To see the other types of publications on this topic, follow the link: Nonviolence.
Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Nonviolence'
Create a spot-on reference in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and other styles
Consult the top 50 dissertations / theses for your research on the topic 'Nonviolence.'
Next to every source in the list of references, there is an 'Add to bibliography' button. Press on it, and we will generate automatically the bibliographic reference to the chosen work in the citation style you need: APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, Vancouver, etc.
You can also download the full text of the academic publication as pdf and read online its abstract whenever available in the metadata.
Browse dissertations / theses on a wide variety of disciplines and organise your bibliography correctly.
1
Linehan, Margaret D. "Varieties of Muslim nonviolence| Three Muslim movements of nonviolence and peace building." Thesis, Georgetown University, 2013. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=1536045.
Full textAbstract:
<p> Religiously based nonviolence varies in motive, intent and interpretation. John Howard Yoder outlines a variety of religious nonviolence in his book Nevertheless. Muslim nonviolence is not addressed in the book. Identifying a distinctly Muslim understanding of nonviolence requires an appreciation of aspects of peace building that are emphasized in Islam. Muhammad Abu-Nimer has formed a framework for identifying and encouraging nonviolence and peace building in an Islamic context. By applying the basic outlines formulated by Yoder and the framework developed by Abu-Nimer to three cases of Muslim movements of nonviolence, this paper identifies distinct variations of religious nonviolence and peace building that have been developed and practiced by Muslims. The first case is historic; the Khudai Khudmatgar sought independence from Great Britain through nonviolent demonstrations and civil disobedience. The second case puts emphasis on the peace building vision of Islam by examining a movement developed in contemporary Turkey. The followers of Said Nursi and the Gülen Movement collectively support "the middle way", education in both science and religion and opportunities for dialogue as a means to build peace locally and globally. The third case of religiously based nonviolence practiced by Muslims is that of the Shi'a led movement for democratic reforms in Bahrain, which uses collective action and protests to draw attention to the need for social change. Each movement demonstrates distinct approaches to nonviolence and peace building. In each case, the leadership frames the commitment to peace in Islamic terms. And in each case those who commit themselves to the movement do so through their understanding of the way they, as Muslims, should justly relate to one another and the world. This paper demonstrates Islam's unique characteristics that have enabled Muslims to pursue a common purpose and make change in a nonviolent manner.</p>
2
Booker, William Carter. "A theology of nonviolence." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1995. http://www.tren.com.
Full text
3
Wagar, Scott Edward. "Working Toward Nonviolence in Composition." NCSU, 2004. http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/theses/available/etd-12012004-170719/.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis suggests that composition studies is in need of further efforts to bring the concept and practice of nonviolence into the discipline?s theoretical and pedagogical framework. I survey and synthesize existing literature on nonviolence in composition as well as related writing on spirituality in education, feminism, the environment, and moral education. The implications of critical pedagogy and social construction theory for the subject are also considered. Ultimately, I argue for the importance of an approach incorporating the personal and the spiritual on the part of both teachers and students. Such an approach retains a strong social perspective because it works toward an understanding that the self cannot be seen as separate from its others. Guided by these ideas, I present and discuss a proposal for a one-semester university-level composition course entitled ?Writing Nonviolence.? I conclude the thesis by briefly considering alternate pedagogical models and by calling for further exploration, testimony, and commitment by teachers and scholars of composition and rhetoric.
4
Ahrelid, del Rio Leal Emanuel. "Defections In Nonviolent Conflicts : A Theoretical Case Study Based on Nepstad’s Mutiny and Nonviolence Hypotheses." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-162621.
Full textAbstract:
This paper takes the hypotheses by Nepstad’s article, Mutiny and Nonviolence, and applies it to three new cases of nonviolence. The analysis explores each hypothesis in each case and the discussion dissects the most interesting pieces of information, mainly regarding the hypotheses’ high characterization of ethnicity/sectarian groups. Via these discussions’ suggestions are made on how the hypotheses could improve to have greater validity over more cases in the future
5
Anisin, Alexei. "State repression, nonviolence, and protest mobilization." Thesis, University of Essex, 2016. http://repository.essex.ac.uk/17165/.
Full textAbstract:
This four article journal-based dissertation builds on Gene Sharp's framework of nonviolent direct action, along with Hess and Martin's repression backfire, in order to deepen our understanding of how state repression impacts protest mobilization and historical processes of social change. After initially problematizing Gene Sharp’s notions of power and consent with aid of political discourse theory, and two case studies of the 1905 Russian Bloody Sunday Massacre and the South African 1976 Soweto Massacre, the dissertation moves onto specifically explain the conditions under which protest mobilization is likely to continue after severe state repression. A causal process model underpins the logic of the dissertation. It identifies generalizable antecedent factors and conditions under which repression backfire is most likely to occur. Numerous mechanisms are also introduced that help explain the operation of this process across different historical eras and political systems. After applying this process model and its mechanisms to the 2013 Turkish Gezi protests, a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis of 44 different historical massacres is presented in which repression backfired and increased protest in some cases, but not others. Repression backfire is a highly asymmetrical and nonlinear causal phenomenon. I conclude that nonviolent protest strategy has been a salient factor in historical cases of repression backfire and is also vital for the ability of protests to withstand state repression. However, the role of nonviolence is partial and to some degree inadequate in explaining repression backfire if it is not linked to other general factors which include protest diversity, protest threat level, and geographic terrain.
6
Bauer, Jacob N. "The Normative Ethics of Gandhian Nonviolence." Wright State University / OhioLINK, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=wright1386789526.
Full text
7
Ramanathapillai, Rajmohan. "Nonviolence, ecology and war, extending Gandhian theory." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape11/PQDD_0004/NQ42760.pdf.
Full text
8
Ramanathapillai, Rajmohan. "Nonviolence, ecology and war : extending Gandhian theory /." *McMaster only, 1997.
Find full text
9
Cashio, Anthony Lanier. "History, Nonviolence, and the Experience of Values." OpenSIUC, 2011. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/dissertations/350.
Full textAbstract:
AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION OF Anthony Cashio, for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Philosophy, presented on February 25, 2011, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: History, Nonviolence, and the Experience of Values MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Randall E. Auxier The goal of this dissertation is to address the question: what are values? To carry out this inquiry in a manner which will provide new insights into the complexity, difficulty, and importance of this question, I propose to look to actual historical events, specifically the event known as the Children's Movement that took place in Birmingham, Alabama on March 3, 1963. Coupling this historical approach with an analysis and exploration of the philosophies of nonviolence, specifically the works of Mohandas K. Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., will allow for answers to age-old axiological problems that are grounded in both pure theory and praxis of shared communal experience. I submit that one of the main lessons learned through this inquiry into the experience of values is that what is truly experienced in the liminal moment of the successful nonviolent protest is what I name a lived value-system. This lived value-system is characterized by the attempt in every moment to bring the culturally learned value-system, the values which we are taught are integral to a society, into resonance with the ideal value-system, the value-system of dogmatic objective certitude. The task of fleshing out these three value-systems in response to an understanding of history as a starting point for philosophical inquiry is the primary task of this dissertation.
10
Zook, Darrell E. "Matthew 5:38-48 and Mennonite confessional statements." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 2005. http://www.tren.com.
Full text
11
Lamarche, Teague. "Nonviolence and Power in The Ottawa Panhandlers' Union." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/28551.
Full textAbstract:
The Ottawa Panhandlers' Union's use of nonviolent action provides a useful case to examine the relationship between nonviolence, power and truth. Dahl, La Boetie and Foucault's theories of power provide different perspectives from which to analyze the use of nonviolence by the OPU. Dahl and La Boetie's theories of power as capacity and consent respectively focus on the OPU's ability to force others to take particular actions, and choice in compliance in scenarios imposed by others. Alternately, Foucault's theory of power allows an examination of the union members' positions within power relations, and how tacit social understandings construct their knowledge of themselves and others. When the OPU's use of nonviolence is seen in this light, addressing positions within power relations, and identifying the tacit social understandings that construct them, become important elements in understanding nonviolent action.
Keywords: Nonviolence, Power, Foucault, Truth, Panhandlers
12
Lowell, Jeffrey. "The Importance of NonViolence in United Nations Peacekeeping." Fogler Library, University of Maine, 2005. http://www.library.umaine.edu/theses/pdf/LowellJ2005.pdf.
Full text
13
Barton, Matthew. "Dietary pacifism : animals, nonviolence, and the Messianic community." Thesis, University of Leeds, 2013. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/5249/.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis uses relational theology, in conversation with the nonviolent communitarian ethics of Stanley Hauerwas, to construct a new theology of how humans relate to other animals. I argue that at least some other animals should be perceived as relational creatures of God; and that understanding our animal brothers and sisters in this way raises new questions for ethics and ecclesiology. The relationality we share with nonhuman animals – in individual relationships and the interwoven networks of relationship that make up creation – means that Christians can hope for relationships between humans and other animals to be sanctified by God’s grace. If we have this hope, and accept that theology is ethics (and eschatology not solely future-oriented), there is a clear impetus for individual Christians and church communities to look with reflective and prayerful eyes at how we relate to other animals. This will include thinking seriously about how our dietary choices impact upon them. I make two methodological shifts in the course of the thesis: from theology to ethics, and from there into ecclesiology and ethnography. These shifts are justified on the ground that theology is ethics: just as faith without works is dead (Jm. 2:17), so must theology be ethical. The use of ethnography and social-scientific methodology situates my discussion of church casuistry on animal and dietary ethics in the context of real, situated churches and church experiences. A theological ethic of diet which does not examine how churches think about eating, and the eating practices their members are formed in, would be incomplete. After outlining my aims and methodology in chapter 1, in chapter 2 I critique theological models of ‘stewardship’ (popular for thinking about human-animal relationality). Chapter 3 provides a short systematic theology of human-animal relationality which seeks to amend for stewardship’s limitations. In chapters 4-5, I consider the dietary implications of chapters 2-3, arguing that vegetarianism (theologically understood as dietary pacifism) is a valid ethical practice for followers of Christ. Chapters 6-8 look at ethical dialogue and discernment in church communities, arguing – partly via conversation with ordinary Christian vegetarians – that there is a theological impetus on individual Christians and the church to engage seriously with all ethical topics, including diet. In chapter 9, I draw the thesis together with a relational framework which emphasises radical inclusivity – the call for the church to be a community of human animals, in and for the wider community of creation.
14
Göranzon, Karolina. "Third-party Nonviolent Intervention and Peace-building : The Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Teologiska institutionen, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-313148.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis explores the role of third-party nonviolent interventions as a supportive mechanism in relation to local peace-building initiatives. A framework on violence, conflict, peace, nonviolence and intervention is outlined in the theoretical chapters, to provide a basis for discussing the empirical findings of the research. Through the strategy of a case study and with a mixed-method approach of participant observations and interviews, perspectives from the context of the situation in Palestine and Israel were gathered. Five key informant interviews with former participants of third-party nonviolent interventions programmes were conducted, and during ethnographic fieldwork in Palestine and Israel, four local peace-building initiatives were studied. The findings are discussed in relation to the theoretical framework and the conclusions drawn from the discussion is that while third-party nonviolent interventions can contribute to local peace-building, it is mainly through decreasing the risk of escalation of violence in certain situations, sharing information and by supporting local peace-building initiatives. In order to be effective in this area, it is crucial that the third-party nonviolent interventions are perceptive of the local context, and reflect on the role that they play.
15
Ryg, Matthew A. "Toward Better Knowledge: A Social Epistemology of Pragmatic Nonviolence." OpenSIUC, 2015. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/dissertations/1034.
Full textAbstract:
The dissertation takes as its central problem the priority and value of nonviolent and pragmatic social epistemology. Many concede the desirability of nonviolent problem solving, but quickly and unreflectively assent to violence when the imagination fails to procure viable alternatives. Moreover, the kind and quality of knowledge gained through the use of nonviolence, it is argued, is far superior to the kind and quality of knowledge gained through the use of violence. This dissertation attempts to settle the discussion of the priority and value of nonviolence as a social epistemology by arguing for, and ultimately proving with the use of rationale and empirical evidence, that pragmatic nonviolence has more social-epistemological and/or value as knowledge than the available violent alternatives. Neither modern nor post-modern violence are able to produce knowledge with quite the same staying power, lasting effects, and high quality than that which is generated through what I call "pragmatic nonviolence." Traditionally, for a variety of biased reasons, classical American pragmatism has not taken a stand for either philosophical or methodological nonviolence. This unfortunate situation will, I hope, change with the argument in this dissertation. The issue of whether or not the social-epistemological value of pragmatic nonviolence, as a philosophical movement, has the potential to steer the course of contemporary social, political, and moral pragmatism into the 21st century, has largely been settled. The discussion and analysis offered in chapter one focuses primarily on the logic of domination, violent knowing, and violent realism. Historical context is provided to situate the central problems, compare sources of knowledge, and explore the relationship between violence and knowledge. The views of Sun Tzu, Carl von Clausewitz, The United States Military Academy, Wendy Hamblet, Crispin Sartwell, Judith Bradford, and Aaron Fortune receive primary attention in chapter one. Chapter two focuses primarily on the development of a radically empirical social epistemology and theory of concept formation. I examine the roots of social epistemology and describe the problem of learning theory and concept formation through notions of habit, conduct, and struggle. The views of John Dewey, Paulo Freire, and Leonard Harris receive attention in this section of chapter two. I conclude this chapter by outlining concepts of peace and social justice as they demonstrate how social knowledge is created pragmatically. The views of Martin Luther King, Jr., Duane Cady, and Steven Lee receive attention in the latter section of chapter two. The analysis offered in chapter three centers on what I claim generates better knowledge: pragmatic nonviolence. The first section of chapter three describes the kind of normative epistemology I advocate and how pragmatic nonviolence offers qualitatively better knowledge than the alternatives. The views of C.S. Peirce, John Dewey, and Edgar Sheffield Brightman are considered in this section. The second section details the extent and value of uniting pragmatism and nonviolence, the need for a distinctly pragmatic conception of nonviolence, prophetic pragmatism, and American personalism. The views of Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Cornel West, and Randall Auxier are treated in this part. The third and fourth sections of chapter three applies the theories advanced in previous sections and chapters to demonstrate how pragmatic nonviolence generates better knowledge. The views of Myles Horton and Bob Moses are considered at length.
16
Lucas, Anne M. "Strategic Nonviolence and Humor: Their Synergy and Its Limitations: A Case Study of Nonviolent Struggle led by Serbia’s Otpor." Kent State University Honors College / OhioLINK, 2010. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ksuhonors1292889981.
Full text
17
Stilwell, Carolyn Anne. "Conflict and conflict resolution in Bolivia." Online access for everyone, 2007. http://www.dissertations.wsu.edu/Thesis/Spring2007/C_Stilwell_042707.pdf.
Full text
18
Edmonds, Amy E. Hinojosa Victor Javier. "The Catholic Church and the nonviolent resistance in Chile." Waco, Tex. : Baylor University, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/2104/4020.
Full text
19
Inghram, Daniel C. ""Turning the other cheek " in Matthew 5:38-42." Online full text .pdf document, available to Fuller patrons only, 2004. http://www.tren.com.
Full text
20
Updegrove, R. L. "Refusing to be the other| Barbara Deming's experiments with nonviolence." Thesis, Northern Arizona University, 2014. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3633678.
Full textAbstract:
<p> Barbara Deming was active in the U.S. nonviolent movement from 1960 until her death from cancer in 1984 at age sixty-seven. A complex understanding of the intersections between gender, sexuality, feminism, and nonviolence can be gleaned by following her pilgrimage through nuclear disarmament activities, the African American Freedom Movement, the efforts to end the war in Viet Nam, Women's Liberation Movement actions, and her involvement in the Gay Liberation Movement. Deming had become well-known by the mid-1960s as a journalist for <i>The Nation,</i> an associate editor of the pacifist magazine <i>Liberation,</i> and the author of <i> Prison Notes</i> (1966), the first of her eight books. Despite her name recognition at the time and the leadership roles she often took in these social movements, she has nearly disappeared from the historical record. </p><p> Deming's story has been both preserved and erased because of her focus on integrating nonviolence with feminism, lesbianism, and androgyny in the 1970s and 80s. Deming identified as a lesbian as a teenager, but being white and upper-class shielded her from some oppression. By the 1970s she came to see her gender and sexuality as central to her involvement in the nonviolent movement. As she began living openly as a lesbian and writing about the connections she saw between feminism and nonviolence, she gained a new audience, primarily women, while losing the wider readership she had cultivated in the 1960s. Some men in the nonviolent movement continued to support her work, but it was pacifist women and those in the Women's and Gay Liberation Movements who helped archive her papers at the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute. </p><p> Understanding Deming's activism helps to explain the oppressive role of heterosexism in the United States and highlights the possibilities and limitations of merging feminism and nonviolence, a strategy that has been neglected by historians of peace and feminism. Reclaiming Barbara Deming's perspective expressed in a quarter-century of writing about nonviolence, and investigating the continuity and change of her arguments, reveals a hidden history of the Women's Liberation Movement and the broader nonviolent movement. </p>
21
Eisenmann, Annette. "Voluntary suffering and nonviolence in the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi." Thesis, Queen's University Belfast, 1987. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.317113.
Full text
22
Post, Kaeleigh A. "No Greater Love Than This: Violence, Nonviolence, and the Atonement." Trinity Lutheran Seminary / OhioLINK, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=trin1440692149.
Full text
23
Williams, James C. Williams. "THE ROAD TO HARPER’S FERRY: THE GARRISONIAN REJECTION OF NONVIOLENCE." Kent State University / OhioLINK, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1465911514.
Full text
24
Baldoli, Roberto. "Nonviolence as impure praxis : reconstructing the concept with Aldo Capitini." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/20209.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis aims to ‘reconstruct’ the concept of nonviolence, offering a new unifying and pluralistic definition, which rejects recent worrying uses of the term, and is able to deal with the crisis of democracy and the construction of a post-secular society. Currently nonviolence is split in two between principled and pragmatic nonviolence. This division has been successful, but it is now a problem: it divides means and ends, politics and morality, religion and politics. In order to find a way out we will turn to the Italian philosopher Aldo Capitini. He interpreted nonviolence as a tension, a praxis of liberation from the chains of reality and openness to the existent. This approach includes a pragmatic dimension, which is a logic reinterpreting current practices and inventing new ones to build up via facti a new society (omnicracy); and a principled dimension, which is a craft of integrating reality with values, reaching its peak in the connection with everybody in an action of value (compresence). This approach offers actions of protest-to-project to overcome the division between means and ends; a political approach between ‘realism and serenity’ to overcome the division between politics and morality; an open religion which can work at the centre of society and politics. Finally, we will extend Capitini’s reflection claiming that nonviolence as praxis is a non-systematic revolutionary approach aiming at freedom and plurality. We will add that this praxis is impure, because made of less than perfect actions performed in a very imperfect environment by imperfect human beings. Reconceiving nonviolence as impure praxis will allow us to reunite principled and pragmatic nonviolence, reinterpreting the former as actualisation of a public principle and the latter as a phronesis. This interpretation will offer an interesting form of transformative realism, which enriches via facti any democratic order with life, and show the way to overcome the secular divisions towards a post-secular society centred on the Assisi presumption.
25
McDuffie, Scott Patterson. "James Lawson leading architect and educator of nonviolence and nonviolent direct action protest strategies during the student sit-in movement of 1960 /." NCSU, 2007. http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/theses/available/etd-03212007-153100/.
Full textAbstract:
James Morris Lawson, Jr. grew up in Massillion, Ohio, in a loving Christian home. He became a pacifist at an early age after a memorable encounter with racism. As he matured, he studied nonviolence from the perspectives of Jesus Christ and the great Indian revolutionary, Mohandas Gandhi. After meeting the famous Christian pacifist, A. J. Muste, Lawson became a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation and a conscientious objector to war. He spent fourteen months in a federal prison after refusing to be drafted into the U.S. military. After prison, Lawson worked in India as a missionary and learned nonviolent direct action strategies from Gandhi?s followers.Inspired by the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Lawson left India and returned to America in 1956 to join the struggle to end racial segregation in America. That same year, Lawson met Martin Luther King, Jr. and upon King?s request, moved to the South to teach nonviolence. Lawson eventually settled in Nashville, Tennessee, to teach nonviolence to a group of young men and women who would become some of the most important ?leaders? in the American Civil Rights Movement. James Lawson made a significant contribution to the student sit-in movement of 1960 by teaching a new idea?nonviolent direct action?to an elite group of student activists. However, his influence has been ignored by most histories of the movement. The following essay brings this elusive figure to the forefront and highlights his impact on the first wave of student activists who spearheaded the nonviolent campaign to overturn segregation.
26
Blomberg, Tranæus Igor. "Ethics of Relationality, Practices of Nonviolence : A Reading of Butler's Ethics." Thesis, Södertörns högskola, Institutionen för kultur och lärande, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-27887.
Full textAbstract:
The purpose of this essay is to examine Judith Butler’s approach to the problem of ethics, and the ways in which she attempts to reformulate notions of morality and responsibility based on an understanding of the subject as inherently bound to others within a context of normative structures that exceed its own influence. For Butler, this bond implies that the subject’s constitution is structured within what she calls a ”scene of address,” where it emerges into a social field by being appealed to by others, and replying to that appeal by giving an account of itself. By setting out to examine the way in which she puts two influential thinkers—namely Foucault and Levinas—to work, I will examine her notion of scenes of address more closely, and try to show how it enables her to pose the problems of ethics and morality in novel ways. I will argue that her ethics should be understood as one of relationality, since it moves away from the self-sufficient, autonomous subject as the outset for ethics, towards an understanding our very being as dependent on the being of others. This, I propose, puts it in contrast with many established ways of thinking about ethics, both within the Western philosophical tradition, and in views of ethics more generally. Thus, I hope to show that Butler’s ethics constitutes a valuable resource with regard to the question of ethical responsibility. Finally, I will propose that it carries significant implications that point towards ethical nonviolence, and that these are of increasing importance to us today.
27
Chan, Andrew. "The creative urge : anarchist perspectives on violence, nonviolence, and social change." Thesis, University of Bristol, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/1983/50e09302-4b2c-49b6-9764-ea655b0e9b7c.
Full textAbstract:
Anarchists are commonly perceived to possess a pathological attraction to violence. Other stereotypes define anarchists as utopians with little grasp of either human nature or economic and political processes. Furthermore, anarchism is not accorded the same gravity by academics as they give to other political doctrines. The apparent failure of anarchist theorists to match their formidable goal with a consistent strategy is one more reason for academics to maintain their general indifference to anarchism. This thesis seeks to challenge the currency of anarchist stereotypes by producing evidence which suggests that anarchists are not significantly given to unrealistic expectations, nor the glorification of violence. The attitudes of anarchists concerning violence in revolutionary and prerevolutionary situations are examined empirically. The ideological and moral consistency of violence with anarchism is investigated by theoretical enquiry. Documentary analysis is the·usual mode for determining theoretical and propagandist perspectives. However, this study also refers to the activists who compose the greater part of the anarchist movement. A pilot qualitative interview study is, therefore, an important constituent. The reader is oriented in the study by definitional work on ideas surrounding anarchism and violence. The novel methodology of the study is explained in depth both to ensure internal validity and to guide further forays in the field. Information extracted from contemporary propagandist literature and the testimony of activist respondents is then analysed for attitudes toward violence, nonviolence, and social change. Finally, issues of theoretical and historical significance are examined. The anarchist experiment with covert violence at the end of the nineteenth century, and the moral and ideological dilemmas concerning consistency are given particular attention
28
Pedersen, Jennifer. "Sisters resist! : women's peace activism in West Africa and North America." Thesis, Aberystwyth University, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/2160/208b63b8-4163-47ce-a511-323561cfb352.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis examines the Women in Peacebuilding Program (WIPNET) of the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP) and the Raging Grannies, two current women’s movements at the frontlines of organizing for peace in their respective contexts. Based on fieldwork in West Africa and North America, including participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and content analysis of relevant documents, the thesis locates these groups within the wider politics of both the feminist movement and the peace movement. The thesis draws on three bodies of literature: feminist international relations, especially literature on women and war, feminist analyses of security and the relationship between militarism and patriarchy; peace studies, especially the concepts of the “positive” and “negative” peace, conflict transformation, and nonviolence; and social movement theory, especially in reference to collective identity and tactical repertoires of protest. The thesis investigates the relationship between “women”, “motherhood”, “feminism” and peace, concluding that, while women peace activists may organize around gendered identities, the relationship between women and peace is more complex than an essentialist position would propose. A detailed analysis of the tactical repertoires used by women peace activists examines activists’ gendered use of bodies and the manipulation and exploitation of gender and age stereotypes. This is followed by an analysis of the internal and external outcomes of activism, such as personal empowerment, collective identity formation, and policy impacts. The study concludes that women peace activists operate on understandings of “peace” and “security” that are distinct from those of mainstream actors; that they manipulate, challenge, and subvert gender stereotypes; and they use a range of protest and peacebuilding tactics, some of which attract reprisals from the state. Women’s peace activism also creates new political opportunities for women to express opposition to patriarchal militarism, thus challenging the marginalization of women within international and national politics on issues of peace and security. Following Cynthia Cockburn (2007), the thesis draws conclusions not about what women’s peace activism definitively is, but rather what it can look like and what it might achieve.
29
Oommen, George. "Gandhi's portrayal of Jesus stemming from his reading of the Sermon on the Mount a Reformed perspective /." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 2008. http://www.tren.com/search.cfm?p036-0394.
Full text
30
Spears, Sylvia Carolle. "Freedom's children : fifth graders' perceptions of the effects of peace education in the form of Kingian nonviolence /." View online ; access limited to URI, 2004. http://0-wwwlib.umi.com.helin.uri.edu/dissertations/dlnow/3135916.
Full text
31
Berglund, Ellinor. "Politisk jiu-jitsu, ett pris de mäktiga slipper betala? : En kvantitativ studie om maktens påverkan på konsekvenserna av statligt förtryck gentemot ickevåldskampanjer." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Statsvetenskapliga institutionen, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-186455.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis presents a quantitative study that aims to investigate whether Brian Martin is right in his theory about how more powerful actors have a greater capacity to prevent outrage and anger after opressions and thus suffer less from political jiu-jitsu, a process in which oppression becomes counterproductive. This is done by looking at whether more powerful regimes getaway more easily with repressing nonviolent campaigns. By designing a measuring scale for the scope of political jiu-jitsu, the connection between the scope and three different aspects of power - national capacity, wealth and state oppression - is investigated. The results shows that the more powerful the oppressive states are in terms of national capacity and wealth, the less extensive political jiu-jitsu. On the other hand, a higher degree of state oppression results in more extensive political jiu-jitsu. The results linked to the degree of staterepression are statistically significant and it can thus be said that the differences in the extent of political jiu-jitsu are not due to chance. The results indicate that more powerful states getaway with repressing nonviolent campaigns more easily, if power is measured in terms ofnational capacity or wealth. If, on the other hand, power is measured in the amount of noppression, it is more costly for the states that exercise more oppression.
32
Walker, Jenny Louise. "Black violence and nonviolence in the civil rights and black power eras." Thesis, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2000. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.311170.
Full text
33
Dougan, Debbie. "Can you see the beauty? nonviolent communication as counter narrative in the lives of former prisoners /." Pullman, Wash. : Washington State University, 2010. http://www.dissertations.wsu.edu/Dissertations/Spring2010/D_Dougan_041210.pdf.
Full text
34
Sanders, Carl Edward. "The New Testament ethic of nonresistance in Luke-Acts." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1985. http://www.tren.com.
Full text
35
Villeneuve, François 1974. "La légalité de l'intervention humanitaire en droit international : entre la non-violence et le respect des droits de l'homme." Thesis, McGill University, 2005. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=99156.
Full textAbstract:
In spite of the general prohibition of the use of force in international relations contained in the UN Charter, some jurists maintain that humanitarian intervention is valid under comtemporary international law. Too make their case, they put forward a series of arguments which can be divided into two categories. The first holds that humanitarian intervention is compatible with the UN Charter, and the second, which is used more often, that a right of humanitarian intervention has arise out of state's practice. The present thesis surveys these arguments and comes to the conclusion that humanitarian intervention remains illegal under international law. Notwithstanding the formidable progression of human rights in international society, the rule prohibiting recourse to force still enjoys great currency among states at the beginning of this new millenium.
36
Siegrist, Deborah R. "Rural Mennonites and non-resistance a profile of Mennonites in western New York /." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1992. http://www.tren.com.
Full text
37
Ramsay, Zara. "The politics of emptiness : religion, nonviolence and sacrifice in the Tibetan Freedom Movement." Thesis, University of Portsmouth, 2015. https://researchportal.port.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/the-politics-of-emptiness(058910d1-e389-455a-8015-96b2260d0b22).html.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis has two categories of contribution, the first of which is theoretical, while the latter may be considered practical or applied. The thesis makes theoretical contributions both to nonviolence theory and to the field of Girardian studies. With regard to the former, the thesis challenges entrenched categorisation methods within nonviolence research that risk homogenising the movements under study. In demonstrating how Girardian theory can provide one additional analytical angle from which to view and understand nonviolent movements, it is argued that our analyses of these movements needs to be broadened still further. The thesis also contributes to Girardian theory directly by challenging its most problematic element: Girard’s insistence on the primacy of Christianity. By bringing Girard’s ideas into conversation with Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, this particular aspect of his thought is challenged, thereby making the rest of his corpus more accessible (and more acceptable) to a multicultural audience. Additionally, while Girard himself has very little to say about how his own style of nonviolent ideals might actually be pursued in the contemporary world, this thesis offers an original example of how his goals have been realised in a real-life political (and non-Christian) situation: the Tibetan freedom movement. Thus, the thesis aims to expand the range of Girard’s applicability by thinking about how his ideas could inform our understandings of contemporary political activity for Tibet. Further to this, the applied aim of this thesis is to illuminate the internal dynamics of the Tibetan freedom movement. Although this movement has a strong collective identity, I seek to reveal internal disparities that may be preventing it from achieving positive results. My research in McLeod Ganj, a Tibetan refugee settlement in northern India, shows that members of the refugee population generally have strong opinions about what constitute acceptable nonviolent methods in their freedom movement, and believe that these are in confluence with the philosophy of the Dalai Lama, their traditional temporal and spiritual leader. However, through the application of Rene Girard’s analytical perspective, this thesis reveals a fundamental (and generally unrecognised) variation between the understandings of the public and the Dalai Lama with regard to nonviolence as practiced.
38
Arvedsen, Lærke. ""We have whistles instead of guns" : Nonviolent resistance in the 21st century." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för samhällsstudier (SS), 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-39567.
Full textAbstract:
Nonviolent resistance has been found to be more effective in bringing about societal and political transformation than violent insurgency. Nonviolent resistance as a nonconventional form of engagement in conflict, furthermore attracts more people, encourages diversity in participation, has the moral high ground and has positive longterm effects on a society, in terms of citizenship skills, civilian peace and democratisation. However, a discourse of militarism and violence can be said to dominate the world today. Macropolitical incompatibilities are often confronted with arms and violence, whether by political leaders or civilians. This thesis aspires to challenge this violent discourse, and encourage the move towards nonviolent approaches to confronting and circumventing power and authority, by exploring the mechanisms at work in nonviolent resistance movements, and attain a deeper understanding of which elements of nonviolent resistance movements may be supportive of achieving the aim of the collective action for change. The methodological approach is conducting a qualitative, deductive study within the framework of a structured, focused cross-case comparison of four nonviolent, anti-regime movements in the Middle East and North Africa, which have taken place in the 21st century. The findings reveal the ambiguous and context-dependent nature of most of the elements scrutinised for their operativeness, and yield suggestive tendencies of few - while they offer a nuanced insight into the dynamics within which these elements work in nonviolent conflict. This study explores the phenomenon of nonviolent resistance, provides an understanding of the complexity of the mechanisms and dynamics involved, and suggests the need for further research into nonviolent resistance, to improve the understanding and utilisation of it.
39
Peterson, Susan Joan. "From discourse to activism : trajectories of Percy Bysshe Shelley's nonviolence philosophy in literatures of resistance /." View online ; access limited to URI, 2004. http://0-wwwlib.umi.com.helin.uri.edu/dissertations/dlnow/3135913.
Full text
40
Brown, Chris D. "Towards The Impossible Dream: A Framework for Nonviolent Revolution in India’s Maoist Conflict." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/18316.
Full textAbstract:
The government of India has routinely depicted the Communist Party of India (Maoist) as a brutal and authoritarian adversary that threatens the security, development and democracy of the nation. The government’s primary response to the Maoist insurgency has been to try to militarily clear areas of Maoist influence, and then advance a programme of so-called development designed to wean away the movement’s support base. The Maoists, by contrast, condemn the ruthless and exploitative Indian state-corporate nexus which, they argue, is advancing elite interests at the expense of the marginalised and impoverished. The Maoists endorse armed struggle and the capture and control of state power as the only vehicles through which a revolution can occur. In contrast with the approaches of both the government and the Maoists, this thesis explores the idea of nonviolent revolution, interrogating how, in contexts of violent conflict, radical social change might be pursued and protected. I advance the idea of nonviolent revolution as a synthesis of constructive anarchistic prefiguration and obstructive nonviolent action. I draw upon three examples – the Sarvodaya movement, the Zapatistas and the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado – and develop a flexible framework for action which challenges assumptions of revolution as a process necessarily involving violence and the capture of state power. The emerging framework developed involves three key components. First, it involves the core role of prefiguration, and the idea that such action is best guided not by totalising objectives, but by flexible and adaptive principles which help prompt and inspire ongoing projects geared to meeting human survival and flourishing. Second, it includes a focus on the social unit or scale at/in which such prefigurative action might best occur, and the privileging of place-based struggle which then employs a range of inter-scalar supports and solidarity so as to not only bolster the local initiative, but to suggest and assert an alternative socio-political-spatial imaginary. Third, it explores how nonviolent action might protect such radical prefiguration against the inevitable threats that will arise, and suggests that any such protective possibility involves and combines processes of both conversion and coercion.
41
Patchin, Paige M. "Pacific[ations] : security, nonviolence, and the 'war on drugs' in Mérida, Yucatán, 2007-2012." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/45574.
Full textAbstract:
Drug-related conflict has perhaps been the central question of Mexican politics since President Felipe Calderón initiated the "war on drugs" in 2006. From 2007-2012, military and police presence in everyday life deepened across the country, and tens of thousands of people were killed. It in opposition to this scene of extreme violence that Mérida, Yucatán was relentlessly celebrated as the most secure city in Mexico, the "City of Peace." Through interviews with government officials and activists in Mérida, this thesis explores reverberations between i) the politics of Mérida's continuing declaration of nonviolence; ii) the mobilization of the abstract concept of security; and iii) the reconfiguration of state power under the "war on drugs." Chapter 2 explains the policies and practices enacted by Mexican and U.S. governments under the anti-drug banner. The ways in which life and landscapes in Yucatán were re-organized around protection against drug-related conflict is the subject of Chapter 3. This, what I term securitization, attempted to bring the circulation of bodies, drugs, and rumors in Mérida under control for the sake of the security and reproduction of the state. Chapter 4 explores the relationship between securitization, the story of nonviolence, and colonial identity categories. Here, I argue that the "City of Peace" is premised on the formation of pacified state subjects. These storylines converge in my central argument: constructions of nonviolence in Mérida from 2007-2012 were bound up with many different forms of state violence, ranging from the use of brute force to the quiet restriction of everyday conduct.
42
Mccreery, Gregory Richard. "Violence and Disagreement: From the Commonsense View to Political Kinds of Violence and Violent Nonviolence." Scholar Commons, 2016. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/6542.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation argues that there is an agreed upon commonsense view of violence, but beyond this view, definitions for kinds of violence are essentially contested and non-neutrally, politically ideological, given that the political itself is an essentially contested concept defined in relation to ideologies that oppose one another. The first chapter outlines definitions for a commonsense view of violence produced by Greene and Brennan. This chapter argues that there are incontestable instances of violence that are almost universally agreed upon, such as when an adult intentionally smashes a child’s head against a table, purposefully causing harm. It is also claimed that, because political, ideological distinctions between kinds of violence arise from the creation of moral equivalences to the commonsense view of violence, political ideology is the source of disagreement. The second chapter argues that the concept of violence and of the political are essentially contested concepts. Gallie’s criteria for what counts as an essentially contested concept are utilized in order to argue that violence is an essentially contested concept at the level of the political, though not at the level of the commonsense view of violence. In fact, the paradigmatic cases that the commonsense view of violence pertains to serve as the core cases that are then interpreted as kinds of violence at the ideological level. To define violence as altogether wrong, or to define kinds of violence as acceptable and others as wrong is itself a politically ideological move to make, such as when liberalism defines its own uses of violence as justified and legitimate, and its enemy’s violence as unjustifiable and illegitimate. The World Health Organization and Bufacchi’s definitions for violence are presented, as are the definition for terroristic violence defined by Nagel. Erlenbusch’s critique of a liberal view, such as that of Nagel and the World Health Organization, is addressed as a reflection on the fact that, beyond the commonsense view of violence, violence is an essentially contested concept for which an ideologically, politically non-neutral definition is unlikely. The third chapter outlines numerous definitions produced by various philosophers, historians, and theorists, such as Machiavelli, Arendt, Hobbes, Kant, Treitschke, Weber, Bakunin, Sorel, Žižek, and Benjamin. The definitions produced by each demonstrates that person’s political ideological assumptions. Their definitions demonstrate an ongoing disagreement, in the sense of Rancière’s formulation for what counts as a disagreement in that each theorist defines kinds of violence under the yoke of their own political ideology. They all might agree that a single act is violent, under the commonsense view of violence, but they disagree concerning what kind of violence it is. So, though they may point to the same events and actions as examples of violence, what they mean fundamentally differs, and this means that they disagree. Their disagreement arises due to their respective political ideologies. This disagreement shows that there is no neutral justification for the neutrality of a state, particularly if a neutral state must defend itself. The state is instead defined in historically contextual terms of how the state relates to kinds of violence, and the distinctions between kinds of violence are not themselves politically, ideologically neutral. So, the concept of violence, beyond the commonsense view, is an essentially contested concept for which a non-neutral definition is unlikely. Beyond the commonsense view, political ideology is inextricably bound up within distinctions between kinds of violence. The fourth chapter then examines arguments on the question of whether nonviolence counts as a kind of violence. If distinctions between kinds of violence are essentially contested and non-neutrally defined, and nonviolence is defined as distinct from violence, then it follows that nonviolence is an essentially contested concept for which no non-neutral definition is possible, at least beyond a commonsense view of nonviolence. A commonsense view of nonviolence is defined as the assumption that nonviolence is not violent in the way that the commonsense view defines violence. That is, nonviolence occurs when there is no action or event that most people would define as a violent one. Definitions for nonviolence, civil disobedience, nonviolent political actions, and nonviolent direct actions are then outlined. These definitions aim at showing that the doctrine of nonviolence does not merely refer to nonviolent acts, but to a strategy that is a means to defeating violence. Given that what counts as the nonviolence that defeats violence is ideologically a matter of disagreement, nonviolence, in this sense, can count as a kind of violence. The fifth chapter concludes, raising questions concerning how violence can be valued, the degree to which a state cannot neutrally justify its neutrality, and the degree to which, beyond the commonsense view of violence, there ever could be agreement concerning what counts as kinds of violence.
1 In this dissertation, I draw on a number of ideas/passages that appeared earlier in my paper “The Efficacy of Scapegoating and Revolutionary Violence," in Philosophy, Culture, and Traditions: A Journal of the World Union of Catholic Philosophical Societies, ed. William Sweet, 10(2014), 203-219. I am grateful to the editors of the journal for permission to draw on this material here.
43
Weems, Michael Ray. "The Fierce Tribe: Crack Whores, Body Fascists, and Circuit Queens in the Spiritual Performance of Masculine Non-Violence." Columbus, Ohio : Ohio State University, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1180029151.
Full text
44
Hornowski, Katherine Alice. "The way we speak affects our reality : why speaking from the values of racial justice begins the creation of a racially just world : a project based upon an independent investigation." View online, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10090/5896.
Full text
45
Beaudet, Jean-François. "Le pathos de Dieu comme fondement d'une théologie et d'une praxis de la non-violence /." Thesis, McGill University, 1987. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=66203.
Full text
46
Cramer, Jacob M. "Strategies of Resistance." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/593600.
Full textAbstract:
Political resistance is manifested in a variety of ways, including violent and nonviolent methods. Though violence and nonviolence are often treated as analytically distinct phenomena, this dissertation argues that there is value in understanding how the methods are related, and how underlying factors lead to the use of one over the other. There are many resistance groups which use a combination of both violent and nonviolent tactics, and only by examining these methods in conjunction with one another can we more fully understand their use. To understand the efficacy of jointly examining violent and nonviolent tactics, this dissertation addresses the topic from three primary perspectives. The introductory chapter offers the primary questions and puzzles this dissertation will explore. Following that, chapter two, is the first primary perspective to be addressed: the individual level. The arguments in chapter two revolve around personal networks, and the characteristics of those networks that impact views on the use of nonviolence by violent groups. Chapter three takes a state and environmental perspective, and identifies factors unique to the state and their impact on the likelihood of violence and nonviolence. Chapter four examines organizations as the unit of analysis, and inter-organizational characteristics are assessed for their impact on the use of nonviolence by violent groups. The concluding chapter brings together the insights gained from the empirical chapters, and offers suggestions for future efforts. Overall, I find that violent and nonviolent tactics share underlying correlates that impact their use, and that their joint examination offers insights on group behavior otherwise unavailable. A unified approach to the range of conflict methods offers new insight and understanding to conflict and conflict processes.
47
Ryckman, Kirssa Cline. "Ratification as accommodation? Domestic dissent and human rights treaties." SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/620925.
Full textAbstract:
Repression is the expected response to anti-government protest; however, leaders can also accommodate demonstrators. Committing to human rights treaties is considered in this environment, where treaty commitments are conceptualized as a policy concession that leaders can grant dissenters. Past research has shown that top-down domestic pressures, such as new democratic regimes, can influence treaty commitments. This article extends this line of research by considering the influence of bottom-up domestic pressure, arguing that nonviolent, pro-democracy movements can pressure leaders into concessions, as these movements are risky to repress but threatening to ignore. Leaders are expected to seek ‘cheap’ accommodations, and commitments to human rights treaties provide a relatively low-cost concession that also addresses demonstrators’ pro-democracy demands. Using commitments to the nine core UN human rights treaties, results are generally supportive. Governments experiencing a nonviolent, pro-democracy movement are consistently likely to sign human rights treaties. Ratification is also likely but in more limited contexts, and is more closely related to movement success. This suggests that bottom-up pressures can influence commitment to human rights treaties, but there may be little substance behind those concessions. The status quo and cost-averse preferences of leaders lead them to grant accommodations that result in minimal change and cost.
48
Gatnarek, Heather Lynn. "The People Shall Govern: The Importance of Nonviolence in the Struggle against Apartheid in South Africa." Thesis, Boston College, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/391.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis advisor: Charles Derber<br>The institution of apartheid (or official segregation), implemented in South Africa in 1948, drew immediate and prolonged opposition. For decades, groups within South Africa and in countries around the world protested government policies and repression. Many anti-apartheid activists expressed their objections to the system of apartheid through expressly nonviolent actions, including strikes, boycotts, demonstrations, and the formation of alternative institutions. Opponents of apartheid also garnered support from the international community to pressure the South African government with sanctions and embargoes. At the same time, several groups of anti-apartheid activists chose to resort to violent means to protest the government. These acts of violence included sabotage and, occasionally, the deaths of government officials or collaborators. This paper examines historical and contemporary theories of the morality and effectiveness of nonviolent action. After studying the history of the struggle against apartheid and the use of nonviolent action in South Africa, the argument is made that the consistent and prolonged use of nonviolent actions played the most crucial role in the downfall of the apartheid system<br>Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2005<br>Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences<br>Discipline: Sociology<br>Discipline: College Honors Program
49
Bothra, Shivani. "The Anuvrat Movement: Theory and Practice." FIU Digital Commons, 2013. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/825.
Full textAbstract:
The slogan: “Self-restraint is life,” forms the philosophical ideal behind the Anuvrat Movement. The purpose of my thesis is to evaluate the Anuvrat Movement introduced by Acharya Tulsi as a non-sectarian, ethical-spiritual movement. The study considered in some detail the historical context within which the movement emerged. The thesis provides a much-needed analysis of the 11 vows formulated by Tulsi in the model of the traditional vows in Jainism. It explored the question whether these vows are relevant and effective in the contemporary Indian society, and whether Tulsi’s movement can cross the geographical boundaries of the Indian sub-continent to be a part of larger global initiatives. The study explored the social significance of the concepts of nonviolence, social justice and sustainability in the wider global community. The study suggests a positive association between the exemplary charismatic role of a leader and the popularity and longevity of social movements in India.
50
Ricks, Phillip. "A theory of resistance." Diss., University of Iowa, 2017. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/5985.
Full textAbstract:
The dissertation attempts to answer the question of how to theorize resistance from within the philosophy of social science. To answer this question we must consider more than just the philosophy of social science; we also must look to political and moral philosophy. Resistance to the social norms of one’s community is possible to theorize from within the philosophy of social science once we develop a sufficiently nuanced account of social and moral communities (which involves identifying political and moral elements in community formation, reformation, and transformation), according to which membership in a community is not defined by sharing judgments, conceptual frameworks, or comprehensive worldviews, but by sharing terms of discourse so that discussion about judgments, conceptual frameworks, and comprehensive worldviews is possible. Understanding the structure of one’s moral community is not the same as to endorsing that structure. This suggests that contestation is already present within communities about what ‘we’ do, up to and including who ‘we’—as a ‘community’—are. Challenging communitarian understandings of what makes a community a community (usually construed as ‘cultures’, understood somewhat monolithically), I argue that communities are best understood as forming around common concerns or perceptions of problems (sometimes veridical, sometimes not). This contestation plays a major role in determining the identities of communities, and these identities are constantly shifting.