Sociology 924: Social Movements Seminar Calendar Pamela Oliver

 

 

Networks & Mobilizing Structures.

These are empirical studies of the mobilization process; they demonstrate the integration of instrumentalist, constructionist, and social network factors in the actual process of mobilization. *'d items are the most highly recommended. The first list is journal articles; at the bottom is the list of chapters in Diani & McAdam's Social Movements and Networks. I would also suggest looking over the abstracts of a lot of other articles to get a sense of what is out there. There is a lot of interesting stuff we won't talk about directly.

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A. Articles

  1. Social Movements : An Introduction. Donatella Della Porta and Mario Diani. Second Edition 2006. The role of networks in getting involved, whether networks always matter, organizational memberships, movement sucultures, virtual networks. [First Edition: Chapter 5. Movement Networks. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. 1999. Individual participation and networks, organizational memberships, interorganizational networks. Networks as both constraints on action and products of action. An overview.]
  2. Diani, Mario (2004). Networks and Participation. The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements. D. A. Snow, S. A. Soule and H. Kriesi. Malden, MA and Oxford, UK, Blackwell Publishing: 339-359.
    Begins by seeing networks as duality of link between individuals (particularly their identity) and group memberships, instead of as predictors of participation. Organizing idea. Section on background of network approaches. then broadening work on how networks actually work. Then population and organization effects. Then overlapping networks and affiliations. Ends with recurring themes: varying role of networks, impact of extent of difference between network messages and dominant society, different functions of networks, important to study network properties not just individual ties. Urgent final messages: duality of individuals and organizations, time dimension, virtual links.
  3. Rucht, Dieter (2004). Movement Allies, Adversaries and Third Parties. The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements. D. A. Snow, S. A. Soule and H. Kriesi. Malden, MA and Oxford, UK, Blackwell Publishing: 197-216. Need to understand mvoements relationally. Abandon two-party immage. Multiorganizational fields, including bystander publics, third parties, mediators. Chart of reference groups of SMs. Issues of cooperation, competition and conflict within movement alliances. Also brief discussion of adversaries, mediators and audiences.
  4. Tarrow, Power in Movement (1998 edition) chapter 8, mobilising structures. Also look at chapters 2, modular collective action, and 6, repertoires.
  5. David Snow, Louis Zurcher, Sheldon Ekland-Olson, "Social Movements: A Microstructural Approach to Differential Recruitment." MS 122-132 ASR 45: 787-801. 1980. People are recruited through social networks. Stable URL:
  6. Bert Klandermans and Dirk Oegema. "Potentials, Networks, Motivations and Barriers: Steps Toward Participation in Social Movements." ASR 52 (1987): 519-532. Data on mobilization for a Dutch peace march. Besides using cost-benefit logic, a nice logical approach to organizer-centered mobilization and how it works. Stable URL: A pretty straight-forward empirical analysis. I'll show you a better way to present the data.
  7. (*)Dirk Oegema and Bert Klandermans. (1994). "Why Social Movement Sympathizers Don't Participate: Erosion and Nonconversion of Support." American Sociological Review 59(5): 703-722. MS 174-189. Trading the factors predicting both loss of support and failure of supporters to act during a peace movement petition campaign in the Netherlands. Stable URL:
  8. (*) Sherry Cable, Edward J. Walsh, Rex H. Warland. Differential Paths to Political Activism: Comparisons of Four Mobilization Processes after the Three Mile Island Accident. Social Forces, Vol. 66, No. 4. (Jun., 1988), pp. 951-969. Stable URL: Research on the anti-nuclear movement in the area was in the field when TMI went up. This study uses data on activists before and after the accident to examine what their social networks were before and how this affected their level of grievance and forms of action after the accident.
  9. Staggenborg, S. (1998). "Social Movement Communities and Cycles of Protest: The Emergence and Maintenance of a Local Women's Movement." Social Problems 45(2): 180-204. (HTM copy of text.) Movement communities developed as a context, communities maintain movements. Related to Taylor's abeyance arguments.
  10. Pamela E. Oliver. 1989. "Bringing the Crowd Back In: The Nonorganizational Elements of Social Movements." Research in Social Movements, Conflict and Change 11: 1-30. Showing how crowds and consciousness can be integrated in collective action and social movement theory. PDF file large: copy of publication Smaller files: RTF file of pre-publication MS PDF file of pre-publication MS
  11. P. Bert Klandermans. 1990. "Linking the 'Old' and the 'New' Movement Networks in the Netherlands. In Russell J. Dalton and Manfred Kuechler, eds., Challenging the Political Order, pages 122-136. SMOs emerge from existing multi-org fields; continuity. alliance fields, shifting coalitions. conflict system, us vs them toward counter-movements. Drain resources, restrict opportunities; at some point have to bargain. Data on Dutch peace movement: extensive contact with and overlapping membership in other orgs and left parties. conflict system with right parties. Copy to on-line reserves
  12. (*)Roger Gould. 1991. "Multiple Networks and Mobilization in the Paris Commune, 1871." MS 133-144. ASR 45: 787-801. Stable URL: An important contribution.
  13. (*) Zhao, Dingxin. "Ecologies of Social Movements: Student Mobilization during the 1989 Prodemocracy Movement in Beijing" American Journal of Sociology; 1998, 103, 6, May, 1493-1529. Networks, space. Stable URL:
  14. Doug McAdam and Ronnelle Paulsen. "Specifying the Relationship Between Social Ties and Activism." MS 145-157. AJS 99: 640-667. 1993. Stable URL:
  15. Carol Mueller. "Conflict Networks and the Origins of Women's Liberation." MS 158-171. From Laraña et al New Social Movements 1994.
  16. Diani, Mario Social Movements and Social Capital: A Network Perspective on Movement Outcomes. Mobilization; 1997, 2, 2, Sept, 129-147. In On-Line Reserves: Social movements and social capital
  17. (*) Barkey, K. and R. Van Rossem (1997). "Networks of Contention: Villages and Regional Structure in the Seventeenth-Century Ottoman Empire." American Journal of Sociology 102(5): 1345-1382. Peasant contention resulted from the position of the village in the regional structure, with village-level organization providing the means for contention. Stable URL:
  18. (*) Kitts, J. A. (2000). "Mobilizing in Black Boxes: Social Networks and Participation in Social Movement Organizations." Mobilization 5(2): 241-257. Ties multivalent, can inhibit as well as promote participation.
  19. * Mustafa Emirbayer, Jeff Goodwin. "Network Analysis, Culture, and the Problem of Agency." American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 99, No. 6. (May, 1994), pp. 1411-1454. Stable URL: A theoretical critique of network analysis that cites and uses a lot of the social movements examples (among others). Our focus will be less on the critique of formal network analysis and more on whether and how we can use these insights in studying social movements.
  20. Diani, M. and G. Lodi (1988). Three in One: Currents in the Milan Ecology Movement. From Structure To Action: Comparing Social Movement Research Across Cultures. B. Klandermans, H. Kriesi and S. Tarrow. Greenwich, Conn., JAI Press: 103-124. Argues that the three branches of the Milan ecology movement were present throughout the entire period, but the ideology of the movement as a whole shifted as the mix of the branches shifted, with some gaining people and becoming more active, while others lost people and became less active. But individual people rarely changed their foci. Three in one
  21. McAdam, D. (1988). “Micromobilization Contexts and Recruitment to Activism.” International Social Movement Research 1: 125-154. "Bridges" are needed to link the micro- with the macrolevels of analysis. Concept of "micromobilization contexts" is applied to data about recruitment of volunteers to the Mississippi Freedom Summer project in 1964, coded from their applications (N = 1,068). Participants were found to be highly integrated into activist networks, & structural location proved a better indicator of participation than ideological commitment. Attitudinal affinity is seen as a necessary but insufficient cause of activism. : Micromobilization contexts and recruitment to activism
  22. Della Porta, D. (1988). “Recruitment Processes in Clandestine Political Organizations: Italian Left-Wing Terrorism.” International Social Movement Research 1: 155-169. It is argued that individual propensities to participation in underground organizations derive from political identities & social networks. The possibilities of becoming a terrorist are higher for those who have been part of networks prone to use violence in political action. Data set on 1,200 Italian terrorists, with information coming from trial records & 28 individual interviews. . : Recruitment processes in clandestine political organziations
  23. Hedstrom, P., R. Sandell, et al. (2000). "Mesolevel Networks and the Diffusion of Social Movements: The Case of the Swedish Social Democratic Party." American Journal of Sociology 106(1): 145-172. Downloaded. Stable URL:
  24. Passy, F. (2001). “Socialization, Connection, and the Structure/Agency Gap: A Specification of the Impact of Networks on Participation in Social Movements.” Mobilization 6(2): 173-192. Networks perform three fundamental functions: socialize and build identities, offer participation opportunities (structural connection), shape individuals' preferences before decisions. Focus on mechanisms, integration structural & rationalist theories. Uses both quantitative (survey) & qualitative (life history) data of participation in the Berne Declaration SMO to examine hypotheses.
  25. Osa, M. (2001). “Mobilizing Structures and Cycles of Protest: Post-Stalinist Contention in Poland, 1954-1959.” Mobilization 6(2): 211-231. Archival data identifying membership in eighteen social action groups provide the basis for social network analysis of the opposition domain in Poland under authoritarianism. Network development is traced during three phases of mobilization. The opening of political opportunity in a non-democratic setting stimulates both civic association & contention.
  26. Chaeyoon, Lim (2008). "Social Networks and Political Participation: How Do Networks Matter?" Social Forces 87(2): 961-982. Using the Citizen Participation Study data, this study shows that contrary to the conventional wisdom in the literature, there is little evidence that strong ties are more effective than weak ties in recruiting activists. Ties formed in civic associations, however, are more effective than other ties in recruiting protest participants. Neighborhood ties are more effective in recruiting community activists, but not in other types of activity. I conclude that the contents of relationships and the identities shared by two people, rather than tie strength, form the basis of interpersonal influence in political activism.

Notes: 1) km=Mary Fainsod Katzenstein and Carol McClurg Mueller. 1987. The Women's Movements of the United States and Western Europe. Temple University Press. 2) CP= D. McAdam, J. D. McCarthy and M. N. Zald. Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements: Political Opportunities, Mobilizing Structures, and Cultural Framings.. New York, Cambridge University Press 1996

B. Chapters in Mario Diani & Doug McAdam, eds., Social Movement Analysis: The Network Perspective (Oxford University Press) 2003.

  1. Mario Diani. "Introduction: Social movements, contentious actions, and social networks: 'from metaphor to substance'?" An overview. Distinguishes networks of individuals, organizations, and events.
  2. Florence Passy. "Social Networks Matter. But How?" A good theoretical overview. Three functions of networks: structural connection, socialization, decision. Survey data on members of two organizations (Bern Declaration, World Wildlife Fund), relation between networks and intensity of participation. Similar theory to Mobilization article on the same topic.
  3. Helmut K. Anheier. "Movement Development and Organizational Networks: the Role of "Single Members" in the German Nazi Party, 1925-30" Detailed empirical analysis of the characteristics and network linkages of Nazis who were not members of chapters.
  4. Maryjane Osa. "Networks in Opposition: Linking Organizations Through Activists in the Polish Peole's Republic." Similar to Mobilization article. Interesting. Contrasts civil society approaches with network approaches. Maps the changing networks of inter-organizational linkages across time. Challenges some common explanations for Solidarity. Catholic networks important, mobilization peaks when the network linkages are most complex.
  5. Mario Diani. "Leaders or Brokers? Position and Influence in Social Movement Networks." Measures of network centrality and of brokerage in Milan environmental networks, showing how each characteristic taps a different dimension of relationship between organizations. Leadership involves centrality, resources, and ability to link personally to other organizations. Brokerage provides the connective structure of a movement, and the brokerage ability of an organization is related to its creation of a neutral space.
  6. Chris Ansell. 'Community Embeddedness and Collaborative Governance in the San Francisco Bay Area Environmental Movement'. A descriptive analysis based on a survey of environmental organizations.
  7. Charles Tilly and Lesley Wood.. Contentious Connections in Great Britain, 1828-1834 . Sketches historical context, then compares three regions in their mix of event types (from event-oriented newspaper data), then an analysis of the relations among types of actors, types of claims, types of actions
  8. Pamela E. Oliver & Daniel J. Myers "Networks, Diffusion, and Cycles of Collective Action." This chapter clarifies the relation between diffusion and networks, distinguishes three types of network processes (communicating of information, influence processes, and joint action), and provides some examples of formal models for each of these.
  9. Jeffrey Broadbent. "Movement in Context: Thick Networks and Japanese Environmental Protest." Argues that social structure has two dimensions: (1) Malleability, extent to which the mix of patterns can vary (a kind of strucutre/agency axis), and (2) Tangibility, extent to which structures have material components (e.g. coercion) in additional to cultural; 3x3 table p. 208. Agues that clashing and contradictory structures & cultural codes created different possibilities for action.
  10. Roger Gould. "Why do Networks Matter? Rationalist and Structuralist Interpretations." Takes on the quesiton for why it is that network ties promote collective action. Has a nice formal argument for why social ties cannot act as an "incentive," which is basically that threatening your friend that you'll stop being friends if s/he won't do what you want effectively destroys friendship. Instead, argues that what joint action does is to add something to friendship by giving it an additional dimension.
  11. Ann Mische Cross-talk in Movements: Reconceiving the Culture network Link After general introduction about netorks and emphasis on multidimensionality of relationships, the core of the chapter is on dimensions of talk/discourse by movements which link to networks. Basically how groups create ties between groups in how they talk.
  12. Doug McAdam Beyond Structural Analysis: Toward a More Dynamic Understanding of Social Movements. A call for a focus on mechanisms.
  13. Mario Diani. Networks and social movements: A research program. Core of discussion is different network structures (clique, policephalous, centralized nonsegemented wheel/star, segmented decentralized) as types of movements, and some discussion of multiple linkages & changes over time.

 

 

 

Sociology 924: Social Movements Calendar Pamela Oliver

Last updated September 26, 2009 © University of Wisconsin.