From helmets to face masks: How collective emotions sustain diaspora mobilization from homeland uprising to global pandemic among the Hong Kongers

Purpose Diasporic mobilization studies often incorporate collective emotions into the discussion of movement strategies, less we knew about how emotion becomes the language by which they communicate collective responsibility after the protests. The purpose of this paper is to draw from participant observation research to explore how diasporas construct the language of collective emotions to sustain their commitment to the transnational mobilization project during and after the homeland protests. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on ten months of participant observations in the USA, the author observed how members in a Hong Kong diaspora group, Black Bauhinia Society (BBS), transform their project from a transnational protective gear sourcing action during the Hong Kong Anti-Extradition Bill Movement into a global medical personal protective equipment (PPE) sourcing action during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings During homeland uprising, BBS recruits participants using a set of compassion language that encompasses the suffering stories of homeland dissidents and the members’ expression of guiltiness for staying afar. The compassion talk reinforces the transnational ties between BBS members and Hong Kong dissidents over the process of resource mobilization. When the homeland movement ceased during the pandemic, BBS transformed their compassion talk to politicize charitable actions and recruit volunteers and donors to source PPE for Hong Kong. Originality/value This paper contributes to the emerging discussion on how diaspora mobilizes after the protest by showing how the language of collective emotion cultivates commitments and sustain collective identity after the protests.

EXPLORING NETWORKED IDENTITY AND TRANSNATIONAL MOBILIZATION IN UKRAINE’S EUROMAIDAN PROTEST

Social media are a prominent space for diasporic mobilization and activism, opening new avenues for studying transnational communities living outside of their countries of origin. This study uses a hybrid methodological approach to consider how Ukrainians living in the United States engaged with homeland politics during the 2013-2014 Euromaidan protest and how their use of social media intervened in their transnational protest politics. This study contributes to the broader scholarship on studying transnational mediated protest participation by examining a case of diasporic mobilization of the Ukrainian community in the United States. Triangulating semantic mapping data from online diasporic communities on Facebook with in-depth interviews, we show how diaspora members engaged in the protest despite distance and how their activity and tactical decisions were mediated by social networks. We specifically examine how diasporic personal networks and networked technologies enmesh into a set of hybrid networked practices, circumscribing how Ukrainian Americans interpret political engagement and how they strategically use the affordances of social media for protest participation.

The Transnational Mobilization of the Alevis of Turkey: From Invisibility to the Struggle for Equality

This chapter examines the emergence and dynamics of the transnational Alevi movement since the 1990s in both Turkey and Western Europe. As a social movement, it asserts the distinction of Alevi identity from Sunni Islam and seeks official recognition and equal citizenship rights in Turkey and Europe where a large number of Alevis live. Accordingly, the chapter first provides an overview of the debates on who the Alevis are and what Alevism is, as the contestation around definition shapes the factions and alignments within the Alevi movement. It then outlines the institutional context within which the Alevi movement emerged, tracing the influence of the Ottoman legacy on nation-state building and how these dynamics shaped the strategies adopted by competing factions within the state together with their evolution over time. Finally, it discusses the mobilization of the Alevi movement from the 1990s onward, its politics of recognition, factionalism, party political engagement, and key challenges. While prospects for gaining recognition and equal citizenship rights will grow more elusive with deepening authoritarianism of the Turkish state and sectarianism in the AKP era, the achievements of the transnational movement in Western Europe stand to shape the future of Alevism.

THE RISE OF A TRANSNATIONAL MOVEMENT TO PROTECT PRIVACY*

Scholars have long found profound normative and structural differences between the privacy movements of Europe and the United States, alongside incompatible regimes of regulation. After 9/11, both Europe and the U.S. adopted increasingly intrusive digital security measures, which impinged on the privacy of commercial and personal data. Both the overlap in privacy regimes and the securitization of the two regimes were uncovered by Edward Snowden’s revelations in 2013. The eventual result was the passage of a European privacy protection regulation, the General Data Protection Regulation, in 2016 and greater transnational diffusion and transnational cooperation among European and American privacy activists. But has this convergence produced a transnational movement for privacy? Studying three mechanisms of transnational mobilization—externalization, diffusion, and collective transnationalism—this article employs a political opportunity framework to understand how international events have increased the inclination and the capacity of nationally and regionally based privacy groups to come together in contentious collective action.

Climate Justice and Sustained Transnational Mobilization

Samir Amin’s final essay called for the creation of a new international organization of progressive social forces. This essay provides evidence from twenty-first century transnational movements on the likelihood of the emergence of such an international organization and the issues and sectors most likely to facilitate coalitional unity. More specifically, the ecological crises identified by Amin in the form of global warming and climate change create an unprecedented global environmental threat capable of unifying diverse social strata across the planet. The climate justice movement has already established a global infrastructure and template to coordinate a new international organization to confront neoliberal forms of globalization. Pre-existing movement organizing around environmental racism, climate justice in the global South, and recent intersectional mobilizations serve as promising models essential to building an enduring international organization representing subaltern groups.