Arts (Faculty of)http://hdl.handle.net/10012/98652024-03-29T12:51:52Z2024-03-29T12:51:52ZTranstextual Narratives about the European Union. A qualitative research on structuring, sense-making constructions of reality from a linguistic perspectiveSchüller, Peterhttp://hdl.handle.net/10012/204082024-03-29T02:30:52Z2024-03-28T00:00:00ZTranstextual Narratives about the European Union. A qualitative research on structuring, sense-making constructions of reality from a linguistic perspective
Schüller, Peter
Narratives are never finished products, but constantly evolving linguistic constructs. Actors use them to position themselves and develop the narratives further in the process. In this respect, narratives are to be understood as specifically interpreted constructions of reality that lie between the level of text and discourse.
The aim of this paper is to analyze such narratives about the European Union in three political speeches by the presidents of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker and Ursula von der Leyen. To this end, narrative is methodically analyzed using the narrative constituents 'chronotope', 'actors', 'plot development/emplotment' and 'attitude'. These narrative constituents are in turn divided into sub-constituents that can be analyzed intratextually.
The analysis of transtextual narratives offers the possibility of examining constructed sequences of actions that are contextualized in an actor-specific way. In the course of the argumentation of policies or political goals, for example, legitimization strategies can be traced. The constitution of functional actor constellations as well as of spatio-temporal distinct contexts can justify projects and motivate actions. The qualitative-explorative approach of this paper is intended to promote a better understanding of transtextual narratives and thus of a form of discursively constructed realities.
2024-03-28T00:00:00ZGerman Heritage Language Attitudes in Ontario: A Case Study about the German Language in German-Canadian FamiliesHezel, Annemarie Luisehttp://hdl.handle.net/10012/203992024-03-20T02:31:00Z2024-03-19T00:00:00ZGerman Heritage Language Attitudes in Ontario: A Case Study about the German Language in German-Canadian Families
Hezel, Annemarie Luise
This thesis aims at investigating language attitudes expressed by members of German-Canadian families (n=12) in semi-structured interviews. The analysis draws on methods from the field of Interactional Linguistics and focuses specifically on a linguistic and structural analysis of the collected interview data. Three of the four families speak predominantly German as their family language (home language) while one family exclusively speaks English. The parents and children were interviewed separately in order to ensure the possibility of subsequently comparing the results of both data sets in the discussion section. The analysis largely focuses on implicit and explicit language attitudes toward the German language as well as the way the participants position themselves and others in the interviews. In the process of structuring and organizing the collected data the following four categories were established: (1) Individual-Affective Factors, (2) Practical-Economic Benefits, (3) Potential Obstacles, and (4) The future of German in Canada.
2024-03-19T00:00:00ZCorporate Power and Changes to Provincial Environmental Regulation During the First Year of the COVID-19 PandemicLaBrash, Daniellehttp://hdl.handle.net/10012/203962024-03-15T02:30:58Z2024-03-14T00:00:00ZCorporate Power and Changes to Provincial Environmental Regulation During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic
LaBrash, Danielle
How have Canada’s largest oil producing provinces altered key environmental policies since
the onset of COVID-19, in response to the dual pressures of an oil sector in distress and the
imperative to reduce emissions? While regulatory changes have been reported in the media, they have
not yet been systemically reviewed or explained; this project aims to fill that gap.
Oil markets went into crisis in early 2020 as oil prices plummeted following an oil price war
between Russia and Saudi Arabia and the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, the global community has entered into a critical decade in climate history: the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has stated that a sharp reduction in emissions over the
next decade is needed to avoid the worst consequences of climate change. Government policy
interventions in this moment are both determining the future of the oil sector and defining
possibilities for climate change mitigation.
This thesis analyzes changes to regulations made by the oil-producing provinces of
Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador at this critical moment. Conducting a full review of
provincial regulatory changes during the pandemic, I find that in the first year of the COVID-19
pandemic Canada’s oil provinces demonstrated a clear pattern of supporting the oil sector by
weakening provincial environmental regulation surrounding the sector. Regulatory changes observed
in 2020 can be explained in part by considering corporate power, and strategies used by oil
corporations to influence government, in each province. These changes to provincial regulatory
frameworks shape Canada’s response to the ongoing economic and climate crises, and further expose
Canadians to both the risks of climate change and the economic risk of an oil sector in long-term
decline.
2024-03-14T00:00:00ZProfessional Ethics for Economists: A Reflection on DeMartino's OathWass, Chrishttp://hdl.handle.net/10012/203462024-02-17T03:30:48Z2024-02-16T00:00:00ZProfessional Ethics for Economists: A Reflection on DeMartino's Oath
Wass, Chris
Economists and the discipline of economics occupy positions of immense institutional and intellectual authority in the world today. Decisions made based on the advice and expertise of economists influence the lives of millions of people. Economic ideas are leaned upon to shape government and corporate agendas the world over. But this influence on the world also carries with it the possibility that such ideas and actors can be the cause of significant harm. Despite these powerful positions that economists occupy and the possibility of being responsible for harming others, there has heretofore been very little serious or sustained discussion as to the potential ethical responsibilities that they might have as a profession.
Over the last few years, several economists have taken note of this absence within the field and attempted to initiate a discourse about the types of professional ethical obligations that they might share as a group. One of the leading voices in this nascent discourse has been George DeMartino and his 2011 book The Economist’s Oath – which lays down many of the core assumptions and conceptual apparatuses that have guided the conversation thus far. In his book, DeMartino offers an overview of how he perceives the profession, the problems facing it, and he argues that a promising way to proceed would be to model Professional Ethics for Economists on the practices found in the medical profession.
In this thesis, I critically examine the argument made by DeMartino in The Economist’s Oath and argue for some potential alternatives as to how the overall project might proceed. In Chapter 1, I lay out what I take to be the core of DeMartino’s position and identify a number of points upon which the discourse might be expanded. In Chapter 2, I offer one such expansion of the discourse on the specific topic of economic history and add additional details to some of the key historical events discussed by DeMartino. I argue that this additional context regarding the history of economics alters how they many central assumptions of DiMartino's enterprise are understood. In this chapter, I also introduce the recent development within the AEA, wherein they deviated from the historical trend of avoiding discussion of ethical topics and recently introduced a code of professional conduct for its members. I will discuss the ways that this new code does and does not address the concerns that DeMartino raises. In Chapter 3, I focus on one of the major themes of DeMartino’s book, his reliance on an analogy between economics and medicine. I argue that this analogy in DeMartino’s book – the comparison between the economic and medical professions – has fundamental limitations and that there are other established professional ethics literatures to which more fruitful comparisons can be made. In Chapter 4, I offer two such alternatives – accounting and engineering. The first alternative that I propose is accounting ethics and in particular its use of the concept of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. The second alternative explored here is engineering and the emphasis that that profession places on the principle of humility. I conclude, in Chapter 5, by applying some of these possible alternative frameworks to a selection of recent real-life examples of behaviour by economists to which such professional ethics ideas may have been usefully applied.
2024-02-16T00:00:00Z