Dissertation Project
Money in Movement
My dissertation investigates how Hong Kongers, both in the city and across the diaspora, use money as a symbolic, emotional, and relational tool to navigate the aftermath of the 2019 protests. Drawing on over 170 in-depth interviews, 180 event observations, and digital content analysis conducted in Hong Kong and Canada, the study offers a transnational perspective on how political aspirations and belongings unfold in unexpected terrains.
Rethinking Movement Continuity Through Money in the Transnational Activism for Hong Kong Democracy
Under Review
Pamela P Tsui
Social movement studies have long centered social movement organizations (SMOs) as the primary vehicles of mobilization. Yet, contemporary movements are increasingly decentralized and networked, challenging SMO-centric frameworks such as resource mobilization theory (RMT). Building on the logic of connective action and insights from economic sociology, this article proposes connective resource mobilization as a conceptual framework to renew RMT. I argue that reconceptualizing money in movements is crucial not only for analyzing transformations of contemporary resource mobilization but also for offering a novel lens to understand how movement continuity unfolds without centralized infrastructures, and how movements develop interconnectedly under domestic repression and diasporic conditions.