Governments have done little to address poverty and homelessness despite awareness of the increasing number of people affected by these issues. Neoliberalizing processes and resulting federal and provincial social policy changes since the 1980s have driven the decimation of Canada’s welfare state and contributed to expanding inequalities that systematically privilege a wealthy few at the expense of the balance of Canadians, particularly those living in poverty. Collective resistances may be the best available and most powerful tool people in poverty, including those who experience homelessness, possess to challenge government policy directions and outcomes that marginalize their voices, needs, and wants. The literature on collective action of people in poverty and who experience homelessness is sparse. Scholarship incorporating the voices of people who experience homelessness and participate in collective action is meager within this small body of literature. The role agency plays in individual behaviors and how such choices may be shaped by social conditions, is relatively unexamined. An activist ethnography, with structural violence as described by Paul Farmer as the critical frame, was used to explore the role various types of agency played in collective actions of people with experiences of homelessness or experience housing insecurity in the Capital Region of British Columbia. Primary questions guiding the research were “What were participants’ experiences of collective change efforts? How may these efforts be understood within a structural violence framework? To answer these questions I chronicle and critically examine the challenges and successes of “The Committee”, a group of housed and unhoused activists as one example of collective actors that ‘push back’ against processes and practices that produce and reproduce homelessness. Findings suggest that structurally violent processes generate embodied outcomes, lived experiences that constrain agency, often working to exclude people with experience of homelessness from collective resistances. Participation of people who are actively homeless or with experiences of homelessness in collective resistances requires attending to basic material needs and daily life issues in ways that allow meaningful participation in organizing work as a precursor to collective action. Allies can reproduce structures of violence and contribute to dismantling those same structures. Relationships between people with experience of homelessness and allies may work to mitigate unequal power relations, allowing some people with experiences of homelessness opportunities for participation in collective resistances not otherwise available to them. Implications for grassroots organizing and inclusion of people with experience of homelessness in collective resistances are included. / Graduate

This dissertation explores how three social movements deployed an anti-neoliberal master frame during the course of a multi-movement protest wave. Using ethnographic content analysis. I examine the Global Justice (GJM), Antiwar (AWM), and Immigrant Rights movements (IRM) of the 2000s to offer a theoretical synthesis of the framing perspective in social movements and Gramscian hegemony, which I call the counter-hegemonic framing approach. This approach links the contested discursive practices of social movements to historically specific political-economic contexts to offer a macro framework to make sense of this meso-level activity that illuminates the development of a counter-hegemonic master frame. I apply this approach in case studies of each movement and a culminating incorporated comparison. In the GJM chapter, I found that the GJM frames neoliberal institutions such as the World Trade Organization, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund as influenced by corporate power. Second, the GJM amplifies the symptoms of neoliberal globalization such as global inequality and environmental degradation. Third, there is a master frame specific to neoliberalism which defines neoliberal globalization as a corporate project that seeks to reduce environmental, human rights, and labor regulations by eroding sovereignty in order to open markets and increase profits. For the AWM, I found that the movement integrated the context of both rollback and rollout neoliberalism into their framing to build opposition to the Afghan and Iraq War. In addition, following the corporate power frame of the GJM, the AWM problematizes the involvement of corporations in foreign policy discussions. For the IRM, I found that one of the central goals of their framing was to deflect blame away from undocumented immigrants. There are two ways the IRM accomplished this. First, the IRM emphasized the economic contributions of immigrants. Second, the IRM emphasized the impact of neoliberal globalization as a cause of increased immigration and social problems for which migrants were blamed. Finally, in an incorporated comparison of these case studies I found a distinct anti-neoliberal “repertoire of interpretation,” which forms the basis of an anti-neoliberal master frame that emphasizes US hegemony, corporate power, economic inequality, and neoliberal rollout.

This essay reconstructs the unexplored history of a group of women who claimed a place for themselves in the male-dominated public sphere of Toronto in the early 1850s. The history of these women, who took a public stand on the issues of slavery, abolition and the fugitives escaping to Canada, does not fit seamlessly into the history of the struggle for women's rights nor the history of women's philanthropy. While the anti-slavery women engaged in some of the same activities as these better-known subjects of women's history, they brought a distinctive set of social and political concerns to their activism. Troubled by the influx of destitute fugitive slaves arriving in Canada from the United States, the potential extension of slavery on the North American continent, and the implications these developments could have for the free Christian nation they were building in Canada, these women took advantage of the public sphere to voice and act on their concerns about the moral progress of society, especially in their city. They constructed a distinctly feminine political culture that represented themselves and their activities as conforming to the canons of femininity and domesticity, while it enabled the women to secure access and influence for themselves - albeit limited access and influence - in the public sphere. With aspirations to influence public opinion, but without formal positions of authority in the public sphere, these women called upon the moral authority that nineteenth century society ascribed to women to underwrite their public activities. Feminine moral authority affirmed the righteousness of the values and beliefs that underlay their public activities, and it justified their attempts to persuade others to espouse similar beliefs. It was the foundation upon which these women tried to build a collective political culture and speak on behalf of all Canadian women in the public sphere. Construed as gender-specific, this moral authority rested, however, not only on the distinction of gender, but also on a combination of social attributes and cultural distinctions that included the distinction of race. While there is no doubt that positions of authority in the public sphere of mid-nineteenth century Toronto were dominated by white men, the inroads the women achieved and the roadblocks they confronted suggest that the public sphere was undergoing considerable change in the early 1850s. To be sure, their attempts to influence the formation of public opinion were indicative of larger social and political changes underway in Canadian society — changes that historians have only begun to consider. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

This report is a study of the development of strategies of political conflict surrounding the Mexican Student Movement of 1968. It analyzes strategies of the students' organization of the National Strike Committee and the Government Party of Revolutionary Institutions (P.R.I.), in order to understand why violent repression was applied by the government to suppress the student group. The understanding of repression is undertaken in a review of the development of governmental structures and the history of conflict in Mexico beginning in 1910. In looking through the history of Mexico and examining the student movement, the report weaves together three theories: 1) the conflict of different political groups in history; 2) the development of a one-party system of government; and 3) the routinized use of repression in political conflict since the Mexican Revolution of 1910. In review of the historical development of the P.R.I., the study indicates that the early period in the 1930's contained an opportunity for a viable political democracy with a control and orderly conflict between interest group on the left and right. The push to a centralized government came from Cárdenas who was sympathetic to the needs of the peasants and workers and whose administration worked on their behalf. But following the leadership of Cárdenas, the presidential successors, Avila Camacho and Alemán, used the Central Party, and by strengthening its control, suppressed labor and peasant movements. It is at this time that the legacy of violence in policy matters is introduced — a strategy of repression in modern Mexican politics. Evidence on the composition of the P.R.I. points to a structure in which control of the government flows, from the top down in a unidirectional manner with little or no influence from the workers, peasants or small businessmen. Representation in the party does not bring with it the ability to participate in the decision making, nor does the populist ideology of the party mean that the masses are able to influence the leadership of the government. This being the case, the problem for the government becomes one of persuasion and control. A chronological account of the events of 1968 reveal that the strategy of the student movement, was that of calling for a public debate with the government in order to provide a means of restoring the influence of the masses of the people upon public officials, and the strategy of the government was to applied physical force through the police and the army in order to avoid a public debate and to quickly eliminate the student movement. / Arts, Faculty of / Sociology, Department of / Graduate

Twelve spatial-cueing experiments examined stimulus-driven and goal-driven control of visual attention orienting under multiple-cue conditions. Spatial cueing involves presenting a cue at a potential target location before a target appears in a display, and measuring the cue's effect on responses to the target stimulus. Under certain conditions, a cue that appears abruptly in a display (direct cue) can speed responses to a target appearing at the previously cued location relative to other uncued locations (called the cue effect). The experiments in this dissertation used a new multiple-cue procedure to decouple the effects of stimulus-driven and goal-driven processes on the control of attention. This technique involved simultaneously presenting a red direct cue (Unique Cue) that was highly predictive of the target location along with multiple grey direct cues (Standard Cues) that were not predictive of the target location. The basic finding was that while cue effects occurred at all cued locations, they were significantly larger at the Unique-Cue location. This finding was interpreted as evidence for stimulus-driven cue effects at all cued locations with additional goal-driven cue effects at the Unique-Cue location. Further experiments showed that Standard-Cue effects could occur independently at multiple locations, that they seemed to involve a sensory-based interaction between the cues and the target, and that they were mediated by a limitedcapacity tracking mechanism. In addition, Unique-Cue effects were found to be the product of goal-driven operations, to interact with Standard-Cue effects, and to involve inhibited processing at unattended locations. These results were explained in terms of a filter-based model of attention control that assigns priority to potential attention-shift destinations. According to this model, stimulus-driven and goal-driven factors generate signals (activity distributions) that drive a filter to open an attention channel at the highest priority location by suppressing the signals at other locations. The final experiments confirmed the central assumptions of this model by providing evidence that the prioritydestination process was sufficient to produce cue effects independent of attention, and that attending to a location involved a suppression of processing at unattended locations. The implications of this model for the larger visual attention literature were also discussed. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

This dissertation asks how the British anti-slave-trade movement permeated musical culture of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and how musical activities, in turn, were used to support the cause. It examines a group of newly discovered musical scores—described here as “serious antislavery songs”—that were published in the years between the founding of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade (1787) and the passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807. Highlighting the inclusion of such scores in extant personal music collections of contemporary British women, the study explores both who used the scores and how they used them. The dissertation thus paints a detailed picture of musical abolitionism and argues that composing, collecting, practicing, and performing serious antislavery songs enabled female amateur musicians to promote opposition to human trafficking from their homes. The study joins close readings of ideas—found in letters, poems, and musical content—with analyses of activities, such as private musical practice and polite shopping. The first chapter discusses the music of Ignatius Sancho, who died before the start of widespread mobilization against the slave trade but who nevertheless used his music to make a powerful, if subtle, antislavery statement. The second chapter moves to the beginning of the British abolition movement, examining two politically charged poems written in 1788 that became popular songs among female amateur musicians. The next three chapters explore the varied ways that these women incorporated serious antislavery songs into their everyday lives. Chapter 3 maps out the London musical marketplace for scores where women could purchase a variety of songs, including abolitionist and anti-abolitionist songs alike. The fourth chapter explores the activity of music-making and argues that practicing from musical scores and singing through them among friends was a form of conversation. It therefore introduces the term “sociable abolitionism,” of which “musical abolitionism” was one key component. Finally, Chapter 5 uses extant music collections that were once owned by British women to unpack the ethical tensions involved in white Britons’ practice of singing serious, sympathetic songs whose lyrics were written from the imagined perspective of enslaved Africans. The chapter argues that singing these songs was a kind of “musical masquerade”—one where singers could indulge in identity play while encouraging abolitionism from their listeners. The dissertation addresses a major gap in the literature on abolitionism: while literary, theatrical, and visual contributions to the movement have been received ample scholarly treatment, musical scores have remained virtually absent from discussions of antislavery activism. Scores are presented here as key sources for understanding the ways women enacted their opposition to human trafficking and bondage. Problematic but politically useful, scores incorporated easily into the activities of British women’s everyday lives and contributed to the widespread culture of abolitionism.

This thesis explores environmental justice issues in Latino communities in the Treasure Valley in Idaho. Given the little work focused on environmental justice issues of Latino communities, specifically in the Treasure Valley in Idaho. This thesis aims to, firstly determine whether environmental justice issues of Latino communities are relevant to environmental and social organizations in the Treasure Valley. As part of this, I also aim to unpack why environmental issues in Latino communities are or are not relevant to local social and environmental organizations. I suspected this may be connected to the complex immigration status of Latino groups, however, I discovered that the lack of funding and research, and community awareness challenged these organizations to attend to environmental justice issues. Second, this thesis aims to bring visibility to the Latino community that is often neglected in policy and research regarding environmental justice, which has mostly focused on African-American communities. Finally, a third and related aim is to contribute to the development of a wider vision of environmental justice issues of minority groups by expanding this framework to Hispanic-Latino communities in the Treasure Valley, Idaho. / Master of Arts / Disproportionate exposure to toxic waste, proximity to highways and industry facilities, and lack of access to clean water and food, are some of the environmental justice issues that minority groups in the United States daily face daily. The term environmental justice has evolved with different approaches and lines of thought that built on of vulnerable communities’ mobilizations for social justice issues present in vulnerable communities. This study explores to what extent environmental justice issues in Latino communities are relevant to environmental and social organizations in the Treasure Valley in Idaho. Building on the existing literature on environmental justice and based on semi-structured interviews, this study finds that environmental justice issues are relevant to these organizations, but that social injustices, -a lack of political attention to this issue and a related absence of strategic funding and research hinder these organizations’ ability to address environmental justice issues.

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