Turkey has applied to be member of the European Community already in 1987. Up to this day however, it has not joined and the negotiations have come to a halt. The debate about whether Turkey should...Show moreTurkey has applied to be member of the European Community already in 1987. Up to this day however, it has not joined and the negotiations have come to a halt. The debate about whether Turkey should join the European Union and whether it is compatible with its community has been highly politicised over the last years. The discussion usually revolves around whether Turkey is Eu- ropean enough to be a part of the Union, whether it fulfils all the fundamental criteria to join on an economic, political and social level as well as whether Turkey’s membership would bring about a form of cultural clash. The discourse around the topic and the language employed by policy makers has so far not been as well researched. This paper therefore explores the following research questi- on: “What is the role of an ‘othering’ discourse in the Turkey EU membership negotiations?”. It explores the theoretical framework of Othering and how it connects to the concept of Orientalism. Building on how Europe historically defines itself against an Other, both sides will be analysed on their language. Using methods of critical discourse analysis, the language of Turkish and EU insti- tutional policy makers is examined. Based on this research, tentative conclusions are drawn about the underlying meaning of speeches and remarks and how they fit into the framework of Othering.Show less
The argument presented in this thesis is that constructivist theory offers a useful tool to interpret the effect that CW use has on the international community. It is the social identities and the...Show moreThe argument presented in this thesis is that constructivist theory offers a useful tool to interpret the effect that CW use has on the international community. It is the social identities and the strong prohibitive norm when it comes to the use of CW that construes a reality in which narratives of justification are produced when it comes to the use of force. This moral reality cannot be explained solely rationally, but has roots in decades of social interaction, which makes that violations of norms concerning CWs are put higher on the international agenda than other violations. The relevance of this study lies in the reflection on constructivism as a theoretical tool, but also in its aim to contribute to a broader understanding of how certain types of harm raise more attention in international politics: what causes the international community to be concerned about norm violation? As obvious as the answer of ‘inhumane practices’ seems, it is just a small percentage of suffering that becomes an international concern. The following puzzle has led to the research question: how can we explain the international community’s particular concern about violations of the norm on the prohibition of chemical weapons by using constructivist theory?Show less
This thesis focusses on the question: How has the Chinese propaganda department propagated stories in and outside of China through its new-type mainstream media since the 18th CCP Congress in 2012?...Show moreThis thesis focusses on the question: How has the Chinese propaganda department propagated stories in and outside of China through its new-type mainstream media since the 18th CCP Congress in 2012? The CPD endeavours to send a coherent message to different audiences in order to enhance China’s international image by applying a new media-management strategy that aims at telling better stories to the world about China. This thesis endeavours to identify the rationales of the CPD through an analysis of its structure and the aims of the new media-management strategy. As a case study, eight video clips will be analysed, interpreted and discussed alongside the academic research in order to draw conclusions. On the basis of the video clip analyses, the conclusion is that the CPD tells four different narratives at this moment: the Chinese Dream and rejuvenation discourse; the Belt and Road Initiative; China’s desire to pursue diversity and inclusivity for all in the international system; and using Xi Jinping as a popular idol. Moreover, this thesis shows that the clips fit in the longer tradition of Chinese political communication in the form of visual tifa.Show less
People in the host society usually decide the identity of immigrants by immigrant’s descent and race. However, such criteria of judgment easily lead to the “labeling” of immigrants as “non-natives”...Show morePeople in the host society usually decide the identity of immigrants by immigrant’s descent and race. However, such criteria of judgment easily lead to the “labeling” of immigrants as “non-natives” and “forever foreigner”. And this kind of label is quite often placed on Overseas Chinese. Actually, the process of Overseas Chinese integrating into the host society has similarities with the history of the fusion of Hu and Han nationalities in Chinese history. Thus by comparing to the history of Hu and Han nationalities, a new standard to decide the identity of Chinese immigrants has been brought by this paper. The criteria to judge the identity of Overseas Chinese should not be based on descent and race, but on their cultural identity. The purpose of the paper is to enhance understanding of the difficulty of integrating into the host society faced by Overseas Chinese and tries to make some suggestions which may help to improve the hard situation of Overseas Chinese.Show less
The focus of this thesis is on the role of the Dutch national identity in the perceptions and experiences of a wide array of Dutch Spainfighters, who volunteered to fight on the Republican side in...Show moreThe focus of this thesis is on the role of the Dutch national identity in the perceptions and experiences of a wide array of Dutch Spainfighters, who volunteered to fight on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s. It aims to understand how the volunteers dealt with the potential for clashes between the imagined communities of the Dutch nation-state and the border transcending, transnational appeal of their left-wing ideology. This thesis demonstrates that they felt loyalty both to the transnational community of left-wing and communist sympathizers, and the national Dutch community. It argues that the motivation of the Spainfighters is closely linked to their national identity, which they tried to construct in symbiosis with their transnational thoughts via the message of anti-fascism. As such, the thesis adds to the understanding of the phenomenon of foreign fighters. Next to the conscious building of national identity, national sentiments and practical culture played a considerable role in the daily reality of the Spainfighters, which is especially relevant if the rather mythical image of the International Brigades as a classic example of a transnational army is taken into account. As the case of the Dutch Spainfighters illustrates, the International Brigades provided space and even recognition for national identity as an organizing entity and as such functioned more as an ideologically motivated international army. For this reason, this thesis suggests that the fundaments of the supposedly transnational movement of support to the Spanish Republic may partly be built on national tensions and the resulting compromises. While studying transnational movements in the twentieth century, it therefore may be worth the effort to analyze the role of national identity, of national political culture.Show less
In 1910 Elia Volpi bought the Palazzo Davanzati in Florence. The antiquarian renovated the former merchant palazzo into an old Florentine home and filled it with artworks and furniture from the...Show moreIn 1910 Elia Volpi bought the Palazzo Davanzati in Florence. The antiquarian renovated the former merchant palazzo into an old Florentine home and filled it with artworks and furniture from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century. Question in this thesis is whether Volpi used sources to create his reconstruction of the medieval Renaissance interior and if he used sources, which kind of sources he used.Show less
Verbal irony has been a topic of study for several decades and conclusive answers to what it is and how language users correctly understand each other’s ironic expressions are difficult to provide....Show moreVerbal irony has been a topic of study for several decades and conclusive answers to what it is and how language users correctly understand each other’s ironic expressions are difficult to provide. Saying the opposite of what you actually mean does not seem the most effective way of communicating at first sight, but it has proven to be used over and over again without much misunderstanding. Several theories have been proposed in the past few decades that try to explain the concept of verbal irony (among others Grice 1975; Wilson & Sperber 1992; Giora 1997; Tobin & Israel 2012). Most theories on verbal irony share the idea that irony is best defined as an utterance with a literal evaluation that is implicitly opposite to its intended evaluation (Burgers & Van Mulken 2013: 184). According to Giora and others (see for example Giora, Drucker & Fein 2014), constructions (form-meaning pairs) can even be interpreted ironically by default, when the interpretation that springs to mind first is the ironic interpretation, whether presented in isolation or in a context biasing towards that ironic interpretation. This claim is based solely on experimental research with constructed examples (among others Giora et al. 2015; Giora, Givoni & Fein 2015; Giora et al. 2018). However, to support the claim of default ironic interpretation actual language data should be involved, but such corpus studies on ironic constructions are rare. This study builds on two previous studies investigating Dutch ironic constructions on Twitter (Walles 2016; Stevens 2018), and it extends the scope to ironic constructions in English. By comparing three corpora each containing 2,000 tweets with one of the three hashtags #irony, #not, and #sarcasm with a corpus containing 15,000 general English tweets, 30 words and 22 phrases appeared to occur significantly more often in the ironic tweets. These words and phrases were used to compile a new corpus, containing one hundred tweets for each word or phrase. An analysis of the tweets showed that only four were used ironically significantly more often, namely 'classy', 'I’m shocked', 'what a surprise', and 'yeah right'. Exploring the ironic meaning of these four constructions from a constructionist point of view is fruitful, since their ironic meaning can be better understood as these constructions are considered as one unit to which the ironic meaning is assigned. These constructions underwent subjectification: its ironic evaluation has become part of the conventional meaning of the construction and the usage of the construction is expanded to a wider range of communicative contexts in which it conveys an ironic attitude (Verhagen 2000). This gradual conventionalization of the ironic evaluation explains why certain constructions are used more frequently with an ironic intent than others: those constructions have progressed further in the conventionalization process and the ironic meaning has become more closely attached to the construction (Claridge 2011). Nevertheless, the four ironic constructions in the Twitter corpus could not be classified as default ironic constructions, as there are still cases in which they are used literally. The notion of default ironic interpretation is problematic, as the analysis of actual language data do not support the view that one particular construction is always and only used ironically.Show less
The Deacons for Defense and Justice were formed in 1964 by a group of African American men from Jonesboro, Liousiana, who were fed up with the daily threat of Klan-violence. The organization gained...Show moreThe Deacons for Defense and Justice were formed in 1964 by a group of African American men from Jonesboro, Liousiana, who were fed up with the daily threat of Klan-violence. The organization gained reputation for being armed and willing to shoot back at attackers, which was in contrast with the nonviolent strategy as preached by activists such as Martin Luther King Jr. However, as the Movement was progressing, more armed African American organizations were established and the Deacons' faded away against the background of more radical groups such as the Black Panther Party. The Deacons' role within these late years of the Civil Rights Movement is what has been researched in this Master Thesis.Show less
Connecting Kaurismäki to irony is not surprising, but is surprisingly enough, not so much scholarly researched in the past. Irony appears in different disguises, largely depending on the function...Show moreConnecting Kaurismäki to irony is not surprising, but is surprisingly enough, not so much scholarly researched in the past. Irony appears in different disguises, largely depending on the function of it; what the ironist wants to achieve. Applying it can originate from an urge to complicate a matter of discussion but can also be applied to translate the oppositional stance the ironist wants to reveal. In the case of the enigmatic Kaurismäki his intentions or motivations in his choice of theme and subject are essential to the humour he adapts in telling his stories, but always remains somewhat vague. This thesis provides an image of how irony prevails and functions in his cinema on the base of a series of comparative case studies linked to three of his films: I Hired a Contract Killer (1990), The Man Without a Past (2002) and The Other Side of Hope (2017). It eventually sets out an idea of a filmmaker who, by applying irony, both distances though simultaneously engages himself with his audience in his own wayward fashion.Show less
This thesis is a study of Early Modern German medical information in Early Sixteenth century London print culture. The study focusses on information transference from the Continent to the British...Show moreThis thesis is a study of Early Modern German medical information in Early Sixteenth century London print culture. The study focusses on information transference from the Continent to the British Isles.Show less
Following mass demonstrations in Brazil for the impeachement of Dilma Rousseff and the increasing relevance of local city governments in global politics this paper examines and analyses the...Show moreFollowing mass demonstrations in Brazil for the impeachement of Dilma Rousseff and the increasing relevance of local city governments in global politics this paper examines and analyses the possible effects of 'glocal' governing on the Brazilian population. This paper takes the city government and population of São Paulo as Case Study.Show less
The Crimean Tatar identity has been under a major threat since the Russian annexation of Crimea which took place in 2014. Accounts of human right violations have been reported on several occasions....Show moreThe Crimean Tatar identity has been under a major threat since the Russian annexation of Crimea which took place in 2014. Accounts of human right violations have been reported on several occasions. This thesis looks at Crimean Tatar resistance and opposition in response to pro-Russian discrimination and oppression. This is done by firstly examining key historical periods of Crimean Tatar activism and political movements in relation to their history of discrimination by the Russians. Theories on the construction of identities in ethnic minorities are then linked to the current state of Crimean activism. This thesis finds that Crimean Tatar unity in activism is shaped by a shared history of repression which corresponds to the concept of cultural politics. The Crimean Homeland has also played an important role in forging the Crimean Tatar identity and has contributed to solidifying Crimean Tatar resistance.Show less
This paper has primarily attempted to determine whether neoliberal economic policy is making a return to Brazil, and secondarily what the most likely explanation for this could be. The elections of...Show moreThis paper has primarily attempted to determine whether neoliberal economic policy is making a return to Brazil, and secondarily what the most likely explanation for this could be. The elections of October 2018 provided the context to perform an analysis on this subject: the two candidates competing in the second round of elections, Jair Bolsonaro and Fernando Haddad and their visions on economic policy for Brazil have been analyzed through the method of content analysis. The programas de governo or governing programs of both candidates has served as the main subject of the study. Additionally articles in journals and interviews have been taken into consideration. Neoliberal economic policy in this paper is defined as a specific set of economic policies associated with the Washington Consensus. Although the Washington Consensus contains a total of ten advised economic reforms, the analysis in this paper will focus on specifically three, namely privatization, trade liberalization and austerity. This will be followed by a demonstration of a ‘retreat’ of neoliberal economic policy worldwide at the hand of the trade policies of the Trump administration in the United States and the change of direction made by International Financial Institutions. Thirdly, the political situation of the last years in Brazil will be described in order to provide the reader with the necessary context for the analysis. Fourthly, the turn to neoliberal economic policy under the current Temer administration will be demonstrated to establish that neoliberalism has returned to Brazil, albeit in the form of a government with near to no public support: favorable views of the (neoliberal) reforms among the candidates under study would be a strong indication a continuation of this policy under a new president is likely. This has been researched through the programas de governo, articles and interviews. Lastly, two possible explanations have been considered. The paper will conclude that it is indeed likely that Brazil, now with a candidate enjoying significant public support, will continue on the path of neoliberal economic policy. This return to neoliberal economic policy will be concluded to be due to a form of crisis management in Brazil.Show less
The thesis focuses on medicine policy in the PRC from 1949 until 1962. The aim of the research is to decide whether or not deteriorating Sino-Soviet relations have contributed to the remarkable...Show moreThe thesis focuses on medicine policy in the PRC from 1949 until 1962. The aim of the research is to decide whether or not deteriorating Sino-Soviet relations have contributed to the remarkable change in Chinese medicine policy that took place throughout the designated time period. The author analyzes all available issues of both English and Chinese versions of the leading Chinese Medical Journal to demonstrate policy change, political development and a change in Sino-Soviet relations.Show less
With Jordan's poor economy prior to the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War and the subsequent influx of more than 1 million Syrian Refugees into the nation, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has...Show moreWith Jordan's poor economy prior to the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War and the subsequent influx of more than 1 million Syrian Refugees into the nation, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has suffered economically from their arrival. The worsening of the demographic imbalance, increasing the water scarcity further, and impacting the high unemployment rates of the nation, it is hard to see how Jordan could possibly benefit from the refugees. However through the careful and efficient use of the investments made into the refugee camps and into Jordan as well by the international community, Jordan can turn this burden into a boost for both the Jordanians and the Syrian refugees.Show less
