The 1944 Ili movement: Political opportunity, framing process and international relations in revolution.

摘要

This research utilizes the 1944 Ili movement as a case study to explore the dynamics and mobilization processes of revolutionary movements. In November 1944, a powerful movement occurred in the Ili area, Xinjiang, China. Launched by Turkic Muslims in three districts of the Ili, Tarbaghatay and Altay, this movement rapidly swept through the entire region, changed the political system, and resulted in the establishment of a new government. This research specifically examines how political opportunities, movement organizations, framing process, collective representation and international relations join together to impact the dynamics of the Ili movement. Methods include the analysis of movement pamphlets, the international relations denouements, and memoires of movement leaders, complemented by interviews and talks with the witnesses and informants, and narrative histories written in Uyghur, English and Chinese.;Findings demonstrate that the confluence of macro-, meso-, and micromobilization processes as well as the combined impacts of collective representation and international relations are responsible for the emergence, development and decline of the Ili movement. On the macro and meso levels, the 1944 Ili movement is the outcome of domestic and international political opportunities through movement leaders' conscious strategies of activating, organizing and mobilizing the actors. On a micro level, this movement was the outcome of the bridged movement frames such as "We Turk", one God principle, oppression, and friendship with the Soviet Union. During the mobilization processes, the movement was facilitated by spiritual politics of Islam and its sacred cultural repertoire. Sacred cultural repertoire is a new sociological concept developed in this research fusing Durkheimian concept of sacred/profane and Swidler's concept of cultural repertoire. It refers to the strategy for mobilization in the name of the sacred. Sacred cultural repertoire serves, vitalizes and characterizes almost all Islamic movements. The Ili movement is a good example.;Findings in this study imply that: (1) no single perspective on social movement can best account for the dynamics and unique characteristics of revolutionary movements; the macro-, meso-, micro-mobilization processes must be equally examined; (2) the master frame and sacred cultural repertoire are anchored in the collective representation; (3) the dynamics of revolutionary movements largely depends on combining influence from five factors: political process, movement organization, effective framing, collective representation and international relations; (4) shifts in the political opportunity structure effect the organizations and resources. Movement ideologies, organizations develop dialectically through political process, and determine the construction of movement frame. International conditions indirectly impact the development of political process; (5) even if a revolutionary movement fails, it would facilitate the formation of collective identity.