Pamela Oliver
Sociology Dept.
1180 Observatory Dr. Madison, Wisconsin
53706-1393
608-262-6829

Professor Pamela Oliver

Department of Sociology

My recent work has focused on racial disparities in imprisonment, which you can see in the "racial disparities" section of this web site.

My paper, "Repression and Crime Control: Why Social Movements Scholars Should Pay Attention to Mass Incarceration as a Form of Repression," a revision of the paper I presented at the Social Movements Workshop August 9, 2007, explains the link between these two lines of work. This paper is forthcoming in 2008 in Mobilization. PDF of revised conference paper.

My paper "Talking About Racial Disparities in Imprisonment," presented at the meeting of the International Sociological Association in Durban, South Africa on July 24, 2006, is in revision for publication in Handbook of Public Sociology, edited by Vincent Jeffries. It discusses my experiences in doing public sociology.

My recent work on research on protests and social movements falls into two somewhat-overlapping projects : (1) empirical studies of the interrelations of protests, news coverage, and political processes and (2) development of formal models of the coevolution of social movements and cycles of protest. Note: work on these projects summarized on this page was supported in part by NSFgrants #SBR9819884, SBR 96-01409 and SBR 95-11748. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Diffusion and Coevolution Models of Protest 

This project involves reframing social movements as coevolving systems of protest, politics, and news coverage.  Papers and models are in process.

Papers

• Pamela E. Oliver & Daniel J. Myers. "The Coevolution of Social Movements" Mobilization 8: 1-25. 2003. AbstractPDF of full text
• Pamela E. Oliver & Daniel J. Myers "Networks, Diffusion, and Cycles of Collective Action" and its Figures forthcoming in Social Movement Analysis: The Network Perspective edited by Mario Diani and Doug McAdam. Oxford University Press. This paper distinguishes among communication, influence, and joint action and uses formal models to demonstrate how these different types of network effects can influence the outcomes of collective action. This work is referred to in the other two papers
  • TEXT: 1) PDF file 2) Word file
  • FIGURES: 1) PDF file 2) Word file 3) PowerPoint file
  • Stella (simulation program) models used in developing the network paper
• Daniel J. Myers and Pamela E. Oliver. "The Opposing Forces Diffusion Model: The Initiation and Repression of Collective Violence." Abstract Full Text
• Pamela E. Oliver and Daniel J. Myers. "Formal Models in Studying Collective Action and Social Movements" Methods of Research in Social Movements, Bert Klandermans and Suzanne Staggenborg, editors. University of Minnesota Press. 2002. This pedagogically-oriented chapter gives examples of formal modeling in the study of collective action and discusses principals for designing and evaluating modeling projects.
• An older literature review which sets up this project: Pamela Oliver. "Formal Models of Collective Action." Annual Review of Sociology Vol. 19. (1993), pp. 271-300. Abstract
• An older theoretical paper on these issues: Pamela Oliver. "Bringing the Crowd Back In: The NonOrganizational Elements of Social Movements." Research in Social Movements, Confict and Change 11: 1-30. 1989. Abstract PDF of Photocopy (4MB) Smaller files: RTF file of pre-pub MS PDF file of pre-pub MS

• Simulations: Links and Software
• Pamela Oliver. "How Does Repression Work?" Investigation of incapacitation, deterrence, & backlash effects suggesting that the most common outcomes of deterrrence & backlash effects are equilibria, while incapacitation tends to eliminate the entire population.
  • Very preliminary working draft prepared for the workshop at Harvard 10/28/02. Text (.rtf file) Figures (.pdf file)
  • Handouts for the slide show I presented, which includes lots of slides not in the preliminary version, including the whole incapacitation argument

The Content and Timing of Media Coverage of Message Events: Cycles and Comparisons

For this project, we have collected data on public events (including protests) from multiple police agencies in Madison, Wisconsin, and searched local newspaper archives to determine which received news coverage.   Current work focuses on determining whether protest affects media coverage of issues.

Publications and Papers:

• "How Events Enter the Public Sphere: Conflict, Location, and Sponsorship in Local Newspaper Coverage of Public Events" (Pamela E. Oliver and Daniel J. Myers).  American Journal of Sociology, July 1999.  Abstract.  copy of published paper (PDF format)  NOTE: the graphics in this article are unreadable in the JSTOR version of this article.  Click here for more readable graphics.
• "Political Cycles and Local Newspaper Coverage of Protest Events: From Selection Bias to Triadic Interactions" (Pamela E. Oliver and Gregory M. Maney).  American Journal of Sociology, September 2000.  PDF copy of published paper
• "Finding Event Records: Timing, Searching, Sources." (Gregory M. Maney and Pamela E. Oliver). Sociological Methods and Research, 2001. vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 131-169(39) Abstract Full Text
• "Political Processes, Social Networks, and Local Newspaper Coverage of Public Events" Gregory M. Maney and Pamela E. Oliver. Paper presented at 2003 meeting of American Sociological Association, Atlanta, August 17, 2003. Abstract Full Text
• 1999-2001 Grant Proposal Narrative in PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format
• Code Book for Content Analysis of News Stories about Protests

Other Research and Writing About Protest & Social Movements

• "Emerging Trends in the Study of Protest and Social Movements." Pamela E. Oliver, Jorge Cadena-Roa, Kelley D. Strawn. Research in Political Sociology, Vol. 11. Betty A. Dobratz, Timothy Buzzell, Lisa K. Waldner, eds. Stanford, CT: JAI Press, Inc. Abstract Full Paper
• Oliver and Johnston.  "What a Good Idea: Frames and Ideology in Social Movement Research," Mobilization, Vol. 5, pp. 37-54, April 2000; Snow & Benford's Response;pp. 55-60.   Our Rejoinder. pp. 61-64. Citation: "What a Good Idea: Frames and Ideologies in Social Movements Research." (Pamela E. Oliver and Hank Johnston) Mobilization: An International Journal 5 (1 April) 2000, pp. 37-54.
• Rothman and Oliver.  "From Local to Global"  Anti-Dam Movement in Brazil.    Mobilization,  Vol. 4, pp. 41-57, April 1999.
• "Bringing the Crowd Back In: The Nonorganizational Elements of Social Movements. Pamela E. Oliver. Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change; 1989, 11, 1-30. Abstract Scanned Image of Publication (bigger file) PDF of paper pre-print (smaller file)
• "Mobilizing Technologies For Collective Action." (Pamela Oliver and Gerald Marwell) In Aldon Morris and Carol Mueller, editors, Frontiers of Social Movement Theory. New Haven: Yale University Press. 1992. Abstract PDF of pre-print
• "Social Movements and Collective Behavior: Social Psychological Dimensions and Considerations." David A. Snow and Pamela E. Oliver. Pp. 571-599 (Chapter 22) in Karen S. Cook, Gary A. Fine and James S. House, editors, Sociological Perspectives on Social Psychology. 1995. Allyn and Bacon.

Protest Research Links

This is a collection of links to organizations that study protest and to collections of information about protest.

• Collective Behavior and Social Movements Section of the American Sociological Association 
• Political Sociology section web site
• Mobilization  An international journal in social movements research. Sponsored by the American Sociological Association's section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements and the International Sociological Association's section on Social Movements.
• Workshop on Transnational Contention, headed by Sid Tarrow at Cornell. Web page includes links to bibliographies and other resources.
• Center for International Development and Conflict Management  at U. Maryland College Park  This center has a variety of research projects on protest and conflict in the US and around the world, including some downloadable data sets.
• Christian Davenport's Radical Information Project
• Minorities at Risk Project Follows minorities around the world.
• Center for Systemic Peace collects information on ethnic and other conflicts around the world.
• Fiscal Austerity and Urban Innovation Project is a consortium of researchers who have collected data on a large number of municipalities in 38 countries, including 1400 in the US. A large amount of data is available for secondary analysis. Many FAUI surveys include data on social movements, which have been pooled into a common file. The project sponsors conferences and newsletters. Web site lists publications from the project. To access data, you need to contact Terry N. Clark directly to sign human subjects protection forms.
• COMM-ORG an on-line community organizing and development site with a lot of resources.
• CBSM 2002 Workshop at Notre Dame August 14-15, 2002
• About.com sociology, CBSM
• Social Change site hosted by Gene Shackman
• Discussions by sociologists of the WTC attacks
• Web page of Sam Bowles, economist working on coevolution of preferences and institutions, part of Santa Fe Institute.
• Suggested films for teaching social movements
• List of recommended books on community organizing and related topics from Justpeace.org, a Catholic social justice site. (links to Amazon.com)

PROTEST ORGANIZING LINKS An incomplete and ad hoc list of protest mobilizing sites.