
Social
Movements: An Introduction
Donatella Della Porta, Mario Diani (January 30, 2006)
Social Movements is a comprehensive introduction and critical analysis of collective
action in society today. In the latter part of the last century, social movements became a
permanent feature of modern democracies. The students' and workers' protests of the 1960s
have been followed by movements focusing on women's rights, ethnic identities, peace and
environmental issues. This book draws on research and empirical work across the social
sciences to address the key questions in this international field.
In this new edition, the authors have updated all chapters with the most recent
literature, and expanded on topics such as individual motivations, new media, public
policies, and governance. The book has also been redesigned to a more user-friendly
format. More than ever, Social Movements is the ideal introduction for students of social
movements within social and political science.
Donatella Della Porta is Professor of Sociology in the Department of Political and Social
Sciences at the European University Institute. She is the author of Corrupt Exchanges:
Actors, Resources, and Mechanisms of Political Corruption (1999), and Transnational
Protest and Global Activism (2004).
Mario Diani is Professor of Sociology and Director of Graduate Studies at the University
of Trento. He is the co-editor of Beyond Tocqueville: The Social Capital Debate in
Comparative Perspective (with Bob Edwards and Michael Foley, 2001) and Social Movements
and Networks (with Doug McAdam, 2003)
The
Politics of Protest : Social Movements in America
by David S. Meyer (March 10, 2006)
Protest is everywhere in American politics. Over the past decade, activists have staged
dramatic demonstrations on such diverse issues as the war in Iraq, globalization,
standardized testing, and abortion rights. Indeed, protest and social movements have
become essential features of
contemporary American life. The Politics of Protest offers both a historical overview and
an analytical framework for understanding social movements and political protest in
American politics. The book suggests that protest movements, clearly an integral part of
our nation's history from the Boston
Tea Party to the Civil Rights Movement, are hardly confined to the distant past. It argues
that protest movements in America reflect and influence mainstream politics. In order to
understand our political system-and our social and political world-we need to pay
attention to protest.
The Politics of Protest opens with a short history of social movements in the United
States, beginning with the development of the American Republic, outlining how the
American constitutional design invites protest movements to offer continual challenges. It
then discusses the social impulse to
protest, considers the strategies and tactics of social movements, looks at the
institutional response to protest, and finally examines the policy ramifications. Each
chapter includes a brief narrative of a key movement that illustrates the topic covered in
that chapter. Drawing students in and
clearly demonstrating how and why the subject is of importance to them, the book addresses
such topics as Dorothy Day's Catholic Workers' protest against nuclear fallout drills in
the 1950s, the Greensboro civil rights sit-in in 1960, and the so-called "Battle in
Seattle" anti-globalization rally.
Providing a concise, yet lively analysis of social movements in America, The Politics of
Protest is ideal for political science or sociology courses that consider social movements
and political protest.

Social
Movements and Networks: Relational Approaches to Collective Action (Comparative Politics)
by Mario Diani (Editor), Doug McAdam (Editor) - January 1, 2004
For the first time in a single volume, leading social movement researchers map the full
range of applications of network concepts and tools to their field of inquiry. They
illustrate how networks affect individual contributions to collective action in both
democratic and non-democratic organizations; how patterns of inter-organizational linkages
affect the circulation of resources both within movement milieus and between movement
organizations and the political system; how network concepts and techniques may improve
our grasp of the relationship between movements and elites, of the configuration of
alliance and conflict structures, of the clustering of episodes of contention in protest
cycles.Social Movements and Networks casts new light on our understanding of social
movements and cognate social and political processes.

Power
in Movement : Social Movements and Contentious Politics (Cambridge Studies in Comparative
Politics)
by Sidney Tarrow, Peter Lange (Series Editor), Robert H. Bates (Series Editor), Ellen
Comisso (Series Editor), Peter Hall
(Series Editor), Joel Migdal (Series Editor), Helen Milner (Series Editor)
"This is unquestionably a seminal work, one that lies fundamentally in the literature
on social movements....an exceptionally rich synthesis and weaving together of research
and literature on social movements..." Studies in Comparative International
Development
"The brilliance of this book is the author's ability to transcend conventional
schools of social movement analysis....It is difficult to see movements in the same light
after reading this book." American Political Science Review
Unlike political or economic institutions, social movements have an elusive power, but one
that is no less real. This study surveys the history of the social movement, puts forward
a theory of collective action to explain its surges and declines, and offers an
interpretation of the power of movement that emphasizes its effects on personal lives,
policy reforms and political culture. While
covering cultural, organizational and personal sources of movements' power, the book
emphasizes the rise and fall of social movements as part of political struggle and as the
outcome of changes in political opportunity structure. This second edition has an entirely
new chapter, major additions to the bibliography, new illustrative materials in many of
the chapters and a new conclusion. |

Social
Movements in Advanced Capitalism: The Political Economy and Cultural Construction of
Social Activism - by Steven M. Buechler
Sociology and social movements are twin siblings of modernity that view the world as a
social construction to be understood and transformed respectively. Based on this premise,
Buechler argues for the centrality of social movements to the shape of the
modern world as well as the discipline of sociology. Building on a critical overview of
current social movement theory, this book presents a structural model for analyzing social
movements in advanced capitalism. This model provides a historically specific analysis
that located movements in global, national, regional, and local structures. The heart of
the book draws on diverse theoretical traditions within sociology (world system theory,
critical theory, neo-Marxism, class/race/gender theories, theories of
everyday life) to specify the structural constraints and opportunities that comprise the
environment in which movements mobilize and contest for power. Movement dynamics are
explored in terms of their dialectical relationship with these multiple levels of
structure. The book also addresses the recent shift and false dichotomies between
political and cultural dimensions of social movements.
This thoughtful introduction to the sociological study of social movements is an excelent
supplementary text for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in courses on
collective action and social movements.

Social
Movement Theory and Research
by Roberta Garner
Reviews and explores social movement theory from the end of World War II to the mid-1990s,
focusing primarily on the United States, with some attention to European scholarship as
well.
Contemporary
Movements and Ideologies - by Roberta Garner
Contemporary Movements and Ideologies introduces the reader to major global social
movements. It outlines the basic concepts and theories for the analysis of social
movements and provides summaries of the ideas, goals, organization, strategies and social
bases of eight major types of movements, i.e., civil rights and human rights, movements of
religious faith and women's movements. The book provides a strong historical foundation in
which to understand each type of movement. In addition, it examines movements as a
response to the modern world and looks at how they are changing to adapt to the
"post-modern" era world of globalized markets and cultural diversity.
Social
Movements and Social Classes : The Future of Collective Action (SAGE Studies in
International Sociology)
by Louis Maheu (Editor)
Racism, class, urban politics, citizenship, middle-class radicalism, and education-all are
integral factors when examining the phenomena of social movements. In Social Movements and
Social Classes, an esteemed international cast of contributors focuses on these and other
inherent issues in social movements and social class from the perspective of collective
action. The contributors examine how integrative and expansive collection action is in the
constitution of modern societies, review and discuss the various analytical approaches
used to explain the foundations for collective action, and analyze the ways that social
struggles penetrate political life--with further reflections on culture and democracy. An
original contribution to the understanding of social movements, social classes, and
collective action, this book is essential reading for scholars and students in sociology,
political science, urban studies, cultural studies, and ethnic studies. |