In 2003, the town of Craik initiated a unique renewable energy project with the dual goals of addressing both the environmental and the rural economic crisis. This Masters thesis provides an exploration of the factors that both facilitate and constrain the advancement of this project. The research focuses on the question: What are the cultural and social factors that inhibit the Craik project from meeting its environmental and economic goals? New social movement theory provides a theoretical framework for explaining contradictions within social movements, while a critical ethnographic methodology is used to uncover specific underlying contradictions that exist at Craik. This thesis analyzes the dynamics of facilitating and non-facilitating factors to make visible the deeper sources of conflict, to contribute to theoretical models of social change and understandings of community development. Furthermore, the thesis provides direction for the Craik eco-project that can further the implementation of practices that will facilitate both its economic and environmental goals. Finally, the study provides valuable insights to other communities working to facilitate similar eco-projects and influence public policy in response to global warming

This project is important to the research in both the fields of social movement and of social media and their growing relationship.  This report has analyzed the responses of several key role players in one of the biggest social movements in American history, Occupy Wall Street.  Social media was used as a tool for both communication and information gathering amongst all those who were involved in the movement in a variety of capacities.  The relationship and change that is occurring between traditional media and social media as information sources is also examined.  Through qualitative analysis the importance that the role that social media now commands in our society in the context of social movements specifically became clear.  The results will show the significance of this work and its importance in understanding the role that social media will continue to play in future social movements in the digitized public sphere of the 21st century. / Article manuscript 7,5 hp par of degree:<em> ‘Social media is our media’: two individual activists’ perspectives oftheir relationship with the uses of traditional and social media duringOccupy Wall Street</em>

This thesis focuses on the case study of Kao-Pin River restoration movement. The first phase of this research uses R.A.W. Rhodes' policy network typology to categorize the complicated membership of participants of the movement. The second uses Marsh & Smith¡¦s dialectical model of policy network theory to analyze the complicated interactions, for instance, protest, alliance, competition, and coordination, between governments, professionals, environmental groups and interest groups. The research goes on to verify the mutual interaction of environmental policy, policy network, participant, and policy outcomes of Kao-Pin River governance. The alliance of Kao-Pin River restoration movement, anti-dam movement, opposition to petrochemical and steel works has been so far the biggest social movement of southern Taiwan. Almost every southern environmental group and all levels of government were involved in the movement. Environmental groups were usually disadvantageous minority within the policy-influential participants. In order to influence policy outcome, it is essential for environmental groups to mobilize dispersed social resources, organize intense interactive network, to gain legitimacy and public trust, and attract public attention to environmental issues. This research finds that Kao-Pin River restoration movement successfully takes advantage of power contradiction between different levels of governments, and different departments of the government; utilizes the support of local government, cooperates with scholars, experts and media to build up an intense network, to advocate sustainable river maintenance policy of water resources, against highly water-demanded industries, bureaucracy, and the authority. The environmental activists first utilized the media support to gain legitimacy and representation for river protection. Second, they allied with media, congressman and legislators, environmental groups, scholars and experts to formulate an issue network, and won over the support of local governments to join the network. Third, they employed the contradiction of central government to start a political struggle for water resource protection. Finally, the goal of the movement was achieved through shifting of central political power and the change of river maintenance policy. However, after the government responded to environmental activists' demands for sustainable river management and turn about relevant policy outcomes, the energy of the movement faded the alliance of issue network loosened. The main group "Green Alliance for Kao-Pin River Protection" announced disbandment in 1999, the movement entered a stage of Post-Social Movement; relevant issue groups turned to build partnership with local authority, a relationship of a kind of policy community.

Abstract This essay elaborates the international New Gramscian School, which is one branch of critical theory, through comparing with mainstream international relation theories, limited in Waltz¡¦s structural realism, Gilpin¡¦s theory of hegemonic stability and neoliberal institutionalism Keohane & Nye devised. Meanwhile, this essay is divided into three parts, from lower level of relation between state and society (relation of structure and agent), hegemony and international regime, to higher level of post-Cold War world order, according to the critique Susan Strange refers to the mainstream international studies. Finally, I will make a normative statement about the School and suggestion related to the development of IR discipline. The purpose of this essay is to introduce a new approach that adopts historical materialism and denies the dichotomy of subject and object. Further, it assumes the importance of social science to build up a research method suitable for itself but different with natural science, and reassesses Enlightment Project. In brief, the context of the New Gramscian School could be derived from the following thinking of three scholars, including neo-Marxist Gramsci ¡¦¡¦cultural hegemony¡¦¡¦ which stresses non-material dimension of hegemony, Poulantzas ¡¥¡¦relative autonomy of state¡¦¡¦ and ¡¥¡¦dialectical structural analysis ¡¦¡¦, highlighting non-determinist characteristic of neoMarxism and putting emphases on the functions of anti-hegemonic social movements rather than seizing state machine by forces directly or radical revolutionary path, and Socialist Polanyi ¡¥¡¦double movement¡¦¡¦, which tries to verify that market itself plays only subordinate role in pre-capitalism period and indicate the fallacy of the self-regulating market itself. With these perspectives above, the School develops a quite different historical approach to interpret international phenomenon and tend to transform the given unjust and unfair world order. In sum, though mainstream IR theories are good at prediction of behaviors in few strong states, there are still a lot of questions unsolved and much space left for IR discipline to have a dialogue with competitive theories, especially the Left had been marginalized for a long time. Accordingly, it¡¦s important and constructive to establish a communicative community in the foreseeable future.

This study was done to explore the organization mobilization, identity construction and local development in Meinung Anti-dam Movement. Literature review and in-depth interview were applied in this study. The former focused on social movement and collective action theory. Besides, the local elites were interviewed to find out how they united the local societies and intellectuals to convince local residents and politicians to participate in the Movement, and how they inspired Pintung LiuDui Hakka and international organizations to support the Movement. Suggestion were made according to the findings.

Abstract This research will mainly study the Ping-Ling Freeway Plebiscite Act and the Ping-Ling County River and Fish Protection Act. The thesis adopts the logic of collective action and the analytic path of the resource mobilization theory and approval theory, which are derived from the collective action and social action theories. The research will further analyze the cause, process, effect and obstacles, of the Ping-Ling Plebiscite Action and River and Fish Protection Act. By observing the two actions, conclusions can then be drawn on the relationship between the regional collective action and the regional democracy. In the research, it is noted that a political elite, who is also an initiator, organizer as well as spokesperson, plays a significant role in the behavior of collective action. The Ping-Ling Plebiscite and the River and Fish Protection Act, with the leadership and power of the political elite added to hold, construct a systematic mechanism such as the Fish Protection Patrol Party. The politic elite will provide the residents theory discourse for use in participating collective action. Throughout the process of the regional residents participating in collective action, there will be great benefits to the democratic development in the region. From the process of actively participating in the regional affairs, the residents will develop new perspectives, and thus have positive on the development of regional civism. It is also discovered in the study that the factional structure of Ping-Ling County is gradually changing. The phenomenon of faction predominating the residents¡¦ power of political life is gradually diminishing. The residents now cast their votes based on the candidates¡¦ ability and contribution to the region and much less based on faction. It is shown that regional democracy can be radicated and practiced through collective action, and this can be a possible approach for every region¡¦s municipals push.

This study aims at understanding the 15-year long hegemonic struggle of the Bergama movement. In the pursuit of this aim, it first seeks to develop a conceptual framework through the articulation of the insights of Social Movement approaches within the discourse-theoretical framework of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. Analyzing the Bergama movement within this conceptual framework, it then argues that in spite of its emergence in the local Bergama context as a particular response to the operation of a goldmine, the Bergama movement has gone beyond a local protest campaign. It constituted an anti-gold mining discourse that, tying the issue of the operation of the goldmine in Bergama to some wider issues, such as protection of environment, operation of gold mines, operation of foreign companies, rule of law, human rights, and democracy, posed challenges both to the neo-liberal economic structure and to the authoritarian state structure in the Turkish context. The study also argues that despite its initial success in providing a discursive space for the articulation of a number of unfulfilled social demands and thereby mobilizing a number of social groups, the Bergama movement gradually weakened mainly because the challenges that it posed to the hegemonic structures impelled the several forces of the status-quo to the struggle, who did not only win the popular consent to the necessity of the operation of goldmines by means of constructing a pro-mining discourse on the basis of speculations but also antagonized and repressed the protesters on the basis of inevident allegations.

Before 1978, Chinese dam policies were tallied with the political movement ¡§Big Leap¡¨, people all obeyed the order no matter they were under the situation of lacked of instruments. Sanmenxia can be a special sample. ZhouEnlai¡¦s chrisma made people did their best on dam projects. This could be said that dam construction policies were methods to show the authority of the leader and the state. And further, under the system of people¡¦s commune and SOEs, the state can totally control the society. After executing the opening reform policy in 1978, social organizations were in bud in China. Since 1994, environmental non-government organizations (ENGO) dramatically grew up and played an important role in anti-dam movements, in addition the international non-government organizations joined the movement, and then the two kinds of organizations became transnational advocacy networks. However, the transnational advocacy networks successfully stopped the projects of Nu River and Hutiaoxia. In this study, the documentary analysis is the key research methodology and the dam construction is the case to illustrate the purpose of constructing dam in China. Furthermore, this thesis would make a description of the reasons of anti-dam movements, the emergence of NGOs and ENGOs, and the cooperation with INGOs to confer the transforming State-Society relations in China.

Social movement is the primary agency to enact social change, But, might not be achieved in a short time. After 1980s, the third sector in Taiwan has grown up quickly. Following different social movements, the sector has grown several organizational fields, such as environmental protection, the elderly welfare and the disable organizational fields. Reviewing the changes in organization fields above, they are enacted by social movement and organizations. The study focuses on ¡§non-profit disable organizational field¡¨ to discuss the change from ¡§handicapped¡¨ to ¡§disabled.¡¨ Furthermore, the new organizational form ¡§social enterprise¡¨ is emerging in this field recently. The study also explore the emerging process under the historical context in the field. Based on the institutional theory, The study focus on the contest of institutional logics in the field. Conducting the historical narrative approach, the study analysis archival material and interviews and divide the changing process in to 4 stages. The first stage (1949-1979) and second stage (1980-1990) were dominated by ¡§charity and relief¡¨ institutional logic. However, the social movements organized by the handicap were framing another new logic ¡§social model¡¨. In the third stage (1991-1998) the contest of two logics was much significant. Finally, the ¡§social model¡¨ logical won the contest and become the dominated logics in the forth stage (1999-2009). The study also revels that social enterprise is the product of new institutional logic. The study reveals ¡§social enterprise¡¨ is the by-product of institutional change in the non-profit disable organizational field. The study also discusses, following the institutional change, how the new actor introduce management model to change the disabled sheltered workshop becoming social enterprise.

Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 123 pages / Thesis (M.A.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: Since gaining independence from Colombia in 1903, Panama has witnessed both elitist democratic governments and authoritarian populist governments. The oligarchic system in place throughout much of Panama's history was a significant hindrance to real democracy taking hold within the country. Democracy was further set back by the inordinate power exerted by the US presence on the isthmus throughout the twentieth century. Omar Torrijos's time as head of the Panamanian government from 1969 to 1981 exhibited populist, paternalistic and personalistic characteristics. His government marked an attempt to establish a form of government based on popular democracy. While a number of social programs were implemented and the social welfare of a greater percentage of the population was generally improved during the years Torrijos was in power, his military regime did not ultimately institutionalize a model for democratic participation. / ABSTRACT: This study argues that some form of popular democracy should replace the status quo in Panama. This would allow for genuine representation of a greater number of the population and in turn broaden the base of decision-making, something that has not been fully accomplished under previous authoritarian or democratic forms of government. The Torrijos regime was the first and only government in Panama to have attempted this move toward popular democracy. As such it is seen as a useful case study in examining its contributions to the political landscape and the political culture that makes up contemporary Panama. Deductions are made from it for the political future of the country in terms of the democratization process. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.