This thesis discusses the Indignados movement, which arose in Spain in 2011, in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. It makes the observation that the Indignados, and many other movements similar to it (like Occupy Wall Street, the Arab Spring, or the Global Justice Movement), gather large amounts of people, but are still struggling to be recognised as political subjects, as influential forces in the political environment. Many times, they are criticised for being too dispersed or too emotional, and lacking the cohesiveness to formulate concrete political aims. The Indignados can therefore be seen as challenging democracy and how political subjectivity is accorded, both in theory and practice. This leads this thesis to inquire into some of the theoretical underpinnings of democracy, and in particular political subjectivity. Its main research question is therefore: Can the Indignados spur a new reading of democracy?To further understand how we can conceive of the political subjectivity of an emotional and dispersed protest movement, this thesis turns to two approaches, social movement theory as well as deliberative democratic theory. After having examined extant literature on the matter, the thesis concludes that both of these approaches employ a distinct separation between emotion and reason, where political subjectivity is almost always hinged upon the latter. In addition, affect is seen as disjointed from signification, and therefore from political articulation. In order to circumvent this theoretical stalemate, this thesis turns to theories of radical democracy, and more specifically to the works of Ernesto Laclau. It argues that Laclau’s juxtaposition of Lacanian psychoanalysis and Derridian deconstruction opens up possibilities for a form of political subjectivity based on affect instead of reason alone. As such, Laclau’s theory of hegemony can shed light on those instances where affect and emotions play a central part in the creation of political subjectivity. In analysing Laclau’s theory, I respond to different analytical challenges that question the viability of explaining movements such as the Indignados through a theory of hegemony. Current observations point to that contemporary movements are not hegemonic (which place too much emphasis on verticality), but rather horizontal and networked. In order to address this critique, this thesis constructs a framework of the hegemonic project. This framework emphasises two commonly overlooked features of Laclau’s theory: the affective and transient nature of hegemony, which stresses the connection between affect and signification. Through two sets of empirical data – ethnographic fieldwork material and social media analysis – the thesis shows how the Indignados exhibit clear instances of verticality, albeit of an affective nature. This hegemonic, affective verticality speaks of two ways in which the movement can construct political subjectivity: viscerally (through unity in affective practices) and virtually (through social media).

This thesis examines the recent emergence of corporeal protest art in Russia. Through analyses of cultural, social, and economic shifts in the post-Soviet Era, I observe how this corporeal turn reflects a significant cultural transition away from the literary text, which has traditionally held a role of major importance in Russian culture. Detailed analysis of the contemporary performances of Pussy Riot and Petr Pavlensky are conducted in order to elucidate the social and political causes and implications of such a shift. Manifestation of oppositional discourse on the site of the human body is understood theoretically through Giorgio Agamben’s biopolitics, Mikhail Bakhtin’s grotesque body, and Inke Arns’ and Sylvia Sasse’s theory of subversive affirmation. Interestingly, this artistic divergence has coincided with the rise of relative economic and social wellbeing in Russia – conditions that tend to foster the development of a burgeoning public sphere, now standing at odds with an increase in political repression. Oppositionists and protest artists are, therefore, exploring new and unconventional ways of expressing dissent. My study contextualizes these new methods of expression within the larger tradition of the cultural expression of political will, examining the ways in which these works are readable through Russian cultural norms and to whom they speak. / Graduate

In the age of mass information, globalization, and peer-to-peer social networks, the traditional markers of identity and elective affinities, particularly those of religion and nationalism, are shifting in relation to contemporary trends. The field of Religious Studies has been influenced by a series of ‘post’s: postsecular, postmodern, postcolonial, and post 9/11. The rise of revolutionary religious movements internationally is a hallmark characteristic of the postsecular age. Participants in these movements are variously characterized as religious dissidents, militant secularists, neo-fascist nationalists, and terrorists. However, according to the dialogues within these communities, participants do not think of themselves in these terms. The dualizing labels of ‘religious’ and ‘secular’ do not lend meaning to these contemporary identities. This thesis addresses the question: How do traditional and contemporary theories in the field of Religious Studies evaluate contemporary religious nationalist movements, and how do their analyses compare to how members of the groups in question perceive themselves? To answer this question, this dissertation examines and contrasts four key case studies: the Native Faith Movement and Femen in Ukraine, and the Gezi Park protesters and the Gülen Movement in Turkey. By analyzing group activities through the fora of the curated digital presences of group leaders and members, this research investigates emerging elective affinities and markers of identity which transcend the religious/secular binary. Contemporary theory from the field of Critical Religion and feminist theology transcending the religious/secular binary will be applied to these case studies in order to gain a deeper understanding of the shifting relationships between religion, protest and the nation.

The study is concerned with the recurrent diffusion of novelty in American higher education. By novelty is meant any body of thought, organizational form, and spontaneous phenomenon of collective behaviour which is perceived as new by members of academic institutions. The general thesis of the work is that the dissemination of novelty typically occurs along lines of decreasing academic prestige. This view is derived from a host of porpositions about the relationship of institutional prestige with academic talent, the creation and communication of novelty, the academic marketplace, permissiveness, imitation, and embarrassment. This thesis is verified for the interinstitutional diffusion of the antiwar student movement of the nineteen sixties and early seventies. The central' hypothesis of this case study is that the more prestigious an academic institution was at the time of the birth of the movement, the sooner some of its students initially protested against American involvement in the Vietnam war. Institutional prestige, the independent variable, is operationalized in terms of "objective" indices. The dependent variable is the degree to which students in an institution were relatively earlier in initially protesting than students in other institutions. The antiwar student protests used to test the hypothesis were collected from The New York Times Index. For each institution that was reported, only the first or earliest campus protest was considered. It is assumed that the criteria governing the newspaper's selection of protests were the same for the entire duration of the movement. Two counter-hypotheses are also examined. It is proposed that the larger an institution was at the time of the birth of the movement, the less time it took for some of its students to initially protest against the American involvement in the Vietnam war. It is also hypothesized that the older the institution, the longer it took before some of its students first protested against this military participation abroad. The results provide, at best, moderate support to the main hypothesis of the case study while flatly rejecting its counter-hypotheses. / Arts, Faculty of / Sociology, Department of / Graduate

Ad hoc social movement coalitions are made up of diverse groups that come together to maximise the use of limited resources. Once formed, they face a dilemma. Coalition logic holds that given the limited time frame and instrumental objectives of the organisation, resources should be disproportionately invested in the visible sphere of action. However, this instrumental emphasis ignores the need to invest resources in the 'submerged' sphere of membership intercommunication. As a result tensions which have their root in divergent ideologies, traditions and histories of resistance can threaten the coalition's collective identity. This thesis is about one such organisation, the No! To APEC (NTA) coalition, one of three groups that made up the movement to oppose the APEC Economic Leader's Meeting in Vancouver held in November 1997. NTA, made up of small leftwing grassroots groups, built a campaign around resistance to "imperialist globalisation." It organised community education, an international conference and a march and rally. Although it succeeded in meeting its objectives, a fracture occurred between the largest and most consolidated member group and the other unconsolidated grouping made up of individuals and representatives of small organisations. The fracture caused a disconnection between the local and the international priorities set by the organisation at its outset. In this study I examine the process that led to this outcome. In particular I identify the importance of establishing a capacity for reflexively monitoring the actions and interactions of members. While consensus is not a pre-requisite for solidarity, disputes arising from different perspectives and membership tactics may jeopardise organisational unity. Providing a limited space for evaluating conflicting validity claims and organisational dynamics may help to preserve unity during the active phase of a coalition's mobilisation. The methods used to obtain data for this study were participant observation and interviewing. I spent six months as an activist-researcher with the coalition and I interviewed activists from the three main APEC opposition groups. Although the main focus of this study is on the political and organisational evolution of the NTA coalition, I broaden the discussion to argue that ad hoc coalitions play an important role in generating 'social capital' or 'social movement connectivity.' Social solidarity generated in the course of short-term political action increases the potential for further action mobilisation in social movement networks and communities. In the final part of the thesis I review literature on globalisation and social movements. Combined with what has been learned about coalitions in the previous chapters, this exercise provides a context for examining the APEC opposition movement and, by extension, the prospects for building transnational movements and a counter-hegemonic historical bloc against imperialist globalisation. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

Submitted by Nadir Basilio (nadirsb@uninove.br) on 2016-05-12T18:55:33Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Mauricio Gabriele.pdf: 1281603 bytes, checksum: 3c8170f77773637b426fe466cc74c7c7 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-05-12T18:55:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Mauricio Gabriele.pdf: 1281603 bytes, checksum: 3c8170f77773637b426fe466cc74c7c7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-12-18 / The present study aims at analyzing the relation involving the judiciary crisis, the access to justice and the notarial protest, proposing a careful thought on each of these issues. At first, it analyses the judiciary crisis rationalizing the fact that this crisis is beyond the judiciary powers, and that it is already involving the State and the society as well, thus one may affirm that the judiciary on its own will not be able to find a solution. Hence, there is the need to search other means to do deal with this issue and especially alternative means for solving conflicts. Secondly, it analyses the crisis of reaching justice, originated by the judiciary crisis itself, it is proposed a re-interpretation of the institute aiming at clarifying the difference between access to justice and access to the judiciary system, taking into consideration the existing alternative means to solve conflicts. At last, it analyses the characteristics and the operation of notarial protest, in order to verify its capacity, as an alternative mean of solving conflicts, thus helping the judiciary system as well as easing the access to justice. In the very end, it presents statistics and data concerning notarial protest in Brazil. It confirms the first hypothesis of this work, which affirms that the protest itself is a great tool in solving conflicts, and one of the consequences of its daily use is the easing of a clogged judiciary system. Combining these thoughts, it is likely to conclude that notarial protest is an effective alternative and sui generis mean of conflict solving. The present study is based on qualitative and quantitative data as well as on previous studies over the subject matter, culminating at its conclusion by an inductive research approach. / O presente estudo tem por objetivo analisar a relação que pode ser legitimamente estabelecida entre a crise do Judiciário, o acesso à justiça e o protesto notarial, propondo uma reflexão sobre cada um desses três objetos. Primeiramente, analisa-se a crise do Judiciário ponderando que esta transcendeu os limites deste Poder, envolvendo todo o Estado e a Sociedade; assim, considera-se que o Judiciário, por si só, não poderá sanear sua crise devendo-se buscar subsídios em outros seguimentos, dos quais se destacam os meios alternativos para solução de conflitos. Em seguida, analisa-se a crise de acesso à justiça, motivada pela própria crise do Judiciário, e procura-se uma releitura deste instituto a fim de diferenciar o acesso à justiça do acesso ao Judiciário, que, muitas vezes, pode ser propiciado por meios alternativos de solução de conflito. Foram analisadas as características e operacionalidade do protesto notarial, com o propósito de verificar seu potencial enquanto meio alternativo de solução e pacificação de conflitos, socorrendo, assim o Judiciário e o acesso à justiça, e promovendo a desjudicialização de litígios. Por fim, apresenta estatísticas da experiência de protesto no Brasil, as quais confirmam a hipótese deste trabalho, em dizer, ao final que, constitui-se o protesto em importante ferramenta para a solução de conflitos e, por consequência, para desafogar (e agilizar) o Judiciário, perfazendo-se como um método alternativo sui generis de solução de conflitos. O presente trabalho serviu-se de pesquisa bibliográfica e empírica, com estatísticas, utilizando-se do método indutivo.

Thesis (M.A. (African Languages)) --University of Limpopo, 2015. / This research ‘Nxopaxopo wa switlhokovetselo hi ku kongomisa eka tsalwa ra Swilo swa humelela’ hi KJ Ngobeni na SJ Malungana highlights what happens in schools nowadays in the era of democracy. There is lack of discipline in schools. Educators are not respected by learners. Circuit managers no longer pay visits to schools for inspection. Black people fought to dismantle separate development, racial segregation and in particular to overthrow the white minority regime commonly known as Apartheid. This research also gives the historical background of protest poetry, its characteristics and its causes. Lastly, we analyse twenty selected poems from Swilo swa humelela by K.J Ngobeni and S.J Malungana. This research consists of five chapters. Chapter one outlines the background to the research, its aim and definition of important terms used in the study. These are terms about poetry such as protest poetry, enjambment and rhetorical questions. This chapter will also present the literature review. Chapter two examines the research methodology used in the study. Explication of two types of research methods, namely qualitative and quantitative research methods are discussed. Chapter three deals with protest poetry in details, its characteristics, origin, causes and its functions. Chapter four gives a critical analysis of twenty selected poems from the book Swilo swa humelela by K.J Ngobeni na S.J Malungana. Chapter five looks at the general conclusion, which indicates the research findings and recommendations of the study.

Thesis (M. Dev. (Development & Management)) -- University of Limpopo, 2015 / The manifestation of violence during the constitutionally protected protest action is highly questionable and unexpected feature of, the democratic dispensation in South Africa. Moreover, the right to protest is provided with strong restrictions to violence. Literature has publicised the reasons advanced for these fierce violent public protests dominating the democratic state and they are amid the lack of service delivery, maladministration and political squabbles. However, the geographic area of the protests questions the legitimacy of the so called service delivery protests. Notwithstanding, the recent statistics that show an upward increase in the accessibility of basic services by South Africans. Thus, this study dismisses the idea that the fierce public protests are as a result of a lack of service delivery, maladministration or political squabbles. Considering the location of the protests which is mostly in informal settlements close to metropolitan cities where some services have been provided. Whereas, the rural communities that receive very minimal, and to some extent no services have recorded very few protests linked to service delivery. Therefore, this study locates the violent public protests in the demonstration effect due to the geographical area and the advanced influence of media. The study used scholarship analysis to scrutinise the textual data gathered on the rationale underlying the violent public protests in South Africa’s globally-acclaimed democratic dispensation.

While common in South Africa, workplace protest actions frequently lead to losses on both sides: productivity losses for organisations and loss of income for protesting employees. It is therefore important to investigate which factors may contribute to low-income workers' decision to protest for higher wages. Based on the theoretical integration of social exchange theory and fairness heuristic theory it was argued that fairer treatment (organisational justice) decreases workers' willingness to engage in protest actions through its positive influence on organisational trust. The researcher examined employees' perceptions of fairness shown by their employer, supervisor and co-workers. A descriptive, cross-sectional research design was employed to test this assumption. Data was collected from low-income employees working in South African factories and retail stores who completed a self-report survey (N = 147). The results of a regression analysis confirmed that employees' perceptions of organisational justice predicted their willingness to engage in protest actions for higher wages when gender and previous involvement in protest actions were kept constant. Perceptions of interpersonal justice as shown by the supervisor was the unique predictor of willingness to engage in protest action, indicating that the decision to protest is not primarily driven by monetary concerns (distributive justice) but rather by how low-income workers feel treated in the workplace. Mediation analysis results revealed that the relationship between organisational justice and willingness to engage in protest action is not through mutual trust. Taken together, this research demonstrated that there is a need for organisations to invest in fairness in the workplace. Most specifically, organisations could focus on training supervisors to treat employees with respect and dignity as it could contribute to employees' decision to refrain from protesting at work.

This thesis analyzes the rise of populist parties in southern Europe - italian Five Star Movement, greek SYRIZA and spanish Podemos. The aim is to define the key factors, that contributed to the perception of these protest political formations as political alternatives. The thesis chronologically follows development of examined political parties. Further it defines their strategy in terms of levels of protests and programme. Finally it outlines probable transformations of party systems, which is caused by the rise of protest parties.