Pamela E. Oliver
Professor of Sociology

Soc 924 – Outcomes and Consequences of Movements

Overviews

  1. Paul Almeida, 2019, Social Movements. Chapter 7. Movement Outcomes. Topics: Gamson. new benefits, acceptance. Schumaker scale of policy success. Correlates of movement success. table. Movement strategies includes size and tactics. External allies, coalitions includes experts, other movements. Political environment includes media, institutions, parties, political actors, public opinion,  countermovements. Cases: movements against neoliberalism. Cultural outcomes short. Individual outcomes
  2. Chapter 9 of DellaPorta and Diani Social Movements. (2nd edition “Social Movements and Democracy”, 3rd edition “The Effects of Social Movements”). Effects of movements, public policy, procedural changes, democratization.
  3. The Political Institutions, Processes and Outcomes Movements Seek to Influence. Chapter 25 of Snow et al Wiley Blackwell Companion to Social Movements (available online through UW) 2019. What are the targets of change, when do movements matter in politics. Roles of organization, protest, collective action, strategy. What is studied and how.
  4. Marco Giugni and Maria Grasso. 2019. “Economic Outcomes of Social Movements.” Chapter 26 of Snow et al Wiley Blackwell Companion to Social Movements (available online through UW) 2019. Between state, market, and society. Attaining government regulation. Interventions in Markets. Changing market rules and practices in the social sphere.
  5. Florence Passy and Gian-Andrea Monsch. “Biographical Consequences of Activism” Chapter 28 of Snow et al Wiley Blackwell Companion to Social Movements (available online through UW) 2019
  6. Nella Van Dyke and Verta Tyalor. “The Cultural Outcomes of Social Movements” Chapter 27 of Snow et al Wiley Blackwell Companion to Social Movements (available online through UW) 2019
  7. Amenta, Edwin and Neal Caren (2004). The Legislative, Organizational, and Beneficiary Consequences of State-Oriented Challengers. The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements. D. A. Snow, S. A. Soule and H. Kriesi. Malden, MA and Oxford, UK, Blackwell Publishing: 461-488. Concepts of success, new advantages, acceptance, power, collective goods. Accounting for state-related consequences: direct effect, varied effects, political opportunities, political mediation. Methodological issues: difficulty of sorting out causal influence in cases with multiple actors.
  8. Earl, Jennifer (2004). The Cultural Consequences of Social Movements. The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements. D. A. Snow, S. A. Soule and H. Kriesi. Malden, MA and Oxford, UK, Blackwell Publishing: 508-530. Review of studies classified by type of conceptualization of culture (social psychological, cultural production, worldview and communities). Then discussion of causal arguments in the literature, again sorted by the three types.
  9. Marco G. Giugni “Was It Worth the Effort? The Outcomes and Consequences of Social Movements” Annual Review of Sociology 1998
  10. Giugni, Marco (2004). Personal and Biographical Consequences. The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements. D. A. Snow, S. A. Soule and H. Kriesi. Malden, MA and Oxford, UK, Blackwell Publishing: 489-507. Key issues are studies of life course and life cycle and processes of political socialization and participation. Cite Goldstone and McAdam 2×2 grid: macro/mico factors X emergence/development vs decline/outcomes. This article focuses on consequences (decline/outcomes). Follow-up studies of new left activists. Follow up studies of other activists. Aggregate effects. Methodological issues.
  11. Whittier, Nancy (2004). The Consequences of Social Movements for Each Other. The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements. D. A. Snow, S. A. Soule and H. Kriesi. Malden, MA and Oxford, UK, Blackwell Publishing: 531-551. How movements affect other movements: (1) generative. movement spin-off, continuity and abeyance, countermovements. (2) Spillover. frames, identities, tactical and cultural repertoires. Routes of influence: biographical and generational, networks and organizations, social movement sector, external political and cultural contexts
    1. There are 4!!! “outomes and consequences” chapters in the 2006 Blackwell companion including Amenta & Caren on political consequences (pp. 461-488), Earl on cultural consequences (pp. 508-530), Giugni on personal consequences (pp. 489-507) and Whittier on inter-movement consequences (pp. 5331-551). This is an overwhelming amount of material, even though important. I suggest skimming all four chapters to get an idea of the issues they cover and then delve into the one or two most important to your work. The key idea across all articles is the shift from asking whether movements win or lose to asking what the consequences of movements are, and these can be political, cultural, generational.

Cases

  1. Cress, D. M. and D. A. Snow (2000). “The Outcomes of Homeless Mobilization: The Influence of Organization, Disruption, Political Mediation, and Framing.” American Journal of Sociology 105(4):1063-1104. PDF file
  2. Susan Harding. 1985. “Reconstructing Order Through Action: Jim Crow and the Southern Civil Rights Movement.” In Charles Bright and Susan Harding eds 1984 Statemaking and Social Movements. Process of recreating social rules. old order effectively prohibited black collective action. Movement changes polity. (I have copy of this, could scan in.)
  3. * Elisabeth S. Clemens. Organizational Repertoires and Institutional Change: Women’s Groups and the Transformation of U.S. Politics, 1890-1920. American Journal of Sociology 1993, 98, 4, Jan, 755-798. Because women couldn’t vote, they created new forms of politics leading to the educational lobbying system prominent today. PDF file Stable URL:
  4. * Andrews, Kenneth T “The Impacts of Social Movements on the Political Process: The Civil Rights Movement and Black Electoral Politics in Mississippi”. American Sociological Review; 1997, 62, 5, Oct, 800-819. PDF File Examines the relationship between social movements & political outcomes, drawing on archival & documentary data on 81 counties in MS to explore the civil rights movement from the period of widespread mobilization in the early 1960s through the early 1980s. Focus is on the impacts of local movements on four political outcomes: (1) number of black voters registered, (2) votes cast for black candidates in statewide elections, (3) number of black candidates running for office in the late 1960s & early 1970s, & (4) number of black elected officials. Strategies used by whites to defeat or minimize the impact of the movement are critical pieces of the analysis. Evidence indicates that local movements have continued to play a central & complex role in the transformation of local politics long after the civil rights movement peaked, suggesting that, while mobilization plays a key role in the short run, its long-term consequences must be considered as well.
  5. Peay, P. C. and C. R. McNair (2022). “Concurrent pressures of mass protests: the dual influences of #BlackLivesMatter on state-level policing reform adoption.” Politics, Groups, and Identities: 1-25.     ABSTRACTThis article seeks to clarify the relationship between Black Lives Matter and the enactment of state-level police reform by engaging with a broader discussion surrounding policy innovation that has taken shape in recent decades. We ask, what contributes to the differences in state responsiveness to the BLM movement? Moreover, is there a link between the protests, themselves, and state-level police reform enactments? We find, a state?s response to demands for police reform is heavily dependent on a combination of both the conditions within their state as well as their position in the overall police reform diffusion space. More importantly, we find that the BLM movement, itself, played dual roles in applying pressure on states to enact reforms from August 2014 ? December 2020: (1) reform efforts on the part of lawmakers were proportionate to the frequency that BLM protesters take their grievances to the street, and (2) policy adoptions are largely shaped by the state-to-state diffusion network where states with the highest frequencies of protests are most influential. The results of this analysis should serve as a sharp rebuttal for those that question and downplay the effectiveness of Black-led social movements in achieving substantive policy change. NOTE: Author sent PDF. Available in Canvas site or from Pam if you are my student.