied to their own protagonists. Chapter 3 considers the interrelationship between terror and the spectacle in novels by Don DeLillo, Jonathan Safran Foer and Ian McEwan, looking at how 9/11’s images are able to project itself across the world but still reduce viewers’ capacity for imagining global connectedness. Part 2 explores how novelists use a range of postmodern strategies to represent the various connections/dislocations made possible by global capital and how it problematize perceptions of human relationships across the world. Global capital is presented as a fluid dynamic that enables greater connectivity across the globe, but it also poses difficulties in one’s ability to realize a genuine cosmopolitanism against the all-incorporating power of the market. Chapter 4 deals with a variety of attempts in novels by William Gibson and Don DeLillo to cognitively map the relations of capital and consumer culture, and to make these complex global systems more intelligible to the reader. Chapter 5 discusses novels by David Mitchell and Rana Dasgupta that experiment with heterotopic, multi-layered narrative platforms to represent interconnecting but geographically separate ‘worlds’, and their ability to project cosmopolitan ideals across these textual horizons of space and time.
published_or_final_version
English
Doctoral
Doctor of Philosophy

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Samphansakul, Attaphorn. "Child Soldiers and Intrastate Armed Conflicts: An Analysis of the Recruitments of Child Soldiers in Civil Wars Between 2001 and 2003." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2008. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc9038/.

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This thesis examines why some governments and rebel organizations but not others recruit children to be child soldiers. The theory posits that if a country fights in a civil war of long duration, armed groups are more likely to recruit children as soldiers. I find that the probability of child soldier recruitment increases when a country experiences following conditions: a longer duration of civil war, a large proportion of battle deaths, a large number of refugees, a high infant mortality rate, and the presence of alluvial diamonds. An increase in education expenditures and civil liberties would decrease the probability of child soldier recruitments.

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Hackenbracht, Julie Elizabeth. "Small Screen China: An Exploration of Contemporary Social Issues as Depicted in Chinese TV Dramas." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/10307.

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viii, 116 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number.
As Mainland China transitions from a planned socialist economy to one more market-focused, its economic successes have garnered attention worldwide. However, this astounding economic growth brought with it a number of negative side effects, including corruption and a resurgence ofprostitution. Gender relations have also undergone major shifts from state mandated gender equality in the Mao era to a call for the refeminization ofwomen in the Reform era. How is the Chinese population navigating this transition? In this thesis, I utilize existing melodrama theory and relevant sociological studies to explore how three Chinese TV dramas-I'm Not a Hero (2004), Close to You, Make Me Warm (2006), and Give Me a Cigarette (2006), later renamed Evening Rain--expose and explore some of these existing social problems, providing a platform for their viewers to reflect on and explore these issues on their own.
Committee in Charge: Tze-Ian Sang, Chair; Alison Groppe; Eileen Otis

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Mills, Michael F. "Witness to the American apocalypse? : a study of 21st century 'doomsday' prepping." Thesis, University of Kent, 2017. https://kar.kent.ac.uk/60441/.

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This thesis addresses the phenomenon of 21st century "doomsday" prepping. Prepping is a primarily American phenomenon centred on storing food, water, and weapons for the purpose of surviving future crisis or social collapse. Growing rapidly post-2007/8, it is the successor to the right-wing American survivalist movement that flourished (and then disappeared) in the late-20th century. This thesis engages with a lack of scholarly knowledge on prepping, which has resulted in this phenomenon being understood through media-driven stereotypes and theories of older survivalist activity. Such understandings suggest that prepping is apocalyptic, millenarian, politically-extreme, and a product of the United States' fringe right-wing militia culture. Drawing on research that involved 200 online surveys responses, ethnography and interviews with 39 American preppers, and attendance at three prominent prepping conventions, the thesis challenges such dominant ideas. It shows prepping to be a distinct, more moderate wave of American survivalist activity. The thesis establishes that preppers typically do not prepare for an "apocalypse", nor do they think in millenarian terms. Preppers instead use their preparations as precautionary protection against temporary social collapse and job loss. The thesis also reveals that prepping is not as politically-extreme as is often speculated. Rather than militia ideology, prepping intermingles with waves of right-wing "Tea Party" discontent, as well as widespread frustration at the dysfunctional and post-political state of American democracy. Additionally this work reveals that, as far as preppers retreat from political and community life, their withdrawal is symptomatic of wider currents of American individualist values, and processes of civic decline. It is thus argued that prepping must be understood as a product of "mainstream" American society. It is concluded that prepping should be principally explained as a product of: late modern capitalism's effects on democracy, secure employment, and collective sympathies; contemporary media's impact on disaster-related fears; and the American Right's promotion of political anxiety and individualistic thinking.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'State, The – History – 21st century'

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