This thesis investigates the social forces that shape and sustain community-based protest against proposed projects in the construction industry. It builds on current research which highlights the tendency for community concerns about proposed developments to escalate into long-term protests that have far-reaching implications for both the construction industry and the local community. A theoretical framework merges the facilitative role of movement networks, contagion theory and the cultural experience of activism to investigate their relationship with protest movement continuity. Three research propositions emerged from the model and are investigated within a grounded theory framework. The research method adopts a single case study of a mature protest movement and utilises a triangulation of methods that integrates qualitative and ethnographic approaches across two interrelated phases of data collection that continues to the point of theoretical saturation. The data is analysed in three ways: A thematic story telling approach is used to ground the data derived so as to identify patterns of influences on protest participation and their effect on movement continuity. Concept maps and network diagrams are also used to connect the themes and guide the use of stories to reveal influences on movement continuity. The research concludes by proposing a refined theoretical model of protest movement continuity against construction projects. The model also forms the basis for a grounded theory which consisted of three interrelated parts. The first part concludes that protest networks are deliberately complex and dynamic to cope with the transient nature of protest participation and promote movement continuity. The second part points to the contagious influence of network to generate two opposing network conditions that are both conducive and detrimental to movement continuity. The last part points to the importance of social relationships as shaping the context in which cultural meanings of activism are understood and have a direct effect on sustaining movement continuity.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/258039 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Teo, More Mei Melissa, Built Environment, Faculty of Built Environment, UNSW |
| Publisher | Publisher:University of New South Wales. Built Environment |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/copyright, http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/copyright |
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