Seizing the moment of opportunity? Emerging movements of Coptic activists in Egypt

This thesis aims to explain the development of a Coptic secular movement in Egypt. By using social movement literature I produce a conceptual framework that emphasizes the three variables of opportunity structures, mobilizing structures and framing. I review the literature about the Coptic community and contentious politics in Egypt to supply my variables with context-sensitive indicators. The case of the Coptic community is situated as a case in a universe of similar communal groups in the Middle East, where the Coptic case is typical in terms of its size in relation to the majority, and the level of collective action. The Coptic secular movement is a recent phenomenon, and is thereby understudied. To my knowledge, this is the first contribution that analyzes Coptic collective action after 2011 with concepts from social movement theory. To sufficiently account for the Coptic secular movement I analyze how it has developed in recent history, revealing that the Copts have gone from relative isolation to be visible collective actors in the post-2011 context. The thesis relies on data from peer-reviewed journals, dissertations, and other academic publications that discusses the recent history of Egypt and the Coptic community. It also benefits from interviews with Egyptian Coptic activists, politicians, and scholars to shed light on the more recent developments. The analysis of historical and current Coptic collective action reveals a complex pattern of empirical relationships. The dominant role of the Church in political, social, and spiritual spheres of life is found to inhibit Coptic collective action. This role has historically been enforced by a patron-client relationship between the Church leadership and Egyptian regime. This elite alignment discouraged collective action directed both against the Church and the regime. The inclusion of the Coptic upper class in the patron- client network of the Egyptian regime also prohibited resources to flow downwards to potential grass root mobilizers. With the gradual decline of the church-regime alliance and the persistence of Coptic grievances, collective action became a viable option in the 2000s. With the complete reshuffle of Egyptian politics in 2011, the secular Coptic movement eventually found its place in the national opposition against the Muslim Brotherhood and Mohamed Morsi.Master i Sammenliknende politikkSAMPOL350MASV-SAP

Localization in orchards using Extended Kalman Filter for sensor-fusion - A FroboMind component

Making an automated vehicle navigate in rows of orchards is a feature, relevant for automating the plant nursing and cultivation of the trees. To be able to navigate accurate and reliably, the vehicle must know its position relative to the trees in the orchards

Om Hegel: forholdet mellem metode og system

Om Hegel: forholdet mellem metode og syste

Magten og frelsen - interview med Jan Assmann

Magten og frelsen - interview med Jan Assman

Laser-induced rotation of iodine molecules in He-nanodroplets: revivals and breaking-free

Rotation of molecules embedded in He nanodroplets is explored by a combination of fs laser-induced alignment experiments and angulon quasiparticle theory. We demonstrate that at low fluence of the fs alignment pulse, the molecule and its solvation shell can be set into coherent collective rotation lasting long enough to form revivals. With increasing fluence, however, the revivals disappear -- instead, rotational dynamics as rapid as for an isolated molecule is observed during the first few picoseconds. Classical calculations trace this phenomenon to transient decoupling of the molecule from its He shell. Our results open novel opportunities for studying non-equilibrium solute-solvent dynamics and quantum thermalization.Comment: 6+7 pages; 4+1 figures; 1 tabl