This book probes three issues about the linkage between political protests and social change. First, why do individuals participate in protest activities, including nonviolent movements and revolutions? How do cultural beliefs, sociopolitical structures, personal attitudes, motives and perceptions shape the decision to participate? Second, why do participants choose certain tactics? Protesters use different types of tactics: violent vs. nonviolent, public vs. covert, organized vs. spontaneous and confrontation vs. accommodation with other groups, political parties, and government agencies. Most activists view a particular tactic as a useful means to attain their policy demands. Third, what policy consequences emerge from the activities of protest movements? The book explores the impact of protests on social change and on the distribution of political power, particularly greater access of subordinate groups to government policymakers. A theory of political opportunities helps explain these issues about the origins, activities, and outcomes of protests.

Analyzes the reciprocal impact of cultural beliefs, sociopolitical structures, and individual behaviors on protests throughout the world, examining such questions as why people participate in protest activities, what compels them to participate in non- violent movements, and what leads them to engage in revolutionary protest. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Although grass-roots social movements are an important force of social and political change, they quite often fail to achieve their lofty goals. Similarly, the inability of research to systematically explain the impact of such movements stands in sharp contrast to their emotional appeal. Protest, Opportunities, and Mechanisms attempts to rejuvenate current scholarship by developing a comprehensive theory of social movements and political change. In addition to reviewing the existing literature on the political outcomes of social movements, this volume analyzes the examples of the American civil rights movement and anti-nuclear energy efforts in eighteen countries to forge a new understanding of their momentous impact.

Frames of Protest is the only book available that brings together empirical research and theoretical essays by sociologists, political scientists, and media specialists that focus on social movement frames and framing practices. The major themes of the framing perspective are treated: evidence for the determining influence of collective action frames, their role in protest cycles, framing practices by the state and media, their relationship to political structures, frames versus ideologies as mobilizing factors, and methods of framing research. The collection offers a state-of-the-art view of this important perspective.

The analysis of protest movements as sources of social change has been largely neglected in the social sciences. Oommen argues that until now the basic sources of change have been taken to be the economy or those watersheds in human history labelled as agrarian, industrial or information revolutions. By contrast, political revolutions have been accorded too little attention. In the first part of this book, the author explores the theoretical, conceptual and methodological issues in the study of social movements. He then goes on to examine specific methodological problems faced by analysts of on-going movements and explores the relationship between movements and institutions. In Part Two, he examines social movements in the macro-context of the nation-state while the final part considers the micro dimensions of social movements focusing on protest by specific social categories.

Introduction to debates on the character of urban protest, examining theories from Castell and others on the analysis of urban protest, against actual experience.

Analyzes the reciprocal impact of cultural beliefs, sociopolitical structures, and individual behaviors on protests throughout the world, examining such questions as why people participate in protest activities, what compels them to participate in non- violent movements, and what leads them to engage in revolutionary protest. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

From her perspective as both participant and observer, Barbara Epstein examines the nonviolent direct action movement which, inspired by the civil rights movement, flourished in the United States from the mid-seventies to the mid-eighties. Disenchanted with the politics of both the mainstream and the organized left, and deeply committed to forging communities based on shared values, activists in this movement developed a fresh, philosophy and style of politics that shaped the thinking of a new generation of activists. Driven by a vision of an ecologically balanced, nonviolent, egalitarian society, they engaged in political action through affinity groups, made decisions by consensus, and practiced mass civil disobedience. The nonviolent direct action movement galvanized originally in opposition to nuclear power, with the Clamshell Alliance in New England and then the Abalone Alliance in California leading the way. Its influence soon spread to other activist movements—for peace, non-intervention, ecological preservation, feminism, and gay and lesbian rights. Epstein joined the San Francisco Bay Area's Livermore Action Group to protest the arms race and found herself in jail along with a thousand other activists for blocking the road in front of the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. She argues that to gain a real understanding of the direct action movement it is necessary to view it from the inside. For with its aim to base society as a whole on principles of egalitarianism and nonviolence, the movement sought to turn political protest into cultural revolution.

Political protest and social movements are ubiquitous phenomena. This book focuses on the current theoretical approaches that aim at explaining them: the theory of collective action, the resource mobilization perspective, political opportunity structure theory, the identity approach, the framing perspective, and the dynamics of contention approach. The book has three objectives: (1) Many basic concepts like political opportunities or identity are not clearly defined. It is further often a matter of interpretation what factors are supposed to affect which phenomena. The first aim is therefore to provide a detailed introduction to and a clear restatement of the theories. Only then is it possible to assess and improve them. (2) For each theory the major strengths and weaknesses are discussed, and various modifications and extensions are suggested. (3) Building on these analyses, it is shown how the theories can be integrated into a single theoretical paradigm: the structural-cognitive model.