In 2011, Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) was thrust into the Western media spotlight through the murder of LGBTIQ activist, David Kato Kasule, and the now-infamous “Kill the Gays Bill.” During the last six years, SMUG and its members have continued to fight oppressive Ugandan governmental systems and conservative leaders that have been instigated by U.S. evangelical fundamentalists, most notably Scott Lively. And while SMUG and its members have fallen out of the Western media spotlight since 2012, SMUG continues its social justice activism with and for LGBTIQ Ugandans on the ground, while also building transnational coalitions with other LGBTIQ organizations both within and beyond the borders of Uganda. In this dissertation, I examine the ways in which SMUG utilizes its website (sexualminoritiesuganda.com) as a site for transnational and translocal coalition-building for the sake of social justice activism. To understand the ways in which SMUG is engaging in LGBTIQ activism with nuance, I build a conceptual framework for my analysis through five constructs of critical intercultural communication: critical cosmopolitanism, transnational activism, the global-local dialectic, power, and identity. Critical cosmopolitanism, as conceptualized in Communication Studies by Miriam Sobré-Denton and Nilanjana Bardhan (2013), “is a world- and Other-oriented practice of engaging in deliberate, dialogic, critical, non-coercive and ethical communication. Through the play of context-specific dialectics, cosmopolitan communication works with and through cultural differences and historical and emerging power inequalities to achieve ongoing understanding, intercultural growth, mutuality, collaboration and social and global justice goals through critical self-transformation” (p. 50, emphasis in original). Through this definition, I also work with critical cosmopolitanism as conceptualized by Walter Mignolo (2000, 2010, 2012) and Gerard Delanty (2006, 2009). For Mignolo (2000), critical cosmopolitanism “comprises projects located in the exteriority and issuing forth from the colonial difference” (p. 724) as “an argument for globalization from below” (p. 745) that works to dislodge West-centric modes of thinking. Delanty (2006) extends this definition, as critical cosmopolitanism “seeks to discern or make sense of social transformation by identifying new or emergent social realities” (p. 25). In this, critical cosmopolitanism is a project that asks us to consider the ways in which “diversality,” or “diversity as a universal project” (Mignolo, 2000, p. 743), can dislodge Western modernity, colonialism, imperialism, and globalization from above. To understand the ways in which SMUG is engaging in a critical cosmopolitan vision through its website, I examine for clues of transnational activism as a way of performing and engaging in critical cosmopolitanism through Bardhan (2011), Burgmann (2013), and Gledhill (2010). To complicate our understanding of transnational activism, I turn to the global-local dialectic, as conceptualized by Stuart Hall (1997). The global-local dialectic helps me to observe the ways in which SMUG is dislodging all-encompassing narratives that center globalization as a top-down-only mechanism that ceases all local particularities of culture from existing. Kraidy (1999, 2005) also helps me to investigate the ways in which the global and the local are always already present and in a dialectical tension in our postmodern and postcolonial world. To understand more about how these tensions function, I investigate the construct of power through sociologist Jonathan Hearn’s (2012), Theorizing Power. In it, he seeks to shift theorizing of power away from questions regarding what “we mean by power” to questions of “what do we have to bear in mind when studying power?” (p. 4). Through theorizing five oppositions associated with power—“(1) physical versus social power, (2) power ‘to’ versus power ‘over’, (3) asymmetrical versus balanced power, (4) power as structures versus agents, and (5) actual versus potential power” (p. 4)—Hearn helps me to complicate the ways in which power is observed and discussed in relation to SMUG, LGBTIQ Ugandans, Ugandan leadership, U.S. evangelism, and Western political involvement. Finally, I offer a conceptual framework for identity in critical intercultural communication research, including questions on how we theorize difference differently through John T. Warren’s (2008), “Performing Difference,” as well as offering a framework to understand cosmopolitan identity as constructed by Sobré-Denton and Bardhan (2013) and a framing for African queer sexualities through the works of Ugandan feminist scholars, Sylvia Tamale (2003) and Stella Nyanzi (2013). To address my research questions, I engaged in an ideological criticism (Foss, 2003, Hart & Daughton, 2005, Wander, 1983) of SMUG’s website to more fully understand the ideologies driving SMUG’s rhetorical choices. I chose to use ideological criticism as a methodological framework as it allowed me, the critic, to construct a critical framework with which to analyze a text. Ideological criticism also offered me the opportunity to bring critical rhetorical methods into conversation with critical intercultural communication constructs. Through this conceptual and methodological framework, I analyzed 110 screen shots of their website and all 54 articles included as content on their page over the course of 13 months. Through this process, I argue that SMUG is showing signs of a critical cosmopolitan vision in their website through their participation in peripheral partnerships and activism that speaks back to oppressive systems in ways that highlight globalization-from-below, as conceptualized by Walter Mignolo (2000, 2010, 2012). I also trouble the ways in which SMUG represents LGBTIQ Ugandans on the ground as I call for more intersectional representation that speaks more broadly to LGBTIQ Ugandan experiences in the everyday than SMUG is currently offering visitors. This dissertation research also highlights the difficulties of reading critical cosmopolitanism in one online mediated space, and that centering people and the relationships among people is critical when engaging in critical cosmopolitan research. I end this project with a call to critical intercultural communication scholars to offer more nuance around the representations of LGBTIQ people around the world that takes us beyond sensationalized subjects while also not erasing the devastating impacts of LGBTIQ hatred locally and globally.

Yes / This article examines transnational activism by coalitions of national minorities in Europe from the early 20th century to the present, setting this within the broader ‘security versus democracy dilemma’ that continues to surround international discussions on minority rights. Specifically, we analyse two organisations – the European Nationalities Congress (1925–1938) and the Federal Union of European Nationalities (1949–) – which, while linked, have never been subject to a detailed comparison based on primary sources. In so far as comparisons do exist, they present these bodies in highly negative terms, as mere fronts for inherently particularistic nationalisms that threaten political stability, state integrity and peace. Our more in‐depth analysis provides a fresh and more nuanced perspective: it shows that, in both cases, concepts of European integration and ‘unity in diversity’ have provided the motivating goals and frameworks for transnational movements advocating common rights for all minorities and seeking positive interaction with the interstate world.

Recent developments in communications technology have transformed how social movements might mobilize, and how they can organize their activities. This thesis explores some of the geographical consequences of the use of digital media for political activism. It does this by focusing on the transnationalization of protests. The aim is to analyse how movements with different organizational structures and political scopes are affected by their use of digital media. This is done with a specific focus on how digital media use influences or enables transnational modes of organization and activism. The thesis comprises four different case studies where each study examines a social movement with a specific organizational structure. There are, however, also important similarities between the movements. In each study, somewhat different perspectives and methodological approaches are used. Some of the methods used are semi-structured interviews, content analysis of written data (retrieved from Facebook as well as Twitter), and social network analysis. The analysis indicates that digital media do have a role in the transnationalization of protest. This role, however, differs depending on what type of social movement one studies. The organizational structure of social movements, together with their specific forms of digital media use, influences how the transnationalization of protests and movements is articulated and formed. In cases where a social movement has a hierarchical organizational structure, there is less transnationalization, whereas in social movements with a more non-hierarchical organizational structure one sees more transnationalization. The thesis concludes that the transnationalization of protests is affected by social movements’ organizational structure. The more decentralized the social movement, the more vibrant the transnational public. In order to explain how transnational social movements, using digital media, can emerge in cases where geographical distances might make such coalitions unlikely, the thesis introduces the notion of affectual proximity. This concept helps us understand how transnational social movements, connecting actors from all over the world, can emerge through digital media.

Transsexuella personer hör till de mest utsatta personer i världen. Deras rättigheter regleras och diskrimineras av statlig lagstiftning som strider mot de mänskliga rättigheterna och de utsätts för våld och diskriminering p.g.a. deras avvikande könsidentitet som överskrider existerande genusbarriärer eller för att de utmanar de dominerande uppfattningarna om genus roller. Uppsatsen belyser sambandet mellan transnationell aktivism och kroppspolitik, för att påvisa hur transsexuella rättigheter diskrimineras och hurkroppar ses som en statlig angelägenhet. Jag utgår ifrån ett genusperspektiv inom IR, för att hänvisa till ett genussystem som förklarar de ojämna maktrelationerna och vill därmed betona lagens roll inom beskrivningen av samhälle och i föreläggandet av förändring. Studien påvisar ett samband på individ, statlig och transnationell nivå, för att illustrera den komplexa relationen mellan den politiska och diskursiva möjligheten inom den transnationella aktivismen. Genom en jämförande fallstudie av Chile och Finland, påvisar jag likheter och olikheter som påverkar hur transnationell aktivism tas emot, och ifall den påverkatländernas interna lagstiftning för transsexuella rättigheter. Chile och Finland visade sig vara stater med mycket likheter, varav den oberoende variabel som skiljer dem åt är den religiösa aspekten. Chile påvisar den tydliga relation som finns mellan staten och den katolska kyrkan, medan Finland ses som en sekulär stat. / Transgender people belong to the most vulnerable people in the world. Their rights are regulated and discriminated by state laws that violate human rights, and are subjected to violence and discrimination because of their gender identity, which exceeds existing gender barriers or because they challenge dominant views on gender roles. The paper highlights the connection between transnational activism and body politics, to show how transsexual rights are discriminated and seen as an affair of the state. I assume a gender gender perspective within IR, referring to a gender system that explains the uneven power relations,and thus wish to emphasise the role of the law in description of society and in the description of change. The study provides an insight into a relationship at the individual, state and transnational level. Through a comparative case study of Chile and Finland, both of which are current about the issue of gender reassignment, I demonstrate how transnational activism is used and received, and if the transnational activism has effected the internal laws for transsexual rights. The countries showed to have a lot in common,whereby the independent variable that differs is the religious aspect. Chile shows the strong connection between the state and the catholic church, while Finland is seen as a secular state.

No description available.

Tesis para obtener el grado de Magíster en Estudios Internacionales / El movimiento ciudadano internacional Boicot, Desinversiones y Sanciones Contra Israel – BDS surge como respuesta frente a la persistente pasividad de la comunidad internacional respecto de la insostenible y desastrosa situación que vive el pueblo palestino ya sea en el exilio o bajo la discriminación, segregación y represión institucional, una realidad que se ha mantenido así por siete décadas. Los tres únicos objetivos de su campaña están basados en el Derecho Internacional y en resoluciones de Naciones Unidas, resoluciones que hasta la fecha no han sido cumplidas por el Estado Israelí. Se trata de una forma de lucha no violenta cuya estrategia de desinversión y boicot económico, académico y cultural a empresas e instituciones vinculadas a la ocupación han generado la presión suficiente para provocar cambios en la política exterior israelí, presentando una nueva imagen al exterior. La presente investigación tiene por objeto analizar el poder de atracción o Soft Power del BDS y su capacidad de empujar al Estado Israelí hacia la reconfiguración de su propaganda política o “hasbara” la cual constituye el núcleo de su diplomacia pública. / The Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions Against Israel campaign or BDS is an international social movement which emerges as a response to the international community’s persistent lack of determination regarding the unsustainable and devastating situation of the Palestinian people, who are living either in exile or under discrimination, segregation and institutional repression, situation they have been going through for seven decades. The three objectives of the BDS campaign are based on international law and on United Nations resolutions which, to date, have not been met by the Israeli State. BDS is a non-violent struggle whose divestment strategy and economic, academic and cultural boycott of companies and institutions linked to the Israeli occupation have produced enough pressure to make Israel change its foreign policy introducing a whole new image abroad. The purpose of this research is to analyze the power of attraction or Soft Power of the BDS and its ability to push the Israeli State towards the reconfiguration of its political propaganda or "hasbara" which constitutes the core of its public diplomacy. / 2018.01.01

This dissertation explains why Taiwan and South Korea experienced democratic breakthrough in the late 1980s, when Singapore failed to do so. It explains this variation in democratic outcomes by specifying the causal mechanisms underpinning the international-domestic political interface of democratic development in these cases. New empirical evidence discovered in the course of this research has confirmed that transnational networks of nonstate and substate actors were an indisputable source of external pressures on the authoritarian governments of Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore during the late 1970s and early 80s. Foreign human rights activists, Christian missionaries and ecumenical workers, members of overseas diaspora communities, journalists, academics and students, along with legislators in key democratic countries allied to the target governments, were found to have raised the international profile of political repression by flagging them as reprehensible human rights abuses. Within the context of an international normative environment where human rights was increasingly considered a legitimate international concern, these transnational actors generated a negative international opinion of the target governments. Such grassroots pressures had the potential to raise the cost of political repression for these target governments with the effect of curbing repressive state behavior, thereby protecting key domestic actors with the potential to effect democratic breakthrough. The extent to which these external pressures could effectively constrain repressive state behavior depended, however, on the immediate geopolitical circumstances of each case. Geopolitical circumstances were also important because they could affect the strength of the protection regime. Thus, the exposition of the transnational protection regime as the causal mechanism underpinning the international-domestic political interface of democratic development requires that we specify the exact role of agency within the international normative and geopolitical contexts in which they operate. This dissertation develops such an abstracted causal model for the purposes of application in other cases and for policy analysis.

This dissertation explains why Taiwan and South Korea experienced democratic breakthrough in the late 1980s, when Singapore failed to do so. It explains this variation in democratic outcomes by specifying the causal mechanisms underpinning the international-domestic political interface of democratic development in these cases. New empirical evidence discovered in the course of this research has confirmed that transnational networks of nonstate and substate actors were an indisputable source of external pressures on the authoritarian governments of Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore during the late 1970s and early 80s. Foreign human rights activists, Christian missionaries and ecumenical workers, members of overseas diaspora communities, journalists, academics and students, along with legislators in key democratic countries allied to the target governments, were found to have raised the international profile of political repression by flagging them as reprehensible human rights abuses. Within the context of an international normative environment where human rights was increasingly considered a legitimate international concern, these transnational actors generated a negative international opinion of the target governments. Such grassroots pressures had the potential to raise the cost of political repression for these target governments with the effect of curbing repressive state behavior, thereby protecting key domestic actors with the potential to effect democratic breakthrough. The extent to which these external pressures could effectively constrain repressive state behavior depended, however, on the immediate geopolitical circumstances of each case. Geopolitical circumstances were also important because they could affect the strength of the protection regime. Thus, the exposition of the transnational protection regime as the causal mechanism underpinning the international-domestic political interface of democratic development requires that we specify the exact role of agency within the international normative and geopolitical contexts in which they operate. This dissertation develops such an abstracted causal model for the purposes of application in other cases and for policy analysis.

A tese de doutorado intitulada Mulheres Negras em Movimento, analisa o processo de formação do ativismo transnacional de mulheres negras na América Latina, entre os anos 1980 e 1995. A abordagem metodológica utilizada vem da Teoria do Confronto Político, da Sociologia Relacional e dos estudos sobre Ativismo Transnacional. O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar o processo de formação da Rede de Mulheres Afro Latino-Americanas, Afro-caribenhas e da Diáspora RMAAD. Este processo é reconstruído a partir da trajetória de oito ativistas latino-americanas e do funcionamento dos espaços internacionais de ação política para os movimentos sociais, em particular as Conferências Mundiais da ONU e os Encontros Feministas Latino-americanos, que permitiram o desenvolvimento da ação política coletiva aqui analisada. A hipótese do trabalho é que as conexões entre as ativistas negras latino-americanas produziram, a partir de repertórios discursivos disponíveis, um novo enquadramento interpretativo crucial para produzir a mobilização, o Feminismo Negro Latino-americano. Procura-se demonstrar que este processo culminou na formação de um movimento transnacional de mulheres negras, ou seja, de um movimento que transcendas fronteiras nacionais. / The doctoral thesis entitled Black Women in Movement analyzes the process of formation of transnational black women activism in Latin America between the years 1980 and 1995. The methodological approach used comes from Political Confrontation Theory, Relational Sociology and studies on Transnational Activism. The objective of this work is to analyze the process of formation of the Network of Afro-Latin American, Afro-Caribbean and Diaspora Women - RMAAD, based on the trajectory of eight Latin American activists and on international spaces of political action for social movements as the UN World Conferences and the Latin American Feminist Meetings that allowed the development of political action. The hypothesis of the work indicates that the connections between Latin American black activists produced, during this period, an interpretative framework, Latin American Black Feminism, based on discursive repertoires, that mobilized this population of women culminating in the formation of a transnational movement, that is, a movement that transcends national boundaries.

A tese de doutorado intitulada Mulheres Negras em Movimento, analisa o processo de formação do ativismo transnacional de mulheres negras na América Latina, entre os anos 1980 e 1995. A abordagem metodológica utilizada vem da Teoria do Confronto Político, da Sociologia Relacional e dos estudos sobre Ativismo Transnacional. O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar o processo de formação da Rede de Mulheres Afro Latino-Americanas, Afro-caribenhas e da Diáspora RMAAD. Este processo é reconstruído a partir da trajetória de oito ativistas latino-americanas e do funcionamento dos espaços internacionais de ação política para os movimentos sociais, em particular as Conferências Mundiais da ONU e os Encontros Feministas Latino-americanos, que permitiram o desenvolvimento da ação política coletiva aqui analisada. A hipótese do trabalho é que as conexões entre as ativistas negras latino-americanas produziram, a partir de repertórios discursivos disponíveis, um novo enquadramento interpretativo crucial para produzir a mobilização, o Feminismo Negro Latino-americano. Procura-se demonstrar que este processo culminou na formação de um movimento transnacional de mulheres negras, ou seja, de um movimento que transcendas fronteiras nacionais. / The doctoral thesis entitled Black Women in Movement analyzes the process of formation of transnational black women activism in Latin America between the years 1980 and 1995. The methodological approach used comes from Political Confrontation Theory, Relational Sociology and studies on Transnational Activism. The objective of this work is to analyze the process of formation of the Network of Afro-Latin American, Afro-Caribbean and Diaspora Women - RMAAD, based on the trajectory of eight Latin American activists and on international spaces of political action for social movements as the UN World Conferences and the Latin American Feminist Meetings that allowed the development of political action. The hypothesis of the work indicates that the connections between Latin American black activists produced, during this period, an interpretative framework, Latin American Black Feminism, based on discursive repertoires, that mobilized this population of women culminating in the formation of a transnational movement, that is, a movement that transcends national boundaries.