The structural-cognitive model: A synthesis of collective action, resource mobilization, political opportunity, identity, and framing perspectives

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 667-681
Author(s):  
Christopher Gunderson

The 1994 Zapatista uprising was not the first indigenous revolt in the territory known today as Chiapas, Mexico. Adopting insights from Cox and Nilsen and examining the history of three indigenous revolts in Chiapas within the framework of Arrighi’s “Systemic Cycles of Accumulation” (SCAs), this study considers the effects of such cycles on the timing of indigenous revolts. It finds a correlation between the initiation of the “financial expansion phase” of SCAs and outbreaks of indigenous revolt in Chiapas. Specifying the linkages between each SCA and developments in Chiapas, the study attributes this correlation to the effects of these phase shifts on the political opportunity structures of the indigenous communities. The implications of these findings for a theory of the timing of episodes of collective action generally is discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yipeng Xi ◽  
Aaron Ng

While much research stereotypes mass media in authoritarian contexts as mouthpieces of the ruling party, we argue that successful social media–driven activism also requires the support of mass media, even in authoritarian contexts. To investigate the roles of social media and mass media on collective mobilization, we analyzed a case in Guangzhou, China, and conducted in-depth interviews to conceptualize the interconnected relationship between social media and mass media from the perspective of resource mobilization. Findings reveal that social media facilitated the mobilization of participants by providing less fungible and timely resources at the initial stages of collective action. However, it is the more fungible and enduring resources provided by the mass media that sustain the intensity of external pressures to the government. The complementarity between social and mass media in atomized collective action in China is in essence the configuration between exclusive and monopolized resources mediated by a middle-ground discursive mode—“implied truth.”


2016 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-222
Author(s):  
Ju Li

AbstractBy analysing and comparing three waves of contentious collective action employed by the pioneering generation of Chinese state workers at one particular state-owned enterprise from the 1960s to the present, this study aims to explain its varying forms and to analyse its effectiveness in different historical periods. I argue that the changing political opportunity structure in various historical contexts has greatly conditioned workers’ “repertoire of contention” at each moment and, hence, significantly affected the processes, strategies, and outcomes of workers’ contentious collective action. This article highlights the paradoxical role of the socialist social contract as a potential but crucial component of “the repertoire of contention”, by arguing that different interpretations of the contract, as conditioned by a certain political opportunity structure in different historical periods, could either empower or disempower workers. Both archival and oral history research are used in this study.


2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 386-409
Author(s):  
SEYED AMIR NIAKOOEE

AbstractThe Second Khordad Movement was a democratic social movement in contemporary Iran. Investigation of this movement revealed two images, of flourish and of decline, as the movement was first generally successful until early 2000 and thereafter began to regress from the spring of that year onwards. The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive framework in which to examine the reasons behind the movement's failure and regression. To this end, the study utilizes the literature on social movements, especially the political process model, and attempts to explain the initial success and subsequent decline of the movement based on elements such as political opportunity, framing processes, mobilizing structures, and the repertoire of collective action.


2016 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 459-478 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Ward

I examine variation in nativist organizing through an analysis of the number of nativist organizations in U.S. counties. I make two primary contributions to literatures on anti-immigrant phenomena and right-wing mobilization. First, I investigate the extent to which theories of threat, in addition to resource mobilization and political opportunity theories, further our understandings of nativist mobilization. Pro-immigrant oppositional activism and racist hate resource and organizational bases facilitate this mobilization, whereas a weak economic base, growing working-class base, and increasing Latino political representation constrain it. In addition, the association between nativist mobilization and Latino population change, as well as conservative voting, is curvilinear (inverted U). Nativist mobilization thrives in the presence of low-to-moderate levels of demographic threat, as well as in contexts in which political conservatism is present but weak enough to make the conservative, nativist identity nonnormative. Second, few studies examine nonattitudinal or noninstitutionalized anti-immigrant phenomena. There is little understanding of whether or not social structures facilitating anti-immigrant attitudes and institutionalized anti-immigrant activity similarly influence the presence of anti-immigrant mobilization. Although results suggest that political and cultural threats shape diverse anti-immigrant phenomena, I also point to a unique set of structural conditions beyond threat to explain nativist mobilization in particular.


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