VTechWorks Repository :: Browsing by Author "Luke, Timothy W."

Browsing by Author "Luke, Timothy W."

Now showing 1 - 20 of 227

The 1934 Indian Reorganization Act and Indigenous Governance: A Comparison of Governance of Santa Clara Pueblo and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Nations — 1991 – 2000
LaRoque, Kent A. (Virginia Tech, 2004-06-23)
Native American communities are continually impacted by Federal Indian policy. Over one-half of all Native American nations function politically under the provisions of the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act (IRA). There are claims that many of these Native American communities experience intra-tribal conflict due to the lack of congruence between the tribal governments formed under the IRA and cultural traditions of governance. This claim was investigated via a comparative trend analysis of the Santa Clara Pueblo, operating politically under the IRA provisions, and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, operating under a constitutional form of governance outside of IRA provisions. After an historical analysis, an evaluation of tribal constitutions, and an examination of news media coverage for the period of 1991 – 2000, the project concluded that the legacies of the IRA are not the primary causal agent of intra-tribal conflict.
The 1993 North Korean Nuclear Crisis: A Foreign Policy Analysis
Lee, Ergene (Virginia Tech, 2000-05-05)
In this paper I apply the Rational Actor model to the 1993-1994 North Korean Nuclear Crisis. I begin with two hypotheses: 1) North Korea attempted nuclear armament because of its perception of threat from South Korea and the United States; 2) North Korea attempted nuclear armament because it wanted to use its nuclear program as leverage to obtain economic assistance from the United States. I conduct a diplomatic historical analysis based on the Rational Actor model to determine which was North Korea's primary objective, and conclude that the primary objective of North Korea was obtaining economic concessions, but that threat perception did seem to play a role in the decision to start the nuclear program. In this process, I show that the Rational Actor model was insufficient in the analysis and that it must be complemented by cultural factors, "thickening" the rationality.
The Abstract Ecology of Modern Life: Re-imagining Environments as Public Spheres
Greear, Jake P. (Virginia Tech, 2005-05-04)
Many discourses within environmental political theory center on reconfiguring political structures to empower geographically situated populations to become public stewards of their local environments. However, in the developed world the hope for ecological self-government is doubly challenged by the atrophy of the civic spirit and the general apathy of most citizens in the face of environmental destruction. In a search for an explanation of these cultural circumstances this essay gathers the sociological critiques of the techno-scientific epistemology and the public management of risk offered by Ulrich Beck with some social studies of the production and use of space. These critiques reveal aspects of everyday life that comprise a distinctly disengaged mode of person-world interaction. This mode of subjective worldly interaction frustrates any decentralist environmental politics because it distills in consciousness a depressed conception of personal agency, and constructs local environments as realms of imperceptible significances and hopelessly complex "scientific" processes, which must be ascertained by external knowledge and judgment producers. Communal, political stewardship of local environments requires trusting humanly scaled faculties of perception and engaging in the work of producing local knowledge and judgments. It therefore entails refocusing attentive faculties on the local landscapes that bind publics together and re-appropriating these environments as realms of participatory civic agency. This politicization of the immediate environment may be the best hope for instilling ecologically sustainable values and for reintegrating, and therefore reviving, currently dysfunctional public spheres.
The Absurd and Film: From the Existential Moment to Metaphysical Revolt
Artrip, Ryan Edward (Virginia Tech, 2010-04-30)
In recent cinematic history, films have often expressed through the experiences of characters an 'existential moment' in which fundamental assumptions about life are questioned and potentially rendered meaningless. The purpose of this project is to follow two accounts of this expressed moment in the 1999 films American Beauty and Fight Club, understanding them as such through particular readings of the philosophical articulations of Albert Camus. I analyze the social climates of liberalism and consumerism that might account for these expressions of discontent and anxiety at the same time I evaluate the validity of existential thought in the contemporary social world. Ultimately, I question what kinds of political qualms absurdity might render, using film experience as a venue to understand and evaluate these questions.
Adaptiveness of political interest organizations to social change in the United States since 1960: a theoretical examination
Amm, Joachim (Virginia Tech, 1990-12-06)
This thesis presents a theoretical conceptualization and operationalization for a forthcoming empirical study of the adaptiveness of business associations, labor unions, and environmental organizations to social change since 1960. These three types of interest organizations are selected because they are particularly likely to have become targets of increased popular demands for environmental protection, a value change that has constituted one of the most important aspects of social change during the last three decades.
Agents of fundamental policy change?: political strategies of the environmental, sustainable agriculture, and family farm groups in the 1990 farm bill
Lang, Helmut (Virginia Tech, 1992-09-16)
This study investigates the strategies and policy impacts of the environmental, family farm, and sustainable agriculture groups in the 1990 farm bill legislation. In spite of "genuine" interest in a fundamental policy reform, and in spite of a common agenda, the three different types of interest groups mostly opted for parochial, incremental policy demands. This self-restrictive interest group behavior and the groups' limited impacts on policy outcomes is explained by organizational limitations and self-interests of the challenging interest groups as well as by institutional protection of the American political system. This protection specifically applies to the agricultural domain with its distinctive farm bill construction. New and potentially challenging farm bill interest groups have not been agents for fundamental policy change, as the policy status quo (old policies as well as governmental inaction) is structurally protected.
Becoming Otherwise: Sovereign Authorship in a World of Multiplicity
Taylor, Benjamin Bradley (Virginia Tech, 2018-06-08)
This thesis explores the theory and practice of sovereignty. I begin with a conceptual analysis of sovereignty, examining its theological roots in contrast with its later influence in contestations over political authority. Theological debates surrounding God’s sovereignty dealt not with the question of legitimacy, which would become important for political sovereignty, but instead with the limits of his ability. Read as an ontological capacity, sovereignty is coterminous with an existent’s activity in the world. As lived, this capacity is regularly limited by the ways in which space is produced via its representations, its symbols, and its practices. All collective appropriations of space have a nomos that characterizes their practice. Foucault’s account of “biopolitics” provides an account of how contemporary materiality is distributed, an account that can be supplemented by sociological typologies of how city space is typically produced. The collective biopolitical distribution of space expands the range of practices that representationally legibilize activity in the world, thereby expanding the conceptual limits of existents and what it means for them to act up to the borders of their capacity, i.e., to practice sovereignty. The desire for total authorial capacity expresses itself in relations of domination and subordination that never erase the fundamental precarity of subjects, even as these expressions seek to disguise it. I conclude with a close reading of narratives recounting the lives of residents in Chicago’s Englewood, reading their activity as practices of sovereignty which manifest variously as they master and produce space.
Between Discipline and Profession: A History of Persistent Instability in the Field of Computer Engineering, circa 1951-2006
Jesiek, Brent K. (Virginia Tech, 2006-12-13)
This dissertation uses a historical approach to study the origins and trajectory of computer engineering as a domain of disciplinary and professional activity in the United States context. Expanding on the general question of "what is computer engineering?," this project investigates what counts as computer engineering knowledge and practice, what it means to be a computer engineer, and how these things have varied by time, location, actor, and group. This account also pays close attention to the creation and maintenance of the "sociotechnical" boundaries that have historically separated computer engineering from adjacent fields such as electrical engineering and computer science. In addition to the academic sphere, I look at industry and professional societies as key sites where this field originated and developed. The evidence for my analysis is largely drawn from journal articles, conference proceedings, trade magazines, and curriculum reports, supplemented by other primary and secondary sources. The body of my account has two major parts. Chapters 2 through 4 examine the pre-history and early history of computer engineering, especially from the 1940s to early 1960s. These chapters document how the field gained a partially distinct professional identity, largely in the context of industry and through professional society activities. Chapters 5 through 7 turn to a historical period running from roughly the mid 1960s to early 1990s. Here I document the establishment and negotiation of a distinct disciplinary identity and partially unique "sociotechnical settlement" for computer engineering. Professional societies and the academic context figure prominently in these chapters. This part of the dissertation also brings into relief a key argument, namely that computer engineering has historically occupied a position of "persistent instability" between the engineering profession, on the one hand, and independent disciplines such as computer science, on the other. In an Epilogue I review some more recent developments in the educational arena to highlight continued instabilities in the disciplinary landscape of computing, as well as renewed calls for the establishment of a distinct disciplinary and professional identity for the field of computer engineering. I also highlight important countervailing trends by briefly reviewing the history of the software/hardware codesign movement.
Beyond Minority Identity Politics: Rethinking Progressive Islam through Food
Dahlan-Taylor, Magfirah (Virginia Tech, 2012-05-02)
In this dissertation, I analyze the challenges of speaking about religion, ethics, and politics as a Muslim in America beyond the language of minority identity. I investigated the different ways Muslims negotiate the demands of Islamic dietary laws in their everyday lives by collecting primary data gathered through interviews with Muslims from different localities. The answers given by the participants in this study speak to more than the particular issue of how Muslims understand and carry out the demands of Islamic dietary laws given the reality of living in a country where Muslims are a minority group. They reflect a discourse on Islamic dietary laws that is framed primarily within the language of exclusive privatized religious identity and individual consumerism. In this dissertation, I seek to propose a different discourse on Islamic dietary laws, one that is characterized by greater inclusivity and challenges the language of exclusive privatized religious identity and individual consumerism.
Beyond Prepper Culture as Right-wing Extremism: Selling Preparedness to Everyday Consumers as How to Survive the End of the World on a Budget
Luke, Timothy W. (University of Texas at Arlington Libraries, 2021-12-01)
Beyond the Modern Era?: An Analysis of the Concept of the Postmodern Presidency
Fontaine, Juston Kase (Virginia Tech, 2003-08-11)
Over the past two decades, the term postmodern has crept into presidential studies. Despite this, the notion of applying the term to the presidency may obscure more than it reveals. Throughout this period, various political scientists such as Rose, Barilleaux, Schier, Bruce Miroff, and others, as well as communications scholars like Shawn Parry-Giles and Trevor Parry-Giles have merged the term postmodern with the study of the presidency; yet there continues to be no agreement on what exactly the postmodern presidency is or represents. For some, the postmodern presidency signifies a distinct era, fundamentally different from those of the past. For others, the postmodern characteristics and leadership style necessary to govern in a changing political and social landscape define the contemporary presidency. Thus, despite being used for nearly two decades, the term postmodern continues to be mired in ambiguity. With the many differing views that make up the literature of the postmodern presidency, numerous questions arise. Is the onset of the postmodern presidency a result of a fundamental shift in the presidency, occurring regardless of who occupies the Oval Office, or is it better characterized as a shift in the individual traits of presidents necessary to govern during a newly emerging era? Does the core of the postmodern presidency center on foreign policy as a reflection of the end of the Cold War, or can it be better attributed to the rise of public politics, the decline of political parties, and the onslaught of media coverage that surround the contemporary presidency? The following chapters attempt to analyze the concept of the postmodern presidency, comparing the many definitions and timeframes that surround the term as a means of critically examining the existing work on the postmodern presidency.
Biopolitics and Belief: Governance in the Church of Christ, Scientist, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Newswander, Lynita Kay (Virginia Tech, 2009-04-01)
This dissertation offers an analysis of two American religions–the Church of Christ, Scientist (CS), and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS)–and the ways that their particular/peculiar ideologies regarding the body govern the everyday realities of their respective memberships. Biopower is the political power used to control bodies and bodily actions, such as the care of oneself, and the details of personal family life. Belief can act as an especially powerful agent of biopolitical power as it inspires a lived faithfulness through its various theologies. What is more, the effects of biopolitical belief are often complicated by the mixed interests of Church and State, leaving the territory of the individual body a disputed claim. To better understand these disputes, this project utilizes a Foucaultian interpretation of the CS and LDS churches to better understand the roots of the biopolitical conflicts they confront. Specifically, the histories and contemporary practices of these religious organizations are analyzed through a genealogical method, using Foucaultian interpretations of the biopolitical, pastoral, and psychiatric powers they use to effectively govern the minds, bodies, and spirits of their people. A historical background of the CS and LDS churches traces the emergence of the biopolitical practices of each group by evaluating their groundedness in their current social-political milieus, and by making connections between their respective religious beliefs, practices, and government and the broader Jacksonian American political culture into which they were born. Additionally, this particular form of analysis poses important questions for the study of religion and politics today. Although most of the examples used in this study are historical, both the LDS and CS churches continue to hold on to many if not all of the theologies and doctrines which historically brought them into conflict with the US government. What has changed is not the belief itself, but the embodiment of it, and also the state and federal government reaction to it. Therefore, the theological histories and founding stories of these religions remain relevant to their contemporary status as extra-statal biopolitical forces within the US today.
Bordering the Mediterranean: Liminality and Regioncraft at the Center of the World
Georgakis Abbott, Stefanie Florence (Virginia Tech, 2014-03-11)
In this dissertation, I theorize that the Mediterranean, broadly conceived of as a geo-cultural-political entity and experience, is a locality for the investigation into the processes through which representations of continents and civilizations come into focus. A fundamental argument in this dissertation is that borders (like the Mediterranean) do not represent the limits to territorially fixed entities, but are rather continually ongoing projects that come to be negotiated and reified through political practices that are focused, in this instance, on asserting where the outside of Europe begins. The arguments of this dissertation are twofold. First, the Mediterranean is theorized as a fluid and porous space. Secondly, and more importantly, the Mediterranean is a key site for an investigation into the (re)production of politically and culturally saturated discourses of belonging and otherness. Thus, this project takes into focus three distinct, yet inextricably interrelated, processes of the borderization of the Mediterranean. These processes work to maintain the space as a global axis of sorts, upon which academic and popular discussions and representations of the East versus the West or the North versus the South emerge. It is an underlying argument of this study that links the examples of the Barcelona Process, discussions of a migration crisis, and Turkey's accession to the EU as processes of borderization of the European Union. While they are often analyzed as separate phenomena, all are indicative of these spatial and temporal borders represented by the Mediterranean, seen together they have the capability of highlighting the interconnectedness of the varying threads of Mediterraneanism. To understand how categories like European, Asian, or African come to have such salient political suggestiveness and meaning, one must bring into question how the borders that divide these imagined spaces are complex sites of the convergence of practices and discourses acquire their fortitude and who gets to tell the stories that outline their parameters.
Brazil Comes to the Future: Living Time and Space in the International Order of Competition
Rossone de Paula, Francine (Virginia Tech, 2016-06-20)
The rise of Brazil as an economic power in the last decade has been celebrated by politicians and analysts as an opportunity for the country to take advantage of its visibility and bargaining power in order to effectively advocate for and promote an institutional and normative reform of the international order toward a less asymmetric and exclusionary space for politics. This dissertation aims to examine the spatial and temporal assumptions in these recent discourses about Brazil's emergence to the global stage and Brazil']s disposition towards the future. Departing from an understanding that there are scripts governing the realm of the possible and the visible in international politics, this dissertation proposes an analysis of what defines the conditions of possibility for Brazil's emergence to the global stage. By looking at discourses about Brazil's position and positioning in international politics, this study explores implicit and explicit rules defining the possibilities for one to be seen as a legitimate presence in the future and what these spatiotemporal constructs reveal about what is allowed as repetition and as change in the world. Contrary to many optimistic accounts of Brazil's emergence as a transformational leader from the developing world, I argue that it is only possible for Brazil to be discursively represented as an emerging global player and/or a country of the future that may have finally arrived because of the same limiting spatial and temporal discursive representations in world politics that translate difference into hierarchy and that contain and define intelligible possibilities for an alternative political order.
Bringing in the Garbage: Opening a Critical Space for Vehicle Disposal Practices
Surak, Sarah Marie (Virginia Tech, 2012-04-19)
This dissertation examines the relationship among practices and policies of waste/ing and economic structures to make visible the implications of vehicle disposal policies for environmental policy and theory. Consequently, I attempt to build upon the small body of literature that is now critically engaging with waste production and resulting actions/inaction in the form of policies of management. In doing this I use waste as a lens to examine the interrelationships among environmental degradation and economic and political structures. Further, I examine these phenomena in relation to a physical object, the automobile, to add materiality to abstract notions of waste as it relates to both the political and the economic. Through vehicle recycling policies, I analyze how underlying economic structures in contemporary capitalism result in specific responses to the "problems" of waste as well as how the related responses, or "solutions" perpetuate an un-ecological industrial system which severely restricts the possibilities of making substantial change in the production of environmental harms.
A Case Study of Identity Politics in America: President George W. Bush and Nationalist Victimization Strategies towards Iraq
Gandy, Maegen Lorraine (Virginia Tech, 2003-08-22)
This thesis engages literature in the field of nationalism in order to explore the discursive construction of a Self-Other relationship in American foreign policy as it has been projected by President George W. Bush between September 11, 2001 and March 19, 2003. Political theorists advance numerous definitions of both the nation and nationalism that offer insight into the Self-Other dichotomy. Despite substantive differences, there is consensus among them that the 'national Self' must be accompanied by the presence and identification of Others who fall beyond political, cultural, and territorial boundaries. Without their presence, there would exist either one nation or none at all.
A Case Study of the Dimensions of Affordability of Undergraduate Education in Virginia
Ortgies, Jennifer Marie (Virginia Tech, 2008-10-31)
The main purpose of this research was to examine the dimensions of affordability of public undergraduate education, focusing on a single state during a particular period of time. The main research question was: What are the dimensions of affordability of public undergraduate education in Virginia? The study examined three dimensions between the years 1981 and 2000: 1) per capita disposable income (adjusted for inflation) in Virginia, 2) financial aid at the state and federal levels, and 3) the burden of a loan for college students. In addition, the study explored several possible influences on these dimensions, including partisan control of the U.S. presidency and Congress and partisan control of the Virginia governor and state legislature. Although this study focuses on the outcomes in a single state (undergraduate, public institution enrollments in Virginia), the national data were explored because states often determine how much they are able to contribute after the national contributions are taken into consideration. The key dependent variable was undergraduate enrollments at Virginia public higher education institutions. Do enrollments tend to increase, decrease, or remain constant when any of the dimensions of affordability increase, decrease, or remain constant? Two-year and four-year public undergraduate institutions in Virginia made up the sample of institutions examined. This research focused on the time frame of 1981 through 2000. The rationales for this specific time period were that 1) appropriate data are available for these years, and 2) it allows a big picture with contrary views of education policy at both the national and state levels. During this time period, Ronald Reagan (1981-1988), George H.W. Bush (1989-1992), and Bill Clinton (1993-2000) each served as president. Three consecutive years of decreases in Virginia's public undergraduate enrollments occurred in 1988-1990. 1990 was the highest year-to-year decrease at negative 4.79% overall. 1990 was the largest decrease in 4-year public institution enrollments in VA while 1988 was the largest decrease in enrollments for 2-year public institution enrollments in Virginia. The following things happened during these years of enrollment decreases, as they related to the dimensions of affordability and the named influences. First 1989 and 1991, were both years that the Virginia public higher education state appropriations were less than 1percent. Even though 1990 itself looked more positive with a 13.43 percent increase, the years preceding and following 1990 were not so positive. Second, when people can afford more, it appears to have an inverse relationship with public institution enrollments. When people can afford more, they most likely enroll at private institutions and when they can afford less, they enroll at public institutions. The highest enrollment year for 2-year public institutions was in 1985, which followed the second largest decrease to disposable income. The inverse relationship is less strong with four-year public institutions and is more evident in the two-year institutions. Thirdly, the 1993-1994 academic year marked the year when the number of loans for higher education appears that they will forever outnumber the amount of grants. This being said, the issue of affordability is really now a matter for after college years when the payback period for these loans begins versus during college attendance. Tuition costs rose by over 80% in four-year public institutions and by over 85% in two-year institutions while disposable income only increased by 36.% over the same time period. The issue of affordability should therefore be more closely examined during the payback period and could perhaps sway someone from enrolling knowing that this payback period is inevitable for most.
Case Study on World Trade Organization Dispute Settlement: European Communities — Measures Affecting Meat and Meatproducts (Hormones), Complaint by the United States
Cuppett, Bryan Scott (Virginia Tech, 2000-01-31)
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an international organization created to coordinate trading rules among nations. Made up of internationally negotiated trade agreements, the WTO has three main objectives: (1)to assist in the free operation of international trade; (2) to allow continued progress of liberalization of such trade through fair negotiations; and (3) to create a system for the impartial settlement of international trade disputes. A key component of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB). This body, as with the WTO itself, has only been in operation since January of 1995. The WTO, although relatively new, has made significant strides in improving the international trading system and resolving trade disputes. Unlike other international organizations, such as the international Monetary Fund (IMF) or World Bank, the WTO is not controlled by a board of directors, but instead is governed by its member nations. Given this type of arrangement, it is essential that the member nations abide by the signed agreements that govern the operation of the WTO and its Dispute Settlement Body. Otherwise the WTO cannot function as envisioned. This research argues that the European Union (EU) is presently abusing the system through its actions in the dispute settlement case EC- Hormones, Complaint by the United States. Using tactics designed to delay the resolution of this dispute, the EU has increased the costs ssociated with the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) and threatened the credibility of the WTO.
Celebrity Diplomacy in the Current Global Economy: A Feminist Perspective
Via, Sandra Elizabeth (Virginia Tech, 2011-01-25)
Using gender lenses, this dissertation examines the emergence of celebrity diplomats as viable political actors, providing diplomatic services focused on negotiation and humanitarian aid, in current international politics and the global economy. More specifically, this dissertation uses feminist political economy literature to examine how neoliberal globalization has contributed to the growing role of celebrity diplomats in international politics. I argue that the increased presence and involvement of celebrity diplomats in the post-9/11 era is the result of neoliberal globalization and the neoliberal state's shift toward privatization of the public sector, increased militarization, and increased emphasis on commodification and consumption. In order to examine this phenomenon, this dissertation examines the diplomatic endeavors of two celebrity diplomats, Angelina Jolie and George Clooney. More specifically, this study provides an in-depth analysis of Jolie and Clooney's roles and involvement in international politics. Moreover, this dissertation examines the gender roles of celebrity diplomats. Therefore, this dissertation provides a gender analysis of Jolie and Clooney's diplomatic endeavors. I argue that Jolie's diplomacy reflects her role as mother, while Clooney takes a masculine approach to his diplomatic agenda. Finally, the dissertation concludes with an analysis of the ways in which celebrity diplomacy can further promote a neoliberal agenda.
China's Participation in the South China Sea Environmental Project: Moving From a Laggard to a Leader in the Regional Environmental Cooperation
Jiao, Jinfeng (Virginia Tech, 2008-04-29)
The South China Sea is known as an area where the Chinese government stands against its Southeast Asian neighbors in unresolved sovereignty conflicts over the disputed islands and the exploration for natural resources. Therefore, the South China Sea presents challenges for multilateral environmental cooperation. China was not an active participant in the multilateral environmental cooperation in the South China Sea before the 1990s. However, the approval of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP)/Global Environmental Facility (GEF) South China Sea Project in 1999 marked a dramatic attitude change by the Chinese government towards the South China Sea environmental protection. It is the first multilateral inter-governmental initiative signed by China on any issues related to the South China Sea. Before signing its approval of the UNEP/GEF South China Sea Project, the Chinese government strongly opposed any multilateral cooperation concerning the South China Sea, since most of the islands in the South China Sea are territorially disputed islands between China and other coastal countries. This thesis tries to find the reasons why China changed its attitudes on the multilateral environmental cooperation in the South China Sea. Based on an analysis what happened for China from 1995 when the UNEP/GEF South China Sea project was initiated, to 1999, when China approved this project, this thesis found that the motivations for China to participate in the multilateral environmental cooperation in the South China Sea are collective of national interests, rather than a pure environmental interest.

Browsing by Author "Luke, Timothy W."

Results Per Page

Sort Options