The purpose of this study was to find an explanation for why Amnesty International in Sweden has seen an increasing number of members, while the number of participants at the national annual meeting has decreased. The method of the study was done with an inductive approach in which the problem has affected the choice of theory and empirical data. The empirical data has been collected through both qualitative and quantitative method in which the analysis was implemented with support by statistics and interviews. To strengthen the arguments in the paper, sociological theories on organizations are used and also theories about social movements. The conclusion of the study is that Amnesty International Sweden has undergone a transformation towards a decentralized organization because it is not longer relevant for people who are members to achieve the purpose of the organization to participate at the annual meeting. This because that these members accesses the recourses they want to achieve by working on a local level. The main conclusion of this study is that Amnesty has moved towards being an organization that to some extent are working as a social movement, where there is no longer any clear link between local work and the central board of Directors.

People with experience living on low income have an important role in multi-sectoral poverty reduction work: they have a right to participate in initiatives that may influence their well being and can contribute valuable skills, knowledge and resources. Yet they are often absent. This research explores the context-specific factors that support and constrain the participation of people living on low income in poverty reduction initiatives through interviews with 19 people actively involved in such efforts. The findings describe the nuances and tensions related to experiences with nine factors: type of participation, compensation, labelling “poor” participants, opening spaces which support diverse perspectives, expectations of representation, rationale for participation, degree of influence, ratio of “poor” participants and relationships. Findings suggest that poverty reduction initiative would benefit from offering diverse participatory opportunities, being flexible in the supports they provide to match the specific needs of individuals and dedicating revenue to participation costs.

Coalitions in Northern Ireland have been organizing across the ethno-nationalist divide for decades. Yet, while empirical research has addressed challenges of, and potential for, organizing across ethnonationalism, the ways in which coalition members attend to their complex subjectivites have been overlooked. Using a critical, constructivist approach to qualitative research, this study of Alliance for Choice Belfast sheds light upon the impacts of attending to / overlooking difference and power dynamics. Data was collected through field research, semi-structured interviews and document analysis, and analysed through the lens of radical coalition building, along with theories that address the complexity of identities. The findings suggest that members of the coalition have created a depoliticized coalitional space in order to avoid conflict and unite around their campaign goal. This has had implications in terms of homogenizing womens experiences, overlooking elements of class privilege, and falling back into traditional practices of avoidance around controversial issues. / Theoretical, Cultural and International Studies in Education

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-26T13:33:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 texto completo.pdf: 2472927 bytes, checksum: fa3155e77001ffcfbd74d28d6abc4813 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-07-09 / This study focuses the discussion of rurality present in the interaction among several rural sectors of the Landless Rural Workers Movement in the state of Minas Gerais, southeastern area of Brazil, and the subjects who come from the poor sectors surrounding the city to occupy the fields in the rural borders with the Metropolitan Area of Belo Horizonte, referred to as rurban occupation. This space synthesizes the economical and sociocultural interaction among these marginalized sectors of formal economy. It all results from the capital accumulation process in the rural areas, stimulating the abandonment of agricultural activities in that space, which used to be considered for farming activities. It has been targeted as a less and less specific, mixed area lately. Our concern here is to understand the appropriations, changes, possibilities and limitations of the construction of rural representations found in these collective interactions among social movements and the subjects from the rural and urban spaces, marked by their extra- agricultural productive contexts within a stage of dispute, and their social and symbolic correlations, starting from the supposition that the rural/rurality, more than fixed realities, is a social representation reproduced within the outlines of the rurban occupation of the Metropolitan Area of Belo Horizonte. / Este estudo tem como foco a discussão da ruralidade presente na interação entre setores do campo do Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra - MG e dos sujeitos provenientes das periferias da cidade para ocupar o campo em espaços de fronteira rural da Região Metropolitana de Belo Horizonte denominada ocupação rurbana. Sendo um espaço que sintetiza a interação econômica e sócio-cultural entre estes setores marginalizados da economia formal; que por meio de suas práticas cotidianas recriam, multiplicam as narrativas, as re-elaborações de identidades, e os significados atribuídos a esse espaço rural. Tudo isto como efeito dos desdobramentos do processo de acumulação do capital no meio rural, que estimula o abandono das atividades agrícolas nesse espaço que outrora era considerado de agropecuário e que hoje é objetivado como um lugar cada vez mais indistinguível e diluído. Importa-nos aqui compreender as apropriações, as mudanças, as possibilidades e as limitações da construção de representações do rural presentes nestas interações coletivas entre os movimentos sociais e os sujeitos do campo e da cidade, marcadas pelos contextos produtivos extraagrícolas num anfiteatro de disputa e de co-relações sociais e simbólicas, partindo da premissa de que o rural/ ruralidade, mais do que realidades fixas, trata-se de uma representação social reproduzida nos contornos da ocupação rurbana da RMBH.

abstract: Growers and the USDA showed increasing favor for agricultural chemicals over cultural and biological forms of pest control through the first half of the twentieth century. With the introduction of DDT and other synthetic chemicals to commercial markets in the post-World War II era, pesticides became entrenched as the primary form of pest control in the industrial agriculture production system. Despite accumulating evidence that some pesticides posed a threat to human and environmental health, growers and government exercised path-dependent behavior in the development and implementation of pest control strategies. As pests developed resistance to regimens of agricultural chemicals, growers applied pesticides with greater toxicity in higher volumes to their fields with little consideration for the unintended consequences of using the economic poisons. Consequently, pressure from non-governmental organizations proved a necessary predicate for pesticide reform. This dissertation uses a series of case studies to examine the role of non-governmental organizations, particularly environmental organizations and farmworker groups, in pesticide reform from 1962 to 2011. For nearly fifty years, these groups served as educators, communicating scientific and experiential information about the adverse effects of pesticides on human health and environment to the public, and built support for the amendment of pesticide policies and the alteration of pesticide use practices. Their efforts led to the passage of more stringent regulations to better protect farmworkers, the public, and the environment. Environmental organizations and farmworker groups also acted as watchdogs, monitoring the activity of regulatory agencies and bringing suit when necessary to ensure that they fulfilled their responsibilities to the public. This dissertation will build on previous scholarly work to show increasing collaboration between farmworker groups and environmental organizations. It argues that the organizations shared a common concern about the effects of pesticides on human health, which enabled bridge-builders within the disparate organizations to foster cooperative relationships. Bridge-building proved a mutually beneficial exercise. Variance in organizational strategies and the timing of different reform efforts limited, but did not eliminate, opportunities for collaboration. Coalitions formed when groups came together temporarily, and then drifted apart when a reform effort reached its terminus, leaving future collaboration still possible. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. History 2011

Orientador: Noêmia Ramos Vieira / Resumo: A pesquisa parte das elaborações teóricas da delimitação das fontes bibliográficas e a análise da Educação do Campo no campesinato no estado do Espírito Santo. A intenção é contribuir para o desenvolvimento da formação emancipadora dos indivíduos em sociedade. A dissertação tem como tema Educação, trabalho e emancipação humana: um estudo sobre a experiência pedagógica na Educação do Campo na região norte do Espírito Santo. O intuito é observar a concepção de ensino do Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST), para o desenvolvimento da lógica da emancipação humana, tendo o trabalho e a educação como processos de humanização dos seres humanos. Portanto, estudaremos como o processo de desenvolvimento na Educação do Campo se materializou no estado do Espírito Santo, considerando a dualidade entre a Educação do Campo e a educação burguesa do estado. Desse modo, pesquisamos como vários atores e o MST contribuíram para uma nova forma de ensino do campo, formando os sujeitos para vida e o trabalho. Nesse sentido, observamos quatro escolas da região norte do estado do Espírito Santo, a Escola Estadual do Ensino Fundamental XIII Setembro no município de São Mateus, Escola Família Agrícola (EFAJ) de Ensino Médio e a Escola Municipal de Ensino Fundamental das Series Finais EMEF Orélio Caliman, ambas no município de Jaguaré e a Escola Estadual do Ensino Fundamental Paulo Damião Tristão Purinha no município de Linhares. O objetivo foi analisar quais as relações entre as propostas... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Mestre

This study analyzes the framing processes of the Indignados movement in Barcelona, as an exemplar of the latest wave of protests, and argues that it expresses a new ecological-economic way out of the crisis. It finds that the movement was not just a reaction to the economic crisis and austerity policies, but that it put forward a metapolitical critique of the social imaginary and (neo)liberal representative democracy. The diagnostic frames of the movement denunciate the subjugation of politics and justice to economics, and reject the logic of economism. The prognostic frames of the movement advance a vision of socio-ecological sustainability and of "real democracy", each articulated differently by a "pragmatist" and an "autonomist" faction within the movement. It argues that frames are overarching outer boundaries that accommodate different ideologies. Ideologies can nevertheless also be put into question by antagonizing frames. Furthermore, through the lens of the Indignados critique, the distinction between materialist and post-materialist values that characterizes the New Social Movement literature is criticised, as "real democracy" is connected to social and environmental justice as well as to a critique of economism and the "imperial mode of living".

The fossil fuel divestment movement is a directed-network campaign that strategically uses economic and ethical arguments to challenge the social license of the fossil fuel industry. Fossil fuel divestment campaigns have become an induction point for the youth climate movement in North America (Grady-Benson & Sarathy, 2015; Rowe et. al., 2016). The analytical and operational approaches to social change employed by the fossil fuel divestment movement are having a ripple effect on the political orientation of a new generation of activists and environmental leaders. This thesis explores concepts and practices of climate justice in the fossil fuel divestment movement on Canadian university campuses, as a flashpoint in the shifting terrain of environmentalism. The research uses qualitative methods to analyze three case study campaigns, as well as supplemental interviews from additional campaign members and national coordinating organizations like 350.org and the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition. This project contributes to a growing body of literature concerned with applied political theory (Rowe et. al., 2016; Schifeling & Hoffman, 2017) and the social impacts of fossil fuel divestment (Bratman et al, 2016; Grady-Benson & Sarathy, 2015; Mangat et al., 2018), providing new insight into the potential of divestment organizing to disrupt dominant narratives of mainstream environmentalism. Fossil fuel divestment organizers are articulating climate justice analysis that calls for transformative system change, including critiques of neoliberal capitalism that are predominantly grounded in climate justice approaches. / Graduate

This case study of members of Iraq Veterans Against the War explores how identity, institutional context and affiliation, emotions, and the notion of healing come together in the experience of activism. Using an interpretive approach, I employ in-depth interviews and observation derived primarily from one local chapter, and visual and textual analysis of newspaper articles, organization documents, and video footage of IVAW actions including Operation First Casualty and the 2012 Medal Return, to better understand the ways in which identification with the institution these activists simultaneously attempt to undermine, the military, shapes their identity and subsequent activism in terms of the actions, strategies and tactics they engage in. I also explore the ways in which their experiences in war and the military have shaped their activism in terms of emotions and the notion of healing. This study finds that identifying as anti-war veterans and deploying that identity in activism enables an insider/outsider status that informs their critique and establishes legitimacy and political standing, which is evident in their public activism. I also find that within this context an emotion culture is created that enables the possibility for healing, catharsis, and the development of a politicized understanding of the mental and physical consequences of war that is intended to empower and mobilize veterans into anti-war activism.

Educar neste trabalho assume uma característica revolucionária. Educar está ligado à emancipação humana e à superação do capital. O educar necessário é para o não trabalho explorado, uma inserção subordinada ao capital na forma de emprego alienado. O educar nesta tese é para o trabalho que liberta e se apresenta como valor de uso capaz de criativamente libertar-se do valor de troca, do mercantil simples, ou seja, do trabalho como valor de troca. O trabalho e a educação para a reprodução da vida das desempregadas a que se refere este trabalho se apresentam como enfrentamentos às formas alienantes e subordinadas do capital e, ao mesmo tempo, como projetos de superação do mesmo. Fundamentamo-nos, principalmente, nos estudos de Marx, Oliveira, Gramsci, Engels, Iasi, Manacorda, Freire e Saviani. O trabalho é fundante do ser social e no conjunto de atividades intelectuais e manuais organizadas pela espécie. Para Marx (2010), os homens, para existirem, devem ser capazes de se reproduzir enquanto seres humanos. Uma forma específica desta reprodução é dada por uma peculiar relação dos seres humanos com a natureza através do trabalho. A categoria do trabalho emerge, desta forma, como categoria central do ser social. O conceito de educação esta baseado na definição da formação humana. A questão, portanto, que necessita ser examinada neste trabalho é em que consiste a formação humana de mulheres historicamente desempregadas e socialmente sobrantes nos meios de produção. Estamos aí diante de uma questão filosófica e de educação por excelência, ligada ao problema da possibilidade, do sentido, do valor e dos limites do trabalho. A metodologia da pesquisa-ação, cuja referência principal foi Fals Borda (2007, p. 103), permitiu que refletíssemos sobre “la justicia de las mayorías hoy ausentes, explotadas, ignoradas y sin voz lo cual llevaría a trabajos bastantes originales y, ante todo, útiles para la sociedad”. O método dialético permitiu reconstituir o movimento dos múltiplos determinantes que sintetizaram a possibilidade de alterações qualitativas em parte do contingente em questão. Concluímos basicamente que: a) a metodologia adotada nos possibilitou reflexões em torno da problemática mais próximas da realidade; b) as mulheres do MTD são sujeitos sociais mesmo que na condição de sobrantes, porque lutam e se organizam num Movimento Social por trabalho, educação e moradia; c) a educação necessária a estas mulheres precisa ir além, sendo necessário articular este processo à luta maior dos trabalhadores pela superação do capital. Defendemos, portanto, a tese de que a educação necessária é fundamentada no trabalho necessário socialmente útil, e não trabalho alienado, como valor de troca numa inserção subordinada ao capital. O educar, nesta tese, é para e no trabalho que liberta e se apresenta como valor de uso, capaz de criativamente construir processos de trabalho. Por fim, e não menos importante, esta tese pretende criar alternativas populares de transformação das estruturas sociais que tornam tal ‘vida’ exigente de ser sempre ‘melhorada’. Este fundamento teórico e político nem sempre se realizava na prática e transformava em ação social. / In this dissertation labor/work takes on a revolutionary characteristic, as it is connected to human emancipation and the overcoming of capital. The education that is necessary is education for non-exploited labor, labor that is not subordinated to capital in the form of alienated employment. In this dissertation education is for a labor that liberates and presents itself as use value capable of creatively freeing itself from labor as exchange value. The work and the education for the reproduction of life of the unemployed women to whom this dissertation refers are opposed to the alienating and subordinated forms of capital and are projects designed to overcome it. The dissertation is based mainly on studies by Marc, Oliveira, Gramsci, Engels, Iasi, Manacorda, Freire and Saviani. Labor is foundational for social beings in the ensemble of intellectual and manual activities organized by the human species. For Marx (2010), human beings, in order to exist, must be able to reproduce. A specific form of reproduction takes place through their peculiar relationship with nature through labor/work. Thus, labor emerges as a central category of social beings. The concept of education is based on the definition of the process of becoming fully human. Thus, the issue discussed by this dissertation is what this process means for women who are historically unemployed and socially excluded from the means of production. Thus, it faces a philosophical and educational question par excellence that is connected to the problem of possibility, meaning, value and the limits of work. The methodology of action research, whose main reference is Fals Borda (2007, p. 103), enables the author to reflect on “justice for the majorities who today are absent, exploited, ignored and voiceless, which would lead to works that are very original and mainly useful to society”. The dialectical method helped reconstruct the movement of the multiple determinants related to the possibility of qualitative changes in part of the women concerned. She basically concludes that (a) the methodology adopted facilitated reflections on the topic that were closer to reality; (b) the women of the Movement of Unemployed Workers are social subjects even if they are “left out”, since they struggle and organize in a social movement that pursues work, education and housing; (c) the education that is necessary for these women must “go beyond” in the sense of being articulated with wider struggle of workers for the overcoming of capital. Thus, she advances the thesis that the necessary education is based on the socially useful necessary work, rather than on alienated work, i.e. work as exchange value in subordination to capital. This means education for and in work that liberates and presents itself as use value capable of creatively constructing work processes. Last but not least, this dissertation intends to contribute to the creation of popular alternatives for the transformation of social structures that make such ‘life’ demand constant ‘improvement’. This theoretical and political foundation was not always realized in practice did not always become social action.