Social movement theory and the political context of collective action

2003 ◽  
pp. 76-90
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Political Context ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Movement Theory ◽  
Movement Theory

Neighborhood Action as a Social Movement

1987 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER FRANZ ◽  
DONALD I. WARREN
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Context ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Movement Theory ◽  
Movement Theory ◽  
The Social ◽  
Two Phases

This article compares the development of the “neighborhood movement” in the United States and the German Bürgerinitiativbewegung from the late 1960s to the present. The interconnections between neighborhood action and bureaucratic reaction are worked out on the background of some dimensions of the political context of both societies and analyzed for two phases. In addition to this, criteria of the social movement theory are applied to neighborhood action, and its potential for creating a social movement is discussed.

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.

Collective Action and Mobilization in Dar'a: An Anatomy of the Onset of Syria's Popular Uprising

2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 419-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reinoud Leenders
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Labor Migration ◽  
Social Movement Theory ◽  
Movement Theory ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Key Skills ◽  
Important Sense ◽  
Different Origins

This article addresses how and why the popular mobilization in Syria took off in the "peripheral" Dar'a region. Accordingly, it focuses on the province's dense social networks involving clans, labor migration, cross-border movements, and crime. It argues that Dar'a's social networks were important early in Syrian protest for several reasons: (1) They served as sites where nonconforming views on Ba'ath subordination could develop and be shared. (2) They contributed to the transfer, circulation, and interpretation of information whereby the shifting opportunities emanating from events in the region were recognized and the regime's threats were framed in ways that compelled people to act. (3) They provided an important sense of solidarity and presented the background against which recruitment for mobilization took place. (4) Finally, they provided key skills and resources for mobilization to be effective. Thanks to their miscibility, Dar'a's dense social networks substituted for the role attributed to brokers in social movement theory. They effectively connected individuals of different origins and strata in an otherwise prohibitive authoritarian context.

scholarly journals Together we Can: Collective Organization of Artists in Beijing

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corey Willis
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Social Movement Theory ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Movement Theory ◽  
Shared Identity ◽  
Contemporary Chinese

This study undertakes an analysis of the experiences of Contemporary Chinese artists engaged in collective organization in China’s burgeoning art districts in Beijing. A new conceptual framework is employed in this study which integrates theory from social movement theory and collective action. I explore generally the issues and strategies of collective organization in China, and specifically, analyze the development of a recently founded organization, the Chinese Independent Artist Alliance (CIAA). Data is collected through participant observation as well as through semi-structured interviews of the founders of the CIAA. Data analysis stretches beyond the scope of the main actors within the CIAA into a sphere representing over 1000 artists, academics and activists in China. Findings suggest that individual motivations for joining and supporting the CIAA artist collective differ substantially however, the various political and economic pressures faced by artists create a shared identity among CIAA participants acting as glue holding the collective together. <div><br></div>

The Complexity of Decline: Explaining the Marginalization of the East German Women's Movement

1998 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynn Kamenitsa
Keyword(s):  
Social Movement ◽  
Women's Movement ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Movement Theory ◽  
Political Opportunity ◽  
Political Transitions ◽  
Movement Theory ◽  
Political Opportunities ◽  
East German ◽  
Key Dimensions

The case of the East German women's movement is used to examine a understudied and undertheorized area of social movement research, movement decline. The political marginalization of this movement in 1990, only a few months after its promising beginning, can best be explained by integrating three fundamental concepts in social movement theory: political opportunity, mobilizing structures, and framing processes. Based on the analysis of movement documents and forty interviews with women's movement activists, it is demonstrated that none of these approaches by itself is sufficient to explain the decline of the East German women's movement. Instead, the symbiotic interrelationships among political opportunities, framing, and mobilizing structures are crucial to understanding movement decline. The analysis identifies key dimensions on which these three factors interact, and suggests that they can be used to explain other cases of movement decline, particularly in political transitions.

scholarly journals Non-religious Political Activism: Patterns of Conflict and Mobilisation in the United States and Britain

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 365-391 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Kettell
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Movement Theory ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Movement Theory ◽  
Religious Actors

The category of the 'non-religious' has been subject to increasing academic attention in recent years, but questions about the political mobilisation of non-religious actors remain substantially under-researched. This article addresses this issue through a comparative analysis of non-religion in the United States and Britain. Drawing on theoretical insights from Social Movement Theory, it argues that political mobilisation is shaped by varying patterns of conflict between religious and non-religious actors, as well as within and between non-religious groups themselves.

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.

scholarly journals ‘Unhappy News’: Process, Rhetoric, and Context in the Making of the Happiness Problem

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley Frawley
Keyword(s):  
Social Movement ◽  
Social Problem ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Contextual Factors ◽  
Political Context ◽  
Social Movement Theory ◽  
Issue Ownership ◽  
Movement Theory ◽  
The Uk

Drawing on a study of UK national broadsheets, this article examines the emergence and spread of happiness as a social problem in the UK by drawing on the theoretical insights of social problem constructionism and related social movement theory in terms of the processual, rhetorical, and contextual factors involved in the construction, transmission, and institutionalisation of new social problems. In particular, issue ownership in the realm of process and flexible syntax, experiential commensurability, empirical credibility, and narrative fidelity in the realm of rhetoric are argued to have played an important role in the discursive spread of the happiness problem in this public arena. A socio-political context hospitable to de-politicised and highly personalised constructions of social issues is argued to have played a major contextual role in the construction of the ‘happiness problem’.

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