This research project uses the 2010/11 student protests in the UK as a case study to understand why certain individuals mobilise for forms of political participation and activism and why others do not. The student protests are ideal as a case study of participation and non-participation for a number of reasons. The UK Government’s proposal to treble the cap tuition fees for students in England represented an issue of widespread grievance for the student population, a grievance which was compounded for many by the Liberal Democrats’ decision to u-turn on its 2010 election campaign pledge. The student response featured large-scale regional and national demonstrations, as well as the formation of a network of simultaneous campus occupations across the UK, arguably presenting a greater scale and diversity of protest than had been seen for a generation. Despite these multiple participatory opportunities, however, student participation did not come close to matching the scale of opposition to trebled fees and university funding cuts as articulated in surveys. This raises fundamental questions about the social and political differences between participants and non-participants. Using original survey data of students from 22 UK universities, and 56 in-depth interviews with students from 6 universities, this research examines social and political patterns and relations between high, medium and low-cost/risk participants, and non-participants. Taking into account the idea of the university campus as a network of actors, the research posits that networks may preclude as well as facilitate participation. The research studies in detail the formation and maintenance of student activism networks – including their collective identifications and dis-identifications. Conversely, the study also looks at the social networks of non-participants, and how these may help to socially produce and sustain non-participation at an agency level. Finally, the research considers whether the protests against fees and cuts should be seen as a unified movement, and whether student attitudes taken together reveal a broadly-identifiable ‘participatory ideal’.

published_or_final_version / Social Work / Master / Master of Social Work

<p> </p><p>Det talas idag om ett minskat stöd och identifikation till politiska partier. Forskning visar att unga människor spenderar mer tid och är mer benägna än äldre att använda Internet för att skaffa politisk information. I en enkätundersökning med 125 deltagare i fyra åldersgrupper undersöktes om unga i större utsträckning än äldre identifierar sig med icke-parlamentariska rörelser som för fram sina budskap på Internet. Hos deltagarna mättes graden av parlamentarisk och icke-parlamentarisk identifikation som funktion av ålder och Internettid. Unga hade en signifikant högre Internettid än äldre. Dock påvisades inga andra signifikanta skillnader mellan åldersgrupperna avseende identifikation. Området kring Internetmediet och dess effekt på politisk identifikation förefaller vara relativt begränsad, varför det skulle vara intressant att utveckla denna forskning i Sverige</p>

<p>This paper gave an insight into the novelties as well as the deficiencies of the provisions related to democratic elections and their implementation framework. It examined the potential effectiveness or otherwise of a binding treaty which is not yet enforced on the basis of past experience. In effect, it shed light on the possible measures that could be taken to guarantee its realisation and to circumvent the shortcomings in ensuring its effective implementation.</p>

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The experiences and perceptions of ICT access and usage by women in marginalised South African communities is sorely under researched. Where information from a gender-based perspective reflecting potential digital gender disparities exists, it is typically a statistical view of the ICT landscape (largely reflecting access). Exploration of the complex underlying socio-cultural factors affecting women’s ICT usage is under-represented. There is an urgent need to hear women’s own voices and perspectives on such intricate and often obscure subject matter. This research has aimed to bring traditionally overlooked perspectives to the fore by exploring the experiences and perceptions of women in marginalised South African communities regarding ICT access and usage. This qualitative study, guided by a feminist phenomenological perspective, focused on the individual lived experiences of twelve women living in three marginalised areas of the Western Cape of South Africa. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews and analysed through the Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) approach. The findings showed that the women had strong attachments to ICT and had integrated it into their own individual contexts, to fit their needs and activities. ICT had been interwoven into various social, economic, educational, political, cultural, recreational and spiritual dimensions of life. A range of factors emerged as having influence on women’s digital participation. Some of the more significant barriers were digital skills and confidence, poor social support systems, affordability of ICT, awareness of personally beneficial opportunities, time constraints, resistance from a male partner and poor literacy. Additionally, the women lived in highly gendered environments, with sociallyconstructed gender norms, roles and identities, which had a strong influence on digital experiences and perceptions. This socio-cultural gender inequality was fundamental in the time constraints, and in the power dynamics and resistance women faced from male partners. Findings indicated that gender identities and traits disadvantage females in the digital context, for example ideas of femininity being viewed as conflicting with a perceived ‘dirty’ ICT field. Detrimental perceptions associating sophisticated ICT activity with males were reportedly prevalent in the communities and some of the women interviewed subscribed to the essentialist theory which considers men inherently better suited to technology. These findings have important implications for policies and practices in view of enhancing the digital inclusion of women in marginalised South African communities. Recommendations towards this end are outlined, specifically centred on gendersensitive approaches in the planning and implementation of digital inclusion initiatives.

Thesis advisor: Charles Derber / This thesis examines the relationship between consumption and politics. It focuses on how ethical consumption can be positioned to be part of political participation. It also pays attention to how it can serve as a pathway for creating a better society in which ethical, individual consumers are mobilized toward the collective activism and the conventional political participation that influences social change in the context of globalization and individualism. To demonstrate this, the study examines the case of a consumer cooperative: iCOOP in South Korea based on data from in-depth interviews with members of iCOOP. The findings show that ethical consumption practices can be understood in the context of life politics. Participants in this study constantly make attempts to readapt their consuming patterns and choose their lifestyles based on a changed consciousness of the self, the world, and the interrelations between both at the individual level. By extension, participants analyzed as political agents of life politics show that they can become more engaged in collective activism and conventional political participation. What makes this mobilization possible is that they were able to be involved in rehearsal phases for citizens' roles at the collective level, and to gain easy access to social issues and a set of political tools in iCOOP. It is significant that iCOOP provides a platform for collecting and maintaining the state of this collectivized consumer power by organizing individually scattered consumers. It is not an `imagined community' for mobilizing scattered consumers, but rather a practical and real community established by consumers themselves in which they try to become aware of interrelations between the self and the world, rearrange their ways of living, and further expand their interests and actions to large-scale social and political issues for making social change. These findings not only support the alternative views of ethical consumption as political participation, these also offer a fresh perspective by showing the process and the mechanism of the connection between consumption and politics. This study ultimately leads to the possibility that ethical consumption can become a vehicle that brings about a meaningful change in both life and conventional politics. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology. / Discipline: TO ADD.

The Peace referendum of 2016 was an attempt by the Colombian government under president Juan Manuel Santos to seek popular ratification for the newly signed peace agreement with left-wing guerilla group FARC, after more than half a decade of hostilities. When the ballots closed, however, it was with a record high abstention, and a small majority of votes for the No-side. Despite enjoying a decrease of violence and being in the national and international spotlight, conflict areas displayed a particularly high abstention - largely missing from the ballots were the victims of the conflict themselves. Through a mixed method approach, this field study inquires into the potential role enduring effects of violence played, building on Ojeda’s psychological theories of political participation and the substantial scholarly body on mental health outcomes of violence. Challenging the dominating theory of contemporary violence as the cause for abstention, it finds support for an enduring impact of past violence on political participation on an aggregated level. This is partly contradicted by the answers given by inhabitants of Colombian municipalities Valdivia and El Retiro, where interviews and surveys were conducted in the winter of 2018. Nonetheless, the answers of the residents provide important and noteworthy implications, as the effects of violence appear to transform depending on the milieu in which its victims are situated.

As diversas formas de ação coletiva promovidas pelas mulheres ao longo da história têm sido capazes de oferecer respostas concretas para a superação de sua condição de subordinação dentro da sociedade. Nesse ínterim, o trabalho remunerado e a participação política têm se constituído enquanto processos que contribuem para a construção de sua autonomia econômica, política e social. Este trabalho buscou pesquisar um movimento popular organizado por mulheres que surgiu na década de 1970, na periferia sul da cidade de São Paulo, a União Popular de Mulheres de Campo Limpo e Adjacências (UPM). Por meio de seis entrevistas realizadas com pessoas atuantes no período de fundação da entidade e de pessoas que trabalham nela atualmente foi possível desenhar a trajetória histórica dessa organização, e construir reflexões observando os diferentes papéis dos sujeitos envolvidos, bem como a peculiaridade de cada período histórico. Com a análise da consciência política das atrizes e atores envolvidos na UPM, na perspectiva da Psicologia Política, buscamos nos debruçar sobre as construções e desconstruções desse coletivo acerca do protagonismo feminino e do desenvolvimento de uma sociedade mais justa e igualitária, na perspectiva da economia feminista e da economia solidária, e entender os limites e potencialidades das práticas da UPM para a transformação social da realidade em que vivem. / The many varieties of collective action promoted by women in the course of history have been able to provide concrete responses for overcoming their subordinated condition in society. In this process, paid work and political participation are factors that contributed to the consolidation of their economic, political and social autonomy. The present study investigates the União Popular de Mulheres de Campo Limpo e Adjacências UPM (Popular Union of Women of Campo Limpo and Surrounding Neighborhoods), a social movement created by women in the 1970s decade in the poor outskirts of São Paulo, in Brazil. Through the analysis of six interviews with former and present members of the entity, this study traces the historical trajectory of this organization and elaborates reflections about the specific roles of each subject and about the particularity of its different phases. Through the study of UPM members political consciousness under the perspective of Political Psychology, this study aims to investigate their constructions and deconstructions regarding feminine protagonism and the development of a more fair and equalitarian society within the horizons of feminist and solidarity economy and, furthermore, to understand the potentialities and limits of UPMs actions and practices for social change.

Thesis advisor: Kay Schlozman / Much has been said recently about the decline in both political and non-political civic participation in the United States. Many American religious congregations, however, continue to stand strong as voluntary associations connecting people with the political and civic life in our country. This paper explains the role that religious congregations can play as promoters of civic engagement. Specifically, it describes the mechanisms by which religious congregations can provide what I call civic resources to their members, resources members utilize to participate in other forms of civic activity outside of their congregation. These resources can be broken down into three main categories. Civic skills are the communication and organizational abilities that an individual can draw upon to make participation more effective. Congregations provide opportunities for members to gain experience using such skills when becoming involved in church governance or in organizing church committees to take on special tasks or put on special events. Social infrastructure captures the value of the social networks and organizational resources available to members of a congregation. The tight-knit social community within a church serves as an effective network to spread relevant information or recruit volunteers for any collective activity. Finally, there are a number of psychological resources a congregation can bring to bear on an individual. Oftentimes the religious teachings of congregations encourage members to adopt civic-minded values and attitudes that serve as a strong motivation to participate. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science Honors Program. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: Political Science.

Thesis advisor: Lisa Dodson / Service learning has emerged as one of the most popular mechanisms to promote and teach students about civic, moral, and political responsibility in American colleges and universities. This dissertation offers a critical exploration of the potential and limitations that engagement in service activities, and service learning in particular, can offer. The research was designed to explore how individual long-term volunteers attach meaning to their service experience, as well as how these meanings are constructed. In other words, what is the process by which students come to make sense of the volunteer work in which they are engaged? Of particular interest are the potential connections between these constructed meanings and a sense of politics or a sense of social change strategies. To explore the ways in which volunteers attach meaning to their service experience, I conducted participatory observation, in-depth interviews, and focus groups with a number of college students currently participating in a structured long-term service learning program; along with staff members of this program and of community partner organizations; and a group of comparison volunteers. This research provides an overview of the relationships, roles, responsibilities, benefits, challenges, and overall structure and design of a long-term service learning program. Participation in a structured service learning program shapes the ways in which students think about their service as it relates to a sense of politics and social change. However, the connection between service and political engagement is often complicated by a lack of political opportunities, a perceived lack of civic skills or political knowledge, and views of politics as divisive and ineffective. This dissertation also contributes to a greater understanding of the ways in which collective identity can develop among student service learners, and how this collective identity may impact their work. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.