David Snow

• Doctor of Philosophy
• University of California, Irvine

Convergence, or dispositional, approaches to crowds and social movements focus on various psychological traits and states that hypothetically render individuals more or less susceptible to participation. The underlying assumption is that specifiable personality characteristics and/or cognitive or emotional states are likely to make the appeal of so...

This entry provides conceptual clarification of three forms of misleading information – misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracies – and explores their relationship to social movements. Attention is focused on the conspiratorial variant of disinformation as illustrated by the now long‐standing “New World Order” conspiracy, various COVID consp...

The anti‐vaccine movement is arguably one of the more concerning social movements to have surfaced during the first two decades of the current century. Opposition to vaccination is particularly worrisome for its actual and potential impacts to public health, including increased frequency and severity of outbreaks, heightened virus positivity and de...

This chapter argues that while the fields of religion and social movements tend to keep to themselves, both fields would reap benefits with greater intersection. The chapter offers two main rationales for pursuing this intersection. First, broadening our contemporary conception of social movements to include religious movements allows for the inclu...

The analysis and theorization of social movements is central to understanding social life, state-society relations, and social change, and comprises one of the most vibrant areas of sociological research today. Theories of collective action and mobilization typically aim to understand the factors and conditions producing organized collective action...

Social movements are important agents of social, political, and cultural change, dating back from the present to at least the far-reaching empires of the Greco-Roman world and the various rebellions and religious movements spawned during that era. This article sketches a general overview of social movements, accenting their role as carriers of soci...

This article provides an analytic overview of scholarly work on the concept of collective identity by considering its conceptualization and various empirical manifestations, the analytic approaches informing its discussion and analysis, and a number of theoretical and empirical issues, including a synopsis of the symbolic means through which collec...

While the literature on media framing of movements has expanded our understanding of frame contestation in the mass-mediated public sphere, previous studies have largely overlooked the role of media images in which framing also occurs. We conceptualize and measure what we refer to as the “pictorial framing” of the Occupy Wall Street (Occupy) moveme...

This article reexamines spontaneity as an important, albeit neglected, mechanism in collective action dynamics, and elaborates on its operation and effects in protest events and social movements. We do not presume that spontaneity is routinely at play in all collective actions. Rather, based on our grounded analysis of historical and ethnographic d...

The orienting premise of this chapter is that almost all social movements, conservative and reactionary as well as progressive movements, are oriented, in one fashion or another, toward combating, constructing, or sustaining actual or perceived systems of inequality. Whatever their aims or goals, the grievances and motivations that mobilize individ...

While sociological conceptualizations of culture span a wide range of metaphors, from codes to elephants to toolkits, they are often insufficiently attuned to the processes through which cultural challenges are advanced by individual and collective actors, and the place of political and institutional power in constraining or nurturing these challen...

It has been more than twenty-five years since publication of David Snow, Burke Rochford, Steven Worden, and Robert Benford's article, "Frame Alignment Processes, Micro-mobilization, and Movement Participation" in the American Sociological Review (1986). Here we consider the conceptual and empirical origins of the framing perspective, how its introd...

We advance an understanding of the dynamic relationship between social movements, culture, and change by identifying and illustrating cultural revitalization and fabrication as two important cultural change processes. We also suggest that they are linked to and facilitated by the interpretive processes of frame articulation and elaboration. Analyti...

Social movements and related phenomena, such as protest demonstrations and revolutions, are collective actions through which aggrieved collectivities give voice publicly to various grievances and press relevant authorities to attend to the associated claims and/or demands. The grievances generally range from political and religious oppression to so...

Crowds, or temporary gatherings as some scholars prefer (McPhail 1991), are a ubiquitous feature of everyday life. People have long assembled to observe, to celebrate, and to protest various happenings in their everyday lives. The historical record is replete with examples of crowds functioning as important textual markers, helping to shape and def...

Genocide and mass killing are a tragic yet recurrent feature of modern human history, having occurred across a broad range of societies. This extreme form of social violence has accordingly become a major subject of interest for social scientists, who have generated a wide variety of explanatory models for why violence occurs and how it spreads ove...

Convergence, or dispositional, approaches to crowds and social movements focus on various psychological traits and states that hypothetically render individuals more or less susceptible to participation. The underlying assumption is that specifiable personality characteristics and/or cognitive or emotional states are likely to make the appeal of so...

When individuals collectively challenge authorities via social movements, they typically do so over matters about which they are deeply troubled, have considerable concern, and feel passionately. These troublesome matters or conditions, and the feelings associated with them—such as dissatisfaction, fear, indignation, resentment, and moral shock—can...

Scholars of collective gatherings or crowds, such as riots, protest events, and collective celebrations, have long been interested in accounting for the coordination that makes collective behavior truly collective rather than the aggregation of parallel individual behaviors. For about 75 years, from at least the time of Gustave Le Bon's The Crowd (...

Few concepts and/or processes have so intrigued and perplexed philosophers, theologians, social scientists, and, more recently, neuroscientists, as that of consciousness (Ornstein 1973; Jaynes 1976; Velmans & Schneider 2007). At its core, “consciousness” translates into awareness, both internal awareness of self and external awareness of context. “...

The concept of “discursive fields” is used to conceptualize an aspect of the context in which discourse and meaning-making processes, such as framing and narration, are generally embedded. Discursive fields, like the kindred concepts of multiorganizational fields and identity fields, are constitutive of the genre of concepts in the social sciences...

A case study is one research strategy for studying social movements and movement-related processes. Other research strategies include ethnography, participant or organizational surveys, experimentation, life histories, and protest event research via newspaper and other media sources. This entry distinguishes the case study from these and other rese...

Résumé Cet article, basé sur une ethnographie de longue durée menée au début des années 1970 au sein de la branche californienne du mouvement bouddhiste Nichiren Shoshu, montre comment, lors des « réunions de discussion » organisées par ce mouvement pour promouvoir sa philosophie, les cadres de l’interaction, ainsi que certaines stratégies interact...

Framing Processes and Social Movements: An Overview and Assessment This text is a translation of a well-known article from Robert D. Benford and David A. Snow initially published in 2000 in the Annual Review of Sociology. The recent proliferation of scholarship on collective action frames and framing processes in relation to social movements indica...

This article reviews social scientific research on the occurrence of genocide and mass killing, focusing on the underlying, contributing processes. Relevant studies are grouped by their primary analytic focus: (a) macro-level state and institutional processes; (b) political elites and policy decisions; (c) non-elite perpetrator motivation and parti...

Framing, within the context of social movements, refers to the signifying work or meaning construction engaged in by movement adherents (e.g., leaders, activists, and rank-and-file participants) and other actors (e.g., adversaries, institutional elites, media, social control agents, countermovements) relevant to the interests of movements and the c...

Conceptualization and SignificanceGenerating and Facilitating ConditionsParticipationDynamicsOutcomesNew Frontiers in Social MovementsConcluding CommentReferences

Drawing on work within the study of social movements and on conversion processes that is relevant to understanding radicalization, as well as on our own relevant research experiences and findings, especially on radicalism in right-wing and left-wing movements, we focus attention on the elements and dynamics of social movements, both intra-movement...

In this chapter, we seek to expand our understanding of how frames travel over time and especially of some of the factors that affect the temporal diffusion of frames. We do so by examining the extent to which the various frames associated with the creationist/intelligent design movement and the evolutionist movement have evolved and mutated from t...

■ Through an ongoing team fieldwork project that entails ethnographic observations and interviews at multiple research sites in southern California, this study seeks an understanding of the growth of contemporary megachurches by examining how they go about the business of attracting new members and retaining old ones. In this article, we focus on h...

The characteristics of the immediate locale greatly affect the ability of homeless people to adapt to life on the street and in shelters, with different types of places nurturing different circumstances for survival. Current conceptualizations of the place–survival nexus are too narrow, relying on small-scale, intensive studies of particular places...

In this article, the authors examine participation in protests about homelessness by an unlikely set of participants - the homeless themselves. Through an analysis of data derived from 400 structured interviews with homeless individuals in Detroit, Philadelphia, and Tucson, the authors examine why and to what extent some homeless individuals, and n...

This study develops a more nuanced concept of homeless resistance, incorporating a range of resistance behaviors (exit, adaptation, persistence, and voice) that bridge the gap between current frameworks that either romanticize or ignore it. We also consider the possibility that different kinds of space may theoretically allow for different kinds of...

As the framing perspective has evolved, there has been growing recognition that framing processes cannot be adequately understood apart from the broader enveloping contexts in which those processes occur. One such context recently has been conceptualized as discursive opportunities or the DOS. To date the concept has been examined most closely and...

The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements is a compilation of original, state-of-the-art essays by internationally recognized scholars on an array of topics in the field of social movement studies. Contains original, state-of-the-art essays by internationally recognized scholars. Covers a wide array of topics in the field of social movement studi...

In an attempt to advance understanding of frame variation and the factors that account for it, we conduct a comparative study of how the Fall 2005 French "riots" were framed diagnostically and prognostically. We examine these framing activities across a diverse set of actors and assess the role of ideological, contextual, attributional and temporal...

We argue that the monolithic use and application of the concept of ideology to Islamic terrorist movements is of questionable analytic utility because it tends not only to ignore ideological variation and flexibility among these movements, but also glosses over the kind of discursive work required to articulate and elaborate the array of possible l...

We argue that the monolithic use and application of the concept of ideology to Islamic terrorist movements is of questionable analytic utility because it tends not only to ignore ideological variation and flexibility among these movements, but also glosses over the kind of discursive work required to articulate and elaborate the array of possible l...

The concept of frame designates interpretive structures that render events and occurrences subjectively meaningful, and thereby function to organize experience and guide action. Within sociology, the concept is derived primarily from the work of Erving Goffman, which is beholden in part to the earlier work of Gregory Bateson. For these scholars, as...

Framing, within the context of social movements, refers to the signifying work or meaning construction engaged in by movement adherents (e.g., leaders, activists, and rank‐and‐file participants) and other actors (e.g., adversaries, institutional elites, media, countermovements) relevant to the interests of movements and the challenges they mount in...

Historically, the study of crowds and social movements has been animated by three broad and inclusive questions: What are the conditions underlying the emergence or mobilization of the collective phenomenon in question? Who participates and why some individuals or categories of individuals rather than others? And what are the consequences of the co...

During the 1980s, homeless people formed social movement organizations and mobilized collective action events in cities across the US. From the vantage point of social movement theories and scholarship on homelessness, it is surprising that homeless protest was so prevalent in the 1980s. Yet we find evidence of homeless protest events across no few...

This chapter argues against the recent crystallization of “contentions politics” as the anchoring concept for the study of collective action on the grounds that it is overly restrictive, foreclosing consideration and analysis of much social movement activity not tied directly to government or the state and which thus falls beyond the bailiwick of t...

Among the diverse styles of qualitative methodology is what John Lofland referred to as `analytic ethnography.' In contrast to the traditional interpretive style that attempts to get at the crux of `what is going on', to the more formal approach that seeks to identify the cognitive rules undergirding behavior, and to the more recent postmodern preo...

Street people, long visible in the Third World, are once again a conspicuous and disturbing feature of most First World cities. Studies of street life and the homeless help explain why these people have become more visible, why they are often seen as menacing and what the future holds for them.

This article provides an analytic overview of scholarly work on the concept of collective identity by considering its conceptualization and various empirical manifestations, the analytic approaches informing its discussion and analysis, and a number of theoretical and empirical issues, including a synopsis of the symbolic means through which collec...

Symbolic interactionism provides a major contribution to understanding inequality by illuminating the various manifestations and contexts of inequality at the micro, everyday level of social life. Drawing on a spectrum of symbolic interactionist theory and research, we examine the range of symbolic and interactional manifestations of social inequal...

This article sheds conceptual and empirical light on the ways in which urban physical space and homelessness intersect by considering three focal questions: (a) What are the key spatial concepts necessary for understanding the relationship between urban space and homeless survival strategies and routines , (b) what are the central strategies used w...

This article sheds conceptual and empirical light on the ways in which urban physical space and homelessness intersect by considering three focal questions: (a) What are the key spatial concepts necessary for understanding the relationship between urban space and homeless survival strategies and routines, (b) what are the central strategies used wi...

The recent proliferation of scholarship on collective action frames and framing processes in relation to social movements indicates that framing processes have come to be regarded, alongside resource mobilization and political opportunity processes, as a central dynamic in understanding the character and course of social movements. This review exam...

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This article contributes to a more systematic understanding of movement outcomes by analyzing how organizational, tactical, political, and framing variables interact and combine to account for differences in the outcomes attained by 15 homeless social movement organizations (SMOs) active in eight U.S. cities. Using qualitative comparative analysis...

List of Figures List of Tables Preface Data Sources PART ONE: Theoretical Perspective CHAPTER ONE Adaptation in Human Communities CHAPTER TWO Critical Communities and Movements CHAPTER THREE The Acceptance of New Cultural Values PART TWO: Microfoundations CHAPTER FOUR The Creation of Solidarity CHAPTER FIVE Political Engagement PART THREE: Social a...

What is the value-added character of sociology? In an era of change and unease in higher education, can a case be made for sociology in terms of intellectual and scholarly substance rather than in terms of bureaucratic and political considerations? As a scholarly and instructional activity, what is the value of sociology beyond what other disciplin...

McAdam and Rucht (1993) have recently bemoaned the neglect of diffusion processes in the study of social movements. Clearly there has been work that bears on aspects of diffusion among social movements (Oberschall 1995). But McAdam and Rucht are correct in noting that research and theorization aimed at ferreting out the links among social movements...

It is widely recognized that subcultural organization provides fertile soil for the development of social movements. There has not, however, been a systematic analysis of how different subcultures may be configured and what characteristics may encourage or inhibit mobilization. This paper takes an initial step in that direction by suggesting a typo...

This article provides theoretical refinement and empirical specification for the breakdown variant of strain theory. It reconceptualizes the relationship between social breakdown and movement emergence in a fashion that is consistent with strands of cultural theory, phenomenology, and symbolic interactionism, and that resonates with prospect theory...

For over two decades, resources have been assumed to be a fundamental determinant of the course and character of social movement organizations (SMOs) and their activities. Yet surprisingly little research evaluates this taken-for-granted assumption. Using data from ethnographic fieldwork on 15 homeless SMOs in eight U.S. cities, we construct an emp...

In this paper we seek to advance understanding of the cultural bases of sentiments and social problems by examining temporal variation in the expression of sympathy with respect to homelessness and famine in the United States and homelessness in England. Specifically, we hypothesize that sympathy towards the homeless (and, by implication, other per...

Argues that the portrait of the homeless as drunk, stoned, crazy, and sick is partly distorted and flawed. Distorting tendencies include (1) treating strips of data as indicators of a pattern, (2) uncritical use of psychiatric inventories, (3) decontextualized analysis, and (4) employing the language of disability rather than biographic vulnerabili...

The Commercial Blood Plasma Industry The commercial blood plasma industry in the United States obtains its raw « source plasma » from economically marginal sectors of the population. This paper focuses on the connections between the US plasma industry and the homeless, who comprise one major sector of the plasma « donor » population. The broader ho...