Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Mexican Philosophy'

Environmental issues are often complex with many different constituents operating according to a broad range of communication techniques. In order to foster negotiations, different perspectives need to be articulated in lucid ways sensitive to various viewpoints and circumstances. In my thesis I investigate how certain approaches to environmental discourse effect dialogue and negotiation. My first two chapters focus on environmental problems surrounding rangeland ecology along the U.S./Mexico border; whereas the last two chapters explore more theoretical conflicts concerning the philosophy of nature. Throughout the thesis I show the significance of nonhumans (prairie dogs, cattle, biological assessment sheets, environmental laws, etc.) in the human community. Only by considering the roles of nonhumans do we broaden and enrich the conversation between ourselves concerning environmental issues.

Spanish
Ph.D.
This dissertation examines the link between sovereignty, law, community and (il)legal violence in 20th/21st century Mexican narratives associated with drug trafficking themes. The field of biopolitics provides ample pathways to explore the intersection of these concepts as they are portrayed in contemporary Mexican literature, music and film. Combining the theories of Michel Foucault, Roberto Esposito, Giorgio Agamben and Carl Schmitt, among others, this project analyzes the law and the sovereign, as well as the community and the narco within the spaces they inhabit as they enter in (violent) dialogue with each other. Furthermore, such relationship is viewed panoramically in three stages. First, I analyze the rise of a mythologized narco-sovereign and the creation of what could be conceptualized as Narcobiopolitcs, which materializes the moment the drug trafficker emerges into the Mexican collective imaginary and fights for a space for its own “community.” Second, narco-communities are allowed to thrive in the outskirts, cementing the figure of the narco-sovereign, a figure that challenges the power of the law. Lastly, the relationship between the law and the trafficker disintegrates due to an excess of violence and the communities they inhabit collapse, thus pointing to the fall of the (narco) community. The authors examined to explore these three phases are: Pablo Serrano, Yuri Herrera, Juan Pablo Villalobos, Gerardo Cornejo, Raúl Manríquez, Víctor Hugo Rascón Banda and Orfa Alarcón (literature); Gerardo Naranjo (film); Los Tucanes de Tijuana, Jenni Rivera, El Komander, Gerardo Ortiz and Los Tigres del Norte (music). The prologue provides a socio-historical context explaining the rise of drug trafficking violence in 20th century Mexico, as well as the current debate on narconarratives. It argues that such debate has yielded stagnating responses from academics and critics and specifies this project’s need to steer away from it. Chapter one offers the theoretical framework that will be utilized along the subsequent chapters in order to create a new space for dialogue surrounding these narratives. Chapter two analyses the rise of the mythologized figure of the narco-sovereign. The purpose of this entity is to create its own narco-community at the margins of the law, even though such community will always be under the Sovereign’s gaze. Chapter three showcases well-developed narco-communities who have managed to claim, through their narco-sovereigns, a space in their fight against the government institutions. Chapter four pinpoints the moment the relationship between legal and illegal violence collapses. This moment is portrayed in the narratives as the destruction of the community, with both entities (government and drug traffickers) responsible for such catastrophic downfall. Finally, the epilogue will conclude this dissertation by summarizing the main theoretical and analytical discussions, thus offering an opening to academic dialogue about narconarratives without the aim of sealing off the topic. Additionally, the epilogue will disclose research routes to undertake in the near future.
Temple University--Theses

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2007.
Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 174-176). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Cette thèse est une comparaison de quelques valeurs fondamentales des sociétés canadienne, américaine et mexicaine. Le concept de valeur, tel que je l'emploie dans ce travail, a son acception sociologique, c'est-à-dire les préférences collectives des groupes sociaux. Les valeurs analysées ici ont été sélectionnées simplement à partir de l'intuition que ces valeurs pouvaient concentrer largement les différences les plus significatives de nos pays. Les analyses montrent deux types de résultats. - en ce qui concerne la plupart des variables, les différences significatives s'expliquent par les caractères nationaux ou par les origines des pays. - en ce qui concerne plusieurs variables, les différences significatives s'expliquent plutôt par des facteurs sociaux, comme l’âge, la scolarité ou le revenu. Les sociétés de nos trois pays se groupent autour de trois axes majeurs : 1. Individu et communauté (valeurs à l'égard de la société). 2. Libéralisme et autoritarisme (valeurs politiques). 3. Attitudes et valeurs à l’égard du travail
This thesis is a cross-national study on core values in the three countries of North America: Canada, Mexico, and the United States. The notion of value, such as it is used here, has its sociological meaning: the collective preferences of the people concerning specific subjects. The values analyzed here have been chosen mainly by the intuitive conviction s that they reflect the most crucial differences among the three countries of this study. The analyses performed show two types of findings: - concerning most of the variables, the significative differences are explained by the national characters or by the origins of the three countries. - concerning some variables, the significative differences are explained by social factors, such as age, education or income. These three societies cluster around three main axes: 1. Individual and community (values concerning the relationship between the individuals and the society). 2. Liberalism and authoritarianism (political values). 3. Attitudes and values regarding the work

"La quête identitaire dans l'oeuvre narrative de l'écrivain mexicain José Agustin (1964-1996) analyse l'oeuvre narrative de José Agustin (1944) à partir d'une perspective individuelle, hors des sentiers battus de la "Onda". Il s'agit d'une étude des modalités narratives et stylistiques de la quête identitaire dans la production narrative de cet auteur mexicain contemporain. L'approche thématique de la quête identitaire des personnages est le postulat de départ. Cela dit, ce travail se propose aussi d'interroger la quête identitaire dans ses multiples manifestations à l'intérieur du texte littéraire et de se placer à toutes les échelles où elle s'exprime : l'individu, le groupe, la société. La démarche adoptée est celle d'une perspective textuelle centrée sur les problématiques de l'énonciation, qui essaie néanmoins de restituer sa place à l'auteur. Par conséquent, ce travail est guidé par trois axes complémentaires : la caractérisation de la voix narrative de José Agustin, l'analyse de son discours en tant que figure publique, et la position de l'auteur à l'intérieur du champ littéraire mexicain. L'analyse des oeuvres narratives est accompagnée de trois entretiens avec José Agustin, réalisés dans les années quatre-vingt-dix et qui figurent dans le deuxième volume d'Annexes.

Mexico's innovative health reforms have attracted scholarly attention beyond its own borders, making it a valuable case to study how countries set priorities. This dissertation examines the multifaceted topic of priority setting through a multidisciplinary approach: each of the three papers of this dissertation employs one of three disciplinary perspectives: historical, quantitative or normative. The dual focus on mental health and HIV--two highly stigmatized diseases with almost opposite histories of prioritization--further underscores the social and historical aspects of health priority setting. Paper 1, "Outrage and Evidence: Julio Frenk and the Politics of Mental Health Advocacy in Mexico, 1968-2006," examines the recent history of mental health advocacy efforts in Mexico. Tracing the career of Julio Frenk, a contemporary global health leader as well as Mexico's Minister of Health from 2000 to 2006, demonstrates that mental health advocacy moved from a focus on human rights abuses to a statistical-based advocacy that emphasized the burden of mental illness. Paper 2, "Beyond Universal Treatment Access: A Multi-level Study of Mental Health Care in Public HIV Clinics in Mexico," represents the first study of the availability and usage of mental health services among HIV+ individuals in Mexican HIV clinics. This paper uses multi-level modeling of a cross-sectional survey from Mexico's National Institute of Public Health to explore factors associated with patients receiving mental health care. The results indicate that clinic-level factors account for much of the observed variation in mental health care for HIV+ individuals. Paper 3, "'What Magic is there in the Pronoun `My'?' The Role of Patient and Disease Advocates in Public Deliberations about Priority Setting for Health Policy," analyzes the risks and benefits of recent, and often controversial, attempts by countries like Mexico to include this specific class of stakeholder in public deliberation for health. Patient participation does bring the risk of bias due to their partiality. However, by drawing on deliberative democratic theory, this paper argues that such partiality confers epistemic advantages to deliberation, such that, if certain procedural and substantive constraints are met, the benefit of their participation may offset the risks.

Mexico's innovative health reforms have attracted scholarly attention beyond its own borders, making it a valuable case to study how countries set priorities. This dissertation examines the multifaceted topic of priority setting through a multidisciplinary approach: each of the three papers of this dissertation employs one of three disciplinary perspectives: historical, quantitative or normative. The dual focus on mental health and HIV--two highly stigmatized diseases with almost opposite histories of prioritization--further underscores the social and historical aspects of health priority setting.

Trends throughout my graduate research in education include educational transformation, critical pedagogy and cross-cultural, globally oriented competencies for educators. These threads have woven their way into my lens on the world, prompting questions about educational and curricular policy and reform, particularly challenging the ubiquitous Euro-centric platform from which most schools in the United States operate. In June and July of 2012, sponsored by the United States-Colombian Fulbright commission, 16 educators had the professional development opportunity to study in Mexico and Colombia, all with the charge to develop authentic multicultural curricula for the benefit of students and teachers in the United States. Through documentation of the Fulbright-Hays 2012 participants' reflections, the study addresses the scope of the Seminar's transformative impact on teachers and subsequently students, supporting its relevancy as a government social-service program. The study examines the larger impact of the Fulbright-Hays Seminar on educators' pedagogical and philosophic orientations to their work in the classroom. This research may be utilized internally by the Fulbright-Hays commission for evidence of transformational experiences starting with seminar participants and, ideally, filtering down to students of diverse demographics. The development of culturally representative and responsive curricula is a pressing area of need in the United States, both in public and private spheres. Work in this field could contribute to social change and equity-driven reform within the educational sphere: pedagogically, methodologically, and philosophically. The study analyzes the development of teachers with increased cultural competencies, understanding of cultures outside their own culture (and yet often represented in their classrooms), therefore being poised to create more inclusive, anti-biased atmospheres for their students.

La construction des personnages et de représentations du pouvoir, ainsi que la mise en place d’une écriture métafictionnelle dans sept romans mexicains publiés dans les années 90 sont les thèmes centraux de cette étude. Pour notre analyse de El disparo de argón, Huatulqueños, La lotería de San Jorge, Una de dos, Salón de belleza, Un asesino solitario et En busca de Klingsor, nous nous sommes inspiré des théories de Roland Barthes et de Philippe Hamon concernant l’étude sémiologique des personnages, ainsi que des modes de représentation narrative décrits par Gérard Genette. Nous sommes également parti des idées ce même auteur sur l’écriture métafictionnelle, ainsi que des travaux de Linda Hutcheon et de Patricia Waugh sur la question. Notre analyse montre que narrateurs, personnages et décors sont construits à l’aide de figures telles que l’hyperbole ou la comparaison. Le paysage peut agir comme un personnage de plus, et engendrer des espaces métaphysiques reflétant l’histoire. Pour ce qui est du rapport au pouvoir, l’on distinguera deux types de personnages : des êtres vulnérables, d’une part, possédant le pouvoir de manière éphémère ; et des puissances invisibles et inhumaines, de l’autre, surveillant et régissant les destinées des personnages. Tandis que les premiers partagent des caractéristiques physiques et des comportements plus ou moins similaires, les puissances invisibles correspondent à des figures telles que le Destin, le Hasard, Dieu ou encore le Diable. Les représentations du pouvoir remplissent toutes une même série de fonctions. Chacun des sept romans envisagés par cette étude déploie des moyens visant à souligner la nature réflexive de l’écriture chez le narrateur. L’analyse des mises en abyme, des métalepses et de la transtextualité au sein du récit permet de mettre au jour et d’évaluer de manière systématique la présence effective de la métafiction
This essay presents an analysis of the construction of characters, the representations of power and the development of metafictional writing through a discussion of seven Mexican novels published in the nineties. The essay utilizes the theoretical advances of Roland Barthes and Philippe Hamon in regards to semiological analysis of characters and Gérard Genette’s modes of narrative representation to analyze El disparo de argón, Huatulqueños, La lotería de San Jorge, Una de dos, Salón de belleza, Un asesino solitario y En busca de Klingsor. Metafictional writing was looked at using the theoretical lens of not only Genette, but also Linda Hutcheon and Patricia Waugh. In conclusion, narrators, characters and setting are constructed by means of techniques like hyperbole or comparison. In addition, landscape comes to function as another character in the story, creating a metaphysical space that reflects history. When speaking of power, there are two identifiable types of characters: vulnerable creatures with an ephemeral authority and invisible, inhumane powers that patrol and decide characters’ destinies. The first group eventually acquires the same physical characteristics and attitudes, while the invisible powers correspond to figures like Fate, Chance, God or the Devil. The representations of power fulfill a series of similar roles. Each of the seven novels studied in this essay uses techniques which emphasize the narrator’s own awareness of the act of writing. The analysis of the mise en abyme, metalepsis and transtextuality in the narrative allows for a systematic determination and evaluation of the effectiveness of metafiction

This thesis examines the use of video technology as an alternative communication medium within a dialogic framework. It explores multiple dialogic encounters and different meanings of dialogue. It analyses dialogues within and around video technology and dialogues with contemporary events in Mexican history. The author argues that these dialogic encounters are contributing to an ongoing process of transformation in Mexican consciousness. The thesis’s theoretical framework draws on Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of dialogism and employs a dialogic method that emphasises diversity. The author conducts an in-depth analysis of multiple series of dialogues between key people, events and discourses. The author examines the lives and work of a sample of the most significant independent video-makers producing work on the indigenous Zapatista rebellion that began in Chiapas, Mexico, on 1 January 1994.The author focuses on the discourses of independent video-makers looking at the indigenous Zapatista rebels and considers the indigenous uprising to be both a ‘political catalytic event’ and a ‘multi-catalytic event.’ The different dialogues looked at throughout the thesis reveal various processes of consciousness-raising which act in diverse, unexpected and unprecedented ways. The author argues that these dialogues have contributed to a crisis of legitimacy for the hegemonic power in Mexico and have also influenced the way the mainstream media operate, and their power within Mexican society.

La " trilogie du Chiapas ", constituée par deux romans Balún Canán (1957), Oficio de tinieblas (1962) et un recueil de nouvelles Ciudad Real (1960) illustre l'affrontement entre les dominants blancs, héritiers de la Conquête espagnole et les dominés, les Indiens, dépossédés de leurs terres ancestrales. Aux yeux de la critique littéraire pratiquement unanime, Rosario Castellanos (1925-1974) donne une vision de l'Indien " de l'intérieur " très novatrice dans le courant littéraire indigéniste. Selon cette perspective, la trilogie apparaît comme un hymne à la parole indigène en lutte contre le silence et l'oubli. Notre travail effectue une nouvelle lecture qui interroge l'ambiguïté constitutive de la trilogie, comme preuve non pas de l'adéquation, mais de la fracture existante entre l'univers indigène et sa représentation littéraire. En confrontant l'histoire du Chiapas, la réalité ethnologique des Tzotzil-Tzeltal, la place de Rosario Castellanos au sein de l'indigénisme mexicain des années cinquante et sa production littéraire, nous démontrons que l'auteure offre une vision ethnocentrique de l'Indien qui véhicule l'idéologie indigéniste officielle. Les stratégies narratives mises en place par le recours à une perspective ethnique fictive, aux intertextes indigènes, aux mythes d'apparence maya ne servent pas à valoriser la culture indienne. Rosario Castellanos ne parvient pas à (re)connaître l'Indien dans son altérité, car, par delà sa dénonciation des injustices sociales, elle engage avant tout une réflexion sur l'intégration de l'Indien à la nation mexicaine et sur sa nécessaire acculturation.

The intended contribution of this work is to systematically discuss a selection of methodological topics and some of the empirical and technical issues that have been driving the measurement of inequality in Mexico so far. This discussion has two strands: firstly, the general case, and second, the particular case of Mexico. The general case include some philosophical concerns, along with a review of the traditional inequality measurement, the most common operational decisions in empirical calculations, and the recent methodological contribution of development literature that is mostly centered around the capability approach of Sen (1985b). The philosophical part contrasted with other approaches and rejected the Marxist view of economic inequality, which is mostly viewed as an outcome of exploitation. The distributional judgments are compared with more ancient schools of thought in regards to justice. Another methodological issue is such that social inequality, approximated by income inequality, might be considered as an additional functioning that measures the degree of social cohesion in the country, this finding is an implication that comes from the definition of functionings within the capability approach; then, social inequality is a functioning that is different in nature from other measures of destitution, and it is also different from the destitution that is captured by absolute poverty measurement. Our general case includes a review of the most popular ways to measure inequality, such as normative and pragmatic inequality measures that are mentioned with their properties, with their rankings of the distributions provided by the use of stochastic dominance and quantile comparisons, and the construction of statistical models and some graphic representations of income economic inequality; the approach of inequality concerns included in the measurement of relative poverty is rejected for the sake of clarity. Then this general view would guide us to a better understanding of the Mexican literature for the consideration of income distribution. The measurement of destitution provided by governmental offices is necessary to discuss, because there might be some lack of coherence between the design of the measurement and the complex legal system in Mexico. We also consider a set of regulatory concerns that might not be unique to the Mexican law, but may be generalized for developing countries as a whole. Some of the methodological discussions that show how the Mexican research has been influenced by the international literature about human destitution will be good to clarify, looking at the value judgments that have been automatically accepted by the researchers. A sensitivity analysis was performed to the empirical calculation of inequality in Mexico, so the measurement showed to be different in regards to a variety of operational concerns: the recipient unit, the different data from income and consumption-expenditure surveys, various non-responses and underreported biases, the inclusion of a regional price index, among other things. In this work was also covered the reasons why it might be the case that destitution and poverty assessment was studied more deeply than inequality itself, so the possible ambiguity of inequality with poverty measurement is challenged in this work with a variety of theoretical remarks and empirical arguments. The final topic for the particular case of Mexico is to shed light in regards to the context of the capability approach and the use of equivalence scales, because these methodological approaches consider respectively directly and indirectly the assessment of distributional judgments. This discussion is followed by an empirical assessment of inequality measures that is related with a set of functionings and services, where a direct relationship of measures of inequality with other measures of destitution is made clear.

La these prend comme sujet d'etude prioritaire les textes romanesques qui ont pour theme central la christiade, cette rebellion des cristeros qui eut lieu au mexique de 1926 a 1929. La 1ere partie resitue le contexte historique de l'episode et precise les fondements theoriques de l'ideologie cristera developpee. La 2eme partie presente, par ordre chronologique de parution, un corpus repressentatif de quinze textes, publies entre 1928 et 1961, afin de les sortir de l'oubli et les reinserer dans le panorama des lettres mexicaines. La 3eme partie degage, apres une analyse thematique, une typologie du roman cristero, genre specifique, envisage comme roman de la contre-revolution mexicaine. Enfin, dans sa 4eme partie, la these fait le lien avec la problematique de la creation litteraire contemporaine qui integre le theme cristero, devenu motif, dans la perspective d'une reconstruction de la memoire historique dont les generations acutelles ont ete depossedees par l'histoire officielle, qu'elle soit gouvernementale ou liguiste
The main objective of this dissertation is to study the works of fiction whose central theme deals with the cristiada, the rebellion led by the cristeros in mexico from 1926 to 1929. Part i sets out to situate the episode in its historical context and to explain corpus theories which underlie the development of the cristero ideology. Part ii presents, in chronological order of publication, a representative corpus of fifteen texts, published between 1928 and 1961, in order to bring them out of oblivien and re-insert them in the panorama of mexican literature. Part iii brings out, after a thematic analysis, a typology of the cristero novel, as a specific genre, approached as the novel of the mexican counter-revolution. Part iv sets out to show how the study relates to the problems of contemporary literary creation, which integrates the cristero theme - new a motif - into the prospect of reconstructing the historical metmory which present-day generations have been denied by efficial history, dictated by the government or the liga

Plumbing the trajectory of the essay entails discussion of an intellectual history that spans five centuries. Nevertheless, the essay is a genre defined a contrario. This study begins with a discussion of the status of the essay as a genre, providing an overview of its historical development as well. The sum of this analysis will help to redefine the essay through its essential characteristics. The principal corpus deals grosso modo with the last fifty years of Mexican life. It starts in the year 1950 (El laberinto de la soledad, Octavio Paz), and it finishes in the year 2000. Octavio Paz, Carlos Fuentes, Sergio Pitol, Carlos Monsiváis, Elena Poniatowska and Roger Bartra are the impetus behind this study. Critical recurrent themes that haunt these essayists, such as la Malinche, the Mexican Revolution, October 1968, the masques and the death, are reformulated so that the authors' points of view are related to one another as if they were in dialogue. The "physiognomy" of the texts is also elicited because of the presence of paratextual attributes that have not been previously studied. The genetical criticism of paratext can provide unique information that cannot be obtained otherwise. Since writing and reading are part of the dialectic between author and reader, the notion of the other, the alterity, is examined. The author considered as the other of the reader and vice versa, forms a dialectic that motivates the writer to speak with the Other. The inter- and intra- textuality are also studied, taking care to distinguish between two kinds of intratextuality never before separated. The rapport between authorship and a modicum of distance armor against worldly power on women's essays fighting for power through their pens is explored. This material is fertile ground for theorists and critics to explore.

La mixité raciale, caractéristique de la physionomie et de la culture des Mexicains, est rarement représentée dans la publicité de ce pays. La recherche proposée ici aborde le métissage biologique et culturel, en tant que figure sensible au sein de l'imaginaire, l'imagerie et plus particulièrement l'affiche publicitaire au Mexique. Cela procède d'une grille de significations constitutives d'un système d'identités collectives. Il faut, pour comprendre ce système, revenir aux origines des stéréotypes et des isotopies visuelles contribuant à maintenir un point de vue dépréciateur sur la population métisse à travers le langage mythographique de la publicité. Dans une perspective multidisciplinaire, sous l'obédience des sciences de l'information et de la communication, sont étudiées aussi les entités et les moyens de communication ayant contribué, dès la colonisation du Mexique au XVIe siècle, au renouvellement des croyances exprimant le rejet des personnes métisses et indiennes. La prééminence du verbal, imposée souvent comme une forme de rationalité à l'étude des langages figuratifs, rend particulièrement complexe l'étude du rapport entre l'écriture des images et l'imaginaire politique. Nous procédons ici à une description historique et communicationnelle de la formation iconique et sémiotique de la figure du métissage au Mexique. À travers les productions discursives les plus notables de chaque période, s'opère l'émergence du sens par l'investissement des régimes de signification dans la figure métisse et ses occurrences sensibles
Mixed race physiognomy and native culture of mexican population are rarely exposed in advertising in that country. This research deals with biological and cultural mestizaje as a visual figure. Presented in mexican advertising, it takes part of the grid of meanings behind the collective identities system. This work tackles the origins of stereotypes and visual isotopies leading to maintain, through the mythographic language of images, an unfavorable opinion on the mixed race population. Entities and Media having contributed to maintian in place these beliefs since the colonization of Mexico in the sixteenth century, are studied in a multidisciplinary, communication defined perspective.The rule of verbal, often imposed as a form of rationality in the study of figurative language, as well as the strategies performed by the Establishment to refuse any questioning about its legitimacy, make particularly complex the study of the relationship between images setting and political imaginary. We therefore propose a historic observation of the construction of the mestizaje's figure in Mexico, through the most significant visual productions of each period. This observation should lead to understand the emergence of sens as the investment that meaning systems have on mestizaje figure and its sensitive recurrences

La présente recherche étudie les romans de la trilogie de Jorge Volpi ( En busca de Klingsor, El fin de la locura et No será la Tierra) sous l'angle des relations entre le Savoir et le Pouvoir. Nous nous proposons de démontrer que l'auteur mexicain, sous l'influence des travaux de Michel Foucault sur les liens unissant le couple savoir-pouvoir, a bâti une trilogie mettant en relief les rapports étroits et paradoxaux entre ces deux notions qui, tout au long de ces trois romans, s'entrecroisent et s'inversent l'une l'autre jusqu'à converger vers leur exacte antithèse, la folie. Tant dans les conflits opposant " les hommes de savoir " – les scientifiques et les intellectuels – au pouvoir politico-économique que dans les strates les plus intimes de la psyché de l'individu – dans ses rapports aux autres et à soi-même –, ou au cœur même de sa conception et de sa pratique de la littérature, nous avons pu constater que Jorge Volpi revisite les concepts de savoir et de pouvoir par le prisme de la folie : tout au long de cette œuvre, les relations de savoir-pouvoir conduisent à la folie qui est elle-même source d'un autre mode de savoir-pouvoir, à la fois insondable et incontrôlable, pour lequel Volpi semble ressentir une profonde fascination
This thesis examines the novels that compose Jorge Volpi's trilogy (En busca de Klingsor, El fin de la locura et No será la Tierra) from the perspective of the relationships between Knowledge and Power. The study demonstrates that the Mexican author, under the influence of the works by Michel Foucault on the links unifying the notions of Knowledge and Power, built a trilogy that highlights the close and paradoxical relationships between these two concepts, which intersect and inverse throughout these three novels, until finally converging in their exact antithesis, madness. Whether it be in the conflicts opposing "men of knowledge" — the scientists and the intellectuals — to the politico-economic power, or in the most intimate strata of an individual's psyche — in one's relationships with others and with oneself —, or even at the very heart of his conception of literature and in his own writing, this study reveals that Jorge Volpi revisits the concepts of knowledge and of power through the prism of madness. Throughout his work, the knowledge-power relationships lead to madness which is itself the source of another form of knowledge-power, both unfathomable and uncontrollable, for which Volpi seems to feel a deep fascination

The migration of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans- and queer (LGBTQ) people from Central America to or through Mexico has increased in recent years. People are leaving spaces of violence and exclusion related to their sexual and/or gender identity and search conditions for a livable life. Yet, the migration implies an exposure to different sorts of violence, wherefore this thesis explores how the vulnerability of Central American queer people is (re)produced in a situation of human mobility in Mexico. Further, the thesis examines how protection is made (im)possible for the LGBTQ community in religious shelters. The research is based on qualitative research and thirteen semi-structured interviews, carried out in Mexico in 2020, with representatives from shelters, universities and civil society organizations working with migrants and LGBTQ people.   Queer people are disproportionally exposed to vulnerability in Mexico and migrating does not necessary imply that life becomes livable. Since their lives are likely to be understood as ungrievable lives by the heteronormative society, the violence and the exposure to vulnerability of this populations becomes largely invisible. Thus, religious shelters both include and exclude LGBTQ people, depending on how they imagine boundaries.

Cette thèse analyse le système‐monde maçonnique entre 1717 et 1921, perçu comme un produit et un agent de la modernité occidentale, comme le prototype fondateur de l’opinion publique internationale et comme une plaque tectonique de la géoculture du système-monde moderne. Elle fluctue entre une perspective globale, une perspective atlantique et un ancrage latino‐américain, fourni notamment par les principales puissances océaniques d’Amérique latine (Argentine, Brésil, Mexique). Quelle fut l’évolution globale des réseaux maçonniques au cours des XIXe et XXe siècles ? Quelle fut leur géopolitique et leur géoculture ? Dans quelle mesure peut‐on ou non parler de « système maçonnique international » ? Quelle fut la place de l’Amérique latine dans cette dynamique ? Comment le sous‐continent américain s’intégra‐t‐il dans le système‐monde maçonnique ? Les réseaux maçonniques y furent‐ils une plaque tectonique géoculturelle et des vecteurs de transferts culturels ? Contribuèrent‐ils à l’intégration du sous‐continent américain au sein de la grande communauté atlantique mais aussi à l’intégration et à l’autonomisation latino américaine ?
This thesis investigates the birth and development of the Masonic world‐system, seen as a product and an agent of western modernity, as the prototype of international public opinion and as a tectonic plate of the géoculture of the modern world‐system. This text focuses on the first period of its development (1717‐1921). It fluctuates between a global perspective,an Atlantic perspective, and a Latin American anchorage, provided by the major oceanic powers of Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico). What was the global evolution of the Masonic networks in the 19th and 20th centuries? What were their geopolitics and their géoculture? Is it possible to talk about an "international Masonic system"? What was the place of Latin America in this dynamic? How the American subcontinent became a part of the Masonic world‐system? In Latin America in the 19th and 20th centuries, were the Masonic networks a tectonic plate of géoculture and the vectors of cultural transfers? Did they contribute to the integration of the American sub‐continent in the Atlantic community? Did they contribute discreetly to the regional integration and to the Latin American empowerment ?

Today, some twelve million immigrants are unlawfully present in the United States. What response to this situation does Christian theology suggest for these immigrants and those who receive them? To this question about the status of immigrants before the law, the theological literature lacks an understanding of how federal U.S. immigration law developed, and it lacks a robust theological account of the governance of immigration. To fill this gap, the thesis presents three stages in the formation of the laws that designate some immigrants as aliens unlawfully present or illegal aliens, drawing out the moral argumentation in each phase and responding with moral theology. In the first stage, non-citizens were called aliens in U.S. law. In response to the argument that aliens exist as a consequence of natural law, Christian teaching indicates that immigrants are not alien either in creation or for the church. In the second stage, the authority of the federal government to exclude and expel aliens was established, leaving those who do not comply to be designated illegal aliens. To the claim that the federal government has unlimited sovereignty over immigration, interpretations of the Christian Scriptures respond that divine sovereignty limits and directs civil authority over immigration. In the third stage, legal reforms that were intended to end discrimination between countries allowed millions from countries neighboring the U.S. to become illegal aliens. These reforms turn out to be unjust on philosophical grounds and unneighborly on theological grounds. While federal law classes many as aliens unlawfully present in the United States, Christian political theology indicates that immigrants are not alien, the government of immigration is limited by divine judgment, and nationals of neighboring countries deserve special regard.

This dissertation explores two paradigms of modernization popular in Mexico in the 1940s. It argues that careful discussion of those paradigms is necessary to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of the transition to an 'institutionalized' revolution, and also of the possible ways modernization can be imagined The two paradigms are distinguished with the aid of Karl Mannheim's dichotomy of 'utopia' versus 'ideology.' The 'utopian' approach to modernization was influenced by European historicism, which was popularized in Mexico through the works of Jose Ortega y Gasset and the arrival of Spanish refugee intellectuals. Historicism mixed freely with discussions of modernization in the early 1940s, particularly in the university classrooms of Jesus Silva Herzog and Luis Recasens Siches, and it helped Mexicans reconcile 'planned' modernization to their liberal and humanist traditions. The 'ideological' approach to modernization was influenced by the 'scientific management' movement in the United States, where several students from the National Autonomous University's National School of Economics studied public administration. That younger generation was determined to revive the Mexican Revolution through enlightened 'management.' The dissertation hypothesizes that their attempted synthesis of the 'utopian' and 'ideological' paradigms was conducive to political stability, but not to the renewal of the Revolution
acase@tulane.edu

Utilizing elements of Lightfoot and Davis’s (1997) portraiture method and life history interviews, this qualitative research study explores the portraits of four Mexican-origin scholarship boys. Two Mexican-origin students and two professors were selected from a snowball sample. A snowball sample consisted of gathering referrals from graduate students and faculty who contacted me through email to comment on their personal identification with the scholarship boy themes discussed in the essay I authored, "Lost in Degree: a Chicano PhD Student’s Search for Missing Clothes" (2007). I use the term “Mexican-origin” as a concept that identifies the subjects of this study as being of Mexican descent. All of the participants were born and raised in low SES, urban settings in the United States and they are children of Mexican-born parents. Hoggart’s (1957/2006) scholarship boy framework serves as the primary theoretical lens guiding this work. Rodriguez’s (1982) seminal work on this topic, Hunger of Memory, enumerates how this concept may apply to Mexican-origin scholarship boys. This study also utilizes Dubois’s (1903) double consciousness and Anzaldúa’s (1999) mestiza consciousness to analyze the ways in which Mexican-origin scholarship boys used culturally situated constructions of giftedness, “ghetto nerd” (Diaz, 2007) masculinities, and philosophical perspectives related to “home” to pursue academic excellence and cope/challenge the microgressions they experienced in K-12 schooling and higher education. The scholarship boys in this research provide critical information germane to the struggles and strategies used by academically successful Mexican-origin students as they negotiate the experiences related to the contrasting working-class culture of their upbringing and the middle-class culture of academia. While studies often focus on academically low-performing Latino students, this work explores the narratives of working-class Latino students who attained a graduate level education. Moreover, this research complicates clean “victory narratives” by unearthing various aspects of loss and gain inherent to the Mexican-origin scholarship boy trajectory. Findings inform scholarship in the areas of pedagogy, education reform, philosophy of education, education policy, curriculum, and revisionist conceptualizations of giftedness and human development.
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Interethnic communication is the focus of this thesis, as the basis for understanding Mexican culture and identity as a dynamic and complex process, which acts, from the past and in the present, to create what Mexicans are and will be.By exploring different instances where interethnic communication occurs and produces various representations of culture, this work shows the complexities of interethnic exchanges at different levels of Mexican society (in the community or in the nation) and at different moments of its history (from the conquest to the present).This complex picture is constructed using an interdisciplinary framework that includes radical ethnography, social semiotics and new social history; all of them oriented to the understanding of culture as a meaningful way to analyse society in the context of its cultural, economic and political life.Through different interethnic activities (political meetings, cultural representations, religious practices, economic activities, institutional projects, social movements) this research explores what Indian creativity can offer to construct a society that is simultaneously ancient and new, united and diverse, Indian and Mexican, and, more than ever, just and inclusive of all sectors that form Mexican society

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2004.
Advisor: Dr. Delia Poey, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Modern Languages and Linguistics. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Oct. 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

abstract: ABSTRACT Human and wildlife behavior, governance, and economics are often cited obstacles to wildlife conservation. Accordingly, conservation research has historically been conducted in the exterior terrains of behavior and systems, which can be empirically observed or known through systemic analysis and applied through institutional or technical fixes. However, conservation interventions are failing because they do not adequately address the influence of individual and collective interior phenomena including psychological states, worldviews, values, and identities of stakeholders, which can bear decisively on conservation outcomes. This critical analysis of wildlife conservation science and the social and political histories of Southwestern landscapes illustrates the mechanism of social, cultural, and media narrative linking four irreducible perspectives of the natural world: the I, WE, IT and ITS, or the psychological, cultural, behavioral and structural/systemic terrains, which ground contemporary conservation. Through the conceptual [Re]animation of conservation, this research justifies a more-than-human approach to wildlife conservation that resists the ontological privilege of the human and contemplates human and non-human animals as vitally linked in their mutually relational, perceptual and material environments. The approach extends the human to the natural environment and also accounts for the individual and social needs and perspectives of wild animals, which shape their adaptation to changing environments and conservation interventions. A qualitative analysis of emotion, metaphor, and narrative utilizing an Integral Ecology framework explores how psychological and cultural terrains link to, and influence, the behavioral and systemic terrains of Mexican gray wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) conservation in the U.S. Southwest. This research disentangles and comprehensively maps influential elements in the four terrains; enhancing relational knowledge on human-predator coexistence and conservation governance in the Southwest.
Dissertation/Thesis
Doctoral Dissertation Environmental Social Science 2019

Ce projet de recherche explore l’univers narratif de trois auteurs mexicains : Armando Ramírez, Guillermo Fadanelli et Rocío Boliver. En apparence dissemblables entre eux, leurs œuvres partagent une qualité que je propose ici d’identifier de « cynique ». Le cynisme, en tant qu’approche théorique, ouvre des possibilités interprétatives pour les manifestations artistiques, culturelles et politiques dans lesquelles est évident une friction avec les systèmes de valeurs dominantes. À travers différents langages (le roman, le conte, le récit et la performance), l’univers discursif de ces auteurs exprime un malaise envers le monde, réfléchit sur les conflits existentiels du sujet social mexicain et s’approprie de l’écriture, du corps et de la sexualité comme matière de dénonciation pour exhiber les dispositifs politiques avec lesquels vont être façonnées les catégories sociales ainsi que les canons et normes qui vont régler les codes éthiques et esthétiques de l’environnement culturel. En même temps, dans ces productions, le corps et la sexualité émergent comme une irruption et déplacement des discours en amenant l’exercice plein du langage corporel et écrit au bout de l’abjection. Dans le cas d’Armando Ramírez, le caractère cynique se construit à partir de la violence du langage et de l’attaque sexuelle pour dénoncer, depuis la voix du secteur dominé, le conflit historique des classes sociales. En ce qui concerne Guillermo Fadanelli, le cynisme va s’exprimer à partir de la destruction des grands récits qui donnent un sens linéal à l’existence. L’auteur profane l’écriture, les genres littéraires, la famille, la figure maternelle et les tabous sexuels. De son côté, l’œuvre de Rocío Boliver devient cynique lorsqu’elle conteste l’absence d’une représentation positive de la sexualité et de la vieillesse féminine. Cet artiste fait appel à la non-identification avec la religion catholique et les mécanismes de capitalisation du corps. Toutes ces raisons nous permettent de situer ces trois auteurs dans une tradition cynique pas seulement occidentale, mais notamment mexicaine, car cette recherche reconnait aussi la présence historique du cynisme critique dans la production culturelle du pays et dans la construction des identités nationales.
The present investigation explores the narrative universe of three Mexican authors: Armando Ramírez, Guillermo Fadanelli and Rocío Boliver. Despite obvious differences, their works share characteristics that I propose to identify as “cynical”. In this dissertation, we use cynicism as a theoretical approach that makes possible new interpretations of artistic, cultural, and political expressions that have entered into conflict with dominant value systems. Through different narrative genres and idioms (novel, short story, literary essays and performance), these authors’ shared discursive universe expresses a discomfort with the world and reflects on the existential conflicts of the Mexican social subject. The authors appropriate writing, the body and sexuality as prime material for the denunciation of the political devices that configure social categories, as well as the canons and norms that regulate the cultural environment’s ethical and aesthetic codes. At the same time, by taking bodily and written languages to the extremes of abjection, the body and sexuality emerge in these productions as an irruption and displacement of official discourses. Armando Ramírez gives his novel a the cynical dimension by using the violence of language and sexual assault to denounce, with the voice of the subjugated, a long history of class conflict. In Guillermo Fadanelli, cynicism expresses itself through the destruction of universal discourses that give linear meaning to existence. Fadanelli profanes writing, literary genres, the family as a social institution, the maternal figure and sexual taboos. For her part, Rocío Boliver’s work becomes cynical when she questions the absence of a positive representation of female sexuality and old age. She resorts to disidentification with the Catholic religion and the mechanisms of capitalization of the body. This allows me to situate these three authors in the Western, and especially Mexican, cynical tradition, as this dissertation also recognizes the historical presence of critical cynicism in Mexico’s cultural production and in the construction of its national identities.
El presente proyecto de investigación explora el universo narrativo de tres autores mexicanos: Armando Ramírez, Guillermo Fadanelli y Rocío Boliver. Aparentemente disímiles entre sí, sus respectivas obras comparten un carácter que aquí proponemos identificar como cínico. El cinismo, como enfoque teórico, abre las posibilidades interpretativas de manifestaciones artísticas, culturales y políticas en las que se observa una fricción con los sistemas de valores dominantes. A través de distintos lenguajes (novela, cuento, ensayo y performance), el universo discursivo de estos tres autores expresa un malestar con el mundo, reflexiona sobre los conflictos existenciales del sujeto social mexicano y se apropia de la escritura, del cuerpo y de la sexualidad como material de denuncia. Con ello, exhibe los dispositivos políticos con los que son configuradas las categorías sociales, así como los cánones y normas que regulan los códigos éticos y estéticos del entorno cultural. Al mismo tiempo, el cuerpo y la sexualidad emergen en estas producciones como una irrupción y desplazamiento de los discursos al llevar a los extremos de la abyección el ejercicio pleno del lenguaje corporal y escrito. En el caso de Armando Ramírez, el carácter cínico se construye a partir de la violencia del lenguaje y del ataque sexual para denunciar, desde la voz del sector dominado, el histórico conflicto de clases sociales. En Guillermo Fadanelli el cinismo se expresa a partir de la destrucción de los grandes relatos que le dan un sentido lineal a la existencia. Este autor profana la escritura, los géneros literarios, la familia, la figura materna y los tabúes sexuales. Por su parte, la obra de Rocío Boliver se torna cínica cuando cuestiona la ausencia de una representación positiva de la sexualidad y de la vejez femenina, y recurre a la desidentificación con la religión católica y con los mecanismos de capitalización del cuerpo. Lo anteriormente dicho nos permite ubicar a estos tres autores en una tradición cínica no sólo occidental sino particularmente mexicana, ya que este ensayo también reconoce históricamente la presencia del cinismo crítico en la producción cultural del país y en la construcción de las identidades nacionales.

Les fromages traditionnels font partie de cet ensemble gastronomique et culinaire mexicain classé par l'UNESCO comme Patrimoine Culturel Immatériel de l'Humanité. Cependant, au-delà des discours officiels, ces fromages sont en fait en voie de disparation, et avec eux les systèmes productifs associés. Dans cette thèse, nous explorons la possibilité de protéger et valoriser les fromages traditionnels grâce à la figure d'indication géographique (IG) à partir de trois cas empiriques (le queso Cotija de la Sierra de Jalmich, le queso Bola de Ocosingo, le queso Crema de la Costa de Chiapas). La capacité des processus de qualification territoriale pour mobiliser et impliquer un ensemble d'acteurs locaux et extra-locaux et activer une trajectoire de développement endogène est ici interrogée. Dans un premier temps, une analyse contextuelle, incluant le secteur fromager et la protection et valorisation des produits traditionnels, est réalisée. Puis l'attention est portée sur les arènes locales où se déroulent les processus de qualification, en s'appuyant sur une série d'entretiens et enquêtes menés auprès de fromagers, universitaires, fonctionnaires, entre autres acteurs. Une réflexion théorique sur les notions de qualification territoriale et de patrimonialisation, abordées comme des formes d'action collective dans des systèmes productifs locaux, guide notre cadre analytique. Ainsi, sont caractérisés et analysés les systèmes fromagers locaux et la construction de marques collectives de type IG. Nous constatons que cette construction ne se centre pas nécessairement sur le développement territorial et la protection d'un patrimoine collectif local. Sous l'influence de facteurs locaux et nationaux, analysés en termes de dispositifs institutionnels, cognitifs et techniques qui encadrent et caractérisent les actions individuelles, collectives et publiques, les modalités mêmes de la construction de ces IG montrent qu'on peut parvenir à des situations très différentes. Selon les volontés et les compétences des acteurs, deux voies différentes peuvent être prises: celle d'un projet d'appropriation privée, qui instrumentalise le patrimoine en même temps qu'il lui enlève son essence même; ou celle d'un processus qui s'inscrit dans une pluralité d'actions et de temps, et se base sur l'institutionnalisation et la valorisation de la dimension patrimoniale et collective du produit. Dans les cas étudiés, on souligne la tension entre ces deux modèles idéaux, comme en témoigne la confrontation de multiples motivations, intérêts et asymétries de pouvoir, qui se défont ou au contraire se font ou se réaffirment au cours du processus de qualification.

Los quesos tradicionales son parte de este conjunto gastronómico y culinario mexicano clasificado por la UNESCO como Patrimonio Cultural Inmaterial de la Humanidad. Sin embargo, atrás de los discursos, estos quesos están más bien en vía de desaparición, y con ellos los sistemas productivos asociados. En esta tesis, se explora la posibilidad de proteger y valorizar los quesos tradicionales por indicaciones geográficas (IG) a partir de tres casos empíricos (el queso Cotija de la Sierra de Jalmich; el queso Bola de Ocosingo; el queso Crema de la Costa de Chiapas). Se interroga la capacidad de los procesos de calificación territorial para movilizar e incluir a un conjunto de actores locales y extra-locales, y activar una trayectoria de desarrollo endógeno. Se realiza primero un análisis contextual, incluyendo al sector quesero y la protección y valorización de productos tradicionales. Después, la mirada se centra en las arenas locales donde se dan los procesos de calificación, a raíz de entrevistas realizadas con queseros, académicos, funcionarios, entre otros. Una reflexión teórica sobre las nociones de calificación territorial y patrimonialización, como formas de acción colectiva en sistemas productivos locales, guía el esquema analítico. De esta manera, se caracterizan y analizan los sistemas productivos queseros locales, y la construcción de marcas colectivas de tipo IG. Se concluye que esta construcción no necesariamente se centra en el desarrollo territorial y la protección de un patrimonio colectivo local. Bajo la influencia de factores tanto locales como nacionales, planteados en términos de dispositivos institucionales, cognitivos y técnicos que enmarcan y caracterizan las acciones individuales, colectivas y públicas, las modalidades mismas de la construcción de estas IG muestran que se puede llegar a situaciones muy diversas. Dependiendo de las voluntades y capacidades de los actores, se puede tomar así dos vías diferentes: un proyecto de apropiación privada, que instrumentaliza el patrimonio al mismo tiempo que le quita su esencia; o un proceso inscrito en una pluralidad de acciones y de tiempos, basado en la institucionalización y valorización de la dimensión patrimonial y colectiva del producto. En los casos estudiados, se destaca la tensión entre estos dos modelos ideales, reflejada en la confrontación de una multiplicidad de motivaciones, intereses y asimetrías de poder, que se deshacen o al contrario se hacen o reafirmen durante el proceso de calificación.