Social Movement Activists Research Articles

Elite Competition, Social Movements, and Election Violence in Nigeria

Election violence varies significantly within countries, yet how and why are undertheorized. Although existing scholarship has shown how national-level economic, institutional, and contextual factors increase a country's risk for violence during elections, these studies cannot explain why elites organize election violence in some localities but not others. An analysis of gubernatorial elections in Nigeria reveals the conditions under which elites recruit popular social-movement actors for pre-election violence. Gubernatorial elections are intensely competitive when agreements between governors and local ruling party elites over the distribution of state patronage break down. To oust their rivals and consolidate power, elites recruit popular reformist groups for pre-election violence and voter mobilization. Conversely, when local ruling-party elites are aligned over how state patronage is to be distributed, the election outcome is agreed to well in advance. In this scenario, there is little incentive to enlist social movement actors for violence. Case studies of the Ijaw Youth Council and Boko Haram provide empirical support for the argument. The theory and evidence help explain subnational variation in election violence as well as the relationship between intraparty politics and violence during elections, and speak to broader questions about political order and violence.

Against “Ideologies”: “Freedom” of Science at Stake in Culture Wars

The subject of this article is the analysis of selected institutional activities, including drafts of legislative initiatives and social actions that took place between 2018 and 2020 at Polish universities (and outside of them). Its goal is to define what can be expressed, who is entitled to speak within the academic realm and what can be said by an academic teacher or scientist during a public debate. These social actions and legislative initiatives are discussed in the broader context of activities of social movements having a clear ideological face (either left- or right-wing), protests against lectures, debates organised at universities that were labelled as “ideological”, as well as projects intended to promote specific visions of academic freedom along with corresponding regulations for universities.

Social movements and human rights language in abortion debates

This study empirically examines the ways in which anti- and pro-abortion rights actors utilize human rights frames with varying success in getting them repeated by the news media in the different legal terrains of the Republic of Ireland and Canada. Given the results of a content analysis of 1,100 news articles on abortion from six newspapers spanning five years (2009-2014) during periods of relative policy stability in these two countries, this article suggests that social movement actors who feel their voices have been ignored in their domestic contexts may find human rights frames helpful in attracting news media attention. This finding has implications for the way in which international human rights language can be harnessed by diverse actors and employed domestically in battles over women's rights.

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT OF PEOPLES TO ETHNO-CULTURAL IDENTITY IN THE MULTI-ETHNIC REGION (on the materials of the Komi Republic)

The article analyzes the process of enforcing the peoples’ constitutional right to ethno-cultural identity, which is especially relevant in the conditions of multinationality and polyethnicity of the Russian Federation. The Constitution of our country guarantees the ethno-cultural development of the peoples of Russia. The choice of the study region is due to the fact that the Komi Republic is one of the most multi-ethnic national-territorial entities within the Russian Federation. The norms of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the Constitution of the Komi Republic in the field of national life are successfully implemented in practice. The diverse national life of the Komi Republic, as a historically formed multi-ethnic community, found its direct reflection in 12 out of 103 articles of the Komi Republic Constitution that is currently in force. The constitutional norms analyzed in the study have been successfully working and implemented in the diverse national life of the Republic for a quarter of a century. The region has created a developed infrastructure in the field of interethnic and inter-confessional relations. At the expense of the republican budget, subsidies are allocated to support the activities of social movements and national-cultural autonomies. The state language policy is aimed at cultivating the traditional values of the Russian language, of the native languages of the peoples living in the Republic. Based on the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the model of state national policy is aimed at serving the peoples’ interests in a multinational region in its composition. Thus, the main importance of this model is that it enables the authentic culture of Komi people to develop; it is aimed at meeting ethno-cultural needs and the needs of other nationalities, as well as contributes to the formation of an All-Russian civil identity.

Lesbian Voices and Radical Feminism within the Brazilian « Homosexual Movement » of the 1970s and Early 1980s

This essay is part of a project entitled « Generation 77: Politicized Youth in São Paulo and the Demise of the Brazilian Dictatorship ». It studies the roles that Paulistano students, youth, and new social movement activists, played in mobilizations against the military dictatorship. In this essay, I focus on the early years of the small lesbian movement in São Paulo that developed in the midst of the process of democratization and offered a radical critique of sectors of an emergent women’s movement and traditional Marxist ideas that still had purchase among many radicalized youth.

Access to the Brazilian agenda of the National Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project (1985)

Abstract This article seeks to understand the circumstances that culminated in the formulation and implementation of the National Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project (PNSR) in the 1980s, using the Multiple Streams Model as its theoretical reference. The results show that the theme’s ascension to the government agenda stemmed from a conjuncture marked by intense transitions that contributed to opening a policy window. The struggle to guarantee social rights in the Brazilian re-democratization process; the activities of social movements like the grassroots public health movement; the large sanitary deficit and its consequences for public health; the joint involvement of institutions with considerable expertise like Economic and Social Planning Institute (IPEA), Public Health Special Service Foundation (FSESP) and Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) and the availability of financial resources stemming from a partnership arrangement with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) provided a favorable environment for the elaboration of the PNSR.

Access to the Brazilian agenda of the National Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project (1985)

Abstract This article seeks to understand the circumstances that culminated in the formulation and implementation of the National Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project (PNSR) in the 1980s, using the Multiple Streams Model as its theoretical reference. The results show that the theme’s ascension to the government agenda stemmed from a conjuncture marked by intense transitions that contributed to opening a policy window. The struggle to guarantee social rights in the Brazilian re-democratization process; the activities of social movements like the grassroots public health movement; the large sanitary deficit and its consequences for public health; the joint involvement of institutions with considerable expertise like Economic and Social Planning Institute (IPEA), Public Health Special Service Foundation (FSESP) and Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) and the availability of financial resources stemming from a partnership arrangement with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) provided a favorable environment for the elaboration of the PNSR.

How Students on College Campuses Created Opportunities for Workers in Sweatshops

Political opportunity structure (POS) refers to how the larger social context, such as repression, shapes a social movement’s chances of success. Most work on POS looks at how movements deal with the political opportunities enabling and/or constraining them. This article looks at how one group of social movement actors operating in a more open POS alters the POS for a different group of actors in a more repressive environment through a chain of indirect leverage—how United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) uses the more open POS on college campuses to create new opportunities for workers in sweatshop factories. USAS exerts direct leverage over college administrators through protests, pushing them to exert leverage over major apparel companies through the licensing agreements schools have with these companies.

Disciplinary Power and Impression Management in the Trials of the Stansted 15

We bring Foucauldian and Goffmanian frameworks into dialogue to show how repressive and disciplinary power operate in the criminal trials of social movement activists. We do so through an ethnographic account of the trials on terrorism-related charges of a group of anti-deportation direct action protesters known as the Stansted 15, complemented by interviews with defendants. We argue that the prosecution of these activists on terrorism-related charges creates conditions of constraint which effectively serve to collapse the space for political and normative challenge, and obliges them to develop impression management strategies internalising and reproducing the court’s expressive regime. We see these trials therefore as a normalising procedure whose goal is not the repressive application of custodial sentences, but rather a disciplinary disarming of radical critique so that leniency can be applied. At stake here, therefore, is the production through trial of the ideal disciplined liberal political subject.

The gender gap in voting in post-conflict elections: Evidence from Israel, Mali and Côte d’Ivoire

In this article, we first formulate some theoretical expectations about the development of the gender gap in voting in post-conflict situations. Second, we test these expectations on five cases, including two civil wars, the Ivorian Civil War (2011) and the Malian Civil War (2013–2015), and three major international Israeli conflicts, the Yom Kippur War (1973) and the First and Second Lebanon Wars (1982–1985 and 2006). We do so by comparing women’s and men’s turnout before and after a conflict using individual voting data and find that the sum of the nine factors we identify (i.e. duration of war, type of warfare, end of fighting after ceasefire/peace settlement, change in workforce participation, international involvement in the peace process, international development aid, the militarization of politics and female social movement activism) explain changes in the gender gap in voting after the conflict in three of the five cases we study.

“Workarounds and Roadblocks”: Risk and Resistance among Food Movement Activists

This article examines how activists involved in the food movement use different tactics intended to challenge and subvert the agrifood structures they encounter. We use data from interviews and participant observations with 57 food movement activists operating in less robust alternative food systems throughout the Southern Plains states of Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. Our respondents describe how they interpret their regional food systems as deliberately restrictive to the food movement and explain some of the tactical choices they make to maneuver around various constraints they claim hinder their food movement activism. In actively resisting the agricultural status quo, we find that some activists knowingly engage in forms of high-risk activism. We then examine the different framing devices food movement activists use to explain the risks generated by their tactical workarounds. Our findings contribute to the social movements and food system literature by showing how activists interpret and justify the risks generated by their resistance and by emphasizing the contextual nature of tactical choices and risk in social movement activism.

Social Movements: An Ostromian Perspective

The objective of this paper is to interpret social movement activity using the conceptual tools of Bloomington political economy. Mainstream theory predicts that collective action to achieve objectives of societal transformation is infeasible, given the incentive of individuals to free ride on the commitments of others to the social movement cause. We suggest the intellectual legacy of Elinor and Vincent Ostrom provides an alternative, and more affirming, view of the contribution of social movements, and similar collectives, toward change. Key understandings from the Ostromian approach include: (i) deployment of non-material strategies, such as resonating frames and emotional cues, to elicit social movement participation; (ii) development of organising strategies as acts of artisanship within the boundaries of social movements; and (iii) strategic and tactical selection by movement participants to feasibly obtain concessions and other gains from various actors in polycentric spaces. This study applies the Ostroms’ approach to political economy to understand the involvement of early-state feminist movement toward property rights liberalisation in the United States. We argue the Bloomington School offers valuable insights to better appreciate the operations and impacts of social movements.

Escaping the Ellipsis of Diversity: Insider Activists’ Use of Implementation Resources to Influence Organization Policy

Researchers have explored in depth how social movement actors strive to pass laws to change organizations exogenously or to demand that they make commitments or policy changes. But ensuring that organizations implement such commitments or policies is challenging. Insider activists may be influential for implementation processes, and I explore how they can increase that influence. I contend that insider activists influence such processes by offering their organizations implementation resources, such as free and ready-to-use content and model programs that reflect changes the activists want to see. To develop this argument, I explore how, starting in the mid-2000s, LGBT activists developed resources to ensure that diversity policies were increasingly relevant for sexual minorities in France. Many diversity policies at the time expressed commitment to “gender, disability, age . . .” Activists contended that nothing was done for the minorities who were not named—those left in the ellipsis (. . .) of diversity. Using web archives and interviews, I show that LGBT rights activists increased their influence on French organizations by developing implementation resources that corporations could readily use to flesh out their diversity commitments and implement diversity programs to promote the inclusion of LGBT employees. I demonstrate how insider activists used these implementation resources to denounce organizations’ superficial commitments or employees’ homophobic practices, thereby compelling organizations to change.

Responsible for Whom? The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Firm Vulnerability and Responsiveness to Social Movement Activism

ABSTRACT Are corporate socially responsible (CSR) firms more receptive to social movements? In this paper, we examine whether the CSR profile of a company shapes its engagement with social movement protestors at three key steps: 1) the decision of activists to target firms for protest, 2) the responses of shareholders to the protest, and 3) management responses to the demands of protesters. In all three cases, we test broad competing theories of whether CSR status serves as a vulnerability for firms making them more susceptible to social movement pressure or is a resource shielding them from such pressure. Using an original dataset on protests against Fortune 500 corporations between 2005–2010, we demonstrate the following: Consistent with the resource view, CSR firms are protected from activist targeting and, once targeted, are better insulated from negative shareholder reactions than less responsible firms. However, we find social movements may also turn this resource into a vulnerability: When protests disrupt the firms’ financial interests, CSR firms instead become more likely to concede to demands. Finally, we find that financial disruption also plays a clarifying role for firm managers, encouraging firms to move away from partial response—operationalized as firms conceding to some but not all demands—toward more definitive responses. We conclude that while CSR can serve as a resource for firms, this is a contingent benefit, exposing the socially responsible firm to additional pressures if the movement is able to disrupt its interests.

Movements, Societal Crisis, and Organizational Theory

Abstract Public health crises test the robustness of institutions, and the current COVID-19 pandemic is no exception The spread of the virus and subsequent hospitalizations and deaths have laid bare the fragility of governments? capacities to protect their citizens, and it has strained otherwise normally functioning institutions like higher education The pandemic has exposed dramatic economic and racial inequalities, especially in countries without strong welfare infrastructure Grievances that were once contained by relatively prosperous times are now raging on the surface

Ação coletiva e políticas públicas: mulheres camponesas na construção da Política de Saúde das Populações do Campo, da Floresta e das Águas

Este artigo analisa a atuação do Movimento de Mulheres Camponesas (MMC) no processo de construção da Política Nacional de Saúde Integral das Populações do Campo, da Floresta e das Águas (PNSIPCFA). Configura-se como um estudo de abordagem qualitativa, embasado no reconhecimento e na valorização das ações coletivas desse grupo social na área da saúde pública. As técnicas de coleta de dados consistiram na realização de observação participante, entrevista exploratória e grupo focal. A partir dos achados empíricos e com base no conceito de ação coletiva em Alberto Melucci, considera-se que as ações dos movimentos sociais influenciam a construção da política pública e a produção da realidade social, pois os resultados evidenciam o protagonismo do MMC em espaços representativos de planejamento, elaboração e avaliação de políticas públicas, como o Grupo da Terra, o observatório de acompanhamento e avaliação da referida política e os conselhos municipais de saúde. O MMC realiza ações de enfrentamento, resistência e pressão no Estado por meio de marchas, caminhadas e atos públicos, em parceria com outras organizações, em defesa da saúde pública e efetivação da PNSIPCFA. Também é protagonista no que se refere a ações de formação/capacitação junto ao Movimento para a disseminação e compreensão do conteúdo da Política.

Las causas de las protestas pacíficas en América Latina

América Latina experimenta una creciente actividad en movimientos sociales. El artículo indaga las condiciones del contexto nacional y los factores individuales que explican las protestas pacíficas en la región. Tras examinar las teorías e investigaciones previas sobre las protestas en el mundo, el trabajo contrasta las principales hipótesis causales en el caso latinoamericano desarrollando modelos de regresión lineal jerárquica o multinivel a partir de datos de la encuesta Latinobarómetro y otros indicadores políticos, económicos y sociales de 18 países de la región. El principal impulsor individual del activismo pacífico es el interés por la política, seguido por un proxy de valores emancipatorios y el nivel educativo. Los niveles de desarrollo y democracia del país y el grado en que los valores mencionados están difundidos en la sociedad aumentan el activismo y amplifican el impacto de esos impulsores individuales. El uso de redes sociales ejerce un influjo relevante. Por sí sola, la insatisfacción personal y política tiene efectos débiles o no significativos. Las protestas pacíficas de los latinoamericanos reflejan el ascenso de ciudadanos empoderados y más exigentes, a medida que el desarrollo económico y humano avanza en la región. Lejos de perturbar la democracia, este proceso tiende a profundizarla.

Protests and Policies: How Radical Social Movement Activists Engage with Climate Policy Dilemmas

How do radical movements seeking fundamental social change engage with nearer-term policy dilemmas? Disciplinary boundaries and practical obstacles have limited research into protester policy engagement. Using a hybrid method combining participant-observation and expert-led focus groups, we document activist attitudes concerning controversial climate policy options. Data gathered at ‘Climate Camps’ in six national contexts are presented alongside evidence from similar ‘participant-instigator’ events at Green Party conferences. We find activists engaged in direct action outside the established political system had policy knowledge and agendas comparable to or surpassing those active within the system. Support for radical change appears correlated with – rather than opposed to – knowledge and interest in policy agendas. As climate protests escalate it is important to understand ‘protester policy engagement’ – the processing, production and communication of changes proposed from a position outside the established political system and to theorise this with, rather than in contradistinction to, social movement identity.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF SOFT REPRESSION*

This article examines the consequences of soft repression on social movement activists. By drawing on activists’ perceptions, we develop a multilayered analytical framework that captures the experienced effects of soft repression at the individual, organizational, and movement levels. Our results show that soft repression—in particular, labeling, and stigmatization—primarily affect the individual level by triggering self-policing and self-control. By introducing a model that incorporates several radical social movement organizations, we also show how labeling and stigmatization affect different radical groups in different ways. These measures sometimes fail to demobilize the primary targets of the repressive actions, the most militant and clandestine groups. Instead, the demobilizing effects seem most evident in organizations that mobilize openly and inclusively. Our analysis is based on in-depth interviews with activists from the radical left-libertarian movement (RLLM) in Sweden, most of which have been active in organizations labeled as “violence-affirming extremists” by the Swedish government.

The power to convene: making sense of the power of food movement organizations in governance processes in the Global North.

Dominant food systems, based on industrial methods and corporate control, are in a state of flux. To enable the transition towards more sustainable and just food systems, food movements are claiming new roles in governance. These movements, and the initiatives they spearhead, are associated with a range of labels (e.g., food sovereignty, food justice, and community food security) and use a variety of strategies to enact change. In this paper, we use the concept of relational fields to conduct a post-hoc analysis of nine cases, examining how social movement organizations and other actors actively create new deliberative governance spaces. We argue that successes are related to the “power to convene,” a process-oriented approach that increases movements’ capacity to mobilize; leverage different types of power; and integrate, coordinate, and build a systems-oriented vision. The power to convene and create deliberative spaces is demonstrated in a variety of contexts and often results in outcomes that further movement aims, including policy change and repositioning food movement actors vis-à-vis others in the field. Our findings suggest that success is not only measured as policy outcomes, but as an advantageous repositioning of social movement actors that enables them to be part of governance processes beyond simple policy advocacy.