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Can national liberation movements envisage self-rule without statehood? This research examines the politics of a national liberation movement that claims to do just that. The research focuses on the incessant quest for self-rule in Kurdistan in general and the politics of dominant Kurdish liberation movements in Turkey and Syria in particular – with regard to the kind of political community they aspire to found. The research reveals that a salient aspect of Kurdish politics has been its detachment from state-building, and that this aspect dominates the politics of Kurdish movements in Turkey and Syria. Likewise, their project for self-rule in Kurdistan envisages a political community that differs greatly from its competitors; i.e. the hegemonic nation-state and its main opposition Islamic Ummah. I note that the Kurdish model draws heavily on the growing literature in political theory about the inadequacy of representative institutions and the risks of appealing to the notion of national sovereignty. I emphasize that the project shifts the origin of sovereignty from 'the imagined community', i.e. the nation, to residential communities (note the plurality). I also highlight that the Kurdish model of political community is built upon the exercise of political power through direct and semi-direct forms of democracy. Popular councils and assemblies within municipalities appear as the ultimate regulatory institutions. Sovereignty, thus, is dispersed and fragmented throughout autonomous, yet co-existing, and ideally horizontally organized political entities such as towns and cities. Accordingly, the primary form of political organization is not territorial state, but autonomous municipality. I argue that the claim to self-rule in the model is not in the name of the nation, but of communities of settlement, e.g. villages, neighbourhoods, towns, and cities. In a world of nationstates, the Kurdish movements' politics is an interesting example of post-nationalist and post-sovereign claims.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / The modern international socialist movement experienced its infancy and childhood in the form of the International Working Men's Association, or First International (1864- 1876). Its maturity seems to have been reached in the wake of the successful Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 with the founding of the Third International, or Comintern, and the expansion of Marxism-Leninism throughout the world under Soviet leadership. The period between these two phases, the adolescence of international socialism, was the period of the Second International (1889- 1914). During this period the socialist movement rose upon its earlier foundations and became a significant social and political force in almost every European nation. At the same time the Russian revolutionary socialist movement was growing within the tsarist empire and among its exiles. While Russian Socialists were developing the strength necessary to overthrow the tsarist regime, they also participated in the Second International. Since no systematic study has been made of the interrelationship between the Second International and the Russian Radicalism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this dissertation seeks to demonstrate the extent and nature of Russian participation in the Second International. This study reveals a certain degree of Russian independence from the main stream of European socialism. The Russians stood in opposition to reformism both in theory and in practice. This opposition was due, in part, to the particular state of Russian political and economic growth. As the Russians became aware of the reformist nature of the actions of their international comrades, they became critical of the activities of the Second International. In their response to the outbreak of World War I the Russians did not differ too greatly from other Socialists, but as the Russian socialist movement became increasingly dominated by the Bolsheviks, who stood clearly apart from the leaders of the International on the issue of the war, the independence of the Russians became apparent. These observations suggest that whenever the main stream of thought and action in the Second International ran counter to the basic interests and attitudes of Russian socialism, the Russians assumed a position independent of that mainstream. This independence explains, in part, the relative unimportance of the Russians as a Group in the Second International. It also suggests what the nature of the relationship of Russian socialism to the international socialist movement would be in the years following the Second International. Most Russian Socialists divorced themselves from any effort to revive the Second International and supported the Bolshevik-dominated Third International which was not a representative of international socialism but an instrument and protector of Russian communism. In the Second International the Russian participants assumed their most active role in the open discussions of the congresses and meetings only 2hen the issues directly affected them or were irrelevant to conditions in Russia. It is impossible to rank the contribution of the Russians as a national group, because aside from the Germans and the French, the important roles in the Second International were played by individuals. The primary sources used in this study include the available documents and records of the Second International. This means primarily the records of the congresses of the International, direct reports of the activities of the Second International and its participants, and the pertinent memoirs of its leading figures. The records of the International Socialist Bureau have been lost. Valuable secondary sources were the significant studies of international socialism, the Second International, cand the Russian revolutionary movement. Virtually all relevant material is available in the libraries of the United States.

In recent decades, social movements in general and Social Movement Organisations (SMOs) in particular have been going through processes of professionalisation, adopting market goals and methods, and employing on a large scale. Whilst most literature focuses on the impact of such processes for SMO activism, this research focuses on the impact of such moves for SMO staff. This thesis looks at employment and professionalisation in Israeli peace and anti-occupation SMOs, using Social Movement Theory, labour market literature, and a Weberian approach to conceptualise professionalisation, working conditions, and careers in SMOs. The mixed-methods data collection process included a phone survey of 200 workers in 32 SMOs, administrative data collected from the Israeli Bureau of Associations, 5 in-depth interviews and 2 workshops. The quantitative analysis mainly includes a comparison of SMO workers and representative data on the Israeli population and labour market (using the surveys ISSP 2005, ESS 2010, and the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics’ Social Survey 2011), and multilevel analysis using variables at both the organisational and the individual levels. The interviews and workshops used participants as partners, ensuring that the analysis is valid, meaningful, and relevant. Findings reveal that the researched SMO workers are highly educated, with an overrepresentation of women and Palestinians. They have a higher proportion of part-time positions, shorter tenure, and lower pay considering their educational levels, compared to the general Israeli labour market. While inequalities between Jews and Palestinians are not maintained in SMOs, inequalities between men and women are. Whilst working conditions are not ideal, SMO workers are motivated more by helping others and by professional interest, and less by practical considerations – although these do have a place in their decisions. They tend to stay within the Social Movement Sector, and develop an activism career – in which the organisational style and goals of SMOs compared to those of other sectors make it hard for them to leave the Social Movement Sector. The conceptualisation of professionalisation as bureaucratisation presented in Social Movement Theory matches actual data, and a professionalisation scale was created. Professionalisation may have negative effects on salary and tenure, and no positive effects were seen. These findings are true for SMOs that already employ workers, and they are interesting given that one consequence of professionalisation is creating more SMO employment. Different activity areas seem to offer different working conditions. This dissertation offers a contribution to SMOs and their workers, by highlighting inequalities and problematic issues regarding working conditions. It also enhances our theoretical understanding of SMO workers’ careers and careers in general, as well as of the possible consequences of professionalisation processes.

This thesis is an ethnographic study of UK environmental social movement mobilisations of the 1990s, detailing the movement's characteristics such as its structure as a fluid series of biodegradable networks. The thesis evidences what action was taken during this period, using primarily qualitative methodologies: semi-structured interviews and Participant Observation (PO). Evidence showing how mobilisation occurred, how activist networks are 'born' and sustained, is given, examining issues such as the diffusion of repertoires over time, and the importance of social networks. The "why" of mobilisation was documented, detailing activists' rationales for action given in interviews and a variety of other media such as email groups and in PO settings. The thesis approached the data from a 'grounded theory' perspective, meaning that appropriate theoretical directions developed during the research process. There were however initial aims: to investigate whether the EDA movement had a 'collective identity' (Melucci 1996), and hypotheses: that activists had complex rationales for taking action, and that there was a symbiosis between the taking of action, the development of movement praxis and collective identity, and the process of further mobilisation. These aims and hypotheses were realised by the research work. Despite many complexities outlined in the research, generally the EDA movement has a collective identity. This is based on a shared commitment to direct action, grassroots democracy, and a radical discourse, which challenges the codes and perceived abuses of power inherent in the dominant paradigm. Social justice, human rights, and environmental sustainability are equally important to EDA activists and seen as interrelated. Through charting the process of action in the 1990's, the thesis locates the 'anti globalisation' mobilisations at the turn of the millennium as evidence of EDA movement capacity building over a decade. The thesis aims to have contributed to Social Movement theory through this ethnographic approach.

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The present study explored a minority oppositional religious culture, which continued practicing despite overt hostilities to their practices. The qualitative research project utilized interviews and observations of the Gardnerian Wiccans in Broward County, Florida. The narrative data were transcribed, coded, and categorized into three themes related to the following research questions: Why would individuals create a secretive religion? Given they had to practice in secret, what about this religion had people seeking out information and joining Covens? What would keep this group together despite opposition from dominant culture? As a microcosm for religious conflict in society, the study showed differences in the culture’s religious paradigm structure as a major factor for religious conflict.

Social media's role in formenting protest action in Egypt has often been lauded by proponents of these web 2.0 technologies, to the extent that the collective protest actions that swept the Middle East and North Africa from December 2010 to the present have been referred to as "Twitter Revolutions" in recognition of the pivotal played by Twitter in mobilising citizents.

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In this thesis, I examine the centrality of travel geographies – with a specific focus on urban commuter railway lines between Mamelodi and central Tshwane – and their influence upon political identities of South African workers. By adopting a historical approach to our understanding of the South African working class, the thesis brings into sharper focus the relationship between the social dynamics of apartheid and how workers perceived the concept of a train. These have permeated into the new era with the formation of the Mamelodi Train Sector (MTS), as an organisation dedicated to organising workers on the trains since 2001. The emergence of MTS in the era of the neoliberal labour regime and its associated assault upon labour movements present opportunities for labour revival strategies. Drawing on the data collected, I show that the train can be used as a strategic site of mobilising, particularly for those workers without workplace representation. By portraying the train as a site of worker power and political consciousness, I accord primacy to the train as a space of potential union revival. This is informed by educational sessions on labour rights and labour law that take place on the train en-route to and from work. Because during these educational sessions; workers ask workplace or problem specific questions, I suggest, such questions are informed by the need to seek out useful information that can be utilised to address specific workplace problems. The theme ‘labour movement revival’ has gained global traction as labour scholars from both the north and south grapple with the aftermath of globalisation on organised labour. This has seen an increase in poverty, unemployment and inequalities in countries such as South Africa. Labour revitalisation theme came about because, as Beverly Silver correctly observes: During the last two decades of the twentieth century, there was an almost complete consensus in the social sciences literature that labo[u]r movements were in a general and severe crisis. Declining strike activity and other overt expressions of labo[u]r militancy, failing union density and shrinking real wages and job insecurity were among the trends documented (Silver, 2003: 1). Reacting to the reality as described by Silver (2003), labour scholars, activists and likeminded individuals set about to rescue the once militant labour movement from its ii perpetual decline. Drawing on case studies from various countries, author after author sought to offer new ways in which the erstwhile flourishing trade unionism can be restored to its former glory. This ethnographic study hopes to make a contribution to this growing body of knowledge. By exploring the activities of the Mamelodi Train Sector (MTS), the study attempts to show that the train can become a strategic locus of worker social power. By historicising the role of the train, it is possible to trace various phases of the ‘making of the South Africa working class’ starting in 1652 (colonialism era). This was followed by the period of mineral discovery, segregation and lastly, apartheid. These historical epochs were characterised by an oppressive and racist capitalist industrialisation process, which sough, as a point of departure to turn into cheap migrants the indigenous populations of South Africa. This saw the advent of an elaborate proletarianisation process backed up a battery of oppressive legislative measures. Due to these conditions, a particular kind of trade unionism – social movement unionism (SMU) – emerged in this context as response to the abuse, exploitation and lack of industrial citizenship of the African majority both as workers and citizens of this country. As an expression of black anger, SMU was primarily concerned with liberating South African from the abuses of both the apartheid state and the racist capitalist system operational in South Africa at the time. This saw black Africans being accorded labour rights for the first time in 1979 and finally achieving democratic majority rule in 1994. A social partnership was put in place with the militant labour movement under COSATU entering into an alliance with the ruling ANC and SACP. Post-1994, the SMU of the 80s faced new challenges with the advent of the neoliberal labour regime as the ANC government adopted market friendly macro-economic policies. The corollary presented the weakening of the labour movements as capital put in place measure to counter labours organisational power. This led to a crisis of representation as South Africa’s largely industrial unionism struggled under the new work paradigm. Under the new work conditions, casualisation, externalisation and outsourcing were adopted by capital with a view to weaken labour’s traditional forms of power – associational and structural power. It is this shifting terrain that required innovative ways to theorise and understand labour’s attempts to ameliorate the juggernaut that became neoliberalism. Fracturing the workplace as traditionally understood severely raptured worker solidarities. It is within iii this context that this thesis seeks to understand MTS and its locus of operation – the train. The data collected shows that MTS plays a critical role in filling some of the gaps left by the weakened SMU. By organising on the train, MTS provides a space of articulation for the vulnerable sections of the workforce – those without workplace representation. Drawing from the power resource approach (PRA), the thesis makes a case for a need to expand our understading of workers’ assciational power. The case of MTS demonstrate that workers’ associational power need not be limited to the workplace. Based on this, the thesis suggests that at the conceptual level, the train, due to its strategic importance to workers’ daily travel, can substitute the meaning laden workplace. Drawing on Havery’s concept of spatial fix, the findings demonstrate that just like capital, labour is also capable of fixes. These are demonstrated by MTS’s ablity to: (a) provide workers with a space for friendships and political influence, (b) provide workers with a space of solidarity and belonging and, (c) act as a knowledge hub. Herod argues that, much like capital, workers also have vested interests in how the geographies of production are produced and configured. Therefore, workers can arguably draw strength from this coach and radiate such strength outwards in order to challenge capital’s spatial fixes. This, Anderson (2015) refers to as a resonant place. Observations clearly show that workers actively seek out information that can be useful in their lives. This is a form of agency that can be located at the level of the individual – scaled at the body. This form of agency, however, needs to be understood in its context – what Soja refers to as socio-spatial dialctic. / Thesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences / Sociology / DPhil / Unrestricted