Диссертации, представленные на защиту и подготовленные в НИУ ВШЭ

This dissertation investigates the paradox of limited transformative social movements in Bangladesh between 2013 and 2024, despite escalating socioeconomic grievances and growing authoritarianism under the Awami League's prolonged rule. Through a qualitative, comparative case study of five movements—Shahbag, Shapla Square, No VAT on Education, Quota Reform, and Road Safety—it explores how activism navigated a constrained political opportunity structure marked by repression, censorship, and polarisation. The research is grounded in Political Process Theory (PPT) and New Social Movement (NSM) theory, which together illuminate the structural, organisational, and cultural dimensions of collective action in an authoritarian neoliberal context. Empirical data were gathered through 45 in-depth interviews, ethnographic fieldwork, and extensive secondary analysis, focusing on the organisational dynamics, framing strategies, and unintended consequences of these movements. The study finds that while some movements secured partial policy victories, their fragmented nature and polarising rhetoric often reinforced authoritarian consolidation by enabling state exploitation of divisions. It highlights the shift from ideology-driven movements to issue-based protests rooted in everyday material concerns, which, at times, evolved into identity-driven NSMs resisting neoliberal governance.  It concludes that while these movements exposed and challenged state excesses, they also—through polarisation, fragmentation, or absorption—reinforced the very authoritarianism they sought to resist, offering broader insights into contentious politics in postcolonial and semi-authoritarian regimes.