Guided by feminist gerontology, this qualitative study explored the role of activism in the lives of older women. More specifically, it examined the involvement of older women in one particular group of activists, the Raging Grannies. Of particular interest was to understand the experience of how and why older women become involved in activism. This study was collaborative in nature, with in-depth active interviews as the primary method of data collection. In total 15 women participated in face-to-face interviews, with five women contributing to the study in an on-line Raging Grannies forum. Participants were located in Ontario, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. The findings demonstrated that these women, who used non-violent, creative methods of protest, challenged the traditional views of growing older. Through their activism, the Raging Grannies also created community. Although the Raging Grannies did not define their experience as leisure, they described their experience as "fun" but rewarding work. The intent of this research was to contribute to the literature on ageing and leisure while giving the opportunity for older women to share their stories. Emergent theory suggests that activism for these women represented the application or expression of shared life experiences which are unique to women. The Raging Grannies provided the space for the study participants to express their collective life experiences, particularly in the context of shared concerns around a more just, fair and sustainable society.

This dissertation provides an analysis of, and critical commentary on, the practice of playfulness as persistent phenomenon in the arts, technology and theory. Its aim is to introduce political reflections on agency through the study of playful technological artefacts, which were largely ignored in the recent discussions on game and play. Following the critical analysis of historic discourses and actual studies of play under differing auspices, and in order to understand play as inherently political agency, this thesis’ research question addresses the immersive effects of playful agency in symbolic exchange systems and in the material consciousness of the player. This thesis conducts an analysis of material cultures, in order to categorise play as technique of an inherent critique of technological culture. It traces the development of contemporary technological objects and their materiality in relation to the application of the concept of affordance in design theory. The author consequently proposes a new category of ‘play affordances’ in order to describe these new requirements of play found in consumer technologies. The structure of the analysis in the distinct chapters is informed by a stringent historic, theoretical and arts analysis and an alternating arts practice. The convergence of these elements leads to insights on further uses, options and perspectives of the research problems discussed, in particular in relation to the requirements of playful interaction in contemporary technologies, which increasingly radicalises the importance of play. The thesis’ hypothesis states that playful practices in arts and technologies provide models for political agency, like the strategic use of Con-Dividualities (Jahrmann 2000). This term describes the concept of shared identities in society or social media consumer technologies, as discussed in historic case studies and the author’s own arts practice, related to the modification of technologies as methodology of arts research. In this way the arts practice and theory of playfulness informs the emergence of a new methodology of research, intervention and participation in society through the arts of play, which is coined as Ludics, as an original outcome of this thesis.

With more than 33 million people living with HIV/AIDS, and an infection rate that is increasing rather than falling among high-risk groups, the 30-year history of the AIDS epidemic has been characterised as ‘islands of success in a sea of failure.’ Given the lack of a medical cure for the disease, the world has looked to social marketing campaigns to promote behaviour change that would decrease infection rates. Under the best of circumstances, change is difficult, and health behaviour change, especially when it relates to sex and politics, is even more challenging, so social marketers have a difficult task that calls on every technique at their disposal. There is an increasing expectation that HIV/AIDS social marketing interventions will yield measurable results, and that involves fully understanding the AIDS landscape, marketing theory and practice, and the evolving medical picture relating to the pandemic. This research explores links between social marketing and HIV/AIDS while mapping their marketing connections to both the conventional and alternative medical communities. To better understand the HIV/AIDS landscape, early research focused on three diverse countries— Mexico, Uganda, and the United States—selected for their significant cultural, economic, and political differences. Given the multiple social perspectives and fields of knowledge involved in this project, a transdisciplinary approach using mixed research methods was selected. Mixed methods for collecting and presenting data included case studies, content analysis, semistructured interviews, a quantitative survey, and in-depth reaction interviews. Through analysis of 18 social marketing campaigns in the three countries selected for study, the content, focus, purpose, and implications of the controlled public dissemination of HIV/AIDS information were examined. Key informants with professional and academic credentials in the areas of marketing, advocacy, and HIV/AIDS medicine were interviewed to learn rationales behind the campaigns and to explore political and economic factors that affect HIV/AIDS health activism. The last major phase of information gathering surveyed more than 340 patients at a clinic in Houston, Texas, to ascertain their knowledge and perceptions about HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention information. After the survey data was compiled, reaction interviews from key informants provided additional input. Informed by this wealth of secondary and primary research, an Integrated Social Marketing Conversation (Marcon) Model was created to demonstrate that social marketing campaigns should be localised and customer centred, with participants engaging in an ongoing conversation at every stage. The communication model offers valuable guidelines for more effective dissemination of HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment information to high-risk, high-interest target audiences such as HIV-positive people and the organisations that work with that subculture. Because this research crosses so many boundaries and addresses an actual need, it should be of interest to a wide variety of individuals and organisations in both academic and professional fields. From marketers to medical practitioners to activists associated with HIV/AIDS issues, this project’s findings will apply to their concerns. Also, HIV/AIDS organisations — both government agencies as well as private groups — should find information in this work that addresses their ongoing efforts. While investigating existing models for HIV/AIDS communication, it became evident that most research and communication models have focused on how HIV/AIDS prevention programmes are working and what is effective, but little has been done in regards to treatment options and information. For that reason, the integrated social marcon model presented in this thesis is an important addition to the body of practical literature on this topic. Finally, the volatility of the issues examined here and the contacts made during five years of work offer multiple possibilities for follow-up research and fieldwork with opportunities to make a positive contribution in the battle against the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Denna studie har genomförts med syfte att undersöka hur kroppsaktivister artikulerar kropp och kroppspositivitet genom bilder och texter på deras Instagramkonton. Studien syftar även till att undersöka om, och i så fall hur, artikulationerna av kroppspositivitet skiljer sig mellan olika kroppsaktivister. Slutligen syftar studien till att studera hur kroppsaktivisterna artikulerar syftet med rörelsen. Det teoretiska ramverket består av tidigare forskning och etablerade teorier i postmodern feminism, fat studies, aktivism och objektifiering. Studien har genomförts med ett kvalitativt förhållningssätt och utförts genom en diskursanalys och semiotisk bildanalys av text och bild från tolv svenska kroppsaktivister på Instagram. Resultatet av studien visade att det finns olika åsikter kring vilka kroppar som får vara med i den kroppspositiva rörelsen. En del för en diskussion kring att den endast är till för personer med normbrytande kroppar, medan andra menar att den är till för alla kroppar. Studien visade även att kroppsaktivisterna visualiserar sina kroppar på olika sätt. En del tar bilder som liknar hur kvinnor porträtteras i reklam medan andra tar bilder som bryter mot normer genom val av vinkel och posering. Slutligen visade studien att kroppsaktivisterna ser olika på vilket syfte rörelsen har. Vissa för en diskussion kring att rörelsen ska få andra att må bra i sin egen kropp, andra om att medierna ska visa upp fler kroppstyper. Andra talar om att kroppspositivismen finns för att kvinnokroppen ska sluta utstå objektifiering. / This study has been conducted with the purpose of examining how body activists articulate body and body positivity through imagery and text on their Instagram accounts. This study also aims to investigate if the articulations of body positivity differ, and if so how. Finally, the study aims to examine how body activists articulates the purpose of the movement. The theoretical framework of this study is based on past research and established theories about postmodern feminism, fat studies, activism and objectification. The study has had a qualitative approach and is based on discourse analysis and a semiotic analysis of texts and images from twelve swedish body activists on Instagram. The result of the study showed that there are different opinions regarding which bodies that can be included in the body positive movement. Some of the participants argued that the movement includes all body types, while some argued that the movement should only include norm-breaking types of bodies. The study also showed that the body activists articulates their bodies in different ways. Some of the participants have taken pictures similar to how women are portrayed in advertisements while others have taken norm-breaking types of pictures by the choice of angle and pose. Finally, the study showed that the body activists have a different point of view regarding the purpose of the movement. For some of the body activists the aim of the movement is to make others feel good about their own body while others wants to see more body types in the media. Some of the participants feels that the purpose is to stop objectification of the female body.

For nearly 40 years, Sister Karin and the nuns at Alsike Kloster have been giving sanctuary to refugees while also taking political, social and legal action to advocate for their rights. Every day they share their home with 60 men, women and children who are fleeing violence, persecution, looming threats and even death. Unlike many activists, the sisters of Alsike Kloster have turned spiritual activism into daily life. In this thesis, I immerse myself in the process of how the community of nuns and refugees do what they do. The purpose of this thesis is to paint an ethnographic portrait and open a window of understanding into the spiritual activism that this community lives as daily life. As I participate in this community of many faiths, many languages, and people from all over the world, I hope to gain an understanding of how they manage to share meals, chores, immigration hearings, birthday parties, fears, joys and sufferings with such cohesion and acceptance. Seeing how these sisters and refugees all live together gives me hope that we can all work for social change in our own small ways. Learning from these sisters how their faith translates into direct loving action for their neighbors from many countries gives me hope that something else is possible. Spiritual activism entails a worldview that resacralizes life which has implications for every aspect of our interconnected global world: not only religions, but also politics, economics, international relations, social awareness and our global responsibility for everything from climate justice to the refugee crisis.

Background: In 2017, brands have started to use their advertisements to take stance in political issues. However, since this trend has emerged in 2017, research in the field is limited. The research that is available is focused on how attitudes toward advertisements in general affect consumer attitudes toward the brand, which calls for deeper knowledge on how the political activism trend affect consumers’ attitudes. Purpose: To explore how political activism in advertisements affect consumers’ attitudes toward the brand behind the advertisement. Research Question: How does political activism in advertisements affect consumers’ attitudes toward the brand? Methodology: This study is of qualitative nature and took an explorative approach. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews based on a convenience sample of 11 respondents. Conclusion: The main findings from this study was that political activism in advertisement had an enhancing affect on respondents’ attitudes toward the brand behind the advertisement. Respondents that had positive attitudes toward the brand before were more positive toward the brand after the political advertisement, while the ones who were negative became more negative after the political advertisement.  Keywords Political activism, attitudes toward advertisements (Aad), attitudes toward brands (Ab), incongruity and involvement.

In this project, I look at the work of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) and the role that brokers at the organization play in constructing, promoting, and institutionalizing a body of LGBT human rights. While a great deal is being written about the diffusion of LGBT politics and human rights discourses from the Global North, there are few ethnographic analyses of who is doing the exporting, how, and toward what ends. Based on a year of fieldwork in IGLHRC’s New York and Cape Town offices, I look at the history of IGLHRC, the interactions among brokers and how these shape their daily work, how brokers understand their mandate and the hybridity that it so often requires, and how partnership with groups in the Global South, the production, verification, and circulation of information, and the possibilities and constraints of the formal human rights arena all shape the work that brokers do. Ultimately, I conclude that human rights advocacy must be understood holistically if it is to be understood at all. Such advocacy always necessarily involves a degree of theoretical elaboration, promotion, and codification by human rights defenders and NGOs, and focusing exclusively on one or another of these aspects paints a skewed portrait of what it means to work within a human rights framework. Drawing from the anthropology of sexuality, queer theory, literature on brokerage, and interdisciplinary studies of transnational advocacy networks, this project aims to deepen understandings of how LGBT NGOs and the brokers that animate them regularly engage in the construction, promotion, and institutionalization of particular understandings of sexuality and the claims that can be made by sexual subjects globally.

Dans ce travail, nous posons d’abord la question de la légitimité de la contestation internationale. En partant de la conception libérale de la souveraineté étatique, nous montrons que la contestation internationale pourrait être critiquée pour l’interférence qu’elle crée entre des acteurs étrangers. Pour défendre la légitimité de la contestation, nous argumentons en faveur de la position républicaine de Philip Pettit selon laquelle la souveraineté étatique ne devrait pas être comprise comme une absence d’interférence, mais plutôt comme une absence de domination. En montrant que les problèmes environnementaux peuvent être compris en tant que domination écologique, nous tentons alors de démontrer que la contestation internationale ne pose pas nécessairement problème pour la souveraineté des États, mais qu’au contraire, celle-ci peut servir protection contre d’éventuels cas de domination. Dans la seconde partie du travail, nous explorons la question de la légitimité des moyens de contestation utilisés par les activistes. En conservant les idées de Pettit concernant la domination, nous prenons toutefois nos distances par rapport à cet auteur et sa conception délibérative de la contestation. Nous amorcerons finalement la réflexion dans le but de trouver des critères pouvant légitimer certains recours à des moyens de contestation plus radicaux. Nous défendons notamment une position originale, voulant que la contestation soit comprise en continuité avec la délibération plutôt qu’en rupture avec celle-ci. / In this paper, we first study the case of international activism’s legitimacy. Accordinging to the liberal sovereignty principal, we show that it could be a problem to allow activists to protest on the international stage, as this would create a form of interference against the ones they target. But as we consider that the political pressure of interest groups is necessary to face major problems like the environmental issues, it seems important to us to advocate their work at the global level. To offer a defense of international activism, we base our position on the republican ideas of Philip Pettit for whom, political freedom would not be a non-interference, but a non-domination. After showing that some environmental issues can be understood as domination issues, we argue that international activism is not a necessarily a problem for the State’s sovereignty, but that it offers a protection against some form of ecological domination. In the second half of this paper, we study the legitimacy of the different means of pressure the activists can use to protest. As we keep the idea of freedom as non-domination, we will take our distances from Pettit’s thought of political contestatory. After criticizing the ideas of the deliberative democrats, we will initiate the reflection to find some new criterions that would legitimate some more radical means of pressure like direct actions and civil disobedience. We also offer an original thesis by suggesting that activism and deliberation should not be understood as opposites but rather as a continuum.

African Americans have a rich history of activism, but their involvement in affecting change during the interwar period is often overlooked in favor of post-Civil War and post-World War II coverage. African Americans also have a rich history of reaching out to the international community when it comes to that activism. This examination looks to illuminate the effect of the connections African Americans made with the rest of the world and how that shaped their worldview and their activism on the international stage. Through the use of newspapers and first-hand accounts, it becomes clear how African American figures and world incidents shaped what the African American community in the United States took interest in. In Paris, however, musicians explored a world free from Jim Crow, and the Pan-African Congresses created and encouraged a sense of unity among members of the black race around the globe. When violence threatened Ethiopians through the form of an Italian invasion, African Americans chose to speak out, and when they saw the chance at revenge against fascists they joined the Spanish Republic in their fight against Francisco Franco. In the interwar period African Americans took to heart the idea of black unity and chose to act in the interest of the black race on the international stage. Their ideas and beliefs changed over the course of the two decades between the World Wars, eventually turning thoughts into actions and lashing out against any injustice that befell any member of the black race.

The ECJ as a Political Actor In both the US and in the EU, the judiciary is often accused of being political. This thesis does not attempt to compare and contrast the two grand judiciaries; they are too dissimilar to be compared in this context. It only deals with the judiciary of the EU, trying to analyse its presumably 'political' character: why is it that political and legal scholars label the Court as 'political' or 'activist'? This thesis seeks to investigate the validity of these accusations by proposing a synthesis of various political theories and a certain clarification of the terminology in the context of the European judiciary. Chapter 1 deals with the ECJ as an institution, discussing its functioning and its presumably constitutional character. Chapter 2 then focuses on the notions of 'politics' and 'political', firstly in terms of their definitions by various authors and consequently in terms of the various political theories of European integration. Chapter 3 then deals with the central question of the thesis: is the ECJ a political actor or not? The analysis in the third chapter is split into five dimensions: (1) the judges' motivations in adjudication, (2) the appointment of judges, (3) the subject-matter of the Court's adjudication, (4) the institutional balance within the Union,...