ABSTRACT: The fashion industry in the late twentieth century saw a shift from national manufacturing to outsource manufacturing. This business model requires mass consumption and mass production adhering to tight deadlines. This system enables fashion companies to maximize their profits at the expense of garment workers in developing countries, especially women workers in major garment exporting countries such as Bangladesh. This thesis aims to present the results of research done on the Ready-Made Garment industry (RMG) in Bangladesh and answers to the question: how has mass consumption in the fashion industry affected major manufacturing countries like Bangladesh and their workforce?
This research question is tracing the history of the modern fashion system and of mass consumption, mass production, and the exploitation of garment workers from the point of view of Marxist theorists. In doing so, this paper focuses on female workers in the ready-made garment industry in Bangladesh. As well as focusing on how the industry was established by including specific quantitative and descriptive data regarding the female workforce. The research conducted demonstrates that mass production practices have proven harmful and deadly to Bangladesh’s female garment workforce.
ABSTRACT: This thesis presents the connections and repercussions of the various forms of religion and
nationalism in conflict and governmental regimes, and how religious sentiment, national or
religious unity, and patriotism have proven as relevant concepts in various instances of conflict,
incited by religious or patriotic nature. This, mostly in cases of revolution and toppling of
governments, wars, and border disputes. The paper shall progress into the study of several case
studies: The Libyan Jamahiriya (republic) of its leader Muammar al-Gaddafi, and the correlation
of radical Islam in Libya, North Africa, and the Middle East in the politics of the 20th century; the
infamous debacle in the Irish territories, with specific focus in the border disputes of the Republic
of Ireland and Northern Ireland in the mid to late twentieth century. In this case, the socio-religious
tensions, along with the dispute in the region over full Irish sovereignty or continued separation of
the Irish Republic and the Northern territory under jurisdiction of the United Kingdom will be of
particular interest; finally, the genocide of Bosnian Muslims during the Bosnian War of the 1990’s,
and the motives behind the bloodshed and the socio-political tensions in the region of the exYugoslavia throughout the conflict. It will be of paramount importance to depict religion and
nationalism, with relative sub-concepts of religious and national unity’s contributions in the events
that have taken place. A conclusion shall examine if and how the tension/s, conflict/s, and
bloodshed that have occurred ultimately have been incited by religious and nationalistic sentiments
and factors.
ABSTRACT: This thesis will analyze the sociopolitical background of Southern European states
surrounding the Mediterranean in order to understand the political and institutional shifts that
have caused an impact on the air quality of these particular regions. By examining the
consequences of human interaction in the environment, in respects to the greatest contributing
economic sectors to the worsening air quality conditions in specific regions of Southern Spain,
Italy and Greece, the research will provide an interpretation on the effects of multilateral
legislation on the domestic policies of such. The research will be corroborated through the
scrutinized view on the chronology of international political events that have led the energy
industries and maritime trade become one of the leading unregulated atmospheric pollutant
sources. Due to the given states’ geopolitical vicinity, their shared legislations established by the
supranational powers of the European Union will provide this research with a comparison on
how these policies have been enforced in their respective Southern regions. In addition,
environmental law and legislation can also be seen through an even smaller lens; this thesis will
include an in-depth examination of the reliability on multilateralism and its effects on regionally
enforced regulations relating to the emissions of air pollutants.
This environmental policy report will uphold the central premise of social domestic affairs
hindering the conservation of air quality in the vulnerable coastal regions of the Mediterranean
for the sake of embracing capitalist agenda. Therefore, all three countries have enabled a social
indifference towards environmental policies. Based on the aforementioned comparisons between
state and international environmental legislations, this thesis will be able to demonstrate the hypothesis, which justifies how sovereign countries that have endured comparable economic
recessions in the modern era, have left behind any moral concept regarding the preservation of
the environment, adhering to treaties and endorsing corporations directly related to nonrenewable energy production and trade, large emitters of extremely prejudicial polluting gases.
Lightbourne, Kennedy Dahlia
ABSTRACT: This thesis argues that the political participation of Black gay activists in the 1980‘s raised
awareness of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Also, this argument advances that African Americans are
always fending for the preservation and protection of their community. The thesis explores the
history of being a person of African descent and also being gay in the United States of America in
regard to loss of identity. Uniquely, the thesis combines these two social identities and creates a
more unique dynamic, which links to the case study of the thesis: LGBT community. The thesis
uses intersectionality and explores how the use of the concept could have helped ameliorate the
lives of the HIV/AIDS victims, especially in the public health care aspect. The thesis briefly
provides a history of the HIV/AIDS, therefore the reader can have an insight of the event.
However, the author encourages the readers to study the trials and challenges that plagued the
LGBT community more in-depth because of the negligence of the Reagan Administration and the
societal attitudes in the United States. Furthermore, this thesis presents the works and triumphs of
various activists and organizations that were prominent in the awareness and fighting against
HIV/AIDS. Throughout these explorations, usage of theories and the initiatives of the activists, I
present analyses and arguments on how the political participation helped the LGBT community
during the epidemic. Moreover, I offer advice to future activists and advocate strategies and tools,
in regard to political participation, to better equip themselves when they are fighting against
injustices and raising awareness for those more marginalized and more oppressed. Another
component I would like to add is that passion and rage for the fight for rights, equal opportunity
and freedom for my LGBT community is what compelled me to write this thesis.
ABSTRACT: This thesis explores the extent to which the feminist movement altered gender policies in the US,
Norway, and Italy in the 1970s and 1980s. The starting hypothesis was that the feminist
movement exerted a strong influence on gender policies, especially concerning abortion and
reproductive rights, the gender wage gap, and family leave. The primary method was a
comparative analysis of scholarly research and qualitative data, supplemented with an
ethnographic approach which gathered contextual, empirical knowledge about the social
conditions and behaviors of people who had first-hand experience with the subject matter. The
primary investigator conducted one-on-one interviews with four professors and two experts of
the Italian feminist movement, interviewing two people from each of the countries considered for
the research. The outcome of this research shows that Norway is indeed a particular case
compared to Italy and the United States; and, while Italy has developed a progressive set of
policies regarding abortion and parental leave, the US tells a different story, with very poor
gender policies. Ultimately, this research concludes that feminist movements are the reason why
conversations about abortion, parental leave, and the gender wage gap began in the first place in
these three countries.
Slaughter, Olivia Caroline
ABSTRACT: The global security environment has drastically transformed for interstate conflict in post-modernity. Where interstate power operations were once solely reliant on the economic, military, and diplomatic instruments, a new instrument of statecraft has risen which relies on information. This information includes psychological, sociological, historical, cultural values, scientific qualities, and knowledge. Information can dictate power operations when it is collected, analyzed, and disseminated. State actors, non-state actors, and global citizens can manipulate global power realities by controlling information. Information as a statecraft may not always be operationally separable from the other instruments of power. In chapter one, the post-modern security paradigm will be introduced. The literary analysis in chapter two is a compilation of a series of theorists who have, in some way, described this fourth instrument of statecraft in their works. Chapter three details the historical beginnings of this instrument of power, including the trending methods of coercion, effects of neoliberal international institutions, and the Information Age. Chapter four is a case study of post-modern U.S. intelligence and defense operations and strategies which align with Foucault’s theory of biopolitics and Deleuze’s control societies paradigm. My findings of this research are that the statecraft of information is elusive; however, it is analytically separable from the other three major operations of interstate power. Further, this instrument will only continue to manifest in its importance as societies continue to modernize in the age of information.
ABSTRACT: The purpose of this thesis is to understand how the implementation of blasphemy laws violates human rights principles of free speech and religion, utilized in a manner that opposes its intended aim. Beginning with a discussion of blasphemy, the different kinds, its debate, the subsequent effects of its utilization, and the international human rights framework encompasses blasphemy, this paper will analyze the manner in which rights to freedom of speech and religion are violated in the cases of blasphemy laws that specifically protect religions. Through an analysis of the three countries of Pakistan, Indonesia, and Egypt, each country will be presented with two cases of blasphemy and an examination of the legal structure and following international framework, using the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. While also providing quantitative data, placing each country within a measured context providing studies and reports of the severity of global blasphemy laws, the thesis will then proceed to drawing its conclusions from the relevant case studies. Finally, it finds blasphemy legislation aimed to specifically protect religion, along with other contextual factors such as democracy level and religious homogeneity, result in cases of religious violence or protest, either silencing opposition or discriminating against religious minorities, and ultimately abuse international human rights framework and values of freedom of speech, expression, and religion.
