Bridging People and Protest: Social Relays of Protest Groups against Low-Flying Military Jets in West Germany

Abstract

This article summarizes the results of an empirical study of citizen protests against low-flying military jets. The protests occurred in the Federal Republic of Germany during the 1980s. The theoretical concept of mobilization-mediating social networks — called social relays — was developed and its empirical implications tested in two regions. These localities were similar in terms of social and political context, and also in the extent to which they were subjected to military overflights, but they differed in terms of quantity and quality of protest mobilization. The study focuses empirically and analytically on the meso level of society, which was operationalized by gathering interview and survey data on the affiliations of activists and their acquaintances with various associations on the local level. By advancing to a structural analysis of contacts between networks rather than people, the study goes beyond the commonly applied egocentric perspective. The study concludes that high mobilization was facilitated by decentralized relays that linked protest-generating networks to more traditional parts of the local community.