Social movement

About: Social movement is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 23103 publications have been published within this topic receiving 653076 citations. The topic is also known as: movement & syndical movement.

The Geospatial Characteristics of a Social Movement Communication Network

Abstract: Social movements rely in large measure on networked communication technologies to organize and disseminate information relating to the movements’ objectives. In this work we seek to understand how the goals and needs of a protest movement are reflected in the geographic patterns of its communication network, and how these patterns differ from those of stable political communication. To this end, we examine an online communication network reconstructed from over 600,000 tweets from a thirty-six week period covering the birth and maturation of the American anticapitalist movement, Occupy Wall Street. We find that, compared to a network of stable domestic political communication, the Occupy Wall Street network exhibits higher levels of locality and a hub and spoke structure, in which the majority of non-local attention is allocated to high-profile locations such as New York, California, and Washington D.C. Moreover, we observe that information flows across state boundaries are more likely to contain framing language and references to the media, while communication among individuals in the same state is more likely to reference protest action and specific places and times. Tying these results to social movement theory, we propose that these features reflect the movement’s efforts to mobilize resources at the local level and to develop narrative frames that reinforce collective purpose at the national level.

A Dynamic Process Model of Private Politics: Activist Targeting and Corporate Receptivity to Social Challenges

Abstract: This project explores whether and how corporations become more receptive to social activist challenges over time. Drawing from social movement theory, we suggest a dynamic process through which contentious interactions lead to increased receptivity. We argue that when firms are chronically targeted by social activists, they respond defensively by adopting strategic management devices that help them better manage social issues and demonstrate their normative appropriateness. These defensive devices have the incidental effect of empowering independent monitors and increasing corporate accountability, which in turn increases a firm's receptivity to future activist challenges. We test our theory using a unique longitudinal dataset that tracks contentious attacks and the adoption of social management devices among a population of 300 large firms from 1993-2009.

The New Politics of Class: Social Movements and Cultural Dynamics in Advanced Societies

Abstract: INTRODUCTION CLASS AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS Bringing Classes Back into the Theory of Society Culture as the Missing Link Between Class and Collective Action PART ONE: MODERNIZING THE NOTION OF CLASS Contradictions and Social Evolution A Theory of the Role of Class in the Production of Modernity Beyond Class as a Historical Subject Towards a Theoretical Construction of Collective Actors PART TWO: RECONNECTING CULTURE AND CLASS Culture and Class Bourdieu's Culturalist Refraction of the Traditional Theory of Class The Cognitive Representations of Social Inequality A Sociological Account of the Cultural Basis of Modern Class Society PART THREE: THE THEORY OF NEW SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A CHALLENGE TO CLASS THEORY? A New Social Movement? The Continuing Vitality of the Theory of the 'New Social Movements' Counterculture Movements against Modernity Nature as a New Field of Class Struggle? PART FOUR: NEW CLASS CONFLICTS? THE THEORY OF MIDDLE CLASS RADICALISM The 'New Social Movements' Moral Crusades, Political Pressure Groups, or a Social Movement? Does Social Class Matter in the Study of Social Movements? A New Theory of Middle Class Radicalism CONCLUSION: BEYOND TRADITIONAL CLASS THEORY From the Crisis of Class Politics to the Critique of Class Politics Reflecting the Role of 'Crisis Discourses' in Modern Society

Participation, responsibility and choice: summoning the active citizen in Western European welfare states

Abstract: Responsibility, participation and choice are key policy framings of active citizenship, summoning the citizen to take on new roles in welfare state reform. This volume traces the emergence of new discourses and the ways in which they take up and rework struggles of social movements for greater independence, power and control. It explores the changing cultural and political inflections of active citizenship in Germany, Finland, Norway, the Netherlands, France, Italy and the UK, with ethnographic research complementing policy analysis. The editors then look across the volume to assess some of the tensions and contradictions arising in the turn to active citizenship. Two final chapters address the reworking of citizen/professional relationships and the remaking of public, private and personal responsibilities, with a particular focus on the contribution of feminist research and theory.

A Dynamic Process Model of Private Politics Activist Targeting and Corporate Receptivity to Social Challenges

Abstract: This project explores whether and how corporations become more receptive to social activist challenges over time. Drawing from social movement theory, we suggest a dynamic process through which contentious interactions lead to increased receptivity. We argue that when firms are chronically targeted by social activists, they respond defensively by adopting strategic management devices that help them better manage social issues and demonstrate their normative appropriateness. These defensive devices have the incidental effect of empowering independent monitors and increasing corporate accountability, which in turn increase a firm’s receptivity to future activist challenges. We test our theory using a unique longitudinal dataset that tracks contentious attacks and the adoption of social management devices among a population of 300 large firms from 1993 to 2009.