Organizing Women in Contemporary Russia: Engendering Transition. By Valerie Sperling. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. 303p. $59.95 cloth, $22.95 paper.

2001 ◽  
Vol 95 (2) ◽  
pp. 506-507
Author(s):  
Rebecca Kay
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Cultural Model ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
Opportunity Structures ◽  
Movement Theory ◽  
The World ◽  
Political Economic

In the introduction, Valerie Sperling notes that "Russia's transition from communism toward capitalism and a more democratic political arrangement has been both good and bad for women, presenting both obstacles and opportunities for organizing" (p. 7). She goes on to produce an engaging and thought-provoking analysis aimed at broadening the scope and explanatory power of social movement theory, which, she argues, has been developed by scholars who focus primarily on social movements in the "contemporary core democracies" (pp. 52-3). In contrast Sperling develops "a cross-cultural model of social movement organizing and development that explores five interrelated opportunity structures: socio-cultural or attitudinal, political, economic, political-historical, and international" (p. 53). In each subse- quent chapter she tackles one of these opportunity structures and offers a number of fascinating insights into the world of post-Soviet social movements, based on the experience of her sample of women's organizations.

Collective Action across Borders: Opportunity Structures, Network Capacities, and Communicative Praxis in the Age of Advanced Globalization

1998 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 587-616 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus S. Schulz
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Opportunity Structures ◽  
Movement Theory ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
The World ◽  
Informational Networks

This paper analyzes the dynamics of the Zapatista uprising with research tools inspired by recent social movement theory. It finds that the insurgent indigenous peasants of Chiapas rose up in arms under conditions of relative economic and political deprivation at a particularly opportune moment after developing a project of insurgency and acquiring significant organizational strength. Militarily, the Zapatistas would not have been able to hold out long against the overwhelming force of the federal army. But enormous media attention and massive national and international protest prevented the regime from military crackdowns. The Zapatistas' ability to link personal, organizational, and informational networks has helped to gain crucial support. Using globalized means of communication, they were able to disseminate their messages around the world where they touched a chord in the discourse of an incipient global civil society linked by non-governmental organizations, fax machines, and the internet.

scholarly journals Building Rhizomatic Social Movements? Movement-Building Relays during the Current Epoch of Contention

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Nikolaus Funke
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Ideal Type ◽  
Political Opportunity ◽  
Opportunity Structures ◽  
Political Opportunity Structures ◽  
Movement Building ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Shared Understandings ◽  
Current Movement

This article investigates the movement building dynamics of contemporary social movement milieus (such as particular protests, social forums or occupations). It develops the concept of the “relay” to introduce four ideal-type movement building relays understood as distinct movement milieus: clustering relay, networking relay, organizing relay, and transforming relay. Each ideal-type captures different points on a continuum of increasing movement building and thus for generating commonalities, shared understandings and identities, mobilizations and strategies. Focusing on what I call the current “rhizomatic movement epoch,” which ranges from roughly the Zapatistas to the recent occupy-type protests, the relay framework can provide a larger conceptual umbrella or schemata for movement-to-movement transmissions. Moreover, focussing on “the situated” element of movements, the relay seeks to highlight the milieu of cooperation attempts, the physical, social and psychological space, the political-economic and socio-cultural setting, in which actors and groups interact. It focuses on those elements that are between the outside of the broader political economy and political opportunity structures (which arguably pre-structure the particular relay) and the “inside” of intra-group or movement behaviour (which in turn feeds back on the particular relay dynamics). While drawing on selected empirical examples from protests, social forums and networking attempts, this article has a conceptual focus, exploring possibilities by adoption of such a relay lens to further our understanding of movement building dynamics and the temporality of social movements, the current movement milieu and social movement theory more generally. As such, my hope is to raise questions and open further research avenues of interest to social movement organizers and scholars.

How Universal Is Media Entertainment, Really? On the Enriching Potential of Cross-Cultural Approaches for Existing Entertainment Scholarship

2021 ◽  
pp. 101-122
Author(s):  
Özen Odağ
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Psychology ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Thinking Styles ◽  
Western World ◽  
Cultural Variation ◽  
The World ◽  
Central Argument ◽  
Behavior And Cognition

The current chapter focuses on the (cross-)cultural appeal of existing entertainment theories, showcasing the meager evidence that exists with respect to their universality. The central argument throughout the chapter is that most entertainment theories have originated in the Western world and little has so far been done to apply them to the much larger rest of the world. The rest of the world has shown to be profoundly different, however, with respect to various dimensions of human behavior and cognition, including self-concepts, emotion appraisal and display, valued affect, thinking styles, values, and well-being maxims. The chapter scrutinizes five pertinent entertainment theories for their ability to explain this cultural variation. It suggests the inclusion of fruitful macro- and micro-level concepts from cross-cultural psychology and intercultural communication to increase their global explanatory power. The main aim of the current chapter is to spark an overdue (cross-)cultural evolution of media entertainment scholarship.

The Success and Sustainability of American Nationalist Movements

2018 ◽  
pp. 83-102
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Social Movement Theory ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Nationalist Movements ◽  
Movement Theory ◽  
Black Lives Matter

This chapter analyzes the viability of the selected case studies in legitimizing or mainstreaming their goals and ideology, as well as paths to success and/or failure. The chapter provides prescriptions for both movements and highlights obstacles that may impede each from achieving stated goals or solidifying political victories (electoral, legislative, or ideologically within the wider society). The phases of social movement theory first promulgated by Herbert Blumer is explained in this chapter as a method of considering future movements. The success of American social movements is traditionally marked by legislative victories or codification of change (which is what Black Lives Matter is seeking), while contemporary movements have been successful at achieving electoral victories (that of Donald Trump); this chapter explores that dichotomy as well.

Muslim Activism: A Survey across the World

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walid Jumblatt Abdullah
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Field Of Study ◽  
Islamic Studies ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Muslim Scholars

The second chapter is a literature review. The first section tackles the different theological positions Muslim scholars have posited with regard to activism. This is important as we find that some of these stances guide, or are used to justify, the various forms of activism. I further discuss the types of Muslim activists, and the social movement literature, in order to ground the findings of this book within a field of study. The idea is that the book should be relevant beyond Singapore or even Islamic studies, and locating the book within the literature of social movements serves this purpose.

Social Movements in Iran: How Well Does the Dominant Narrative Work?

2020 ◽  
pp. 089692052097679
Author(s):  
Elham Hoominfar
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Interview Data ◽  
Documentary Analysis ◽  
The World ◽  
Last Stage ◽  
Two Stages ◽  
Environmental Social Movement

In this paper, I apply the typical stages of social movements—emergence, coalescence, and institutionalization—to an Iranian environmental social movement. I show how each of the stages does, or does not, play out in the Iranian case, using interview data and documentary analysis. The first two stages of social movements are achieved in the movement. But, due to a centralized state that uses violence and repression, the movement cannot play on the stage of the dominant narrative’s institutionalization. However, the movement is not in decline. I suggest using the idea of “persistence/resistance” for the last stage rather than institutionalization, as institutionalization may be just a form to assure that social movements will persist. There are other cases like this movement around the world, but there is not a specific argument to challenge the limitations of the dominant narrative. My study helps scholars rethink this narrative according to the context of the countries in their research.

A Critical Review of Social Movement Theory: Gender and Emotion in Activist Cultures

2020 ◽  
pp. 21-42
Author(s):  
Emma Craddock
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Cultural Dimensions ◽  
Social Movement Theory ◽  
Thick Description ◽  
Movement Theory ◽  
Media Technologies ◽  
Theory Of Practice ◽  
The Public Sphere

This chapter sets up the theoretical context of the book. It begins by establishing the key relevant debates in Social Movement Theory (SMT), including that of new versus old social movements, the influence of new media technologies on social movements and the role of emotions within social movement studies. This chapter identifies the theoretical perspective for studying activist culture, drawing on Bourdieu’s (1992) theory of practice. This will serve as the basis for developing an analysis of the affective and cultural dimensions of social movement activism. It is contended that this approach enables the development of in-depth ‘thick description’ (Geertz, 1973) and an understanding of the interactions between activists as well as between the activist field and the wider social and political context, which is a theme threaded throughout the book. The chapter highlights feminist critiques of mainstream (or ‘malestream’) SMT’s failure to recognise the importance of gender to theorising social movements. This is contextualised by a wider discussion about the gendered exclusions that exist within the public sphere.

Networked Protests

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 36-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Stacey
Keyword(s):  
Social Networking ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Digital Tools ◽  
Social Movement Theory ◽  
Collective Actions ◽  
Movement Theory ◽  
The World ◽  
International Participation

This article explores social movement theory and attempts to modernize and explain contemporary movements with consideration of the digital tools being utilized by citizens on the ground. The ability to transcend borders and traditional boundaries using digital media, to facilitate international participation and develop communication, and the dissemination of information and coordination among activist networks around the world is hugely important. This article asserts that modern contentious collective actions and contemporary movements have received an infusion of autonomy and grassroots energy fueled by digital technologies, and social networking platforms.

SOCIAL MOVEMENT THEORY: LESSONS FROM THE SOCIOLOGY OF W. E. B. DU BOIS*

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-136
Author(s):  
Aldon Morris
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Black Community ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Black People ◽  
Accurate Analysis ◽  
Movement Theory ◽  
Du Bois ◽  
The 1960S

This article addresses why movement scholars had no idea that the civil rights and black power movements of the 1960s and 70s were imminent. In fact, their theories led them to predict that these movements were impossible because only whites possessed history-making agency. These scholars accepted the dogma that black people, their culture, and their institutions were inferior and incapable of organizing and leading powerful movements. This article demonstrates that the black sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois predicted those movements a half century before they occurred. He did so because he conducted concrete empirical analyses of the black community, and his lived experiences led him to reject the thesis of black inferiority. This article argues that the field of social movements remains too white and elitist and that this condition causes less robust and accurate analysis. The article suggests ways to make needed changes.

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