<p>We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting for: Pan-African Consciousness Raising and Organizing in the United States and Venezuela, draws on fifteen months of field research accompanying organizers, participating in protests, planning/strategy meetings, state-run programs, academic conferences and everyday life in these two countries. Through comparative examination of the processes by which African Diaspora youth become radically politicized, this work deconstructs tendencies to deify political s/heroes of eras past by historicizing their ascent to political acclaim and centering the narratives of present youth leading movements for Black/African liberation across the Diaspora. I employ Manuel Callahan’s description of “encuentros”, “the disruption of despotic democracy and related white middle-class hegemony through the reconstruction of the collective subject”; “dialogue, insurgent learning, and convivial research that allows for a collective analysis and vision to emerge while affirming local struggles” to theorize the moments of encounter, specifically, the moments (in which) Black/African youth find themselves becoming politically radicalized and by what. I examine the ways in which Black/African youth organizing differs when responding to their perpetual victimization by neoliberal, genocidal state-politics in the US, and a Venezuelan state that has charged itself with the responsibility of radically improving the quality of life of all its citizens. Through comparative analysis, I suggest the vertical structures of “representative democracy” dominating the U.S. political climate remain unyielding to critical analyses of social stratification based on race, gender, and class as articulated by Black youth. Conversely, I contend that present Venezuelan attempts to construct and fortify more horizontal structures of “popular democracy” under what Hugo Chavez termed 21st Century Socialism, have resulted in social fissures, allowing for a more dynamic and hopeful negation between Afro-Venezuelan youth and the state.</p> / Dissertation

Public spaces—particularly buses, which often carry a larger proportion of low-income to middle class individuals and people of color—serve as shared places for recreation, travel, and labor, and are theoretically created with the intention of being an “omnibus,” or a public resource for all. While buses have been the sites of intense state control and segregation across the world, they have also been places in which groups have organized bus boycotts, commandeered control of transportation, ridden across state lines, and taken over spaces that allow them to express power by occupying a significant area. Buses have become spaces of exchange and power for the people who have, in some cases, been marginalized by ruling private interests and institutionalized racism to ride in masses on particular routes. From the turn of twentieth century to 1968 in Mexico, the Civil Rights movement in the mid twentieth century United States, to the contemporary era in the U.S. and Mexico, public spaces have been historically reclaimed as key instruments in social movements. By analyzing these moments, this thesis explores the complex relations over power on buses for riders—university students in in Mexico, and African Americans in the U.S.—and show how they have been both key vehicles in mobilization and resistance against state oppression and the sites of targeted violence and racism.

Challenges to the legitimacy of established collective memory can prove so inflammatory that mass violence, ethnic cleansing and even genocide have followed in their wake. However, if few doubt that the ethno-nationalist memory wars during the 1980s collapse of Yugoslavia contributed to the real wars and ethnic cleansing witnessed in the 1990s, no previous research has been able to explain why this is so. This paper pinpoints the determinant variable and causal link between attacks on memory and subsequent mass violence (or a lack thereof). It uses a theoretical model that ties together memory, legitimacy and power to compare the cases of West Germany’s 1968 student movement and Serbia’s 1986-1989 anti-bureaucratic revolution before establishing that the level of prior state repression is one factor that determines whether memory challenges will turn violent. The paper recommends further theory building over the permeable boundary that separates state and civil society, particularly in terms of how accessible state functions are to those social movements that seek to challenge and delegitimise memory.

This thesis provides an account of the work of Canadian organizations that took part in the global anti-apartheid movement and then continued political advocacy work in South Africa post-1994. My central research question is: What explains the rise and fall of international solidarity movements? I answer this question by exploring the factors that allowed the Canadian anti-apartheid network to grow into an international solidarity movement and explaining how a change in these factors sent the network into a period of decline post-1994. I use two organizations, the United Church of Canada and CUSO, as case studies for my analysis. I argue that four factors were behind the growth of the Canadian solidarity network: the presence of large CSOs in Canada willing to become involved in solidarity work, the presence of radical spaces in these organizations from which activists could advocate for and carry out solidarity work, the frame resonance of the apartheid issue in Canada and the political incentives the apartheid state provided for South African activists to encourage Northern support. Post-1994 all of these factors shifted in ways that restricted the continuation of international solidarity work with South Africa. Accordingly I argue that the decline of the Canadian network was driven in part by specific South African factors, but was also connected to a more general stifling of the activist work of progressive Canadian CSOs over the 1990s. This reduction of capacity was driven by the ascent of neo-liberal policy in Canada and worldwide. Using examples from a wide swath of cases I outline this process and explain how all four factors drove the growth and decline of Canadian solidarity work towards South Africa.

This thesis seeks for an explanation of social mobilisation by examining the nuts and bolts of the institutional design of democracies. Since the nature of executive-legislative relations in democracy is an important influence on the distribution of policy outcomes between actors in society, and consequently on the extent of support (or inclusion) of citizens to the way power is exercised, the present work investigates how pure presidentialism (and the whole range of institutional accessories that can be combined with this particular executive) affects the opportunities and constraints for social mobilisation. This is done by conducting a within-format comparison across pure presidential regimes in Latin America, where most pure presidential regimes are located. The thesis is grounded in both quantitative and qualitative methods of research. Quantitatively, protest events are measured across time and space and the parameters are estimated through pooled cross-sectional time-series models for count data. Qualitatively, three case studies are examined: Bolivia (electoral rules), Ecuador (non-legislative and legislative presidential power) and Venezuela (party system). The main findings of this study are: Within presidential systems social mobilisation is more likely to occur whenever: (1) presidents are selected in runoff elections in the assembly, and (2) constitutions allow the immediate re-election of the president. However, the prospects for social mobilisation are not significantly affected by the extent to which electoral formulae promote the entry of parties to the assembly. As regards to the relative powers of the presidency and the legislature, the extent of the decree and veto powers of the president do not affect the occurrence of social mobilisation. Instead, the probability of contentious action is greater whenever (3) the capacity of legislatures to censure and sanction the members of the executive is low; and (4) legislatures have weak authority over public spending. Lastly, it is shown that the probability of social mobilisation does not vary across majoritarian and minority governments; neither is social mobilisation susceptible to the levels of electoral volatility in the legislature. Rather, (5) social mobilisation is highest whenever the pro-presidential contingent in the legislature is dominated by one large political party. The thesis thus concludes by strongly advocating for the inclusion of the format of the executive as an important variable in the comparative study of social mobilisation and of the substantive outputs of a democracy, in general.

This thesis examines the role emotions play in the practice and sociality of Palestinian solidarity activism in Israel and Palestine. It finds that emotion is a subtle and sophisticated, and often ambiguous, form of knowledge and perception which is implicit in forming, appraising and adjusting the relationships participants have with intimates, fellow dissenters and public discourses on identity and the regional conflict. Fieldwork was based in and around Jerusalem and carried out over twelve months in 2011-12. This is a highly diverse transnational field where Palestinians, Israelis and Internationalists come together at specific times and places to practice various forms of dissent, largely but not exclusively against the socio-political conditions of the Palestinians vis-à-vis Israeli State policy. I present three separate propositions on Weirdness, Wrongness and Love, which relate to three different affective dimensions; perception, morality and loyalty. Each proposition also develops upon what Hannah Arendt defined the innate political faculties or activities of the human condition; thinking, action and judging. The perceptive quality of finding something Weird is found to produce doubt in the subjective mind, the purpose for which Arendt believed thinking to be a political act. The moral appraisal that something is Wrong, underwrites concerted political action in the public realm. Finally judging, as the attempt to understand the world from the perspective of another, is facilitated by the discourse of Love in the long-term loving relations activists have with friend and family, who are antagonistic to the aims of solidarity activism. Taken together these feelings are found to flow through and inform one another, constituting a nuanced affective understanding and appraisal of our world, one that is producing and maintaining a politically engaged transnational community of dissent. This community has been fostered to a large degree by the insistence and perseverance of a small number of Palestinians in villages across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, who call upon peoples of all creeds, colours and places to witness and experience the repression of non-violent resistance. If as researchers we are to understand the complexities of human life and practices, I believe we must carefully attend to this sophisticated form of emotional reasoning and begin to think not just about feelings, but also with feelings.

This research seeks to explore Marian apparition movements as applied to movement success models. Among the numerous reports of the Virgin Mary appearing to the faithful, a select number of these experiences have developed into social movements. These movements take on similar patterns in their development and are contingent upon group involvement and support. This analysis researches how certain cases of Marian apparitions transition from lone psychic experience into a social movement and seeks to expand upon existing movement success models.

Depuis les années cinquante la sociologie a été concernée par le phénomène des mouvements sociaux. Diverses théories ont essayé de les expliquer. Du collective behaviour à la mobilisation des ressources, par l`entremise de processus politiques, et de la perspective de framing jusqu'à la théorie des nouveaux mouvements sociaux, la sociologie a trouvé certains moyens pour expliquer ces phénomènes. Bien que toutes ces perspectives couvrent et saisissent des facettes importantes des angles de l'action collective, ils le font de manière disparate, en regardant un côté et en omettant l'autre. Les différences entre les points de vue proviennent, d'une part, d'un changement dans les contextes sociaux, historiques et scientifiques, et d'autre part du fait que les différentes approches ne posent pas les mêmes questions, même si certaines questions se chevauchent. Poser des questions différentes amène à considérer des aspects différents. En conséquence, ce n'est pas seulement une question de donner une réponse différente à la même question, mais aussi une question de regarder le même objet d'étude, à partir d'un angle différent. Cette situation réside à la base de la première partie de ma thèse principale: le champ de la théorie des mouvements sociaux n'est pas suffisant, ni suffisamment intégré pour expliquer l'action collective et nous avons besoin d'une théorie plus complète afin d'obtenir une meilleure compréhension des mouvements et la façon dont ils remplissent leur rôle de précurseurs de changement dans la société. Par conséquent, je considère que nous avons besoin d'une théorie qui est en mesure d'examiner tous les aspects des mouvements en même temps et, en outre, est capable de regarder au-delà de la forme de l'objet d’étude afin de se concentrer sur l'objet lui-même. Cela m'amène à la deuxième partie de l'argument, qui est l'affirmation selon laquelle la théorie générale des systèmes telle que formulée par Niklas Luhmann peut contribuer à une meilleure compréhension de l'action collective. Il s'agit d'une théorie intégrale qui peut compléter le domaine de la théorie de l`action collective en nous fournissant les outils nécessaires pour rechercher dynamiquement les mouvements sociaux et de les comprendre dans le contexte social en perpétuel changement. Une analyse du mouvement environnementaliste sera utilisé pour montrer comment les outils fournis par cette théorie nous permettent de mieux comprendre non seulement les mouvements sociaux, mais également le contexte dans lequel ils fonctionnent, comment ils remplissent leur rôle, comment ils évoluent et comment ils changent aussi la société. / Since the fifties sociology has been concerned with the phenomenon of social movements. Various theories tried to explain them. From collective behaviour to resource mobilization, through political processes and framing perspective all the way to the theory of new social movements, sociology found ways to explain these phenomena. Although all these perspectives cover and capture important facets and angles of collective action, they do so in disparate ways, looking at one side and neglecting the other. The differences between the perspectives come, on the one hand, from a change in the social, historical and scientific contexts, and on the other hand from the fact that the various approaches don’t ask the same questions, even though some questions overlap. Asking different questions leads to looking at different things. Thus, it is not only a matter of giving a different answer to the same question, but also a matter of looking at the same object of study from a different angle. This situation resides at the root of the first part of my main thesis: the field of social movement theory is not sufficient nor integrated enough to explain collective action and we need a more comprehensive theory in order to obtain a better understanding of movements and the way in which they fulfill their role of promoters of change in society. Hence, I consider that we need a theory that is able to look at all facets of the movements at the same time and furthermore, is able to look beyond the form of the object in order to focus on the object itself. This brings me to the second part of the argument, which is the claim that the general systems theory as formulated by Niklas Luhmann can contribute to a better understanding of collective action. It is a comprehensive theory that can supplement the field of social movement theory by providing us with the necessary tools to look dynamically at social movements and understand them within the shifting social context. An analysis of environmentalism will be used to show how the tools provided by this communication theory help us to better understand not only social movements but also the context in which they function, how they fulfill their role, how they are changed and in turn change society as well.

Ce travail de recherche porte sur le rôle des pratiques info-communicationnelles de l'Internet dans la constitution, le développement et la mobilisation des nouveaux groupes contestataires en Italie. Avec cette approche, nous souhaitons porter notre attention sur les pratiques humaines et non pas sur les réseaux informationnels, considérés trop souvent comme le moteur déterminant du changement social. Ainsi, bien que l'essor d'Internet n'ait pas impliqué le passage à une forme de société plus émancipée, la création d'espaces informationnels indépendants représente néanmoins un enjeu politique important. L'enquête de terrain est structurée en deux volets, l'un portant sur l'analyse de la mobilisation d'appareil (à partir de la campagne présidentielle d'Obama en 2008) et l'autre sur l'analyse des pratiques de trois groupes contestataires italiens (le réseau des télés de rue, le collectif du NoBerlusconiDay et le mouvement 5 étoiles). A partir de ces études, nous avons identifié une diversité de pratiques info-communicationnelles revêtant un rôle important dans le processus de socialisation de de formation de l'identité publique. L'enquête a démontré comment, suite au déclin du mouvement ouvrier en tant que sujet contestataire historique, l'univers de la critique sociale essaie de se renouveler, non sans contradictions, par le biais de ces nouvelles formes de débat et d'échange informationnel. les pratiques info-communicationnelles ne doivent donc pas être conçues uniquement en tant que stratégies mais elles acquièrent une nouvelle dimension "critique" qui permet aux activistes de se construire en opposition aux espaces politiques et médiatiques dominants. / This research deals with the role of info-communication practices of the Internet in the constitution, development and mobilisation of contemporary Italian social movements. Our approach aims to focus on human practices and not on information networks, often considered as a direct source of social change. In this way, although the rise of the Internet did not imply a transition to a more emancipated society, the development of new independent information spheres involves an important political issue. The inquiry is made up by two parts : the first one is about the analysis of the political apparatus mobilisation strategies (based on Obama's presidential campaign in 2008), and the second deals with the analysis of three Italian social movements' practices. Starting with these investigations, we identified multiple info-communication practices playing an important role in socialisation and political identity constitution processes. Finally, this inquiry shows how, further to the labour movement's decline as main historical rebel subject, social movements' spheres tries to renew itself through these new forms of information debate and exchange. New info-communication practices do not have to be perceived only as strategies but they acquire a new "critical" dimension that allows activists to shape themselves as opposed to dominant poltiical and media spaces.

This thesis innovates on existing literature on the Transition movement by relinquishing stock academic definitions of its ends and means, which purportedly spell out what Transition 'is'. In its stead, it approaches Transition as phenomenon, namely as an evolving socio-material formation that proliferates a cultural repertoire to sustain a growing range of concerted everyday activities. This is the difference between an instrumental focus, whereby Transition is reduced to a strategy which is oriented towards an unchanging programmatic definition, and an orientational one; the latter attuned to the contingent process by which a movement expresses form and orientation in emergent fashion. The monograph and the introductory chapter contribute to this task in different ways. Everything Gardens and Other Stories undertakes a rich description of various practical realms of Transition and, to capture the coming into being of a phenomenon, it pays particular attention to its developmental trajectory. This entails focusing on the generative movement of the culture of Transition, as it emerges from the attempt to address embodied disquiets originally elicited by information about peak oil and climate change. That initial focus, however, forms merely a station along a path in which new sources of anxiety find validation and prompt further cultural production. The monograph also describes the tensions arising in the process, as a growing body of discursive and material resources have to negotiate an accommodation, in order to become reciprocally recognisable as participant parts enfolded in a common cultural milieu. The introductory chapter supports this account by fleshing out a methodological paradigm that helps direct attention to the unfolding of a socio-material phenomenon in its dilemmatic moments and continual negotiations. For this purpose, starting from canonical sources in phenomenology, it goes on to situate the 'unfolding' of a phenomenon in the proliferation of entanglements between actors, human and nonhuman. In the 'mattering' of a phenomenon so understood, dilemmatic moments call forth an ethical questioning and an ontological politics immanent to the very process of cultural production. This, it is submitted, is precisely how an orientational focus allows to access Transition as phenomenon, beyond the bounds of academic definitions.