published_or_final_version / Dental Surgery / Master / Master of Dental Surgery

Situated in the contemporary debate over the implications of the Internet to the contentious politics and authoritarian states, this study is an empirical investigation into the mechanism and the determinants of cyber-to-physical mobilisation in contemporary China. This research compares the mobilization processes of the two cyber-contentious episodes in China, namely the Xiamen PX Event in 2007 and the Sanlu Milk Scandal in 2008. It is grounded on a two-year cyber-ethnographic investigation and in-depth interviews with 14 people differently involved in the respective cyber-contentious episodes. In order to find out why some contentious activities are able to transform into street protests while others of similar nature are contained or even vanish in the cyberspace, this study examines the interactions between the four stakeholders in each contentious episode (i.e., the cyber-protesters, the media, the state power, and the market forces). It highlights the importance of the state power and the market forces in cyber-to-physical mobilisation, and determines the conditions under which cyber-to-physical mobilisation is feasible. This thesis elucidates how the state power and the market forces collectively condition cyber-to-physical mobilisation through the media (both the print and the digital media). The entire mechanism is powered by the tensions between cyber-protesters, the media, the state power and the market forces. The media framing of an incident influences the grievance formation of cyber-protesters, which further determines cyber-to-physical mobilisation. Thus, by manipulating the media framing, the state power or the market forces may control cyber-to-physical mobilisation, although it is not always a success. Based on the mechanism for cyber-to-physical mobilisation, this thesis further ascertains the conditions for cyber-to-physical mobilisation. The two contentious episodes show that cyber-to-physical mobilisation is prohibited when the respective core interests of the state power and the market forces are in complete unity (i.e., national mobilisation and industrial damage are eminent). On the contrary, if cyber-to-physical mobilisation merely triggers controllable regional mobilisation, the state will tolerate it; and if cyber-tophysical mobilisation only costs limited corporate damage, the market forces will allow it. Under such circumstances, cyber-to-physical mobilisation is possible. / published_or_final_version / Sociology / Master / Master of Philosophy

The second half of the 20th century saw the emergence of consequential and diverse social movements inspired by Christian moral commitments, from anti-communism and temperance to Civil Rights and fundamentalism. Few studies, however, have systematically analyzed this important sector of activism adequately, though it lies at the intersection of two vital sociological areas: the sociology of religion and political sociology. This dissertation is the first comprehensive study of Christian activist organizations, creating and analyzing an electronic database of approximately 500 unique Christian social movement organizations along nearly 50 variables including overall population changes, denominational variation, geographic diffusion, tactical repertoires, and issues engaged. Findings indicate that changes originating in religious demographics and culture preceded and led to related changes in American politics, overall in a conservative direction. At a macro level, data also consistently point to a homeostatic, cybernetic effect generating medium-term cultural equilibrium between progressive and conservative Christian activists. At the micro-level, findings illustrate the essential role of cultural entrepreneurs motivated by religious values and identities in redefining, publicizing, and defending the moral boundaries which create and sustain social movements. / text

In May 1968, a racially, geographically, and politically diverse coalition of poor people joined forces to make themselves visible to the nation and protest the unseen poverty they suffered from on a daily basis. Under the leadership of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) between 3,000 and 5,000 African American, Mexican American, American Indian, Puerto Rican, and white Appalachian poor people caravanned to Washington, D.C., and built a temporary city--Resurrection City--on the symbolic space of the National Mall, where they remained for over six weeks as part of the 1968 Poor People's Campaign. The caravans and temporary shantytown brought poverty into the national spotlight, exposing the bleak conditions impoverished people experienced on a daily basis. In Resurrection City volunteers provided participants with social services and basic necessities they lacked at home, while participants conducted daily protests at nearby government agencies, demanding assistance for the basic need of housing, food, and jobs. The ultimate goal of the 1968 Poor People's Campaign was to produce a radical redistribution of wealth in the U.S., but most involved in the movement hoped, if nothing more, to expose the pervasiveness of poverty and persuade Congress to fund new programs and improve the administration and benefits of existing ones. This radical social experiment was the first national, multiracial anti-poverty movement of the era, yet it has received scant scholarly attention. "Civil Rights' 'Unfinished Business'" provides a comprehensive narrative of this significant yet neglected movement that reveals the complexity of national, grassroots, multiracial, class-based activism that challenged the nation to face the problem of poverty during the most tumultuous years of the era. Civil rights scholars tend to dismissively characterize the Poor People's Campaign (PPC) as the last gasp of the civil rights movement--a failed campaign with no substantial lasting consequences. However, this dissertation argues that rather than simply being Martin Luther King Jr.'s "last crusade," the PPC represents civil rights' "unfinished business." The problems this campaign tried to address--hunger, joblessness, homelessness, inadequate health care, a failed welfare system--still persist, and people of color, particularly women and children, continue to experience poverty and its effects disproportionately. / text

This dissertation examines the role of television reform within twentieth century social movements in the United States. Typically, scholars have examined the relationship between activists and television through the lens of media representation: how the mass media have depicted and defined social movements, and how activists have negotiated with the media that publicize their goals. This dissertation, in contrast, examines the role of media reform within social movements themselves. By investigating the television reform campaigns of civil rights activists, feminists, conservatives, the progressive left, and educational groups, this dissertation reveals how American reform movements have responded to an increasingly mass-mediated culture and have tried to mold television to reflect their moral and political beliefs. This dissertation explores not only the myriad ways activists have approached television reform, but illustrates how these campaigns have responded to changes in the television industry, broadcasting policy, and American culture more broadly. This dissertation also charts the rhetorical strategies that the reformers have used to legitimate their stake in media policy and practices and to convince of the importance and power of the medium that they are trying to change. Television reform fights have been battles not only over television programming and policy, but over the meaning of television's role in American society. / text

Visual search can simply be defined as the task of looking for an object of interest in a visual environment. Due to its foveated nature, the human visual system succeeds at such task by making many discrete fixations linked by rapid eye movements called saccades. However, very little is known about how saccadic targets (fixation loci) are selected by the brain in such naturalistic tasks. Discoveries to be made are not only invaluable to the field of vision science but are very important in designing automated vision systems, which to this day lag in performance vis-à-vis human observers. What I have sought to accomplish in this dissertation has been to reveal previously unknown saccadic targeting and target selection strategies used by human observers in naturalistic visual search tasks. My driving goal has been to understand how the brain selects fixation loci and target candidates upon fixation, with the objective of using these findings for automated fixation selection algorithms employed for visual search. I have proposed a novel and efficient technique akin to psychophysical reverse correlation to study human observer strategies in locating low-contrast targets under a variety of experimental conditions. My technique has successfully been used to study saccadic programming and target selection in various experimental conditions, including visual searches for targets with known characteristics, targets whose orientation attributes are not known a priori, and targets containing multiple orientations. I have found visual guidance in saccadic targeting and target selection under all experimental conditions, revealed by observers' selectivity for spatial frequencies and/or orientations of stimuli close to that of the target. I have shown that under uncertainty, observers rely on known target characteristics to direct their saccades and to select target candidates upon foveal scrutiny. Moreover, I have demonstrated that multiple orientation characteristics of targets are represented in observer search strategies, modulated by their sensitivity / selectivity for each orientation. Some of my findings have been applied towards applications for automated visual search algorithms.

The purpose of this research paper is to explore and examine the nature of learning within the context of and situated within a social movement. Based on an exploratory qualitative study of learning within the Jyoti Jivanam Movement of South Africa, this research explores the nature and purpose/s of learning within a social movement. Accordingly, this study is guided by the research questions: How and why do adults learn as they collectively participate in social movements; and what factors facilitate, contribute, hinder and influence learning within social movement? This study confirms that social movements are important sites for collective learning and knowledge construction. For this reason, social movements need to be acknowledged as pedagogical sites that afford adults worthwhile learning opportunities. Furthermore, social movements, as pedagogical sites, not only contribute to conceptions of what constitute legitimate knowledge(s), social movements also contribute to the creation of transformative knowledge(s). / Magister Educationis (Adult Learning and Global Change) - MEd(AL)

This study looks into communicative processes and media practices among members of a subaltern social movement. The aim is to gain an understanding of how these processes and practices contribute to symbolic cohesion in the movement, how they develop and are socialized into practices, and how these processes and practices help challenge hegemonic groups in society. These questions are explored through a qualitative study, based on fieldwork and interviews, of a subaltern social movement. The empirical object of the study is the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (MST), which was founded in 1984 to promote agrarian reform and defend the rights of rural workers in Brazil.   At the macro-level, the discussion addresses social realities marked by the meta-processes of globalisation, neo-liberalisation, and mediatisation. Against this background, the experiences of MST militants and of the movement as a whole help us to understand how different communicative processes play a role in the ways people experience globalisation, neo-liberalisation, and mediatisation in their daily lives. Departing from an understanding of communication as a process that structures practices (mediated and non-mediated), this study questions the media-centric understanding of communication, arguing that media practices are created through appropriation processes.   The results show that communicative processes are crucial to reinforcing values and symbologies associated with the rural worker identity. There is also a high level of reflexivity about media practices and an understanding that they must serve the principles of the collective. As a consequence, the movement seeks to maintain control over media, routinely discussing and evaluating the adoption and use of media. The interviews show ambivalence towards the alleged dialogic and organisational potential of digital media and to the adaptability of these media to the MST’s organisational processes. Through observation, it is possible to conclude that media have an instrumental function, as opposed to a structural function, in the processes of social transformation engendered by the MST. / This study looks into communicative processes and media practices among members of a subaltern social movement. The aim is to gain an understanding of how these processes and practices contribute to symbolic cohesion in the movement, how they develop and are socialized into practices, and how these processes and practices help challenge hegemonic groups in society. These questions are explored through a qualitative study, based on fieldwork and interviews, of a subaltern social movement. The empirical object of the study is the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (MST), which was founded in 1984 to promote agrarian reform and defend the rights of rural workers in Brazil. The results show that communicative processes are crucial to reinforcing values and symbologies associated with the rural worker identity. There is also a high level of reflexivity about media practices and an understanding that they must serve the principles of the collective. As a consequence, the movement seeks to maintain control over media, routinely discussing and evaluating the adoption and use of media. The interviews show ambivalence towards the alleged dialogic and organisational potential of digital media and to the adaptability of these media to the MST’s organisational processes.

On September 23, 1965, a small group of campesinos, teachers, and students attacked the army base in Madera, Chihuahua. In Mexico, this attack is widely considered to be the first of the socialist armed movements of the late 1960s and‘70s, inspiring the 23rd of September League and others. Nearly all the existing literature focuses on the group’s turn to armed struggle - but is this what we should remember them for? The attack was preceded by five years of public mobilizations in support of the agrarian struggle and broader demands, involving vast numbers throughout the state, in a movement that transcended political parties and engaged in direct action. It was this broad social movement that nourished and gave birth to the armed movement; it was as innovative as Arturo Gámiz’s application of Che’s Guerra de Guerrillas to the sierra. I further argue that the armed struggle itself, which developed in the remote backlands, derived as much from a long tradition of armed self-defense endemic to the region as it did to the Cuban example. I also look at the participation of women, both voluntary and involuntary, in these events and the uses to which the assault on the base has been put in recent times.

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