the analysis of Alliance for Choice - Derris's tactics and strategies in N

144 Pages·2017·9.54 MB·English

UNIVERSITÉ DU QUÉBEC À MONTRÉAL
CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN SOCIAL MOVEMENT ACTION :
THE ANALYSIS OF ALLIANCE FOR CHOICE- DERRIS'S TACTIS AND
STRATEGIES IN NORTHERN IRELAND
MASTER'S THESIS
PRESENTED
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE
REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE
OF MASTER OF ARTS IN SOCIOLOGY
BY
MARIE-LISE DRAPEAU-BISSON
JANUARY 2017
UNIVERSITÉ DU QUÉBEC À MONTRÉAL
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UNIVERSITÉ DU QUÉBEC À MONTRÉAL
CONTINUITÉ ET CHANGEMENT
DANS L'ACTION DES MOUVEMENTS SOCIAUX :
ANALYSE DES TACTIQUES ET STRATÉGIES DE
ALLIANCE FOR CHOICE-DERRY EN IRLANDE DU NORD
MÉMOIRE
PRÉSENTÉ
COMME EXIGENCE PARTIELLE
DE LA MAÎTRISE EN SOCIOLOGIE
PAR
MARIE-LISE DRAPEAU-BISSON
JANVIER 2017
- ------ ---- -----------
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, I wish to thank ali my friends and family who have supported me
during this research project. Y our kind thoughts, supportive comments and, at times,
faked interest in my thesis have made this a slightly less distressing process. In
particular, I wish to thank my smart and engaged colleagues from the Department of
Sociology at UQAM with whom I have learned so much about contentious action, in
both theory and practice.
I also wish to give special thanks to ali those who have, from near or far, helped me
discover this wonderful green island. Throughout this research, I crossed paths with
generous and welcoming people who have made me feel at home in Ireland, both
North and South. I an1 deeply grateful for that. In particular, I wish to thank the
strong and inspiring pro-choice activists I met. I humbly thank you here and wish that
this thesis can contribute to the astounding work you have done and continue to do
for women in Northern Ireland.
Finally, this Master' s thesis could ne ver have seen the day without the support of my
research supervisor, Professor Marcos Ancelovici. Through his helpful advice,
constructive critiques and his continued encouragements (as weil as countless
recommendation letters), he has contributed not only to the improvement of this
thesis, but also to the student of social movements 1 am today .
Il
FOREWORD
This research project has been made possible thanks to the financial support of the
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) as well as the
Fonds de recherche du Québec-Société et Culture (FRQSC). The presentation of the
results of this thesis was also financially supported by the Canada Research Chair in
Sociology of Social Conflicts, whose chair holder is Professer Marcos Ancelovici.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FOREWORD ................................................................................................................ ii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ...................................................................................... vi
ABSTRACT AND KEY WORDS ............................................................................. vii
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 1
About Northern Ireland ............................................................................................. 5
The Conflict. .............................................................................................................. 7
a) Conflicting Identities: Between Religious and Political Affiliation .............. 7
b) The Prospects for Peace in Northem Ireland ............................................... 10
Women' s Issues and Politics in N orthe rn Ire land ................................................... 15
a) The Meaning ofPolitics ............................................................................... 15
b) Women and the Peace Process ..................................................................... 16
c) Abortion Legislation in Northem Ireland ..................................................... 19
CHAPTER 1
THEORY, CONCEPTS, METHODS AND DATA ................................................... 24
1.1 About Alliance for Choice ........................................................................... 24
1.2 From Lobbying to Popular Education: Explaining Tactical Change ........... 29
Structuralist Contributions: Understanding the Space for Women's Rights
Mobilisation in Northem Ireland ......................................................................... 29
Repertoires and Innovation: McAdam, Tarrow and Tilly's Contribution ........... 35
1.3 Path-dependency and Tactical Reproduction ............................................... 38
Path Dependency as Increasing Returns .............................................................. 38
Critical Events and Narratives: the Constraining Effect of Stories ..................... 42
1.4 Definitions, Methods and Data ..................................................................... 46
Defining Movements and Concepts .................................................................... 46
Methods and Data ................................................................................................ 49
iv
CHAPTER2
THE DYNAMICS OF TACTICAL INNOVATION ................................................. 56
2.1 Deadlock at Stormont: From Welfare Reform to the Consultation on
Amen ding the Law on Abortion .............................................................................. 57
2.2 The Object Shift Mechanism: From State-Oriented to People-Oriented
Actions .................................................................................................................... 67
Innovation and Creativity: Alliance for Choice-Derry' People-oriented Tactics
............................................................................................................................. 69
Changing Claims? Between Extending the Act and the Decriminalisation of
Abortion ............................................................................................................... 73
From Shouting to Discussing: Derry's People-Oriented Approach to Pro-Choice
Mobilisation ......................................................................................................... 74
2.3 On the Relationship between Tactics and Identity ....................................... 77
Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 80
CHAPTER3
FROM INNOVATION TO REPRODUCTION: THE PATH TOWARDS
SUCCESSFUL TACT! CS .......................................................................................... 83
3.1 Doing and Leaming: The Increasing Returns Process of Tac ti cal
Reproduction ........................................................................................................... 86
a) Large Set-Up Costs ...................................................................................... 86
b) Learning effect ............................................................................................. 89
3.2 Changing Narratives, Changing Expectations: The Anal y sis of Alliance
for Choice-Derry's Interpretation of Biarne and Success ..................................... 94
a) From Political Institutions to Politicians: AfC- Derry's Biarne Narrative. 95
b) The Reproduction of Farniliar Tactics: A Synonym for Success ............... 100
Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 106
CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................... 109
Dynan1ics of Tactical Innovation and Reproduction: Hypotheses and Key Results
110
a) Tactical Innovation ..................................................................................... 110
b) Tac ti cal Reproduction ................................................................................ 111
AfC- Derry and the Sociology of Social Movements: Key Contributions ofthis
Research ................................................................................................................ 114
v
Limits and Suggestions for Future Research ......................................................... 116
ANNEX A ................................................................................................................. 119
ANNEXB ................................................................................................................. 123
BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................... 125
vi
LIST OF ABBREVIA TI ONS
AfC-Derry Alliance for Choice - Derry
AfC - Belfast Alliance for Choice- Belfast
AI Amnesty International UK
BA Belfast Agreement (also Good Friday Agreement, see GFA)
BFN Belfast Feminist Network
CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women
CRM Civil Rights Movement
DoJ Department of Justice
DUP Democratie Unionist Party
FPA Family Planning Association
GFA Good Friday Agreement (also Belfast Agreement, see BA)
IRA Irish Republican Army
IRSP Irish Revolutionary Socialist Party
NIWC Northern Ireland Women Coallition
PSNI Police Service ofNorthern Ireland (formerly known as RUC)
RUC Royal Ulster Constabulary
SDLP Social Democratie Labour Party
SF Sinn Féin
UVF Ulster Volunteer Force
VIl
ABSTRACT AND KEY WORDS
ABSTRACT
On October 8th, 2014, the Northern Ireland Department of Justice (DoJ) set up a
public consultation on amending the law on abortion in cases of Lethal Fœtal
Abnormality (LF A) and sexual crimes. In the wake of this consultation, severa!
organisations such as Amnesty International, Alliance for Choice - Belfast, the
Women's Resources and Development Agency (WRDA) and the Belfast Feminist
Network (BFN), mobilised to present a response to the consultation. In contrast to
these organisations and to what they had themselves done in the past, pro-choice
activists in Derry (Alliance for Choice - Derry) decided not to engage in a dialogue
with politicians.
While they did not organise as a response to the consultation, activists were far from
demobilized. Throughout the fall of 2014, Derry activists held severa! meetings and
organised a solidarity vigil as well as an action for the International Day for the
Decriminalization of Abortion. The two tactics they used for these awareness-raising
actions, namely the shoes and the wash line, were pre-existing tactics, used twice
during the fall of 2014 in the same city and within a short period of time. This case
thus poses the question of continuity and change in social movements' contentious
practices. Why did activists refuse to engage in lobbying as they have done in the past
and decided instead to mobilise for awareness raising actions? Also, why did they
reproduce two specifie tactics in the fall of 2014? In other words, how can we ex plain
variations in contentious action across time within a single organisation?
Based on etlmographic data collected during the fall of 2014 with Alliance for Choice
- Derry, I argue that two mechanisms are at play in the group's refusai to engage in
lobbying actions and the development of people-oriented tac tics. First, the object shift
mechanism (McAdam, Tarrow and Tilly 2001) captures how activists navigate their
way in a non-responsive context (cf. Deiana 2013, Kriesi et al. 1995, Taylor 1989).
Second, by bringing together both material and cultural factors, 1 argue that path
dependency (Pierson 2000) allows to explain the group's decision to reproduce two
specifie people-oriented tactics.