This thesis focuses on the approaches to African visual culture in German publications between 1894 and 1915. Considering the development from a purely ethnographic analysis towards an art historical and art scientific discourse, it brings together formerly unconnected fields of research. By introducing theories from translation studies this thesis will identify how scholars from different disciplines analysed and interpreted African art in order to mediate their function, meaning and formal aspects to a German audience. The main focus is on the changing convention from approaching African art with a developmental attitude towards discussing its stylistic peculiarities. By looking at ethnographic publications, art and popular culture this thesis investigates the role of art historical writing on African art in the wider academic and popular discourse. In particular four publications - Ernst Grosse Die Anfänge der Kunst (1894), Karl Woermann Die Geschichte der Kunst aller Zeiten und Völker (1900), Wilhelm Worringer Abstraktion und Einfühlung (1908) and Carl Eintein Negerplastik (1915) – are considered to give a historiographical insight into the development of intellectual thought of non-European art as well as art itself. Bringing together the theoretical framework of translation studies with published sources and archival material, this thesis considers the diverse descriptions of African art by a variety of different scholars. By presenting analyses of these publications this thesis aims to give a fuller picture of contemporary ideas that had a direct or indirect impact on the reception of African art. It comes to the conclusion that although each of the scholars approached African art in unique ways, their publications were an important step towards the integration of non-European art in general, and African art in particular, into a canon of art that is not solely defined and confined by the classical ideal of beauty.

This thesis asks ‘what does Europeanisation mean for the strategies and practices of grassroots green groups in Europe?’ and aims to identify the conditions under which these groups become ‘europeanised’. I identify three process of europeanisation: direct europeanisation – when an actor connects directly to the EU, indirect europeanisation – when an actor connects to a europeanised member state and passive europeanisation – when actors europeanise outside of state mechanisms. The grassroots green movement has largely evaded studies of europeanisation and so it is through examining europeanisation at this ‘base’ level, closest to the citizens, that this research makes an original contribution to our understanding of the variables that mediate the process of europeanisation and to our understanding of grassroots green activism in Europe. This thesis takes its analytical framework from social movement theory and uses political opportunity structures and frames as domains in which it looks for evidence of europeanisation. Within these domains I distinguish between European and europeanised activity, teasing out the role of the nation state in mediating europeanisation at a grassroots level. Two cases are examined: anti-road protest and anti-GM protest in Britain, France and Italy between the period 2007-2010. This thesis demonstrates that there is some evidence of europeanisation within grassroots green groups. It encourages a more nuanced understanding of europeanisation as a process that can occur outside the state and amongst actors who do not seek to impact the EU. It finds that both strategic and ideological considerations shape the political opportunity structures to which movements direct themselves. It also finds that the fit between the frames used in protest and the national masterframes is a powerful variable in explaining the extent of social movement europeanisation.