We will have the great pleasure of welcoming Hussein Nasser. Hussein is an PhD student at emlyon. He’ll be giving a talk entitled: 

“Unpopularity Amidst Popularism: Dual Ethnographic Study of Migration-Themed Social Movement Organizations during Environmental Instability” 

December 10th | 10h-12h 

Foreign tolerance in France is an institutionalized, mature social movement (SM), coming under scrutiny amidst rising nationalistic and xenophobic rhetoric. Concerned social movement organizations (SMOs) find themselves in a peculiar and understudied position of resisting – rather than initiating – social change. In tandem, SM literature treats organizational form as an outcome of factors internal and external to SMOs, often ignoring the effects it might have on operational and symbolic outcomes. In my dissertation proposal, I present an ongoing, simultaneous ethnographic study of two migration-themed SMOs that operate in Lyon. I explore the effect of their organizational form on their internal dynamics, connection with the environment, and the SM at large. I argue that heritage and ideopolitical engagement, compared to a democratic form, can be stronger predictors of SMOs’ levels of hierarchy and bureaucracy, and followingly, activist turnover. I also suggest that ideopolitical explicitness (i.e., how much of an SM is in an SMO) can serve as a strategic tool to maneuver environmental hostility. Lastly, I showcase how SMOs could end up reproducing, or, to the least, reinforcing the same societal phenomena they claim to oppose. This work has the potential to contribute to SM literature and practice. 

 
The event takes place in emlyon business school, at Lyon and on Zoom. 

Here is the link to register you, to be completed by December 8th:
https://forms.office.com/e/qdte5mDbVb