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In 2006, then Mexican President Felipe Calderón declared a 'war' against criminal organisations that were beginning to control some of the country's territories. Consequently, the number of murders and disappearances of people began to increase steadily by tens of thousands. Far from acknowledging the errors of the strategy, the authorities constantly criminalised the victims and denied the tragic consequences of the use of the military against drug cartels. After the murder of his son on 28 March 2011, the poet Javier Sicilia started leading mobilisations in the state of Morelos to protest the violence. In just a few days, the actions expanded to virtually all regions of the country embracing relatives of victims, activists and organisations of very different backgrounds, forming the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity (MPJD). This thesis comprises an in-depth case study of the MPJD. After providing an overview of the context in which the mobilisations started and my research methods, I develop thematic chapters. In the first one, I analyse the recruitment dynamics of the MPJD. These pages contribute to the literature by advancing the understanding of how people without prior political experience or links to a mobilised group join and participate in protest. This, moreover, helps in refining rather than reifying the function of social networks. The second chapter explains the upward scale-shift process of mobilisation and the response given by the government through the analysis of coalition building, framing and counter-framing. The results of the analysis help to specify the conditions that facilitate not only the development of alliances, but also those that lead to their accelerated breakdown. Regarding framing, the work contributes to understanding which attributes facilitate resonance and alignment amongst audiences with contrasting characteristics. Furthermore, the discussion around counter-framing highlights how official responses influence the discursive processes of contentious actors, whose opportunities are not the same in 'the streets' and in official spaces. Next, the third chapter examines the type of social ties formed through the involvement in the contentious performances led by the relatives of victims of extreme violence. Bringing together the literature on social movements and a body of Latin American research on "emotional communities", I argue that the MPJD fostered a political-emotional community in which the public narration of suffering made victims and non-victims coalesce to demand justice collectively. Overall, this chapter advances our understanding of the dynamics through which allies that are not directly aggrieved by extreme violence develop a sense of community with the victims. Likewise, it develops four empirical dimensions for the analysis of political-emotional communities: the role of testimonios (testimonial narratives), the ethics developed during contention, the fluctuations in participation, and the costs and risks involved in the mobilisations. The last two chapters focus on the outcomes of the MPJD. The fourth one encompasses the political and cultural outcomes contributing to the literature in two ways: First, by discussing how achievements in the policy process can demobilise some groups but mobilise others; and second, by explaining how the spillover of a contentious actor can consolidate a social movement community in an emergent contentious field. Finally, the fifth chapter analyses the biographical consequences of participation in victim-led mobilisations. These pages provide an account of how the lives of the participants have been influenced due to their involvement in contention. This chapter advances the understanding of the interplay between social relations and cognitions that lead participants to modify their worldviews. In an academic sense, this thesis introduces a series of thematic chapters that provide empirical evidence to refine several areas of the theory to better understand various processes related to social mobilisation. Regarding the importance that this thesis can have for the activists and the families of the victims, my work is, first, a systematisation of their campaigns and experiences; second, an acknowledgement of the transcendence of the actions that they have been carrying out sustainedly during a decade; and third, this research is a space for memory, so that their names and those of their relatives are not forgotten, so that the demand for justice does not end.

In recent decades, social movements in general and Social Movement Organisations (SMOs) in particular have been going through processes of professionalisation, adopting market goals and methods, and employing on a large scale. Whilst most literature focuses on the impact of such processes for SMO activism, this research focuses on the impact of such moves for SMO staff. This thesis looks at employment and professionalisation in Israeli peace and anti-occupation SMOs, using Social Movement Theory, labour market literature, and a Weberian approach to conceptualise professionalisation, working conditions, and careers in SMOs. The mixed-methods data collection process included a phone survey of 200 workers in 32 SMOs, administrative data collected from the Israeli Bureau of Associations, 5 in-depth interviews and 2 workshops. The quantitative analysis mainly includes a comparison of SMO workers and representative data on the Israeli population and labour market (using the surveys ISSP 2005, ESS 2010, and the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics’ Social Survey 2011), and multilevel analysis using variables at both the organisational and the individual levels. The interviews and workshops used participants as partners, ensuring that the analysis is valid, meaningful, and relevant. Findings reveal that the researched SMO workers are highly educated, with an overrepresentation of women and Palestinians. They have a higher proportion of part-time positions, shorter tenure, and lower pay considering their educational levels, compared to the general Israeli labour market. While inequalities between Jews and Palestinians are not maintained in SMOs, inequalities between men and women are. Whilst working conditions are not ideal, SMO workers are motivated more by helping others and by professional interest, and less by practical considerations – although these do have a place in their decisions. They tend to stay within the Social Movement Sector, and develop an activism career – in which the organisational style and goals of SMOs compared to those of other sectors make it hard for them to leave the Social Movement Sector. The conceptualisation of professionalisation as bureaucratisation presented in Social Movement Theory matches actual data, and a professionalisation scale was created. Professionalisation may have negative effects on salary and tenure, and no positive effects were seen. These findings are true for SMOs that already employ workers, and they are interesting given that one consequence of professionalisation is creating more SMO employment. Different activity areas seem to offer different working conditions. This dissertation offers a contribution to SMOs and their workers, by highlighting inequalities and problematic issues regarding working conditions. It also enhances our theoretical understanding of SMO workers’ careers and careers in general, as well as of the possible consequences of professionalisation processes.

This research project uses the 2010/11 student protests in the UK as a case study to understand why certain individuals mobilise for forms of political participation and activism and why others do not. The student protests are ideal as a case study of participation and non-participation for a number of reasons. The UK Government’s proposal to treble the cap tuition fees for students in England represented an issue of widespread grievance for the student population, a grievance which was compounded for many by the Liberal Democrats’ decision to u-turn on its 2010 election campaign pledge. The student response featured large-scale regional and national demonstrations, as well as the formation of a network of simultaneous campus occupations across the UK, arguably presenting a greater scale and diversity of protest than had been seen for a generation. Despite these multiple participatory opportunities, however, student participation did not come close to matching the scale of opposition to trebled fees and university funding cuts as articulated in surveys. This raises fundamental questions about the social and political differences between participants and non-participants. Using original survey data of students from 22 UK universities, and 56 in-depth interviews with students from 6 universities, this research examines social and political patterns and relations between high, medium and low-cost/risk participants, and non-participants. Taking into account the idea of the university campus as a network of actors, the research posits that networks may preclude as well as facilitate participation. The research studies in detail the formation and maintenance of student activism networks – including their collective identifications and dis-identifications. Conversely, the study also looks at the social networks of non-participants, and how these may help to socially produce and sustain non-participation at an agency level. Finally, the research considers whether the protests against fees and cuts should be seen as a unified movement, and whether student attitudes taken together reveal a broadly-identifiable ‘participatory ideal’.