This thesis departs from a paradox surrounding Argentine race relations wherein the nation houses Indigenous, brown and black identities, yet solely perceives itself as white and structurally...Show moreThis thesis departs from a paradox surrounding Argentine race relations wherein the nation houses Indigenous, brown and black identities, yet solely perceives itself as white and structurally denies racism. Through a constructivist and critical lens it explores how Indigenous, brown and black identities were repressed by and resisted the construction of ‘White Argentina’, and how Identidad Marrón as an embodiment of these identities is challenging the white national archetype. After identifying a knowledge gap regarding brown identities, it is argued that since its foundation and despite its hegemony the white nation and its whitening policies have been in continuous negotiation with non-white identities, whose resistance through violent means, such as malones – raids primarily carried out by Mapuche people, and art, writing and poetry were constructed as a threat. At present, Identidad Marrón and its antiracist discourses (re)emerged as a challenge to ‘White Argentina’ through two modes of resistance: writing disseminated through protest and art. The interrelation between the antiracist movement and Argentina's nation-building process is analyzed through Primary Source Analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis. Finally, studying social movements akin to Identidad Marrón and their link to nation-building endavours in Latin America and beyond and thereby creating a body of research and societal narratives that counter racialized representations of people of colour can inspire change by giving recognition to marginalized identities, such as marrones, questioning exclusionary foundational myths and dismantling structural and systemic racism to lead the way into an increasingly inclusive future.Show less
This study examines the impact of African Youth Activists (AYAs) at last year's Conference of the Parties (COP27). Despite being disproportionately affected by climate change, marginalized groups,...Show moreThis study examines the impact of African Youth Activists (AYAs) at last year's Conference of the Parties (COP27). Despite being disproportionately affected by climate change, marginalized groups, such as AYAs, often face challenges in having their voices adequately heard due to underlying structures that favor countries and non-governmental organizations from the Global North. The Political Opportunity Structure can be used to examine whether AYAs have opportunities to make a difference in a system. This involves evaluating whether there are entry points for new actors to enter the political process and whether the existing mechanisms within the system effectively accommodate and integrate new perspectives. To explore this, the study conducted 12 semi-structured interviews with AYAs to investigate how the existing power relations at COP impact their participation. The perception of AYAs on power relations and their opportunities for intervention provide insights into their reality and how they navigate the structural aspects of the political process. The findings of this research can be used to find places to intervene in the UNFCCC- system and improve activists' work at COPs in the future.Show less
Bachelor thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (BSc)
closed access
This thesis explores how digital representations of Indigenous movements influence the political outcomes of these movements in settler colonies. Since the beginning of its development, digital...Show moreThis thesis explores how digital representations of Indigenous movements influence the political outcomes of these movements in settler colonies. Since the beginning of its development, digital technology has been utilized by Indigenous people to connect, share and learn but also to advocate. Historically indigenous people have been demanding recognition and indigenous rights, and in the current digital age, this fight has partly moved to the digital sphere, on social media. Here, Indigenous people are less dependent on mainstream media and their prejudices and can spread their perspectives on their struggles and what it means to be Indigenous. I look at the political effects of this new form of activism by analyzing three different case studies. Two of the cases are located in Canada, Idle No More and MMIWG (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls), and the third is situated in America the NoDAPL movement. These cases show that the use of social media can shift power relations between governments and Indigenous movements and that Indigenous people have more control over how they are portrayed. Though, this thesis also shows the weaknesses of using social media as a activism strategy.Show less
The high rates of violence which exist in Mexico are largely connected to the existence of organized crime and the fruitless government counteractions against these groups. In the face of powerful...Show moreThe high rates of violence which exist in Mexico are largely connected to the existence of organized crime and the fruitless government counteractions against these groups. In the face of powerful criminal organizations and ineffective governance, Mexican civil society has mobilized to counteract this situation through the creation of social movements. This thesis therefore analyzes the ways in which different social movements in Mexico have emerged to resist the effects of organized violence between 2000 and 2020. Three case studies, in the form of unique social movements, have been selected for analysis due to their prominence, diversity, and reactions to organized violence. These include the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity, the Cherán Indigenous Movement, and the Mexican Anti-Femicide Movement. This thesis finds several primary factors which contribute to the rise of social movements, which include the roles of neoliberalism, hierarchical structures, and identity. Other patterns emerge in the organization of these movements, namely that they mobilize in cycles and are internally fragmented. Despite the varied context and relative age of many of these theories, this thesis has proven that they still apply to more recent movements, upholding their continued relevance in the field.Show less
Like other nineteenth-century reform movements in Great Britain and the United States, the vegetarian movement sought to bring about lasting change. It intertwined with other movements as disparate...Show moreLike other nineteenth-century reform movements in Great Britain and the United States, the vegetarian movement sought to bring about lasting change. It intertwined with other movements as disparate as abolitionism on the one hand and eugenics on the other. However, the change it sought was not merely institutional or social. The type of reform vegetarians advocated was at its heart something that progressed on an intimate, individual level. Changing the food one ate meant changing one’s relationship to history, tradition, culture, religion—one’s daily routines, carried out with family, in the intimacy of domestic spaces. But it also involved changes to one’s habits as a consumer, whether that meant sourcing (or creating!) new foods, growing one’s own, or even foraging in the forest for edibles. And since the foods we eat are the building blocks of our embodied selves, vegetarianism represented a fundamental change to the very substance of the human body. Because it intruded deeply into the personal realm, involving the universal daily act of eating, the discourse on eating vegetables was larger than the vegetarian movement itself, touching not only other reform movements, but facets of culture connected to class, gastronomy, colonial ties, gender and religion, to name but a few. A strange feature of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century vegetarianism—given its name—was that in many ways it was more about not eating meat than it was about eating vegetables. It is perhaps for this reason that although vegetarians had plenty to say about the virtues of vegetables, studies of vegetarianism tend to lack nuance when they situate these arguments beside what others were saying about eating vegetables, focusing largely on reactionary statements and missing other strands of discourse around vegetable eating within the mainstream. Therefore, my research takes this wider view, examining British and American vegetarian, vegetable and other cookbooks to situate the vegetarian imperative towards plant-based eating in the context of contemporary attitudes towards vegetables themselves, whether connected to vegetarianism or not.Show less
In the last couple of years, scholars have been arguing a decline in political participation, especially among young people. The Fridays for Future movement with thousands of young climate strikers...Show moreIn the last couple of years, scholars have been arguing a decline in political participation, especially among young people. The Fridays for Future movement with thousands of young climate strikers counters these statements. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the facilitating role of social media on youth political participation. This thesis analyses how social media contributes to the formation of a collective group identity of social movements, which in turn could lead to collective political action. To answer this question, content analysis of comments on three Instagram posts by Fridays for Madrid have been used, looking at the four foundations of collective group identity: solidarity, emotional attachment, group cohesion and activist-based identification. The results demonstrate the facilitating function of social media in the formation of collective group identity, by enabling more easily and frequently interaction between participants and the social movement compared to offline social movement activities.Show less
This Bachelor's thesis explores the role and function of the culturally and politically embedded historical event of the French Revolution on the contemporary social movement of the Gilets Jaunes....Show moreThis Bachelor's thesis explores the role and function of the culturally and politically embedded historical event of the French Revolution on the contemporary social movement of the Gilets Jaunes. It elaborates on how the idea and the importance of the French Revolution in French societal and political culture has created the opportunity for the Gilets Jaunes to establish and grow their movement.Show less
Climate change is the most pressing threat to our planet and activism has been formed to urge policymakers to counter the effects of climate change and to stabilize the climate. Globally,...Show moreClimate change is the most pressing threat to our planet and activism has been formed to urge policymakers to counter the effects of climate change and to stabilize the climate. Globally, environmental protest movements have been formed, yet the Middle East shows significantly little environmental activism. This thesis focuses on governance of the Arab Gulf States and identifies the rentier-state and its dependency on oil as the main driver of the non-existence of environmental protest movements. The regime’s repressive nature hinders civil participation and therefore prevents activism at its core. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates serve as examples of this observation.Show less
The ongoing debate in Canadian and Australian societies about the meaning of multiculturalism and the associated discussion of belonging, citizenship and national culture cannot be divorced from...Show moreThe ongoing debate in Canadian and Australian societies about the meaning of multiculturalism and the associated discussion of belonging, citizenship and national culture cannot be divorced from the consideration of a major social element in both societies: the original inhabitants of the territories prior to their colonization by the European settlers. This group of people, which over the course of the national histories of these two countries was reduced to the status of minority on its own ancestral land , has since the early 1960s demonstrated increased agency by mounting a campaign of political, cultural, economic and social mobilization to reclaim its rights, most notably through the recognition of sovereignty, and to re-negotiate its relationship with the settler majority societies. The outcome of this mobilization is often portrayed in an interesting account that shows Canada to have gone further than Australia in the accommodation of indigenous rights and the righting of the historical injustices towards them. This thesis will be an attempt to reassess the veracity of this portrayal through a comparative study of the struggle for indigenous rights in both countries.Show less
Mexico's political history can be defined as relatively turbulent. The hegemonic rule of the dominant PRI party, has influenced Mexico by the distrustful attitude Mexicans continue to have against...Show moreMexico's political history can be defined as relatively turbulent. The hegemonic rule of the dominant PRI party, has influenced Mexico by the distrustful attitude Mexicans continue to have against the political party system. A crisis of political legitimacy and distrust prove to play a large role in the continuing discontent and the emergence of several social movements in Mexico. With the return of the PRI in 2012, one specific movement stood out to mobilize against president Peña Nieto, the #YoSoy132 movement. A lack of faith in the dominant PRI were based upon distrust in institutions, an unstable political system and many fraud allegations. This thesis examines the link between distrust and political legitimacy, and how these notions are connected to the emergence of the #YoSoy132 movement.Show less
New political challenges, natural disasters, processes of globalisation and new communication technologies, among others, have altered the ways in which social movements around the world, not only...Show moreNew political challenges, natural disasters, processes of globalisation and new communication technologies, among others, have altered the ways in which social movements around the world, not only rise and evolve, but also re-imagine themselves and their aims. The following thesis addresses how the realm of contemporary Japanese social movements exert influence on public opinion through their choice of framing. Through an in-depth case-study of a recent student movement under the name SEALDs, a careful insight look will be casted on the historical traits of Japanese movements evolution and how the contemporaries make sense of such traits. More specifically, SEALDs managed to gain popularity and re-engage the younger demographics to take action in the political dialogue. The research aims at looking into the cultural and historical traits of SEALDs and how this particular student movement managed to become popular despite not succeeding in their initial goal.Show less
Inspired by social movements emerging across the globe such as the Occupy Movement in the United States, this master thesis investigates the influence they have on youth political socialization....Show moreInspired by social movements emerging across the globe such as the Occupy Movement in the United States, this master thesis investigates the influence they have on youth political socialization. Keeping in mind the context of western democracies and the privileged easy access to digital media and social networks, this dissertation investigates the effects of the different aspects of new social movements on youth and to what extend this can influence their participation in the political life. The literature review will go over the following topics composing the theoretical framework of this work: the civil society and public participation in western democracies on a broad level, social movement theory, the role of new social media and digital platforms in politics, and finally an overview of the literature on youth’s political participation. In order to investigate the incentives pushing younger demographics to engage in social movements such as the ones previously listed, this thesis will ask the following research question: how technology-enabled youth engage in new social movements? In attempt to answer this question, I argue that (1) new social movements are mainly structured and organized through digital platforms, using social networks to mobilize more people, and (2) young citizens in western democracies use the internet and digital platforms as an information tool and feel disconnected from the traditional political actors. This thesis will be simply structures: the first chapter will consist of an introduction of the issue addressed here. The second chapter will encompass the literature review, going over the existing literature on the framework mentioned before and the limitations it presents. The third chapter will analyse the effects of civic engagement on youth and will be followed by a case study on Occupy Wall Street, examining the role of youth and technology in that movement. The last chapter will consist of the conclusion.Show less
This thesis investigates the relation between political disaffection and the rise of non-institutionalized political participation among the Mexican youth in the case of the #YoSoy132 movement....Show moreThis thesis investigates the relation between political disaffection and the rise of non-institutionalized political participation among the Mexican youth in the case of the #YoSoy132 movement. Theory on political disaffection, social capital and political participation together with the modern political history of Mexico and the #YoSoy132 movement are extensively analysed in order to examine the following hypothesis: in the case of the #YoSoy132 movement, political disaffection resulted in an increasing desire among the youth to participate in politics in order to oppose the Mexican regime. Since these youngsters badly distrust political parties and institutions, they are seeking unconventional ways to engage in politics. By producing new forms of social capital, the movement was able to grow and exert influence and power on politics while staying on the side lines to not become part of the “bad” practices of the Mexican government.Show less
