This work sets out to answer what constitutes successful black political activity in the context of European Structural Funds. It proposes that much analysis of black political activity in Britain focuses on matters of 'race' and racism. This work argues that black political activity is broader than this and that by analysing black activists in an environment where matters of 'race' and racism are not pre-eminent, the range and diversity of black political activity would become apparent. The work uses a framework derived from political opportunities theorising and policy network literature to examine the proposition. The work explores different aspects of black political and community activity over time arguing there has a existed a diversity of black actor and organisation operating in difficult circumstances and that these actors have been instrumental in changing the way they have been treated in racialised societies. The work then goes on to look at the policy environment in which Structural Funds operate and the role of black organisations and individuals in this process. It found that Structural Funds was a very restrictive process that was not amenable to black engagement on the basis of 'race'. The work then considered the experiences of unsuccessfull non-participants and successful black organisations involved in the process. Successful organisations could put their achievements down to a range of factors including: dynamic leadership, flexible use of racialised identities, partnership working and organisational capability. Unsuccessful and non-participants lacked some of these traits or were constrained by the process. It is argued that the processes and networks surrounding Structural Funds were important in determining success, with Objective 1 having a slightly more open structure than the Objective 2 programme. The work shows that black organisational and political activity is varied, that the institutional arrangements, presence of elite alliances, and how 'race' issues are perceived in the policy environment combine with the activities of activists to constitute successful and unsuccessful activity. It shows that although racialisation is important in determining the nature of black political activity, even where 'race' is not pre-eminent it is not all consuming. There is scope to admire and look more closely at the diversity and range of black activists operating in and outside policy making networks.

This thesis explains the process of institutional equalisation of national groups which took place in Croatia between 1990 and 2007. Two readings are prevalent in the study of minority regimes. The first, more prevalent among scholars of ethnic conflict, sees the adoption of minority rights regimes as the result of political struggles, expressed in ad hoc improvement of the status of specific national groups. This approach focuses on the agency of rebellious national groups and sometimes kin-states. The second, preferred by international organisations scholarship, sees the establishment of minority regimes after 1990 as the product of the conditionality imposed by international organisations accompanied by the diffusion of international norms of fair treatment, which results in a general systems rights for the national minorities. The thesis’ institutionalist approach reconciles both readings because it recognises that the historical context conferred agency to a number of international and domestic actors interacting with the Croatian governments. Additionally it creates space for unintended consequences of institutional reforms, placing the institutional equalisation of Croatia’s national groups among them. The evolution of the Croatian rules of inclusion of national groups is explained by three arguments. Firstly, I argue that the manipulation of the list of national minorities responded to international incentives, more than to the power or characteristics of specific national groups. Secondly, I show that incremental and unintentional changes, more than the diffusion of a norm regarding group equality, were responsible for the creation of an equal system of minority rights. Thirdly, the equalisation of national groups provided previously unrecognised national groups with unprecedented access to resources and institutions, shaping their means of participation in public life and increasing their salience at state-­level and local-­level politics. Finally, the empirical findings show that national groups’ recognition triggered adaptive strategies among national groups at the local level. In the case of long established national groups, these were aimed to preserve the group’s standing relative to the newcomers, while, in the case of the newly recognised groups adaptive strategies sought to establish a political identity.

The present PhD thesis focuses on a series of unexpected consequences arising from the post-1989 policies for the parliamentary representation of small national minorities in Romania. These unexpected consequences – brought together by the media under the label of ‘ethno-business’ – include controversial practices whereby political entrepreneurs attempt to use the existing legal framework for the protection of national minorities in order to obtain material, financial or political gains. This topic is to date largely unresearched – the existing literature on cases of ‘ethno-business’ in Romania includes a handful of studies, some of which of problematic academic standard. The unexpected outcomes of the post-1989 policies for the political representation of national minorities in Romania fall principally under three categories: (a) the extreme fragmentation of the political environment of several national minorities; (b) the case of non-minority leaders, whereby political entrepreneurs who are not members of a national minority contest elections on a national minority mandate; (c) attempts by political entrepreneurs to re-construct ethnic identities largely assimilated, so as to enable them to stand for election on a minority mandate. This research addresses two main areas of concern. First, it seeks to clarify the causes which led to the emergence of the unexpected consequences outlined above, locating them in a historically instrumental approach of the Romanian state towards minority rights policies, as well as in a specific set of policies set up after 1989. A further aim of this research is to assess the effects of these unexpected consequences on the political representation of small minorities. Using Hanna Pitkin’s theory of representation as a framework of analysis, each of the three types of unexpected consequences will be analysed in relation to relevant case studies. Such an interpretation seeks to refine existing theories concerning ethnic parties and the political representation of national minorities in post-communist contexts.

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This thesis is an ethnographic account of how the Wapichannao, who are situated in the Rupununi of Guyana perceive themselves within the nation-state. This is also an account of how non-Amerindian Guyanese envisage Amerindians as ‘past' peoples. Hence, distinctions are made between Amerindian and non-Amerindian—us vs. them—where both identities become placed as opposite poles within a continuum. Emphasis is placed on the shifting relationships between these poles, but more specifically, the cultural paradigm through which these relationships are made possible. This paradigm, I suggest, may be understood in terms of polarities of difference, with regard to which Amerindians are constantly ambiguating/negotiating, disjoining, and resignifying notions of ‘who they are'. This thesis evidences this paradigm through an ethnography of some of those aspects of Wapichannao culture—village work, the shop, joking activity, culture shows—that are considered to be traditional on the one hand, and modern on the other. In doing so, an incongruous trend emerges, on which makes the classic imagery of Amerindian ontological homogeneity much more complex. Therefore, this thesis moves from the more traditional aspects of Wapichannao culture towards the nation-state, in order to take into account aspects of Amerindian experience absent from classic ethnographic accounts.

La thèse porte sur l'existence de conflits lorsqu'il s'agit d'adapter la norme internationale relative aux drogues au sein de l'ordre juridique interne de l’État colombien. En effet, la loi internationale inscrite dans les Conventions Internationales de Contrôle de Stupéfiant considère uniquement les usages de la médecine et de la science comme des usages autorisés et par conséquence toute déviance est fortement réprimée. Certaines communautés indigènes colombiennes ont une conception différente sur les usages licites de la feuille de coca. Elles vont se mobiliser afin de légaliser la commercialisation des produits dérivés de la feuille. Par conséquent, l'adoption de cette conventions s'avère être source de conflit au sein de la nation colombienne. En effet, l'État est face à un dilemme : d'un côté, il se doit de respecter les droits des peuples indigènes et de l'autre, il doit suivre ses obligations internationales de contrôle de stupéfiants. Ce conflit non-résolu entre deux groupes de normes qui s'opposent se trouve au cœur de notre étude. / The thesis deals with the conflicts that appears with the adoption of international drug treaties in the Colombian national law system. In fact, the international law treaties establish that the only legal uses for substances that have been placed under drug surveillance are for the medical or the scientific purposes and consequently any deviance is strongly repressed. Some Colombian indigenous communities have a different conception about the uses of coca leaf. They will mobilize to legalize the commercialization of coca leaf products. Consequently, the adoption of these conventions proves to be a source of conflict within the Colombian nation. With the increased participation of this social group in Colombian politics, the Colombian State faces a dilemma : atone side it has the international law duties and on the other side the respect of native communities rights. From this study case two fields of analyze can be treated : the first one is how international norms becomes interiorized within the states, and finally how are managed potentially conflicting norms.