Since the introduction of the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) as a public policy framework in the 1980s, much ACF literature has tried to develop policy-process theories by demonstrating how policy-network approaches can be combined with policy-process theories and by reviewing how group dynamics can influence policy outcomes. However, the limitations of previous ACF literature demand the need for this study to develop some conceptual steps for moving beyond the previous ACF approaches to produce better policy-process theories. This study focuses on three issues: (1) unit of analysis, (2) collective action in developing policy-process theories, and (3) the role of macro-level factors in applying policy-process theories to various cultural configurations.

Stewardship as a concept is increasingly brought forward as a goal to reach sustainability goals of ensuring human wellbeing within the limits of Earth’s life support systems. Scholarship on the required capacities for planetary stewardship is growing rapidly, as are the insights. This thesis focuses on contributing with knowledge about what stewardship implies in terms of civic engagement in environmental issues, particularly in contexts where these can be particularly challenging: rapidly changing cities. Paper I describes the internal functioning of a citizen network engaged in various environmental issues in Bangalore, India. Analyzing social network structure and desired outcomes, it shows that while the loose structure inhibits efficiency, it encourages inclusiveness and builds legitimacy among members. Despite a reduced capacity to actively mobilize members, the network facilitates ecosystem monitoring and serves as an information platform to connect diverse groups across the city. Paper II describes how local engagement to restore Bangalorean lakes can influence city-level governance of water supply. Following key events in the 1960s, Bangalore has become increasingly dependent on a single source of water and seems unable to explore other supply approaches for its rapidly growing population. The study shows that the system’s trap-like dynamics can be rewired by citizen-based lake groups by incentivizing authorities to break long-standing centralization trends. By re- acknowledging the water bodies’ multifunctional role as man-made water harvesting units, groups have gathered local support and improved monitoring to protect lakes after restoration. Together, the two papers show that civic involvement in urban environmental stewardship can improve governance by complementing and acting as a watchdog over public authorities.

The case of the Ultras’ mobilisation and their subsequent demobilisation in the Egyptian revolutionary and post-revolutionary context raises the question of the relationship between the notion of contention and repression, which are questions that are at the centre of debates in the literature. Based on a thorough analysis of the Ultras groups’ collective actions, this dissertation aims at understanding the mobilisation and demobilisation mechanisms at play in revolutionary and post-revolutionary Egypt. Inspired by the literature of contentious collective action and the sociology of sport in various national contexts, we aim at answering the following question: how and in what ways did the Ultras adapt their tools and spaces of mobilisation to avoid state repression? This further prompted the question of the Ultras’ impact on the making of spaces of contention and the general capacity of football fandom to encourage mobilisation. The generalised context of surveillance and control encouraged the development of alternative means and spaces to avoid state repression. Among these alternatives means and spaces, were the stadium, as well as the Ultras’ street art and songs. By investing and (re)possessing these spaces, we show that the Ultras were able to transform a space into an area of conflict and contestation. In other words, these alternative means and spaces can be seen as a way for them to break away from the shackles of social and institutional norms to oppose the general “paradigm of depression, control and normalisation of apathy”. The return to authoritarianism and the coming to power of General Abdel Fattah al Sisi (since June 2013), however, drastically impacted on collective action, as the various groups witnessed the progressive destruction of the spaces of protest and memorialisation that had been developing since the onset of the uprisings. In this regard, we investigate the issue of the demobilisation of the Ultras groups and progressive effacement of spaces of contention. Looking back on the events of the 2011 uprisings and the subsequent 2013 uprisings against president Morsi and regime response, we establish that the general disappearance of protest is linked to the banalisation of violence, which instilled this idea that brutality was commonplace, almost inconsequential because a part of Egyptians’ daily lives. We conclude the dissertation by reflecting on the delocalisation of dissent through the collective act of remembrance. Indeed, the new laws on social media suggest additional efforts from the regime to contain and control political dissent, further contributing to the expansion of the concept of “tentacular state”. In this regard, the acts of remembrance can be understood as a way for the social actors to redefine their repertoires of collective action. Through the digitisation and subsequent dissemination of narratives, photos, videos and sounds, social actors such as the Ultras repossess new spaces of dissent and resistance beyond their physical borders. Ultimately, the power of digitisation and collective acts of remembrance lies in their capacity and potential to stimulate dissent, thus securing political effects. / Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

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Collaboration has been indispensable in resolving many contemporary problems involved in emergency/disaster management, but it is unclear if key determinants of collaboration established through studies focused on the Western world would apply to countries outside the West. The purpose of this cross-sectional non-experimental study was to examine the effects of political affiliation, an established determinant, on collaboration among emergency management agencies (EMAs) in Nigeria. Barnes's theory of social network and Lévi-Strauss's theory of social exchanges framed the study. Survey data were collected from a sample of 38 EMAs out of the population of 812 EMAs; they were affiliated with 6 political parties in control of different jurisdictions between 2011 and 2015. Data were grouped into 2 categories based on the alignment of political affiliation of the agencies (same party vs. different parties). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and t-tests. Results suggested no significant difference in the perception of the strength of collaboration among the representatives of the EMAs who had similar political party alignment when compared with the perception of the strength of collaboration among EMAs who had different political party alignment (p = .15). Implications for positive social change include recommendations for government officials to focus on the other determinants of collaboration, that is, improving management techniques and making resources available regardless of political affiliation. These could ultimately contribute to making emergency management more effective and efficient, thereby reducing the adverse effects of emergencies and disasters on the citizenry.

Thesis advisor: Julia Chuang / In China’s overheating housing market, citizen grievances over “unfinished housing” (lanweilou) have become widespread. In lanweilou cases, developers presell housing units in high-rise apartments, initiate construction, then abscond without completing construction and renovation of these housing units. This paper documents the rise of a new social media-driven mode of mobilization now popular among homeowners of lanweilou housing. Based on ethnography and interviews with aggrieved homeowners in a southwestern Chinese city, this thesis argues that social media enables homeowners to report their grievances to a wider audience while providing diverse information about their cases for them to refine mobilizational targets. By combining authentic storytelling with self-censorship, homeowners can transform public attention in media channels into state intervention. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Sociology.

Research on the Arab spring has indicated that the failure of democratic consolidation in post-Arab spring countries was, in part, due to economic insecurity. A conclusion that seems to be in line with the general literature on threat and its connection to authoritarian value-shifts. Yet, scholars in the fields of collective action and political socialisation have also demonstrated how events like the Arab spring can be incredibly influential in shaping political values, primarily among younger populations. Raising the question of whether formative experience with the Arab spring could have resulted in a more democratically inclined youth-cohort that would be more resilient to the authoritarian effects of economic insecurity. To answer this question, this master's thesis conducted a cohort analysis on five countries found in at least four waves of the Arab Barometer and tested four hypotheses generated by the previous question. The thesis did not see any evidence indicating that this Arab spring youth-cohort would be any more democratic than other cohorts. Furthermore, the cohort was also not more likely than other cohorts, to stave off the authoritarian effects of economic insecurity. Contrary to previous research, this thesis did not see a correlation between economic insecurity and authoritarianism in all countries studied. Potentially, indicating how contextual the connection actually is, and demonstrating the need for future studies on the topic to be conducted in already authoritarian contexts.

Narratives on the climate crisis are becoming more and more prominent in mainstream media today, with the genre of climate podcasts emerging and growing in the past years. With storytelling opening the potential of engaging audiences in taking climate action, this thesis gives insights into the storytelling of three climate podcast hosts and theor potential to encourage individual and/or collective action through storytelling in the listener. Through analytical listening, storytelling elements were found in all three podcasts that denote a deep focus on the climate crisis as a crisis that calls for collective solutions.

The connection between religion and conflict is widely known, but the literature lacks in the understanding on how religion can be used in conflicts. This study aims to investigate how religion was used by paramilitary organizations in the North Ireland conflict. With the theory on how religion can overcome collective action problems, four central themes regarding how religion can benefit social movements was used to examine these organizations. The organization was analysed using journalistic sources mainly based on interviews with terrorists from these organizations. Using these four themes the similarities and differences between these organizations could be analysed and how religion was used could be better understood. The main result was that none of the studied organizations used religion to a big extent, but that the protestant side had a bigger use of it than the catholic one. With this in concern, the study was critically analysed, and further research was purposed.

This dissertation explores the dynamics of workers’ collective political engagement through organized labour in an authoritarian environment and a regime in transition. While the literature on social movements and organized labour in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has captured the characteristics and impact of repression and corporatist systems on a union structure and elite strategies, this research contributes to a body of work that position the activities, networks and calculations of unionized workers at the centre of analysis. Using the Tunisian General Labour Union as an in-depth case-study, it will show that to fully comprehend the important role of a labour union as a vehicle for political engagement, one must pay close attention to the networks, strategies, and tactics of its militant base. By adopting a conceptual framework that gives attention to interactions of structures and agents, and therefore not privileging one over the other, it shows how in a region in which unions were conventionally labelled as “inconsequential” and “empty shells,” unionized workers, particularly those belonging to more militant sectors, have repeatedly seized on their personal networks and relationships, while drawing on systems of meaning making and shared collective memory to engage in various forms of activism. By doing so, it underscores the limitations of cooptation as a political strategy for ensuring obedience and compliance. Moreover, to better understand workers’ activism and political engagement in MENA, this dissertation calls for a change in how “successful mobilization” is measured and assessed. In particular, it draws attention to the objectives and goals of workers’ collective action, aims that cannot always be equated with the pursuit of a standardized path to democracy developed largely by institutions located in the West.