Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Globalization Nigeria Nigeria'

The aim of this thesis was to investigate identity as a process (Eckert, 2000), examining how identity is influenced by a range of factors in our environment and is constructed discursively during spontaneous interactions. The study focused on the Igbo tribe in Nigeria, and addressed issues of generational and cultural complexity, language and identity shift and death, and new visions of national identity. The focus was on (a) language attitudes observed, in particular the language attitudes of elders and youths towards the use of proverbs and the transfer of this identity-related language practice from one generation to another, and (b) language use through the exploration of instances of discursive constructions of identity as identified in the data. The study, which is inspired by ethnomethodology and is rooted in interactional sociolinguistics, aimed to identify the effect of globalization on identity construction, especially in relation to the issue of generational transition of discursive patterns, including the use of proverbs, and the change in patterns of expression by the younger generation. The study also examined the role of local context in relation to the expression of identity and how the context of an interaction influences identity by exploring identity theories and narratives. It illustrated stylization (Blommert, 2001; De Fina, 2006; Georgakopoulou, 2007; Weber & Horner, 2012) and contextualization cues were employed by speakers to construct different Communities of Practice (CofP) within the wider local community and express their attitudes and identities in a changing environment. This was achieved by comparing the use of proverbs within each CofP via interviews with youths and elders (12 participants), and the observation of three CofPs (62 participants). The research was conducted over a period of two months and while the interview duration varied, the duration for observation of each CofP was 30 mins. The project also adopted where relevant a narrative framework and CofP framework, which focused on the importance of practice. These frameworks were essential in order to understand the use of social practice, discursive patterns, interactions and the concept of ‘process’ in the analysis of identity. The research questions were: (1) Can traditions (and in particular the use of proverbs) that index the identity of Ute-Okpu people, survive with globalization? (2) Do younger speakers provide new variations on proverbs as a way of re-appropriating this inherited and culturally significant practice? (3) How do speakers of different ages feel about these acts of re-appropriation of cultural traditions? Findings showed that the production of proverbs among Ika youths has declined as a result of their inability to speak the native language fluently. However, the research established that exploring new variations in the production of proverbs among Ika youths (Igbo tribe) indicated that the production of proverbs was transformed to cater for the younger speakers’ new social reality, a reality that combines a deep-rooted respect for inherited cultural structures and values, but also one that embraced a more accessible international context. This study deepens understanding of Igbo proverbs and furthers research on language contact, globalization and language variation in the field of sociolinguistics. The recommendation arising from the research emphasizes an immediate focus on language variations and re-appropriations of proverbs by the youths in a world affected by globalization. It is further suggested that future research could focus on children’s use of proverbs in interaction and consider the extent to which they adhere to the traditional ways of producing proverbs or start re-appropriating these proverbs at a young age.

Today's globalized world presents challenges for formulating language education policies in multilingual countries, and postcolonial Nigeria presents a dramatic illustration because of ongoing colonial influences as well as neocolonial factors. This study focused on dialectical relations over time among languages in Nigeria's National Policy on Education (NPE), published in 1977, 1981, 1998, 2004, 2013, and 2014. The title of the study harks to Chinua Achebe's novel, Things Fall Apart, which described the disruption of tribal cultures and languages when Europeans brought their culture and language to Nigeria. Attention in this dissertation, which examined Nigerian education policy over four decades, was also on things falling apart, being resolved in some way, and then falling apart again. Four major dialectical tensions can be seen as the NPE went through revisions in language of instruction and language of study. First, relations between English and indigenous languages showed the increasing importance of English despite ostensible attempts to promote indigeneity through language. Particularly important was the influence of globalization, which emphasized neoliberal values and initiatives associated with global English. Second, relations among the various indigenous languages showed three languages—Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba—to be privileged over 522 other languages that were marginalized but retained as "mother tongue" or "language of immediate environment." Third, relations between French, which became the second official language, and English revealed that, although both now have the same "official" status, the two are by no means equal. The addition of French was largely a political move that had little effect on language education policy. Fourth and finally, relations between Arabic and other languages showed Arabic, which had been largely ignored in the policy, gaining some visibility in later versions but remaining in the role of "other." Of particular significance in the policy over time has been English, which was the colonizers' language and is now the world's global language, Dialectical relations between languages of education in Nigeria, including English, can also be seen as tensions between global and local, colonizer and colonized, and privileged and marginalized.

The current global labor market tends to be knowledge based and workers are consistently required to develop new competencies and adapt to changing environments. Bank employees in Nigeria do not have training that sustains future employment in other sectors, largely as a result of regulatory requirements that impede the development of soft skills and life-long learning opportunities. Little attention has been given to the lived experiences of these bank employees who are currently faced with the challenges posed by globalization and technology adoption. Guided by institutional analysis and development theory (IAD), this exploratory study examined the regulatory framework guiding bank employee career advancement in Nigeria. Qualitative data were collected from a total of 57 participants using semi-structured interviews administered on the three population samples drawn from the regulatory institutions, a pool of ex and current bank staff with a minimum of 8 years in the banking sector. Transcribed data were open coded, and then subjected to a thematic analysis procedure. The results offered a correlative effect and social cost of poor employee training to national development. The results indicated that competitive edge of Nigerian bank workers can be enhanced through acquisition of skills and training that will boost post-banking career transition opportunities. The positive social change implications of this study include recommendations to the three critical demographic blocks; the regulators, the banks and the bank employees. Recommendations of this study can improve the lives of many bank employees including those in other sectors, the economy, and the lives of those in the community.

In recent years, Chinese development efforts in Africa have increased in scope making China the second largest investor on the African content with Chinese MNCs dominating multiple markets across the continent. The author investigates whether there is empirical support for the assumption that there is a correlation between market dominance of Chinese MNCs and similarity in policy and practices to those of China, an assumption based on Eleanor Westney’s study on the emulation of organizational models in late 19th century Japan. To affirm this correlation and describe where it exists, the author examines the regulation of the telecom markets in Ethiopia and Nigeria, two cases where Chinese MNCs have varying degrees of control over the telecom market. Whether or not the studied cases share similarities with the policy and practices of China is studied using the functional method of comparative law as described by Mark Van Hoecke. The study is based on data collected from Freedom House’s reports on freedom on the net which scrutinizes legislation, court cases and the behaviour of government institutions in 65 countries. The author then discusses similarities and differences between the studied cases and China, concluding that the before mentioned correlation does exist to a certain extent and that further research is required.

The manual procurement processes used by some private companies result in increased costs and contract fulfillment delays. The focus of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies procurement managers use to reduce costs and contract fulfillment delays. The population for this study was three procurement managers of private plastics companies located at Maitama, in Abuja, Nigeria. Weiss's theory of change was the conceptual framework for this study. Data collection included semistructured face-to-face interviews and an exploration of company archival financial documents. Data were transcribed, coded, and then validated through member checking, resulting in the emergence of 5 themes: change implementation strategies, strategies for reducing cost and contract fulfillment delays, change implementation barriers, employee-focused factors, and strategies for responding to the changing external environmental factors. The 2 most important themes identified from the study were change implementation strategies and strategies for reducing cost and contract fulfillment delays. These strategies could help organizational leaders who desire improved procurement process change to define long-term goals and then map backward to identify preconditions to achieve the preferred change. The implications for positive social change include increased sustainability for companies and the consequent potential to increase employment among youth, improve standards of living of the workforce, and reduce social vices in Abuja, Nigeria.

The Nigerian banking system is experiencing changes brought about by globalization. Operating in a changing business environment requires that bank leaders evolve strategies to manage and adapt to change. There are direct and indirect costs associated when banks are unable to adapt to change such as bank closures, and loss of economic and business opportunities. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of Nigerian bank leaders regarding strategies they used to manage change in the banking industry. The conceptual framework was based on transformational leadership theory and change management theory. Data were collected from document analysis and semistructured interviews with 30 practitioners in the Nigerian banking industry who have had experience in managing organizational change in the banking industry in Nigeria. Thematic analysis revealed 8 strategies: adoption and application of technology, increased staff training, effective communication, cultural reorientation, customer service quality, cost optimization, deployment of change champions, and adoption of transformational leadership style. The findings from this study may contribute to positive social change by providing policy makers and other bank leaders with more insights on how to manage and adapt to change. Implementing these strategies may help reduce the rate of bank failures and its adverse effects on employees, families, and communities.

Abstract : The work that follows analyses the environmental, cultural, economic and rhetorical methods of conceptualizing violence affecting traditional Niger-Deltan and pan-Indigenous peoples. Whispering in Shadows by Jeanette Armstrong and Yellow-Yellow by Kaine Agary represent how Okanagan and other pan-Indigenous peoples of the Americas and Niger Deltans experience contemporary forms of slow genocide as a result of environmental pollution and various forms of displacement from ancestral spaces. This analysis of both texts brings to the fore the Indigenous sense of life, well-being, and progress that is grounded in a holistic view of communal life on traditional lands, and places it in contrast with the non-traditional use of traditional lands, as well as the exploitation of Okanagan and Nigerian Indigenous peoples produced by the dominant socio-economic realities controlled by the forces of globalization. Indigenous environmentalism reflected by Armstrong’s and Agary’s novels views human relationships with the land in terms of an interconnected familial dependence, and not within extreme notions of romanticized abstinence from dependence on land or of capitalist exploitative use of land. In the light of the environmental criticism of Yellow-Yellow and Whispering in Shadows, I propose that both texts may be read as eco-literature. However the ecocritical work of both novels is based, not on Western-identified notions of ecocriticism that often prioritize the non-human through what Graham Huggan and Helen Tiffin describe as “anti-human” environmentalism. Rather, the novels adopt an Indigenous view of humans and non-humans not as competing subjects, but as interdependent and interrelated parts of one entity: the land. Agary’s and Armstrong’s renderings of displacement disrupt dominant utilitarian perceptions of the land by showing that it carries meaning and identity that encompasses culture, social, personal and communal existence. I suggest that a reaffirmation of culturally-grounded relations with the land, a reconnection to land and rebuilding of localized networks between Individuals in eco-devastated communities and between such communities in a form of globalization-from-below provides a strong base for healing, for cultural preservation, and for creative collaborative responses and solutions to globalization. Global minority collaboration and cultural affirmation ultimately has potentials of destabilizing and resisting globalization in sustainable ways. They insulate communities from the hegemony of the dominant Western socio-cultural models. The close familial ties between Indigenous peoples and the land, coupled with historic, cultural and economic meaning of land to such communities suggest that the loss of traditional land under systems of globalization is a traumatizing and devastating experience for traditional peoples. I argue that such cultural and physical dislocation normalizes a trend of infighting and social instability, which becomes a self-reproducing violence that exacerbates the process of slow genocide: “the emotional and physical harm done to survivors of violence over time that leads to extreme hardship and premature death for many” (Cottam, Huseby, and Lutze 2). At the heart of Armstrong’s and Agary’s texts are critiques of both environmental and social injustices that emanate from industrial activities on Indigenous traditional lands. The environmental representations of Armstrong and Agary portray Indigenous perspectives that link environmentalism to the cultural, economic and social facets of sustainability. The pan-Indigenous and African environmentalisms represented in Whispering in Shadows and in Yellow-Yellow respectively do not define “environmental concerns” and issues of justice in terms of separate issues that need linking. Rather, they represent the issues of equity, justice, and environmental, spiritual and cultural stability as a one and the same interrelated issue of sustainability.
Résumé : Ce qui suit analyse des dispositifs environnementaux, culturels, économiques et rhétoriques qui engendrent le déplacement chez les peuples traditionnels autochtones et du Delta de Niger. Whispering in Shadows de Jeannette Armstrong et Yellow-Yellow de Kaine Agary représentent, de manière similaire, la façon dont les peuples traditionnels autochtones et ceux du Delta de Niger expérimentent les formes contemporaines du génocide lent sous forme de pollution environnementale, ainsi que des déplacements spatiaux. Cette analyse porte un regard particulier sur le sens de la vie, du bien-être et du progrès selon les cultures traditionnelles autochtones qui se basent sur une vision globale de la vie commune sur la Terre ancestrale. Cette cosmologie est mise en contraste avec la culture mondialisée qui encourage notamment l’utilisation non-traditionnelle des terrains et l'exploitation des peuples traditionnels autochtones. L'environnementalisme autochtone reflété dans les romans d'Armstrong et d’Agary considère les relations des humains avec la Terre comme étant une dépendance familiale interconnectée. Cette relation ne se définit pas sur base des notions extrêmes d'abstinence romancée ou de non-dépendance sur la Terre. Elle n’est pas définie non plus par des notions de l'exploitation écocidaire capitaliste de la Terre. À la lumière de la critique environnementale de Whispering in Shadows et de Yellow-Yellow, je propose que les deux textes soient lus comme des éco-littératures. Cependant, le travail des deux romans écocritiques est fondé non sur les notions occidentales de l’écocritique qui privilégient souvent les non-humains dans un environnementalisme que Graham Huggan et Helen Tiffin (2010) décrivent comme étant « antihumain », mais plutôt sur celles qui considèrent les humains et les non-humains non pas comme des sujets en concurrence, mais comme les parties interdépendantes et intimement liées au sein d’une seule entité: la Terre. La conception de la question du déplacement selon Agary et Armstrong déstabilise la perception dominante matérialiste de la Terre en montrant que la Terre est porteuse d’un sens et d'une identité qui peuvent sembler arbitraires, mais qui englobent au fait la culture, la vie sociale, personnelle et communautaire. Je propose qu’une base solide pour gagner la guérison spirituelle, la préservation des cultures marginalisées et la lutte contre la mondialisation se trouve dans la réaffirmation des relations culturellement fondées avec la terre, la reconnexion à la terre et la construction de réseaux localisées entre les individus dans les communautés éco-dévasté, ainsi qu’entre ces communautés, dans une forme de « mondialisation d’en bas. » La collaboration entre les minorités et l'affirmation culturelle ont de la potentielle à déstabiliser et résister la mondialisation de manière durable. Cette globalisation d’en bas isole aussi les communautés de l'hégémonie des modèles socio-culturels dominants venant souvent de l’occident. Les liens familiaux étroits que partagent les peuples autochtones et leur Terre, ainsi que les significations historiques, culturels et économiques de la Terre pour ces communautés autochtones, suggèrent que la perte des espaces terrestres traditionnelles sous les systèmes de la mondialisation est vécue comme une véritable expérience traumatisante et dévastatrice. Cette injustice normalise par la suite une tendance de la violence latérale et de l'instabilité sociale qui devient une violence autoreproductrice et qui maintient le processus historique du génocide lent: «le préjudice émotionnel et physique subi par les victimes de la violence au fil du temps qui mène à la pauvreté extrême et à la mort prématurée pour beaucoup» (ma traduction : Cottam, Huseby, et Lutze 2). Au cœur des textes d'Armstrong et d’Agary se trouvent des critiques contre les injustices sociales et environnementales émanant des activités industrielles dans les espaces traditionnelles autochtones. L’environnementalisme d'Armstrong et d’Agary décrit des cosmologies autochtones qui interagissent entre l'écologie et les aspects culturelles, économiques et sociaux du développement durable. L’environnementalisme autochtone d’Armstrong et l’environnementalisme africain d’Agary, en fonction de leurs cosmologies traditionnelles respectives, ne conceptualisent pas des «préoccupations environnementales» et les questions de justice dans le contexte des questions distinctes qui devraient être liées comme la culture dominante occidentale les conçoivent. Pour eux, les questions de l'équité, de la justice, de la stabilité environnementale, spirituelle et culturelle ne sont qu’une et la même question du développement durable.

Xiao, Hai.
Thesis M.Phil. Chinese University of Hong Kong 2013.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 179-191).
Abstracts also in Chinese.
Title from PDF title page (viewed on 06, January, 2017).

One of the realities that developing countries like Nigeria have to face today is that national and international markets have become more and more interconnected through the global platform of telecommunications and the Internet. This global networked economy is creating a paradigm shift in the focus of development goals and strategies particularly for developing countries. Globalisation is driving the nations of the world more into political and economic integration. These integrations are enhanced by a globally interconnected network of economic and communication systems at the apex of which is the Internet. This network of networks thrives on and encourages the expansion of cross-border flows of ideas and information, goods and services, technology and capital. Being an active member of the global network economy is essential to Nigeria’s economic development. It must plug into the network or risk being shut out. The global market network operates by means of rules and standards that are largely set by the dominant players in the network. Data protection is a critical component of the regime of rules and standards that govern the global network economy; it is evolving into an international legal order that transcends geographical boundaries. The EU Directive on data protection is the de facto global standard for data protection; it threatens to exclude non-EU countries without an adequate level of privacy protection from the EU market. More than 50 countries have enacted data protection laws modelled on the EU standard. Access to the huge EU market is a major motivation for the current trend in global harmonisation of domestic data protection laws. This trend provides a compelling reason for examining the issues relating to data protection and trans-border data flows and their implications for Nigeria’s desire to integrate into the global network economy. There are two primary motivations for legislating restrictions on the flow of data across national boundaries. The first is the concern for the privacy of the citizens, and second, securing the economic well-being of a nation. It is important that Nigeria’s privacy protection keeps pace with international norms in the provision of adequate protection for information privacy order to prevent potential impediments to international trading opportunities.
Public, Constitutional, & International
LLD

This research focuses on the impact of the moral community (or social context) on the formation of conscience and its implication for moral responsibility. It is an interdisciplinary approach to theological reflection that is particularly attentive to psychological, philosophical, sociological, and neurobiological viewpoints showing how these have either distorted or broadened our understanding of conscience in its relation to community and social responsibility, or its formation in relationship to our moral development. It stresses reciprocity of conduct (for we are "responders") and the complementarities of internal and external sanctions. It insists that the influence of conscience on behavior is undermined by a fixation on its cognitive aspect at the detriment of the feeling aspect such that retrieving the latter will broaden our appreciation of its deep but subtle influence. While admitting the richness of African <italic>communalism<<</he basis for a healthy formative process, it also sees in it a perplexing paradox given the socio-political realities of venal leadership and systemic corruption that de-colors the African landscape. Focusing on Nigeria, it identifies "tribalism" as a socio-moral "pathology" (an institutionalized self-interest) that not only distorts the traditional process of moral formation but has evolved as a core driver of systemic corruption. It claims that globalization enables "external powers" to impact local moral orientation. It links "local tribalism" and "international tribalism" as "pathologies" based on kinship of disordered self-interest. It exposes how the latter influences local moral disorientation in a way analogous to how the local moral community impacts the malformation of individual conscience and thus influencing irresponsibility. Its recommendations include: a "glocalized" moral reform aimed at "updating" conscience formation process and overcoming tribalism; a paradigm shift in foreign policy agenda towards a new ethic; and a "three-stage-process" that focuses on deconstructing unhealthy belief systems and building "active" moral communities as part of a robust long-term strategy against systemic corruption and deeper socio-moral transformation.
McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts;
Theology
PhD;
Dissertation;

This thesis demonstrates the level of environmental disaster that oil TNCs have brought into Sub-Sahara Africa as a direct consequence of economic globalization. The analysis reveals the weaknesses of the environmental regime in the Sub-Sahara African region, particularly in Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon as well as the lack of administrative capacity of the governments. The thesis explores alternative means through which environmental responsibility of oil TNCs could be pursued at the supranational arena and within the legal system of home states of the oil TNCs. It seeks to do so by examining the phenomenon of tort-based action for foreign direct liability of the parent oil TNCs for the conduct of their foreign subsidiaries extraterritorially.

This research project explores critically the broader social context of the rise of global private policing in Africa, using Nigeria and South Africa to provide an in-depth illustrative and comparative context. Drawing on insights from global security and police research, Foucauldian governmentality studies, and postcolonial perspective in particular, the overarching question addressed in this research is that of whether the apparent rise in global private policing in Africa is occasioned by real need, or it constitutes an imperialist project? In other words, how do we make sense of this development? This research finds that private policing is largely a function of a paradigm shift from a collective human security to an individualistic sense of security through greater emphasis on competition, and private property or gain, in contrast to the collective welfare that predominantly characterized most pre-colonial African societies. Accordingly, global private policing is seen largely as a product of long-term historical undercurrents of colonialism and contemporary forms of Western imperialism, and the leadership crisis rooted in high-profile corruption and economic mismanagement in most parts of Africa; however, their impact on the extent of global private policing differs significantly due to the country-specific internal social, political, and economic, dynamics. This research therefore makes a contribution to the theoretical debates surrounding the growth of global private policing, particularly in the African context; and considers the broader implications for security policies grounded in private versus collective human security.

The Nigerian entertainment industry called Nollywood has for several years been one of the top audiovisual producers worldwide in regards to the volume of media produced. However, its market is to a large extent isolated from the dominant media flows, which has inspired interest for a detailed study of its role in the global cultural scene. The thesis is a theoretical treatise about the history and the present situation of Nollywood, which the author discusses in the context of the two seemingly oppositional paradigms of the globalization discourse: cultural imperialism and cultural globalization. To gather the most up-to-date and the most complex information, the thesis uses theoretical methods, such as the analysis, synthesis and comparison of the articles found in science journals and literature. The text is comprised of three main parts. After a brief introduction into the current situation in Nigeria and the historical development of its audiovisual media, the second chapter discusses the birth of Nollywood for the first time in the Czech academia, as well as its current production and distribution principles. In this part of the thesis, the focus is given to the description of the extent of Nollywood's influence in the world, including the Czech Republic, talking both about the audience size...