Theories of Political Protest and Social Movements: A Multidisciplinary Introduction, Critique, and Synthesis

by Opp; Karl-dieter

• ISBN13: 9780415483896
• ISBN10: 0415483891
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2009-05-08
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

How can political protest and social movements be explained? The book provides an introduction to each of the existing theories by restating and clarifying them. This is the basis for a detailed assessment of their strengths and weaknesses. Finally, a single theoretical paradigm is proposed that shows how the theories can be integrated.

Author Biography

Karl-Dieter Opp is Professor at the University of Leipzig, Germany, and Affiliate Professor at the University of Washington, Seattle. His areas of interest include collective action and political protest, rational choice theory, philosophy of the social sciences and the emergence and effects of norms and institutions. He is the author of The Rationality of Political Protest (1989), coauthor of The Origins of a Spontaneous Revolution: East Germany, 1989 (1995) and editor (with M. Hechter) of Social Norms (2001).

Table of Contents

List of figures	p. x
List of tables	p. xii
Preface	p. xiii
Acknowledgments	p. xvii
What kind of theory do we need and what is a good theory?	p. 1
General social psychological theories for social movement research	p. 2
The application of theories: a first look at how to explain macro events by micro theories	p. 9
Advantages of applying a general theory of action	p. 14
The importance of a microfoundation of macro explanations	p. 16
Factor explanations as a synthesis of social movement perspectives: an alternative to applying theories?	p. 21
Three features of a good theory	p. 23
Basics of concept formation	p. 27
Summary and conclusions	p. 31
Protest, social movements, and collective action: conceptual clarifications and the subject of the book	p. 33
Examples: What is a "protest" and a "social movement"?	p. 33
Definitions from the literature	p. 34
Suggestions for defining "protest" and "social movement"	p. 37
What do social movement theories explain?	p. 42
Summary and conclusions	p. 43
Group size, selective incentives, and collective action	p. 45
Mancur Olson's Logic of Collective Action	p. 45
Critique of the theory	p. 56
Production functions, critical mass, thresholds, and the free rider problem: new contributions to the theory of collective action	p. 72
Summary and conclusions	p. 88
Protest and social movements as collective action	p. 91
Protest and collective action	p. 92
How to apply collective action theory: a case study about the mobilization of a mining village in Spain	p. 93
Is collective action theory not appropriate for social movement explanations? A note on Fireman and Gamson and other critics	p. 104
A micro model of protest behavior	p. 108
Guidelines for explaining macro events and macro relationships: the two-step procedure	p. 118
What can we learn from the theory of collective action for the explanation of social movement phenomena?	p. 123
Summary and conclusions	p. 124
The resource mobilization perspective	p. 127
Resources, grievances, and strategic actors: J.D. McCarthy and M.N. Zald's theory	p. 127
The causal structure of McCarthy and Zald's approach: a critique and extension	p. 135
Conceptual problems: the meaning of "resources" and "mobilization"	p. 138
What kind of resources bring about what kind of movements and strategies? Problems of the explanatory power of the perspective	p. 140
The implicit background theory	p. 141
The structure of the perspective: the implied and missing micro-macro model	p. 142
How is the free rider problem solved?	p. 144
Are there falsifications of the resource mobilization perspective?	p. 145
Recent developments	p. 150
Theoretical suggestions	p. 153
Resource mobilization and collective action theory	p. 158
What can we learn from the resource mobilization perspective for the explanation of social movement phenomena?	p. 159
Summary and conclusions	p. 159
Political opportunity structures, protest, and social movements	p. 161
The political environment and the chances of success: P. Eisinger's theory	p. 161
Conceptual problems: What are political opportunity structures?	p. 167
What form of political action can be explained?	p. 178
The missing micro-macro model and the implicit background theory	p. 179
Other factors: the incomplete macro model	p. 180
How is the free rider problem solved?	p. 181
When is the theory wrong?	p. 181
Recent developments and lingering problems: an illustration with two versions of the theory	p. 190
Political opportunities and collective action: a synthesis	p. 198
What can we learn from the political opportunity structure perspective for the explanation of social movement phenomena?	p. 200
Summary and conclusions	p. 201
Collective identity and social movement activity	p. 204
Constructing collective identity and protest: A. Melucci's theory	p. 205
Conceptual problems: What is a "collective identity"?	p. 215
Identity theory: recent developments	p. 217
Empirical evidence	p. 220
Synthesizing collective identity theory and the theory of collective action	p. 221
Problems of the extended theory of collective identity	p. 228
What can we learn from the identity approach for the explanation of social movement phenomena?	p. 231
Summary and conclusions	p. 231
How framing influences mobilization and protest	p. 234
Frame alignment processes: D. Snow, B. Rochford, St. Burke, and R. Benford's contribution	p. 235
Conceptual problems	p. 241
The structure of the theory: the implicit micro-macro model	p. 247
Why do people change and use frames? The implicit background theory	p. 249
Is frame alignment a necessary condition for social movement participation?	p. 251
How is the free rider problem solved?	p. 254
Framing and the form of political action: an unanswered question	p. 255
When does frame alignment succeed?	p. 255
Recent developments	p. 256
The validity of the framing approach	p. 265
Synthesizing the framing approach and other perspectives	p. 272
What can we learn from the framing perspective for the explanation of social movement phenomena?	p. 272
Summary and conclusions	p. 273
Identity, framing, and cognitive balance: toward a new theory of identity and framing	p. 275
A very short introduction to Fritz Heider's balance theory	p. 276
When movement identification changes frames	p. 283
Movement identification and the change of social networks	p. 285
Conflicting frames and strong ties to movement and friends: a case where imbalance remains	p. 286
Friendship networks, conflicting frames, and movement identification	p. 286
Block alignment of frames, frame completion, and frame resonance	p. 289
Cultural resources and framing	p. 292
Collective action and balance theory	p. 294
Mechanisms of cognitive reorganization	p. 296
A change of perspective: the movement as reference actor	p. 299
What can we learn from balance theory for the explanation of social movement phenomena?	p. 299
Summary and conclusions	p. 301
The dynamics of contention approach-retreat to history?	p. 304
The dynamics of contentious politics: D. McAdam, S. Tarrow, and Ch. Tilly's new agenda	p. 304
Critique of the approach	p. 309
The free rider problem and the missing micro-macro modeling	p. 322
What is a "mechanism"?	p. 323
What can we learn from the dynamics of contention approach for the explanation of social movement phenomena?	p. 324
Summary and conclusions	p. 325
The structural-cognitive model: a synthesis of collective action, resource mobilization, political opportunity, identity, and framing perspectives	p. 327
The idea of a synthesis: the structural-cognitive model	p. 327
The missing link: framing and the structural-cognitive model	p. 331
How existing social movement theory fits into the structural-cognitive model	p. 335
The structural-cognitive model applied: some illustrations	p. 335
Summary and conclusions	p. 349
General discussion, conclusion, and an agenda for future research	p. 351
The major strengths and weaknesses of extant theories of social movements and political protest	p. 351
The alternative: the structural-cognitive model as a theory-based micro-macro explanation	p. 353
An illustration: Is something missing in the explanation of collective mobilization in Llano del Beal?	p. 354
An agenda for future theory and research	p. 356
Summary and conclusions	p. 361
Notes	p. 363
Bibliography	p. 375
Index	p. 396
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