VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Ideologies and mass violence : the justificatory mechanics of deadly atrocities

This thesis seeks to provide an account of the role played by ideologies in acts of mass violence against civilians, such as genocides, murderous state repression, war crimes, and other ‘atrocities’. Mass violence of this kind has already received extensive study, with scholars frequently emphasising their belief that ideology is important. Until now, however, discussions of ideology have been held back by a lack of conceptual and theoretical development, leading to narrow portrayals of ideology’s role, vagueness over its relevance, and dubious assumptions about its theoretical implications.
This thesis addresses these problems by building a more focused and integrative theoretical framework for analysing the ideological dynamics of atrocities. I engage in an extensive conceptual and methodological discussion, to establish the best way of defining and utilising the concept of ideology. In doing so, I emphasise how ideology can be important even for that majority of atrocity perpetrators who do not meet classic but misleading stereotypes of fanatical killers driven by burning hatred. I then detail my actual account of the ideological dynamics of deadly atrocities, which centres around the identification of six ‘justificatory mechanisms’: dehumanisation, guilt-attribution, threat-construction, deagentification, virtuetalk, and future-bias. These justificatory mechanisms describe sets of ideological processes that recur across different cases of violence against civilians, and which make that violence look permissible or even desirable to those who, in a variety of roles, carry it out. I then substantiate this account through three case studies: of Nazi atrocities, Stalinist oppression, and Allied area bombing in World War II. These cases demonstrate the cross-case applicability of the six justificatory mechanisms, and illustrate how the framework I offer allows us to construct more causally explicit, psychologically plausible, and comprehensive pictures of the way key ideologies feed in to the most destructive campaigns of violence against civilians.

Keywords: Ideology
Genocide
Violence
Mass Killing
Atrocities
Advisor: Frazer, E
Persons, language and holism

The thesis pursued in this dissertation raises and examines a specific philosophical problem, essential to the study of the ontology of the social world. This problem has its origin in the question: 'how is is possible that the social world is constituted as a unified totality or complex whole?'. It is argued that the defining feature of a viable theory of social holism is that it is able to posit this metaphysical kind of problem. In this sense, the holist discourse that provides the terms for expressing the meaningfulness of this problem or the conditions of its legitimacy is, equivalently, an attempt to answer it, giving the form of the social world as an ontological domain. Thus this thesis discloses what is here proposed as the formal ontology of social reality and investigates the cluster of issues relevant to this. The study consists of three related stages (Parts).
Part One spells out the formal mode of ontological inquiring and lays down the metatheoretical validity of holism. On the one hand, the principal idea is that the introduction of certain principles of relationality and of the "moment/whole" problematic establishes the basis of a non-extensional constitution of the social world; it is essential that individuals have the formal character of "entelechial Leibnizian monads" being in conceptual communication. On the other hand, the status of holist categories and commitments involves a transcendental mode of reasoning on the metaphysics of the social world.
Part Two examines the three necessary moments of the conceptual communication in virtue of which individuals are constituted as essentially social persons. The first concerns the cluster of sociocultural concepts, the second the possibility of meaningful linguistic expression and the third the intentionality of thought. It is argued that by means of this notion of entelechial social personhood the categories of the 'individual' and the 'social' are integrated so that: a 'fact' about the individual's mind is not something enclosed within it, and the 'social' is not an empirically given environment 'containing' or causally influencing the mind.
Part Three completes this holist non-extensional/non-atomic ontology by incorporating the semantics of the language of events characterizing the complex form of social states of affairs. Social events are shown to be complex wholes irreducible to their subjects. Furthermore, the temporal identity of the social world in the course of historical change depends on the reality of events; the interconnection of social events instantiates an intensional nexus of relations between ineliminable social properties.
A precision measurement of nu _mu disappearance in the T2K experiment

T2K is a long-baseline accelerator neutrino oscillation experiment using the high-intensity νμ beam produced at J-PARC. Sitting 295 km away, the giant Super-Kamiokande detector, a 50 kt water tank instrumented with 11,129 photosensitive detectors, sees a narrow band beam peaked at 600 MeV. The baseline to energy ratio is finely tuned for studying neutrino oscillations at the atmospheric neutrino squared-mass splitting. The beam is also sampled 280m downstream of the neutrino production target by a series of finely segmented solid scintillator and time projection chamber detectors. Observing changes in the neutrino beam between the two detectors allows oscillation parameters to be accurately extracted.
A νμ-disappearance analysis was performed on the combined T2K Run 1+2+3+4 dataset, corresponding to integrated J-PARC neutrino beam exposure of 6.57x1020 POT, in a framework of three active neutrino flavour oscillations including matter effects in constant-density matter. The observed reconstructed energy spectrum of 1 μ-like ring events was fitted, and separate fits were made for the normal and the inverted mass hierarchies. In these fits, sin2 θ23 and either |Δm232| (normal mass hierarchy) or |Δm231| (inverted mass hierarchy) were allowed to float. The oscillation parameters sin2 θ13, sin2 θ12, Δm2 21, δCP , and all 41 systematic parameters considered in this analysis were also allowed to float in the fit.
This analysis predicts 445.98±23.46(syst) 1 μ-like ring events in SK in the absence of any oscillation, but only 120 were observed. The observed deficit has a strong energy dependence; the ratio of observed to expected, under the no-oscillation hypothesis, is ∼26% < 0.5 GeV, ∼10% between 0.5 and 1 GeV and ∼72% > 1 GeV.
The 68% confidence intervals on the oscillation parameters can be summarised as sin2 θ23 = 0.514 +0:049 -0:050 |Δm232| = 2.51±0.10 eV2⁄c4 for the normal mass hierarchy, and sin2 θ23 = 0.511 +0:050 -0:049 |Δm231| = 2.48±0.10 eV2⁄c4 for the inverted mass hierarchy. This is the most precise measurement of sin2 θ23 to date.

Keywords: neutrino oscillation physics
T2K
Particle physics
neutrino physics
Advisor: Andreopoulos, C
Weber, A
The Cromwellian 'Other House' and the search for a settlement, 1656-1659

This thesis seeks to illuminate a blind spot in the scholarship of the later Cromwellian Protectorate by focusing on an intriguing innovation in the parliamentary constitution of 1657 – the creation of an upper chamber or "Other House". The Other House may have filled the void left vacant by the defunct House of Lords, but it did not necessarily mean that the Protectorate was backsliding its way towards the ancient constitution of King, Lords and Commons. Although many aspects of ceremony and procedure remained exactly the same as its predecessor, its functions were reformulated and its membership was significantly different. The life peers nominated by Oliver Cromwell to sit there were politically, religiously, socially and geographically diverse. Yet, Cromwell's attempt to nominate a chamber that would please all sides ultimately ended up pleasing nobody; instead of bringing definition to the constitutional arrangement, his choices simply muddied the waters further. The resulting mood was one of apathy among civilian Cromwellian MPs in the second session of the second Protectorate Parliament towards both the Other House and the settlement as a whole. More importantly, the Other House was never a bulwark for the military Cromwellians; it did not institutionalise the army's position within the constitution. Although this posed no immediate problem under the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, it came to the fore following the succession of his conservative-minded son Richard. When the Commons and Protector united behind an anti-military programme in April 1659, the military Cromwellians found themselves outnumbered and outmanoeuvred in the Other House. Unable to protect their interests by constitutional means, the military men turned to their ultimate source of strength – the army. In forcing the Protector to dissolve Parliament, they undermined completely the constitutional arrangement and effectively sealed the end of the Protectorate regime.

Keywords: Richard Cromwell
House of Lords
Oliver Cromwell
Other House
Cromwell
Advisor: Holmes, C
Problems in random walks in random environments

Recent years have seen progress in the analysis of the heat kernel for certain reversible random walks in random environments. In particular the work of Barlow(2004) showed that the heat kernel for the random walk on the infinite component of supercritical bond percolation behaves in a Gaussian fashion. This heat kernel control was then used to prove a quenched functional central limit theorem. Following this work several examples have been analysed with anomalous heat kernel behaviour and, in some cases, anomalous scaling limits.
We begin by generalizing the first result - looking for sufficient conditions on the geometry of the environment that ensure standard heat kernel upper bounds hold. We prove that these conditions are satisfied with probability one in the case of the random walk on continuum percolation and use the heat kernel bounds to prove an invariance principle.
The random walk on dynamic environment is then considered. It is proven that if the environment evolves ergodically and is, in a certain sense, geometrically d-dimensional then standard on diagonal heat kernel bounds hold. Anomalous lower bounds on the heat kernel are also proven - in particular the random conductance model is shown to be "more anomalous" in the dynamic case than the static.
Finally, the reflected random walk amongst random conductances is considered. It is shown in one dimension that under the usual scaling, this walk converges to reflected Brownian motion.

Keywords: stochastic analysis
random walks in random environments
invariance principles
Advisor: Hambly, B
The demands of consequentialism

The thesis is an examination of the familiar objection that Consequentialism is unreasonably demanding (hereafter the Demandingness Objection). The focus is on attempts to construct a moral theory which avoids making unreasonable demands, without departing too much from traditional Consequentialism. The thesis is in two parts. In Part ONE, a wide range of contemporary forms of Consequentialism are examined, particularly the theories of Parfit, Brandt, Hooker, Murphy, Slote and Scheffler. It is argued that none of these is able to provide an adequate response to the Demandingness Objection. In Part TWO, a new Consequentialist theory is sketched. The core of this theory is a theoretical innovation: nonproportional accounts of the relationships between the values of outcomes, the costs faced by agents, and the lightness or wrongness of actions. It is argued that such accounts can provide the basis for a response to the Demandingness Objection. It is also argued that nonproportional elements can be incorporated into the theories of Scheffler and Parfit, and that the resulting theories are superior to the originals. It is concluded that the notion of nonproportionality is worthy of further exploration, and that the best possible Consequentialist moral theory is very likely to incorporate some non-proportional elements. It is also concluded that it would be premature to assume that Consequentialists will never be able to put together an adequate response to the Demandingness Objection.
The role of community in youth offender panels in England and Wales

The primary aim of this thesis is to reach a better empirical and theoretical understanding of what ‘community involvement’ means and what work it does in restorative justice. A case study approach was adopted to examine the involvement of the community in one selected practice of restorative justice, namely youth offender panels in England and Wales. Data collection comprised 127 interviews with key stakeholders involved in youth offender panels, as well as observation of 39 panel meetings, and analysis of related documents (e.g. panel reports and contracts). The role of ‘community’ in youth offender panels is argued to be more ‘theatrical’ (or rhetorical) than real: community panel members do not have a real say in the type or extent of reparation the offender should undergo, they do not clearly benefit from this reparation, and they do not support the reintegration of offenders into the community. The experience of youth offender panels suggests that the greater involvement of lay members of the community – or their changing role from mere witnesses/juries to facilitators – does not help to fully incorporate community harm into criminal justice practice. The English and Welsh experience also suggests that restorative justice advocates have placed unreasonably high expectations on the benefits of lay involvement. For example, this study found that lay members of the community do not have better ‘local knowledge’ than professionals. All in all, a key lesson from the experience of youth offender panels is that – while ignoring the kind of community that features in contemporary, urban contexts – restorative justice programmes run the risk of paying lip service to genuine community involvement. In conclusion, it is argued that restorative justice programmes need to start from a more concrete and up-to-date notion of community. While operationalizing community involvement, they need to acknowledge, all at once: the importance of place; the importance of family links, friendship and other social ties; and the importance of similar social traits and identities.

Keywords: restorative justice
youth offender panels
community justice
youth justice
referral orders
communitarianism
Advisor: Hoyle, C
India and the north-south politics of global environment issues

The cooperation of developing countries is commonly assumed to be essential for the establishment of effective regimes to manage global environmental interdependence. Yet their policies and perceptions have been inadequately studied. This thesis seeks to partially fill this gap in the literature with a detailed analysis of Indian policy on global environmental issues. It examines the cases of ozone depletion, climate change, and loss of biodiversity, and discusses developments up to the 1992 Earth Summit.
The study addresses four broad questions about Indian policy: the process of policy making; the character of Indian interests and preferences; the nature and evolution of India's bargaining strategy; and the outcome of international negotiations for India. It reveals a complex picture of continuity and change in Indian policy. It demonstrates the enduring importance of traditions and values such as the "poverty is the greatest polluter" orthodoxy and the concepts of sovereignty, equity and Third World solidarity. It also highlights the impact of perceptions of vulnerability in relation to the North. It argues that Indian policy did not reflect purely powermaximising goals; policy makers were sometimes uncertain about where India's interests precisely lay, and felt constrained both by economic weakness and by the recognition of the mutual interest of all states in global environmental protection. This was reflected in the moderation in India's bargaining strategy.
The Indian case suggests that developing countries did not regard their cooperation in the resolution of global environmental issues purely as a bargaining chip with which to extract concessions from the North. Still less did they perceive these issues as providing an opportunity to pose a macro-challenge to the North, linking agendas across issue areas. Instead, their goals reflected perceptions of constraints and mutual interests in bargaining with the North. Their bargaining strategy thus tended to be moderate and flexible, unlike the confrontational approach of the 1970s.
The epidemiology of stillbirth: The INTERGROWTH-21st Newborn Cross-Sectional Study

Background. INTERGROWTH-21st is a prospective, multi-ethnic, population-based project exploring growth from early pregnancy to two years of age. The Newborn Cross- Sectional Study (NCSS) component of INTERGROWTH-21st was designed to evaluate the population characteristics and pregnancy outcomes for the 8 study sites included in the project. The INTERGROWTH-21st geographic areas were in: Pelotas, Brazil; Beijing, China; Nagpur, India; Torino, Italy; Nairobi, Kenya; Muscat, Oman; Oxford, United Kingdom; Seattle, United States.
Methods. Using the data gathered from the NCSS until the time that I completed my course work in Oxford, I attempted to identify potential risk factors for stillbirth in the INTERGROWTH-21st population. Stillbirth is defined as all foetal deaths occurring after at least 18 weeks gestation in order to capture stillbirths using the most inclusive definition. I also created the Foetal Death Supplementary Form to collect information on the causes of stillbirth that were not included in the original instrument according to Goldenberg et al.
Results/ Conclusions. I had available data from 6 study sites at the time of preparing this thesis. The population includes 43,078 pregnancies resulting in 43,781 total births. Of these, 295 were stillbirths representing an overall foetal death rate of 6.7 per 1000 births. Maternal education of primary school or lower [Odds ratio (OR): 2.10, 95% Confidence interval (CI): 1.45-3.04], maternal age >40 (OR: 2.52, 95% CI: 1.55-4.08), single marital status at parturition (OR: 1.70, 95% CI: 1.06-2.71) and maternal use of alcohol (OR: 4.60, 95% CI: 1.88-11.29), tobacco (OR: 1.83, CI: 1.18-2.83), or recreational drugs (OR: 4.27, CI: 1.57-11.63) during pregnancy independently increased the risk of stillbirth. Maternal medical conditions during pregnancy such as malaria (OR: 9.17, 95% CI: 3.69-22.76), HIV/AIDS (OR: 5.84, 95% CI: 2.72-12.54), and syphilis (OR: 7.11, 95% CI: 1.71-29.53) led to significantly higher stillbirth rates. Foetuses in breech presentation were at the greatest risk for stillbirth (OR: 5.00, 95% CI: 3.59-6.98). Caesarean delivery significantly reduced stillbirth risk (OR: 0.35, 95% CI: 0.27-0.47). The cause of death was unknown for 47% of stillbirths. Placental/cord complications, foetal genetic, structural, and karyotypic abnormalities, and maternal medical conditions accounted for 19%, 11%, and 9% of all stillbirths, respectively.
Conclusions. These analyses suggest a need for a more detailed stillbirth evaluation to understand the causes associated with half of all stillbirths. Expanding access to obstetric and antenatal care could reduce stillbirth, but this is a complex syndrome that requires multiple interventions for its prevention.

Keywords: Foetal death
risk factors
Stillbirth
Advisor: Villar, J
‘A minor atlantic Goethe’: W.H. Auden’s Germanic bias

This thesis is an account of the poet and critic W.H. Auden's relations with Germany and Germans over the course of his life (1907-1973), presented through a selection of influences that have received little critical attention in the corpus of secondary literature to date. While these connections and influences are manifold and sometimes disparate, they can serve as a prism to tell Auden's life-story from a particular, relatively unexplored angle and to illuminate his work.
The thesis is divided into three chapters. Chapter One discusses Auden’s engagement with German literature before 1928, his reasons for spending nine months in Weimar Berlin 1928-29, and the formative influence of this experience on his life and work. Chapter Two explores Auden's relationship with his 'in-laws', the famous family of Nobel Prize winning author Thomas Mann, and Auden's choice of an international life-style. Chapter Three discusses various other, later German influences on Auden: his visit to Germany with the US Army and its traces in The Age of Anxiety; issues concerning the German translation of this text; his Ford Foundation residence in isolated West Berlin; and his intellectual friendship with Hannah Arendt. Introduction and Conclusion embed these three specific chapters, deliberating the topic more abstractly.
A number of appendices bring together a wide range of unpublished sources – and their translations into English, if the original is composed in German. Translations of all German appendix material can be found in the appendix itself.

Keywords: W.H. Auden
Berlin.
Klaus Geitel
Thomas Mann
Weimar Berlin
Ford Foundation
Hannah Arendt
Golo Mann
Erika Mann
Advisor: Reynolds, M
Sustainability analysis of a transport system: the UK car fleet, 1995-2005

A sustainability analysis was performed on the UK car fleet in 1995 and 2005, which showed that the sustainability of the car fleet improved by 13% over the time period. The Process Analysis Method was applied to generate a reliable, consistent, and sufficient indicator set describing the sustainability impact of a transport system. As well as identifying conventional impacts, this analysis identified that the quality of the mobility produced has an important impact on sustainability. Quality affects how well mobility meets human needs, but also influences user choices, which drive system change. It is suggested that the indicator set that was produced should form the basis for future sustainability assessments. A study was carried out on the UK car fleet in 1995 and 2005 to test the indicator set and to investigate changes in environmental, human/social and economic sustainability over the period. Distance travelled increased, driven by a 28% increase in fleet size, which counteracted increases in fuel efficiency. Weight also increased, driven by increasing vehicle size, and additional safety and comfort-related features, increasing embodied energy and emissions. However, direct emissions of non- CO2 pollutants reduced due to increasingly stringent regulation, as did waste to landfill. CO2 emissions increased by 11% overall. The reduction in emissions had a positive impact on health, with emission related mortality reducing by 27%. Casualties from collisions involving cars reduced by 13%. Road accidents were found to represent an impact on mortality three times greater than emissions. The indicators of service quality showed a drop in average speed and reliability (from both the network and vehicle perspectives) but an increase in comfort and vehicle safety. The increase in fleet size and new registrations drove growth in the retail and maintenance sector, which saw growth of 25% in gross value added. The opposite happened to the manufacturing sector, which shrank by 26%, due to stagnant domestic production and an increasingly competitive market affecting profit margins. An indicator aggregation was performed to summarise changes in the sustainability of car-based mobility. The indicators were normalised to a percentage change, and weighted according to their monetary value.

Keywords: INDICATORS
TRANSPORT
SUSTAINABILITY
METRICS
HEALTH EFFECTS
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Advisor: Darton, R
Axon, C