Safieddine, Karim
(2024)
What is a Political Worker? Leadership & Leaderlessness in Lebanon’s Independence Intifada.
Master's Thesis, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
There have been scholarly advances in terms of situating “leadership” in the larger map of other structural and dynamic conditions of mobilization; nevertheless, these contributions have not sealed the debate regarding the emergence and manifestation of leadership and initiative in relatively “leaderless environments”, especially those which have clear shortcomings on the level of institutional politics. After dissecting the conceptual and empirical debate within the leadership literature in social movement studies, I utilize a Gramscian framework to present the concept of “political workers” as a theoretical and methodological instrument to observe the ways in which the "political biographies" and day-to-day labor of particular actors can shape an alternative "common sense". I make use of empirical illustrations, particularly from in-depth semi-structured interviews, to sketch the case of non-sectarian actors who participated in Lebanon's 2005 Independence Intifada, further elaborating four elements of political work: conceptions of sovereignty, alliances, organizational factors, and moral leadership.
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| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
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| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
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| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
23 May 2024 |
| Date Type: |
Publication |
| Defense Date: |
April 2024 |
| Approval Date: |
23 May 2024 |
| Submission Date: |
17 April 2024 |
| Access Restriction: |
No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately. |
| Number of Pages: |
49 |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences > Sociology |
| Degree: |
MA - Master of Arts |
| Thesis Type: |
Master's Thesis |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
Social movements, political work, labor, Lebanon, Independence Intifada |
| Date Deposited: |
23 May 2024 19:45 |
| Last Modified: |
23 May 2024 19:45 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/46152 |
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