Thesis (M.A.)--Kent State University, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Nov. 16, 2009). Advisor: Elizabeth Smith-Pryor. Keywords: Civil Rights Movement; Black Power; Black Feminism; Gender; Race; Class; Sexuality; Nationalism; Black Radicalism. Includes bibliographical references (p. 132-139).

Thesis (M.A.)--Humboldt State University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 69-73). Also available via Humboldt Digital Scholar.

This study departs from Gállok, an area 40 kilometres northwest of the city Jokkmokk, in northern Sweden. This is a place to which local people and Saami reindeer herders have material interests and emotional bonds. The mining company JIMAB wants to prospect for extracting minerals from this area. In the summer of 2013 local people, Saamis and environmental activists gathered in Gállok in order to protest and make resistance against these plans. Activism was made, debate articles were written, demonstrations were organized and information about what was going on in Gállok was shared through social media. The aim of this study is to examine the cultural processes of the anti-mining movement, in particular the happenings in Gállok in summer 2013. How did this anti-mining movement take form? What kind of strategies and methods were used, in order to mobilize participants? This study focuses on the material and bodily aspects of resistance and activism. What kind of material interests lie behind the involvement? How do they use their bodies as tools to make resistance? Furthermore the current thesis examines some of the reasoning, questions and emotions that circulate in the movement. Around which questions and values do the participants in the anti-mining gather? How do emotions affect people's involvement? One of the main arguments of this study is that social movements can be understood both as political and cultural. Is this also the case with the anti-mining movement in Gállok? This study consists of 5 chapters and a summary. The first chapter presents the theories, methods and materials that have been used in this study. In chapter two the reader is presented to the historical background and context of the anti-mining movement. In the third chapter, we examine some of the main reasonings, questions and emotions that circulate in the movement. The fourth chapter focuses on the happenings that took place in Gállok in the summer of 2013, when activists, locals and Saami people where gathered to protest and make resistance. In the fifth chapter a anti-mining demonstration that took place in Jokkmokk in the winter of 2014 is analyzed. The conclusions are then drawn in the final brief summary.

Political representation remains one of the areas in American life in which gender inequality is most pronounced, and scholars claim that women’s reluctance to run for office is now the most significant barrier to gender equality in the political sphere. Yet, researchers have not adequately grappled with the complexities and contradictions in women’s “deciding to run” accounts and have often overlooked the varied narrative strategies of women leaders across race, class, and social movement identities. I conducted 46 interviews with women leaders in Texas and fieldwork in a political campaign to examine the stories women tell to explain their decisions whether or not to run for office. I find that the “deciding to run” narratives that African-American women and Latinas employ are distinct from the stories white women use to explain their decisions whether or not to run for office, as they more often draw from civil rights discourses of courage, confidence, and commitment to their causes. I argue that feminist organizations actually encourage women to downplay their political ambition in the attempt to spread their social movement messages that women need to be recruited more heavily to run for office. These messages play an important role in influencing the reluctance story told by most of the white women I interviewed. I argue that structural factors such as majority-minority and majority-white voting districts also play a large role in shaping the “deciding to run” accounts of candidates and potential candidates, as raced-gendered and social movement discourses take different forms and carry varying weight in these political contexts. My findings challenge the dominant explanation for women’s sparse levels of office-holding, which suggests that women are under-represented in politics because they lack the confidence to enter political races. In addition, I highlight the political ambition of African-American women and Latinas, whose remarkable success records in seeking and winning elective office have not been accounted for in current paradigms explaining women’s under-representation. Finally, my research exposes the cultural dynamics underlying women’s “deciding to run” explanations, as I illuminate how women draw from raced-gendered and social movement discourses to account for their political decisions. / text

Situated in the contemporary debate over the implications of the Internet to the contentious politics and authoritarian states, this study is an empirical investigation into the mechanism and the determinants of cyber-to-physical mobilisation in contemporary China. This research compares the mobilization processes of the two cyber-contentious episodes in China, namely the Xiamen PX Event in 2007 and the Sanlu Milk Scandal in 2008. It is grounded on a two-year cyber-ethnographic investigation and in-depth interviews with 14 people differently involved in the respective cyber-contentious episodes. In order to find out why some contentious activities are able to transform into street protests while others of similar nature are contained or even vanish in the cyberspace, this study examines the interactions between the four stakeholders in each contentious episode (i.e., the cyber-protesters, the media, the state power, and the market forces). It highlights the importance of the state power and the market forces in cyber-to-physical mobilisation, and determines the conditions under which cyber-to-physical mobilisation is feasible. This thesis elucidates how the state power and the market forces collectively condition cyber-to-physical mobilisation through the media (both the print and the digital media). The entire mechanism is powered by the tensions between cyber-protesters, the media, the state power and the market forces. The media framing of an incident influences the grievance formation of cyber-protesters, which further determines cyber-to-physical mobilisation. Thus, by manipulating the media framing, the state power or the market forces may control cyber-to-physical mobilisation, although it is not always a success. Based on the mechanism for cyber-to-physical mobilisation, this thesis further ascertains the conditions for cyber-to-physical mobilisation. The two contentious episodes show that cyber-to-physical mobilisation is prohibited when the respective core interests of the state power and the market forces are in complete unity (i.e., national mobilisation and industrial damage are eminent). On the contrary, if cyber-to-physical mobilisation merely triggers controllable regional mobilisation, the state will tolerate it; and if cyber-tophysical mobilisation only costs limited corporate damage, the market forces will allow it. Under such circumstances, cyber-to-physical mobilisation is possible. / published_or_final_version / Sociology / Master / Master of Philosophy

The second half of the 20th century saw the emergence of consequential and diverse social movements inspired by Christian moral commitments, from anti-communism and temperance to Civil Rights and fundamentalism. Few studies, however, have systematically analyzed this important sector of activism adequately, though it lies at the intersection of two vital sociological areas: the sociology of religion and political sociology. This dissertation is the first comprehensive study of Christian activist organizations, creating and analyzing an electronic database of approximately 500 unique Christian social movement organizations along nearly 50 variables including overall population changes, denominational variation, geographic diffusion, tactical repertoires, and issues engaged. Findings indicate that changes originating in religious demographics and culture preceded and led to related changes in American politics, overall in a conservative direction. At a macro level, data also consistently point to a homeostatic, cybernetic effect generating medium-term cultural equilibrium between progressive and conservative Christian activists. At the micro-level, findings illustrate the essential role of cultural entrepreneurs motivated by religious values and identities in redefining, publicizing, and defending the moral boundaries which create and sustain social movements. / text

In May 1968, a racially, geographically, and politically diverse coalition of poor people joined forces to make themselves visible to the nation and protest the unseen poverty they suffered from on a daily basis. Under the leadership of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) between 3,000 and 5,000 African American, Mexican American, American Indian, Puerto Rican, and white Appalachian poor people caravanned to Washington, D.C., and built a temporary city--Resurrection City--on the symbolic space of the National Mall, where they remained for over six weeks as part of the 1968 Poor People's Campaign. The caravans and temporary shantytown brought poverty into the national spotlight, exposing the bleak conditions impoverished people experienced on a daily basis. In Resurrection City volunteers provided participants with social services and basic necessities they lacked at home, while participants conducted daily protests at nearby government agencies, demanding assistance for the basic need of housing, food, and jobs. The ultimate goal of the 1968 Poor People's Campaign was to produce a radical redistribution of wealth in the U.S., but most involved in the movement hoped, if nothing more, to expose the pervasiveness of poverty and persuade Congress to fund new programs and improve the administration and benefits of existing ones. This radical social experiment was the first national, multiracial anti-poverty movement of the era, yet it has received scant scholarly attention. "Civil Rights' 'Unfinished Business'" provides a comprehensive narrative of this significant yet neglected movement that reveals the complexity of national, grassroots, multiracial, class-based activism that challenged the nation to face the problem of poverty during the most tumultuous years of the era. Civil rights scholars tend to dismissively characterize the Poor People's Campaign (PPC) as the last gasp of the civil rights movement--a failed campaign with no substantial lasting consequences. However, this dissertation argues that rather than simply being Martin Luther King Jr.'s "last crusade," the PPC represents civil rights' "unfinished business." The problems this campaign tried to address--hunger, joblessness, homelessness, inadequate health care, a failed welfare system--still persist, and people of color, particularly women and children, continue to experience poverty and its effects disproportionately. / text

This dissertation examines the role of television reform within twentieth century social movements in the United States. Typically, scholars have examined the relationship between activists and television through the lens of media representation: how the mass media have depicted and defined social movements, and how activists have negotiated with the media that publicize their goals. This dissertation, in contrast, examines the role of media reform within social movements themselves. By investigating the television reform campaigns of civil rights activists, feminists, conservatives, the progressive left, and educational groups, this dissertation reveals how American reform movements have responded to an increasingly mass-mediated culture and have tried to mold television to reflect their moral and political beliefs. This dissertation explores not only the myriad ways activists have approached television reform, but illustrates how these campaigns have responded to changes in the television industry, broadcasting policy, and American culture more broadly. This dissertation also charts the rhetorical strategies that the reformers have used to legitimate their stake in media policy and practices and to convince of the importance and power of the medium that they are trying to change. Television reform fights have been battles not only over television programming and policy, but over the meaning of television's role in American society. / text

The purpose of this research paper is to explore and examine the nature of learning within the context of and situated within a social movement. Based on an exploratory qualitative study of learning within the Jyoti Jivanam Movement of South Africa, this research explores the nature and purpose/s of learning within a social movement. Accordingly, this study is guided by the research questions: How and why do adults learn as they collectively participate in social movements; and what factors facilitate, contribute, hinder and influence learning within social movement? This study confirms that social movements are important sites for collective learning and knowledge construction. For this reason, social movements need to be acknowledged as pedagogical sites that afford adults worthwhile learning opportunities. Furthermore, social movements, as pedagogical sites, not only contribute to conceptions of what constitute legitimate knowledge(s), social movements also contribute to the creation of transformative knowledge(s). / Magister Educationis (Adult Learning and Global Change) - MEd(AL)

This study looks into communicative processes and media practices among members of a subaltern social movement. The aim is to gain an understanding of how these processes and practices contribute to symbolic cohesion in the movement, how they develop and are socialized into practices, and how these processes and practices help challenge hegemonic groups in society. These questions are explored through a qualitative study, based on fieldwork and interviews, of a subaltern social movement. The empirical object of the study is the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (MST), which was founded in 1984 to promote agrarian reform and defend the rights of rural workers in Brazil.   At the macro-level, the discussion addresses social realities marked by the meta-processes of globalisation, neo-liberalisation, and mediatisation. Against this background, the experiences of MST militants and of the movement as a whole help us to understand how different communicative processes play a role in the ways people experience globalisation, neo-liberalisation, and mediatisation in their daily lives. Departing from an understanding of communication as a process that structures practices (mediated and non-mediated), this study questions the media-centric understanding of communication, arguing that media practices are created through appropriation processes.   The results show that communicative processes are crucial to reinforcing values and symbologies associated with the rural worker identity. There is also a high level of reflexivity about media practices and an understanding that they must serve the principles of the collective. As a consequence, the movement seeks to maintain control over media, routinely discussing and evaluating the adoption and use of media. The interviews show ambivalence towards the alleged dialogic and organisational potential of digital media and to the adaptability of these media to the MST’s organisational processes. Through observation, it is possible to conclude that media have an instrumental function, as opposed to a structural function, in the processes of social transformation engendered by the MST. / This study looks into communicative processes and media practices among members of a subaltern social movement. The aim is to gain an understanding of how these processes and practices contribute to symbolic cohesion in the movement, how they develop and are socialized into practices, and how these processes and practices help challenge hegemonic groups in society. These questions are explored through a qualitative study, based on fieldwork and interviews, of a subaltern social movement. The empirical object of the study is the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (MST), which was founded in 1984 to promote agrarian reform and defend the rights of rural workers in Brazil. The results show that communicative processes are crucial to reinforcing values and symbologies associated with the rural worker identity. There is also a high level of reflexivity about media practices and an understanding that they must serve the principles of the collective. As a consequence, the movement seeks to maintain control over media, routinely discussing and evaluating the adoption and use of media. The interviews show ambivalence towards the alleged dialogic and organisational potential of digital media and to the adaptability of these media to the MST’s organisational processes.