Dynamics Of Social Movements Research Articles

Radicalism within the Context of Social Movements: Processes and Types

Drawing on work within the study of social movements and on conversion processes that is relevant to understanding radicalization, as well as on our own relevant research experiences and findings, especially on radicalism in right-wing and left-wing movements, we focus attention on the elements and dynamics of social movements, both intra-movement and extra-movement, that facilitate the grassroots development and maintenance of radical identities and enhance or diminish the prospect of engagement in radical action. In particular, we note the importance of free spaces to associate apart from the reach of control agents and adversaries,the development of affinity groups and a security culture within which associational trust might develop, and the role of perceptions of the prospect of persecution by social control agents as working together to contribute to the development of radicalization. However, we emphasize that there is no single pathway to radicalization, or type of radical, but that different types, and thus pathways, result from the different ways in which the contributing factors can interact and combine.

The Women's Movement Inside and Outside the State. By Lee Ann Banaszak

In this impressively researched and thought-provoking book, Lee Ann Banaszak explores the role of “movement insiders”—women's movement activists working inside the federal bureaucracy—in shaping policy on women's rights. Through a series of engaging narratives, she highlights the often-invisible role of feminist lawyers, regulators, other members of the civil service, and political appointees in shaping important policies on such issues as equal employment, educational equity (particularly Title IX), and foreign policy (women in development). Banaszak's investigation into the role of feminist activists within the bureaucracy illuminates the critical role that the movement played within the state on a number of policy issues. More broadly, her argument for an expanded view of the dynamics of social movements, movement–state intersections, and policymaking represents a needed corrective to the rather stark dichotomies that often dominate the study of social movements.

A poly-hybrid PSO optimization method with intelligent parameter adjustment

This paper presents results on a new hybrid optimization method which combines the best features of four traditional optimization methods together with an intelligent adjustment algorithm to speed convergence on unconstrained and constrained optimization problems. It is believed that this is the first time that such a broad array of methods has been employed to facilitate synergistic enhancement of convergence. Particle swarm optimization is based on swarm intelligence inspired by the social behavior and movement dynamics of bird flocking, fish schooling, and swarming theory. This method has been applied for structural damage identification, neural network training, and reactive power optimization. It is also believed that this is the first time an intelligent parameter adjustment algorithm has been applied to maximize the effectiveness of individual component algorithms within the hybrid method. A comprehensive sensitivity analysis of the traditional optimization methods within the hybrid group is used to demonstrate how the relationship among the design variables in a given problem can be used to adjust algorithm parameters. The new method is benchmarked using 11 classical test functions and the results show that the new method outperforms eight of the most recently published search methodologies.

The Campesino-to-Campesino agroecology movement of ANAP in Cuba: social process methodology in the construction of sustainable peasant agriculture and food sovereignty

Agroecology has played a key role in helping Cuba survive the crisis caused by the collapse of the socialist bloc in Europe and the tightening of the US trade embargo. Cuban peasants have been able to boost food production without scarce and expensive imported agricultural chemicals by first substituting more ecological inputs for the no longer available imports, and then by making a transition to more agroecologically integrated and diverse farming systems. This was possible not so much because appropriate alternatives were made available, but rather because of the Campesino-a-Campesino (CAC) social process methodology that the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) used to build a grassroots agroecology movement. This paper was produced in a ‘self-study’ process spearheaded by ANAP and La Via Campesina, the international agrarian movement of which ANAP is a member. In it we document and analyze the history of the Campesino-to-Campesino Agroecology Movement (MACAC), and the significantly increased contribution of peasants to national food production in Cuba that was brought about, at least in part, due to this movement. Our key findings are (i) the spread of agroecology was rapid and successful largely due to the social process methodology and social movement dynamics, (ii) farming practices evolved over time and contributed to significantly increased relative and absolute production by the peasant sector, and (iii) those practices resulted in additional benefits including resilience to climate change.

Social Movements Through the Gender Lens

AbstractAlthough it is widely acknowledged that many aspects of social life are gendered, only relatively recently have feminist researchers begun to address the ‘gender blindness’ of the social movement theory. Integrating findings from multiple studies, the article considers how gender affects social movement dynamics. It is argued that gender exerts pervasive influence on every aspect of social movement activities. The patterns of mobilisation, political and cultural opportunities, framing process and intra‐movement dynamics are all gendered. It is argued that although ample evidence demonstrates that protest is gendered, we do not yet know whether there is any general pattern of influence of gender on social movements, a pattern that enables a systematic explanation of the effects of gender on social movement dynamics. In conclusion, I will examine the reasons for this and suggest avenues for research.

(Re)discovering a missional-incarnational ethos

In this article, a few of the elements and dynamics of social movements will be explored. It will be argued that the traditional institutional church is in a critical period in the cycle of movements, where the need for the (re)discovery of our missional-incarnational ethos and the theology of restoration might energise the church to (re)activate the dynamics of movements. The narrative of Jesus and the Samaritan woman in John 4 will be investigated as an example of Jesus’s missionalincarnational ethos and of the relation to a theology of restoration. Finally, some challenges for the church with regard to ecclesiology, spirituality and leadership will be proposed.

Alliance Building across Social Movements: Bridging Difference in a Peace and Justice Coalition

Alliance building across social movement groups is an important aspect of social movement dynamics, contributing to their viability and capacity to promote social change. Yet, with few exceptions, cross-movement coalitions have received little sustained theoretical or empirical attention. This article contributes to an understanding of cross-movement coalition building through the examination of a successful case of alliance: a coalition of environmental justice and peace and anti-weapons proliferation groups to stop a federally funded U.S. biodefense laboratory from being built and operated in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Cross-movement collaboration was challenged by tensions arising from differences in positionality . Positional differences reflect status distinctions such as race, class, gender, and place and the differential experiences and expectations that result. Nonetheless, this coalition was able to resolve positional tensions and, as a result, remained a viable protest vehicle. We found this was accomplished through a cross-movement bridging process that involved (1) cause affirmation, (2) strategic deployment, (3) exclusion, and (4) co-development of cross-movement commitments . We extend existent accounts of cross-movement coalition by providing both a culturally founded and fine-grained account of coalition work in the maintenance of alliance relations. The article and its conclusions also address the broader implications of understanding successful trans-positional cross-movement alliances. Keywords: social movements, coalitions, environmental justice, peace movement, microdynamics.

Does Plurality Lead to Fragmentation? Exploring Social Movement Dynamics in Bolivia

Does Plurality Lead to Fragmentation? Exploring Social Movement Dynamics in Bolivia

Thinking Outside the Master's House: New Knowledge Movements and the Emergence of Academic Disciplines

This paper proposes a theoretical framework for understanding emergent disciplines as knowledge-focused social movement phenomena called New Knowledge Movements, or NKMs. The proposed theoretical framework is developed through a synthesis of new social movement theory and Frickel and Gross's Scientific/Intellectual Movements (SIMs) model. In contrast to the SIMs model, this paper argues that many new disciplines emerge through contentious collective action on the part of political and intellectual outsiders rather than through the action of intellectual elites. The framework is examined through historical narratives of two disciplines, women's studies and Asian American studies, in the USA. This framework will be useful to scholars studying the emergence of other disciplines and their related social movement dynamics, particularly those disciplines connected to deeply held personal identities or belief systems.

Not Just Another Book on NGOs

Agenda Setting, the UN and NGOs: Gender Violence and Reproductive Rights. By Jutta M. Joachim Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2007. 256 pp., $29.95 (ISBN: 9781589011755). Much has been written about transnational advocacy networks and the global human rights movement, particularly in terms of women's activism at the international level (see, for example, Keck and Sikkink 1998). But only recently have scholars begun to combine this constructivist tradition with rationalist approaches to more fully account for the complex process by which NGOs strategically frame issues to effectively influence global and national policies (Hertel 2006). And this is where Agenda Setting, the UN and NGOs: Gender Violence and Reproductive Rights makes a real contribution. By situating NGO strategies and subsequent activities that pressured the United Nations (UN) to take on crucial initiatives affecting women's rights and reproductive health, Jutta Joachim successfully builds the bridges between subfields and disciplines that are so essential to understanding the complexity of international politics today. Her study draws critical connections between social movement and organizational theory from various political science subfields, and her findings have significant implications not only for international relations, but for history, sociology and women's studies as well. Integrating sound theory with rich historical detail, Joachim sheds light on the conditions under which NGOs are able to frame new issues, seize political opportunities available to them, strategically utilize various resources and ultimately shape the international agenda. Those interested in transnational activism, human rights, international institutions, and dynamics of contemporary social movements today will want to …

Changing Minds: Cognitive Systems and Strategic Change in Contention over Workfare in New York City

Combining recent and foundational work in cultural theory in social movement research and cognitive psychology, this paper presents a synthetic model of cognitive processes in the context of political contention. Despite broad interest in the intersection between culture and cognition, and in the cultural dynamics of social movements, there has been little systematic effort to understand the cognitive processes of change in social movement settings. The paper constructs and illustrates a model of cognitive change with reference to a case study of opposition to workfare in New York City, where the legal and political construction of workfare workers has been marked by considerable ambiguity. In tracing the ways in which activists changed their minds about strategy and definitions, the paper integrates environmental, cognitive, and relational dynamics in explanations of political contention to advance a non-individualist, broadly materialist and pragmatist theory of cognitive development.

On Political Institutions and Social Movement Dynamics: The Case of the United Nations and the Global Indigenous Movement

In this article, I consider the institutional influence of the United Nations on the organizational structures, tactical repertoires, and claims of the global indigenous movement. A predominant sociological paradigm has tended to view a movement's being located in conventional political space as promoting its “institutionalization,” generally understood as a more or less determined process by which social movements undergoing organizational change eschew confrontational strategies and claims for more moderate approaches. This article illustrates that the consequences of interacting with institutions can be rather different than is expected from this paradigm, and thereby reinforces the need for a new approach allowing for more variation in terms of what takes place when social movements engage in conventional political activity.

Affirmative Action in American Culture

The civil rights movement was about much more than an abstract legal freedom, formal equality, or voting rights. It was, as Nancy MacLean shows in this sweeping national survey, also about access to good jobs. As many activists understood from the beginning, civil rights were hollow without economic justice, and it took the social movements of the 1950s through the 1970s to dismantle what MacLean calls a culture of exclusion, which relegated men of subordinated ethnic groups and women of all groups to the worst paying and least esteemed jobs (p. 13). The black freedom movement led the way, providing the women's and Chicano movements new models of organizing and new legal tools for people determined to get jobs offering good wages and dignity. A conservative movement vigorously resisted these efforts, and one of the greatest strengths of Freedom Is Not Enough is MacLean's sustained analysis of conservative tactics alongside her analysis of progressive social movement dynamics. She shifts our attention from recent studies of working-class racism by showing that racism was also an intellectual position, elaborated and strenuously upheld by conservative elites. This book-based on primary research in well over a hundred manuscript collections across the country and synthesizing a vast amount of secondary literature-is a vital contribution to the emerging field of late-twentieth-century history. Readable and engaging, moving effortlessly between biographies of ordinary people and analyses of movement dynamics, it offers much to the student of politics, social movements, African American history, Chicano/a history, women's history, and conservatism. MacLean's book operates on two levels. On one level are the efforts of African Americans, women of all ethnicities, and Chicanos/as to get better jobs and the efforts of conservatives to restrict their access to these jobs. These conflicts took place at workplaces, in unions, in the courts, in legislatures, and at demonstrations; they were propelled by social movements and given shape by legislation and judicial rulings. From the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, ex-

When Do National Movements Adopt or Reject International Agendas? A Comparative Analysis of the Chinese and Indian Women's Movements

When do national movements adopt or reject international agendas? This question regarding the relationship between global and local thinking goes to the heart of the current globalization debates. This study examines the contrasting responses from the Chinese and Indian women's movements to the agenda adopted by the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women. The contrast challenges the dominant assumption that global thinking can substitute for local thinking. The article shows how national movements decided for or against international agendas through context-dependent meaning-making processes. The Chinese and Indian movements drew on the international agenda to pursue similar national policy goals. Each reached its decision on the international agenda through a similar sequence of interactions with the government. However, due to mediation by nationally unique combinations of political rules and policy-related timing, the two movements attached opposite meanings to the international agenda. The Chinese movement embraced the international agenda and reinterpreted it by emphasizing its difference from the government position; the Indian movement used the international agenda as a surrogate target and rejected it by emphasizing its similarities to the government position. The article also proposes an alternative conceptualization of authoritarianism and democracy that understands better international influences on social movement dynamics.

The Dynamics of Oil and Social Movements in the Niger Delta of Nigeria

The discovery of oil in Nigeria since 1956 has inflicted a heavy burden on the local people of the Niger River Delta who have had to contend with the consequences of oil production. The grievances of these local people have persisted for more than three decades without concrete efforts on the part of the government or oil multinationals to address them. The global triumph of capitalism and the fall of communism gave the local people an opportunity to organize social movements with similar interests to international civil society to challenge the policies of successive governments and the activities of oil multinationals in the Niger Delta. This paper addresses the factors that led to a sudden upsurge in the number of social movements in the Niger Delta and how foreign NGOs have played an important role in addressing the plight of the local people of the region.

International Voluntary Associations, Local Social Movements and State Paths to the Abolition of Regulated Prostitution in Europe, 1875–1950

The literature on globalization and social movements emphasizes the ability of international non-governmental organizations to influence states and foster domestic social change. This article examines the dynamics of this process in an early international movement to combat prostitution in the late 1800s. Why did reformers succeed in their goal of abolishing the state regulation of prostitution earlier in some countries compared to others? A qualitative comparativehistorical approach is used to outline local social movement dynamics and consequent paths to abolition in a subset of European countries (i.e. the Netherlands, France and Germany), as influenced by two international voluntary associations. The findings show that contestation between the associations – one more transnational than the other in practice – hampered abolitionist successes. International voluntary associations’ organization, alliances and cultural framings, as they operated in local settings, affected the form of local movements as well as their outcomes. Rather than challenging state interests, international associations sometimes help to reinforce them.

Linking the web and the street: Internet-based “dotcauses” and the “anti-globalization” movement

Summary Dotcauses (Internet-based networks) and the transnational protest movement about globalization are prominent features of contemporary civil society. We argue that these phenomena are related. Dotcauses are important mobilizing structures within the movement, attracting support, coordinating action, and disseminating alternatives. They therefore influence many of its characteristics—its transnational action, leaderlessness, profusion of concerns, tactical schisms, and digital/language divides. Social movement theory is employed to study these issues. Dotcauses, and the Internet more generally, are changing social movement and activist dynamics. Policy makers have difficulty in responding to this dispersed organizational design, as do traditional civil society organizations.

Resurgent voices in Latin America: indigenous peoples, political mobilization, and religious change

Voices in Latin America explores the critical role of religious beliefs and practices played by indigenous organizations in their struggle to redeem their rights and place in the nations of Latin America in which they are encompassed. important contribution to indigenous studies should be required reading for students concerned with new directions in Latin America.-June Nash, author of Mayan Visions: The Quest for Autonomy in an Age of Globalization. Voices in Latin America offers a rich, multi-faceted, and innovative approach to the roles religion plays in the emergence and political mobilization of indigenous identities.-Manuel Vasquez, coauthor of Globalizing the Sacred: Religion across the Americas This important collection brings fresh data and challenging insights to the analysis of religion and political mobilization among indigenous peoples in Latin America.-Daniel H. Levine, University of Michigan This is a rich volume. The essays are clearly written ...Steigenga's concluding chapter serves as a excellent summing-up essay. -The Journal of Latin American Anthropolgy After more than 500 years of marginalization, Latin America's forty million Indians have recently made major strides in gaining political recognition and civil rights. In this book, social scientists explore the important role of religion in indigenous activism, showing the ways that religion has strengthened indigenous identity and contributed to the struggle for indigenous rights in the region. Drawing on case studies from Bolivia, Peru, Guatemala, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Mexico, the contributors explore four key questions. How have traditional religions interacted with Christianity to produce new practices and beliefs? What resources, motivations, and ideological legitimacies do religious institutions provide for indigenous social movements? How effective are these movements in achieving their goals? Finally, as new religious groups continue to compete for adherents in the region, how will individuals' religious choices affect political outcomes? Resurgent Voices in Latin America offers new insight into the dynamics of indigenous social movements and into the complex and changing world of Latin American religions. The essays show that religious beliefs, practices, and institutions have both affected and been affected by political activism. Edward L. Cleary is a professor of political science and director of Latin American studies at Providence College. His most recent books include The Struggle for Human Rights in Latin America and Power, Politics, and Pentecostals in Latin America. Timothy J. Steigenga is an associate professor of political science at the Wilkes Honors College of Florida Atlantic University and author of The Politics of the Spirit: The Political Implications of Pentecostalized Religion in Costa Rica and Guatemala.

Organizational Dynamics and Construction of Multiple Feminist Identities in the National Organization for Women

Through an analysis of two National Organization for Women chapters, the author finds that members construct multiple feminist identities that vary in collective definitions of feminism, the overall strategies adopted, and organizational culture. To explain these variations, the author analyzes meso-level relations between the organization and the environment, issues of diversity, and leadership continuity. This study illustrates how organizational factors intertwine to shape how participants come to view themselves and the political and cultural environment surrounding them. With the current research focus either on the larger political environment or individual characteristics, meso-level factors are often overlooked in examinations of social movement dynamics.

Still Fighting: The Nicaraguan Women's Movement, 1977-2000

The story of the women's movement in Nicaragua is a fascinating tale of resistance, strategy, and faith. From its birth in 1977 under the Somoza dictatorship through the Sandinista revolution to the fall of the Chamorro government, the Nicaraguan women's movement has navigated revolutionary upheaval, profound changes in government, and rapidly shifting definitions of women's roles in society. Through it all, the movement has surged, regressed, and persevered, entering the twenty-first century a powerful and influential force, stretching from the grassroots to the national level. How did women in an economically underdeveloped Central American country, with little history of organizing, feminism, or democracy, succeed in creating networks, organizations, and campaigns that carved out a gender identity and challenged dominant ideologies (both revolutionary and conservative)? In Still Fighting Katherine Isbester seeks to understand. She analyzes the complex and rich case of Nicaragua in order to learn more about the dynamics of social movements in general and women's organizing in particular. Social movement theory offers Isbester an analytic tool to explain the extraordinary evolution of the Nicaraguan movement. She theorizes that a sustainable movement is composed of three elements: a focused goal, a mobilization of resources, and an identity. The lack of any one of these weakens a social movement. Isbester shows how this theory is borne out by the experience of the Nicaraguan women's movement over the past thirty years. She demonstrates, for example, how the revolutionary government of the 1980s co-opted the women's movement, crippling its ability to create an autonomous identity, choose it own goals, and mobilize resources independent of the state. Hence, it lost legitimacy, membership, and influence. She traces the movement's resurgence in the 1990s, the result of his redifinition as an autonomous movement organized around an identity of care. Still Fighting combines social theory with field research, leading a new wave of scholarship on women in Latin America. Isbester interviewed more than a hundred key participants in the women's movement, in addition to members of the National Assembly, male leaders of other social movements, and women outside the movement. In Nicaragua, she was witness to much political organizing, enabling her to reveal the organic intricacy, as well as the historical path, of a social movement. Still Fighting will be an important book for a broad range of students and professionals in the areas of social movements, social change, gender, politics, and Latin America.