Movement Theory Research Articles

A theory-based analysis of labour unions in the South African Public Service

This study provides a theory-based analysis of labour unions in the South African Public Service (SAPS), focusing on the evolving dynamics of labour relations, power structures, and collective bargaining processes. The research investigates how both historical legacies and contemporary socio-economic conditions shape the role of unions within the public sector. Specifically, the study examines the influence of apartheid-era policies, post-apartheid reforms, and the impact of global economic trends on labour organisations. Theoretical frameworks such as institutional theory, social movement theory, and marxist perspectives, along with indigenous frameworks like ubuntu philosophy, worker democracy, liberation unionism, and social movement unionism, underpin the analysis. The research follows a qualitative design, drawing on an in-depth analysis of academic literature, policy documents, legal frameworks, and secondary data sources to uncover trends and patterns in labour relations. Key findings reveal a complex interplay of socio-economic inequalities, political governance, and legislative frameworks that continue to shape union activities within the SAPS. Additionally, the study highlights the importance of socio-cultural dynamics in understanding labour relations within a historically charged environment. This paper contributes to theoretical debates in industrial relations by offering nuanced insights into the challenges and opportunities confronting unions in the South African public sector. The findings have practical implications for policymakers, union leaders, and public administration practitioners aiming to encourage more equitable labour relations and promote social justice. Ultimately, the study provides a framework for rethinking labour union strategies in light of contemporary challenges and the broader pursuit of transformation in the public service.

Analyzing the fight for decency: Combining framing and emotional approaches to social movement theory

This article shows how two separate traditions of social movement studies can be combined to better understand the dynamics of collective action. It does so by integrating frame analysis with the emotional approach to social movements. It does so in studying the nationwide protests that took place in Slovakia in 2018, which forced the prime minister to resign. For frames to resonate with the public, they need to play on emotions. Although some scholars have pointed out that frames play on emotions, they have not offered any theory showing which emotions each type of frame needs to get resonance. In this article, we present a model that connects different emotions to different frames. This model can be applied to the study of all types of mass protests.

The Rise and Fall of Student Labour Activism in Authoritarian China

Research has highlighted the contribution of university students to labour movements in non-democracies, but little is known about the processes by which student labour activism arises in these societies. Based on qualitative research conducted in Guangzhou, China, in 2017 and 2018 and insights from social movement theories, this article considers how student labour activism emerges and declines in an authoritarian regime. It argues that student labour activism is a result of favourable political processes, exposure to movement resources, social ties to pro-labour agents, and the influence of movement frames. The article holds that as student labour activism in China was still in an embryonic stage and had not yet developed into a sustainable movement, escalating political threats were able to stifle student labour activism easily both through direct repression and by mediating other movement factors.

Socioeconomic Factors Affecting Young Widows' Participation in Small-Scale Farming Activities in Mbeere South, Kenya

This study investigates the socioeconomic factors influencing young widows' participation in small-scale farming activities in Mbeere South, Kenya, using a qualitative research design. The paper explores the role of cultural, economic, and gender-related factors in shaping widows' involvement in agriculture, guided by frameworks such as the Gender and Development (GAD) Theory, Social Movement Theory (SMT), and Participation Theory. Document analysis was the primary method for data collection, drawing on academic studies, government reports, and NGO documents. The data were analyzed qualitatively through systematic coding and categorization to identify key themes related to widows' challenges and opportunities in farming. The sampling process was purposive, selecting documents that provided relevant insights into the socio-economic dynamics affecting widows. Sources included government agencies, NGOs working with widows, and academic studies focused on rural development and widow empowerment. The findings show that cultural barriers, such as patriarchal gender roles, inheritance laws, and social stigma, significantly hinder widows' involvement in farming. However, education plays a crucial role in empowering widows; those with higher education are more likely to adopt modern farming techniques, access financial resources, and engage in community initiatives. The study concludes that both cultural practices and education levels are critical determinants of young widows' participation in small-scale farming. The study recommends enhancing educational opportunities, expanding agricultural extension services, and implementing legal reforms to secure land rights and reduce cultural stigma, thereby improving widows' economic security and boosting their participation in farming.

Slum Politics in Jakarta: Comparison of Slum Areas in Karet Tengsin and Guji Baru based on Urban Social Movement Theory

Slum Politics in Jakarta: Comparison of Slum Areas in Karet Tengsin and Guji Baru based on Urban Social Movement Theory

Morphological conditions on movement-chain resolution

Abstract Recent research on the Copy Theory of Movement has suggested that the realization of movement chains may be regulated by well-formedness conditions governing complex word formation, such as the Stray Affix Filter (e.g., Nunes 2004; Landau 2006). This paper extends this idea to account for certain underdocumented patterns of noun incorporation in Inuktitut (Eastern Canadian Inuit). In contrast to most prior characterizations of incorporation in the Inuit language, I demonstrate that, at least in Inuktitut, incorporated nominals are syntactically active DPs: they are able to participate in case and agreement alternations and undergo phrasal movement. These findings, in turn, motivate an analysis in which incorporation in at least Inuktitut takes place solely to satisfy the morphosyntactic requirements of certain verbs that are lexically specified as affixal (cf. Sadock 1985, 1991). The observation that incorporated nouns invariably surface within the verb complex even when extracted follows straightforwardly from the aforementioned interaction between chain resolution and the Stray Affix Filter.

John P. Davis and the Joint Committee

This Article uses archival research and social movement theory to recover a critical but untold story about how John P. Davis innovated novel modes of organizational mobilization and multidimensional advocacy to build power and movement at the intersection of race and the economy in the Jim Crow and New Deal era. It examines Davis’s mobilization of the Joint Committee on National Recovery (JCNR), recovers the mobilization and advocacy models Davis engineered, and tells of the fight Davis and the JCNR waged to achieve racial and economic justice and effect a new— and truly emancipatory—New Deal.

A socio-environmental conflict, without a social movement?: artisanal brickworks in San Luis Potosí

Introduction: The article reviewed the issue of artisanal brick production in San Luis Potosí, addressing its socioeconomic, environmental, and political implications. Over two years of research, various studies on the brick-making sector were analyzed, identifying challenges in implementing effective public policies. Despite academic and governmental efforts, significant changes in the perception of the problem have not been achieved.Development: Brick production has been studied mainly from medical and environmental perspectives, without a comprehensive analysis of its social and economic implications. The lack of technological advancement has led to pollution issues, affecting workers' health and nearby communities. Public policies have prioritized sanctions and closures instead of structural solutions. In response, brickmakers have attempted to organize, but their movement has not been recognized as a political actor. The study explored social movement theories to determine whether the brick-making sector could be considered a social movement. Various theoretical approaches were reviewed, revealing that while collective action and shared identity exist, there is no formal structure or external recognition to validate it as a social movement.Conclusion: The study concluded that the brick-making sector’s problems remain unaddressed effectively. While elements of collective action are present, a solid social movement has not been established. The research suggested further exploration of the relationship between the brick-making community and other social movements to enhance their visibility and capacity for political influence.

Pathways Into Teaching Ecological Engagement in Congregations

This paper explores the challenges of cultivating ecological engagement in the context of congregations and describes pedagogical strategies for cultivating transformational approaches to care for the Earth. Working with data from clergy taking part in an online program for education and support on climate and environmental issues, we imagine what it might look like for preachers, leaders, and educators alike to be equipped and accompanied for teaching ecological engagement. We draw on social movement theory for rhetorical frames to catalyze change in congregations that may be hindered by narratives of inaction around climate and environmental issues. We also note the importance of context in terms of geography and a sense of place for shaping education and engagement. Two strategies emerge showing promise for future inquiry: framing ecological engagement as relationship between humanity and the rest of the natural world, and theological framing for meaning-making and identifying shared values.

The critical role of civil society in driving institutional accountability for sexual violence in Australian universities

ABSTRACT Sustained civil society activism has played a critical role over the last decade in demanding institutional accountability around how the Australian university sector and Australian governments respond to, and seek to prevent, sexual assault and sexual harassment in university settings. Drawing on social movement theory, this article analyses the multi-pronged strategies and campaigning tactics adopted by student representative bodies, survivor advocates and activist organisations, alongside strategic media interventions, to demonstrate the critical importance of these interventions in heightening awareness, challenging institutional and government inertia and driving substantive institutional and regulatory action in responding to sexual violence in university settings. The discussion will consider the role of these civil society interventions in shifting key institutional actors from episodic management of incidents and inconsistent and ritualistic responses to sexual violence in university settings towards more substantive, systemic approaches—more effectively promoting rights and holding universities, residential colleges and governments to account.

On the Makhanda Education Summit

The Makhanda Education Summit, a convening of the basic sector in Makhanda, was called by Professor Sizwe Mabizela following more than a decade of deliberate, intentional and collaborative intervention in schools in Makhanda focused on improving learner performance. The Summit sought to be an inclusive space for members of the education sector in the city of Makhanda, and in doing prioritized ensuring that its delegates included representatives from early childhood development centres, primary schools, high schools and non-profit organisations that work in the education sector.In doing so, the Summit has been situated within the context of the city’s education sector as a crucial co-created reflection point by the community on the development of the education sector following its gradual upliftment through engaged partnership. In addition, it served as a strategic space to collectively identify key goals to shape the future of education in Makhanda and map out the shared pathway towards building a city of education excellence.Explored through the lens of Social Movement Theory, the presenters assess how the Summit’s hyper-local approach to bringing together school leaders and educators after impactful engagement over several years enabled the development of an organic community-driven social movement to emerge. The Summit demonstrated the necessity and endless potential of collaboration for common good, and the essential role of higher education institutions in driving community development. The paper will provide an overview of the decade's journey towards convening the Summit, reflect on the strategic approaches taken to mobilise buy-in and build a common purpose within the city’s stakeholder network, and share some of the key outputs that will undoubtedly inform the work of the invested stakeholders for the years to come.

On the Makhanda Education Summit

The Makhanda Education Summit, a convening of the basic sector in Makhanda, was called by Professor Sizwe Mabizela following more than a decade of deliberate, intentional and collaborative intervention in schools in Makhanda focused on improving learner performance. The Summit sought to be an inclusive space for members of the education sector in the city of Makhanda, and in doing prioritized ensuring that its delegates included representatives from early childhood development centres, primary schools, high schools and non-profit organisations that work in the education sector.In doing so, the Summit has been situated within the context of the city’s education sector as a crucial co-created reflection point by the community on the development of the education sector following its gradual upliftment through engaged partnership. In addition, it served as a strategic space to collectively identify key goals to shape the future of education in Makhanda and map out the shared pathway towards building a city of education excellence.Explored through the lens of Social Movement Theory, the presenters assess how the Summit’s hyper-local approach to bringing together school leaders and educators after impactful engagement over several years enabled the development of an organic community-driven social movement to emerge. The Summit demonstrated the necessity and endless potential of collaboration for common good, and the essential role of higher education institutions in driving community development. The paper will provide an overview of the decade's journey towards convening the Summit, reflect on the strategic approaches taken to mobilise buy-in and build a common purpose within the city’s stakeholder network, and share some of the key outputs that will undoubtedly inform the work of the invested stakeholders for the years to come.

“We Need to Live the World that is Possible”: Prefigurative Justice, Creative Collaboration, and the Activism of Rita Wong

Although many writers and scholars struggle to cross the threshold between literary expressive culture and activism, poet Rita Wong has fostered and bridged both collaborative artistic and direct-action social justice work. Wong’s collaborations with Dorothy Christian, Larissa Lai, Cindy Mochizuki, and Fred Wah illuminate the promise of creative practice in confronting racial capitalism and climate destruction. This essay draws from the social movement theory of prefigurative politics, routed through abolition feminism and Indigenous place-based epistemology, to account for ethical consistencies between Wong’s poetics, collaborative artistic practice, and direct-action interventions. Prefigurative politics conveys “the embodiment, within the ongoing political practice of a movement, of those forms of social relations, decision-making, culture, and human experience that are the ultimate goal” (Boggs, 1977, p. 100). Wong’s work focuses on “Reckoning” at the pivot point of climate destruction: she writes, “our common survival depends on our collective ability to address the environmental devastation that has accelerated in this century, a devastation that will not end unless we learn to live by values that manifest and respect Indigenous relationships to the land and waters” (Wong, 2012, p. 535). Her scholarship and collaborative poetic engagements have attended to “Repairing” with words, performance, bodily engagement, and crafting a paradigm shift in alliance with human and nonhuman others, thinking with and through water. And Wong “Reworlds” through experimental and imaginative building of new relations, telling new stories. In keeping with prefigurative social movement practice, she and her collaborators act as if that new world has already arrived.

Towards a Processual Social Movement Theory: Diachrony, Dialectics, and Danda

Interest in temporality and the effects of social movements over periods of time has increased over the past few years. This has created the need for diachronic approaches to the study of movements and accounts for how movements create social change and have an impact on the course of history. There have been some struggles to account for history in existing approaches to social movements, with eventful or ruptural accounts of social change remaining prominent in some recent works. This article proposes a conversational philosophy between African philosophies such as ubuntu and ibuanyidanda and Marxist humanism as an approach that can allow us to explore dynamic ontologies. Marxist approaches to social movement studies have so far yielded the most dynamic approaches to social change. I contend that ubuntu and ibuanyidanda offer ontological perspectives that allow us to understand humans and the societies they create as dynamic, changing, and interrelated, in a way that can complement, and enhance, the historical materialist model of a society created by collective human agency, albeit not in circumstances that they choose.

Modest Method for Estimating CO2 Emissions from Container Handling Equipment at Ports

The maritime industry is under increasing pressure to reduce CO2 emissions, with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) setting a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including emissions from the port sector, by 40% by 2030. However, accurate and reliable methods for estimating CO2 emissions at container ports, which are significant contributors to maritime emissions, are still lacking. This study aims to address this by evaluating a novel method for estimating CO2 emissions at container ports. The proposed method utilizes the cargo handling equipment movement theory, quantifying both vertical and horizontal movements based on the amount of container handling equipment at the port. The emissions for each piece of equipment are estimated by multiplying the movement quantity by the respective emission factor. To validate the model, a robustness test compares the estimated CO2 emissions with actual energy consumption data from the port. A case study was conducted at a container port with an annual capacity of over 500,000 TEUs and a parallel layout type. The estimated CO2 emissions were approximately 8183 tons per year, with container cranes contributing 56%, rubber-tire gantry cranes contributing 27%, terminal trucks contributing 14%, and reach stackers contributing 3%. The method demonstrated accuracy, with a deviation of less than 1%. This method offers a fast and reliable approach for estimating baseline CO2 emissions at container ports, providing valuable insights for port authorities and policymakers to develop more effective emission-reduction strategies.

Collective Agency in Reparation Politics: A Contentious Politics Perspective on Victim Mobilisation in Northern Ireland

ABSTRACT This article contributes to a better understanding of the collective agency of survivor organisations in Transitional Justice (TJ) processes by studying their claims for reparations as contentious politics. Examining two different survivor groups in Northern Ireland, we argue that applying concepts from social movement theory to understand victim groups in TJ is valuable in four ways: Firstly, it facilitates an analytical assessment of how and why survivors organise, and allows to systematically unravel the factors impacting mobilisation. Secondly, approaching survivor groups as strategic political actors engaged in contentious politics shifts the focus back to their agency as drivers of TJ. Thirdly, it helps to understand survivor groups “from within” and reveals the diversity and complexity of survivors’ identities, strategies and demands in transitional settings. Lastly, focusing on survivors’ collective agency helps to move beyond a liberal human-rights based approach to victim organisations and to consider groups acting within different moral frameworks.

Incel Epistemology: On Marginality, Experience and Legitimization of Knowledge

This article contributes to the growing corpus of knowledge concerning the incel movement by scrutinizing how claims of marginalization are mobilized in online incel communities to present incels as privileged subjects of knowledge. The study elucidates how incel marginalization is wielded as a legitimizing experience, conferring epistemic privilege upon self-identifying incels by distinguishing between an ‘us’ of marginalized and enlightened incels, and a ‘them’ consisting of duped and privileged ‘others’. It also examines the role of partaking in incel discussions and incel ideology to achieve an incel standpoint, where lived experience is transformed into counter-hegemonic knowledge. Inspired by social movement theory, the article points to similarities between the incel movement’s political mobilization of marginalized experience and feminist standpoint theory and feminist practices in consciousness-raising groups. It argues that this affinity can be understood from the perspective of the dynamic between movements and counter-movements and their tendency to mimic and copy each other’s tactics.

Scapegoating Queerness: Associating Egyptian LGBTQIA Advocacy to Western Conspiracy as a Strategy for Aborting Democratization

Focusing on Egypt as a case study, this paper juxtaposes Mubarak and al-Sisi’s anti-queer measures in order to delineate their discursive strategy in framing collective victimhood vis-à-vis Western-sponsored gender activism in an attempt to overshadow the Muslim Brotherhood’s political visibility and reverse the liberal gains of the January 25 Revolution, respectively. This study argues that both presidents’ anti-queer discourse succeeded to abort calls for democratization because of rulers’ capitalization on populist and religious-nationalist idioms in developing a collective victimhood frame as a defensive strategy against constructed threats. Building on the social movement theories’ framing approach, this study unpacks the state’s three-pronged collective victimhood frame by drawing on the revival of Western colonial heritage, sovereignty assertion, and cultural authenticity to validate a generalized repression against non-heteronormative identities and non-conforming sexual practices during the Queen Boat incident in May 2001 and following al-Sisi’s ascension to power from 2014 until 2024.

From Apocalypse to Empowerment: Reframing Climate Action

Abstract This article proposes empowerment as a new frame for analyzing, communicating, and practicing climate action. I first discuss the role of collective action frames in social movements and the limitations of the predominant apocalyptic climate narratives. I then elaborate the concept of empowerment, which has received little attention from political scientists, who have emphasized “power-over” rather than “power-to.” Empowerment has long been a focus of attention within critical social work, feminist theory, community psychology, and social movement theory. Drawing on these literatures and others, I identify three dimensions of empowerment—critical awareness, resources and opportunities, and autonomy—and consider practical steps that climate leaders can take to empower others to simultaneously pursue personal development and social transformation.

Aristotle and the Stoics on the Notion of ἐνέργεια

Abstract The Stoic theory of movement has never been the object of a deep investigation despite the considerable number of sources in Neoplatonist commentators. This paper explores for the first time the Stoic notion of ἐνέργεια, which plays a fundamental role in the Stoic conception of movement and generally in the characterization of interaction between bodies. I will show that the Stoics identified movement and activity, so that everything that is active is necessarily moved. This implies that the Stoics merely characterized ἐνέργεια in a dynamic or kinetic sense, namely by connecting it with movement. In order to prove the coherence of this philosophical position to the Stoic doctrine, I will display the compatibility of Neoplatonists’ reports with other sources. Accordingly, I will claim that the Stoics conceived this peculiar sense of ἐνέργεια in reaction to Aristotle, who clearly distinguished between ἐνέργεια and κίνησις in his physical theory.