scholarly journals From data politics to the contentious politics of data

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 205395171988596 ◽  
Author(s):  
Davide Beraldo ◽  
Stefania Milan
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
Data Practices ◽  
Data Subject

This article approaches the paradigm shift of datafication from the perspective of civil society. Looking at how individuals and groups engage with datafication, it complements the notion of “data politics” by exploring what we call the “contentious politics of data”. By contentious politics of data we indicate the bottom-up, transformative initiatives interfering with and/or hijacking dominant processes of datafication, contesting existing power relations or re-appropriating data practices and infrastructure for purposes distinct from the intended. Said contentious politics of data is articulated in an array of practices of data activism taking a critical stance towards datafication. In data activism, data as mediators take a central role, both as part of an action repertoire or as objects of struggle in their own right. Leveraging social movement studies and science and technology studies, this theoretical essay argues that data activism can be mapped along two analytical dimensions: “data as stakes” (as issues and/or objects of political struggle in their own right) vs. “data as repertoires” (or modular tools for political struggle), and “individual practice vs. collective action”. Mapping action repertoires and tactics along these axes allows us to chart the potential emergence of a political ( contentious) data subject at the intersection of these two dimensions. This furthers our understanding of people’s engagement with data in relation to other forms of activism and existing work in social movement studies. It also helps us interpreting potential trajectories of contemporary social movements, as they increasingly interface with data, devices and platforms.

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 Genocide as Contentious Politics

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aliza Luft
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Social Movement Theory ◽  
Final Version ◽  
Movement Theory ◽  
History Of ◽  
Convergence And Divergence

Preprint, final version in Sociology Compass available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/soc4.12304/fullDespite a recent turn towards the study of political violence within the field of contentious politics, scholars have yet to focus their lens on genocide. This is puzzling, as the field of collective action and social movements was originally developed in reaction to fascism (Nazism in particular), while research on collective action and research on genocide has long shown parallel findings and shared insights. This paper reviews the history of this scholarly convergence and divergence, and suggests that recent findings of research on genocide can be improved by the consideration of concepts from social movements and collective action. It then details three theories of the micro-mechanisms that mobilize individuals for contention – framing, diffusion, and networks – and specifies how they refine existing explanations of civilian participation in genocide. In the conclusion, I suggest that a contentious politics approach to genocide would consider it one form of collective action among others, analyzable within the existing framework of collective action and social movement theory.

Mobilizing From Scratch: Large-Scale Collective Action Without Preexisting Organization in the Syrian Uprising

2020 ◽  
pp. 001041402091228
Author(s):  
Wendy Pearlman
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Social Relationships ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Sequential Logic ◽  
Scale Challenges ◽  
Dominant Theory

Core social movement research argues that large-scale challenges to authority build upon preexisting organization and civil society resources. How do dissenters mobilize masses in repressive settings where, given curtailment of civil society, autonomous associations scarcely exist and norms discourage trust more than encourage it? Testimonials from the Syrian uprising illustrate how protest can become widespread under such conditions, yet occurs through processes different from what dominant theory expects. Activists get demonstrations off the ground by planning around awareness of their organizational deficits. Once in motion, contention propels both organization and increasing organizational sophistication. To be effective, mobilization sometimes evades or obscures established social relationships, even as it produces new forms of sociability. Bridging literatures on mass and clandestine mobilization, this research reconsiders the assumed sequential logic of movement development from organization to protest, rather than vice versa. It also shifts attention from movement antecedents toward the resourcefulness and strategy that enable mobilizing both from scratch and at grave risk.

scholarly journals The Contribution of Social Movement Theory to Understanding Genocide

Contention ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Aliza Luft
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Social Movement Theory ◽  
Rwandan Genocide ◽  
Movement Theory ◽  
History Of Research ◽  
History Of

Recent years have witnessed a turn in the field of contentious politics toward the study of political violence, yet scholars have yet to focus their lens on genocide. Moreover, research on genocide is characterized by fundamental disagreements about its definition, origins, and dynamics, leading to a lack of generalizable theory. As a remedy, this article suggests that research on genocide can be improved by incorporating concepts from social movements. After reviewing the history of research on social movements and genocide, I analyze civilian participation in the Rwandan genocide as an example of how social movement theory helps explain civilian mobilization for genocide. Finally, I propose that a contentious politics approach to genocide would consider it one among many forms of contentious collective action, analyzable within the existing framework of social movement theory.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Jun Liu
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Mobile Communication ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Chinese Society

The introduction assesses and identifies lacunae and challenges in the existing literature on ICTs and contentious collective action. Through a survey of relevant scholarship on social movement and contentious politics, this chapter proposes to explicitly make communication a key element in a tripartite framework of contentious politics and social movements and, further, to regard communication as an intermediary between ICTs and contentious collective action. The introductory chapter further elucidates the embeddedness of mobile communication technologies within Chinese society and, thus, it has become a context for (political) action as well and can therefore have an impact on contentious politics.

Ideas and Leaders in Contentious Politics: One Parish Priest in El Salvador's Popular Movement

2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (01) ◽  
pp. 76-101
Author(s):  
PETER M. SANCHEZ
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
El Salvador ◽  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Political Movement ◽  
Parish Priest ◽  
Historical Moment ◽  
Resource Mobilisation ◽  
The Church

AbstractThis paper examines the actions of one Salvadorean priest – Padre David Rodríguez – in one parish – Tecoluca – to underscore the importance of religious leadership in the rise of El Salvador's contentious political movement that began in the early 1970s, when the guerrilla organisations were only just beginning to develop. Catholic leaders became engaged in promoting contentious politics, however, only after the Church had experienced an ideological conversion, commonly referred to as liberation theology. A focus on one priest, in one parish, allows for generalisation, since scores of priests, nuns and lay workers in El Salvador followed the same injustice frame and tactics that generated extensive political mobilisation throughout the country. While structural conditions, collective action and resource mobilisation are undoubtedly necessary, the case of religious leaders in El Salvador suggests that ideas and leadership are of vital importance for the rise of contentious politics at a particular historical moment.

Transition Times in Memory

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donatella della Porta ◽  
Massimiliano Andretta ◽  
Tiago Fernandes ◽  
Eduardo Romanos ◽  
Markos Vogiatzoglou
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Transition Period ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Democratic Regime ◽  
Organizational Models ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Transition Times ◽  
Movement Participation

The second chapter covers the main characteristics of transition time in the four countries: Italy, Greece, Spain, and Portugal. After developing the theoretical model on paths of transition, with a focus on social movement participation, the chapter looks at social movements and protest events as turning points during transition, covering in particular the specific movement actors, their organizational models, and their repertoires of action and frames. The chapter focuses on two dimensions: the role of mobilization in the transition period, which implies the analysis of how elites and masses interact, ally, or fight with each other in the process, and the outcome of transitions as continuity versus rupture of the democratic regime vis-à-vis the old one. It concludes by elaborating some hypotheses on how different modes of transition may produce different types and uses of (transition) memories.

scholarly journals From invention to industry from a social movement perspective: the emergence of the 3D printing industry

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Lechner ◽  
Abeer Pervaiz
Keyword(s):  
3D Printing ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
New Ventures ◽  
Printing Industry ◽  
Longitudinal Case Study ◽  
Institutional Perspective ◽  
Industry Emergence ◽  
Entrepreneurial Action ◽  
Emergence Phase

Abstract In the entrepreneurship literature, the phenomenon of industry emergence has been largely investigated from an institutional perspective. Appropriate institutions would allow then a group of individual entrepreneurs (“the heroes”) to create an industry through innovative ventures. New ventures create new industries and firm entry, survival, and exit drive industry evolution. Our research, however, explores what creates the favorable set of circumstances for new ventures to emerge and focuses on the pre-emergence phase and we propose that the patterns of emergence resemble those of social movements. Through an actor perspective, this research highlights the existence of diverse actors, not necessarily entrepreneurs, who are necessary to trigger a collective action during the pre-emergence phase of industries. This research is also distinct from entrepreneurial ecosystems as its development already requires some successful entrepreneurial action. The 3D printing industry was chosen as a single longitudinal case study, where the actors are the embedded units of analysis. The findings of the study lead to the identification of three aggregate dimensions—“Social Movement Composition,” Temporal Engagement,” and “Coalitions Development”—that were prevalent during the pre-emergence phase of the 3D printing industry. Our propositions emphasize the importance of large collective action and the role of multiple actors in order to create the conditions for, first, firm emergence and, the second, to the process of industry emergence.

We are “the Resistance”: Predictors and consequences of self-categorization into the emerging movement to oppose Trump

2020 ◽  
pp. 136843022097475
Author(s):  
Samuel Hansen Freel ◽  
Rezarta Bilali ◽  
Erin Brooke Godfrey
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Efficacy Beliefs ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Identity Consolidation

In a three-wave longitudinal study conducted in the first 100 days of Trump’s presidency, this paper examines how people come to self-categorize into the emerging social movement “the Resistance,” and how self-categorization into this movement influences future participation in collective action and perceptions of the movement’s efficacy. Conventional collective action (e.g., protest, lobby legislators)—but not persuasive collective action (e.g., posting on social media)—and perceived identity consolidation efficacy of the movement at Wave 1 predicted a higher likelihood of self-categorization into the movement 1 month later (Wave 2) and 2 months later (Wave 3). Self-categorization into the Resistance predicted two types of higher subsequent movement efficacy perceptions, and helped sustain the effects of conventional collective action and movement efficacy beliefs at Wave 1 on efficacy beliefs at Wave 3. Implications for theory and future research on emerging social movements are discussed.

Agonistic Conflict as a Distinct Type of Contentious Politics: Learning from Protests For and Against Asylum Seekers in Israel

2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-118
Author(s):  
Tali Hatuka ◽  
Miryam Wijler
Keyword(s):  
State Policy ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Distinct Type ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Shared Knowledge ◽  
The Political ◽  
Court Decisions ◽  
The Relationship

This paper focuses on a particular form of protest that emerges in what this paper calls an 'agonistic environment'. It defines the latter as a form of contentious politics within deliberative democracies in which concurrence rather than estrangement is more likely to define the relationship between citizens and the state. It then asks what is the nature of conflict in such environments, and will activism in the settings be more or less likely to generate change. Finally, it considers whether protest in agonistic environments produces a form of shared knowledge among parties to the conflict, particularly with respect to the possibility of change and how best to achieve it? In exploring these questions, the paper focuses on the political dynamics in Israel associated with the wave of African asylum seekers who arrived from 2010 to 2012, most of whom originated from Eritrea and Sudan. Using a quantitative approach, the paper analyses this agonistic environment focusing on two dimensions: (a) protest events; and (b) state policy and juridical decisions as well as legal initiatives aimed at challenging state policy and relevant court decisions. By highlighting the scalar mismatch between protests focused on delimited urban spaces and responses of authorities at the scale of the nation – in this case, legal rulings – the paper further advances our understanding of agonistic conflict and how it produces change.

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