This thesis is empirically grounded in New Zealand's restructuring of unemployment and taxation policy in the 1980s and 1990s. Theoretically it is inspired by a post-Marxist discourse analytical approach that focuses on discourses as political strategies. This approach has made it possible, through an analysis of changing citizenship discourses, to understand how the neoliberalisation of New Zealand's citizenship regime proceeded via debate and struggle over unemployment and taxation policy. Debates over unemployment and taxation in New Zealand during the 1980s and 1990s reconfigured the targets of policy and re-ordered social antagonism, establishing a neoliberal citizenship regime and centring political problematic. This construction of a neoliberal citizenship regime involved re-specifying the targets of public policy as consumers and taxpayers. In exploring the hegemonic discourse strategies of the Fourth Labour Government and the subsequent National-led governments of the 1990s, this thesis traces the process of reconfiguring citizen subjectivity initially as 'social consumers' and participants in a coalition of minorities, and subsequently as universal taxpayers in antagonistic relation to unemployed beneficiaries. These changes are related back to key discursive events in New Zealand's recent social policy history as well as to shifts in the discourses of politicians that address the nature of the public interest and the targets of social policy. I argue that this neoliberalisation of New Zealand's citizenship regime was the outcome of the hegemonic articulatory discourse strategies of governing parties in the 1980s and 1990s. Struggles between government administrations and citizen-based social movement groups were articulated to the neoliberal project. I also argue that in the late 1990s, discursive struggle between the dominant parties to define themselves in difference from each other reveals both the 'de'contestation of a set of neoliberal policy prescriptions, underscoring the neoliberal political problematic, and the privileging of a contributing taxpayer identity as the source of political legitimacy. This study shows that the dynamics of discursive struggle matter and demonstrates how the outcomes of discursive struggle direct policy change. In particular, it establishes how neoliberal discourse strategies evolved from political discourses in competition with other discourses to become the hegemonic political problematic underscoring institutional practice and policy development.

Les perturbations des marches de la Fierté à Montréal et à Toronto par des membres de Black Lives Matter ont mis en lumière l’exclusion des personnes racisées au sein des mouvements LGBTQ au Canada, de même qu’en Europe et aux États-Unis. Ces évènements témoignent de la façon dont les personnes racisées s’organisent au sein des mouvements LGBTQ, c’est-à-dire par la création d’organisations formées autour d’identités racisées spécifiques. Ceux-ci s’inscrivent dans une riche tradition d’activisme portée par des personnes racisées LGBTQ au Canada qui demeure, néanmoins, peu étudiée au pays. Cette thèse poursuit ainsi deux objectifs principaux. Dans un premier temps, elle vise à rendre visible la façon dont les personnes racisées participent collectivement au sein des mouvements LGBTQ à Montréal et à Toronto, ou ce que nous appelons les trajectoires d’engagement collectif des personnes racisées LGBTQ, rompant ainsi avec les récits dominants, centrés sur l’expérience des militants LGBTQ blancs. Dans un second temps, elle tente d’expliquer pourquoi les personnes racisées participent collectivement au sein des mouvements LGBTQ de cette façon. Puisant dans la théorie des mouvements sociaux, cette thèse soulève l’importance de tenir compte du contexte relationnel dans lequel s’inscrit la participation, à savoir la configuration des rapports de pouvoir déterminant les positionnements sociaux des individus et des groupes, les uns par rapport aux autres. Pour ce faire, nous proposons l’élaboration d’un cadre théorique intersectionnel articulé autour de trois principes, soit la relationnalité, le pouvoir et le contexte social, combiné à une analyse multiniveau. Nous démontrons ainsi que les trajectoires d’engagement collectif des personnes racisées LGBTQ sont le produit des parcours individuels militants (niveau micro), de dynamiques organisationnelles (niveau meso) et de contextes sociopolitiques et institutionnels (niveau macro). Cette thèse est le fruit de séjours de recherche effectués à Montréal et à Toronto, durant lesquels nous avons réalisé 42 entretiens semi-dirigés avec des militantes racisées LGBTQ, de même qu’avec des militantes blanches LGBTQ. La documentation produite par des organisations LGBTQ ainsi que différentes instances gouvernementales a également été mobilisée de manière complémentaire. À un niveau micro, les résultats de la thèse révèlent comment les parcours individuels militants des personnes racisées LGBTQ diffèrent de ceux des personnes blanches. À un niveau meso, les résultats mettent en évidence la dimension structurante du privilège blanc (masculin/cisgenre/sans handicap) au sein des mouvements LGBTQ, ayant pour effet de reléguer les personnes racisées à la marge de ces mouvements. Enfin, à un niveau macro, une analyse comparative des régimes de citoyenneté québécois et canadiens démontre la façon dont les contextes institutionnels et sociopolitiques informent la participation au sein des mouvements LGBTQ. En rendant visible la participation des personnes racisées au sein des mouvements LGBTQ canadiens, cette thèse contribue empiriquement à l’avancement des connaissances sur le militantisme LGBTQ au Canada. À un niveau théorique, elle enrichit la théorie des mouvements sociaux en introduisant un cadre théorique intersectionnel pouvant faciliter l’analyse de la participation au sein des mouvements sociaux. En plus d’illustrer le potentiel théorique de l’intersectionnalité pour approfondir notre compréhension des mouvements sociaux, cette thèse se distingue de travaux récents davantage centrés sur la praxis et les coalitions intersectionnels au sein des mouvements sociaux. / Recent Pride march disruptions by Black Lives Matter protestors in Montréal and Toronto have pointed to the continuous exclusion of people of colour within LGBTQ movements across Canada, as well as in Europe and the United States. While these events constitute recent manifestations of a particular form of organizing within LGBTQ movements, namely organizations formed around specific racialized identities, they are in fact inscribed within a broader tradition of LGBTQ people of colour (LGBTQ-POC) organizing in Canada, overlooked by academics and mainstream activists. It is in that respect that the aim of this dissertation is twofold. First, it aims to render visible the ways in which people of colour have collectively participated in Montréal’s and Toronto’s LGBTQ movements, or what I refer to as LGBTQ-POC collective engagement trajectories, thereby disrupting dominant, White-centered, LGBTQ narratives. Second, it seeks to explain why people of colour have collectively participated in LGBTQ movements the way that they have in Montréal and Toronto. Building on social movement theory’s previous work, it argues for the need to unpack the relational context within which participation is set, meaning the power configurations that socially locate individuals and groups in relation to each other. With its emphasis on relationality, power, and social context, intersectionality thus comes across as a pertinent avenue to bridge this theoretical gap. Combined with a multilevel analysis, it reveals how LGBTQ-POC collective engagement trajectories are the result of individual activist paths (micro-level), social movement organizational dynamics (meso-level), and institutional and sociopolitical contexts (macro-level). This dissertation draws on fieldwork undergone in Montréal and Toronto, during which 42 in-depth interviews were conducted with LGBTQ-POC and White-LGBTQ activists. Secondary sources, such as documents produced by LGBTQ organizations and other government-related documentation were also used for the analysis. At a micro-level, results show how LGBTQ-POC and White-LGBTQ activists follow different activist paths. At a meso-level, results reveal the structuring character of white (male/cisgender/able-bodied) privilege within LGBTQ movements, in both Montréal and Toronto. At a macro-level, a comparative analysis of Québécois and Canadian citizenship regimes however demonstrates the extent to which institutional and sociopolitical contexts also shape social movement participation. By rendering visible people of colour’s collective participation within Canadian LGBTQ movements, this dissertation fills a significant empirical gap. Theoretically, it enriches social movement theory by introducing an intersectional theoretical framework suitable for analyzing social movement participation. Rather than discard social movement theory as a whole, it instead engages a dialogue with previous work on social movement participation. Alternatively, it lives true to the promise of intersectionality as a theoretical framework for advancing our understanding of social movements, distinguishing itself from recent work focusing primarily on intersectional praxis and intersectional coalitions in the context of social movements.