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This thesis asks how and why protesters in Japan expressed anger in a series of popular protests over foreign and security policies. Existing studies have underexplored how anger shapes protest dynamics. Anger is closely associated with moral judgment and a form of practice embedded in social contexts. By building upon theories of emotions and frame, this thesis investigates how different injustice frames provide a rationale for political anger. This thesis examines Japan in the post-World War II and early Cold War context (1948-1960), a period which demonstrates highly conflictual dynamics between the government and civil society actors over security issues. To investigate these dynamics, I divide the historical period into three case studies according to the emergence of new political debates, contestation over injustice frames, and social protests. The first case focuses on social protests surrounding Japan's rearmament in the context of the Korean War (1950-1953). The second case looks at popular opposition to the San Francisco Peace Treaty (1952) and the Japan-US Security Treaty (1952). The third case examines the anti-Japan-US security treaty protests in 1959-1960, which were the largest social movements in Japan's history. I employ the method of emotion discourse analysis to uncover the meanings of articulated anger that emerged in the different contexts of the protests. My thesis contends that the protesters expressed their anger to signal how serious the issues were to them, to identify injustices, and to demand action in these popular protests. The expression of anger allowed actors to denaturalise, negotiate, and challenge the dominant national security discourses. This thesis will offer a deeper understanding of the politics of emotions as well as engage in existing debates on the relationship between social movements and foreign policymaking.

The ability of Hamas to remain in power since 2007 in light of the intertwining functional role of the resistance movement and its unrecognised ruling authority regionally and internationally, stimulated a research question of what are the dynamics and concepts that Hamas has developed in the context of interaction with the dominant political structure? Hamas was subjected to harsh regional and international conditions embodied in the principles of the Middle East Quartet. Hamas' refusal to accept the Quartet's conditions led to sanctions which characterised the governing structure of regional policies that Hamas has had to abide by. Hamas' adaptation to the normative politics of the structure fell within the framework of a socialisation strategy, which was established by a combination of centrist, anti- and pro-Hamas regional and international policies. The thesis attempts to answer the research question by examining the power of structure rules versus the agency of Hamas using experimental data extracted from extensive fieldwork and an interviewing process that covered almost the whole leadership cadre of Hamas. The socialisation strategy produced dynamic changes and conceptual transformations, as Hamas developed a political theory that approached that of the mainstream Palestinian national project, the two-state solution. However, regional and international policies had flaws and shortcomings, which made the socialisation strategy an incomplete process, as Hamas, after more than a decade of political interaction with the rules and pressures of the structure, did not fully adhere to the Quartet's conditions. Investigating the impact of the prevailing political norms on Hamas as a ruling resistance authority is significant for advancing the theoretical understanding that governs the behavioural and conceptual developments of political actors operating from within the structure, as the agency outside the structure appears to be more powerful in undermining an undesirable political order. Hamas in power is a unique model in Middle East politics that may account for the relationship between the Palestinians and Israel after three decades of faltering peace process, in which the colonial wanted to reshape the interactional paradox of the colonised.

This thesis explores the formation of Hong Kong identity in post-1997 Hong Kong through the 2012 Anti-Moral and National Education (MNE) Movement and the 2014 Umbrella Movement, and a youthful movement organisation influential within these social movements known as "Scholarism". In the aftermath of these two social movements, the rise of Hong Kong identity vis-a-vis Chinese national identity has become particularly salient in post-1997 Hong Kong. The rise of Hong Kong identity prompts three key research questions for this thesis: How do the conceptions of national identity develop variously over time through three political generations? What are the specific cognitive markers of Hong Kong identity in post-1997 Hong Kong? How significant is emotion in characterising the emergence of Hong Kong national identity and social movements? Addressing these questions, and taking a bottom-up approach, this thesis is interested in self-claimed Hong Kong national identities, the meanings attached to and reasons for these identity claims, how they interplay with different identity claims, and their evolution over time. The findings of the thesis challenge the previous characterisation of Hong Kong identity as politically apathetic and market-oriented. The thesis is based upon 30 semi-structured qualitative individual and four focus group interviews with social movement activists and participants born in three cohorts, "post-1970", "post-1980" and "post-1990", who were associated with the 2012 Anti-MNE Movement and/or the 2014 Umbrella Movement, and/or the movement organisation "Scholarism". The key findings reveal that an exclusive Hong Kong identity and a desertion of Chinese identity is emerging. In particular, this exclusive Hong Kong identity is characterised with its salient cultural and civic markers. Previous studies showed that people in Hong Kong generally embraced an "ethnocultural" China but rejected a political China. However, this thesis finds that the exclusive Hong Kong identity claim contests the concept of Chinese nationalism based on race and ethnicity. Since 1997, a national identity shift has been occurring among all three generations, in which the post-1990 are especially inclined to see Hong Kong and China as mutually exclusive entities by claiming an exclusive Hong Kong identity.

This study has examined the implications of the internet for the IPOB movement, focusing on the extent to which it has empowered the movement to engage in collective action mobilisation, enhance identity construction, framing and discourses for an independent Biafran state against multiple forms of state repressions. The thesis adopted a flexible approach that incorporated three level analysis including a macro-level analysis, which looked at the socio political and institutional environment; a meso-level, which examined the organisational infrastructure; and a micro-level exploring how the social movement made sense of their reality. The thesis addresses the debate between technology and society, and between the agency and political opportunity structures in Nigeria. It discussed the radical and agnostic democratic potential of the internet for African social movements and the dialectic between Biafra activism and the socio-political rootedness of Nigerian democracy. This approach allowed for providing analogies and new perspectives from the research and interpreting implications of human action. The thesis has found inconsistent, sometimes contradicting, data on the implication of internet technology for the IPOB movement. While there is some clear and robust evidence suggesting that new media technology has enhanced the movement's capabilities to organise, coordinate and mobilise for Biafran cause on many levels. The study reveals some severe limitations in the appropriation of internet technology in IPOB's collective action objectives. The implication of the findings is discussed.

This study investigates the ways in which football supporters engage in their fan communities. It further establishes the links between these activities, the development of feelings of community and performances of empowerment and citizenship. These links are explored with reference to football fans' support activities, protest mobilisations and modes of communication. The comparative case study between Newcastle United in England and Borussia Mönchengladbach in Germany gives this research an international perspective. Data were collected in two stages. The first stage used fan-authored online blog posts collected from six blogs. The second stage was conducted via 29 semi-structured interviews with fans of both football clubs. This research found that football fan communities are extremely heterogeneous. This diversity can be challenging as supporters disagree over how to engage in various fan activities. However, these challenges are by no means unique to football fans as they mirror existing issues in society. Furthermore, football fan engagement can indeed be conceptualised as a form of civic participation. Despite their divergent opinions, football fans often engage in meaningful activity with other fans, which can contribute to feelings of community, empowerment and citizenship. With this focus this research develops existing work on football supporters because it looks at patterns of experiences rather than just patterns of consumption among football fans. It further provides an empirical contribution to citizenship research.

Background Since the concept of end of life care was first introduced in the late 80's in Hong Kong (Chan, 2002) and Taiwan (Glass et al, 2010), research interests examining the influence of Chinese culture in respect of death, dying and end of life issues has gained popularity (Bowman & Singer, 2001; Chan & Chow, 2006; Chen et al, 2014; Hsu et al, 2009; Mjelde- Mossey & Chan, 2007; Tung, 2011; Zhou, 2016). However, there is a dearth of empirical examination on the process of the establishment and development of the concept and service of end of life care, within a socio-cultural Chinese environment. In the context of Macao, there is only one study (Lo, 2002) describing the establishment of the inpatient hospice, and to date, there is no empirical evidence on the establishment of end of life care, nor on factors that influence the development of end of life care in the context of Macao. Aim The aim of this case study was to develop a theoretical understanding of how the end of life care was introduced, established and developed, and to examine the factors that had shaped the end of life care in Macao. Methods A qualitative case study research approach (Stake, 1995) was conducted and the end of life care in Macao was the case of this research. Data was collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with the initiators (n=3) and developers (n=8), from three different settings that provide and promote end of life care in Macao. Interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed. Qualitative data analysis software, Nvivo 11, was used to organise the data and facilitate analysis. All data was analysed based on the principle of thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Findings Through thematic analysis, the emergence of end of life care in Macao can be understood to some extent to have developed through a social movement formation. Initiators with diverse backgrounds collectively conceptualised that the suffering of people as experienced at the end of their lives in Macao was a social problem needed to be changed, and they subsequently developed different approaches in pursuing for change. This findings also revealed that the growth of end of life care has become stagnant after the initial wave of establishment. The framing perspective (Snow & Benford, 1988; Snow et al, 2014; Snow et al, 1986) was adopted in this research in aiding the conceptualisation of end of life care in Macao as a social movement, and the development of a theoretical understanding regarding the development of end of life care in Macao. This research identified three key conceptual perspectives elucidating the developmental trajectory and factors contributing to the growth and then stagnation of end of life care in Macao. These three conceptual perspectives were: - The conceptualisation of the problem with dying: the suffering of people as experienced at the end of their lives (the grievance in the context of the framing perspective) - The incoherent strategies developed by initiators in establishing end of life care (the lack of internal frame cohesion) - The variety of contextual and conceptual constraints that influenced the subsequent development and then stagnation of end of life care (the lack of external frame cohesion) within the context of Macao The findings indicate the integration of these three conceptual perspectives has led to a holistic, theoretical understanding of the development of end of life care in Macao addressing the research aim and contributes to knowledge about end of life care. With specific regard to the socio-cultural environment of Macao, the study has taken a unique theoretical approach in developing understanding of the end of life care as a social movement by way of the framing perspective. This thesis has proposed a new way to examine the emergence of end of life care, which would facilitate the exploration of end of life care development in other cultural contexts.

This dissertation focuses on three different organizational approaches to introducing change in the Global South. In so doing, it explores how organizations can design and structure 'solutions' for deep-rooted social problems and support marginalized groups who lack voice to speak for themselves. Theoretically, I draw on institutional theory and social movement theory, and it is to these perspectives that my research seeks to contribute. Empirically, my work focuses on Tanzania, Indonesia and Nigeria. Studying how and why three different types of organizational forms - including a social enterprise (Paper 1), a quasi-social movement (Paper 2) and a social movement (Paper 3) - succeeded or failed in their attempts to introduce change in the Global South provides an intriguing opportunity to build new theoretical insights and to shed light on strategic and organizational processes about which relatively little is known.

The political tensions between different feminisms, emerging virtually in tandem with the origins of 'second wave' women's movements themselves, continue to present challenges for cooperation and collective action. If flourishing feminist solidarities are to be forged, it is imperative to attend to these divisions, requiring a robust understanding of how they have developed. Though a growing body of research exists on the emotions of feminism, alongside a much more expansive one on emotions and social movements more generally, the emotions of specific feminist movements remain relatively under-explored. This research aims to generate a deeper understanding of radical feminism through a historical examination of its emotion culture during the crucial transition between the development of the 'second wave' of Women's Liberation in the 1970s and the emergence of the 'third wave' in the 1990s. It takes radical feminist writings about the timely and controversial paradigms of medicine and psychoanalysis as a window on the movement's emotion culture in the 1980s. Employing archival documentary methods and a case study approach, the research draws upon the pivotal radical feminist magazine Trouble and Strife as its sole data source. Exploring the text through literary ethnographic analysis and foregrounding a historical lens, it surfaces radical feminism's emotion culture and highlights the way that its development was bound up with the specificities of its historical moment. The movement's emotion culture was fundamentally a relational one, constituted through its specific political lens on the relationships in which radical feminists were entangled. As the 'heady days' of 1970s radical social movements gave way to the British state's turn to neoliberalism, the proliferating reach of its individualist ideological paradigm, and deepening divisions between the evolving strands of the 'second wave', radical feminists were confronted with an array of changing relationships to negotiate. Their uniquely uncompromising stance toward men, their long-established tense relationship with socialist and Marxist feminisms, and their critical view of ascending feminist uptake of psychoanalysis gave rise to an emotion culture which centred around their relationships with each of these. This research contributes to theories of emotions in social movements by focusing on the historically and ideologically specific, rather than emphasising the more general social movement strategic goals which are a common (though not universal) focus in this area. It adds to a small body of work on background emotions, and shows one way that they can be studied empirically. It also contributes to the growing body of work on feminism and emotions, and particularly to research which aims to explain the contentions between feminisms, as feminist researchers move away from the outmoded view of these contentions as simplistic generational divides and seek out explanations through the complex emotionality of feminist relationships.

This thesis undertakes a close analysis of the integration of the post-colonial society of Martinique into the French nation-state. In 2009, a social movement in Martinique temporarily raised nationalist demands but also sought closer integration into the French state. This thesis examines how this integration has been thwarted by the specific colonial legacies of Martinique and by the politics of departmentalisation of the French state. The departmentalisation of Martinique, which occurred in 1946, sought to decolonise Martinique. This dissertation argues that it is impossible to achieve the integration of Martinique into France without addressing the economic and social legacies of colonialism. The reason for this is because such legacies make it impossible to create national unity. The departmentalisation of Martinique was a republican nationalist project which aimed to culturally assimilate and politically homogenise Martinique into the French state. However, despite departmentalisation, economic and social inequalities stemming from the colonial past remain, and still divide that society. Moreover, despite the legacy of colonial discourse, the Martiniquans stand firmly against political independence. The numerous nationalist and pro-independence parties that attempt to define and promote Martiniquan cultural identities fail to rally the population around the idea of independence. The very existence of these parties implies, on the other hand, that both cultural and republican nationalism failed to create and sustain a metadiscourse of community within the island. However, the 2009 movement was a golden site for observing and instigating social change because the protesters demonstrated and voiced a strong sense of collective identity and solidarity. The protesters contested both the failure of departmentalisation and the resilience of colonial discourses. Throughout the movement, the protesters challenged both the legitimacy of the French government and the influence of the Martiniquan nationalist parties on the protests. I argue that the protests created a liminal space through which the protesters voiced their individual and distinct personal histories and narratives. Such protests created an open space which allowed the protesters to individually address the resilience of colonial discourses and to contest its impacts on their lives, and on the Martiniquan society. I also argue that this liminal space was an integrative space, and the ultimate “rhetorical glue” that unified the protesters. This liminal space was exceptional in this sense, since the existing nationalist discourses and projects which have been implemented in Martinique tend to emphasise social divisions in the island. Indeed, assimilation does not allow the expressions of such cultural distinctiveness outside the French republican ideals. In addition, local nationalist parties attempting to build national unity through cultural discourse struggle to define the ambivalence and the ever-changing characteristics of post-colonial/hybrid Martiniquan identity. The findings could be useful to the formulation of Martiniquan political identity, and to the configuration of French integrative policies. I conclude that such policies would be effective if they tackled the lasting impact of colonial discourse in both Martinique and France.

The study of ideology has long interested sociologists and consumer researchers alike. Much consumption research has approached ideology from various macro, meso, and micro levels of analysis. However, many studies fail to address the dialogical interplay among these three levels of analysis when examining how ideology manifests in, and interacts with, consumer identity projects. Many consumption-based studies examining ideology provide descriptive and normative accounts, affording practices of consumption emancipatory potential. In response, this research adopts a critical marketing perspective in order to draw out the macro and political implications of meso cultural production systems and micro consumption experiences and identity projects. Focusing on the contemporary American feminist movement, and on discourses around sex and sexuality, it explores how hegemonic (patriarchal) and counterhegemonic (feminist) ideologies are communicated in the marketplace, through the media, to understand their role in regard to consumers’ lived experiences and interactions with advertisements. Working within the consumer culture theory tradition, this thesis employed a variant of phenomenological interviewing that explored female emerging adults’ sexual narratives and their interpretations of sexualized ads. By generating data on a specific type of experience, inferences were drawn about how young women experience and relate to the contemporary feminist movement. In total, 14 American women, aged 20 to 31, were interviewed twice and also created media collages of what they considered ‘sexy’. Implementing a multi-step hermeneutic analysis, the data were analyzed through an iterative process, moving back and forth between the idiographic cases and theory. Through multiple iterations, micro, meso, and macro level inferences were made. This study suggests that young women foster diverse and temporary identifications with feminism in the pursuit of two, often overlapping, goals: ontological security and status. This results in a micro process of ‘ideological shifting’, which has depoliticizing effects, insofar as (anti-) feminist brands and identities were readily appropriated and discarded depending on specific contexts and situations. Thus, contrary to much work in the consumer culture theory tradition, which presents consumption as having transgressive and liberating effects, this study finds that while the young women had the power to dialogically interact with marketized (meso level) ideologies that constitute the marketplace, they failed to intercept the macro level processes of marketization and commodification and consequently did not challenge the hegemonic (patriarchal) ideology at large. In adopting a critical perspective, this study offers valuable insight into the relationship between ideology and consumer behavior. Ideology is shown to be disseminated via hegemonic processes of commodification and marketization. Because these processes occur at a macro level, counterhegemonic ideologies are hegemonized and subsequently depoliticized before even reaching the consumer on a micro level. By examining ideology across all three levels, this study finds that consumer agency is largely relegated to the realm of the marketplace, where consumers’ dialogical interactions and consumption practices do not challenge the macro ideologies or oppression at large, but merely alter their marketplace expressions.

This thesis investigates the effects of participating in activism on the people who struggle for social change. Using a critical pedagogical framework, the study contributes to the theorisation of 'social movement learning' by drawing distinctions between processes, outcomes and implications of learning, and by developing the concepts '(un)learning'and 'pedagogical adversaries'. The research examines how activists who participate in social and political action develop different perspectives of social change. The conclusions draw on data collected throughout 2014, specifically interviews with, and observations of, UK-based Egyptian activists who engaged in social action during the continuing 25 January revolution between 2011-2014. As activists reflect on their understandings in the context of revolution and counter-revolution, coup d'etat, elections, strikes and various forms of social and political change, they reveal many 'pedagogical entry points'. The findings illustrate that social movements are continuous processes and sites of important, rich and potentially transformative learning because they generate pedagogical moments through which activists can engage with and develop critical perspectives of the way the world is and should be. Analysis of social movement learning as (un)learning exposes the cumulative and continuing nature of learning and unlearning, and generates important insights into how social movements challenge established 'knowledge' and 'truths' to create progressive alternatives. Drawing on critical and radical theories of social change, the thesis demonstrates the importance of continuing to question conceptualisations of social change and of a political imagination that understands the pedagogical potential of disjuncture and challenge.

Drawing on a Foucauldian understanding of power and resistance, this thesis explores different practices of everyday resistance, which the Kurdish population has developed against the policies of assimilation of the Turkish state. It grasps assimilation policies as a shifting network of laws, administrative regulations and practices, scientific and non-scientific discourses which aims at defining the normal citizen and thereby producing a national subject. Consequently, this thesis grasps everyday practices of resistance against assimilation as ways of challenging these forms of governing how people identify, lead their lives, and perceive themselves: as counter-conduct. Drawing on multi-site ethnographic fieldwork conducted in four cities in Turkey, two in the Kurdish region and two in the West of Turkey, this thesis uses interview material, observations and photographs to examine how everyday resistance shifts, dodges, undermines and subverts the specific techniques of assimilation. Instead of focusing on the actors and their intentions, the object of this research are the practices in themselves, which do not necessarily form a coherent unity, but are traversed by the effects of the techniques of power. These practices derive from within the relations of power and work on specific techniques of assimilation. Engaging with authors such as James C. Scott, Judith Butler, Michel De Certeau, Michael Taussig, and Tim Cresswell this thesis offers a reading of everyday resistance which does not reduce it to an alternative to organized politics in the absence of open contestation. Instead, this thesis draws out the different ways in which everyday resistance and organized forms of politics intersect and foster each other. Similarly, this thesis illustrates how everyday resistance complicates the distinctions between covert and overt, intentional and unintentional, public and private. It demonstrates how achieving visibility has to be reinterpreted in the context of everyday resistance, not as a way of claiming recognition, but rather in terms of subverting conduct. Instead of making demands for a change in governmental politics, these practices of everyday resistance aim at achieving de facto interventions into the effects of power. In their different ways, they destabilize the norms, discourses and practices which produce the normal citizen. They shift the practices of self-conduct and thereby subvert subjectivity in practice. In this sense, this thesis suggests understanding forms of everyday resistance as struggles for a "livable life". Focussing on these mundane, non-heroic micro-practices of resistance, this thesis contributes both to the literature on social movements and the Kurdish Movement.

This research looks at the change in ethical sensibilities towards a mangrove in a fishing colony in the periphery of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and at how they may have changed as the mangrove became a protected area and entered the environmental assemblage. Formerly called Z-1, this was the first of 800 cooperative fishing colonies founded along the Brazilian coast in 1920 as part of a government initiative. The study unveiled the following pattern around the mangrove: from being a source of livelihood and place for communal activities up until the 1970s, it became the locus of an environmental movement in the 80s and 90s after it was devastated by a big fire. The concrete outcome of the movement was the creation of the APARU, Area of Environmental Protection and Urban Regeneration, which meant that after more than seventy years under a system of tutelage by the Navy, the colony and the mangrove were subjected to an environmental form of governance administered by the City Council, and the mangrove went from being a taken-for-granted thing to an environmentally-oriented concept. It finally fell silent and isolated as it became increasingly polluted, even if ‘protected’ by a municipal decree. The main argument presented is that, as the mangrove passed from nature to environment, which implied a change in governance from the Navy to the Department of Environment, people found creative ways of holding on to its thingness, and to ethical values that at times conflict with the broader environmental assemblage. Those local ethics forge the links that sustain an ecological assemblage, and the ethics prescribed by the environmental governance currently in place can be undermined by more embedded values. That said, local knowledge and practices are environmentally informed, and different ways of being political emerge. This community was not only created literally on a mangrove, but it was also symbolically and politically reproduced through the mangrove, and even more so after it became a protected area. The dialectical outcomes of the relationships between human beings and the mangrove, and between human beings as they multiply, transform the landscape continuously, just as the mangrove in its perpetual unfolding impresses itself upon human matters and sustains the social ordering of things. As new elements are assembled around the mangrove, from discarded utensils to stories of environmental activism, the mangrove is enacted as heritage, as nature, as a biome, as culture, as pollution, as an institution, and as environment. This thesis hopes to contribute towards the broader body of literature on environmental anthropology, political ecology, and anthropology of moralities, by focusing on ‘human-disturbed environments’ (Tsing 2013) and bringing attention to the value of local perceptions in policy making.

Political disillusionment is widespread in contemporary Japanese society, despite people’s struggles in the recession. Our social relationships become entangled, and we can no longer clearly identify our interest in politics. The search for the outside of stagnant reality sometimes leads marginalised young people to a disastrous imaginary for social change, such as war and death. The imaginary of disaster was actualised in March 2011. The huge earthquake and tsunami caused the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which triggered the largest wave of activism since the 1960s. Based on the author’s fieldwork on the post-Fukushima anti-nuclear movements in Tokyo, this thesis investigates how the disaster impacted people’s sense of agency and ethics, and ultimately explores the new political imaginary in postmodernity. The disaster revealed the interconnected nature of contemporary society. The thesis argues that their regret about their past indifference to politics motivated the protesters into social commitment without any totalising ideology or predetermined collective identity. They also found an ambiguity of the self, which is insufficient to know what should be done. Hence, they mobilise their bodies on to the streets, encountering others, and forcing themselves to feel and think. This is an ethical attitude, yet it simultaneously stems from the desire of each individual to make a difference to the self and society. The thesis concludes that the post-Fukushima anti-nuclear movements signify a new way of doing politics as endless experiments by collectively responding to an unexpected force from an outside in a creative way.

This research is about territory, mining conflicts and social movements in South East Ecuador. The Andean country with no large scale mining history is experiencing a recent expansion of large scale mining with growing levels of social conflict. Social movements have been questioning and contesting the forms being taken by the extractive economy as well as proposing an alternative pathway to development through the indigenous concept of sumak kawsay. The Socialist Government is pushing the nation’s extractive model forward to include large scale mining, motivated by the much needed revenues to diversify Ecuador’s oil based economy. El Pangui, my field site, is located on the foothills of the Cordillera del Cóndor, where a large copper deposit is proposed to be developed by a Chinese mining corporation. The Cordillera is an area of great biological diversity and home to the traditional territories of the Shuar, one of the largest indigenous ethnic groups in Ecuador. The years of colonization of ancestral lands and of border war with Peru, the establishment of parks-for-peace, small scale gold mining activity and an expanding agricultural frontier, together have formed a complex territorial mosaic that contribute in shaping the social and physical landscapes. Since 2005 a mining conflict has been unfolding and that can be considered yet another layer of territorial disputes and symbolic contestation in the regions´ history. My fieldwork was carried out from an engaged research and activist scholarship position. I used an ethnographic methodology to explore the bidirectional influences of territorial dynamics and the anti-mining struggle by looking at multi scalar impacts these have on people’s daily life, corporate social responsibility and environmental development debates. I also looked at the ways in which memories and meanings associated with past conflicts resonate in subsequent resource struggles to form a layering of conflicts. I was particularly interested in the less visible dimensions of environmental mobilisation embedded in the routines of daily life, as well as in the ways in which the memory and history of territorialisation and settlement influence social movement organizing. Theoretically, I propose a territorial approach to studying natural resource struggles and social movements that contest mining. This concept allowed me to examine the effects of the extractive projects on pre-existing territorial dynamics and the influence of these dynamics on the ways in which mining investments are contested.

The purpose of the thesis is to make a contribution to the development of an empirically informed theory of identity work in organisations on the basis of a gestalt paradigm. Since its emergence almost three quarters of a century ago, gestalt has been applied to therapy, personal development, leadership education and organisational consulting. Gestalt remains, however, fundamentally a paradigm, which preferentially projects onto and deals with complex and dynamic organisational phenomena at individual, dyadic or small group levels. It can be argued that, with its focus on phenomenology and awareness, the gestalt paradigm is predominantly methodological, with only ambiguous or weak links to explicitly articulated epistemology or ontology. A long-term professional, consulting relationship with a trade union branch enabled conducting action research in order to explore the constituents and dynamics of its organisational identity, prior to and following significant change. The subsequent dismantling and closure of the branch demanded an adjustment of research design. The new situation offered a unique opportunity to follow the existentially challenged organisation as its members reacted to and made sense of the closure. The research is contextualised in three analytical clusters: identity and identity work, gestalt paradigm, and trade unions as organisations, institutions and social movements. An ontology of the intersectional field is posited, and on this foundation, four statements, seen as fundamental conditions for identity work, are operationalised through six propositions explicating identity work in a gestalt paradigm perspective. Methodologically, the overall design is informed by a constructivist grounded theory approach, moving abductively - iteratively and even recursively - between inductive and deductive analysis and reflection. The empirical component of the thesis comprises participant observation, field notes, in-depth interviews during and subsequently two years after the closure, and memos. The data proved relevant and informative in terms of identity work in the organisation. The result of the research is a hypothesis about identity work in organisations, firmly anchored in and commensurate with a present-day revised gestalt paradigm, which contribute to a formal development of a gestalt organisational theory. The hypothesis states that: “Identity work in organisations is a dialectical positioning, both individual and collective, between the existential polar opposites of inclusion and exclusion. The processes through which identity work is enacted are cognitive, affective, and conative, instrumentally served by the contact boundary dynamics of egotisming, confluencing, projecting, retroflecting, introjecting, and deflecting. “ The empirical findings are considered robust, and the theory formulation meaningful. Acknowledging the specific circumstances of the study organisation and empirical design, however, a more general application of the hypothesis requires further research in diverse contexts for verification and possibly refinement of the gestalt theoretical concepts at the organisational level. The research results are of interest to gestalt practitioners who teach or work in or with organisations, and equally so for those interested in dynamic process perspectives in which attention shifts - whether at the level of the individual, group, or organisation - from static assessment of reified identity to real-time identity work; from structure to mutual interaction and influence, in order to balance the well-being of the human beings “in” and “profitability” of the organisation.

This thesis examines the emergence and evolution of ‘progressive activism and organisation’ between 1976 and 2006 in the African township of Guguletu and the coloured township of Bonteheuwel within the City of Cape Town. In doing so it compares both how activism has changed over time (including as a result of democratisation) and how it differed between and within these two communities. Whilst at heart an empirical study of activism it seeks to move beyond the specificities of the cases studied to also draw broader conclusions about the nature and causes of collective action and organisation. Drawing on both social movement and class theory it aims to shed some light on the fundamental question of the relationship between structure and agency - why do people act and what defines the form of action they take? It combines a quantitative study of the changing relationship between race, class and state policy with qualitative studies of activism in Guguletu and Bonteheuwel. These two studies cover in detail: the development and unfolding of the riots of 1976; the great boycott season of 1979/80 which saw large numbers of Africans and coloureds across Cape Town drawn into school, bus and consumer boycotts; the development of activism between 1980 and 1985, including the impact of the United Democratic Front; the township unrest of 1985-7; the transition period between 1988 and 1994; and post-apartheid activism in the two communities. It draws on theories of class which recognise the importance of peoples’ positions within the state’s distributional networks (citizenship), experiences and expectations of social mobility and the impact of historical experience of class formation on expectation (moral economy). In doing this it shows how differences in race, education, age and labour market position all interacted to pattern activism in the case studies. Struggles in Cape Town throughout the period 1976-2006 were not dualistic conflict between classes, races or between the oppressed and forces of global capital, nor were they mechanistic responses to the opening and closing of political space. They were complex coalitions of competing and collaborating class forces which were defined by the underlying nature of the city’s political economy and which emerged in interaction with changing opportunities for action.

This thesis asks ‘what does Europeanisation mean for the strategies and practices of grassroots green groups in Europe?’ and aims to identify the conditions under which these groups become ‘europeanised’. I identify three process of europeanisation: direct europeanisation – when an actor connects directly to the EU, indirect europeanisation – when an actor connects to a europeanised member state and passive europeanisation – when actors europeanise outside of state mechanisms. The grassroots green movement has largely evaded studies of europeanisation and so it is through examining europeanisation at this ‘base’ level, closest to the citizens, that this research makes an original contribution to our understanding of the variables that mediate the process of europeanisation and to our understanding of grassroots green activism in Europe. This thesis takes its analytical framework from social movement theory and uses political opportunity structures and frames as domains in which it looks for evidence of europeanisation. Within these domains I distinguish between European and europeanised activity, teasing out the role of the nation state in mediating europeanisation at a grassroots level. Two cases are examined: anti-road protest and anti-GM protest in Britain, France and Italy between the period 2007-2010. This thesis demonstrates that there is some evidence of europeanisation within grassroots green groups. It encourages a more nuanced understanding of europeanisation as a process that can occur outside the state and amongst actors who do not seek to impact the EU. It finds that both strategic and ideological considerations shape the political opportunity structures to which movements direct themselves. It also finds that the fit between the frames used in protest and the national masterframes is a powerful variable in explaining the extent of social movement europeanisation.

The once flourishing small-scale poultry industry in Ghana has over the past two decades undergone a severe deterioration as a result of fortunes that has diverted the industry from near self-sufficiency in the early 1990s to a net importer of poultry products. Since the later part of 1990s the Ghana market has followed a steep and uncontrolled influx of cheap poultry meat from subsidized poultry producers from advanced countries (Osei, unpublished) including USA and EU, not to mention countries such as Brazil and Canada. A multiplicity of factors have accounted for the decline and mortalities of the domestic poultry industry. These include unfair competition from subsidized poultry producers from advanced countries, unfavourable and indifferent government policy direction, escalating costs of production, inefficient methods of production, lack of funds and credit, inadequate knowledge in poultry management, socio-cultural factors, lack of information needs on the part of small-scale poultry farmers, inadequate access to market, lack of processing facilities, and high rates of perishability. Therefore, the present study examines the factors that affect the growth of the small agribusiness in Ghana, focusing mainly on the small-scale poultry industry. The purpose of the study is to provide guidelines and recommendations for improving poultry farming at the level of small-scale poultry farmers in Ghana through the organized social movement (new generation cooperative movement). The study further seeks to solicit government interventions through political arguments so as to sustain and strengthen the failing small-scale poultry industry in Ghana. The purpose of the organized social movement is to bundle competencies and resources that are more valuable in joint effort than when kept separate by the small-scale poultry farmers in racing against competitors who are driving them out of business. This is due to an on-going severe competition as a result of unprotected market and political bias of trade liberalization, structural adjustment policies and deregulations on the part of the government. A sample of 120 poultry farmers was selected by a stratified random sampling approach. This was followed by 75 stakeholders through a snowball approach and data was collected by using a semi-structured interviews. The findings of the study shows that the organized social movement (SM) of small-scale poultry farmers, provision of government subsidies, placing a ban or increase tariffs on imports of poultry meat, access to cheap loans, provision of infrastructure, access to incentives and awards, training and education of poultry farmers, advertising campaign, and dissemination of information, had positive and significant impact on the competitiveness and growth of the small-scale poultry industry.

Over the last four decades national environmental groups have become an important means of political participation for many British citizens. Since the mid-1980s these organizations have established a number of local groups. There are still some gaps in our understanding of these groups, particularly relating to participation at the grass-roots level. This investigation examines the British environmental movement, focusing on those who become coordinators of local groups, and attempts to find the correlates of their environmental activism. The research reviews the existing empirical data relating to environmental activism, and theoretical accounts relating to participation. It also considers the significance of the emergence of postmaterial values, and looks at the theoretical framework that informs environmental activism. The hypothesis that the conservation and ecology movements are effectively sub-groups within the broader ecology movement is tested, and the thesis explores the possibility that those who participate in these movements have different socio-demographic and cognitive profiles, and methods of activism. The history and development of environmentalism in Britain is discussed, revealing the fundamental differences between the conservation and ecology movements. To test the hypothesis a national, internet based, questionnaire was conducted. In total, 380 activists were surveyed, all of whom were coordinators of local environmental groups that were affiliated to one of six nationally prominent environmental organisations. The findings of the research indicated that although many national environmental organizations seem to have become closer together in terms of their core beliefs and objectives. There are some notable differences between conservationists and ecologists at the grass-roots level, particularly in relation to sociopsychological variables, and means of participation.