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Social Movement Mobilisation in Southern Russia

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Social Movement Mobilisation in Southern Russia A TALE OF TWO MOVEMENTS: SOCIAL MOVEMENT MOBILISATION IN SOUTHERN RUSSIA by KARENA AVEDISSIAN A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham For the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Centre for Russian and East European Studies School of Government and Society College of Social Sciences The University of Birmingham September 2014 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ! Abstract The thesis employs the political process approach within social movement theory (SMT) to examine in a comparative fashion two distinctly different opposition movements in southern Russia. One is the environmental movement in Krasnodar Krai and the other is the ethno-national Balkar movement in Kabardino-Balkaria. The political process approach focuses on the role and interaction of political opportunities, mobilising structures, and social movement framing for both movements, and seeks to explore their role in social movement mobilisation dynamics in Russia’s non-democratic context. The combination of the analysis of the three variables of political opportunities, mobilising structures, and social movement framing allows for fresh perspectives on both SMT and post-Soviet area studies. The thesis is particularly concerned with networks. It argues that in non-democratic contexts, the role of networks is more important than in democratic contexts. I ! Dedication This thesis is dedicated to my parents, Lucy and Viggen. For their support, encouragement, and love. ! Table of Contents ABSTRACT............................................................................................................................................ I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS................................................................................................................. II LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS............................................................................................................. III LIST OF PICTURES.......................................................................................................................... IV LIST OF TABLES................................................................................................................................ V TABLE OF ABBREVIATIONS........................................................................................................ VI MAPS.................................................................................................................................................. VII INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................. 1 Need for Research ................................................................................................................................ 4 Limitations of the Study ....................................................................................................................... 6 1 EXISTING APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF THE RUSSIAN POLITY AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS ....................................................................................................................................... 7 1.1 Relevant Literature on the Area .................................................................................................. 7 1.2 The Institutional Landscape in Russia ........................................................................................ 8 1.3 State-Society Relations in Russia ............................................................................................. 10 1.4 Southern Russia: Krasnodar Krai and Kabardino-Balkaria ...................................................... 12 1.4.1 Krasnodar Krai ................................................................................................................... 13 1.4.2 Kabardino-Balkaria ............................................................................................................ 17 1.5 Social Movement Theory and its Core Concepts ..................................................................... 22 1.5.1 Collective Behaviour Model .............................................................................................. 22 1.5.2 Resource Mobilisation Theory .......................................................................................... 23 1.5.3 Political Process Theory .................................................................................................... 24 1.5.4 Political Opportunities ....................................................................................................... 25 1.5.5 Mobilising Structures ......................................................................................................... 27 1.5.6 Framing .............................................................................................................................. 29 1.6 Political Process in Non-democratic Contexts ......................................................................... 31 1.6.1 Key Definitions and Concepts of Political Process ........................................................... 34 1.6.2 Defining Mobilisation ........................................................................................................ 35 1.6.3 Protest Cycle ...................................................................................................................... 36 2 A NEW APPROACH TO STUDYING SOCIAL MOVEMENTS ........................................... 39 2.1 Theorising Social Movement Mobilisation .............................................................................. 39 2.2 A Synthesised Model: Political Process Theory in a Non-democratic Setting ........................ 39 2.3 Research Design ....................................................................................................................... 44 2.3.1 Political Opportunities ....................................................................................................... 46 2.3.2 Mobilising Structures ......................................................................................................... 49 2.3.3 Framing .............................................................................................................................. 50 2.3.4 Protest Cycle ...................................................................................................................... 50 ! 2.4 Comparative analysis of the two cases ..................................................................................... 52 2.4.1 The Krasnodar Environmental Movement ........................................................................ 53 2.4.2 The Kabardino-Balkaria Balkar Movement ...................................................................... 54 2.5 Methodology ............................................................................................................................. 55 2.5.1 Semi-structured Interviews ................................................................................................ 55 2.5.2 Ethical Considerations ....................................................................................................... 57 2.5.3 Fieldwork procedures ........................................................................................................ 58 3 POLITICAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE MOVEMENT CASES ....................................... 61 3.1 Undivided Elite in Russia ......................................................................................................... 62 3.1.1 Undivided Elite in Krasnodar Krai .................................................................................... 65 3.1.2 Divided Elite in Kabardino-Balkaria ................................................................................. 68 3.1.3 (Un)divided Elite of Both Regions in Comparison ........................................................... 71 3.2 Repression in Russia ................................................................................................................. 72 3.2.1 Repression Dynamics in Krasnodar Krai .......................................................................... 74 3.2.2 Repression Dynamics in Kabardino-Balkaria ................................................................... 79 3.2.3 Krasnodar Environmental Movement’s Jump in Repression and Kabardino-Balkaria Balkar Movement’s Constant Repression ...................................................................................... 84 3.3 Media Openness in Russia ........................................................................................................ 86 3.3.1 Media Openness in Krasnodar Krai ................................................................................... 88 3.3.2 Media Openness in Kabardino-Balkaria ............................................................................ 92 3.3.3 Comparison of Somewhat Open Media in Krasnodar Krai and Extremely Closed Media in Kabardino-Balkaria .......................................................................................................................
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