Thesis advisor: Will Attwood-Charles / Immigration policy has undoubtedly taken a forefront spot in the national dialogue in our contemporary political moment. However, there is considerable disagreement among and within political parties about how to address this issue. This paper seeks to better understand the priorities of immigrant rights activists in the U.S. by executing case studies on 11 immigrant rights organizations. I explore which framing strategies each group uses to push for its goals and theorize about how these social movement organizations (SMOs) arrive at the strategic frames that they do. Through discourse analysis and coding of interviews, websites, and other media sources, I conclude that the most relevant factors in determining what frame a group arrives at are its external resource environment and how professionalized the organization is. There is additional evidence to suggest that the political opportunity structure, salience of a previously successful ‘master frame,’ and the age of leaders also affect framing processes. Finally, my data does not suggest that being immigrant-led versus led by non-immigrant ‘allies’ directly affects an SMOs’ framing strategies, but it does affect the external resource environment from which it is able to draw. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: International Studies.

This study investigates how youth activists in Hong Kong make sense of citizenship and practice citizenship by participating in different kinds of social movements. Informed by the work of Faulk (2000) and Isin (2009), citizenship is conceptualised as a framework as well as a practice where the definitions are developed and constructed accordingly. A qualitative method is adopted in this research in which in-depth interviews are conducted with 16 youth activists between 18-29 years old and a thematic analysis is carried out for analysis purposes. The major findings suggest that youth activists, even though they are at the forefront of the citizenship movement, find citizenship to be both a familiar and an alien concept. Nevertheless, participation in social movements raise their concerns about citizenship and has compelled some of them to explore a local identity and strive to develop a Hong Kong citizenship from the bottom up. By taking part in social movements, the youth activists build and accumulate experience in citizenship movements, and create diverse and multiple meanings of citizenship. Three types of citizenship acts are found in this study: responsive acts which are emotionally-driven, confrontational and adversarial. The related practices reproduce a market-oriented and exclusionary type of citizenship. Then there are resilient acts of citizenship which are driven by ideology, and emphasise the importance of connecting citizens in the community to collectively advocate for the realisation of citizenship. These citizenship practices tend to produce an open and inclusive type of citizenship. Finally, there are reinvented acts of citizenship, which emphasise autonomous everyday life practices in the community. These are driven by the reflexive practices that are applied in daily life, which tend to inspire a communitarian type of citizenship. The findings of this study also suggest that the authoritarian-neoliberal regime in Hong Kong has a dominant influence over the construction of citizenship. This has been a major force that dictates the direction of youth activism towards exclusionary practices, downplays equal citizenship and causes solo actions in social movements. This citizenship practice reduces the capacity of youth activism from advancing towards activist citizenship, and leads to speculative citizenship characterised by uncertainty and precarity. Notwithstanding the structural constraints, it is found that alternative practices still exist, and the reflexive capacity of youth activism should not be underestimated. It is argued that different acts of citizenship practiced by different groups of activists are not mutually destructive but rather, feed each another in their controversies and debates, and through communication, thus inspiring alternative acts that erode the dominant conception of citizenship, answer to justice as well as inspire activist citizenship.

The fundamental questions this project aims to answer are 1) how the alt-right engages in storying the sexual, specifically the “homosexual” character 2) the ways that broadly circulating ideas about masculinity shape movement boundary work processes, and 3) the work that this storying is doing for the alt-right in the context of American white patriarchy. Broadly, two characters were storied on r/altright: The Degenerate and the Substandard Ally. First, the Degenerate is a pedophile, a diseased sexual hedonist, and a Jewish-led weapon set on destroying the white race. The image of the Degenerate is produced through the mobilization of anti-Semitic tropes, conservative Christian doctrine, and (pseudo)scientific rhetoric. This narrative presents homosexuality as a contagious risk to all people. The second character, the Substandard Ally, is constructed as a foil to the Degenerate. The Substandard Ally can be a member of the movement because they have no control over their sexuality and are adequately masculine. The strategies used to justify the Substandard Ally’s inclusion in the alt-right are to deploy the (il)logic of the closet and redraw the line between good/bad sex. I argue that the sexual storying of the alt-right ultimately functions to maintain white patriarchy by reinforcing the sexual value system, obscuring the workings of patriarchy by presenting a hybrid hegemonic masculinity, reconceptualizing the “good” sexual citizen, and deploying homonationalist discourses.

This historical study examined the educative processes and development of knowledge in the social movement of the United Farm Workers from 1962 to 1970. Materials for this study were found in the archives of Labor History and Urban Affairs at the Walter Reuther Library at Wayne State University and from secondary sources. A conceptual framework for this study was built upon the theories and positions of those from adult education, educational history, and sociology. This study found that adult learning outside of formal, institutional education can be empowering and life changing as well as providing valuable skills. The learning that occurred in Cesar Chavez's adult life strongly influenced him to leave the migrant stream and establish a community union and social movement. Likewise, the educative processes within the United Farm Workers (UFW) were empowering and prompted farm workers collectively to takes risks to challenge the status quo in their quest for social change. In addition to empowerment, this study determined that the UFW provided numerous educational opportunities for its members to enhance their work, writing, speaking, leadership, and organizational skills. This study determined that Chavez's role in the UFW was inherently educative and that the UFW generated knowledge to society that affected social change. As the movement intellectual, Chavez defined the identity and interests of the social movement to society. Chavez's message was clear. La Causa Para La Raza sought dignity and economic and social justice for the farm workers. The purpose of la causa was for farm workers to gain greater control over their lives and to become more active participants in a democratic society. In 1970, for the first time in the history of farm labor, the UFW succeeded in gaining union contracts from twenty-six major growers in California. Social and economic justice had been won. Conclusions drawn from the study indicate that as a social movement during the period between 1962 and 1970 the UFW offered unique and diverse educational opportunities and experiences for Mexican American farm workers that would not have been possible in institutional education. The UFW demonstrated the diversity and power of educative processes in a social movement for those alienated from formal education. In the tradition of Dewey, Lindeman, and Freire, the UFW represented education for social change. / Ed. D.

San Felipe de Neri, a neighborhood located in the Historic District of Panama, is the object of physical, economic and social transformations that are affecting its residents' daily lives. Revitalization and gentrification drive these transformations as wealthy Panamanians invest in the neighborhood, and affluent foreigners flock to it since it became a World Heritage Site in 1997. This dissertation addresses perceptions and reactions residents have because of these physical, economic and social challenges. This study poses four main questions: 1. What physical, economic, and social (quality of life) changes have taken place in the Historic District of San Felipe from the early twentieth century to the present? To what extent are these changes the result of global processes, local processes, or both? 2. How do residents perceive these changes? Is there any significant difference in opinions and attitudes among residents regarding changes that revitalization and gentrification impose on the neighborhood? If so, how and why are they different? 3. To what extent have residents participated in these transformations? and 4. How do residents who have been relocated perceive these changes? My research analyzes Smith's five characteristics of a third wave of gentrification: first, the transformed role of the state; second, the penetration by global finance; third, changing levels of political opposition; fourth, geographical dispersal; and fifth, the sectoral generalization of gentrification and its relevance for my case study of San Felipe. This methodology enlists quantitative and qualitative methods to address these research questions to gain insight about residents' perspectives regarding these transformations. Findings indicate that both residents and ex-residents of San Felipe view the outcomes of revitalization and gentrification in mixed ways. Both groups mostly agree that the improvement of the physical conditions of the neighborhood is a positive outcome for preserving the material heritage, and for encouraging international and national tourism benefiting the country. Regardless of their economic and social status, residents claim that the place where they have lived for a long time is no longer theirs, except in their memories. They face the threat of eviction and an uncertain future. Former residents—those who have been displaced—have mixed views as well. On the one hand, they have improved their living standards because they now have better housing infrastructures. On the other hand, their new locations are scattered about the city and are often in dangerous areas that lack the amenities of San Felipe. Others feel that in the process they have lost a home; a place filled with meaningful memories and to which one day they dream of returning. A diverse residential population is the only way to save historic centers from becoming museums that present a pastiche and a 'façadism' catered to the international consumer. Preserving the human and physical patrimony is the most viable way to achieve sustainability and development in historic areas. Associations had no permanent places to meet with residents. This eroded the desire of residents to participate, and encouraged them to accept whatever owners wanted to give them to move out of the neighborhood. In the end, they became disenfranchised. A lack of both leadership and strong social movements, and the dissemblance of grass-root organizations through co-optation, clientelism, and even deception became the norm in the neighborhood. / Ph. D.

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This study is an examination of mobilization processes, with a particular focus on how people come to contemplate and ultimately embrace or reject veganism. It is a response to social movements scholarship that has called for examinations of how identity interacts with mobilization. Engaging the narratives of 34 interview participants who interacted with vegan advocacy networks in Greater Philadelphia, the study accounts for how prospective vegans negotiate forces, such as social networks and ties, that activate or hinder their mobilization; and for how they prioritize veganism amid competing priorities. Among other manners, participants came to contemplate the prospect of becoming vegan upon recognizing veganism as congruent with their other priorities. Participants who became vegan were more likely than participants who did not to prioritize altruism and to seek information that motivated and empowered them. Rather than prioritize their veganism over competing priorities, the vegans more often sought to harmonize their veganism with competing priorities. The study also measures the capacity of people from socioeconomically and racially contrasting neighborhoods in Philadelphia to engage in a behavior and a movement such as veganism. Results from a sample of 335 survey participants suggest that people from impoverished neighborhoods may be less capable because they are less likely to know people who practice veganism. The study's findings suggest that participation in movements is contingent on how prospective participants prioritize, on the incentives with which they contemplate participation, and on their capacity to participate. / Sociology

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