In this thesis I argue that postcolonial theory provides the analytical tools to explain the Eurocentric bias in social movement theory by highlighting the universalism, historicism and institutional bounding of knowledge production. I further deploy postcolonial theory to address difference within social movements, and present a framework of digital political ethnography to approach this question. Through my fieldwork with feminist activists in northern India, I find that social movement theories of identity, narrative and governance are inadequate, especially for understanding contemporary digital politics. Postcolonial approaches have greater explanatory power specifically due to their sensitivity to difference; this can be studied between but also within movements. My methodological commitment to ‘assertion’ – the way in which individual and collective actors represent their own intentions - provides a more nuanced and rigorous understanding of their politics. This acts as a useful intervention in the structure-agency debate in the study of social movements, and resistance more broadly. I argue that in a digital context, these limitations in social movement theory are more evident due to a lack of social and political theory about the ways in which time, space, and power mediate movement politics. Studying social movements in this way both highlights existing limitations in social movement theory and reveals new transformations, and I present empirical detail of how feminists construct, navigate and contest their own identities, histories and realities, and experiences of governance.
Social movement politics: postcolonialism, feminism and the digital in India
Crawford, C. (Author). 1 Aug 2023
Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis › Doctor of Philosophy