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Understanding Social Movements
Abstract
This book offers a new and fresh approach to understanding social movements. It provides interdisciplinary perspectives on social and cultural protest and contentious politics. It considers major theories and concepts, which are presented in an accessible and engaging format. Historical and contemporary case studies and examples from a variety of different countries are provided throughout, including the American civil rights movement, Greenpeace, Pussy Riot, indigenous peoples movements, liberation theology, Occupy, Tea Party, and the Arab Spring. The book presents specific chapters outlining the early origins of social movement studies, and more recent theoretical and conceptual developments. It considers key ideas from resource mobilization theory, the political process model, and new social movement approaches. It provides an expansive commentary on the role of culture in social protest, and looks at substantive areas in chapters dedicated to religious movements, geography and struggles over space, media and movements, and global activism. Understanding Social Movements will be a useful resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students across disciplines wanting to be introduced to or extend their knowledge of the field. The book will also prove invaluable for lecturers and academic researchers interested in studying social movements.
... The emergence of new digital tools has enabled journalists, fans, and athletes to consume and create content that do not necessary rely on the mainstream media for distribution. The concept of postmedia relates to the ability of citizens to bypass mass media via social media (Castells, 2010(Castells, , 2012Edwards, 2014;Della Porta, 2015;Martin, 2015). Social media platforms, blogs, podcasts, and websites also allow for two-way interactions. ...
... Social movement theory maintains a position that actors involved are seeking some form of political or social change in their respective environments (Castells, 2010(Castells, , 2012Della Porta, 2015;Edwards, 2014;Martin, 2015). New social movement theories differ in that their aim is to demonstrate "all that is wrong with neoliberal economic globalization in the eyes of its discontents" (Harvey et al., 2009, p. 398.). ...
... Unjust media practices as well as exposure of social justice issues in sport are becoming more visible and increasingly challenged by actors in/outside of sport. Digital media or 'new media' has gradually resulted in the ability to globally mobilize groups, garner support and enable counter hegemonic discourses that affect social movements (Castells, 2010(Castells, , 2015Cleland et al., 2018;Davis-Delano & Crosset, 2008;Della Porta, 2015;Edwards, 2014;Martin, 2015;McCaughey, 2014, Mendes, 2015Nuñez, 2011;Postill, 2018). Therefore, this section continues to outline and critique debates deriving from the landscape of sport and social movements. ...
Through a case study of the Black Girl Hockey Club (BGHC) founded by Renee Hess, this doctoral research project investigates how an online sports network operates as a community of resistance to racism, uniting political action with the joy of sport. Hess initially established media sites including a Twitter handle, '@Blackgirlhockey' as a fan account, to attract Black women who enjoyed watching and engaging with hockey cultures. The COVID 19 pandemic and the 2020 global racial uprisings transformed the Black Girl Hockey Club into a site for hockey fandom while simultaneously influencing hockey environments and users of the site to address racism. This dissertation uses mixed-methods to employ an in-depth case study of the BGHC, a not-for-profit organization and digital network with over 30K Twitter followers. The thesis integrates theoretical and methodological frameworks of critical media studies, Black feminist theory, critical race theory, anti-racism, and social movements. The thesis demonstrates that cyber networks can enable participants to initiate social change within their own communities. The effectiveness of hashtag feminist sports activism was demonstrated through an analysis of BGHC's #getuncomfortable campaign. Various outcomes related to involvement with Black Girl Hockey Club were explored including the blurring of on and offline engagement and the development of political consciousness among users of the site. Research iii participants acquired intellectual empathy, humility and a collective agency related to anti-racism movements. The Black Girl Hockey Club community clearly developed 'networks of hope' that produced visible cracks to the dominant social order (in hockey cultures). Another measured outcome was an increase of social capital, individual and collective agency achieved through active involvement with Black Girl Hockey Club. The research illuminates the effective functionality of feminist cyber networks and supports the plausibility and advancement of anti-racism efforts in hockey cultures both virtually and offline. This thesis broadens sport and social movement literature by exploring how the pleasures associated with sport-in this case the love of hockey-became linked to anti-racist activism in an online community. It reveals how an affective mode, joy, shapes a social movement. iv
... suggested that organisations aiming to create social movements act like other organisations in society, inasmuch as they are formal organisations attempting to implement the preferences of a social movement or countermovement (McCarty and Zald, 1977;Martin, 2015). It is from this perspective that the resource mobilisation theory examines how these organisations effectively mobilise resources to successfully achieve their organisational goals. ...
... Like all organisations, "social movement organisations" have to compete with others for the resources controlled by individuals and other organisations (Martin, 2015). As well, any social movement has "adherents" who believe in the movement's goals. ...
... As well, any social movement has "adherents" who believe in the movement's goals. Martin (2015) identifies four categories of adherents or nonadherents. The first category consists of the "constituents" who provide the resources. ...
... If we consider the symbolic and cultural realm, religion and religious communities provide fertile ground for social activism or movements with a political goal as they present the opportunity to mobilise (Williams 2000). Religious protest repertoires in social movements can contribute to their resemblance to religious movements (Martin 2015), but they differ. Even if movements include religion and the related symbolic system, they do not have to be religious if their primary objective is political, as in the case of the 40 Days for Life initiative. ...
... Even if movements include religion and the related symbolic system, they do not have to be religious if their primary objective is political, as in the case of the 40 Days for Life initiative. The interconnection between anti-abortion movements and religion is evident from the beginning, as the US anti-abortion movement started as a Catholic movement (Martin 2015;Miller Shearer 2021). Religion and religious resources can contribute in different ways to social movements by providing resources to mobilise actors and symbolic value systems. ...
... The social movement lifecycle Social movement theory brings together a range of conceptual tools for analysing the way in which social movements evolve, focusing on changes in their strategic and organisational behaviour over time (e.g. Christiansen, 2011;Klandermans and van Stekelenberg, 2013;Martin, 2015;Almeida, 2019). While this embraces a variety of approaches, at its core social movement theory revolves around four intersecting themes. ...
The first decade of the twenty-first century saw the rise of a phenomenon known as new atheism. In recent years the visibility of new atheism has waned, but scholarly research into the causes of this decline remain limited. This paper examines the rise and fall of new atheism within the broader context of the U.S. atheist movement. Employing the conceptual framework of the social movement lifecycle, the analysis shows how the trajectory of the movement was shaped by its internal organisational challenges as well as the wider political and cultural landscape. While the early atheist movement was able to leverage internet technology and effectively use ‘atheism’ as an empty signifier to thrive in a hostile environment, growing conflicts over the aims and direction of the movement, fuelled in part by the growth of identity politics as part of the wider culture wars, led to an increasingly bitter factionalism that drove the movement apart.
... First, it is not practical due to the rapid rise in the scientific output surrounding the topic. Second, there exist numerous systematic and critical works dedicated to the broader topic of social movements (e.g., (Donatella Della and Mario, 2015;Ghosh, 2020;Greg, 2015)), which render it unnecessary, in this paper, to discuss all aspects and approaches of social movements studies. Suitably, this section focuses neatly on defining a social movement, understanding protests, and inspecting the role of ICTs in social movements. ...
... Social movements can be defined as "collective challenges, based on common purposes and social solidarities, in sustained interaction with elites, opponents, and authorities" (Tarrow, 2011, p. 9). In short, social movements are collective sustained action that attempt to bring about social, cultural, or political change (Della Porta & Diani, 2009Martin, 2015). The relationship between human rights and social movements goes beyond simple legal aspirations, with this relationship best summarized by Nash (2015, p. 11): ...
Australian immigration detention has been criticized both domestically and internationally for the harm that it creates and promotes and for violating human rights and international law. Psychologists have worked within centers and have thus been central to their operation, but have also long called for reform of these policies. Despite this and despite broader criticism from all corners of Australian society, the government has continued to consolidate power in relation to the administration of these policies and has actively attempted to shut down dissent. How should Psychologists respond? This article will argue that current approaches are inadequate and more adversarial action is needed. Supporting such an approach, social movement theory will be introduced and applied to examine how it may inform future action. Psychologists have an obligation to protect human rights and health, and while more adversarial action may not typically fit in traditional repertoires, there are few other professionals who are better skilled to begin to deal with these questions. In light of this, Psychologists in Australia and across the globe should carefully consider their roles in social change and whether they can do more in the face of major human rights abuses.
... Attempts to effect such change as part of activist research agenda will typically proceed in some sort of relation to social movements, and while these vary immensely in their constitution (see Martin, 2015) they are especially important in artivism. As Jordan (2020, p. 61) puts it, 'Artivism treats social movements as a material'. ...
... In a social movement, there are always goals to be achieved, whether the goals are critical or noncritical (Staggenbor, 2015;Martin, 2015;Almeida, 2019). Noncritical goals can be that the organization of the social movement is established for the benefit of pleasure, without having changed interests, revolution, contestation, and so on. ...
This study aims to identify and discover the ideas of social change offered by Mas Marco Kartodikromo through his work. Mas Marco Kartodikromo is an active person who writes literary works and articles in the early 20th century. The results of his writings present ideas for social change and the theme of the injustice of the system applied by the Dutch colonial government. The results of this study indicate that the idea of social change offered by Mas Marco Kartodikromo concerns the issue of nationalism for the Indies homeland, the idea of independence for the Indies homeland, defending the rights of indigenous women in the Indies, and improving the policy system in the Indies. Broadly speaking, the narratives written by Mas Marco Kartodikromo provide awareness to the readers so that the Indies quickly get out of the Dutch colonial shackles to become an independent state.
... Wilson (1980) The countervailing power can emerge from social movements or issue networks. Social movement is often perceived as a reaction to the elite model that controls the political system and excludes the interest of the wider public (Martin, 2015). Social movements could include producer groups, citizen groups, or professional groups with an interest contrary to the dominant group (McFarland, 2004). ...
... Movement can be defined by their actions and the way "Claims on authorities, used public performances to do so, draw on inherited forms of collective action" (Tilly and Tarrow 2006). They are shaped by members with "common identities, experiences, understanding and power relations are constructed in and through spaces and places of interaction" (Miller, 2000 p.33 in Martin, 2015). These spaces, called "spaces of autonomy" (Castells 2012) are a structuring element in the construction of social movements, especially when they do not have a fixed, The changes in the methods of communication affect the way meaning is constructed and consequently the power relationships within the movement (Castells 2012, 6). ...
This work addresses the relationship between social mobilization and spatial configurations in the context of new communication technologies. Using a literature that distinguishes the spatial analysis in the four dimensions (Territory, Place, Scale and Networks) in which different spaces of mobilization are analysed. The four vectors of analysis allow to approach the relationship between a movements’ main spatiality and its preferred types of actions from different angles. In this endeavour, the case around the Novo Recife project and the opposing groups Direitos Urbanos and the Movimento Ocupe Estelita, in Recife, Brazil, is used. In this case, social movements, initially organized over the internet, occupied a central plot in the city to combat the construction of a high-rise project. The case offers the possibility to investigate how the spatiality of mobilization, the internet and the occupied plot had different effects on the movements’ composition and its strategies.
Online social media are regarded as their own networked space, which deserves exhaustive analysis. This is done through the assessment of available data from the social network which are subsequently crosschecked in qualitative interviews. The results show a networked movement that is strongly changed with the beginning of the occupation, which gave the online space a new meaning. This changed meaning, away from a main space of mobilization to the space supporting the occupation, is observable through the analysis of patterns of discussion, without engaging in semantic content analysis. Social movements are found to be strongly embedded in their spatial contexts. Having an own space of autonomy, the movements increasingly shift their scalar strategies inwards, discussing horizontality and relationships within a more restricted area. This spatial shift towards a specific place impacts the movement by increasing diversity and horizontal decision-making, while questioning the technical and networked parent-movement that sparked the occupation.
... He opines that the latter is usually carried out impulsively while social campaigns are usually "intentional focused action structured to solicit attitudinal or behavioral changes, or both in a society". In contrast to Adelaku's definition, Martin (2015), citing Blumer, believes that social movements are first "typically amorphous and poorly organized, after which they develop a culture and social organization". ...
On April 14th, 2014, at about 11:35pm, 276 girls were abducted by the insurgent group Boko Haram from their boarding house in Government Girls College, Chibok in Northeast Nigeria. Nigerians, joined by the rest of the world, began to demand that the Nigerian government rescue the abducted girls. This agitation birthed the tagline Bring Back Our Girls. What started as a simple hashtag on Twitter would later become a global campaign tagged Bring Back Our Girls. Rhetorical spaces—virtual, material, and agential— have contributed to the escalation, amplification, and sustenance of the Bring Back Our Girls campaign. In this paper, I argue that social campaigns connect disparate spaces, virtual, material, and agential to propel, amplify and sustain conversations about their causes. This paper looks at the different spaces that added and continue to add agency to the Bring Back Our Girls movement. I conceptualize rhetorical space by drawing upon divergent views from rhetorical scholars and social scientists. To answer the research question—how did rhetorical spaces lend credence to the virality and sustenance of the Bring Back Our Girls movement? — the paper looks at Twitter, the media, public personalities and groups, and offline demonstrations as virtual, material, and agential spaces. This paper concludes that the 'spaces' examined gave credence to the virality of the Bring Back Our Girls campaign by using platforms, positions, and features as social capital to influence the conversation about the campaign. Twitter has been the most fundamental agential and virtual space in the virality and sustenance of the campaign.
... First, it is not practical due to the rapid rise in the scientific output surrounding the topic. Second, there exist numerous systematic and critical works dedicated to the broader topic of social movements (e.g., (Donatella Della and Mario, 2015;Ghosh, 2020;Greg, 2015)), which render it unnecessary, in this paper, to discuss all aspects and approaches of social movements studies. Suitably, this section focuses neatly on defining a social movement, understanding protests, and inspecting the role of ICTs in social movements. ...
Technology has altered collective actions guidance resulting in a new regulatory frame for action. For the sake of being successful in a social movement, people plan and advertise in advance to encourage and gather greater participation to strengthen the influence of crowds. For this, social media offers exceptional opportunities to organise masses of people into actions with lower participation expenses, and to foster new repositories of information and actions that go beyond communities offline. While most contemporary social movements have been studied from different perspectives, the Algerian social movement (i.e., Hirak) was overlooked in the literature. This paper presents a distinctive foundation for understanding the Algerian Hirak through analysing Twitter data. The used approach is established mainly at the intersection of sociology and data analysis, with the intention to generate an improved discernment of this movement. Promising future research directions are also discussed in this paper.
... Las redes no pueden entenderse ya como meras herramientas tecnológicas para el intercambio de mensajes, sino como auténticos medios para la comunicación, la interacción y la participación global (García, Hoyo & Fernández, 2014). En efecto, tal y como venimos argumentando, las redes sociales abren nuevos caminos para la participación social activa, facilitando la difusión de la información sobre eventos de todo tipo que antes eran difícilmente accesibles (Rubio-Gil, 2012), contribuyen a conectar con personas involucradas en las mismas causas, convirtiéndose en un recurso que da voz a masas que habían sido silenciadas (Della-Porta, 2015) y en herramienta para iniciar y organizar movimientos sociales, protestas o manifestaciones (Martin, 2015). Un ejemplo de este nuevo fenómeno son las ciberprotestas como "extensiones de un movimiento social en un nuevo espacio mediático" (Zimbra, Abbasi & Chen, 2010; p. 49) y tienen la ventaja de poder movilizar de manera rápida y barata a una amplia audiencia, superar los límites geográficos y alcanzar el pluralismo de la información (Passini, 2012). ...
Resumen:En este trabajo se presenta una experiencia de Educación para la Salud basada en el empoderamiento social y orientada a la mejora de las condiciones generales de salud de la población. Estuvo apoyada en redes sociales telemáticas y desarrollada, desde la Universidad, en la región de Chontales (Nicaragua). Para la investigación se han desarrollado grupos de discusión con docentes, estudiantes y líderes de opinión locales, que han colaborado activamente en diversas actividades propuestas de educación y promoción de la salud. Para el análisis de los datos se ha empleado el programa de análisis cualitativo Atlas.ti, creando previamente el sistema de categorías y posteriormente los diferentes códigos de análisis. El conjunto de conclusiones del estudio pone de manifiesto el consenso de los actores implicados sobre la utilidad y potencialidad de las redes sociales en la Educación para la Salud y el empoderamiento social, así como la necesidad y demanda explícita de una mayor formación específica y acceso a los recursos para poder conseguir un impacto social real. Abstract:This paper presents a Health Education experience based on social empowerment and aimed at improving the general health conditions of the population. It was supported in telematics social networks and developed, from the University, in the region of Chontales (Nicaragua). For the research, discussion groups have been developed with local teachers, students and opinion leaders, who have actively collaborated in various proposed education and health promotion activities. After creating the system of categories and the different codes of analysis, the qualitative analysis program Atlas.ti was used for the analysis of the data. The set of conclusions of the study shows the consensus of the actors involved on the utility and potential of social networks in Health Education and social empowerment, as well as the need and explicit demand for greater specific training and access to the required resources to achieve a real social impact.
... Social movements consist of purposive actors that collectively challenge an authority (system of authority) in an attempt to bring about social change (Della Porta and Diani 2006). While authors have not agreed on what type of change is pursued with social movements (whether overall change or change in the political arena) (Snow et al. 2019a), there is consensus that social movements aim for transformation (Martin 2015). Snow et al. (2019b, 7) argue that social movements challenge or defend an existing institutional authoritywhether located in the political, corporate, religious, or educational realm (original emphasis). ...
The literature on the October 2018 caravan from Central America to the US has offered different interpretations of the phenomenon. Some studies look at it as a strategy for mobility, others as an exodus, and others as a collective action. I synthesise these perspectives to advance the conceptualisation of the caravan to account for its main features. To do so, I perform a case study of the caravan based on a literature review and a secondary qualitative analysis. Drawing on the concept of Social Movements, this article first proposes the conceptualisation of the caravan as a social movement—understanding the different features of the caravan as axes of a social movement. Then, the article introduces the concept of ‘transnational social movements on the move’ to account for the innovations in the space and repertoires of contention and diffusion. The case study shows that the 2018 Caravan is a transnational social movement on the move composed of purposive migrants from different nationalities moving collectively across countries to challenge a system of authority at the local and international level using innovative repertoires of contention.
... Las redes no pueden entenderse ya como meras herramientas tecnológicas para el intercambio de mensajes, sino como auténticos medios para la comunicación, la interacción y la participación global (García, Hoyo & Fernández, 2014). En efecto, tal y como venimos argumentando, las redes sociales abren nuevos caminos para la participación social activa, facilitando la difusión de la información sobre eventos de todo tipo que antes eran difícilmente accesibles (Rubio-Gil, 2012), contribuyen a conectar con personas involucradas en las mismas causas, convirtiéndose en un recurso que da voz a masas que habían sido silenciadas (Della-Porta, 2015) y en herramienta para iniciar y organizar movimientos sociales, protestas o manifestaciones (Martin, 2015). Un ejemplo de este nuevo fenómeno son las ciberprotestas como "extensiones de un movimiento social en un nuevo espacio mediático" (Zimbra, Abbasi & Chen, 2010; p. 49) y tienen la ventaja de poder movilizar de manera rápida y barata a una amplia audiencia, superar los límites geográficos y alcanzar el pluralismo de la información (Passini, 2012). ...
Resumen: En este trabajo se presenta una experiencia de Educación para la Salud basada en el empoderamiento social y orientada a la mejora de las condiciones generales de salud de la población. Estuvo apoyada en redes sociales telemáticas y desarrollada, desde la Universidad, en la región de Chontales (Nicaragua). Para la investigación se han desarrollado grupos de discusión con docentes, estudiantes y líderes de opinión locales, que han colaborado activamente en diversas actividades propuestas de educación y promoción de la salud. Para el análisis de los datos se ha empleado el programa de análisis cualitativo Atlas.ti, creando previamente el sistema de categorías y posteriormente los diferentes códigos de análisis. El conjunto de conclusiones del estudio pone de manifiesto el consenso de los actores implicados sobre la utilidad y potencialidad de las redes sociales en la Educación para la Salud y el empoderamiento social, así como la necesidad y demanda explícita de una mayor formación específica y acceso a los recursos para poder conseguir un impacto social real. Palabras clave: Educación para la Salud, Procesos de Socialización, Participación Ciudadana VOL.21, Nº4 (Septiembre-Diciembre, 2017)
... One danger is that it can easily slip into a mode of argument that imputes a false consciousness to disabled people, construing them as unknowing dupes of neoliberalism. Another is that it overlooks the complexities and contradictions that arise within social movements as a result of neoliberal hegemony ( Martin 2015 ). And finally, perhaps more importantly, it ignores the real affinities between neoliberalism and emancipatory movements of the New Left. ...
... One danger is that it can easily slip into a mode of argument that imputes a false consciousness to disabled people, construing them as unknowing dupes of neoliberalism. Another is that it overlooks the complexities and contradictions that arise within social movements as a result of neoliberal hegemony ( Martin 2015 ). And finally, perhaps more importantly, it ignores the real affinities between neoliberalism and emancipatory movements of the New Left. ...
... One danger is that it can easily slip into a mode of argument that imputes a false consciousness to disabled people, construing them as unknowing dupes of neoliberalism. Another is that it overlooks the complexities and contradictions that arise within social movements as a result of neoliberal hegemony ( Martin 2015 ). And finally, perhaps more importantly, it ignores the real affinities between neoliberalism and emancipatory movements of the New Left. ...
... One danger is that it can easily slip into a mode of argument that imputes a false consciousness to disabled people, construing them as unknowing dupes of neoliberalism. Another is that it overlooks the complexities and contradictions that arise within social movements as a result of neoliberal hegemony ( Martin 2015 ). And finally, perhaps more importantly, it ignores the real affinities between neoliberalism and emancipatory movements of the New Left. ...
... One danger is that it can easily slip into a mode of argument that imputes a false consciousness to disabled people, construing them as unknowing dupes of neoliberalism. Another is that it overlooks the complexities and contradictions that arise within social movements as a result of neoliberal hegemony ( Martin 2015 ). And finally, perhaps more importantly, it ignores the real affinities between neoliberalism and emancipatory movements of the New Left. ...
... Movement scholars have taken note of these recent protests and their specific features and significance (see Martin 2015, Konak and Özgür Dönmez 2015, Jasper 2014, Gestring et al. 2014. Mayer (2013, p. 5) suggests that today's mobilizations are distinct from the earlier urban struggles since the 1960s and operate in very different settings: "much of the conceptual and theoretical framework traditionally used for understanding the dynamics and potential of urban activism is no longer helpful." ...
... These questions reflect research on social movement organizations initiated in response to critical events that set a vision for the organizations (Nownes, 2019). Social movements measure productivity in terms of advancing their agenda of social change (Martin, 2015). Success here is both acting according to principles and realizing the desired end. ...
Now is the time to rethink reliance on legal intervention to end intimate partner violence (IPV). Arrest, incarceration, and family separation have fallen disproportionately on people who are Black or Brown, impoverished, or immigrant, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ). Restorative approaches bring together the persons harmed, persons causing harm, their family or community networks, or combinations of these stakeholders. Based on a U.S. national study, this article examines: What influences programs to adopt a restorative approach to ending IPV? How do programs safeguard their original vision for social change? What principles guide the programs in carrying out their work in safe and productive ways?
The first advances of Africa's reparations agenda are traceable to the First International Conference on Reparations held in Nigeria in 1990. The profile of the subject was promptly raised to that of a regional undertaking at the level of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1991. The continent is henceforth seen to stumble into institutional formulations that lack the support infrastructure and formidability to operate. The momentum for reparations set by the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action of 2001 faltered in Africa, primarily because the continent prioritised development assistance, investment and market reforms with the very powers responsible for reparations. More than two decades after this conference, it is increasingly evident that reparations are crucial for dismantling the structural impoverishment that undermines even the most well-intentioned reforms. The African Union (AU) is currently resuscitating the continent's reparations agenda, amid some gains by Africa's diaspora, protracted litigation and advances by certain African societies and the renewal of the UN International Decade for People of African Descent, which is based on the pillars of recognition, justice and development. A continent's reparations agenda must be guided by clear and established principles of engagement, driven by a formidable and sustainable institution, with continental-wide representation and consensus. A holistic agenda must unify the continent, in its diversity, around the core objective. It should include strategies that exert influence over the nations owing reparations to fulfil their obligations and be supported by authoritative African-centred thought leadership rooted in an authentic African conscience. It is a multi-sectoral, multi-dimensional, multidisciplinary, multi-layered and resilient venture.
Çoklu örnek olay olarak tasarlanan bu araştırmada toplumsal hareketleri açıklama
amacı güden kaynak hareketliliği, politik fırsatlar, çerçeveleme, yeni toplumsal
hareketler ve toplumsal hareket ağları kuramları bir arada kullanılmıştır.
Son yıllarda, toplumsal hareketlerin bir dalı olan yerel ekolojik hareketlerin sıkça
görüldüğü Çanakkale ilinde gerçekleştirilen araştırma, Türkiye’de yerel ekolojik
hareketlerin neden örgütlendiğini ve başarıya nasıl ulaştıklarını analiz etmektedir.
Bu bağlamda araştırma sonuçları, Türkiye’de yerel ekolojik hareketleri, ağırlıklı
olarak ekonomik kayıp tehdidi algısının tetiklediğini göstermektedir. Hareketlerin
başarıya ulaşmasında yerel yöneticiler (muhtarlar) ve ulusal/uluslararası STK’ların
desteğinin önemli olduğu görülmüştür. Öte yandan, yerel ekolojik hareketlere
destek sağlamada basın ve sosyal medya da etkin olarak kullanılmaktadır. Son
olarak, yerel ekolojik hareketleri başlatan aktörlerin, Türkiye’deki iki kutuplu politik
yapıyı stratejik bir şekilde kullanarak hareketlerini başarıya ulaştırmaya çalıştıkları
anlaşılmaktadır.
For more than two decades after Gregg v. Georgia (1976), use of the death penalty greatly expanded across the United States. Since 2000, however, it has declined significantly. Perhaps the most notable explanation for this decline is the contemporary focus on wrongful convictions. In this paper, we aim to contextualize the modern death penalty decline, and its connection with innocence, through the theoretical lens of social movements and collective action. We argue that dual opportunities reshaped the modern anti‐death penalty movement. First, the McCleskey v. Kemp (1987) ruling affirmed the federal courts' resistance to abolition and inspired activists to begin shifting toward state‐level political abolitionism. Activists then took advantage of the developing interest in wrongful convictions. Specifically, innocence‐related abolitionist activities in Illinois reinvigorated the anti‐death penalty movement, expanded the advocacy network, and fundamentally reframed the debate around capital punishment in the United States. We suggest that, collectively, these dual opportunities reshaped the anti‐death penalty movement into one that emphasized strategies reaching beyond constitutionality and propelled the movement into the twenty‐first century with a foundation for successful political abolitionism.
The chapter considers how marketing techniques are applied to political and social change campaigns. It includes attempts at persuasion, and manipulation, through the digital advertising technologies that are available from both legitimate and shady sources (the mainstream and black markets in adtech). It includes case studies of political influence campaigns that have been run within borders, and those conducted by foreign powers. Of the latter, we include examples of ‘foreign influence’ campaigns and responses to them by governments, and defence and intelligence agencies, who regard (and respond to) these campaigns as a form of ‘grey-zone warfare’, as the ‘weaponisation of information’. Social media company actions to detect and remove ‘coordinated inauthentic behaviour’ are also included.
Objective
The article presents a study on the collective identity of members of the Polish organization “We, the Parents—the association of mothers, fathers, and allies of LGBTQIA individuals.”
Background
The research contributes to the field of social movement studies, specifically focusing on the rights of sexual and gender minorities and parental activism, and is grounded in social constructionism.
Method
Using a qualitative case study with an ethnographic approach, the study employed participatory observation, interviews, document analysis, and autoethnography, analyzed through grounded theory.
Results
Findings highlight the cultural roots of the collective identity (“parent”), its interaction with individual identities, and its complex structure, identifying categories such as “accepting parenthood,” “normal parenthood,” “proxy parenthood,” and “intervening parenthood.”
Conclusions
The concept of “parenthood” both strengthens the collective identity and reveals internal tensions. Members engage with diverse audiences, including the public, the LGBTQ community, and power centers, using strategies like promoting “good parenting,” transforming social norms on sexuality and gender, supporting the LGBTQ community, and influencing public discourse on LGBTQ rights. Their modes of expression include narrative, evaluative, performative, and persuasive approaches.
Implications
The study offers valuable insights for practitioners in education, health care, and family support, especially in areas with adverse sociocultural climates. It demonstrates how parents adapt after their child's coming out, gain empowerment, and form alliances to improve LGBTQ family well‐being. The research also inspires policy initiatives and public health strategies addressing the mental well‐being and institutional discrimination faced by LGBTQ individuals.
Protest is typically rare behavior, yet the first decade of the twenty-first century has been named the era of protest. Successful protests bring masses to the streets, and the emergence of social media has fundamentally changed the process of mobilization. What protests need to be successful is demand (grievances, anger, and indignation), supply (protest organizations), and mobilization (effective communication networks). Motivation to participate can be instrumental, expressive, and identity driven, and politicized collective identity plays an important role in the dynamics of collective action. This volume brings together insights from social psychology, political psychology, sociology, and political science to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of protest participation, particularly to the question of why some people protest while others do not. It is essential reading for scholars interested in the social and political psychology of individuals in action.
Labor movements are social movements reflecting the interests of the industrial working class. Trade unions have made up the traditional core of labor movements and political parties have represented working‐class interests, leading most notably to the creation of welfare states across Western liberal democracies during the twentieth century. The relative affluence and security of the postwar period provided a context wherein “new social movements” emerged, which, unlike the labor movements of the past, were not primarily concerned with material issues, such as socioeconomic inequality, but instead emphasized “post‐material” values, such as identity and quality of life. While this implies “old” issues associated with labor movements have disappeared, critics argue transformations globally point to their enduring relevance, as contemporary movements have emerged to protest against new forms of precarity, the human costs of austerity, and material deprivation experienced by people in the developing countries of the Global South.
Early theories of collective behavior tended to regard it as negative, associating it with the rise of fascism and communism in Europe during the 1930s. Crowd behavior was seen as irrational and dangerous because it suppressed individual will, and posed a threat to the democratic political order and established ways of life. Other theories have regarded collective movements as meaningful acts striving to affect positive social change. Hence, collective behavior theory has influenced social movement research. For instance, by treating social movements as rational, strategically calculating political phenomena, resource mobilization theory embraces the rationalism implied in the collective behavior perspective. Other scholars, by contrast, focus on the supposedly irrational aspects of social movement activity, such as emotional expression and feelings of anger, injustice, and indignation, which help explain not only why people become involved in collective action in the first place, but also why they continue to participate over time.
During the 1980s, hackers expressed concern over informational freedom. In the 1990s, “hacktivists” used hacking techniques to speak out on political matters, targeting governments and corporations that try to censor and restrict access to information. Wikileaks is a hacktivist organization also involved in practicing “counter‐surveillance” designed to disrupt surveillance hierarchies and institutional power symmetries. Like Wikileaks, ordinary citizen‐users are also able increasingly to challenge state surveillance, monitoring, and censorship via new information and communication technologies, and social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. “Citizen journalists” have intervened to expose abuses of power by state actors, such as the police, and to overthrow repressive regimes, such as during the Arab Spring. While these technological developments provide opportunities for digital democracy, a “digital divide” has also emerged, reflecting differential Internet access across territories, social classes, and groups with varying degrees of political interest. State actors too have begun to experiment with digital forms of political participation, seeking public engagement on strategic policymaking issues, such as intergenerational injustice.
The Fees Must Fall (FMF) movement of 2015–2016 in South Africa was a formidable factor in shaping the future of higher education in the new democracy. Mass student and worker strike action forced university management to reconsider models for funding, research and pedagogy, while at the same time, the movement was severely repressed through securitisation and militarisation of campuses. In this context of increasingly neoliberal university policies and austerity, it could be argued that FMF was confined to the university, unable to consolidate its ties to, for example, organised labour and civil society more broadly. This chapter employs social movement theory to analyse the rise and fall of FMF, which it describes as a movement in distress in need of rescuing or resuscitation by other non-campus, radical movements in society. Resource mobilisation and political opportunity process theories shed light on how the movement become trapped in the ivory tower of higher learning. Using prior fieldwork and participant observation, the chapter argues that the source of entrapment lies in the neoliberal structuring of the university which traps radical student movements such as FMF within a limited political landscape that is removed from the broader society and heavily influenced by party politics within which student organisations are often bound.
Zusammenfassung
Spätestens seit der Finanzkrise erleben die wohnungspolitischen und städtischen Bewegungen einen neuerlichen Aufwind. Die Virulenz der Proteste wirft die Frage auf, um welche Form sozialer Kämpfe es sich dabei handelt. Der vorliegende, theoretisch ausgerichtete Artikel möchte daher eine Klassifikation urbaner sozialer Bewegungen (USB) entwickeln.
Um die USB gesamtgesellschaftlich zu verorten, werden stadtsoziologische mit solchen politökonomischen Ansätzen verknüpft, die ein erweitertes Verständnis von der Funktionsweise des Kapitalismus vertreten. Im Anschluss an Analysen von Klaus Dörre, David Harvey und Nancy Fraser wird dargelegt, wie in Krisenzeiten nicht-ökonomische Sphären und urbane Räume für die Akkumulation erschlossen werden. Dieses Profitstreben jenseits der Lohnsphäre soll ins Verhältnis zu den städtischen Protesten gesetzt werden.
Insofern die USB von der aktuellen Akkumulationsweise hervorgerufen werden, lassen sich diese als so genannte erweiterte Klassenkämpfe in der Reproduktionssphäre deuten. Da die städtischen Proteste zugleich mit bestimmten Möglichkeiten der Kollektivierung einhergehen, stellt der Bereich der sozialen Reproduktion nicht nur ein Terrain dar, auf dem sich die Krise entfaltet. Vielmehr tragen die Kämpfe um soziale Reproduktion zur sozialen Transformation bei.
A comparative analysis of subcultures and social movements highlights similarities and differences between the two concepts. Broadly speaking, subcultures tend not to be focused on the political sphere while social movements, as traditionally understood, have a predominantly political orientation. While some scholars have been interested in social movement cultures, this became a key focus following the “cultural turn” in the social sciences that occurred toward the end of the twentieth century. Equally, some subcultural theorists have been interested not only in the internal culture of subcultural groups but also their potential for affecting political change. Although the two fields of study remain distinct, a comparative analysis reveals common concerns to do with the ways subcultures and social movements are conceptualized, as well as around the efficacy of cultural politics or struggles waged at the level of lifestyle and identity.
It is a key issue how different generations coming together for a specific purpose of the business evaluate critical information. In information processing, HRM has critical roles in adapting to the diversity of the multigenerational workforce and fostering creativity. While managing a multigenerational workforce can provide a competitive advantage, ignoring the process can cause sustainability matters for the business. From this point of view, it is useful to consider the multigenerational workforce from different perspectives in terms of HRM. All efforts to understand employees are substantial as they contribute to creating an effective and synergic organization.
Las barricadas son acciones que los movimientos sociales realizan para lograr visibilizar sus demandas y expresar su malestar. Cuando las barricadas tienen una duración mayor de días o semanas se transforman en sitios donde se genera interacción social y debate. A partir de un estudio de fuentes secundarias y un análisis de discurso de 56 entrevistas semiestructuradas, este artículo examina a través de un enfoque cualitativo el significado que las barricadas tuvieron para quienes participaron en los movimientos sociales de Aysén (2012) y Chiloé (2016), ubicados en el sur de Chile. En ambos casos, las barricadas estuvieron compuestas por personas de diversas clases sociales, que permanecieron durante semanas en dichos espacios, estableciendo una vida comunitaria con sus propios ritmos y temporalidades. Se formaron así lugares que se vinculaban con significativos elementos culturales de esos territorios (la fogata, la comida, el mate), que permitieron el encuentro y la socialización entre personas de diferentes orígenes y clases sociales. Allí también se realizaron debates y aprendizajes clave para los movimientos sociales y sus acciones. En estos sitios las barricadas fueron sitios integración social, afectando positivamente la vida de sus participantes y las comunidades, constituyéndose como verdaderos lugares efímeros.
سعت هذه الدراسة للبحث في دور الفيس بوك كوسيلة اتصال جديدة لناشطيّ الحركات الاجتماعية حول بلدان العالم العربي، وما هي دوافعهم في استخدامها والتحديات التي يواجهونها. اليوم، وبسبب عدم المساواة الاجتماعية، والتهميش ومصادرة الحريات، وتأخر الحكومات العربية في تعديل نصوصها الدستورية بما يتناسب مع روح العصر، أخذ الناشطون من كافة الدول العربية في استغلال حساباتهم الشخصية وإقامة الصفحات لمحاولة إجراء تغييراتٍ شاملة في الهياكل السياسية والاجتماعية السائدة.
باستخدام منهج المسح المعتمد على استبيانات ((Google Forms)) المرسل إلى عينة (قصدية/كرة الثلج) قوامها (80) من الناشطين عبر خاصية التراسل الداخلي على شبكة الفيس بوك، توصلت الدراسة لمجموعة من النتائج نوجز أهمها في النقاط الآتية:
أغلب أفراد العينة ينشطون في حركات " الدولة المدنية "، وقد بدأ نشاطهم عبر الشبكة في الفترة (2015-2019)؛ ويفضل هؤلاء الاعتماد على التدوين الحر من خلال حساباتهم الرسمية ثم دعوة الآخرين لمشاركة المنشورات على نطاقٍ واسع كطرق لدعم الحركات التي ينخرطون فيها. ويشارك معظمهم في المناقشات المتعلقة بقضايا الحركات الاجتماعية. أما الذين يمتنعون عن المشاركة في المناقشات فتلخصت دوافعهم في: لتجنب المضايقات والتهديدات من المستخدمين الآخرين، والتطرف الإيديولوجي لدى البعض، الدخول في النقاشات دون جدوى، فضلاً عن سذاجة وتطرف الرأي المعارض. وقد أثرت في هذا المحور متغيرات: الجنس، السن، المستوى المعيشي والانتماء الجغرافي والتوجه الإيديولوجي.
تمثلت دوافع الناشطين في استخدام شبكة الفيس بوك لأنها الوسيلة الأنسب لهم، ولكون وسائل الإعلام الخاصة تتبنى توجهات تختلف عن توجهات الناشطين، وتُخضع مضامينها لرقابة مشددة؛ وتشعرهم الشبكة بالانتماء نحو القضية المشتركة، ولأنه يسهل لهم التخطيط والتنسيق على نحو فعال، ويوصل أصواتهم المقموعة إلى الرأي العام حول العالم.
يتمثل دور شبكة الفيس بوك في أنها تساهم في فتح باب حرية التعبير وتوجيه الرأي العام للحركة، وإدانة مختلف الجرائم والانتهاكات، ودعم القضايا المغلقة وإبرازها، وفي تعبئة
الاحتجاجات وتغطيتها، وصناعة الخطاب الايديولوجي للناشط دون أي إشراف حكومي، ومتابعة أخبار المعتقلين السياسيين والحقوقيين.
يستخدم غالبية الناشطين في العالم العربي هويات حقيقية في تنفيذ نشاطاتهم عبر الشبكة، وذلك لإثبات وجودهم وأن لديهم آراء للتعبير عنها. قلة منهم يستخدمون هويات مزيفة لتجنب المضايقات والتهديدات. قيّم ناشطو شبكة الفيس بوك بأنها مساحة فعالة لدعم الحركات الاجتماعية. وعلى الرغم من ذلك، فإنه لا يخلو من مجموعة من التحديات التي يواجهونها في أداء أنشطتهم وهي: الإفراط في الابلاغ وتعليق انشطة حساباتهم مثل حظر النشر والتعليق ...الخ، فضلاً عن المخاطر التي تمثلت في تعرضهم للسب والسخرية. وقد أثرت في هذا المحور جميع المتغيرات ما عدا متغير الجنس والانتماء الجغرافي.
الكلمات المفتاحية: شبكات التواصل الاجتماعي، الفيس بوك، الحركات الاجتماعية، الناشطين.
In this article, I analyze whether the case of the Yellow Vest movement fits Paris Aslanidis’ definition of populist social movements, and find that within the discursive theoretical framework Aslanidis adheres to, it does. However, I use the case of the Yellow Vest movement to demonstrate how this discursive approach lacks explanatory potential. I therefore propose moving away from a discursive definition of populist social movements, and advocate for studying political content as a way of detecting common interests shaped by political and societal structures that are shared by participants in a populist social movement. A theory of populist social movements must look at political and economic structures as well as individual agency, framing, and collective identity as a way to explain mobilization. A discursive approach to populism, which only considers language, is therefore not sufficient to explain movements such as the Yellow Vest movement.
This article argues that new religious movements (NRMs) develop as cultural interlocutors. As emergent social bodies that respond to extant norms, structures, and values, NRMs can deploy cultural products as a shared vocabulary and grammar in their response to surrounding society. To demonstrate this approach’s ability to parse NRMs’ relations to popular culture while highlighting organizationally distinctive dimensions of such interactions, this article examines Jim Jones’s references to visual media shown in Jonestown in 1978. Jones critiqued movies and television as tools of social control, repurposed documentaries and films as evidence to support his proffered doctrine, and creatively presented movies as analogues of the commune’s perceived challenges. This threefold hermeneutic shaped the Peoples Temple’s beliefs and behavior, as well as its own media productions.
This article examines a high-profile “naming and shaming” campaign launched by the activist group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) targeting the controversial sheep husbandry practice of mulesing. This campaign led to important changes to the “rules of the game” governing global merino wool production. This article suggests that contests between activists and other stakeholders over the framing of the policy problem and activists’ choice of strategy can result in co-optation of activist ideas by corporate actors. The possibility of co-optation of ostensibly successful social movement campaigns highlights the importance of considering such campaigns in light of movements’ values and longer-term goals.
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Since the 1987 democratization movement, non-nationals and nationals of migration-background have been important actors of social movements, which called for the protection of rights and improvement of the social system. However, their claims were often seen as only objects that ‘our’ society had to ‘support’ on a humanitarian basis, and they were still considered outside rs. Aren’t their claims and demands the ‘our’ social movements? Aren’t they parts of ‘us’? When the principle of ‘national sovereignty’ is reaffirmed and democracy are consolidated through social movements in South Korean society, would non-nationals and nationals of migration-background be excluded from the ‘power from the people’? Will they be able to become the agents of social movements and make changes in South Korean society?This paper intends to ask these questions and propose discussions to the ‘progressive reform’ movements and migrant movements in South Korea. To this end, theoretical discussions on social movements, especially of non-national and migrants, is reviewed in the context of neoliberal globalization. Then, it seeks to understand the changes in migrant movements in Korean society over the past 30 years, particularly in the context of structural changes of society such as labor instability, international migration, and consequent changes in population composition. In addition, it looks at the recent trend of migrant movements and discusses its significance for the changes in the subject and direction of the South Korean social movement.
How can journalist groups and media organizations use legal strategies to defend media freedom in semi-authoritarian contexts? Whereas a sizeable social science literature has explored the structural determinants of media freedom, this paper studies how social movement actors can mobilize to protect media freedoms. Through a case study of recent struggles for media freedom in Uganda, we analyse how journalist groups and media organizations have used legal strategies to defend their freedom to report against a semi-authoritarian regime that increasingly clamps down on independent media. Drawing on numerous interviews with key actors, our analysis suggests that Uganda’s so-called media fraternity has sometimes been able to push back state repression or advance the institutional framework for media freedom. Specifically, legal mobilization has been successful when the media fraternity has been able to mobilize broad and rapid support and organize sustained public advocacy, and when the journalist or media outlet in question has public credibility. By providing a better account of when and why the media freedom movement has been able to successfully challenge government repression, this paper also contributes a better understanding of legal mobilization by journalist and media organizations that should be relevant beyond the case of Uganda.
This chapter argues that first-person abortion story-sharing was a key tactic of pro-choice groups supporting the removal of the Eighth Amendment from the Constitution. This chapter shows that what these groups achieved was a remarkable normalising of abortion talk by supporting women who had undergone abortion to speak publicly about their experiences. In this, these women storytellers were mirroring certain pro-choice movements in other contexts, where a new ‘sound it loud, say it proud’ narrative around abortion experiences has emerged in recent years as a central strategy for destigmatising abortion discourse. Post-abortion, in most countries the norm remains self-censorship of their history of terminating an unwanted pregnancy. In the Irish situation, this silencing has been pronounced, with women’s experiences long excluded from public debates on abortion. However, in the years preceding and throughout the campaign to repeal the Eighth, something changed. And what changed was that women found their voice.
The chapter engages with political art and religion in post-communist Romania. The younger generation of Romanian contemporary artists employed the “religious” thematic clusters and tropes in their work, yet, for different ends and on different grounds than the Neo-Orthodox artists. They also employ the thematic clusters and the repertoires of religion and spirituality in order to challenge it (or at least to challenge “institutionalized religion” or the so-called religious affair in Romania). Thus, the all-too-familiar Byzantine icons, crosses, as well as other religious symbols and visual memorabilia are employed in defamiliarized contexts and approaches. Contemporary artists deploy traditional religious imagery as rhetorical devices featured in the “secular agora” for their political-ethical potentialities.
Lord Justice Taylor’s final report into the Hillsborough stadium disaster recommended that all Premier League and Championship football grounds in England and Wales should become all-seated and that football supporters would eventually become ‘accustomed and educated to sitting’. Thirty years later, thousands of fans continue to stand at matches but in areas not designed for them to do so. This ritual has become a source of conflict between clubs, supporters and official safety bodies. In 2018, the UK Sports Minister claimed that despite this problem, there remained no desire amongst top clubs to change the all-seating policy and that it was only a ‘vocal minority’ who wanted to see the permanent return of standing in English football. However, supporters, networked through the national Football Supporters Association, had been actively mobilizing a social movement against the legislation for over 20 years. In this article, I use relational sociology to analyse empirical snapshots of the latest phase of this movement, ‘Safe Standing’, to show how the switching and cooperation of supporter networks and their tactics were successful in breaking down the state to create new political opportunities. In doing so, the article reveals the key characteristics of safe standing, including conflict, organizational form and intersubjective motivations, to represent the collective – but also often complex and contradictory – responses to the neoliberal political economy which English football, and society more broadly, has inhabited over the past 30 years.
Este estudo se propõe a analisar a dinâmica das eleições presidenciais no Brasil, ocorridas em outubro de 2018, a fim de compreender sua relação com o uso das redes sociais. Assim, usando a Teoria Ator-Rede (ANT) como base teórica e metodológica, associada a um estudo de caso único, identificaram-se os atores relevantes na formação de uma rede sócio-técnica associada ao impulsionamento da divulgação de conteúdo eleitoral para a campanha para presidente ocorrida no Brasil em 2018. O estudo revela que esse impulsionamento de conteúdo foi levado a cabo por meio de diferentes atores alinhados em torno de um único ponto de passagem obrigatório - as redes sociais. Constatou-se, assim, que as redes sociais desempenharam um papel relevante nessa organização popular, favorecendo a mudança na forma como os eleitores interagiram e se reuniram, tornando as organizações formais menos necessárias, e ampliando a participação política da sociedade como um todo.
The concept of mesomobilization is introduced as a specification to the prevailing literature on mobilization processes. Mesomobilization actors have a dual function: They first provide the structural basis for mobilization by coordinating micromobilization groups and collecting the resources required for action and then try to achieve a cultural integration of the various groups by developing a master frame to interpret the triggering event in a way that is conducive to mobilization. Two empirical cases: the mobilization against U.S. President Ronald Reagan's visit in Berlin in 1987 and the mobilization against the yearly meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Berlin in 1988 are investigated to develop hypotheses that indicate what structural and cultural factors are important to a successful mobilization.
Contemporary social policy has never been more vigorously contested. Issues range from single-issue campaigns over housing, social care, hospital closures through to organised movements around disability, environment, health and education. However, the historical and contemporary role played by social movements in shaping social welfare has too often been neglected in standard social policy texts. “Understanding social welfare movements” is the first text to bring together social policy and social movement studies. Using actual case studies and written in an accessible and engaging style, it will attract a wide readership of undergraduate and postgraduate students, higher education teachers and researchers, stakeholders and activists. Introductory chapters examine the historical and theoretical relationship between state welfare and social movements. Subsequent chapters outline the historical contribution of various social movements to the creation of the welfare state relating to Beveridge’s ’five giants’ of idleness, ignorance, squalor, illness and want. The book then examines the contemporary challenge posed by ’new social movements’ in relation to the family, discrimination, environment, and global social justice. The book provides a timely and much needed overview of the changing nature of social welfare as it has been shaped by the demands of social movements.
Popular opinion suggests protest has become ubiquitous in advanced postindustrial democracies. In order to assess this perspective scholars have increasingly relied on so-called protest surveys to gauge protesters' attitudes and characteristics while in the act of protesting. This growing body of literature has neglected the design of protest surveys and has yet to systematically test the reliability of the evidence they produce. This study attempts to make a contribution on both fronts. After reviewing the available studies relying on protest surveys, it proposes a standardized method to sample respondents in moving crowds. The sampling procedure is tested in 22 demonstrations across a variety of issues and countries. Based on a series of field experiments, the paper puts forward a specific protest survey fieldwork method by which selection bias and response bias can be reduced to a considerable degree.
We compare activist-based internet data with four other media sources—Lexis Nexis Academic Universe, The Seattle Times, Global Newsbank, and The New York Times—on their coverage of the local, national, and international protests that accompanied the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Third Ministerial Conference in Seattle, Washington in late 1999. Using the Media Sensitivity-Protest Intensity Model of event reporting, we find that activist-based web sites report a greater number of transnational protest events at the local, national, and international level. We also find that activist-based websites are less positively influenced by the intensity properties of protest events. In the age of globalization, research on transnational movements should therefore combine conventional media sources and activist-based web sources.
This book critically investigates the complex interaction between social media and contemporary democratic politics, and provides a grounded analysis of the emerging importance of Social media in civic engagement.
Drawing upon the work of McAdam, Tarrow, and Tilly, Lefebvre, and others, we argue that analysis of political contention dynamics can benefit from attention to the spatial constitution and context of social, political, and economic processes, and the ways in which these processes are spatially experienced and contested. We contend that spatial processes are inseparable from, and constitutive of, social processes. Starting from the central geographic concepts of space, place, and scale, we discuss how a spatial perspective can produce more illuminating understandings of how people perceive, shape, and act upon grievances and opportunities. We demonstrate the utility of a spatial perspective through an examination of ways in which space is implicated in the operation of several mechanisms identified by McAdam, Tarrow, and Tilly. Finally, we introduce the papers included in this special issue on space and contentious politics, discussing the ways each author finds place, space, and scale to be bound up in the dynamics of political contention.
This article seeks to open dialogue about the utility of resource mobilization theory in explaining social movements and their impact by exploring the use of social media in the 2011 Egyptian revolution through a limited case study analysis. It argues that social media played an instrumental role in the success of the anti-government protests that led to the resignation of the country's dictatorial leader, and calls for further examination of the proposed incorporation of social media as an important resource for collective action and the organization of contemporary social movements.
Sociology’s marginality to public discussion of the current economic, social and political crisis stems partly from naïveté about the sociology of its own knowledge, in particular about its interlocutors’ interests. Historically, sociology has repeatedly re-established its intellectual relevance through dialogue with movements for social change; this article argues that another such dialogue is overdue. Starting from existing discussions of social movements and their knowledge production, the article focuses on the organisational dimension of such knowledge and explores how this is elaborated in the current movement wave. Looking at movement spaces of theoretical analysis, new popular education processes and movements’ knowledge creation institutions, the article highlights potential contributions to renewing sociological processes of theorising, teaching and engaged research respectively, paying particular attention to movement practices of ‘talking between worlds’. It concludes with a call for a dialogue of critical solidarity between public sociology and new forms of social knowledge production.
Religion in rebellion, resistance, and social movements The connections, both theoretically and empirically, between religion and social change have occupied many of sociology's most prominent thinkers. Sociology was born with the advent of Europe's industrial society, and religion's role in those societal-wide changes was deemed important even by social theorists not personally religious – in many cases especially by thinkers and writers not personally religious. But sociology has many of its intellectual roots in the Enlightenment and generally privileges reason over emotion, empiricism over revelation, and progress over tradition. Further, many established religious authorities were hostile to the development and spread of the scientific study of society, in part due to their conviction that moral philosophy was the best way to order social relations, and in part due to their institutional interests in being societal arbiters themselves. Thus, in many sociological perspectives, religion is typically part of the social formation ...
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Much public order policing research attempts to, first, elucidate general trends of public order policing change and, secondly with respect to the policing of transnational summits in particular, focus on the deterministic effects of international and national priorities concerning the way they are policed. While the authors recognize the important contribution of such research towards an understanding of policing in this arena, in this article they put forward a crucial further dimension, namely the complementary need for a more nuanced understanding of the dynamic relationships involved in protest policing at the local level. To this end, this study not only draws from participant observation of a specific event, namely the policing of one round of G8 meetings between Justice and Home Affairs Ministers taking place in Sheffield, England, in June 2005, but also a wealth of interviews undertaken with city council officials, media representatives, police and protesters alike.
Since its beginnings in 1890, the First of May (hereafter Mayday) was meant to symbolize the presence and power of the workers' movement. Throughout its history, this day served two purposes for the movement. On the one hand, the workers took to the streets to let their voices be heard in marches, rallies, and various other public gatherings. Thus, Mayday was proclaimed as a "day of struggle", a recurrent opportunity for the movement to symbolically flex its muscles and make claims to further the workers' cause. On the other hand, Mayday also helped strengthen internal bonds and maintain the collective identity. For this purpose, the workers came together - usually after the public performances in the morning or early afternoon - to sing and drink as though they were family. This two-fold character of a "day of struggle" and a "day of festivities"' still can be found in many Mayday events.
This article focuses on a seemingly paradoxical sequel to the 1999 Seattle WTO protests: the weakening of the global justice movement in the United States. While the movement has flourished in Europe, it seems largely to have stagnated in the American context. This outcome cannot be explained by either American exceptionalism or by a general decline in activism in the wake of the tragedies of 9/11 and the Iraq War. First comparing expressions of the American and European global justice movements and then turning to original data on social movement organizing in Seattle after 1999, we argue that the weakness of the American global justice movement can be tied to three key factors: (a) a more repressive atmosphere towards transnational protest; (b) a politically inspired linkage between global terrorism and transnational activism of all kinds; and (c) what we call "social movement spillout. " We further argue that the strongest movement since September 11th - the antiwar movement - exemplifies a broader trend in the United States towards the "spillout" of transnational activism into domestic protest.
The intersection between music and social movements is a fertile area of research. We present three case studies taken from punk-the Rock Against Racism campaign in Britain during the late 1970s, the American hardcore scene of the 1980s, and the riot grrrl feminism of the early 1990s-as instances where music and subculture have not simply figured as symbolic forms of resistance and identity formation but also as a means of organizing protest, raising consciousness, and creating change. The central mechanism that has allowed punk subcultures to achieve high levels of mobilization has been the do-it-yourself ethic, which demands that punks take matters of cultural production into their own hands by making music, fanzines, and record labels, creating a network of venues for live music performance, as well as creating other forms of micromedia that are commercially independent of the corporate culture industry. We use these case studies to both draw attention to neglected areas of empirical research and as a means to intervene in theoretical debates that have tended to polarize social movement studies between paradigms that emphasize structural phenomena and those that emphasize cultural factors.
European new social movement (NSM) theory was developed to describe and explain the apparently unique character of the wave of collective action that began in the 1960s and continues to this day. Key characteristics of NSM theory are a post-industrial orientation, middle-class activist core, loose organizational form, use of symbolic direct actions, creation of new identities, and a "self-limiting radicalism. " The theory's claims to movement innovation were later criticized by many as exaggerated and ahistorical. However, the filtering down of key NSM elements into social movement studies has led to changing definitions of what social movements actually are and opened up new opportunities for the integration of religious movements into the social movements mainstream. Using the case of radical Islam, and with particular reference to the terrorist social movement organization al-Qa 'ida, this article argues that drawing on key features of NSM theory should lead to a better understanding of radical Islam as well as a more realistic explanation of its continuing development and transformation.
In October 2001, the U.S. decision to launch a military campaign in Afghanistan in response to the September 11 attacks by al-Qaeda unleashed a maelstrom of protest throughout the Muslim world. Despite the variegated contexts of activism and the multivocality of the demonstrations, several common patterns emerged during the early stages of the war in Afghanistan. First, many of the strongest demonstrations erupted after prayers and the Friday khutba (sermon) at mosques. In Kenya, for example, 3,000 protesters ran through the streets of Nairobi waving placards and chanting slogans after attending prayers at a mosque controlled by Shaykh Ahmed Mussallam, the chairman of the Council of Imams and Scholars (Africa News, October 13, 2001). In an episode in Jakarta after Friday prayers, 10,000 Muslims marched from the National Monument to the U.S. embassy and then filled the southbound lanes of Jalan Thamrin with protesters, buses, motorcycles, and trucks (Agence France Presse, October 19, 2001). In Kuala Lumpur, 2,000 members of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) demonstrated outside the U.S. embassy after gathering for Friday prayers at a nearby mosque. Representatives of the PAS were eventually allowed into the embassy to present a note protesting the bombings in Afghanistan (Deutsche Presse-Agentur, October 12, 2001). Certainly, demonstrations took place on other days as well, but as social sites of collective action, the Friday gatherings in mosques provided opportunities for organizing contention.
Based on ethnographic fieldwork and participant observation, this article moves from a microscopic to a wide-angle view to explain the dynamics of the 2009 post-election Green movement in the Islamic Republic of Iran: how it manifested, why it weakened, and who participated. After mapping out the protest wave, I make three main arguments. First, preelectoral campaigns created spaces for interaction rituals of "brokered exuberance" among participants in public rallies that lowered perceptions of risk and spilled over into contentious protest after the election. Second, ordinary, non-networked Iranians utilized face-to-face interaction to broaden and recharge the protest wave, while Internet activism confused as much as coordinated the organization of street protests. Third, the social power and political orientation of Green protestors were connected to the increased relative size of the middle class in Iran, which had been empowered and enlarged through the state's developmental efforts over the past two decades.
While the relationships between ethics and religion, and violence and politics, are of enduring interest, the interface between religion and violence is one of the most problematic features of the contemporary world. Following in the tradition of Max Weber's historical and comparative study of religions, this book explores the many ways in which religion and politics are both combined and separated across different world religions and societies. Through a variety of case studies including the monarchy, marriage, law and conversion, Bryan S. Turner explores different manifestations of secularization, and how the separation of church and state is either compromised or abandoned. He considers how different states manage religion in culturally and religiously diverse societies and concludes with a discussion of the contemporary problems facing the liberal theory of freedom of religion. The underlying theoretical issue is the conditions for legitimacy of rule in modern societies experiencing global changes.
Research on transnational contention has largely overlooked how global economic negotiations and arrangements shape transnational dissent. In this article I examine how neoliberal economic arrangements structure transnational activism. I first describe neoliberalism as an important facet of economic globalization, and then suggest why neoliberal accords have become lightning rods for protest. I propose that transnational opposition to neoliberalism is supported by the growth of transnational mobilizing structures, as well as by the internationalization of political opportunities. For illustration, I draw upon qualitative research on the tactics of Canadian activists over more than fifteen years of sustained protest against trade and investment accords. I conclude by affirming that the link between international political processes and the rise of transnational social movement organizations and coalitions will mean significant transnational mobilizations in the future. I also caution against drawing premature conclusions about the long-term durability of these transnational alliances. Further research on recent anti-WTO and IMF protests will give a fuller picture of the roles played by these transnational alliances.
Longitudinal and cross-national research on new social movements often relies on newspaper reports for data on the frequency and type of events. Reporting by newspapers is, however, known to be strongly affected by selection bias. Newspapers report events that they find "newsworthy." Surprisingly, the effect of these selection biases on data analyses has received scant attention, and the methodology to correct for these biases hardly has been discussed. Based on data covering events in four cities in Switzerland we propose two types of corrections for the selection bias. The first is based on a simple weighting scheme for events reported in local newspapers. These weights are likely to provide useful corrections even in other contexts. The second correction attempts to model explicitly the selection bias of the media. This truncated regression approach is shown to be a useful strategy when the selectivity by the newspapers is severe, and the factors affecting this selection are largely known.
In the last three decades important new social movements have emerged in the United States and elsewhere. Though levels of mobilization are now modest, there is good reason to think that movements and interest groups now on the scene may gain force at future points. And there is also good reason to expect further movements as yet unnamed to appear. Yet these forces only partly resemble what is analyzed and advocated in recent theories of new social movements.
This research investigates the outcomes of local social movements through a comparative analysis of superstore siting controversies. Data were generated by qualitative case studies of six attempts by local social movement organizations to prevent the siting of a Wal-Mart superstore in their communities. A comparison of the cases reveals that the SMOs were most likely to succeed when they produced evidence of widespread opposition, framed the issue broadly, received backing from the media, did not have to contend with a counter social movement organization, and benefited from blunders by Wal-Mart. It is suggested that these five factors can be generalized to help explain the outcomes of other local social movements. It is suggested further that the first three of these factors combine in a mutually reinforcing fashion to enable a small SMO to expand its influence and thereby increase its ability to prevail against a more powerful target.
Drawing from social movement and organization theories, data from an in-depth comparative analysis of three faith-based community development organizations (FBCDOs) in the United States are examined as a form of cooperative collective action. The diagnostic, prognostic, and motivational frames produced by each organization, and the role these frames play in developing and maintaining relationships with the state, are detailed. These collective action frames (J) link sectarian religious values to broad community development goals, and (2) do not fundamentally challenge the prevailing economic and political systems. Empirically, the findings clarify important issues and dynamics related to emerging movements, the modern welfare state, and church-state relations by specifying how values, beliefs, and structural location shape the actions of FBCDOs engaged in state-sponsored religious social service provision. Theoretically, it demonstrates the utility of more precise analytical distinctions between types of collective action and suggests new directions for research on movements for change.
If this special issue on Middle East protest had been published two years ago, it probably would have focused more on accounting for the failure of opposition movements than accountting for their successes. Since the "Arab Spring" emerged in the winter of 2011, however, observers have rushed to explain mass revolts in the region. This introduction to the special issue reviews some of the explanations offered for these extraordinary events, and finds that the factors that are frequently cited in these explanations do not map comfortably onto the sites of greatest protest in the region. The essay then suggests an alternative approach, one that looks past causation in an attempt to understand the lived experience of the uprisings. The goal is to examine how actors changed as they perceived the possibility of protest, how they made meaning of their lives through the act of protesting, or not protesting, during moments of exceptional confusion and stress. This approach focuses on the twists of history that confound social scientific explanation. One twist that is highlighted in this essay and throughout the special issue is the sudden prominence of bravery-the ineffable but potentially influential desire to engage in risky protest. Bravery is not a causal variable but a disposition that may appear and disappear with the vagaries of the moment, altering the micro-flow of events and making a noticeable, if tiny, difference in the course of mass protests.
What is the relationship between a social movement and the media coverage it receives? Using data on the Tea Party and supplementing it with a broad dataset of coverage in nearly 200 state and local newspapers over an 18-month period, I address key questions on the recursive relationship between media coverage and mobilization. Results provide support for the mobilizing influence of the media. Instead of following protest activity as post-facto news, coverage tended to precede mobilization and was its most important predictor. Second, the conservative media occupied a distinct and indirect position in impacting mobilization. Though not direct predictors of mobilization, conservative media coverage was a strong predictor of subsequent coverage in the broader media. Further, this influence was asymmetrical, with the general media having no impact on conservative media. Finally, results suggest that the conservative frame of "liberal media bias" enabled a unique mobilizing effect where negative coverage in the broader media increased mobilization. These findings shed light on the dynamic relationship between movements, protests, and the media, and that of conservative movements in particular.
When do nonactivist organizations become committed to social movement goals? Building on critiques of the "iron law of oligarchy," this article develops and tests the concept of organizational opportunity, analogous to political opportunity. It divides the concept along two dimensions, the attitudes and authority of organizational leaders. The article examines organizational opportunity in four religious organizations and the social movements that challenged their political quiescence: the civil rights movement in the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc.; Liberation Theology in the Latin American Roman Catholic Church; the Iranian revolutionary movement in the Shi`i Muslim ruhaniyat; and prodemocracy activism in the Burmese Buddhist sangha. Activist mobilization of these organizations since the 1950s and 1960s appears to be strongly related to variation in organizational opportunity.
In the last ten to twenty years, conflicts have developed in advanced Western societies that, in many respects, deviate from the welfare-state pattern of institutionalized conflict over distribution. These new conflicts no longer arise in areas of material reproduction; they are no longer channeled through parties and organizations; and they can no longer be alleviated by compensations that conform to the system. Rather, the new conflicts arise in areas of cultural reproduction, social integration, and socialization. They are manifested in sub-institutional, extraparliamentary forms of protest. The underlying deficits reflect a reification of communicative spheres of action; the media of money and power are not sufficient to circumvent this reification.
This article reanalyzes the data of a previous study on the policy impact of antinuclear, ecology, and peace movements in three countries with the aim of replicating its findings. Our goal is to see whether using a different analytical technique will yield similar results. The previous study used a regression approach to lime-series analysis. Here, we use qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to analyze the previous study's data. Specifically, we test the two main hypotheses based on the joint-effect model of social movement outcomes: (1) that the policy impact of social movements is conditioned by the presence of powerful allies within the institutional arenas, by the presence of a favorable public opinion, and/or by both factors simultaneously; and (2) that social movements are more likely to have policy impacts when they address issues and policy domains of low saliency. In addition, we compare the policy impact of social movements across countries. Our analysis confirms to a large extent the findings of the earlier time-series analysis, namely, the strong explanatoiy power of the jointeffect model of social movement outcomes and the vaiying impact of different movements on public policy.
Research on the collective identities of social movement participants points to the strong convictions that underlie activism. A great deal of mobilization work involves channeling, transforming, legitimating, and managing emotions. In this article we use the concept of emotion culture, drawn from social constructionist approaches to emotions, to understand how women in the three major transnational women's organizations from the late nineteenth century through the Second World War built solidarity across national boundaries in order to work for women's rights and peace. The analysis focuses on how the gendered emotion culture of the international women's movement promoted a loving community that transcended national rivalries. We identify three socialization processes: (1) staging expressive public rituals of reconciliation between women who stood on opposite sides of national conflicts; (2) forming intense affective ties across national boundaries; and (3) drawing on the emotional template of mother love.
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Focusing on the street AIDS activist movement ACT UP, this article explores the question of social movement sustainability. Emotions figure centrally in two ways. First, I argue that the emotion work of movements, largely ignored by scholars, is vital to their ability to develop and thrive over time. I investigate the ways AIDS activists nourished and extended an "emotional common sense" that was amenable to their brand of street activism, exploring, for example, the ways in which ACT UP marshaled grief and tethered it to anger; reoriented the object of gay pride away from community stoicism and toward gay sexual difference and militant activism; transformed the subject and object of shame from gay shame about homosexuality to government shame about its negligent response to AIDS; and gave birth to a new "queer" identity that joined the new emotional common sense, militant politics, and sexradicalism into a compelling package that helped to sustain the movement. Second, I investigate the emotions generated in the heat of the action that also helped the street AIDS activist movement flourish into the early 1990s.
Protest Policing: An IntroductionFrom Injunction to Influence: A Changing Pattern of Law EnforcementPolice Characteristics and Policing StylesConfiguration of Power and Protest PolicingMore Protest or Acquiescence? The Consequences of Protest PolicingSome Conclusions and Perspectives for Further Research
This paper applies the concept of ‘new visibility’ (Thompson 2005) to recent developments around policing, particularly the prevalence of mobile phone cameras in the wider community and the
capacity via video-sharing platforms such as YouTube, and social networking sites like Facebook, to share images of apparent
police misconduct with mass audiences and to mobilize groups into taking action of some kind. Two case studies, the Ian Tomlinson
case in London in April 2009 and the Robert Dziekanski case in Vancouver in October 2007, are used to illustrate the unprecedented
power of this new capability and the challenges that it poses for police image management. The implications for police legitimacy
and accountability of these developments are explored.
This article contributes to research on the sociology of scandal and the role of national newspapers and, more particularly,
newspaper editorials in setting the agenda for public debate around police accountability and miscarriages of justice. In
previous work, we analysed how citizen journalism framed news coverage of the policing of the G20 Summit, London 2009, and
the death of Ian Tomlinson (Greer and McLaughlin 2010). In this article, we consider the next stage of the Ian Tomlinson case. Our empirical focus is the controversy surrounding
the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decision not to prosecute the police officer filmed striking Tomlinson shortly before
he collapsed and died. We illustrate how the press's relentless agenda-setting around ‘institutional failure’, initially targeted
at the Metropolitan Police Service, expanded to implicate a network of criminal justice institutions. The Tomlinson case offers
insights into the shifting nature of contemporary relations between the British press and institutional power. It is a paradigmatic
example of a politically ambitious form of ‘attack journalism’, the scope of which extends beyond the criminal justice system.
In a volatile information-communications marketplace, journalistic distrust of institutional power is generating a ‘press
politics of outrage’, characterized by ‘scandal amplification’.
This article analyses the social reaction to asylum seekers in Australia through the lens of moral panic theory. It argues that the most recent campaigns to deter ‘boat people’ from arriving in Australia have all the hallmarks of a classic moral panic, which have been successful because they resonate with deep-rooted anxieties about Australia's national identity and way of life, relating, among other things, to fear of Asian ‘invasion’ and concern with multiculturalism. However, the article seeks to extend moral panic theory to propose that rather than being episodic (as the original moral panic model suggests), moral panics over asylum seekers, at least, are now relatively permanent, which, it is argued, is largely a function of the inexorable ‘war on terror’ where the figure of the Muslim-terrorist-refugee is constructed as a transnational folk devil. On the other hand, the article argues that while resistance to moral panics seems to challenge the view that moral panics are forged of consensus (a key moral panic ingredient), societal reactions to refugees do resemble classic moral panics insofar as the negative response is broad and unified.
We examine the geography of the Tea Party movement by drawing upon a unique data source that harvested thousands of events from the Meetup.org and Tea Party Patriots websites during the latter half of 2010. The spatial distribution of events strongly suggests that Tea Party activism was borne out of economic grievance, as it corresponds quite closely to the incidence of home foreclosures. The findings more generally reinforce the impression that Tea Party activists varied in the extent of their broader political vision and strategic acumen. On the one hand, many gathered together to express dissent and make their opposition identity known wherever they happened to live. But some did unite with like-minded groups to direct their activity toward defeating incumbents, capturing open seats, and electing their own candidates, possibly altering the outcome in a number of elections, primary and general. A geographic perspective on movement activism reveals that while not remarkably strategic with respect to the 2010 elections, Tea Party protest was not purely expressive either.
During the 1970s the U.S. has witnessed the emergence of a wide range of organizations that explicitly reject the norms of rational-bureaucracy and identify themselves as "alternative institutions" or "collectives." Grounded in an extensive study of the practices of worker collectives, this paper seeks to identify some of the structural commonalities which link these new work organizations and to develop a theoretical framework for understanding them. First, the ideal-type features of collectivist democracy are delineated and contrasted with the characteristic features of bureaucracy. The ideal-type approach allows us to assess these organizations not as failures to achieve bureaucratic standards they do not share, but as efforts to realize wholly different values. Second, constraints and social costs that inhibit the realization of organizational democracy are discussed. It is in the conceptualization of alternative forms of organization that organizational theory has been weakest, and it is here that the experimentation of collectives may broaden our understanding.
This short paper examines the way in which the electronic repertoire of contention for online social movements is being built, and the means by which it will continue to evolve. Drawing on the work of Tilly and Tarrow, a number of possible explanations are examined for innovation within the online activist space, and for the diffusion of that innovation. Analysis suggests that several of the current approaches to understanding repertoire innovation are useful in describing the developing online repertoire. A hybrid model is proposed, integrating several of these approaches to provide a holistic description of electronic repertoire innovation and diffusion.
This profile gives an overview of the student protests and university occupations of the winter of 2010–2011 against the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government's higher education bill. In particular, the lifting of the cap on annual higher education tuition fees to £9000 pa was widely perceived by students (and lecturers) as unjust, unfair and a very real barrier to higher education. In order to understand the political dynamics of these student mobilisations, I argue both that we need to consider the network structure that exists on university campuses and how it facilitates political mobilisations, and to see the protests as a moral economy directed against a new toll on higher education.