This thesis examines civil society, political space, and peacebuilding in post-war Burundi by critically engaging with international discourses and considering the extent to which they reflect the experiences and perspectives of activists on the ground. It is based on qualitative research with civil society groups and the individuals that work for them in Burundi. Fieldwork took place over five months between July 2014 and April 2015. This was a period of crisis in which civil society faced mounting restrictions, from the introduction of legislation that banned public gatherings, to the harassment and intimidation of prominent activists. The thesis analyses the extent to which civil society groups were able to navigate these constraints to create and maintain spaces for peace that transform dominant social norms which produce violence and repression. It also considers the factors that frustrated these efforts, from the sustained influence of past violence and trauma, to the climate of fear and uncertainty that emerged following the 2015 elections, and the divisive elite politics that continues to disrupt everyday peace in Burundi. It finds that emerging policy discourses on political space fail to engage with the historical, political, and discursive nature of government restrictions in Burundi, and the temporal and relational dimensions of violence, especially the ways in which it shapes the everyday lives of activists and their ability to challenge the institutions and structures within which violence is reproduced. The research situates these experiences in historical context – a process that enables it to consider broader questions about the evolution of civil society and the extent to which it becomes embedded in post-conflict contexts once international funding and attention decreases and external peacebuilding activities conclude. Civil society groups in Burundi received significant support from the international community in the post-war years, yet increasing restrictions suggest that the Burundian government has not accepted the presence of certain organisations which it views as a threat to its political authority and legitimacy. This leads the thesis to argue that curbs on civil society should be seen as part of a broader pattern of resistance to international peacebuilding in Burundi.

The thesis explores the role and impact of the internet on Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora political activism, focusing on both the experiences of political activists and on an analysis of web content related to diaspora activism. The central argument of the thesis is based around the relationship between political agents and cyberspace. The thesis argues that the political strategies and tactics adopted in the Tamil diasporan political sphere have changed with an increased dependence on the internet changing with it the politics and lives of individual activists. Cyberspace is presented as a site of power struggle with power as both an objective and source in micro-political struggles. The thesis also highlights the double sense of space attributed to cyberspace, both as a space facilitating political activism and as a qualitatively new space for politics. It traces the manifestation of violence in cyberspace based on its extensive reach and the collateral damage it can cause in political conflicts. Also the thesis argues that these intense web engagements for domination and resistance within the diaspora communities cause the emergence of new political priorities in Tamil diaspora politics. These do not parallel political developments in the conflict back in Sri Lanka. The thesis is based on research conducted from 2005 to 2008 during heightened rivalries between supporters of the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) and dissident Tamil diaspora political activists which involved the extensive use of cyberspace for political purposes. The empirical research consisted of an integrated framework of online and offline research. The offline research was based on eight months of fieldwork in London including interviews with Tamil diaspora political activists across the spectrum from pro-LTTE to anti-LTTE dissidents. The online research was based on the technique of Web Sphere Analysis, which enables a framing of web content into a coherent unit of analysis.

Alors que les démocraties occidentales voient leur population toujours moins impliquée en politique, les outils numériques offriraient de nouvelles possibilités susceptibles de remobiliser les citoyens. Les blogs politiques, en particulier, permettraient à de nouvelles populations de publiciser à moindres coûts leurs opinions politiques en ligne. En parallèle à l’espace de l’action politique spécialisée et à l’espace médiatique, se formerait alors un nouvel espace de discussion et de publicisation d’idées politiques, ouvert à tous et susceptible de rencontrer une audience considérable. La question est alors de savoir si, aujourd’hui, les blogs politiques permettent à un nouveau type de producteurs de messages politiques d’accéder à de nouveaux publics. Nous démontrons que seuls les blogueurs ayant une visibilité antérieure dans le champ médiatique classique, de par leurs positions politiques ou professionnelles, sont susceptibles de rencontrer un public sur leur blog. Loin d’avoir permis à de nouveaux producteurs de messages politiques d’acquérir de l’audience, la blogosphère politique apparaît au contraire encastrée dans les champs politique et médiatique dont elle prolonge très largement les hiérarchies. Ainsi, notre travail tend à invalider la représentation enchantée d’une blogosphère politique qui, comme l’avançaient les tenants de la thèse cyber-optimiste, devait permettre à de nouveaux producteurs de messages politiques de rencontrer de nouveaux publics. / While the population of western democracies is less and less involved in politics, digital tools would seem to offer new possibilities to remobilize citizens. Political blogs can allow new people to publish their political opinions online. In addition to existing political and media spaces, a newspace of discussion and publication of political ideas would thus appear, allowing every citizen to participate and to be widely read. The question for research is whether political blogs today allow a new type of political message producer to reach a new audience. We demonstrate that only bloggers having previous visibility in the classic media field, due to their political or professional positions, can have a large audience on their blog. Far from having allowed new producers of political messages to attain a large audience, the political blogosphere seems on the contrary embedded in the political and media fields, of which it largely extends the hierarchies. Our work, accordingly, tends to invalidate the idea of a political blogosphere which, according to the cyber-optimistic thesis, would have allowed new producers of political messages to get new audience.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-14T13:16:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 2181003 bytes, checksum: d41b61b3f933d72916e6b4214fd28877 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-08-27 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The political space is complex and multidimensional. On one side it is defined through the relationships between the voters and political parties or the political-ideological proposals of a certain political system. On the other hand it is a subjective space where they are the representations that the citizens do of the political phenomenon in the own way that each one internalizes the effective ideologies in a certain society. (Carvalho, Lima & Camino, 2005). Objectively they are found the spectra of antagonistic ideological positions forming a polarized space and multi-dimensional. This polarization is represented by several dyads, among them, left-right. (Bobbio, 2001). Inserted in the supporting and syndical political historical process, the political positioning acquires certain complexity that needs elucidation. With this I aim at, this research tried to analyze and to describe the representations of the left, related with the syndical and supporting identity starting from the positioning in the political space of João Pessoa-Paraíba's syndical leaderships. The research was accomplished with syndical directors, interviewed individually, in the headquarters of the unions. A Free Association following by the questionnaire was applied. The analyses of the results (n = 210) they were distributed in five categories. The largest and priority indicators of the syndicalists' associated to the left representations are in the visions more politicized, related to the activist-opposition ones and to the classists. The medium score of importance indicated as main priority of the left association in the syndicalists' mind the syndical movement, socialism, conflicts between workers and bosses and the organization activate of the syndical movement. In relation to the supporting and syndical identity, the data revealed that PT and CUT, traditional vehicles of the left, received to total and accentuated sympathy of the vision ativist/oposicionist and accentuated antipathy of the classists. CONLUTAS and INTERSINDICAL was with to strong antipathy of the activist-opposition vision and strong sympathy of the classists. It is observable in these data, an opposition tendency inside of the own syndical movement, where a group is looking for a new alternative for the organization syndical classist. The results also revealed that the left concept is still quite reasonable to analyze the political spectrum. What evidenced this fact was the majority left positioning found especially among the syndicalists of the visions more politicized. However, it is observable a gradual rejection of that classic spectrum in the measure in that there is a great group presenting a vision negative evaluation of the left concept and other group that it didn't accept none of the positionings politician. / O espaço político é complexo e multidimensional. Por um lado é definido através das relações entre os eleitores e os Partidos Políticos ou as propostas político-ideológicas de um determinado sistema político. Por outro lado é um espaço subjetivo onde se encontram as representações que os cidadãos fazem do fenômeno político da maneira própria que cada um interioriza as ideologias vigentes numa determinada sociedade. (Carvalho, Lima & Camino, 2005). Objetivamente são encontrados os espectros de posições ideológicas antagônicas formando um espaço polarizado e pluridimensional. Esta polarização está representada por diversas díades, entre elas, esquerda-direita. (Bobbio, 2001). Inserido no processo histórico político partidário e sindical, o posicionamento político adquire certa complexidade que necessita de elucidação. Com este objetivo, esta pesquisa procurou analisar e descrever as representações da esquerda, relacionadas com a identidade sindical e partidária a partir do posicionamento no espaço político das lideranças sindicais de João Pessoa-Paraíba. A pesquisa foi realizada com diretores sindicais, entrevistados individualmente, nas sedes dos sindicatos. Foi aplicada uma Associação Livre seguida do questionário. As análises dos resultados (n = 210) foram distribuídas em cinco categorias. Os maiores e prioritários indicadores das representações dos sindicalistas associadas à esquerda estão nas visões mais politizadas, relacionadas aos ativistas-oposicionistas e aos classistas. O escore médio de importância indicou como prioridade principal da associação de esquerda na mente dos sindicalistas o movimento sindical, socialismo, conflitos entre trabalhadores e patrões e a organização ativa do movimento sindical. Em relação à identidade partidária e sindical, os dados revelaram que o PT e a CUT, tradicionais veículos da esquerda, receberam a acentuada simpatia da visão ativista/oposicionista e acentuada antipatia dos classistas. A CONLUTAS e INTERSINDICAL ficou com a forte antipatia da visão ativista-oposicionista e forte simpatia dos classistas. É observável nestes dados, uma tendência de oposição dentro do próprio movimento sindical, onde um grupo está buscando uma nova alternativa para a organização sindical classista. Os resultados também revelaram que o conceito de esquerda ainda é bastante razoável para analisar o espectro político. O que evidenciou este fato foi o majoritário posicionamento de esquerda encontrado especialmente entre os sindicalistas das visões mais politizadas. Entretanto, é observável uma gradual rejeição desse espectro clássico na medida em que há um grande grupo apresentando uma visão avaliativa negativa do conceito de esquerda e outro grupo que não aceitou nenhum dos posicionamentos político.

« Ici, c’est l’école de la chefferie. Les enseignants sont nommés avec le consentement de la tribu et de la chefferie. Ici, il y a le grand chef, le petit-chef et le pasteur et après l’administration […]. L’école, elle appartient au gavaman (gouverneur). C’est comme ça depuis. Tout ça c’est du domaine du Ledran (espace public). Cependant tout cela est posé sur nos terres ». L’intervention du dignitaire de la tribu de Padawa sur l’île de Maré en Nouvelle-Calédonie, le lundi 3 mars 1983 posait les éléments déclencheurs de réflexion sur l’agencement spatial de l’école en tribu kanak. L’expression utilisée par ce dignitaire clanique, « cela est posé sur nos terres », même si elle nous rend perplexe quant à la situation spatiale de l’école, elle nous offre cependant l’opportunité d’une approche socio anthropologique et un angle d’étude des rapports politiques progressifs liés à l’histoire d’insertion et d’intégration des groupes et des objets dans l’espace autochtone. La préposition « sur » implique la position de ce qui est en surface, de ce qui relève des autorités passagères, opposé à l’interne, « sous », qu’est l’espace foncier coutumier, espace d’enracinement. La dichotomie « sur » et « sous » comme concepts spatiaux renvoie aux formules d’accueilli et d’accueillant, entendues comme représentation d’ordre d’arrivée dans l’espace socialisé, la tribu. Cet ordre d’occupation devient un argument fort de la revendication de légitimité entre autochtones eux-mêmes puis entre autochtones et les autres groupes de population. Les microespaces vitaux sont gérés en fonction de l’ordre d’intégration et de localisation des groupes ou des objets du collectif. Cette distinction d’occupation spatiale peut alors élucider la localisation paradoxale de l’école à l’exemple de celle de la tribu de Padawa, qui seule, ressemblant à un poste de garde-frontières aux confins de la tribu. Rien n’est moins simple dans le milieu kanak où l’espace et sa gestion ne sont nullement des objets éphémères voire même évanescents. Orientée selon la méthode dite qualitative à travers la discursivité sociale, notre réflexion sur la place de l’école en milieu kanak, non seulement scruterait la raison intentionnelle autochtone à vouloir positionner paradoxalement l’infrastructure mais aussi selon la confrontation de deux espaces, -Esotérique et Exotérique-, comment Savoir autochtone, Savoir de l’école, Prestige et Pouvoir insulaire seraient mis en compétition selon des pratiques claires-obscures de stratégies d’anthropologisation politique des espaces, relevant d’aspects combinatoires. Le souci de recherche d’équilibre dynamique, suite à l’intégration de l’espace scolaire, conduirait par reformulation et réarrangement permanent à l’émergence au sens barycentrique d’un espace construit et attendu implicitement par les Accords, espace moderne que nous aimerions nommer, Espace Public Pays, nouvel espace dialogique où viennent se confronter divers discours et textes culturels complexes. En outre, notre analyse permettrait de reconsidérer ces espaces complexes identitaires indigènes au moment où, dans le contexte expéditif « déséquilibrant », l’autochtone risquerait son extradition dans un monde de formatage asphyxiant, dans lequel tout serait prétexte à ravaler ce reste identitaire, comme forme de déshumanisation en le dépossédant de la faculté à… et de … penser le monde, comme activité humaine noble. Ne serait-ce pas là notre défi ? / "Here is the school of leadership. Teachers are appointed with the consent of the tribe and chiefdom. Here, there is a great leader, the small head and the pastor and after administration [...]. The school, it belongs to gavaman (Governor). This has been going. It's all in the domain of Ledran (public space). But all this rests on our land. " The response of the dignitary of the tribe of Padawa on Maré Island in New Caledonia, Monday, March 3, 1983 raised the triggers for reflection on the spatial arrangement of the school Kanak tribe. The expression used by the dignitary clannish, "it sits on our land," even if it makes us confused about the spatial location of the school, however it gives us the opportunity of a social anthropological approach and an angle review reports progressive policy related to the history of inclusion and integration of groups and Aboriginal objects in space. The preposition "on" position involves what is on the surface of what is under the authority transient, as opposed to internally; "under" customary land is space, space for rooting. The dichotomy between "on" and "below" refers to spatial concepts such as greeting and welcoming, understood as a representation of order of arrival in the socialized space, the tribe. This order of occupation becomes a strong argument for the claim to legitimacy among Aboriginal people themselves and between indigenous and others. The vital microespaces are managed according to the order of integration and localization of objects or groups of the collective. This distinction occupying space can then elucidate the paradoxical location of the school to the example of one of the tribe of Padawa, which alone, like a border guard post on the borders of the tribe. Nothing is less straightforward in the Kanak community where space and its management are not ephemera even evanescent. Based on the qualitative method through social discursively, our thoughts on the place of the school in kanak tribes not only probes into the indigenous intention to paradoxically posit the infrastructure but also, because it opposes two different kinds of space - esoteric and exoteric, into the way indigenous knowledge, scholar knowledge and island knowledge may come into competition in not so clear strategies of the political anthropologization of space, generated by a combination of perspectives. The sake of research of dynamic equilibrium, following the integration of school space by rewording and rearrangement lead to the emergence Standing under barycentric space built and implicitly expected by the Agreements, modern space that we would like appoint, Public Space of the country, where new space is dialogic discourse to confront various cultural texts and complex. In addition, our analysis would reconsider these complex spaces indigenous identity when, in the context of parole "unbalancing" the native risk his extradition in a suffocating world of formatting, in which everything is a pretext to swallow what is identity, as form of dehumanization by dispossessing the ability to think ... ... and the world as noble human activity. Would not that our challenge?

Ma thèse présente une analyse du signifiant Europe dans trois corpus allemand, français, britannique. Chaque corpus contient les programmes électoraux européens des partis politiques nationaux qui ont obtenu au moins une fois un siège au Parlement Européen. La période commence aux premières élections européennes en 1979 et se termine avec les élections européennes de 2004.Une analyse lexicométrique du signifiant Europe dans les trois langues révèle de nouvelles perspectives pour la compréhension linguistique de la notion d'Europe dans ces champs politico-discursifs. Elle permet de tirer des conclusions sur les problèmes de communication au niveau européen, sur l'objectif politique de l'Union Européenne et la légitimation du pouvoir de l'UE. Selon notre hypothèse de recherche, une telle légitimation se fonde sur une conception imaginaire de l'identité européenne commune aux différents peuples. Même si le pouvoir politique peut considérer qu'il est légitimé par une telle conception, l'analyse révèle des différences importantes entre les conceptions imaginaires circulant dans les trois champs discursifs comparés.L'analyse lexicométrique est exploitée sur le plan quantitatif mais aussi au niveau qualitatif. A l'échelle quantitative, l'index, les spécificités d'Europe, ses quasi-synonymes et les cooccurrences d'Europe sont analysés et interprétés. L'approche qualitative du contexte du segment thématique répété Europe est...' conduit à des conclusions supplémentaires. L'analyse de ce segment définitoire cherche à rendre visible, dans une démarche pragmatique, le contenu impliqué des différents énoncés. Cela conduit à figurer l'horizon sémantique au sein duquel le signe Europe apparaît. Les positionnements de la notion d'Europe et les argumentations liées à l'expression linguistique dans les trois différents corpus sont comparés dans cette phase de la recherche afin de mettre en évidence l'horizon discursif dans lequel apparaît la notion d'Europe. / My PhD thesis analysis the signifier Europe in three corpora composed of German, French and British texts. Every corpus contains elections manifestos from national political parties that were represented in the European Parliament at least once with one a seat. The study starts with the first European elections 1979 and ends with the European elections of 2004.An analysis with the help of textual statistical measurements reveals new perspectives on the language comprehension of the notion Europe in the three different fields of political discourses. It allows conclusions about communication problems on a European level, about the political objectives of the European Union and about the legitimation of its political power. According to the research hypothesis the legitimation of the political power of the European Union is based on an imagined conception of a common European identity. Even if the political actors claim that they are legitimized by such an identity the study reveals something different. It shows some substantial differences between the imagined conceptions circulating within the three studied fields of political discourses.The textual corpora are explored with quantitative measurements and also with qualitative methods of text analysis. The frequency, the specific use of Europe and its quasi-synonyms, as the collocation of Europe are measured quantitatively. Additional conclusions were drawn from the qualitative analysis of the thematic word unit Europe is'. The analysis of this word unit is based on a pragmatic understanding of sense and tries to bring to evidence the implied content of the different utterances. In doing so, the semantic horizon of the sign Europe can be represented. During this research phase argumentations linked to the linguistic expression Europe are explored in order to analyse the discursive horizon in which the notion is used in the different discourses.

<p>The study’s focus is put on the lowest level of Russian local politics, empirically represented by two municipalities in St Petersburg. It aims at identifying factors that influence the work of municipal councils. Municipal organs are since their establishment in 1998 officially self-governing and responsible for a wide array of activities within their territories. They are perceived as administrative domains in this paper, parts of a hierarchic domain-structure. The municipal domains are both fiscally and politically restricted by upper political levels – mainly the regional authorities – that heavily reduce the capabilities of the municipal councils’ activities. Besides being dependent on resources from the regional and federal level, the municipal councils’ budgets are reliant on taxing of commercial retailing within its boundaries. Joint with the basic social and demographic circumstances of a municipality, this factor is likely to shape the extent of the council’s activity. The field study conducted specifies that while a geographically central municipality is engaged in infrastructure-maintenance and cultural activities, a peripheral ditto is mainly concerned with social help. Deputies in both districts perceive the current prospects of local government as being limited by outer influence, most of the people involved in the councils are unpaid and the resources needed to communicate with the inhabitants do not exist. The general and actual weakness of local governments is mirrored in the public attitudes, influenced by state-controlled media and revealed in participatory election turnouts. The election in December 2004 produced turnouts exceeding the legitimate limit of 20 % in almost all municipalities. However, the figures are to some extent the results of administrative pressure and liberals claim that plain frauds determined many outcomes. Tendencies point towards a politicization of municipal organs, whereas presently many perceive them as simply administrative. The municipal domain is characterized merely by responsibility instead of actual authority, ownership and substantial spatial impact. It is reliant on higher-level domains while competing for resources with neighboring domains.</p>

The study’s focus is put on the lowest level of Russian local politics, empirically represented by two municipalities in St Petersburg. It aims at identifying factors that influence the work of municipal councils. Municipal organs are since their establishment in 1998 officially self-governing and responsible for a wide array of activities within their territories. They are perceived as administrative domains in this paper, parts of a hierarchic domain-structure. The municipal domains are both fiscally and politically restricted by upper political levels – mainly the regional authorities – that heavily reduce the capabilities of the municipal councils’ activities. Besides being dependent on resources from the regional and federal level, the municipal councils’ budgets are reliant on taxing of commercial retailing within its boundaries. Joint with the basic social and demographic circumstances of a municipality, this factor is likely to shape the extent of the council’s activity. The field study conducted specifies that while a geographically central municipality is engaged in infrastructure-maintenance and cultural activities, a peripheral ditto is mainly concerned with social help. Deputies in both districts perceive the current prospects of local government as being limited by outer influence, most of the people involved in the councils are unpaid and the resources needed to communicate with the inhabitants do not exist. The general and actual weakness of local governments is mirrored in the public attitudes, influenced by state-controlled media and revealed in participatory election turnouts. The election in December 2004 produced turnouts exceeding the legitimate limit of 20 % in almost all municipalities. However, the figures are to some extent the results of administrative pressure and liberals claim that plain frauds determined many outcomes. Tendencies point towards a politicization of municipal organs, whereas presently many perceive them as simply administrative. The municipal domain is characterized merely by responsibility instead of actual authority, ownership and substantial spatial impact. It is reliant on higher-level domains while competing for resources with neighboring domains.

Bibliographic note STAHL, C. (2014): Cleavage Politics and Europeanisation-induced transformation of the national political space - The Case of the Czech Republic, 94 p. Master thesis, Charles University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of International Studies. Supervisor: doc. PhDr. Jiří Vykoukal, CSc. Abstract This research seeks to map the national political space and assess the prevailing cleavage patterns in the Czech Republic. Processes of globalisation and Europeanisation have left their imprint in Western Europe - splitting the electorate into winners and losers of globalisation and denationalisation. This demarcation vs. integration magnet is also relevant in the CEE region - altering and reshuffling the underlying structure of party competition and EU contestation. By employing quantitative content analysis of print media the prevailing issue and cleavage dimensions will be reconstructed both during early stages of democratic transition (1996 Parliamentary elections) and after the 2004-EU-enlargement (2010 elections). While the political discourse and politics in the 1990s are primarily structured by issues of economic transition and post-communist transformation (underlying the classical socio-economic cleavage between market and state), in 2010 also cultural and post-materialist political...

Over the years, a variety of methods have been used in order toestimate policy positions for political parties in national parliaments. This papersets out to apply a novel computational method called Wordfish and apply it to aheavily under-researched form of political text, parliamentary speeches.Quantitative studies of this sort are even more rare the case in Sweden in whichquantitative studies on parliamentary speeches is close to non-existent. In anattempt to contribute to fill the gap in literature this study uses scaling techniqueusing word frequencies and to estimate positions of 4 Swedish political partiesalong two dimensions in political space. By observing the estimated movement bythese 4 parties over a 20-year time period one can draw conclusions of theSwedish political space and how it has shifted over time. One can also evaluatethe chosen method on this specific research material, a combination that has notbeen seen before. The results suggest that there is fine tuning that needs to bedone when using Wordfish considering the output was not in line with conventionalwisdom and previous research. The studied did show interesting movementtowards the authoritarian extreme by the two largest parties in Swedish nationalpolitics.