Space, Strategies, And Alliances In Mobilization: The 1960 Metalworkers' And Coal Miners' Strikes In Chile

2003 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel Stillerman
Keyword(s):  
Social Movement ◽  
Social Protest ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Coal Miners ◽  
Federal States ◽  
Movement Theory ◽  
Political Opportunities ◽  
Movement Strategy ◽  
Movement Organizations ◽  
The Relationship

Geography is a central factor influencing political opportunities, alliances between movement organizations and elites, and contentious repertoires. Scholarship incidentally refers to the relationship between geography and social protest, though recent work gives space greater theoretical importance. I bridge key concepts in social movement theory with work on space and protest through an analysis of a 1960 metalworkers' strike in Santiago, Chile and comparison with a contemporaneous provincial coal miners' strike. This article presents evidence that (1) characteristics of the built environment and everyday spatial routines in specific locales influence activists' tactical repertoires; (2) local political opportunities and alliance patterns significantly affect movement strategy and protest outcomes: and (3) social movement organizations operate within a nested opportunity structure in which local, regional, national, and international actors and opportunities interact in the context of con-tentious episodes. The findings have implications for studies of tactical repertoires and policing, comparisons of local movements, and nested opportunities in centralized and federal states.

scholarly journals The Organizational Trace of an Insurgent Moment

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 237802311770065 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam D. Reich
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
York City ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Occupy Wall Street ◽  
Wall Street ◽  
Formal Organizations ◽  
Movement Organizations ◽  
The Relationship

The relationship between social movements and formal organizations has long been a concern to scholars of collective action. Many have argued that social movement organizations (SMOs) provide resources that facilitate movement emergence, while others have highlighted the ways in which SMOs institutionalize or coopt movement goals. Through an examination of the relationship between Occupy Wall Street and the field of SMOs in New York City, this article illustrates a third possibility: that a moment of insurgency becomes a more enduring movement in part through the changes it induces in the relations among the SMOs in its orbit.

scholarly journals ‘Waving the banana’ at capitalism: Political theater and social movement strategy among New York’s ‘freegan’ dumpster divers

Ethnography ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 419-444 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex V. Barnard
Keyword(s):  
Social Movement ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Political Theater ◽  
Movement Theory ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Movement Strategy ◽  
Dumpster Diving ◽  
New Social Movement ◽  
Movement Organizations ◽  
New Social Movement Theory

This article presents an ethnographic study of ‘freegans’, individuals who use behaviors like dumpster diving for discarded food and voluntary unemployment to protest against environmental degradation and capitalism. While freegans often present their ideology as a totalizing lifestyle which impacts all aspects of their lives, in practice, freegans emphasize what would seem to be the most repellant aspect of their movement: eating wasted food. New Social Movement (NSM) theory would suggest that behaviors like dumpster diving are intended to assert difference and an alternative identity, rather than make more traditional social movement claims. Through the lens of social dramaturgy, I engage with New Social Movement theory by arguing that unconventional tactics like dumpster diving can also have strategic components, serving to project a favorable image of movement organizations, recruit new participants, and achieve a positive portrayal in the mainstream media.

Sector-Level Dynamics and Collective Action in the United States, 1965-1975

2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 293-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Larson ◽  
Sarah Soule
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
The United States ◽  
Organizational Ecology ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Political Opportunities ◽  
Mixed Support ◽  
Movement Organizations

To explain varying levels of collective action by social movement organizations in the United States operating during the height of the 1960s protest cycle, this article examines social movement sector-level dynamics alongside indicators of resources and political opportunities. Drawing on hypotheses from neoinstitutional, organizational ecology, and embeddedness perspectives, the paper emphasizes the importance of understanding the sector-level dynamics of legitimacy, competition, and embeddedness when explaining levels of collective action. Results show strong support for neoinstitutional, organizational ecology, and embeddedness theories, but more mixed support for arguments about how political opportunities and resources affect levels of collective action by social movement organizations.

Coalitions and Political Context: U.S. Movements Against Wars in Iraq

2005 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-344 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Meyer ◽  
Catherine Corrigall-Brown
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Context ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Political Opportunities ◽  
Movement Organizations ◽  
Internal And External Factors

Although social movements in the United States are staged by coalitions, the politics of movement coalitions and the internal and external factors that affect their formation, maintenance, and dissolution are understudied. Here, we use the 2002-2003 movement against the impending war in Iraq to refocus analytical attention and sharpen theory on social movement coalitions. We contend that external circumstances, or political opportunities, are critically important factors that affect the propensity of social movement organizations to cooperate in common cause. Further, we contend that cooperation among groups can best be seen as variable, rather than dichotomous, and argue that political context affects the extent of cooperation among cooperating groups. We examine the importance of political context through a comparison of the first and second Gulf Wars. The decision of social movement organizations to join a coalition is akin to the process whereby individuals join social movements, involving an assessment of costs, benefits, and identity. As the political context changes, the costs and benefits are assessed differently and, for this reason, actively engaged coalitions are difficult to sustain over a long period as circumstances change. By looking at the antiwar movement generally, and the Win Without War coalition in particular, we show that cooperation was born in the second Gulf War out of the political opportunities presented by the George W. Bush's administration. We conclude with a call for more research on social movements as coalitions.

BIG GUNS OR BIG TALK? HOW THE NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION MATTERS FOR CONCEAL CARRY WEAPONS LAWS*

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trent Steidley
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Policy Change ◽  
State Level ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
National Rifle Association ◽  
Political Ideologies ◽  
Political Opportunities ◽  
Movement Organizations

Social movement organizations (SMOs) often aim to influence society through policy change. However, policy change may actually be the result of public opinion, political opportunities, or other factors, thus creating a spurious relationship between SMO activity and policy outcomes. Interestingly, the power of the National Rifle Association (NRA) to influence policy is often assumed but seldom tested. Drawing on social movement and political-sociological theories of policy change, this study assesses NRA influence on state-level firearm policy outcomes using the case of concealed carry weapons (CCW) laws. Using event-history analyses, I find the NRA does influence CCW laws, but its effect is mediated by public opinion, political ideologies, competitive elections, and political opportunities. Issue-specific public opinion and political ideologies also interact with one another to influence CCW laws. These findings build upon a growing literature that illustrates how SMOs interact with political contexts to generate policy change.

Scholarship on Social Movement Organziations: Classic Views and Emerging Trends

2005 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beth Caniglia ◽  
JoAnn Carmin
Keyword(s):  
Social Movement ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Resource Mobilization ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Organizational Processes ◽  
Movement Theory ◽  
Emerging Trends ◽  
Movement Organizations

This essay examines research on social movement organizations (SMOs) within each of the three major schools of social movement theory: resource mobilization, political process, and cultural-cognitive approaches. We map the general terrain of these perspectives and demonstrate how they have established enduring and emerging trends in SMO scholarship. By briefly revisiting some of the central findings and theoretical arguments of SMO research, we provide a background for future research in social movement organizational processes and a foundation for the articles contained in this special issue.

scholarly journals Influence of the pandemic lockdown on Fridays for Future’s hashtag activism

2021 ◽  
pp. 146144482110265
Author(s):  
Jörg Haßler ◽  
Anna-Katharina Wurst ◽  
Marc Jungblut ◽  
Katharina Schlosser
Keyword(s):  
Social Movement ◽  
German Language ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
The Public ◽  
Twitter Activity ◽  
Movement Organizations

Social movement organizations (SMOs) increasingly rely on Twitter to create new and viral communication spaces alongside newsworthy protest events and communicate their grievance directly to the public. When the COVID-19 pandemic impeded street protests in spring 2020, SMOs had to adapt their strategies to online-only formats. We analyze the German-language Twitter communication of the climate movement Fridays for Future (FFF) before and during the lockdown to explain how SMOs adapted their strategy under online-only conditions. We collected (re-)tweets containing the hashtag #fridaysforfuture ( N = 46,881 tweets, N = 225,562 retweets) and analyzed Twitter activity, use of hashtags, and predominant topics. Results show that although the number of tweets was already steadily declining before, it sharply dropped during the lockdown. Moreover, the use of hashtags changed substantially and tweets focused increasingly on thematic discourses and debates around the legitimacy of FFF, while tweets about protests and calls for mobilization decreased.

Exploiting a Crisis: Abortion Activism and the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Kate Hunt
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Medical Procedure ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
Global Crisis ◽  
Opportunity Structures ◽  
Movement Organizations

How do social movement organizations involved in abortion debates leverage a global crisis to pursue their goals? In recent months there has been media coverage of how anti-abortion actors in the United States attempted to use the COVID-19 pandemic to restrict access to abortion by classifying abortion as a non-essential medical procedure. Was the crisis “exploited” by social movement organizations (SMOs) in other countries? I bring together Crisis Exploitation Theory and the concept of discursive opportunity structures to test whether social movement organizations exploit crisis in ways similar to elites, with those seeking change being more likely to capitalize on the opportunities provided by the crisis. Because Twitter tends to be on the frontlines of political debate—especially during a pandemic—a dataset is compiled of over 12,000 Tweets from the accounts of SMOs involved in abortion debates across four countries to analyze the patterns in how they responded to the pandemic. The results suggest that crisis may disrupt expectations about SMO behavior and that anti- and pro-abortion rights organizations at times framed the crisis as both a “threat” and as an “opportunity.”

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