This study offers an ethnographic account of the Brazilian protest movement that erupted in June of 2013. I conducted fieldwork in Rio during this time, including unstructured interviews, participant observation, unobtrusive observation, and collection of narratives to gain an understanding of what people living in Rio believe about these protests and social movements in general. The initial motivation for the protests was an increase in public transportation fare, but the movement quickly evolved into a fight for citizenship rights. With the upcoming mega-events in Rio (World Cup and Olympic Games), the city has spent billions of dollars on construction that many people think is unnecessary and ultimately useless. Brazil is a country rife with socioeconomic inequality, and many citizens lack access to having their basic needs met. Protesters in Rio argue that this money could be better spent on providing health care, education, and other fundamental necessities to the city’s population.

This study offers an ethnographic account of the Brazilian protest movement that erupted in June of 2013. I conducted fieldwork in Rio during this time, including unstructured interviews, participant observation, unobtrusive observation, and collection of narratives to gain an understanding of what people living in Rio believe about these protests and social movements in general. The initial motivation for the protests was an increase in public transportation fare, but the movement quickly evolved into a fight for citizenship rights. With the upcoming mega-events in Rio (World Cup and Olympic Games), the city has spent billions of dollars on construction that many people think is unnecessary and ultimately useless. Brazil is a country rife with socioeconomic inequality, and many citizens lack access to having their basic needs met. Protesters in Rio argue that this money could be better spent on providing health care, education, and other fundamental necessities to the city’s population.

Efforts to utilise Twitter to improve communication in Kenya between officials at the Kenya Police and Ministry of Interior, and Kenyan citizens, are researched specifically addressing efforts to use Twitter to report and combat police corruption. The goal is to assess efforts to use the social networking platform to improve communication channels between officials and citizens, through a mixed methods approach incorporating a content analysis of thousands of tweets sent by four separate government Twitter accounts, as well as interviews with Kenyans who have interacted with the accounts on Twitter. In addition, I assess the potential value of Twitter as a corruption-reporting platform. The research builds on existing ICT4D research, Castells’ communication power theory, as well as collective-action approaches to fighting corruption. The results of the research reveal potential problems of incident-focused social media-based corruption reporting in developing collective-action networks focused on fighting police bribery and broader government corruption. The tendency of social-media interactions to be dominated by relatively meaningless discussions limits Twitter’s value as a useful channel for two-way communication between citizens and officials. Social media-based anti-corruption efforts dedicated to building collective-action networks focused on long-term solutions, rather than highlighting individual incidents, may be more effective in fighting corruption. / <p>I submitted this thesis on August 20; however, there was apparently a technical error with the previous submission, which I was informed of today.</p>

No description available.

An assessment of the costs and benefits of antiterrorism policies has a number of challenges. Canada’s situation is particularly complex because of its asymmetric and integrative economic and geographic relationship with the United States. Few theoretical models of international antiterrorism policy exist and none fit well this asymmetric relationship. This thesis attempts to fill this void by understanding the motives behind Canadian antiterrorism policies and the related spending, and how these are affected by the relationship with the United States. We explore a two country theoretical model with strategic interactions, focusing on relative spending. What is found is that the economics and geography of the two countries play a large role in motivating spending and can drastically alter antiterrorism spending beyond that needed solely for public safety in Canada. / Graduate / 0511 / 0501 / 0616 / kyleburak@gmail.com

An assessment of the costs and benefits of antiterrorism policies has a number of challenges. Canada’s situation is particularly complex because of its asymmetric and integrative economic and geographic relationship with the United States. Few theoretical models of international antiterrorism policy exist and none fit well this asymmetric relationship. This thesis attempts to fill this void by understanding the motives behind Canadian antiterrorism policies and the related spending, and how these are affected by the relationship with the United States. We explore a two country theoretical model with strategic interactions, focusing on relative spending. What is found is that the economics and geography of the two countries play a large role in motivating spending and can drastically alter antiterrorism spending beyond that needed solely for public safety in Canada. / Graduate / 0511 / 0501 / 0616 / kyleburak@gmail.com

This thesis examines the Kurdish political mobilization in the 1960s through focusing on the case of the Eastern Meetings. These meetings were organized by the Easterners group of the Turkish Workers Party in the various provinces in the autumn 1967 in the East and Southeast Anatolia with the aim of voicing the demands, claims and the grievances of these regions and the Kurdish population. Using the theoretical framework and the analytical tools presented by the social movements and collective action theory, this thesis examines the identity formation and mobilization processes of the Eastern Meetings and situates them within the socio-political context of the 1960s. Through this analysis, the thesis aims to draw a dynamic and relational picture of a particular moment in the history of Kurdish political activism.

This thesis aims at developing a conceptual framework for advancing basic research on questions about coercive diplomacy and the management of intrastate conflicts by relying on hegemonic stability theory and its most fundamental concept: public good. In the light of the failure of international community in developing a unified response to the most cases of intrastate conflicts, the study investigates the role of leadership in international attempts to manage such conflicts. I argue that in the absence of a direct threat to the interests of each individual member, there will be a need for a leader that is capable to provide public goods associated with efforts to bring a solution to the conflict. Findings from several phases of Kosovo crisis which support this proposition is used to illustrate and evaluate the accuracy of this assumption. Thus, the study is not only concerned with coercive diplomacy as a form of intervention but also the process that finally culminates into that instrument as evidence of the necessity for a leader.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / The thesis investigates the motivations behind, the methods used in, and the results of the overseas students’ collective action contesting the measures, which the Australian government introduced from 1983 to 1996. As a group of temporary residents located outside the boundaries of domestic political systems, yet within the core of Australia’s revenue earnings, overseas students independently mobilised in an attempt to influence the Australian Government policy on education from a position of limited political, social and legal rights. As temporary residents on short-term permits fully regulated under prescribed immigration rules, overseas students employed conventional repertoires of contention— they established formal structures, adopted action tools, framed their claims, internationalised their protest, formed alliances — in an attempt to mobilise resources and access existing avenues to influence government’s export of education services policy. Their mobilisation response and campaign strategy achieved modest success in securing some policy concessions, particularly during the early stages of education aid reform. Their strategy, however had to evolve as the fledgling export of education services expanded and eventually they shifted their position to fully embrace and reinterpret the government’s own ‘language of liberalisation’, which they used to greater effectiveness in making subsequent claims. Overseas students ability to procure concessions is derived not from their political or universal rights to education, but from their ability to influence policy changes based on their importance and strategic location in the Australian economy. In other words, government, universities and industry stakeholders have increasingly become dependent on substantial revenue earnings derived from overseas students and have become susceptible to potential chaos that may be precipitated if current students withdrew from the economy, or potential students choosing alternative education service destinations.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / The thesis investigates the motivations behind, the methods used in, and the results of the overseas students’ collective action contesting the measures, which the Australian government introduced from 1983 to 1996. As a group of temporary residents located outside the boundaries of domestic political systems, yet within the core of Australia’s revenue earnings, overseas students independently mobilised in an attempt to influence the Australian Government policy on education from a position of limited political, social and legal rights. As temporary residents on short-term permits fully regulated under prescribed immigration rules, overseas students employed conventional repertoires of contention— they established formal structures, adopted action tools, framed their claims, internationalised their protest, formed alliances — in an attempt to mobilise resources and access existing avenues to influence government’s export of education services policy. Their mobilisation response and campaign strategy achieved modest success in securing some policy concessions, particularly during the early stages of education aid reform. Their strategy, however had to evolve as the fledgling export of education services expanded and eventually they shifted their position to fully embrace and reinterpret the government’s own ‘language of liberalisation’, which they used to greater effectiveness in making subsequent claims. Overseas students ability to procure concessions is derived not from their political or universal rights to education, but from their ability to influence policy changes based on their importance and strategic location in the Australian economy. In other words, government, universities and industry stakeholders have increasingly become dependent on substantial revenue earnings derived from overseas students and have become susceptible to potential chaos that may be precipitated if current students withdrew from the economy, or potential students choosing alternative education service destinations.