Practices, Opportunity, and Protest Effectiveness: Illustrations from Four Animal Rights Campaigns

Abstract

Despite its central role in the study of social movements, research on political and cultural opportunity is problematic. The vague definition and broad applicability of the concept of opportunity make it difficult to identify all the opportunities that exist in a given protest situation. Furthermore, most analyses take place at the broad levels of culture and the state, which can obscure additional, localized factors that create opportunity for protest to occur and succeed. A practice-oriented approach to studying political and cultural opportunity addresses some of these problems. Using data from a study of the outcomes of four animal rights campaigns, I examine opportunity across the campaigns by focusing on the practices targeted for change and the reasons why people engage in them. Viewing opportunity in this way highlights both structural and cultural elements of opportunity structures in national as well as local contexts.