Social Movements Identity, Culture, and the State

by Meyer, David S.; Whittier, Nancy; Robnett, Belinda

• ISBN13: 9780195143553
• ISBN10: 0195143558
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-06-27
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

hy do social movements take the forms they do? How do activists' efforts and beliefs interact with the cultural and political contexts in which they work? Why do activists take particular strategic paths, and how do their strategies affect the course and impact of the movement? Social Movements aims to bridge the gap between "political opportunities" theorists who look at the circumstances and effects of social movement efforts and "collective identity theorists" who focus on the reconstruction of meaning and identity through collective action. The volume brings together scholars from a variety of perspectives to consider the intersections of opportunities and identities, structures and cultures, in social movements. Representing a new generation of social movement theory, the contributors build bridges between political opportunities and collective identity paradigms, between analyses of movements' internal dynamics and their external contexts, between approaches that emphasize structure and those that emphasize culture. They cover a wide range of case studies from both the U.S. and Western Europe as well as from less developed countries. Movements include feminist organizing in the U.S. and India, lesbian/gay movements, revolutionary movements in Burma, the Philippines, and Indonesia, labor campaigns in England and South Africa, civil rights movements, community organizing, political party organizing in Canada, student movements of the left and right, and the Religious Right. Many chapters also pay explicit attention to the dynamics of gender, race, and class in social movements. Combining a variety of perspectives on a wide range of topics, the contributors' synthetic approach shifts the field of social movements forward in important new directions.

Table of Contents

Contributors	xiii
PART I. INTRODUCTION
Opportunities and Identities: Bridge-Building in the Study of Social Movements	3	(25)
David S. Meyer
PART II. STATES AND POLICIES
Introduction to Part II	25	(3)
State Repression and Democracy Protest in Three Southeast Asian Countries	28	(19)
Vincent Boudreau
Mobilization on the South African Gold Mines	47	(19)
T. Dunbar Moodie
Multiple Mediations: The State and the Women's Movements in India	66	(19)
Manisha Desai
The Contradictions of Gay Ethnicity: Forging Identity in Vermont	85	(20)
Mary Bernstein
Creating Social Change: Lessons from the Civil Rights Movement	105	(19)
Kenneth T. Andrews
PART III. ORGANIZATIONS AND STRATEGIES
Introduction to Part III	121	(3)
The ``Meso'' in Social Movement Research	124	(16)
Suzanne Staggenborg
Strategizing and the Sense of Context: Reflections on the First Two Weeks of the Liverpool Docks Lockout, September-October 1995	140	(17)
Colin Barker
Michael Lavalette
Factions and the Continuity of Political Challengers	157	(14)
Mildred A. Schwartz
More Than One Feminism: Organizational Structure and the Construction of Collective Identity	171	(14)
Jo Reger
The Development of Individual Identity and Consciousness among Movements of the Left and Right	185	(23)
Rebecca E. Klatch
PART IV. COLLECTIVE IDENTITIES, DISCOURSE, AND CULTURE
Introduction to Part IV	205	(3)
Toward a More Dialogic Analysis of Social Movement Culture	208	(18)
Marc W. Steinberg
Materialist Feminist Discourse Analysis and Social Movement Research: Mapping the Changing Context for ``Community Control''	226	(21)
Nancy A. Naples
From the ``Beloved Community'' to ``Family Values'': Religious Language, Symbolic Repertoires, and Democratic Culture	247	(19)
Rhys H. Williams
External Political Change, Collective Identities, and Participation in Social Movement Organizations	266	(23)
Belinda Robnett
PART V. CONCLUSION
Meaning and Structure in Social Movements	289	(20)
Nancy Whittier
References	309	(38)
Index	347