This thesis seeks to understand how collective identity is formed in the comment section on Twitter. A comparison between the Nordic Resistance Movement (Nordiska Motståndsrörelsen) and Human Rights Campaign has been made with social antagonism as a starting point. The Nordic Resistance Movement is a Swedish organization with Nazi values and Human Rights Campaign is an American organization fighting for equal rights for LGBTQ-people. social antagonism states that collective identity is created when an antagonistic relationship exists. The thesis aims to answer the research question; how are collective identities, for the Nordic Resistance Movement and Human Rights Campaign, created in the comment section on Twitter? This question is answered using Social antagonism theory and Social Movement Theory as a theoretical framework. 1000 comments from each groups comment section has been collected and analysed with thematic content analysis. The study showed that collective identity is strengthened by the fact that there is an antagonistic relationship. We found that the collective identity of each group fought back whenever someone made a negative comment towards their beliefs. It also showed that the collective identity, of the followers and members in the comment section, doesn’t necessarily correlate with the identity of the organization. This study will help further the research on collective identity and how people are affected when joining a movement. It will hopefully inspire further research within social antagonism, collective identity and social movements.

This thesis stands result of a research conducted in Entebbe Uganda, during approximately five weeks in the autumn of 2009. The aim was to understand the reasoning behind decisions taken concerning the use of economic means, after covering the consumption of necessities. The options set were either to increase the level of conspicuous consumption or enhance the level of investments or consumption of necessities. The point of departure and ontological approach is taken from a household member i.e. individual level. The analytical framework applied elaborating the empirical material collected was Bourdieu’s conceptualisation of habitus. Enhancing the understanding of habitus concepts e.g. needs, methods introduced by Lull was utilised. The primary data consisted of assembled interviews and direct observations. The secondary data consists of qualitative literature.   The results display an individual vision of vertical or transversal social movement. Identified incentives were inter alia peer pressure and competition. Conspicuous consumption is viewed as a process decreasing the distance from an individual social movement i.e. changes habitus. Methods realising a status increase of social position and status, is of symbolic items possessed through conspicuous consumption in combination with social capital, economic capital and level of knowledge.

The once flourishing small-scale poultry industry in Ghana has over the past two decades undergone a severe deterioration as a result of fortunes that has diverted the industry from near self-sufficiency in the early 1990s to a net importer of poultry products. Since the later part of 1990s the Ghana market has followed a steep and uncontrolled influx of cheap poultry meat from subsidized poultry producers from advanced countries (Osei, unpublished) including USA and EU, not to mention countries such as Brazil and Canada. A multiplicity of factors have accounted for the decline and mortalities of the domestic poultry industry. These include unfair competition from subsidized poultry producers from advanced countries, unfavourable and indifferent government policy direction, escalating costs of production, inefficient methods of production, lack of funds and credit, inadequate knowledge in poultry management, socio-cultural factors, lack of information needs on the part of small-scale poultry farmers, inadequate access to market, lack of processing facilities, and high rates of perishability. Therefore, the present study examines the factors that affect the growth of the small agribusiness in Ghana, focusing mainly on the small-scale poultry industry. The purpose of the study is to provide guidelines and recommendations for improving poultry farming at the level of small-scale poultry farmers in Ghana through the organized social movement (new generation cooperative movement). The study further seeks to solicit government interventions through political arguments so as to sustain and strengthen the failing small-scale poultry industry in Ghana. The purpose of the organized social movement is to bundle competencies and resources that are more valuable in joint effort than when kept separate by the small-scale poultry farmers in racing against competitors who are driving them out of business. This is due to an on-going severe competition as a result of unprotected market and political bias of trade liberalization, structural adjustment policies and deregulations on the part of the government. A sample of 120 poultry farmers was selected by a stratified random sampling approach. This was followed by 75 stakeholders through a snowball approach and data was collected by using a semi-structured interviews. The findings of the study shows that the organized social movement (SM) of small-scale poultry farmers, provision of government subsidies, placing a ban or increase tariffs on imports of poultry meat, access to cheap loans, provision of infrastructure, access to incentives and awards, training and education of poultry farmers, advertising campaign, and dissemination of information, had positive and significant impact on the competitiveness and growth of the small-scale poultry industry.

Alors que la Colombie traverse une période de violence intense au début des années 1990, une forme de média en apparence nouvelle se diffuse dans tout le territoire et est légalisée par l’Etat: celle des radios communautaires. Associées à de multiples fonctions, elles sont censées être politiquement neutres, donner la voix aux sans voix, pacifier, reconstruire le tissu social déchiré… Comment expliquer la diffusion et l'institutionnalisation d'un média marginal dans un contexte aussi difficile ? A partir d'une démarche généalogique et comparative sur cinq régions colombiennes, cette thèse montre que la radio communautaire peut être comprise comme une forme d’action collective dont les origines remontent à la fin des années 1940. Retracer l’histoire de la catégorie met en évidence l’existence de groupes militants aux intérêts multiples qui luttent pour la « cause des médias ». Loin de l’image du média petit, pur et isolé, les radios communautaires se sont développées dans un espace médiactiviste multisectoriel, à l’intersection de plusieurs sphères d’activité. Si les radios communautaires ont été légalisées en Colombie, c’est parce que ces militants multi-positionnés, acteurs intermédiaires entre ces sphères, cadrent l’objet en des termes compatibles avec l’action de l’Etat. Le média est alors redéfini et donne lieu à des appropriations diversifiées sur les territoires, en fonction des configurations d’acteurs à différentes échelles. Loin de leur image « apolitique », les radios communautaires peuvent être comprises comme des lieux de renégociation des frontières de la « communauté imaginée » dans un pays habituellement décrit comme un territoire fragmenté. / While Colombia was experiencing a period of intense violence at the beginning of the 1990s, an apparently new media form, the community radio, spread throughout the entire territory, and was legalized by the state. Designated with multiple functionalities, community radios are constructed as politically neutral, giving voice to those who are marginalised, pacifying, and rebuilding broken social tissues... How can we explain the diffusion and institutionalization of what is considered a marginal media in such a hard context? Through a genealogic and comparative analysis of five Colombian regions, this thesis shows that the community radio can be understood as a collective means of action whose origins can be tracked to the late 1940s. An analysis of the history of the category draws attention to the existence of militant groups with multiples interests who fight for « the media cause ». Far from the image of what is considered a small media, pure and isolated, community radios were developed in a “mediactivized” multisectorial space, at the crossroads of several spheres of activity. That the Ccommunity radios were legalized in Colombia , is because its multi-positioned militants, acting as intermediaries between different spheres, adapted them on compatible terms with the state activities. The media wasis then redefined and give accorded a place withto in a diversified appropriation of the territories, according to actors at different geographical scales. Far from their « apolitical » figure, the community radios can be understood as a place site of renegotiation of the frontiers of the « imagined community » in a country usually described as a fragmented territory.

This dissertation aims to comprehend the process of formation and acting of religious preachers who got engaged in social movement in the end of 1970 decade and the beginning of the 1980, in Rio Grande do Sul RS/BRAZIL. In spite of Brazil was within a dictatorial regime, and in this period there were no workers trade neither politics parties that were allowed to act or to express the folk classes interest; because of it other civil organization had to play this role, some of them were ready to organization had to play this role. However, the progressive sectors to be allowed to be active in the Catholic Church this institution was supposed to change, and see the real world; because only in this way the Church could be sensitive about the social problems. Nevertheless, a religion needs to keep a continuity meaning, even in changing times, in this way, the dissertation discuss the transformations occurred with the Catholic Church in the 20th Century, mainly with the liberation theology. The Centro de Orientação Missionária s role was analyzed referring to the theoretical formation of leaders and the organization of social movement. Trying to comprehend the formation s role in poor communities, staring to the pioneers Franciscans in Lomba do Pinheiro, it is located in the suburbs of Porto Alegre; also the participation of religious people in the landless workers movement MST ( Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra) organization in Rio Grande do Sul was analyzed as a practical period of formation to these religious preachers that are going to influence their participation in the social movement, presupposing that these three cases complete themselves, theoretical formation, inserted and practice. In order to develop this search, interviews with religious people, pastoral people and other preachers that were involved directly with this Movimentos were used. / Esta dissertação tem por objetivo compreender os processos de formação e atuação de mediadores religiosos que se engajaram em Movimentos Sociais no fim da década de 1970 e início da década de 1980, no Estado do Rio Grande do Sul RS/Brasil. Tendo em vista que, em plena ditadura militar, na ausência de sindicatos e de partidos políticos atuantes que expressassem os interesses das classes populares, reprimidos ou cooptados pelo regime ditatorial, outras organizações da sociedade civil ocuparam esse espaço, algumas dessas organizações tomaram parte ativa nos conflitos e colocaram-se a serviço das classes populares. No entanto, para que os setores progressistas pudessem atuar na Igreja Católica, essa instituição teve de passar por transformações internas e estar aberta ao mundo, pois só assim pôde sensibilizar-se com os problemas da sociedade. Contudo, uma religião necessita manter um sentido de continuidade mesmo em épocas de renovação interna e transformação social e, assim sendo, abordou-se as transformações ocorridas na Igreja Católica durante a segunda metade do século XX, principalmente com o advento da Teologia da Libertação. No que se refere à formação, analisouse o papel do Centro de Orientação Missionária (COM) no que diz respeito às suas relações com a Igreja Institucional e com a formação teórica de lideranças e a organização de movimentos populares. Buscou-se compreender o papel da formação inserida em comunidades populares, estudando o caso do pioneirismo dos franciscanos na Lomba do Pinheiro, na periferia de Porto Alegre, examino a participação de religiosos na gênese do Movimento Sem Terra no Rio Grande do Sul como período prático da formação que influenciou na participação de mediadores religiosos em Movimentos Sociais, partindo do pressuposto de que esses três modos de formação complementam-se: a formação teórica, a inserida e prática. Para o desenvolvimento do trabalho, fez-se uso de entrevistas com religiosos, agentes de pastoral e outros mediadores que tiveram participação direta no surgimento e organização de movimentos populares no Rio Grande do Sul.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work / Robert K. Schaeffer / This paper asks why a progressive social movement formed in a conservative place. The People for a Progressive University City (PPUC) formed as a Political Action Committee (PAC) in a mid-sized community in order to influence the city commission and school board election of 2005. Resource Mobilization theory assumes that social movements form when they have access to resources including money, networks and leadership (Barkan 1979, McCarthy and Zald 1977). Political Opportunity theory assumes that social movements form when opportunities for mobilization are visible (Goodwin, Jaspers and Jaswin 1999, Tarrow 1996). The Framing Perspective assumes that social movements form when they describe grievances and their solutions in a way that is reasonable to potential participants (Benford and Snow 2000, Gamson and Modigliani 1989). I have taken an Action Research approach to understand what developments led to the organization’s formation and which theory best described why the movement formed in 2005. Through 31 in-depth interviews with community members, I concluded that no one theory alone can explain why the organization formed. I argue that the best theoretical explanation is a synthesis of all three. I outline several theoretical implications as well as practical implications for community organizing in University City. I argue that the future of the PPUC will depend on how it responds to changes in community discontent and if it is able to mobilize people. Additionally, I suggest the story of the PPUC has implications for the study of social movements in general.

D.Litt. et Phil / This dissertation expands our understanding of South African social movements through a study of the South African National Civic Organisation (SANCO), a body formed in 1992 as a national co-ordinating structure of regional and local civic associations. It contends that SANCO can only be understood as a ‘two- tiered social movement’. The study draws on a Human Sciences Research Council survey, to which I contributed as a team member, on participant and non-participant observation, semi-structured interviews and primary literature and a case study of one SANCO branch, Alexandra. The focus of this survey was on the experience of SANCO’s leadership both at national and local level. Social movement literature reviewed in this study ignored the issue of tiers or levels in social movements. The study demonstrates that it would be worth re-looking at the analyses of social movements with an eye to assess whether distinct levels exist elsewhere. Whilst tiers are likely to be absent from small movements, there is an inherent tension for organisations that have both local units focused on immediate day-to-day concerns and also national structures that represent broader issues within political circles. The findings of the study defy the dominant view of South African social movements, which emphasise a demobilisation in the post-apartheid period. In the case of SANCO, its demise was substantiated by examining the organisation at a national level, largely ignoring local realities. A two-tiered approach demonstrates that even though local civic organisations experienced difficulties, particularly in the period immediately after the end of apartheid, they continued to thrive.

In several countries of the Global North, right-wing parties are successfully mobilizing public support, influencing political debates and introducing arguments and rhetorics that draw on xenophobia, populism and ethnocentrism, ostensibly with a purpose to amplify the “national order of things” (Malkki 1992). This thesis addresses this development by providing an ethnography, based fieldwork, of the Swedish social movement Folkets Demonstration, which arranges anti-government manifestations on squares most usually in Stockholm. Drawing on classical theories on performance by Victor Turner and Erving Goffman, I investigate how the demonstrations of the movement facilitate the construction of a collective identity of “the people”, which also includes exploring the world view of the demonstrators. As I argue, through the socio-emotionality of the demonstrations, the movement conducts a cultural performance of national cohesion vis-à-vis the Swedish national community, cosmologically perceived as on the edge of an apocalypse due to immigration and the alleged cosmopolitanist agenda of the government. In addition, I argue that the demonstrations can be understood as strategically managed towards idealized performances of democracy. Hence, the demonstrations can be considered regressive-utopian performances of a national-democratic community, furthermore embedded in a polarization between “the people” and “the elite” and through which the collective identity of “the people” is constructed.

Magister Educationis (Adult Learning and Global Change) - MEd(AL) / 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).

The main topic of the thesis is the religious development of Pilsen at the times of the First Republic (1918-1938), which is understood as the development of the Catholic Church, the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren, the Czechoslovak Church and the Non-believers' Movement. The aim is to introduce individual religious entities, to show their mutual interaction and their ability to influence the surrounding society. The influence of religion is observed throughout the society, from the communal politics through the school education to the regional identity. This is all happening on the background of complex social processes (demographical, economic, cultural, political and social) that are properly taken into account. Another important topic of this work is the ability of religious organizations to respond adequately to the new challenges that emerge with these processes. The regional data identified are compared to similar urban areas and the rest of the country. Religious development in Pilsen should not only give evidence of the city itself, but also about the First Czechoslovak Republic as such. Key words: Czechoslovakia, First Republic, Pilsen, religion, social movement