Abstract   Sri Lanka battled a civil war for 26 years during a time when the majoritarian rule discriminated and marginalized Tamils from the rest of the society; the war ended in 2009 but numerous societal problems remained in the country. The Easter bombings in 2019 took the lives of 269 people, once again ethno-nationalistic powers and politics became of great importance within the country’s political sphere. The Rajapaksa family convinced many Sri Lankans that they could fight tensions in the country and uphold national security and Gotabaya Rajapaksa won the presidential election in 2019. In 2022, Sri Lanka faced the worst economical crisis since gaining independence in 1948 and many thousands Sri Lankans took the streets to protest against corruption and the and disproportionate use and even misuse of the country’s resources.   The aim of the thesis is to collect stories from Sri Lankans in Colombo from various religious, ethnic and cultural groups and to analyze their views on democracy, religious, ethnic and cultural identity and their views of possibly perceived unity. The overall aim of this study is to uncover the voices of those directly affected by the situation in Sri Lanka during the spring of 2022. Participatory observation and qualitative interviews were used to collect the empirical data of the study.   Massive protests (that came to be called ‘Aragalaya’ - the Sinhalese word for struggle) took place from March 2022 and transformations within the political sphere in the country due to the economical crisis during that time enabled deep insight and generated interesting perspectives from interviewees that participated in the research. The empirical data is analyzed through the theoretical perspectives of marginalization theory and theory on democracy and protests.

This research seeks to answer why and which Chinese people go to the street to protest. I argue that different sectors of Chinese society differ from each other regarding their tendencies to participate in protest. In addition to their grievances, the incentives to participate in protest and their capacities to overcome the collective action problem all needed to be taken into account. Using individual level data along with ordinary binary logistic regression and multilevel logistic regression models, I first compare the protest participation of workers and peasants and find that workers are more likely than peasants to participate in protests in the context of contemporary China. I further disaggregate the working class into four subtypes according to the ownership of the enterprises they work for. I find that workers of township and village enterprises are more likely than workers of state-owned enterprises to engage in protest activities, while there is no significant difference between the workers of domestic privately owned enterprises and the workers of foreign-owned enterprises regarding their protest participation. Finally, I find that migrant workers, which refers to peasants who move to urban areas in search of jobs, are less likely than urban registered workers to participate in protests.

This degree project focuses on the representation and intersection of the voice of the Iranian local and the voice of the diaspora in international media, exploring the ‘unity’ of the local and the diaspora as put forth by media during the 2022 protests in Iran.  The death of Jinha Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman in police custody made international news headlines on 16 September 2022 and quickly became a transnational social movement for change against the repression of women in Iran. Making their ‘voices’ visible through the physical acts of protesting in the streets, burning their hijabs (headscarves) and cutting their hair, Iranian women carved out space for themselves in the local public sphere, but also on the global public sphere using social media, and by receiving international news coverage.  Data analysis of information gathered from five international news sources (BBC, Reuters, Al-Monitor, DW, and Al-Jazeera) during the first six months of the protests, highlights the role of international news media in informing audiences of unfolding events on the ground and as a vital platform for the voices of women in Iran and the diaspora, reinforcing the importance of media as a tool in Communication for Development.  As a result of the data analysis conducted, the role of the diaspora in amplifying voices from the ground, especially following internet blocks in Iran, was identified as a key factor of the transnational nature of the social movement in Iran. Interviews with four members of the diaspora shed further light on the complex dynamic between the local and the diaspora during social movements.  The degree project identifies news media as being in a powerful position to inform, raise awareness, and amplify voices while presenting an image of a unified front between the local and diaspora in the context of current protests. However, the true complexity of the relationship between the local and the diaspora is not presented in news media. With unique challenges posed by context, distance, and time, members of the diaspora wrestle with their identity as Iranian but also different, falling somewhere between the local and the global, which impacts their relationship with their home country.

The Internet today has become a powerful tool-that has greatly improved the lives of all peoples across the globe. Simply put, the Internet has brought us into a new century of interconnectedness unlike any other period in human history. However, in terms of politics the effects of the Internet have been rather difficult to monitor, making the recent developments in the country of Iran unique. The Islamic Republic of Iran has become increasingly hostile towards moderate reforms and has steadfastly refused to grant greater freedoms, resulting in the disillusionment of many Iranians with their government. Coupled with this rising discontent has been a meteoric rise of Internet activity. With other outlets of expression dominated by the regime, the Internet has become the sole battlefield for political discussion. This research focuses on how the Internet is being used by both the government and the opposition as a political tool in the struggle for democracy. The intent of this thesis is to analyze the effects- of the Internet through the emergence of three different Internet trends. The expansion of blogging has led to greater political discourse as it has allowed Iranians to provide their opinion in an open environment for the first time. Social networking has given Iranians the ability to meet and learn about each other in ways that would never have been originally possible Lastly, the inception of the "YouTube Effect" has brought the events'oflran worldwide. Different from a typical news piece, these Internet videos are unedited showing the gravity of the situation to outsiders. Above all, the Islamic Republic of Iran presents a unique case study for analyze of the abilities of the Internet in institutionalizing democracy.

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[pt] Em linhas gerais, essa tese trata sobre distintos olhares, narrativas e interpretações sobre corpos em protesto. Busca-se situar essas corpografias por meio de uma análise das práticas e discursos de resistência e poder e sua ligação com os corpos circulando os protestos de junho de 2013 no Brasil. Além disso, as relações entre poder e resistência são informadas por um quadro teórico metodológico Foucaultiano, e pela teoria queer, especialmente as linhas desenvolvidas por Judith Butler. Assim sendo, essa tese tem nos corpos (materiais e discursivos), seu ponto privilegiado de entrada/partida analítica. A fim de contextualizar essas linhas onto-epistemológicas, discute-se o racismo como traço histórico-cultural que orienta a interpretação dessas corpografias. O racismo é, portanto, entendido como fator central na regulação da circulação dos corpos no tempo e espaço brasileiro. Finalmente, procura-se observar como, num contexto mais global, corpos tem sido investidos de poder e resistência de forma ambivalente. Tal ambivalência é analisada por meio do tratamento mais específico das práticas de racialização e queering, ligadas especificamente ao contexto de Junho de 2013 no Brasil. / [en] Broadly speaking, this thesis deals with different gazes, narratives and interpretations regarding bodies in protest in Brazil. The work is an effort to situate these corpographies through an analysis of the practices and discourses of resistance and power and their connection with the bodies circulating the June 2013 protests in Brazil. Moreover, the relations between power and resistance are informed by a Foucauldian theoretico-methodological framework and queer theory, in special the lines developed by Judith Butler. As such, this thesis has bodies (material and discursive), as the privileged analytical entry/departure point. In order to contextualize these onto-epistemological lines, racism is discussed as a historical-cultural trait that guides the interpretation of these corpographies. Racism is therefore understood as a central factor in regulating the circulation of bodies in Brazilian time and space. Finally, this thesis seeks to observe how, in a more global context, bodies have been ambivalently invested with power and resistance. Such ambivalence is analyzed through the treatment of racialization and queering practices, specifically linked to the June 2013 context in Brazil.

Can we find people infected with the flu virus even though they did not visit a doctor? Can the temporal features of a trending hashtag or a keyword indicate which topic it belongs to without any textual information? Given a history of interactions between blogs and news websites, can we predict blogs posts/news websites that are not in the sample but talk about the "the state of the economy" in 2008? These questions have two things in common: a network (social networks or human contact networks) and a virus (meme, keyword or the flu virus) diffusing over the network. We can think of interactions like memes, hashtags, influenza infections, computer viruses etc., as viruses spreading in a network. This treatment allows for the usage of epidemiologically inspired models to study or model these interactions. Understanding the complex propagation dynamics involved in information diffusion with the help of these models uncovers various non-trivial and interesting results. In this thesis we propose (a) A fast and efficient algorithm NetFill, which can be used to find quantitatively and qualitatively correct infected nodes, not in the sample and finding the culprits and (b) A method, SansText that can be used to find out which topic a keyword/hashtag belongs to just by looking at the popularity graph of the keyword without textual analysis. The results derived in this thesis can be used in various areas like epidemiology, news and protest detection, viral marketing and it can also be used to reduce sampling errors in graphs. / Master of Science

La présente thèse explore, à travers quatre papiers, la possibilité d’étendre le régime d’assurance maladie sociale (SHI) vers la couverture santé universelle (CSU) et ce en présence d’obstacles structurels économiques.Les effets moyens de deux traitements, les deux assurances MHI et MAS, sur l’utilisation des soins de santé (consultations externes et hospitalisations) sont estimés. L’actuel régime d’assurance sociale en Tunisie (SHI), malgré l’amélioration de l’utilisation des soins de santé procurée aux groupes couverts, reste incapable d’atteindre une couverture effective de tous les membres de la population vis-à-vis des services de soins dont ils ont besoin. L’atteinte de cet objectif requière une stratégie qui cible les ‘‘arbres’’ et non la ‘‘forêt’’.Le chapitre deux contourne les principaux obstacles à l’extension de la couverture par l’assurance maladie et propose une approche originale permettant de cibler les travailleurs informels et les individus en chômage. Une étude transversale d’évaluation contingente (CV) a été menée en Tunisie se proposant d’estimer les volontés d’adhésion et les consentements à payer (WTP) pour deux régimes obligatoires présentés hypothétiquement à l’adhésion. Les résultats confirment l’hypothèse selon laquelle la proposition d’une affiliation volontaire à un régime d’assurance obligatoire serait acceptée par la majorité des non couverts et que les WTP révélés pour cette affiliation seraient substantiels. Enfin, dans le chapitre trois, on insiste sur l'’importance de prendre en compte les attitudes protestataires en évaluant la progression vers la CSU. / This thesis explores, in a four paper format, the possibility of extending social health insurance (SHI) schemes towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in presence of structural economic obstacles.The average treatment effects of two insurance schemes, MHI and MAS, on the utilization of outpatient and inpatient healthcare are estimated. The current Tunisian SHI schemes, despite improving utilization of healthcare services, are nevertheless incapable of achieving effective coverage of the whole population for needed services. Attaining the latter goal requires a strategy that targets the “trees” not the “forest”.Chapter two gets around major challenges to extending health insurance coverage and proposes an original approach by targeting informal workers and unemployed. A cross-sectional Contingent valuation (CV) study was carried out in Tunisia dealing with willingness-to-join and pay for two mandatory health and pension insurance schemes.Results support the hypotheses that the proposition of a voluntary affiliation to mandatory insurance schemes can be accepted by the majority of non-covered and that the WTP stated are substantial.Finally in chapter three we focus on methodological aspects that influence the value of the WTP. Our empirical results show that the voluntary affiliation to the formal health insurance scheme could be a step towards achieving UHC in Tunisia. Overall, we highlight the importance of taking into account protest positions for the evaluation of progress towards UHC.

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A sequência de protestos em junho de 2013 sacudiu o cenário político brasileiro como um terremoto - foram manifestações que começavam e terminavam nas telas. Além de matéria-prima para imagens, as passeatas também como imagens sociais (dependem do olhar social) e itinerantes (para adquirir valor e significado), fundando uma nova visibilidade. Para apreender a dimensão desses eventos na instância da imagem ao vivo, foi analisada a edição especial do Jornal Nacional do dia 20 de junho daquele ano. Nos resultados, obtidos por meio da técnica da análise de conteúdo, é notório o adestramento do olhar que, insensível, olhou a multidão de uma perspectiva superior. / The series of protests in June 2013 has changed Brazilian political scenery in an abrupt way as an earthquake - the demonstrations began and ended on the television screens. More than base for images, the riots constitute social images (which depend on the social point of view) and are itinerant (to form value and meaning). To comprehend the dimension of these events in the context of instance of the live image, this work studies, by content analyses approach, the special edition of Jornal Nacional in the 20th June 2013. The results show that the point of view of the imagetic speech is cold, unsympathetic and arrogant towards the protesters.