acase@tulane.edu / The following study reveals how the mobilization of the urban working classes in Nicaragua’s national insurrection of 1978 and 1979 grew out of decades of unequal urbanization, social exclusion, and political radicalization in Managua. It balances analyses of the ways in which socio-economic and discursive structures of power shaped political transformations in Nicaragua during the Cold War with the everyday experiences of Managua’s residents (Managüenses) as they navigated and negotiated development, disaster, and war in the capital city Scholars of Nicaragua’s popular insurrection of the late 1970s have characterized the overthrow of the Somoza regime as a cross-class, broad-based mobilization against a violent and corrupt dictatorship. However, even as Nicaraguan political discourse and ideological platforms opposing the dictatorship emphasized inclusionary, cross-class alliances, Nicaraguan political parties and social movements remained divisive and atomized in practice until the eve of the revolutionary victory. I locate the points of commonality and conflict between actors from across Nicaragua’s political spectrum in the politics of development, where institutional logics and autocratic power met individual and community strategies for economic survival, social stability, and personal liberation. I show how the failure of the Somocista-led development regime to produce meaningful and lasting social and economic progress during the height of the Cold War simultaneously affirmed power dynamics in Nicaraguan society and exposed the limits of the Somoza dictatorship’s authoritarian control over the country. My research illustrates that Managua’s working classes and poor stood at the center of these social transformations as both discursive symbols and political activists. / 1 / Heidi Marie Krajewski

Zugl.: Basel, Univ., Diss., 1949.

Internet enthusiasts have predicted that Internet technologies would facilitate global and multi-directional information sharing, promote political participation, increase global awareness of injustice, and allow the construction of an ‘electronic global village’. In this paper, I argue that in spite of early revolutionary claims, simple Internet connectivity has not brought about any radical break with the values and power structures of modernity. I suggest, however, that recently emerging Internet-dependent open content and open source technologies (such as wikis), promise to fulfill some of these earlier revolutionary claims by decentralizing production of online information, and challenging current definitions of “authoritative” knowledge.

The course of history has been greatly defined by political and social events of tremendous significance; revolutions. Several of the most influential international alliances and feuds of the twenty-first century were generated by these occurrences, and states such as Russia and Iran have managed to deeply impact the international world order through their revolutionary behavior and ideology. It is due to its complexity and historical impact that the study of revolutions has informed the theoretical analyzes of political scientists. This study discusses prominent theories of revolution to provide an analytical framework: Marxism, Modernization, Relative Deprivation, and Mobilization. The thesis then assesses these theories by applying them to two of the most influential revolutions of the twentieth century: The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 in Russia and the Muslim Revolution of 1979 in Iran. Each case study addresses the economic, social, and political conditions present prior to each society’s respective revolution. A final comparison of both case studies, based on revolutionary theories, reveals the specific variables necessary for the formation and success of revolutionary movements.

Evolved in the 60s (1966-1976), the Cultural Revolution opened a mysterious and deep chapter not merely in modern Chinese history, but also in World history. Cultural Revolution's core is violent. This phenomenon hit deeply into china's political and economic system, society's order, and cultural tradition. Millions of people had been sacrificed in this huge and irrational ritual. Yet, the illusive impression towards this Cultural Revolution doesn't result from people's scattered or mixed up memories, but from the way China dealt with it. For forty years, the collective memory of the Cultural Revolution has been fading. However, massive trauma still remains. Memories of this Cultural Revolution provides not only the research of Cultural Revolution but also gives a way to peep through via its special narrative mode and depth, avoiding political testifying. Whether those writers use "Transcendental skill" (like Jung Chang, Xu You Yu), " Reproductive method" (like Ji shian Lin, Yang Jiang), or the "Hemi-Transcendental skill" (like Pa Kin, Yang Xiao Kai) that involves above mentioned techniques, they all faithfully show us their personal philosophical thinking of that special time. Using four dimensions as reference: social status in the Cultural Revolution, writer's nationality, writer's identity (official scholar/ free writer), and area of publication, this thesis will show how the prevalent western social science value affects those people who have experienced this Cultural Revolution. Finally, this thesis shows how one's identity can be regarded as a writing strategy. History can be a mentor to the future. For truely healing the trauma, we shouldn't forget such important experience. By their retrospection, people who lived during that period lead readers into that special irrational, rush, unprecendented period.

Zugl.: Tübingen, Univ., Diss., 2005.

Modern Turkish historiography has long claimed that Turkish women were fortunate, because they were granted equal rights by their benevolent leader Ataturk, without even having to ask or fight for them. This dissertation disproves that argument by demonstrating that Turkish women had been vigorously fighting for their rights well before the establishment of the Republic. While it is true that Turkish women had to wait until the 1930s to secure full legal rights, they had demanded gender equality since the Ottoman Revolution of 1908, followed by years of war, which together exerted a tremendous social and cultural impact on all strata of society, above all women. As such, this study addresses three main questions: How did the revolution transform women's social position as well as gender relations in Ottoman society? What role did the `woman question' and gender issues play in the formation of revolutionary politics and discourse in the late Ottoman Empire? Finally, how did Ottoman women participate in shaping, transforming, enforcing, and/or challenging the objectives of the revolution?I argue that the 1908 Revolution triggered significant changes in the Ottoman public discourse, political agendas, and the organization of daily life concerning gender equality and that Turkish women, taking advantage of the new venues and opportunities provided by the revolution in effective and innovative ways, played a vital role in creating and implementing this change. Studying the ideas and actions of a large number of upper and middle class Turkish women as well as the government's attitude towards women between 1908 and 1918, I demonstrate that women in the late Ottoman society were far from being passive, powerless, and silent, as the nationalist historiography has claimed they were. I reveal that, on the contrary, these women were active participants in the revolutionary process, in the struggle for equal rights, and consequently in the construction of a new political regime, a new social order, and their own roles in this new context.

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