Abstract - Institute of Philosophy and Sociology PAS

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The aim of my dissertation is to explore the experience of extended exile and encampment aslived by the inhabitants of Al-Am‘ari, a quasi-permanent Palestinian refugee city-camp locatedin the West Bank. Specifically, I analyze the condition of double exclusion understood, afterMichel Agier, to stem from (1) refugees leaving behind their social and material worlds of originor inhabitation; and (2) their unique position within the new environments as newcomers, whosepresence the host population expects to be temporary. In the course of extended exile the initialcondition of double exclusion is subject to change. I am therefore interested in Al-Am‘arians’efforts to challenge the exclusion from places of origin and to retain links with the pre-exilicpast, as well as in the processes, events and practices through which the social boundariesseparating the camp from the neighboring towns have been re-negotiated. Contrary to what hasbeen a dominant focus of research in studies on refugees, namely mass displacement in ruralareas, quasi-permanent refugee city-camps are critical sites for investigating and redefiningdisplacement and emplacement alike. I aim to contribute to the literature by exploring how a newsocial entity, Al-Am‘ari camp, emerged within the context of double exclusion. The commonlyused model of refugee integration assumes that refugees’ adaptation to life in exile is inextricablylinked to a gradually loosening attachment to their places of origin and their commitment toreturn. My findings challenge this model: instead, I discuss how Al-Am‘arians’ longing anddedication to the places of origin have become an integral part of their contemporary identities.While most studies deal with the geopolitical dimension of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, myfocus is on Al-Am‘arians’ daily lives analyzed at individual, family and community levels. Thedissertation is based on eight months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Al-Am‘ari camp atintervals between January 2010 and August 2012. In the course of fieldwork I conducted fiftyone in-depth interviews, carried out participant observation on a daily basis and gathered visual,textual and statistical data.
The conclusion goes beyond the initial scope of the dissertation by showing how Butler, with Adorno, can be juxtaposed with those critics who want to turn contemporary feminism away from the notion that ‘everything is culture/language’ (Butler) and instead focus on materiality and matter (New Materialism; Karen Barad). By reading Butler not against but with New Materialism, the dichotomy between culture and nature turns into a productive difference rather than something that is unsurmountable contradiction.
The first chapter deals exclusively with Adorno’s theoretical development and negative dialectics. It focusses on how Adorno’s general philosophical outlook can be interpreted as a critical enterprise aimed at correcting the ‘wrongness of the present’, to show how and where society, politics, or philosophy has failed to live up to what they claim to have achieved e.g. how the notion of a shared national identity fails to consider the diverseness of the individuals it encompasses. Adorno’s central issue is thus with ‘Identity Thinking’ (1990), a mode of thinking aimed at providing an account of everything from a unified perspective.
The main aim of the thesis is to explain the role of social capital in the health practices of mothers in rural Ethiopia. To reduce high maternal mortality, the Ethiopian government has implemented a range of policies to expand medical services and empower women to better manage their health. National policymakers have organized female social networks to function alongside traditional ties in the communities. Despite the rich and diverse landscape of local social organizations, little is known about their links with developmental health policies. Applying Bourdieu’s definition of social capital, I addressed three research questions concerning (1) the forms and factors of women's creation of social networks (2) the links between social capital and health, and (3) the broader environment affecting care-seeking and the position of health workers. Using the case of a rural community in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region (SNNPR), I conducted 50 interviews with ordinary women and policy stakeholders, and analyzed longitudinal data about the community, which was complemented by desk research and field observations. The results indicate that overlapping bottom-up and state-inspired social networks educate women and provide them with material, spiritual, and psychological support, but also control their maternal health practices. Institutional norms, gender, and material situation condition networking opportunities. The state’s effort to transform traditional habits regarding pregnancy and delivery in the name of modernization is hampered by structural factors that prevent women from accessing biomedical health care. Consequently, although state-led pressure utilizing local social capital contributes to better maternal health, it also reproduces gender inequalities and may, unintentionally, draw attention away from the circumstances in which Ethiopian women live.
The main aim of this dissertation is to examine whether or not Judith Butler’s feminist philosophy (Queer theory) can be interpreted as what Theodor W. Adorno called a dialectical or immanent critique of dialectics. The rationale behind this examination can be found in two essays published by Carrie Hull (1997) and Marcel Stoetzler (2005). In these essays, both authors suggest that Butler’s argument (Gender Trouble 1999[1990]) would benefit significantly from being juxtaposed with Adorno’s reconceptualisation of dialectics as ‘negative dialectics’ (Negative Dialectics 1990[1966]). However, while Hull and Stoetzler provide convincing arguments, their claims are, at best, superficial. Thus, this dissertation addresses this particular lack in state of the art by thoroughly examining Hull’s and Stoetzler’s suggested reading of Butler with Adorno (and vice versa).
School education internationalization is a complex process that may be carried out in many ways, both by top-down and grassroots activities. Although it mainly brings positive changes, enhances the skills of teachers and learners, and enriches the school’s daily performance, culture and community values, it is also impossible to overlook the internationalization encumbering risks. This dissertation aims to explore internationalization qualities and provide testimonies for the links between teachers' individual transnational mobility experiences and the overall internationalization of their school settings. The subject of the research are primary and secondary schools using the Erasmus+ programme between 2014-2020. The first part of the dissertation refers to the different internationalization patterns that apply to school education, primarily focusing on the school community members (mainly teachers) and drawing on theories that scrutinize institutions from the perspective of their internal relations, mutual contacts, and knowledge exchange. Following the theoretical assumptions, the next part discusses the EU’s general approach towards improving education quality in the Member States. It describes how the legal frameworks of the EU and policy strategies linked the enhancement of the quality of education with the granting policy. Next, the mixed methods approach used in the research to reinterpret data obtained between 2016–2020 is explained. The data in this dissertation stems from different research activities performed by the author during his work at the Erasmus+ National Agency in Poland. The research results are described in the subsequent chapters, focusing on transnational mobility individual and institutional impact, internationalization quality factors and obstacles that might hinder its positive outcomes. Each aspect has been described in a separate chapter, accompanied by data reflecting the testimonies of various informant groups. This research shows that teachers’ in-service training abroad can result in international learners’ exchanges, international cooperation projects with foreign partner schools and other organizations and encourage participation in international education programmes. Internationalization aims to increase the school community members’ knowledge of different cultures, languages, and ways of thinking, encouraging them to gain experience in an international environment. <br>
The second chapter, as preparation for the third (on Butler), is divided into two shorter examinations of Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida, two figures whose works have greatly inspired Butler. Foucault and Adorno converge around their shared criticism of social structures, which permits nothing but themselves. Derrida and Adorno converge in their shared mode of criticism that seeks to, in Derrida’s words, deconstruct a text or a theory from within. Hence, by juxtaposing Foucault’s and Derrida’s critical philosophies with Adorno’s negative dialectics, the notion that Butler can be juxtaposed with Adorno is secured by drawing a straight line from Butler’s theoretical inspirators.
The third chapter engages in a close reading of Butler and subsequently (relying heavily on Hull and Stoetzler) in a critical reinterpretation that reads Butler not as an anti-dialectical thinker but instead as an ambiguous dialectical thinker. Butler interpreted like this paves the way for reading Butler’s feminism firmly within Adorno’s negative dialectics. Adding Adorno’s account of materiality to Butler, while still keeping Butler’s criticism of feminism’s ‘totalizing gestures’ (1999) intact, makes it more apparent how Butler’s argument contains a materialist account and gives materiality a more prominent place in Butler’s argument. The lack of materialityin Butler has been criticised by other feminists (New Materialism) since the publication of Gender Trouble. Thus, by adding Adorno to Butler, this criticism is met head-on.

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