Šio darbo objektas – yra aktyvizmas, kaip ryšių su visuomene priemonė. Susiejant aktyvizmą ir ryšių su visuomene veiklą darbe nagrinėjama kaip organizacijos naudoja aktyvizmą savo ryšių su visuomene veikloje. Darbo tikslas – rasti teorinę poziciją, kuri paaiškintų, kaip aktyvizmas gali tapti ryšių su visuomene priemone ir praktiškai visa tai pagrįsti. Tikslui atskleisti keliami šie uždaviniai: apibrėžiamos aktyvizmo ir ryšių su visuomene sąvokas; aptariamos socialinius judėjimus aiškinančios teorijos; analizuojama, kokias tikslais ir kaip aktyvizmas naudojamas ryšių su visuomene veikloje, kas turi įtakos ir nulemia tokių priemonių pasirinkimo sėkmę; remiantis teorine dalimi sudaroma tyrimo metodologiją; praktiškai pagrindžiama, jog tyrime naudojamas pavyzdys yra socialinis judėjimas pritaikytas ryšių su visuomene veikloje. Darbe naudojamas nukreipto tiriamojo interviu metodas. Tam pasitelkta riedutininkų klubo „Ketvirtadienio nakties karštis“ Vilniaus mieste surengta pilietinė iniciatyva „Atkreipk dėmesį – tu esi stebimas“. Buvo apklaustas pagrindinis šios iniciatyvos organizatorius, riedutininkų klubo prezidentas A. Šapola. Keliama hipotezė, kad išankstiniais ryšiais susiję žmonės susijungia į pasipriešinimo tinklą siekdami socialinio ar politinio pokyčio. Aktyvizmo panaudojimas tokiomis sąlygomis tampa veiksminga ryšių su visuomene priemone. Tyrimas patvirtino hipotezę, jog organizacijos įtikinę visuomenę, kad jiems svarbi problema kartu yra ir visuomenės problema... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The subject of this master thesis is an activism like device of public relation. This master explains how to relate two different ranges: an activism and public relation in practice. The aim of this work is to explain how it’s possible to used activism like device of public relation. The main objectives were these: to define activism and public relation definitions; to analyse theories of social movements; to analyse how and why public relation use an activism in its practice, what have an influence and decide success; to define main concepts of the research; to create methodology; to prove, that research example is a social movement and in the same time it is device of public relation. Interview was used as a method. Example of research is roller-skate club “Heat of Thursday night” social movement named “Attention – you are watched”. this action organizer was as respondent. This action was in Vilnius that very day, when in many cities in the world was „International days againts video“. The hypothesis was that “many ties connecting people in social network. Organization use this network like public relation device”. Hypothesis was fully supported by the research. Research show that network was flexible and changing in time. Organization convinces people to tackle a problem together and in the same time make image. This work might be used in further studies and practice of public relation and in the practice.

This thesis contributes to the knowledge and understanding of the anti-racist movement in Sweden by describing its development from the early 1930s to the mid-2000s. It pays special attention to mapping and analyzing the ideas that have motivated anti-racist activities and their importance for mobilizing support and movement activity. Using the theoretical toolbox of the framing perspective, the strengths, weaknesses, possibilities and limitations of different anti-racist frames are discussed, as are the consequences of different types of intra-movement frame disputes and frame contests with external actors. By tracing and describing the historical development of the movement and different types of anti-racist frames, I create a typology of different anti-racist actors - what I call pragmatic, radical and moderate anti-racists. The activities of these types of actors are described throughout the long and winding history of the movement. In the thesis, the movement’s history is divided into four waves of protest. The movement’s roots stretch back to the 1930s and the struggle against Fascism and Nazism. It continues during the 1960s and onwards with the anti-apartheid movement, the 1980s mass mobilizations against domestic racist groups and the intensified struggles of the last decades against racist extremism, right-wing populism and various aspects of structural racism. Based on the typology, three cases are selected for further scrutiny. Pragmatic anti-racism is studied through the activities of Stoppa rasismen (Stop racism) in the 1980s, radical anti-racism through Antifascistisk aktion (Antifascist action, also known as AFA) during the 1990s and moderate anti-racism through Samling mot rasism och diskriminering (Gathering against racism and discrimination) at the turn of the millennium. By gaining access to extensive empirical material I have been able to follow each case from its first steps to its downfall. The material has been gathered from a variety of sources using different qualitative techniques. I have conducted semi-structured interviews with activists and analyzed protocols, pamphlets, journals, internal bulletins, mails, posters, speeches, web pages that have been disbanded, pictures, films and books. The analysis shows that the different types of actors face different challenges, and have different strengths and weaknesses when it comes to mobilizing consensus and fostering participation. However, the three actors have also faced common challenges when trying to mobilize against racism given the national context, the self-image of Sweden as a tolerant, open and egalitarian country and the dominant views of racism, which taken together has turned racism into a serious but fairly marginal problem. The analysis also shows the effects of frame disputes and frame contests with regard to diagnostic, prognostic and motivational aspects of framing. At times the dividing lines have led to a broadening of the movement and its work, creating a wide mobilization potential and a strong multitudinous movement. During other periods the differences have contributed to long and profound conflicts that have drained the organizations and activists of time, resources and energy. Instead of focusing on combating their opponents, the anti-racist groups have been engulfed in internal strife, which has severely fragmented, divided and weakened the movement and hindered mobilization – contributing to turning the movement into a dispersed “milieu” by the mid-2000s. The thesis concludes with a chapter discussing how the empirical applicability of the framing perspective can be improved.

No description available.

In an ethnographic examination of the "modern" roller derby movement that began in the early 2000s, I explore Women's Flat Track Derby in Florida. What does it mean to be a roller derby player? How is she conceptualized and commodified? Or more centrally, how is third wave feminism used as a catalyst of this commodification? In order to fully appreciate, understand, and even embrace roller derby, I look at roller derby leagues as social movement organizations (SMOs) in order to note how they frame themselves and maintain collective identity the commodification of third wave feminism. First, I will explore various facets of the "modern" roller derby movement by way of gender, sexuality, and youth as central themes of roller derby culture and identity. Second, I note how roller derby utilizes rhetoric associated with third wave feminism. Third, I examine how roller derby is conceptualized as a social movement and while doing so note the charity organizations that various leagues support. I go on to explore how cultural capital is used in roller derby as a way to create insider knowledge while appropriating third wave feminism. Finally, I will look at how all aspects of roller derby I discussed illuminate a critique of third wave feminism. It is through these facets that I illustrate how the modern flat track roller derby employs third wave feminist rhetoric to produce and commodify the roller derby player identity.

This thesis documents a qualitative research study of twenty postmodern therapy practitioners in Aotearoa New Zealand, focusing on their experiences in the wider field of therapy. The participants were aligned in their subscribing to postmodern critiques of therapy as a instrument of power, and in their interest in, and use of, therapy techniques and approaches that have grown out of those critiques – including narrative therapy, critical psychology, “Just Therapy”, and feminist poststructuralist therapy approaches. I argue that these practitioners represent a social movement within the field of therapy. The thesis examines the nature of the wider therapy field in Aotearoa New Zealand, analysing the perspectives of the participants. I demonstrate how this field has become increasingly dominated by the twin forces of neoliberalism and bio-science, making postmodern therapy work difficult, particularly within public sector services. In the final substantive part of the thesis, I critically examine and appraise the strategies used by participants to negotiate and resist these forces. This discussion is divided into two main chapters, dealing first with the participants who have difficulty in engaging in official politics and who consequently attempt to operate “under the radar” of management surveillance: these participants are characterised as “battlers”, “burn-outs” and “blow-outs”. Then, I turn my attention to the second group of participants – “infiltrators”, “outsiders” and “accepters” – who strategically utilise symbolic capital to pose resistance, or simply leave the public system. I also consider the professed abilities of this second group to cultivate a postmodern sensibility and to tolerate contradiction and compromise. I conclude this investigation of the possibilites for resistance to neoliberal and bio-scientific discourses by recommending greater strengthening of this local postmodern therapy movement.

In this dissertation I focus on the diversity of alternative food initiatives (AFIs) that have emerged amidst concerns about the corporate-led industrial food system. While there have been significant successes, critics suggest that many AFIs are an inadequate response to the complex problems within the food system, and further, are complicit in propagating neoliberal ideals and facilitating the retrenchment of the state. While these critics identify important challenges, they tend to consider place-based AFIs as operating independently on particular projects, with specific claims, or in isolated sectors of the food system. There has been little documentation or analysis situating AFIs within a broader community of practice. To fill this gap, my research builds on the existing literature to investigate the increasing collaborations among AFIs in Canada. Using a community-based action approach, I explore the development of provincial food networks in British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Nova Scotia. I pay particular attention to efforts that foster and maintain these networks by exploring their history, structure and processes of collaboration. My findings reveal that the provincial food networks can be characterized as assemblages constituted by the self-organization of diverse actors through non-hierarchical, bottom-up processes with multiple and overlapping points of contact. Further, I find that AFIs have used networks strategically to contest the rules and institutions of the dominant food system and to develop participatory and democratic practices that challenge the logics of neoliberalism. Based on the results from this research, I argue that besides developing viable place-based alternatives to the dominant food system, AFIs are also involved in prefigurative ways of being - establishing democratic governance structures, building new institutions, and engaging in different kinds of social relations - in the belly of the existing (food) system.

The purpose of this study was to find an explanation for why Amnesty International in Sweden has seen an increasing number of members, while the number of participants at the national annual meeting has decreased. The method of the study was done with an inductive approach in which the problem has affected the choice of theory and empirical data. The empirical data has been collected through both qualitative and quantitative method in which the analysis was implemented with support by statistics and interviews. To strengthen the arguments in the paper, sociological theories on organizations are used and also theories about social movements. The conclusion of the study is that Amnesty International Sweden has undergone a transformation towards a decentralized organization because it is not longer relevant for people who are members to achieve the purpose of the organization to participate at the annual meeting. This because that these members accesses the recourses they want to achieve by working on a local level. The main conclusion of this study is that Amnesty has moved towards being an organization that to some extent are working as a social movement, where there is no longer any clear link between local work and the central board of Directors.

People with experience living on low income have an important role in multi-sectoral poverty reduction work: they have a right to participate in initiatives that may influence their well being and can contribute valuable skills, knowledge and resources. Yet they are often absent. This research explores the context-specific factors that support and constrain the participation of people living on low income in poverty reduction initiatives through interviews with 19 people actively involved in such efforts. The findings describe the nuances and tensions related to experiences with nine factors: type of participation, compensation, labelling “poor” participants, opening spaces which support diverse perspectives, expectations of representation, rationale for participation, degree of influence, ratio of “poor” participants and relationships. Findings suggest that poverty reduction initiative would benefit from offering diverse participatory opportunities, being flexible in the supports they provide to match the specific needs of individuals and dedicating revenue to participation costs.

Coalitions in Northern Ireland have been organizing across the ethno-nationalist divide for decades. Yet, while empirical research has addressed challenges of, and potential for, organizing across ethnonationalism, the ways in which coalition members attend to their complex subjectivites have been overlooked. Using a critical, constructivist approach to qualitative research, this study of Alliance for Choice Belfast sheds light upon the impacts of attending to / overlooking difference and power dynamics. Data was collected through field research, semi-structured interviews and document analysis, and analysed through the lens of radical coalition building, along with theories that address the complexity of identities. The findings suggest that members of the coalition have created a depoliticized coalitional space in order to avoid conflict and unite around their campaign goal. This has had implications in terms of homogenizing womens experiences, overlooking elements of class privilege, and falling back into traditional practices of avoidance around controversial issues. / Theoretical, Cultural and International Studies in Education

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-26T13:33:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 texto completo.pdf: 2472927 bytes, checksum: fa3155e77001ffcfbd74d28d6abc4813 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-07-09 / This study focuses the discussion of rurality present in the interaction among several rural sectors of the Landless Rural Workers Movement in the state of Minas Gerais, southeastern area of Brazil, and the subjects who come from the poor sectors surrounding the city to occupy the fields in the rural borders with the Metropolitan Area of Belo Horizonte, referred to as rurban occupation. This space synthesizes the economical and sociocultural interaction among these marginalized sectors of formal economy. It all results from the capital accumulation process in the rural areas, stimulating the abandonment of agricultural activities in that space, which used to be considered for farming activities. It has been targeted as a less and less specific, mixed area lately. Our concern here is to understand the appropriations, changes, possibilities and limitations of the construction of rural representations found in these collective interactions among social movements and the subjects from the rural and urban spaces, marked by their extra- agricultural productive contexts within a stage of dispute, and their social and symbolic correlations, starting from the supposition that the rural/rurality, more than fixed realities, is a social representation reproduced within the outlines of the rurban occupation of the Metropolitan Area of Belo Horizonte. / Este estudo tem como foco a discussão da ruralidade presente na interação entre setores do campo do Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra - MG e dos sujeitos provenientes das periferias da cidade para ocupar o campo em espaços de fronteira rural da Região Metropolitana de Belo Horizonte denominada ocupação rurbana. Sendo um espaço que sintetiza a interação econômica e sócio-cultural entre estes setores marginalizados da economia formal; que por meio de suas práticas cotidianas recriam, multiplicam as narrativas, as re-elaborações de identidades, e os significados atribuídos a esse espaço rural. Tudo isto como efeito dos desdobramentos do processo de acumulação do capital no meio rural, que estimula o abandono das atividades agrícolas nesse espaço que outrora era considerado de agropecuário e que hoje é objetivado como um lugar cada vez mais indistinguível e diluído. Importa-nos aqui compreender as apropriações, as mudanças, as possibilidades e as limitações da construção de representações do rural presentes nestas interações coletivas entre os movimentos sociais e os sujeitos do campo e da cidade, marcadas pelos contextos produtivos extraagrícolas num anfiteatro de disputa e de co-relações sociais e simbólicas, partindo da premissa de que o rural/ ruralidade, mais do que realidades fixas, trata-se de uma representação social reproduzida nos contornos da ocupação rurbana da RMBH.