The Generative Power of Protest: Time and Space in Contentious Politics

2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (10) ◽  
pp. 1722-1756
Author(s):  
Dina Bishara
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Single Site ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
Multiple Site ◽  
Authoritarian Rule ◽  
Generative Power

How do social movements sustain themselves under authoritarian rule? This remains a crucial puzzle for scholars of comparative politics. This article gains traction on this puzzle by foregrounding the generative power of protest, namely the power of protest experiences themselves to deepen and broaden movements. Some studies have started to draw attention to those questions without yet systematically examining how the form of protest differentially affects those outcomes. I argue that different forms of protest have varying effects on movements depending on their duration and geographic scope. While short, multiple-site actions, such as marches, can broaden movements by expanding their base, extended, single-site actions, such as sit-ins, are more likely to deepen movements by fostering collective identities and building organizational capacities. This article is based on field research in Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, and Morocco and interviews with more than 100 movement participants and civil society activists.

To Map Contentious Politics

1996 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doug McAdam ◽  
Sidney Tarrow ◽  
Charles Tilly
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
Institutional Politics ◽  
Cycles Of Protest

Different forms of contentious politics such as social movements, revolutions, ethnic mobilizations, and cycles of protest share a number of causal properties, but disciplinary fragmentation has obscured their similarities. Recent work and this new journal provide opportunities for comparison and synthesis. A network of researchers is undertaking a broad survey of contentious politics in hopes of producing an intelligible map of the field, a synthesis of recent inquiries, a specification of scope conditions for the validity of available theories, and an exploration of worldwide changes in the character of contention. Discussions of 1) social movements, cycles, and revolutions, 2) collective identities and social networks, 3) social movements and institutional politics, 4) globalization and transnational contention illustrate the promise and perils of the enterprise.

War, States, and Contention: From Tilly to the War on Terror*

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sidney Tarrow
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
International Relations ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Scientific Work ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Charles Tilly ◽  
Social Scientific

In his vast body of social scientific work, Charles Tilly made two fundamental contributions to our understanding of the development of the modern state. First, rather than developing naturally out of collective life or as the result of constitution making, Tilly argued that states grew out of war and preparations for war. In a second part of his work, he saw state development intersecting with changes in contentious politics—at a minimum through the action of social movements within civil society, and at a maximum through revolution. The first part of Tilly's work is best known in political science, particularly in international relations and the study of the state, while the second is better known in sociology. However, Tilly never attempted to bring the two major strands of his work together. Bridging war, states, and contention is the goal of this essay, which begins “with Tilly,” proceeds to a critical reflection “contra Tilly,” and concludes by going “beyond Tilly” to attempt a Tillian analysis of the effects of America's post-9/11 wars on the American state and on contentious politics.

The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics

2009 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Civic Culture ◽  
Critical Survey ◽  
Democratic Transitions

The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics offers a critical survey of the field of empirical political science through the collection of a set of articles written by forty-seven scholars in the discipline of comparative politics. Part I includes articles surveying the key research methodologies employed in comparative politics (the comparative method, the use of history, the practice and status of case-study research, and the contributions of field research) and assessing the possibility of constructing a science of comparative politics. Parts II to IV examine the foundations of political order: the origins of states and the extent to which they relate to war and to economic development; the sources of compliance or political obligation among citizens; democratic transitions, the role of civic culture; authoritarianism; revolutions; civil wars and contentious politics. Parts V and VI explore the mobilization, representation, and the coordination of political demands. Part V considers why parties emerge, and the forms they take and the ways in which voters choose parties. The text then includes articles on collective action, social movements, and political participation. Part VI opens with essays on the mechanisms through which political demands are aggregated and coordinated. This sets the agenda to the systematic exploration of the workings and effects of particular institutions: electoral systems, federalism, legislative-executive relationships, the judiciary and bureaucracy. Finally, Part VII is organized around the burgeoning literature on macro-political economy of the last two decades. This Handbook is one of The Oxford Handbooks of Political Science a ten-volume set of reference books offering authoritative and engaging critical overviews of the state of political science.

A Discussion of Sidney Tarrow’s War, States, and Contention: A Comparative Historical Study

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 162-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Prügl
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Civil War ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
Methodological Approaches

Contemporary political science has generated extensive literatures on the themes of war, civil war, contentious politics, and social movements. But these literatures are often segregated in particular subfields, like International Relations and Comparative Politics, and typically speak past each other rather than to each other. Sidney Tarrow’s War, States, & Contention: A Comparative Historical Study (Cornell 2015) offers a single, synthetic perspective on these topics. As Tarrow states, “I hope to show that the advent of war is sometimes driven by social movements; that movements often affect the conduct of war and sometimes change its directions; and that wars often trigger the rise and expansion of movements in their wake.” Few topics are more important than the ones considered in this book, and so we have invited a range of political scientists, from a variety of subfield and methodological approaches, to comment on the book.

scholarly journals Social movements and their impact on the cultural and political change

2018 ◽  
Vol 224 (2) ◽  
pp. 379-398
Author(s):  
Dr. Mohammed Jamil Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Democratic Governance ◽  
Authoritarian Rule ◽  
The Social ◽  
To Come ◽  
The One ◽  
Cultural Connotations ◽  
Personal Interests

    The demonstrations are the one of the social movements that call for the Iraqi reality changes’ because of difficult conditions that community is lived, especially after 2003, as the successive governments that ruled Iraq which did not provide the required level that that the Iraqi citizens want, especially the Iraqi transition authoritarian rule to democratic governance supposed to achieve social justice and equality and the well-being of society.The factional and personal interests and the acquisition of power, competition and ongoing conflicts that exhausted society and social and infrastructure, so it's reflected in the social reality, as it forced members of the community with all its components and Achiever Marital to come up demonstrations calling forth across social networking pages (Facebook) demands the lifting of injustice about it.  The present paper tries to link the theoretical literature of the research with practical part of the study which leads to accurate results. The second aspect of applying h is trying to use the curriculum and tools anthropologically in field research Kalmkablh observation and Andalus, or as required by the research of other tools. This research provides insight and thoughtful implications through anthropological manner designed. The aim of the research is trying to detect the cultural connotations of demonstrations and songs that represent the Iraqi culture, as well as awareness of the results that came from the observed extent of the change in the cultural and political side and reflection on the Iraqi society, as well as the disclosure of important events as social movements were the result of the difficult conditions experienced by the Iraqi society. okhrj search results of realistic and objective represents the reality on the ground for the demonstrations that expressed urban and rural and religious components of the Iraqi society's rights. 

Transnational Social Movements and Peaceful Change

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandro Milcíades Peña
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Global Civil Society ◽  
Dynamic Processes ◽  
Transnational Social Movements ◽  
Relational Perspective ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Interactive Dynamic ◽  
Dominant Treatment

The chapter discusses the relationship between social movements and peaceful change. First, it reviews the way this relationship has been elaborated in IR constructivist and critical analyses, as part of transnational activist networks, global civil society, and transnational social movements, while considering the blind sides left by the dominant treatment of these entities as positive moral actors. Second, the chapter reviews insights from the revolution and political violence literature, a literature usually sidelined in IR debates about civil society, in order to cast a wider relational perspective on how social movements participate in, and are affected by, interactive dynamic processes that may escalate into violent outcomes at both local and international levels.

scholarly journals Attrition as a bottom-up pathway to subnational democratization

2021 ◽  
pp. 019251212110192
Author(s):  
Trix van Mierlo
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Causal Process ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
System A ◽  
Extensive Field ◽  
Democratic System

Oftentimes, democracy is not spread out evenly over the territory of a country. Instead, pockets of authoritarianism can persist within a democratic system. A growing body of literature questions how such subnational authoritarian enclaves can be democratized. Despite fascinating insights, all existing pathways rely on the actions of elites and are therefore top-down. This article seeks to kick-start the discussion on a bottom-up pathway to subnational democratization, by proposing the attrition mechanism. This mechanism consists of four parts and is the product of abductive inference through theory-building causal process tracing. The building blocks consist of subnational democratization literature, social movement theory, and original empirical data gathered during extensive field research. This case study focuses on the ‘Dynasty Slayer’ in the province of Isabela, the Philippines, where civil society actors used the attrition mechanism to facilitate subnational democratization. This study implies that civil society actors in subnational authoritarian enclaves have agency.

Brokers in the tea trade between China and West Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 092137402110218
Author(s):  
Ute Röschenthaler
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
West Africa ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Green Tea ◽  
Soft Skills ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Extensive Field ◽  
The Social ◽  
Entrepreneurial Activities ◽  
The 19Th Century

Brokers have played important roles in the trade of green tea between China and Mali, from the 19th century when tea first came to Mali up to the present. They mediate between tea buyers and sellers, work on their own account, use soft skills, knowledge and networks and make a living from the commission they gain. This article examines the work of brokers in the tea trade, the social constellations in which they are active and the scope of their activity. Based on extensive field research in Mali and China, this article shows how brokers create their own jobs in a dynamic business landscape, which is often delimited by governmental policies, competing entrepreneurial activities and social movements.

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