Imperial Enterprise: The United States International Volunteer Program, Neoliberal Empire, and Northern Youth

In recent years, the phenomenon of Northern international volunteering has been conceived as an instance of post-collegiate “continuing education” and, as such, has been attributed to a neoliberal logic of self-enterprise. However, such accounts have neglected to interrogate how an entrenched logic of empire also animates the practice of recruiting and deploying Northern citizens to volunteer in the “developing” world. Also overlooked have been the particular intersections of these logics in the discourses of international volunteer programs, the related subject formations of Northern volunteers who come under their tutelage, and the ways in which these intersections engage broader geopolitical objectives of Northern states. Focusing on the Ecuador operations of a major US-American international volunteer program that I call Global Community, this dissertation examines the interplay between imperialist injunctions of improving and touring a mythologized “Third World” Other and neoliberalist directives of self-enterprise and consumerism, among others. Drawing on one year of ethnographic fieldwork conducted with a cohort of Global Community Ecuador volunteers, this dissertation also examines the role of the international volunteer program in the application of a governmental technology that is both imperial and neoliberal in its rationale. Recruitment materials, compendium texts, and training activities are examined as both discursive formations and governmental acts that index broader discourses of imperialism and neoliberalism, simultaneously constructing and instructing volunteers in relation to a discursively produced Ecuadorian otherness that the program frames as the cornerstone of the volunteer stint. Focusing specifically on three distinct “contact zones” (Pratt 2007/1992) through which the program attempts to guide the volunteer – the Ecuadorian public space, the Ecuadorian homestay, and the Ecuadorian classroom (where volunteers teach English to Ecuadorian students) – each ethnographic chapter explores the relational components of volunteer subjectivity vis-a-vis an imagined Ecuadorian alterity, considering how volunteer subjectivities index program discourses and behavioral injunctions, as well as a continual interplay between the imperial and the neoliberal. Additionally, I examine how volunteer subjectivity is constituted through their continual subjection to Ecuadorian discourses around gringo-ness, which, in unsettling the production of white US-American racial normativity, pose indirect challenge to some of the foundational assertions of international volunteering discourse

The hostile takeover of the Banco de Comercio of 1954: collision and collusion between Mexican political and business elites

The hostile takeover of the Banco de Comercio in 1954 made way for the era of Manuel Espinosa Yglesias, who would transform the bank into Mexico’s largest. However, the episode is more historically notable for what happened behind the scenes: the first large-scale hostile takeover in Mexico; the fact that those who lost control of the bank numbered among the country’s most powerful businessmen; the illegal participation as chief purchaser of the foreign citizen William Jenkins, and, as this article argues, the state’s approval of the deal on the basis of the distinct political affiliations and relationships of the parties involved. Overall, the episode offers a case study in Mexican state-capital interdependence.La compra hostil del Banco de Comercio en 1954 dio lugar a la época de Manuel Espinosa Yglesias, quien hizo de este banco el más grande de México. Sin embargo, el episodio destaca históricamente más por lo que pasó tras bambalinas: la primera compra hostil de gran escala en México; el hecho de que los que perdieron el banco se encontraban entre los empresarios más poderosos del país; la participación ilegal del William Jenkins, ciudadano extranjero, como comprador principal, y, como se argumenta en este artículo, la aprobación de la compra por el Estado debido a las distintas afiliaciones y relaciones políticas de los involucrados. En general, el episodio ofrece un caso práctico de la interdependencia entre el Estado y la iniciativa privada en México

River basin trajectories: societies, environments and development

River basin management / River basin development / Hydrology / Water governance / Water use / History / Water allocation / Water transfer / Water quality / Irrigation management / Groundwater management / Surface irrigation / Water lifting / Pumping / Middle East / Jordan / South Africa / Mexico / Tunisia / Tanzania / Iran / India / China / USA / Australia / Lower Jordan River Basin / Olifants River Basin / Lerma-Chapala River Basin / Mediterranean River Basin / Great Ruaha River / Zayandeh Rud River Basin / Krishna River Basin / Bhavani River Basin / Yellow River Basin / Colorado River Basin / Murray Darling River Basin / Merguellil Basin

Educating for the future : a critical discourse analysis of the academic field of intercultural business communication

The present investigation analyzes critically the discursive and generic make-up, the conceptual base and educational goals of a new interdisciplinary academic field of enquiry called Intercultural Business Communication as it is pursued in the context of the Germany higher education system. Its purpose is twofold: Firstly, it attempts to bring to light and debate the actual validity claims made by these authors in respect to socio-economic changes and the educational promise of intercultural understanding through intercultural training. Secondly, it shows how aspects of context (e.g. interdisciplinary relations, disciplinary intricacies, hegemonic discourses, changes in the higher educational system and its relation to other social spheres) can impact upon the discourse and genre of social science in general and this particular field in particular. By drawing upon Critical Discourse Analysis as a theoretical stance and a methodological path, a corpus of 24 academic articles published in this area is analyzed in relation to the recontextualization of socio-economic changes (presences and absences of social actors, processes and evaluation), the legitimation of educational goals through reference to these changes, the conceptualization of key terms (like culture, the other etc.), the implications of these theoretical decisions for the possibility of increased, mutual understanding and the form of academic writing (argumentation, debate, genre change). While the thesis aims to identify specific discursive and generic patterns, open them to contestation, and to explain their presence in these texts, it is also strongly normative and discusses questions related to the changing understanding of the nature, form and function of academic knowledge production in society.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

The Road to Armageddon

In 1864 the capture of Brazilian steamer the Marquês de Olinda initiated South America's most significant war. Thousands of Brazilian, Argentine, and Uruguayan soldiers engaged in a protracted siege of Paraguay, leaving the Paraguayan economy and population devastated. The suffering defied imagination and left a tradition of bad feelings, changing politics in South America forever. This is the definitive work on the Triple Alliance War. Thomas L. Whigham examines key personalities and military engagements while exploring the effects of the conflict on individuals, Paraguayan society, and the continent as a whole. The Road to Armageddon is the first book utilize a broad range of primary sources and materials, including testimony from the men and women who witnessed the war first-hand