Graduate Theses & Dissertations

Pages

Exploring Least Cost Path Analysis
Least cost path analysis is considered by many scholars as being a good proxy for studying movement and interactions between sites in the landscape. Although it is widely used, there are many limitations and challenges yet to be overcome concerning the reliability of the results. The examples used from the Göksu Valley during the late Roman Imperial rule emphasize the need to clearly understand how the tool works in generating least cost paths and how these can be interpreted and related to human movement. The resolution and accuracy of the elevation data used also play an important role in least cost path analysis and these depend on the topographical area being studied. New venues are constantly being sought and the success of any analysis depends on how the results are compared and tested in concert with data obtained from various sources and through more visually advanced mapping software. Author Keywords: GIS, Göksu Valley, Turkey, Late Roman period, Least cost path, Roads, Routes, Communication, Spatial analysis
Forging Masks Through Perceptions of the Maskless in Benjamin Britten’s 'Peter Grimes'
This thesis proposes that Benjamin Britten’s 'Peter Grimes' leads its audience toward actively constructing an attitude toward its maskless protagonist. Grimes’s tragedy results from the social construction of his character from ambiguous and unseen actions. Utilizing the theories of Hannah Arendt and Carl Jung, this thesis proposes that Grimes may have resisted tragedy by constructing a public persona for himself. This thesis analyses the opera’s music and narrative according to the difference between Grimes’s lack of a public persona and the Borough- members’ construction of a mask for him. A central contention of the thesis is that as another element of Britten’s persona, Peter Grimes permitted the composer’s entrance into the public sphere, despite his private inclinations and illegal sexuality. Like the opera’s drama, the opera’s “Sea Interludes” reveals the tragedy resulting from the failure to construct an attitude toward the public world. These “Sea Interludes” work alongside the opera’s drama to induce the audience into a common perception of the opera’s whole. Through ironic relation to the opera’s musical and narrative parts, Benjamin Britten induces his audience’s construction of personae, thereby bringing himself and them into a shared public realm. Author Keywords: Benjamin Britten, E. M. Forster, English Opera, Montagu Slater, Peter Grimes, W. H. Auden
Role of Consumption in Canada’s Economic Sustainability
This thesis addresses the interconnectedness of environmental sustainability and economic sustainability. There is evidence from the Canadian experience that market economies are extremely dependent upon consumption - the most significant factor in determining the overall level of economic activity and economic growth. Therefore, from this perspective, several periods of declining consumption would create a ‘vicious cycle’ [Kaldor, 1967] of economic decline that would be politically unsustainable. The analysis here shows that income inequality drives changes in debt-fueled consumption, and consequently, debt influences consumption. The role of income inequality as a mediating channel of sustainability via the borrowing/lending model presents evidence that ‘conventional’ debt servicing behaviour in the macro-economy can support steady-state economic growth that is, in economic terms, sustainable. Solving the conflict between the environment and the economy lies in private and public investments in new technologies and, most importantly, new social institutions that facilitate economic, political, and environmental, sustainability. Author Keywords: Consumption, Economic Growth, Household Debt, Income Inequality, Sustainability

Pages

Description

Graduate student theses produced at Trent University. You may also browse theses and dissertations by year, program, or author.

In collections

Search Our Digital Collections

Query

Enabled Filters

  • (-) ≠ Southeast Asian studies

Filter Results

Date

1973 - 2033
(decades)
Specify date range: Show
Format: 2023/05/29

Collection

Author Name

Show more

Name (Any)

Show more

Degree

Degree Discipline

Show more

Subject (Topic)

Show more