what’s hot in social movement research?
A few days ago, I was asked “what’s hot in social movements?” A few ideas, in no particular order:
- Brayden’s work on corporate responses to protest and competition with movement industries.
- Fellow Arizonian Tim Bartley has written a series of thoughtful papers on whether organizations self-police in response to activists and other pressures.
- Also, in an IU vein, my colleague Elizabeth Armstrong wrote on riots and collective memory.
- Ann Mische’s book on identities and networks in Brazilian politics. Very Harrison White, very cool.
- I read a recent article in Moblization asking about the effect of incarceration on movement politics by Pamela Oliver. Good question!
- You can read Paul Burstein’s work, where he disputes many basic ideas about movements, such as whether they have any effect independent of public opinion.
- There is good work on transnational activism by Sidney Tarrow.
- Recent working papers on networks, transnationalism, and protest by Dana Fisher are interesting as well.
Of course, I would be a poor blogger if I didn’t plug my own work on how movements initiate organizational change via analysis of the black studies movement,* or my recent work on organizational networks within the antiwar movement (see my co-author’s site for the latest). Please add your own “hot” social movement research or plug your own research in the comments.
* Yes, click on the link, especially if you need to fill space in that movements, political soc, or soc of ed syllabus! You know you want to!
I am looking at performativity effects caused by social activists creating markets for behaviours through rankings and ratings.
Briscoe and Safford have a paper about to be out on Human Rights Code rankings. I heard them at the AoM last summer and have seen a couple of drafts. It’s terrific.
Alison Kemper
May 5, 2008 at 1:32 am
I think research on movement strategies/tactics and their links to outcomes is pretty hot right now. Holly McCammon’s recent research on strategic adaptation comes to mind. There will be a regular session on social movement strategic action at the ASA meetings this summer.
Relatedly, I’ve organized an ASA session that some of you might be interested in dealing with social movements and the corporation. Some of the people already mentioned above (Sean Safford, Tim Bartley) are presenting papers in the session and Mayer Zald will be the discussant.
brayden
May 5, 2008 at 1:45 am
Reading Armstrong reminded me of “Rioting Mostly for Fun and Profit” in Banfield’s “Unheavenly City”, which can be found online here.
In your linked post on anti-war protests you note that one way for authorities to avoid mob violence is to refrain from violence themselves. Mencius Moldbug argues against that using China as an example here.
teageegeepea
May 5, 2008 at 6:20 am
Sure, all of that is hot now, but just wait until the latest work on opposing movements is out. ;)
tina
May 5, 2008 at 10:57 am
On the culture front, Fracesca Polletta’s work on constraints on movement discourse from the use of certain narrative forms, as well as her research on the symbolic meaning of strategies and organizational practices (and how they can explain why certain movement select or shun certain practices), I think is very exciting stuff (certainly some of the best mining of the insights of Clemens 1993, 1996 in contemporary movement theory). See for instance Polletta (2005).
Oh, and in another IU vein, Verta Taylor (who was around South Bend a week a half ago receiving a giant award), predicts that this article will make a splash.
Omar
May 5, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Omar, the Armstrong/Bernstein piece is a good article. I read drafts and I certainly hope that it is heeded.
fabiorojas
May 5, 2008 at 4:56 pm
On the corporate-targeted movements front, I have been doing some work on cross-institutional differences in protest repertoires. This paper, which is co-authored with Andrew Martin and John McCarthy and forthcoming in AJS, finds that corporate- and education-targeted protests, as well as those without a formal org present, tend to be significantly more likely to employ radical tactics.
Similarly, this paper considers how the growth of associational populations has shaped institutional (including corporate) lobbying campaigns. In other work, I’m looking at how corporations increasingly adopt the tactics of NGOs, thereby going beyond standard CSR programs through lobbying of the public.
Ok, I think that will be the end of my gratuitous self-promotion for now!
Ed Walker
May 6, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Thanks Ed! I knew about your paper with Andrew and John, but the others were new to me. I’m looking forward to reading them.
And, I’ve seen this book of which Tina speaks, and I can vouch that it’s cutting-edge (hot, hot, hot).
Maybe this should be a regular feature on orgtheory: what’s new in the world of organizational scholarship?
brayden
May 6, 2008 at 4:34 pm
What is IU? Indiana?
Jordi
May 6, 2008 at 5:03 pm
There is this journal coming out…
http://www.interfacejournal.net/
It may be too ‘in the trenches” to be hot.
I was kicking around ideas with a friend who is a movement organizer for a living for ACORN. We were talking about how they have adapted to big Castellsian trends: global economy, flattened org forms, internet and mobile technology, and so on. One theme was the durability of the local for organizing.
So, my reverse plug (aka focus group marketing) is: would you want to read that kind of article?
Jordi
May 6, 2008 at 5:08 pm
China. If you really want to get in on the ground floor of what should be the next trend in movement studies, start looking at China: over 10,000 local riots, protests, collective actions a year.
cjb
May 6, 2008 at 5:50 pm
China is the 1 billion pound gorilla in EVERY room…
Jordi
May 6, 2008 at 6:29 pm
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