scholarly journals Leaving the Discursive Definition of Populist Social Movements: The Case of the Yellow Vest Movement

2022 ◽  
pp. 003232172110637
Author(s):  
Ingeborg Misje Bergem
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Individual Agency ◽  
Common Interests ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Discursive Approach

In this article, I analyze whether the case of the Yellow Vest movement fits Paris Aslanidis’ definition of populist social movements, and find that within the discursive theoretical framework Aslanidis adheres to, it does. However, I use the case of the Yellow Vest movement to demonstrate how this discursive approach lacks explanatory potential. I therefore propose moving away from a discursive definition of populist social movements, and advocate for studying political content as a way of detecting common interests shaped by political and societal structures that are shared by participants in a populist social movement. A theory of populist social movements must look at political and economic structures as well as individual agency, framing, and collective identity as a way to explain mobilization. A discursive approach to populism, which only considers language, is therefore not sufficient to explain movements such as the Yellow Vest movement.

The Unity of Social Movements

1995 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 675-692 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Jordan
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Intellectual Structure ◽  
Collective Actions ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Level Of Abstraction ◽  
Structure And Agency ◽  
Definition Of

A coherent intellectual structure for social movement studies has recently been emerging over a range of theoretical and empirical studies. This structure counterposes ‘within social movements’ a diverse range of collective actions against the unity imposed by a collective identity. However, theorisations of this collective identity have so far failed to address the contradiction between structure and agency. A definition of collective identity for social movements that is not caught in the structure/agency divide is proposed by defining the appropriate level of abstraction for such a definition, defining why movements are unified and then how.

Institutional Legacies

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donatella della Porta ◽  
Massimiliano Andretta ◽  
Tiago Fernandes ◽  
Eduardo Romanos ◽  
Markos Vogiatzoglou
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Transition To Democracy ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
Social Rights ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Political Opportunities ◽  
Protest Policing ◽  
Institutional Legacies

Chapter 3 addresses the institutional legacy (that is, the set of formal and informal rules that regulate the exercise of power in a political regime) of the transition to democracy, particularly those institutional dimensions that are more relevant for social movements—what social movement studies have defined as political opportunities. After setting the theoretical framework by specifying the main qualities of democracy the research has addressed, the chapter covers the legal and constitutional provisions on civil (especially protest) rights, political rights (right to resistance, majoritarian versus consensual assets), and social rights as well as practices—particularly with regard to protest, citizens’ participation, protest policing, and concertation.

Populist Social Movements of the Great Recession*

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paris Aslanidis
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Unified Framework ◽  
Wall Street ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
The People ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Action Frame

Social movement scholars have thus far failed to give populism its deserved attention and to incorporate it into their field of study. Although sociologists, political scientists, and historians have explored diverse facets of the intersection of populism and social dissent, there has been no concerted effort towards building a comprehensive framework for the study of populist mobilization, despite its growing significance in the past decades. In this article I combine insights from populism studies, social movement scholarship, and social psychology to build a unified framework of analysis for populist social movements. I suggest populism is best understood as a collective action frame employed by movement entrepreneurs to construct a resonant collective identity of “the People” and to challenge elites. I argue that populism depends on the politicization of citizenship, and I apply this framework to the movements of the Great Recession to classify Occupy Wall Street and the European indignados as instances of a populist wave of mobilization, using data from archival material and a set of semistructured interviews with Greek activists.

scholarly journals The evolving quality and scope of new social movements: Toronto food security organizations mobilizing for change.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Schieck
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Food Security ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
New Social Movements ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Movement Theory ◽  
Food Taking ◽  
Security Organizations

"This research project investigates some contemporary urban aspects of the politics of food. Taking social movement theory as my theoretical framework, this paper examines the ways in which the practices and services of Toronto organizations such as the Stop Community Food Centre, FoodShare, and Not Far From The Tree promote countercultural food ideologies and thus may be viewed as actors attempting to influence political and social change through food. While individual organizations should not be confused with social movements, it is possible that we may be able look at this ensemble of organizations as an informal network that exemplifies a new contemporary form of social movement."--Pages 3-4.

Organizing Social and Spatial Boundaries: Squatting's Material Practices and Social Relationships

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-45
Author(s):  
Dominika V. Polanska
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Organizational Theory ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Emotional Involvement ◽  
Social Orders ◽  
Shared Norms ◽  
Institutional Order

The prerequisites for squatting are somewhat different from other social movements. Most squatters tend to live (literally reside) in their movement and risk being overwhelmed and burnt-out by the intensity and emotional involvement of this kind of activism. The fact that squatters’ struggles revolve around a physical place, which in itself is a form of protest, and that the most involved activists are expected to locate their everyday lives to this place, puts a lot of pressure on the squatters and the way they handle their social relationships or more material practices and needs. The aim of this article is to examine how social and spatial boundaries are regulated and organized by squatters and to discuss how the spaces within squats are regulated and how the boundaries are negotiated by the squatting activists in light of these spaces being the ‘embodiment’ of the squatting movement requiring some special organizational measures to create order and avoid conflicts that could lead to the movement's decline. The squatting movement in Warsaw will serve as an example, and its recent development and internal diversification will be used to illustrate the importance of organization of social and spatial boundaries. I will also discuss the reverse effects of the refinement of the boundaries resulting in the creation of hierarchies and processes of exclusion, seclusion, inflexibility and impenetrability faced by squatters in the studied case. The material for this study is based on 20 semi-structured interviews with squatters’ activists conducted in 2013. The theoretical framework of the study is combining a social movement approach with organizational theory. I argue that squatting, as any social movement, should be analysed as intersecting social orders of networks, institutions and organizations, as it needs to create organizational measures, use dominant institutional order(s) and/or create new shared norms and beliefs, alongside founding its activity on networks of trust, horizontality and reciprocity, in order to function smoothly and not exhaust its current resources (social, symbolic, material).

Ideological Language and Social Movement Mobilization: A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Segregationists' Ideologies

2002 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 328-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerald M. Platt ◽  
Rhys H. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Collective Actions ◽  
Movement Theory ◽  
The Social ◽  
American Society ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Movement Mobilization ◽  
Martin Luther King ◽  
Cultural Turn

The current “cultural turn” in the study of social movements has produced a number of concepts formulating the cultural-symbolic dimension of collective actions. This proliferation, however, has resulted in some confusion about which cultural-symbolic concept is best applied to understanding cultural processes involved in social movements. We articulate a new definition of ideology that makes it an empirically useful concept to the study of social-movement mobilization. It is also formulated as autonomous of concepts such as culture and hegemony and of other cultural-symbolic concepts presently used in the movement literature to explain participant mobilization. We demonstrate the usefulness of our ideology concept by analyzing letters written to Martin Luther King, Jr. from segregationists opposed to the integration of American society. The analysis indicates that the letter writers particularized segregationist culture, creating ideologies that fit their structural, cultural, and immediate circumstances, and that the ideologies they constructed thereby acted to mobilize their countermovement participation. The particularizing resulted in four differentiated ideological versions of segregationist culture. The empirically acquired variety of ideological versions is inconsistent with the role attributed to cultural-symbolic concepts in the social-movement literature and requires theoretical clarification. We conclude with a discussion of the theoretical implications for social-movement theory of the variety of segregationist ideologies.

scholarly journals Protestation and Mobilization in the Middle East and North Africa: A Foucauldian Model

2017 ◽  
pp. 177-207
Author(s):  
Navid Pourmokhtari
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Specific Reference ◽  
Mena Region ◽  
Multiple Modernities ◽  
Sociopolitical Context

Michel Foucault has inspired a rich body of work in the field of critical social theory and the social sciences in general. Few scholars working in the area of social movement studies, however, have applied a Foucauldian perspective to examining the twin phenomena of social mobilization and collective action. This may stem, in large part, from the commonly held assumption that Foucault had far more to say about ‘regimes of power’ than ever about mobilization and collective action or contention politics in general. Be that as it may, a close interrogation of his work reveals the broad contours of a theoretical framework for analyzing social movements whose chief merit lies in a sensitivity to the sociopolitical context within which oppositional movements form, develop and conduct their operations.     This paper aims at delineating what a Foucauldian model of social movements would entail, with specific reference to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), a region traditionally consigned to the margins of social movement studies. An enquiry of this kind is important because, as I argue, the leading mainstream social movement theories that have been applied to contemporary MENA cases invariably fall short of fully elucidating the phenomenon of mass mobilization. Specifically, leading mainstream theories are prone to certain universalistic assumptions and ‘West-centric’ orientations that render them incapable of accounting for the specificities of MENA cases. I shall demonstrate how a Foucauldian perspective on social movements can bypass the problem of applicability to the MENA region by mapping out a theoretical framework whose chief merit lies in a sensitivity to the sociopolitical context within which oppositional movements form, develop and conduct their operations. At the same time, I argue that a Foucauldian model transcends social movement theories with their linear conception of social and political progress, their exclusivist understanding of sociopolitical ‘development’ and ‘modernist’ assumptions by advancing an account of ‘multiple modernities.’

scholarly journals Peer Production and Collective Action

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefania Milan
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Social Protest ◽  
Peer Networks ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Peer Production ◽  
Production Mechanisms

A variety of social movements across the world and the political spectrum are now taking advantage of peer production mechanisms such as collaboration, co-production, and self-organisation. This essay investigates the consequences of peer production for social protest, looking at how peer production reshuffles and remediates social change activism today. It explores the convergences and tensions between peer networks and contemporary social movements ranging from informal coalitions and amorphous grouping to traditional social movement organisations. First, it traces the historical trajectory of peer production as it has come to permeate the progressive social movements of the last three decades, linking distinct approaches to organizing to technological innovation. Second, it reflects on the so-called social affordances (and constraints) of digital infrastructure and their role in fostering specific modes of creativity and convergence apt to support protest actors. Third, it explores three types of consequences of peer production for social movements, namely cultural production and norm change, collective identity, and the commons. The chapter then examines three tensions that might emerge in the process of embedding peer production mechanisms and values in instances of collective action, namely: individual vs. collective engagements, peer networks vs. social movement organizations, and self-organized vs. commercial infrastructure.

DENIAL, DEFLECTION, AND DISTRACTION: NEUTRALIZING CHARGES OF RACISM BY THE TEA PARTY MOVEMENT*

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-156
Author(s):  
Malaena J. Taylor ◽  
Mary Bernstein
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Political Efficacy ◽  
Identity Work ◽  
Tea Party ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Tea Party Movement ◽  
Racist Ideology ◽  
The U.S

This article integrates theory on contentious movements and racism to develop what we call the “stigma neutralization model,” which explains how activists challenge stigmatizing identities in order to build a positive collective identity. Using original ethnographic research, we examine the response of a local Tea Party group to charges of racism. If a social movement is seen as racist, their political efficacy may be damaged. By analyzing backstage identity work, we illustrate that the strategies involved in distancing both activists and the movement from charges of racism reflect broader cultural understandings of the U.S. as being a post-racial or “colorblind” society. Our stigma neutralization model illustrates how activists deny, deflect, and distract from charges that activists are racist, thus maintaining and reproducing racist ideology, while reconstituting both individual and movement identities as unspoiled and racially tolerant. We discuss the implications of our findings for antiminority majority social movements more generally.

scholarly journals SCALE, PLACE AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: STRATEGIES OF RESISTANCE ALONG INDIA’S NARMADA RIVER

REVISTA NERA ◽  
2012 ◽  
pp. 96-113
Author(s):  
Pratyusha Basu
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
National Level ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Narmada River ◽  
Sardar Sarovar ◽  
Class Divisions ◽  
Sardar Sarovar Dam

This paper focuses on the struggles being waged by the Narmada Bachao Andolan, a rural social movement opposing displacement due to dams along India’s Narmada River. Building a comparison between two major anti-dam struggles within the Andolan, around the Sardar Sarovar and Maheshwar dams, this study seeks to show that multi-sited social movements pursue a variety of scale and place-based strategies and this multiplicity is key to the possibilities for progressive change that they embody. The paper highlights three aspects of the Andolan. First, the Andolan has successfully combined environmental networks and agricultural identities across the space of its struggle. The Andolan became internationally celebrated when its resistance led to the World Bank withdrawing funding for the Sardar Sarovar dam in 1993. This victory was viewed as a consequence of the Andolan’s successful utilization of transnational environmental networks. However, the Andolan has also intervened in agrarian politics within India and this role of the Andolan emerges when the struggle against the Maheshwar dam is considered. Second, this paper examines the role played by the Andolan in building a national movement against displacement. Given that India’s Supreme Court gave permission for the continued construction of the Sardar Sarovar dam in 2000, the power of the state to push through destructive development projects cannot be underestimated. The national level thus remains an important scale for the Andolan’s struggle leading to the formation of social movement networks and the construction of collective identities around experiences of rural and urban displacement. Third, this paper reflects on how common access to the Narmada river also provides a material basis for the formation of a collective identity, one which can be used to address the class divisions that characterize the Andolan’s membership. Overall, the paper aims to contribute to the study of social movements by showing how attachments to multiple geographies ensure that a movement’s potential futures always exceed the nature of its present forms of resistance.

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