Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1986. / Also available in print.

No description available.

The present dissertation explores the collective identity of the Anonymous movement. This movement is characterised by the heterogeneity of its activities, from meme-crafting to pranks to activist actions, with a wide range of goals and tactics. Such heterogeneity raises the question as to why such a diverse group of people makes the decision to act under the same name. To answer this question, the concept of collective identity is applied, which describes how participants collectively construct the definition of their group. This dissertation is based on a three-year ethnography. The main findings show that the collective identity of Anonymous rests on five sets of self-defining concepts related to: 1) Anonymous’ counterculture of offense and parrhesia, 2) its personification into two personae (the ‘trickster’ and the ‘hero’) that have differing goals, means, and relationships with the environment, 3) a horizontal organisation and a democratic decision-making process, 4) practices of anonymity and an ethics of self-effacement, and 5) its self-definition as a universal entity, inclusive, and unbounded. The collective identity construction process is marked by tensions due to the incompatibility of some of these concepts, but also due to differences between these collective identity definitions and actual practices. As a consequence, they have to be constantly reaffirmed through social actions and discourses. Not all individuals who reclaim themselves as Anonymous recognise the totality of these collective identity definitions, but they all accept a number of them that are sufficient to legitimate their own belonging to the movement, and most of the time to be recognised by others as such. The different groups constituting Anonymous are therefore symbolically linked through a web of collective identity definitions rather than an encompassing and unified collective identity. This ‘connective identity’ gives the movement a heterogeneous composition while at the same time permitting it to retain a sense of identity that explains the use of a collective name.

Mobilization for abortion rights after the 2016 Presidential Election.

The debate over the "globalization" process has been influenced by the emergence of social movements who deplore this process. This research focuses on the French social movement ATTAC (Action for a Tobin Tax for the Aid of Citizens), that criticizes the problematic effects of globalization and of the new European constitutional order. This study contends that anti-globalization movements, such as ATTAC, are not only resisting what is perceived as an unjust economic system (neo-liberal globalization), but also what they perceive as cultural uniformization, or a threat to cultural identity and cultural diversity. I substantiate this claim by studying the membership of ATTAC: through qualitative research, including interviews and observations, I show the multiplicity of discourses in which members address the anti-globalization issue. This study will contribute to the research on transnational social movements, as it demonstrates the prevalence of culture and identity concerns over globalization, something that has been overlooked by previous studies of anti-globalization movements.

Drawing on newspaper, movement correspondence, and interview data, I examine the tactical selection and (in)visibility of a lesbian and gay student group, Gay Student Services (GSS), in a hostile university campus in Texas from the mid-1970s through the 1980s. GSS was formed to create a safe space for sexual minorities at Texas A & M University (TAMU) and asked university officials to recognize the group officially after physical threats of violence became real. After long delays, when TAMU administrators declined GSS's request, GSS filed a lawsuit against TAMU with the goal of achieving formal recognition. In the first chapter, I offer a brief history of GSS and introduce my thesis structure. In the second chapter, I show how early access to legal aid bolstered GSS members' understanding of their rights and encouraged their use of legal tactics. A sense of legal entitlement also encouraged GSS to pursue legal tactics in the face of administrative antagonism. The hostile campus environment also motivated GSS to utilize legal tactics instead of engaging in more traditional forms of contention, such as protest, to pursue their goal of gaining official status on campus.

The debate over the "globalization" process has been influenced by the emergence of social movements who deplore this process. This research focuses on the French social movement ATTAC (Action for a Tobin Tax for the Aid of Citizens), that criticizes the problematic effects of globalization and of the new European constitutional order. This study contends that anti-globalization movements, such as ATTAC, are not only resisting what is perceived as an unjust economic system (neo-liberal globalization), but also what they perceive as cultural uniformization, or a threat to cultural identity and cultural diversity. I substantiate this claim by studying the membership of ATTAC: through qualitative research, including interviews and observations, I show the multiplicity of discourses in which members address the anti-globalization issue. This study will contribute to the research on transnational social movements, as it demonstrates the prevalence of culture and identity concerns over globalization, something that has been overlooked by previous studies of anti-globalization movements.

Thesis (doctoral)--Stockholm University , 2009. / Title from PDF title page (publisher's website, viewed April 21, 2009). Includes bibliographical references (p. 203-218).

During June and July of 1971, representatives of Bolivian union and left-wing political organizations from across the nation gathered in the Legislative Palace with the objective of installing the Popular Assembly. In the absence of a democratically elected parliament the newly formed power organ of the proletariat attempted to formulate a strategy that would lead the country towards socialism. President Gen. Juan José Torres, a member of progressive sectors of the army that followed a national-popular agenda, supported the Assembly in a moment of high political instability amidst permanent threats from conservative factions of the army to seize power. With a majority of representatives from labor organizations and a preeminent role of mining workers, the Assembly followed the example of the Russian Revolution of 1917. The 'first soviet of Latin America', as it was called both by supporters and detractors, was the outcome of the particular twenty-five year political trajectory of the labor movement that combined a set of ideological principles and core framing tasks. The Popular Assembly came to a sudden end in 1971 when Gen. Torres’ presidency was cut short by a coup that brought a conservative military to power. Though it was never able to achieve its main political objectives, the case of an abortive social revolution allows a better understanding the role of ideology, collective action frames and historical events in explaining the outcomes of social revolutions and the actions of social movements. / text

Local currencies have been founded in dozens of communities around the United States. By printing their own money that can only be used at participating local merchants or service providers, or in direct exchange with community members, advocates of local currencies try to reinvigorate local commerce, demonstrate community opposition to "big box" retailers and globalization, and support local employment. Although many local currencies have been founded, most of them have had only limited success, but even where local currencies fail to thrive, they raise important questions about the ways in which we organize institutions. This dissertation has two key concerns that emerge from those questions, the first of which is to explore the ways in which the meaning of money is reconfigured by the organizers and the users of local currencies. Second, this project seeks to explain the conditions under which local currencies operate, with the goal of building an understanding of how organizations successfully challenge the deeply embedded and institutionalized practices that surround the use of money. Local currencies are an innovative form of community economic organization that has previously gone under-studied by scholars. This project, the first to address local currencies with a large set of quantitative macro-level data as well as case-oriented archival and survey data, adds to knowledge of movement development and maintenance, and the social construction and use of money. Local currency reminds us that the systems of dollars and cents are socially constructed and that they therefore are changeable. But changing institutions that are part of our everyday life is difficult; because the use of money is so deeply embedded in routines and institutions, it's difficult to even ask questions about money: Where does money come from? Why do we trust it? And how might alternatives to money work? Local currency reminds us that money is not necessarily as "real" as we tend to think and it invites us to think about the system of institutions in which we live.