The Orange Order is a Protestant fraternal order within Northern Ireland that has branches across the former British Empire. Since its formation in 1795, it has been described as a brotherhood, definitively male with a triumphalist parade culture maintaining Protestant `civil and religious liberties' by celebrating the victory of King William III at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. My dissertation explores the role of gender within Orangeism. Notions of `brotherhood', `sisterhood', and `family' in the lodges are explored, as are the roles of women within Orangeism. In particular, the `family' nature of Orangeism has played a major role in the inclusion of women and children in Orange demonstrations and parades. Evangelical beliefs in women's moral superiority and the necessity of her influence over her family and community provided women with a public presence via Orange processions and female lodges. Men were forced to accept their utility as political mothers who could inculcate Orange values in children and in the wider community through their influence and philanthropic work. In short, Orangeism was never simply a brotherhood; the familial metaphor enabled women to gain influence as `sisters' and to perform various politicized (and sometimes militarized) domestic roles within the public space provided by the order. Orangeism gave them a political base from which to petition, challenge governmental policies they deemed unfair, and to threaten or commit violence when peaceful methods failed.

This study explores the ways in which young people in the neighbourhood of Old Town in Bamenda negotiate the predicament of blocked opportunities and ‘arrested adulthood’ occasioned by the decline in the nation-building project and prolonged socio-economic and moral crisis in Cameroon. I investigate how urban youth in Old Town construct their moral and socio-cultural worlds through involvement in associations. The main finding suggests that faced with growing uncertainty, young people in Bamenda are positioning themselves as important social actors by drawing on local cultural resources such as associations to construct their social worlds that aim to circumvent their exclusion and marginality. In this light, I analyse youth associations as central although not exclusive to negotiating young people’s predicament by focusing on a range of practices through which they seek respectability and claim social adult status. Drawing on the concepts of transition, subjectivities and personhood, I show that young people straddle the worlds of ‘youth’ and social adulthood, statuses that are not only cultural constructions but also the products of differential power relations and social positioning. I contend that the processes of positioning and the production of personhood are largely experienced through involvement in associational life. The study focuses on three associations, namely the Chosen Sisters, the United Sisters and the Ntambag Brothers Association (NBA). Organised on the basis of seniority and gender, I argue that these associations, while negotiating claims to adult status for their members, tend to challenge state-centric notions of citizenship as they simultaneously position themselves as moral actors upon whom society can count on for regeneration. Through a range of social projects, pursued on behalf of and sanctioned by the community, young people in Old Town reaffirm the centrality of interdependence and the situated understanding of social adulthood predicated on the redistribution of one’s success or achievement. This study points to the re-emergent role of associations in negotiating everyday life in the face of crisis. It is a significant contribution towards understanding voluntary and communal associations in general and young people’s modes of transitions into social adulthood.

This study explores the ways in which young people in the neighbourhood of Old Town in Bamenda negotiate the predicament of blocked opportunities and ‘arrested adulthood’ occasioned by the decline in the nation-building project and prolonged socio-economic and moral crisis in Cameroon. I investigate how urban youth in Old Town construct their moral and socio-cultural worlds through involvement in associations. The main finding suggests that faced with growing uncertainty, young people in Bamenda are positioning themselves as important social actors by drawing on local cultural resources such as associations to construct their social worlds that aim to circumvent their exclusion and marginality. In this light, I analyse youth associations as central although not exclusive to negotiating young people’s predicament by focusing on a range of practices through which they seek respectability and claim social adult status. Drawing on the concepts of transition, subjectivities and personhood, I show that young people straddle the worlds of ‘youth’ and social adulthood, statuses that are not only cultural constructions but also the products of differential power relations and social positioning. I contend that the processes of positioning and the production of personhood are largely experienced through involvement in associational life. The study focuses on three associations, namely the Chosen Sisters, the United Sisters and the Ntambag Brothers Association (NBA). Organised on the basis of seniority and gender, I argue that these associations, while negotiating claims to adult status for their members, tend to challenge state-centric notions of citizenship as they simultaneously position themselves as moral actors upon whom society can count on for regeneration. Through a range of social projects, pursued on behalf of and sanctioned by the community, young people in Old Town reaffirm the centrality of interdependence and the situated understanding of social adulthood predicated on the redistribution of one’s success or achievement. This study points to the re-emergent role of associations in negotiating everyday life in the face of crisis. It is a significant contribution towards understanding voluntary and communal associations in general and young people’s modes of transitions into social adulthood.

The major aim of this study is to evaluate the role of Turkish non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the consolidation of democracy in Turkey regarding the characteristics defined by the classical pluralist theories, starting with the ideas of Alexis de Tocqueville, and by contemporary pluralist approaches to civil society. To that end, characteristics of two examples, iHD and KiH-Y&Ccedil / V will be examined using three dimensions: effectiveness, enhancing solidarity and responsibility, and the dimension of inner democracy. As the methodology of the case study, in-depth interview techniques were adapted for capturing the qualities of the organizations in a detailed way. At that level, in-depth interviews from each organization were conducted with members having different positions. In addition to this, all written documents obtained from the organizations were scanned and the relevant ones have been examined for the sake of the study. Since the aim of the study is to understand what part Turkish NGOs play in the consolidation of democracy in Turkey considering the assumptions of classical and contemporary pluralist school in their analysis of voluntary associations and interest groups, this study espoused an associational concept of democracy as the method of work, which is a contemporary concept that underlines the democratic role of free and voluntary associations. In this context, this study tries to discuss the following questions: To what extent are Turkish NGOs independent from the state? To what extent can they have leverage on governmental policies? Do they mitigate conflict through overlapping interests? Do they enhance social trust, tolerance, compromise and a sense of solidarity in society and within their organization? To what extent are they democratic, pluralist and horizontally structured inside their organization and to what extent they are democratic regarding their decision making process? Are they open and inclusive enough in their membership recruitment techniques?

The aim of my thesis titled "Josef Zeman's Contribution to Associational Life of People with Disablement" is to familiarize the readers more closely with Josef Zeman's contribution to the development of care for individuals with disablement, with respect to his participation in the federal movement. The accessible sources from the archives, period literature and Josef Zeman's estate were processed by the historical and analytical method. The introductory chapter maps the historical context of the time focusing on the legal aspects of the federal movement. Next part is devoted to the life stages and bibliography of Josef Zeman. The third chapter is focused on his active participation in improving the living conditions of disabled people through associational activities. The final part documents Josef Zeman's contribution in the field of special education.

This essay addresses how associational life could be of importance for democracy and human rights in Sweden through examining how associational life can contribute to and strengthen democracy and create social capital. The purpose of this is to deepen and contribute to the knowledge of how activity in non-political and non-religious associations can become of importance to democracy in Sweden. This is operationalized through a stud of how active members of student associations in Sweden perceive their activity in these associations in relation to how they perceive democracy, their roles in society and what it means to be a good citizen, as well as how this relates to theories about the relationship between associational life and democracy in general. The essay concludes that the Swedish student associations as part of associational life in Sweden plays an important role in Swedish democracy. / Den här uppsatsen kommer att utforska hur föreningslivet kan få betydelse för demokratin och de mänskliga rättigheterna i Sverige genom att titta på hur föreningslivet kan bidra till att stärka demokratin och skapa socialt kapital. Syftet är att fördjupa kunskapen och bidra till förståelsen av hur engagemang i icke-politiska och icke-religiösa föreningar kan påverka Sveriges demokrati. Detta operationaliseras genom att undersöka hur föreningsaktiva inom svenska studentföreningar ser på sitt eget engagemang i förhållande till demokrati, sin roll i samhället och vad det innebär att vara en god medborgare och hur detta förhåller sig till teorier om föreningslivets förhållande till demokrati i allmänhet. Uppsatsen når slutsatsen att de svenska studentföreningarna som en del av det svenska föreningslivet har en viktig roll att spela för demokratin i Sverige.

This thesis analyses local forms of civil society practised in contemporary Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and provides a common thread on which to base a Central Asian understanding of civil society. I look to find out factors and constituents, which on the surface might be different from a classical liberal concept of civil society. The thesis applies a wider anthropological framework, which sees civil society as a broad network of social relationships, including traditional forms of associational life that can be relatively independent of the state. The study draws upon a multi-locale ethnography in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan including in-depth and focus group interviews, participant observations, case studies, and archival research. I have investigated associations whose activities are concerned with reciprocal relations within society based on community solidarity, self-help, and mutual trust. These include professional associations, trade unions, ethno-cultural associations, religious organisations, courtyard clubs, the traditional Uzbek neighbourhood institution of mahalla, and informal practices of gap and khashar. While arguing that the meaning of civil society depends on context, the study has found that traditional elements of the preserved social fabric in Central Asian societies are reflected in today's networks of individuals. The thesis has generated knowledge on how local forms of associational life define the civil sphere by shaping social organisation, solidarity and mobilisation. Through empirical understanding of the public space, formal and informal networks that bond people together, we can locate wider ethnographic differences between not only the original and Central Asian concepts of civil society but also between two local cultures of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

The objective of my work is to describe associational life in the town of Louny since 1861 to 1914. The years correspond with the year of "October Diploma" issue (1861), resp. the outbreak of World War I. (1914). In the first passages I tried to show the development of the town in the second half of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century from the urbanistic, demographical, industrial and political point of view. All these aspects influenced the associational life there. After the outline of the development of the associational life within the monarchy I aimed at it in Louny. I introduced various types of active notable local personalities in the profiles of Josef Havránek, the representative of the beginning of associational life; long-standing mayor Dr. Petr Hilbert, the owner of the local spa Josef Krýzl and extraordinary socially active woman Mrs Kristýna Ehrlichová. Then I aimed at associational activities in the town. I divided many of the societies into subchapters according to the prevailing orientation: choral dramatic and educational societies, walking and hiking, sport, womens' groups, Jewish associations and amusement societies. Associational life in Louny was influenced by its geographical position, at the Czech-German linguistic border. The town became the hub of...

En Belgique, à l’instar d’autres populations d’origine immigrée, les populations d’origine africaine subsaharienne font face à une relative impuissance. Cette dernière peut-être déterminée en fonction de critères tels que l’accès à l’emploi, au logement, à l’enseignement, ou encore le statut juridico-politique. Dans ma thèse, je m’intéresse aux stratégies mises en place par ces populations afin d’améliorer collectivement leur sort. J’articule la question des conséquences sociales et culturelles de la migration en termes de dialectique de l’identification, focalisée notamment sur l’utilisation couramment synonymique des catégories ethno-raciales « africain », « subsaharien » et « noir », avec celle des formes de l’action collective dégagées dans le cadre des social movement studies. Ma réflexion part d’une proposition théorique formulée de façon synthétique par Pnina Werbner et suggérant que, malgré le climat concurrentiel que la formation et l’expansion d’associations ethniques peut générer, leur développement et leur mise en relation constituerait les prémices incontournables d’éventuelles actions collectives protestataires. Pour Pnina Werbner, cette mise en réseau des associations, si elle s’assortit d’un processus de « convergence idéologique », peut donner lieu à des mobilisations. J’ai enrichi cette proposition de deux manières :d’une part, en affinant la notion de convergence idéologique au moyen de la littérature sur le cadrage et le processus d’alignement des cadres dans la mobilisation collective, et, d’autre part, en articulant dans mon analyse les trois courants théoriques centraux des recherches sur des mouvements sociaux – structure des opportunités politiques, mobilisations des ressources, cadres de l’action collective.<p><p>J’ai ainsi montré que le système politique belge était globalement à la fois favorable à l’expression de potentiels mouvements sociaux issus de l’immigration et peu ouvert à leur reconnaissance officielle. J’ai également mis en évidence que les niveaux infra-nationaux et supra-nationaux véhiculaient des opportunités politiques spécifiques. Je me suis ensuite penchée sur la façon dont les différentes opportunités et contraintes politiques mises à jour ont été saisies par deux associations « africaines » soucieuses de former un groupe d’intérêt représentant l’ensemble de la collectivité d’origine africaine subsaharienne, et sur les conséquences organisationnelles de ces choix. Ces études de cas m’ont permis de mettre en exergue le répertoire d’action accommodateur dans lequel ces organisations s’inscrivent, et la relation de leurs membres avec la structure des opportunités politiques. J’ai souligné comment certaines de ces opportunités, dans la façon dont elles ont été réappropriées par les leaders associatifs, ont eu un impact négatif sur la cohésion interne de leurs associations. Aussi, en me penchant plus spécifiquement sur la façon dont les différentes parties prenantes de ces organisations donnent sens aux activités de celles-ci, j’ai montré que les objectifs de ces associations étaient, de façon générale, investis de sens fort différents par les acteurs, y compris au sein des collèges d’administrateurs. Dans la lignée des travaux de Michael Herzfeld, les résultats de ma recherche soulignent la relation disémique inévitable entre la volonté de représentation communautaire officielle et les pratiques internes à la collectivité. Depuis quelques années, les entrepreneurs de représentation de cette collectivité tâchent d’amenuiser cette disémie en engageant leurs associations respectives, rebaptisées « panafricaines », dans des actions collectives. L’analyse de ces actions rend compte de la construction d’un « répertoire symbolique commun » qui se décline autour du référent panafricain et de politiques identitaires pragmatiques. Enfin, j’ai identifié les formes de sociabilité plutôt élitaires du réseau associatif « panafricain » comme une limite de son extension.<p><p>Ces développements empiriques montrent tout l’intérêt d’observer largement « l’espace des mouvements sociaux », c’est-à-dire la trajectoire des organisations et des acteurs susceptibles de donner forme à l’action collective. Ce faisant, mon travail contribue à décloisonner des études sur les mouvements sociaux trop souvent cantonnées aux actions protestataires directement menées contre l’autorité publique. / Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished