Cultural Opportunity and Social Movements

Abstract

The emergence of the Arab Spring in 2010 heralded a deep transformation within Muslim societies as well as the geopolitical arrangement of the region. These movements emerged after a non-Arab movement, the Iranian Green Movement in 2009, with which they shared various characteristics, ranging from its broad use of virtual space to movement without a classic leadership. While a large body of movement literature links the formation of social movement to either the structural opportunities or rational choice theory, the present paper addresses the cultural opportunity as a main facilitator-constraint in the movement formation. Given this fact that mediating between opportunities and mobilization are the shared meanings, the article seeks to empirically investigate cultural factors that construct and drive protests. From this perspective, the present study argues that movements tend to cluster in time and space because they are not independent of one another. Thus, it goes deep down in the way that different movements have had tremendous impacts on each other through examining the presence of the Master of Protest Frame (mpf). Transgressing the geographical borders and chronological phases, this factor has shaped movements strategies. Finally and to place recent events in a generalizable analysis, the paper employs a cross-national analysis, with focusing on Iran in 2009 and Egypt in 2010.