Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Alternatives to globalisation'

"April 2002"
Thesis (MA (Hons))--Macquarie University, Division of Society, Culture, Media & Philosophy, Centre for International Communication, 2003.
Bibliography: leaves 222-232.
Introduction -- Historiography of NGOs -- Historiography of globalisation -- World social forum, the who is who in the anti-globalisation/deglobalisation movement and alternatives -- Critical discourse analysis, discourse historical method and study's methodology -- Data analysis, findings and impact of NGOs' discourse on global civil society and TNCs -- Summary of findings, limitations and avenues for future research.
Non-Government-Organisations (NGOs) have been in the forefront of the struggle against the alleged negative impact of globalisation on developing countries and disenfranchised communities around the world. But despite the fact that NGOs and other grassroot movements are becoming increasingly strident, the discourse of this sector of civil society has not been subjected to any substantial and concerted academic study, particularly in the field of international communication. -- The present study aims at partially filling this gap by 1) reviewing the current general state of NGOs, 2) surveying the latest debates relative to the outreach of globalisation and 3) examining the alternatives being proposed. While drawing mainly on a select sample of NGOs and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) press communiques, the core focus of this study is to deconstruct the NGOs' discourse with a view to gauging its linguistic and hermeneutical underpinnings and situating its relevance within the ongoing debate on globalisation and alternatives. -- This study also aims to examine the discourse of NGOs in the context of a multidiscourse environment relative to the present state of global community development in general and civil society and disenfranchised communities in developing countries in particular as part of the praxis of mainstreaming alternative views and discourses. -- For this, an interdisciplinary methodology of text analysis, juxtaposition and interpretation, based largely on the matrix outlined in Wodak's (Matouschek, Wodak & Januschek, 1996, p. 60), Historical Discourse Method (HDM), Van Dijk's (1998) Media Discourse Approach and Fairclough's (1995, 2001) Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is used throughout this study. -- And in order to gauge the impact of NGOs' discourse on global civil society, sample articles are examined to decode the perspectives of pro-globalisation media vis-a-vis NGOs' discourse within the parameters of TNCs/Civil Society/NGOs relationships, international political economy and NGOs' taxonomy within International Regimes.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
x, 232 leaves

Magister Artium - MA
This mini thesis seeks to explore two legacies of apartheid: the insecurity of decent and available housing that has led to a housing crisis, and the insecurity of Coloured identity as caused by apartheid’s racial and identity politics and its aftermath in a democratic South Africa. Furthermore, it is an examination of identity and its relation to place, specifically Coloured identity in the place of Cape Town. It focuses the ripple effect of belonging, as this research starts with Cape Town then expands to further find cause for this growing cause of belonging by focusing on racism, the housing crisis, nation-building, globalisation, capitalism. Through interviews and archival research, I explore questions of belonging, identity, and its relation to the housing crisis in Cape Town. This is done through a case study of tensions that erupted in Siqalo, in Mitchell’s Plain on 1 May 2018. Siqalo is a land occupation of isiXhosa speakers in the apartheid-era ‘Coloured’ area of Mitchell’s Plain in Cape Town. When Siqalo residents organised a protest around issues of electricity and housing they faced violent retaliation by neighbouring community and residents of Colorado, populated mainly by people classified as Coloured, with claims being made by an organisation called Gatvol Capetonians for Siqalo residents to return to Eastern Cape. I examine the role of identity in the creation of narratives of Cape Town and establish two narratives, one in which Cape Town is represented as a home for all and one in which it is not, this is done to show how belonging is made through identity and narrative and the effect that this creates. This comes to frame this mini-thesis as the question of a home is represented in the symbolic and physical sense and highlights the tension between Gatvol’s protest of Coloured belonging and Siqalo residents’ protest for decent housing. Chapter Two reflects on this through the use of interviews from both sides of the protest. This chapter is written as an imagined debate that not only reflects on critiques of oral history but ways of writing history experimentally or speculatively Through investigating the source of the tension from the Siqalo protest, I argue that desegregation was, in theory, one of the first nation-building projects in South Africa, and its failure has deepened apartheid and colonial forms of classification that divide people. The views of Mahmood Mamdani, while rarely applied to African people classified as Coloured, are very important, as his book, Citizen and Subject was a premise for this research as it highlighted the pitfalls and requirements of African countries after independence from colonialism. At the same time, the literature on Coloured identity rarely brings up the question whether Coloureds can and do practice racism on those classified as black or African and how these categorisations have persisted in the post-apartheid era. This research asks: to what extent do present conditions enable a predatory dynamic to claims of Coloured identity? Based off the predatory argument which focuses on intensified competition for scarce resources under globalisation put forward by Arjun Appadurai, I highlight the influence that contemporary globalisation has had on both the dynamics of Coloured identity and on the housing crisis in Cape Town. This mini thesis concludes by providing two alternatives as to how the question of race can be assessed in South Africa.

Comment de petites entreprises pharmaceutiques basées en Inde trouvent-elles leur place sur un marché mondial dominé par de grandes firmes multinationales ? Pour répondre à cette question, cette thèse mobilise les outils théoriques de la géographie du développement, de la sociologie économique, et de l’économie institutionnelle. Elle s’appuie sur des sources et méthodologies diverses : des entretiens semi-directifs menés à Ahmedabad et à Mumbai auprès de directeurs d’entreprises pharmaceutiques de taille micro, petite, et moyenne (n = 99), des entretiens non-directifs auprès d’acteurs du secteur en Inde (n = 61), et des données quantitatives issues de bases de données publiques et privées. L’analyse montre que ces petites entreprises s’inscrivent dans des champs pharmaceutiques hiérarchisés par des normes spécifiques, au sein desquels elles occupent des positions diverses, meilleures sur le segment des médicaments génériques et des marchés émergents. Fortement spécialisées, capitalisant sur un important savoir-faire commercial, elles innovent de manière marginale mais originale, motivées par des rationalités entrepreneuriales variées dans lesquelles les désirs de reconnaissance sociale jouent un rôle aussi important que les aspects matériels. Agissant dans des environnements politiques, économiques, et juridiques défavorables, à de nombreuses échelles, leurs stratégies s’appuient de manière flexible sur des ressources encastrées dans des milieux d’affaires construits autour d’appartenances territoriales et communautaires, mieux dotés lorsqu’ils sont métropolitains et globalisés. Cette thèse montre comment, avec leurs approches particulières de l’économie et de la santé, ces agents participent de manière alternative à la globalisation du marché pharmaceutique
How could small pharmaceutical companies based in India gain a foothold in a global market dominated by large multinational firms? To address the issue, this doctoral thesis borrows from development geography, economic sociology, and institutional economics. It draws on various sources and methodologies, including semi-structured interviews conducted with directors of micro, small and medium companies in Ahmedabad and Mumbai (n = 99), interviews with the actors of India’s pharmaceutical industry (n = 61), and quantitative data from public and private databases. The analysis shows that these small companies compete in various pharmaceutical fields with specific norms and hierarchies, in which they occupy diverse positions, better in generic and emerging markets. Highly specialized, capitalizing on their commercial know-how, they innovate in marginal but idiosyncratic ways, driven by various entrepreneurial rationalities in which needs for achievement are as important as material motivations. Operating in adverse political, economic, and legal environments, at many scales, their strategies are embedded in flexible territorial and community ties, better resource-endowed when they are metropolitan and globalized. With their particular approach to economy and health, these agents participate in the globalization of the pharmaceutical market in alternate ways

Utilising a critical theoretical perspective, this work examines contemporary corporatised tourism and capitalist globalisation. This analysis suggests that marketisation limits the understanding of the purposes of tourism to its commercial and “industrial” features, thereby marginalising wider understandings of the social importance of tourism. Sklair’s conceptualisation of capitalist globalisation and its dynamics, as expressed in his “sociology of the global system” (2002), is employed to understand the corporatised tourism phenomenon. This thesis explains how a corporatised tourism sector has been created by transnational tourism and travel corporations, professionals in the travel and tourism sector, transnational practices such as the liberalisation being imposed through the General Agreement on Trade in Services negotiations and the culture-ideology of consumerism that tourists have adopted. This thesis argues that this reaps profits for industry and exclusive holidays for privileged tourists, but generates social and ecological costs which inspire vigorous challenge and resistance. This challenge is most clearly evident in the alternative tourism movement which seeks to provide the equity and environmental sustainability undermined by the dynamics of corporatised tourism. Alternative tourism niches with a capacity to foster an “eco-humanism” are examined by focusing on ecotourism, sustainable tourism, pro-poor tourism, fair trade in tourism, community-based tourism, peace through tourism, volunteer tourism and justice tourism. While each of these demonstrates certain transformative capacities, some prove to be mild reformist efforts and others promise more significant transformative capacity. In particular, the niches of volunteer tourism and justice tourism demonstrate capacities to mount a vigorous challenge to both corporatised tourism and capitalist globalisation. Since the formation of the Global Tourism Interventions Forum (GTIF) at the World Social Forum gathering in Mumbai in 2004, justice tourism has an agenda focused on overturning corporatised tourism and capitalist globalisation, and inaugurating a new alternative globalisation which is both “pro-people” and sustainable. Following the development of these original, macro-level conceptualisations of tourism and globalisation, this thesis presents a micro-level case study of an Indigenous Australian tourism enterprise which illustrates some of these dynamics in a local context. Camp Coorong Race Relations and Cultural Education Centre established and run by the Ngarrindjeri Aboriginal community of South Australia has utilised tourism to foster greater equity and sustainability by working towards reconciliation through tourism. The Ngarrindjeri have also experienced conflicts generated from the pressures of inappropriate tourism development which has necessitated an additional strategy of asserting their Indigenous rights in order to secure Ngarrindjeri lifeways. The case study analysis suggests that for alternative tourism to create the transformations that contemporary circumstances require, significant political change may be necessary. This includes fulfilment of economic, social and cultural rights to which a majority of nations have committed but have to date failed to implement. While this is a challenge for nation-states and is beyond the capacities of tourism alone, tourism nonetheless can be geared toward greater equity and sustainability if the perspective that corporatised tourism is the only option is resisted. This thesis demonstrates that another tourism is possible; one that is geared to public welfare, human fulfilment, solidarity and ecological living.

Contrary to the predictions made by classical modernization theory that ethnic traditions and religion would die out, they have proved to be surprisingly resilient throughout the world. In contemporary times various revitalization movements have been on the rise and from Africa to Asia scholars have been debating what seems to be a growing attention to tradition and culture. This thesis, based on empirical material from a minor field study in Vanuatu, will elaborate upon revivalist tendencies in a small island country. The purpose of the thesis is to examine expressions of revival of tradition, their causes and their possible implications for the country and its inhabitants. Modernization theory and the contesting paradigm of Alternative development create the foundation of the work while Globalization and the notion of Neotraditionalism are used as further theoretical points of reference. The thesis main findings are that tradition is used as a political strategy in Vanuatu and that a present neotraditional ideology offers both opportunities and pitfalls to the future development of the country. Based on the understanding gained from the field study, the message of this thesis lies in the importance of keeping an open mind when discussing development.

The key focus of this research project is the marginalisation of radical and alternative politics in modern democratic societies, how they have been presented in a mainstream theatrical context and what strategies a political playwright can employ to present the issues of those politics while overcoming such marginalisation. Referencing cultural theorists including Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein and Howard Zinn, this study argues that contemporary cultures operate within the boundaries of an internalised conservative value set propagated through systems of coercion utilised by the media, governments and corporations. With a specific interest in contemporary theatre, this study proposes that this internalisation functions as an efficient and nearly invisible censor, rendering more complex the task of the political playwright in communicating with a wider and more inclusive audience and that by examining the methods used in the manufacture of consent and then returning to the strategies utilized by political playwrights in the past and at present, we can better identify how to bypass that internal censor and do something more than " preach to the converted." This project comprises two interrelated components; one is an original full length play script, Pornography: The True Confessions of Mandy Lightspeed; the other is an exegesis which compliments and augments the play. The play script represents %60 and the exegesis the remaining %40 of the examinable output of this project, although both are considered integral (and integrate) parts of the whole. Central to both these texts is the question; " How has political theatre been presented in the past and what strategies can the playwright employ to make issues of radical or alternative politics more accessible to a mainstream theatre audience?"

This thesis focuses on the socio-cultural and anthropological aspects of Tibetan medicine in contemporary Russia and investigates how Tibetan medicine is practised, consumed and represented in two major Russian cities, Moscow and St Petersburg. It is the first case-study of such kind in the context of Russian culture, as the anthropological aspects of Tibetan medicine in contemporary Russia have not yet been the subject of a systematic research. Up till now, scholarly publications on Tibetan medicine in Russia have dealt either with the translation and textual analysis of ancient Tibetan medical treatises or with the history of the first appearance of Tibetan medicine in Buriatia, the traditionally Buddhist region of Russia, and St Petersburg / Petrograd, paying little attention to contemporary developments and, most importantly, ignoring how Tibetan practitioners and their patients are making sense of Tibetan medicine. Based on twenty four interviews with practitioners and consumers of Tibetan medicine in the two Russian capitals, my research fills in this lacuna by looking at personal experiences, perceptions and accounts of my interviewees and exploring how they adapt Tibetan medicine to their skills, beliefs and ideas. My approach to sources is informed by Iurii Lotman's theory of intercultural communication. Although this theory was developed by Lotman for the analyses of the processes of cultural reception of literary texts, it is also relevant, with some modifications, for the analysis of the process of reception of non-textual cultural forms. The analysis of data collected from interviews with doctors and patients and the textual analysis of media, cinematic and literary sources has revealed two dominant trends and representational techniques. The first trend amounts to representing Tibetan medicine as unique and exotic, while the second trend amounts to the conceiving of Tibetan medicine as Russia's indigenous tradition, a part of Russian history, which had been subverted and suppressed in the Soviet period, yet rediscovered post-1991. Thus, we see here a co-existence of the inter-cultural dialogue between Russian culture and an exotic 'other' and the intra-cultural dialogue with a recently rediscovered part of 'self'. Both trends, which, at first glance, might appear to stand in contradiction to each other, sometimes coexist within a single explanatory narrative. The thesis also focuses on inter-cultural interactions between doctors and patients. It is argued that these interactions take place in the context of a noteworthy sociological and cultural phenomenon that the thesis calls 'mutual counter-adaptation'. Mutual counter-adaptation is the key mechanism used, consciously or spontaneously, by Tibetan doctors and their patients in order to facilitate the process of understanding between the parties involved in an inter-cultural dialogue around Tibetan medicine. The thesis finally reveals how this mutual counter-adaption takes place within a wider Russian cultural and media environment which exploits a set of specific symbols and images in order to make Tibetan medicine comprehensible and attractive to the wider Russian public.

The European Union, and especially the Eurozone, has experienced a period of political and economic difficulties after the Financial Crisis of 2008, and Debt Crisis of 2010. Austerity measures have been presented by the EMU’s elite as the only possible way to end the actual crisis, however many of the policies produced non-desirable side effects. However, the negative economic outcome in countries like Greece or Ireland questioned the vision of the status quo in the EU. These complications produced a questioning of the ideological assumptions behind the creation of the Euro due to the social and economic problematics that the crisis provoked. Moreover, some of the outcome of the subsequent policies of austerity produced political and social unrest, with a deep economic consequence for some Euro members. Besides, the rise of “Eurosceptic” parties all over Europe shows a deep mistrust from the population on the actual management to the crisis, some of the issues rise to critique present the opposition to the actual policies claiming against the lack of democracy on the decision making process.

Medios de comunicación masiva y globalización neoliberal están íntimamente ligados. Por eso, es urgente desarrollar una reflexión sobre cómo los ciudadanos pueden exigir a los grandes medios de comunicación más ética, verdad, respeto a una deontología que permita a los periodistas actuar en función de su conciencia, una descripción en torno a ¿Cómo se ubica un medio o un proyecto comunicativo en este ámbito? ¿Cómo sabremos a qué objetivo obedece? Desarrollamos el estudio de La Jornada, una opción que se traduce en ahondar en el origen del diario, objetivos y fines del rotativo, propiedad de este medio, estructura del periódico y formas de gestión, características del mismo, condiciones laborales de sus trabajadores, líneas de financiación, rutinas de trabajo, protagonistas de la información y relación con los movimientos sociales, distribución, venta y tirada, características del sitio web y tipo de lectores, hábitos de lectura y consumo del medio e impactos.
Mass media and neoliberal globalization are closely linked. It is thus urgent to reflect on the means available to the citizens to demand greater ethics and truth from the Mass media, through a code of deontology enabling journalists to act according to their conscience and also through a description based on the following questions:How does a media, or a communication project, situate itself in that context? How will we know which objectives it pursues? We built up that study around La Jornada, focusing on the origin, means and objectives of the newspaper, its ownership, structure, management and characteristics. We also studied its employees’ working conditions, its credit lines, working routines and relation with social movements as well as its distribution, sales and circulation figures, not to forget its website traffic, readers’ profile, reading habits, and its impact.

Le problématique de cette thèse concerne l’industrie cinématographique son impact sur la la société post-révolutionnaire iranienne, en étudiant le rôle du cinéma dans les changements intervenus depuis 1979 en Iran comme ailleurs. Cette thèse présente trois pôles différenciés du cinéma iranien, celui du cinéma officiel, celui du cinéma en exil et enfin le cinéma alternatif, contribuant à construire l’identité du cinéma iranien dans son ensemble. La thèse permettra de questionner le statut de l’image animée et l’iconographie dans l’islam chiite, son rôle dans un cinéma pré-révolutionnaire. Puis, la thèse analyse des événements clés : la révolution de 1979, le phénomène de l’islamisation massive de la société et la foction du cinéma dans ce contexte, l’impact de la guerre Iran-Irak, le rôle du marché noir, la construction d’une nouvelle identité grâce aussi à un cinéma iranien considéré comme « cinéma islamique », l’évolution de tous les autres services audiovisuels, y compris l’IRIB (la télévision iranienne) et des institutions comme le Centre Artistique et la Maison du cinéma. On assiste à une triangulation focalisée sur deux périodes historiques importantes post-révolutionnaire : la période réformiste de Khatami (1997-2005) et celle ultra-conservatrice d’Ahmadinejad (2005-2013), en traitant l’impact des deux périodes sur l’industrie cinématographique grâce à une étude thématique et comparative des productions filmiques de chaque époque. Cette recherche est nourrie par une enquête de terrain en appoint et des entretiens avec certains réalisateurs de cette période. La question du social devient peu à peu un thème majeur dans les thématiques de fiction traités de manière souvent critiques par le cinéma iranien. Il s’agit aussi de comprendre la part d’autonomie acquise des artistes iraniens pour mener à bien leurs projets cinématographiques, dans le cadre d’une politique culturelle d’Etat autoritaire.Dans la deuxième partie au cinéma en exil, cette thèse aborde différentes pratiques culturelles depuis la révolution de 1979 de cinéastes, d’acteurs etc…dans l’immigration. Il s’agit d’étudier ici des éléments comme la nostalgie, l’intégration, la langue et les contraintes économiques pesant sur les productions cinématographiques en exil. Dans la dernière partie, cette thèse s'interroge sur la circulation des films avec l’émergence de nouvelles technologies, le rôle des réseaux sociaux et leurs impacts sur la société iranienne après 2009. Il s’agit de comprendre l’évolution de l'industrie cinématographique dans un contexte aujourd’hui de globalisation des médias en s’interrogeant sur la fonction des médias iraniens en exil, des nouvelles chaînes paraboliques et du rôle marché des festivals internationaux, permettant aujourd’hui de donner une visibilité nouvelle au cinéma iranien
The problematic of this thesis based on cinema industry and how it’s influence on Iranian post-revolutionary society by studying the status of cinema industry in all changes that taken place since 1979 in Iranlike anywhere else. This research presents three different branches of Iranian cinema which generate the Iranian cinema identity in general by; Official cinema, Exilic cinema & Alternative cinema. This thesis will question the status of animated image and iconography in Shiite Islam and it’s role in prerevolutionary cinema. Then, the thesis analyzes the key events such as the 1979revolution, massive Islamisation of society and cinema segments, th impact of Iran-Iraq war, the black market, new identity of Iranian cinema “Islamic cinema”, the evolution of different sector of audio-visual services like IRIB (Iranian TV broadcast), Artistic Centre, House of Cinema. The triangulation focused on two important political period post-revolutionary; reformist Khatami (1997-2005) and Ultra-conservative Ahmadinejad (2005-2013) and the impacts of these periods on evolution of Iranian film industry with the comparative film analysing (one of each period) and nourishing by interview with filmmakers. The social issue is gradually becoming a major topic in the feature film which are ooften criticized by Iranian cinema. Also to understand the autonomy acquired by the artists to carry out their cinematographic project under an authoritarian state cultural policy. In the second part due to Cinema in exile, this thesis deals with various cultural practice since the 1979 of filmmakers, actors etc… It is also study elements such as nostologia, integration, language economic constraints on film productions in exile. The last part focusing on film circulation with the emergence of new technologies, the role of social networks and their impact on Iranian society after 2009. Also, the evolution of social media in the context of globalization of media by questioning the function of Iranian media in exile, satellite channels and the role of international film festivals market, allow us today to give a new visibility to Iranian cinema

Abstract in French and English
This dissertation deals with the globalization as a system with transnational vocation aiming at reducing more and more the distance between communities by means of the exchanges in diverse domains: economic, scientific, cultural, multilinguistic, etc. In other words, the deep intention of the upholders of the globalization is to promote the communication or the intersubjectivity between people in the world, and this especially from the viewpoint of the exchange of numerous products that human beings can have. What really makes problem and draws our attention on this topic is that the intrinsic quality of the exchange between peoples leads us to ask what could and should have been made, to ensure that globalization becomes an intersubjective world-wide management system with democratic and philanthropic basis. It is for this reason that we have to point out here the element “communication”, that is the intersubjectivity which should cement this kind of transnational sharing. To date, the intersubjectivity is almost nil from the point of view of the aforementioned kind of sharing. Globalization pays no attention vii to ardent problems which undermine and contradict the real intersubjectivity, such as poverty, terrorism, corruption, hunger, diseases, etc. This is one the reasons why we interpret this fact as being really unusual, because it does not suit to the ostentatious project of the internationalists. Actually, as colonization doesn‟t honestly come with only good intention, globalization by philanthropy is not possible as well as. That is the problem which should be solved. Accordingly,this study proposes possible key milestones that must serve reference tables with the aim of a democratic and philanthropic globalization based on the ethics of sharing worthy of the name. The analytical critique method will be here recoverable for that purpose.
Cette dissertation traite de la mondialisation comme un système à vocation transnationale ayant pour but de réduire de plus en plus la distance entre les communautés par le moyen des échanges dans divers domaines : économique, scientifique, culturelle, multilinguistique, etc. En d‟autres termes, l‟intention profonde des tenants de la mondialisation est de promouvoir la communication ou l‟intersubjectivité entre les peuples, et cela notamment du point de vue de l‟échange des produits divers que les êtres humains puissent avoir. Or ce qui fait vraiment problème et attire notre attention sur ce sujet, c‟est que la qualité intrinsèque dudit échange entre les peuples nous amène à nous interroger sur ce qui pourrait et devrait être fait de sorte que la mondialisation devienne un système de gestion intersubjective à base démocratique et philanthropique. Présentement les principes de mondialisation sont uniquement d‟obédience mercantile. C‟est la raison pour laquelle nous devons entre autres évoquer ici l‟élément communication, c‟est-à-dire l‟intersubjectivité qui devrait consolider ce genre de partage transnational. Jusqu‟à présent l‟intersubjectivité est presque nulle sur le plan dudit partage. La mondialisation n‟a cure des problèmes brûlants qui démentent la vraie intersubjectivité, tels que la pauvreté, le terrorisme, la corruption, la faim, les maladies, etc. C‟est la raison pour laquelle nous interprétons ce fait comme étant vraiment insolite, car il ne cadre pas avec le projet ostentatoire des mondialistes. En réalité, tout comme on ne colonise pas honnêtement, on ne mondialise pas non plus par philanthropie. Cela étant un problème qui mérite d‟être résolu, cette étude propose donc des jalons possibles devant servir des référentiels en vue d‟une mondialisation démocratique arc-boutée sur l‟éthique du partage bien comprise. La méthode analytico-critique sera ici recouvrable à cet effet.
Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology
M.A. (Philosophy)

La technologie de la chaîne de blocs peut être résumée en un réseau décentralisé et distribué de registre de transactions numériques. Sa mise en oeuvre dans le marché des cryptomonnaies a été suivie par d’autres utilisations, comme les Organisations autonomes décentralisées (DAO) et les contrats intelligents. Ce mémoire s’attachera à examiner deux volets de la reconnaissance juridique des contrats intelligents : au regard des normes étatiques déjà existantes ou en cours d’élaboration au sein de différentes juridictions, y compris le Québec, et au regard du potentiel des normes alternatives. Le contexte de la globalisation, du pluralisme juridique et des mutations de la souveraineté étatique est pris en considération à cette fin. La première partie de cette étude se concentre sur les aspects technologiques, afin de présenter les fondements du fonctionnement des contrats intelligents. La seconde partie est consacrée à une analyse du panorama juridique. L’encadrement normatif du droit positif présente d’ores et déjà des normes applicables aux contrats intelligents, certaines générales et d’autres spécifiques. Il est également pris en considération que les normes alternatives peuvent être un moyen d’harmoniser un contexte globalisé. Une harmonisation dans cette direction serait importante visant à renforcer la réglementation des nouvelles relations issues de la démarche technologique. L’ensemble de ces faits rend l’utilisation des normes alternatives opportune, conjointement avec les normes étatiques, dans le cadre de la réglementation des nouvelles technologies afin, notamment, de surmonter l’incertitude juridique encore existante dans ce milieu.
The Blockchain technology is essentially a decentralized and distributed network of digital transactions records. Its implementation on the cryptocurrency market was followed by other applications, such as the Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) and Smart Contracts. This thesis will focus precisely on the legal recognition of smart contracts in the light of the established positive law and the regulations currently being drafted in various jurisdictions, including Quebec, as well as in the light of the soft law. The context of globalization, legal pluralism and state sovereignty changes are taken into consideration. The first part of this study focuses on the technological aspects in order to present the foundations of the Smart Contracts operation. The second part is dedicated to analyzing the current juridical panorama. The normative framework of the positive law already provides applicable regulations to Smart Contracts, some general, others more specific. It is further understood that the soft law could be a way of harmonizing the current context. A harmonization in this direction would be relevant in order to enhance the essential regulatory framework of new relations coming from the technological development. Given all these facts, the soft law along with hard law seem to be appropriate to chart the legal framework for the new technologies, in order to overcome the many legal uncertainties existing in this field.

This dissertation is an exploratory study of the ideas put forward by theorists of post-Development. This current of thought emerged as a radical critique of the Development discourse, proclaiming that no reformulation could change the essential character of it, that being the "Westernisation" of the world. As post-Development's definitions rely on their opposition to what Development represents, from a theoretical point of view as well as in the myriad of behaviours resulting from it, the starting point of the thesis is an analytical account of Development discourse through the various theories that have shaped it during the second half of the 20th century. Other theories that can be considered outside mainstream Development are also analysed as well as those conventionally classified as alternative Development. A whole chapter is then dedicated to thoroughly review the historical unfolding of the Development discourse. The following chapter deals with the ideas put forward by post-Development. It relies on a series of publications identified with this current of thought as well as with information provided by one of its most prominent authors, Dr. Wolfgang Sachs, in an interview conducted by the author of this thesis. It also uses an unpublished manuscript given to the author by Gustavo Esteva, also prominent in the constitution and dissemination of the ideas of post-Development. In an effort to identify whether post-Development has remained at the level of theoretical formulation or if it has informed practices on the ground, research about the activities and underlying beliefs of the Global Barter Network (in Uruguay and in Argentina) and the World Social Forum was undertaken. The field-study, which is presented in the 4th chapter of the thesis, aimed at researching these particular initiatives and draw conclusions with respect to the existence of coincidences with the ideas of post-Development. The dissertation concludes then with an analysis of post-Development's major contributions to the Development debate, of its relationship with already existing practices, of its distinctiveness from alternative Development. It analyses the originality of the post-Development discourse and makes proposals for further research.
Development Studies
D.Litt. et Phil.

The main aim of this study was to attempt to establish by the use of an environmental specific Personal Growth Programme, whether it is possible to assist students towards a more ‘holistic’ personal formation. It also aimed to investigate whether a move away from traditional education in the form of alternative or parallel programmes, would assist in bringing about an integrated individual, who is more capable of dealing with life as a whole (Krishnamurti 1953). The research was undertaken with adult students between the ages of 21 and 60, at the multi-cultural and extremely diverse residential theological College of the Transfiguration, in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape Province. An overview of Holistic and Mainstream education was explored in this study, which included also the challenges and influences which each type of education faces. The study then went on to investigate whether it is possible to bridge the gap that exists between holistic and mainstream education using various methods of alternative education. In the qualitative study, the Personal Growth Programme Annual Review Questionnaire was used to obtain feedback from the students to assess the usefulness of the Personal Growth Programme in their journey towards wholeness. This, together with the student’s responses from the in-depth interviews were used to ascertain the study’s limitations, credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability.

Economic globalization is a relatively recent phenomenon which has become familiar nowadays both in theory and practice. By definition, economic globalization is a transnational phenomenon characteristic of the post-industrial era and whose driving forces are respectively the recent technological innovations (as its engine), media of communication (information technology) as its facilitator, and political liberalism as its underlying political ideology, particularly after the collapse of doctrinaire socialism and the disintegration of the Soviet Union and its satellites. The phenomenon of economic globalization is ambiguous. It is a symbol of promise for some, yet a symbol of threat and alienation for others. It has both positive and negative effects. In effect, we can appreciate the dividends of economic globalization as they are evident in the growth of international trade, a tendency to universalize liberal democracy as a result of the failure of socialism and its command economy, an apparent international solidarity, economic prosperity as well as the triumph of the market economy. On the negative side, we cannot be blind to the obvious growing marginalization of the poor countries and the poor within countries, the demise of the nation-state coupled with social and political instability, inequality and social injustices between and within countries, ecological degradation and moral decadence due to blind interests in the market and maximization of profit. However, the negative effects seem to weigh more than the positive ones. This raises the question of how to respond to economic globalization. Two responses are analysed and critiqued in this dissertation. The first response, that of Samir Amin, comes from a Neo-Marxist perspective. Amin suggests a reversal of economic globalization altogether. This reversal consists in the reconsideration of the international socialism whereby each state should be allowed to negotiate the terms of interdependence with other states (poly-centrism). The second response is that of Hans Kung, who suggests a global ethic that could give economic globalization a human face. This economy with a human face is an "Aristotelian mean" economy; a kind of economy which is between the welfare state and neo-capitalism. The content of this global ethic supposed to underlie this economy is a set of values drawn from most of the religious traditions of the world. My contention is that neither Amin's international socialism nor Kung's global ethic constitute a satisfactory challenge to the power of the market and profit that are the main motive of economic globalization. Amin's international socialism is unrealistic and unreliable, particularly in this time when Marxist socialism has failed economically and has shown itself unpopular and unhelpful in practice. Kung's idea of global ethic is a powerful suggestion. Nevertheless it lacks a conceptual foundation which would redeem it from the risk of being a mere ethical contract. This conceptual framework should be an alternative to that of the Smithian homo oeconomicus that informs today's economy. The present economic order evolves around the neoclassical narrow understanding of the human being as homo oeconomicus. Thus, if we are to provide an ethic for the phenomenon of economic globalization, we have to build it on a concept that goes beyond the economic man. Such a concept should be an answer to the following double question: What/who are we, and how should we live given what/who we are? The concept that seems to best answer these questions is the concept of imago Dei as relational, central to the Judeo-Christian anthropology. The social, political and ecological implications of imago Dei as relational should help us to reconstruct the human community as the context of moral values, empower the state as the natural society that can work in partnership with the Church as the family of God, and finally consider those values that can help us to consider the enviromnent as something that is not at the disposal of human domination and overexploitation. The ethic of imago Dei as reIational is applied to the Burundian context as its testing ground. With the ethic of imago Dei as relational, the growth of the international trade should benefit the poor instead of marginalizing them, political liberalism would not lead to disorder which the profit seekers exploit to the detriment of the state, solidarity would imply equality and social justice as well as environmental care, and moral values would recover their priority over market judgment in which everything is referred to in terms of commodity. The implications of such an ordering are the following: the humanization of foreign aid and humanitarian service, the orientation of economic investment towards human promotion and not only for profit, a shift from self-enrichment minded political leadership to a leadership open to socio-economic empowerment of the poor as well as environmental care.
Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2001.