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"McAdam, Doug"
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Toward a General Theory of Strategic Action Fields
In recent years there has been an outpouring of work at the intersection of social movement studies and organizational theory. While we are generally in sympathy with this work, we think it implies a far more radical rethinking of structure and agency in modern society than has been realized to date. In this article, we offer a brief sketch of a general theory of strategic action fields (SAFs). We begin with a discussion of the main elements of the theory, describe the broader environment in which any SAF is embedded, consider the dynamics of stability and change in SAFs, and end with a respectful critique of other contemporary perspectives on social structure and agency.
Journal Article
Social movements and networks : relational approaches to collective action
Illustrates relational approaches to the study of social movements and collective action. Contributors analyse most recent developments in the analysis of the role of networks as facilitators or constraints of individual recruitment, various forms of interorganizational networks, and the relationship between social networks and the political context in which social movements operate. They also relate the growing attention to social networks by social movement analysis to broader theoretical debates. Both quantitative and qualitative network analysis are considered, and attention is paid to the time dimension and the evolution of networks, through both simulation models and empirical data. Empirical chapters cover both contemporary and historical episodes of collective action, in reference to authoritarian as well as progressive, left‐libertarian movements. Chapters focusing on individual networks specify different effects of network embeddedness over participation in different types of collective action (Passy, Anheier). Interorganizational relations are explored by looking at leadership dynamics (Diani), the relationship between categorical traits and network position within coalitions (Ansell), and the role of individuals in linking different organizations both synchronically and diachronically (Osa). Network approaches to the political process illustrate shifts in alliance and conflict networks at a time of regime change (Tilly and Wood), the evolution of social networks during protest cycles (Oliver and Myers), and the role of local elites in shaping protest networks in the community (Broadbent). Theoretical chapters discuss network perspectives on social movements in relation to recent theoretical developments in rational choice theory (Gould), cultural analysis (Mische), and the analysis of social mechanisms (McAdam). A radical case is also made for a reorientation of the whole social movement agenda along network lines (Diani).
eBook
Civil Society Reconsidered: The Durable Nature and Community Structure of Collective Civic Action
This article develops a conceptual framework on civil society that shifts the dominant focus on individuals to collective action events -- civic & protest alike -- that bring people together in public to realize a common purpose. Analyzing over 4,000 events in the Chicago area from 1970 to 2000, the authors find that while civic engagement is durable overall, \"sixties-style\" protest declines, & hybrid events that combine public claims making with civic forms of behavior -- what they call \"blended social action\" -- increase. Furthermore, dense social ties, group memberships, & neighborly exchange do not predict community variations in collective action. The density of nonprofit organizations matters instead, suggesting that declines in traditional social capital may not be as consequential for civic capacity as commonly thought. Tables, Figures, References. Adapted from the source document.
Journal Article
Ballots and Barricades: On the Reciprocal Relationship between Elections and Social Movements
Why do two cognate literatures—social movements and electoral studies—travel along parallel paths with little conversation between them? And what can be done to connect them in the future? Drawing on their work with the late Charles Tilly on Dynamics of Contention (2001), Doug McAdam and Sidney Tarrow examine two important studies that approach (but do not effect such a linkage), propose a mechanism-based set of linkages between elections and social movements, and apply their approach in a preliminary examination of the relations between the American anti-war movement after 9/11 and the Democratic Party.
Journal Article
Be Careful What You Wish For: The Ironic Connection Between the Civil Rights Struggle and Today's Divided America
The deep political and economic divisions that characterize the contemporary United States have been the subject of much discussion and analysis. However, most of the accounts of these divisions have tended to emphasize relatively recent events or trends, such as the Tea Party movement or the extreme partisanship that has marked the last three presidential administrations (e.g., Obama, George Bush Jr., Clinton). The origins of today's divisions, however, have much older roots. They date to the heyday of the Civil Rights struggle and ironically to the seminal achievements of the movement. More accurately, it is the story of not one, but two parallel movements, the revitalized civil rights movement of the early to mid-1960s and the powerful segregationist countermovement, that quickly developed in response to the African-American freedom struggle. The argument is that over the course of the decade of the 1960s, these two linked struggles decisively altered the partisan geography of the United States, and in the process pushed the national Democratic and Republican parties sharply to the left and right, respectively, undermining the centrist policy convergence of the postwar period and setting the parties on the divisive course they remain on today.
Journal Article
Specifying the Relationship Between Social Ties and Activism
Much empirical work in the social-movements literature has focused on the role of social ties in movement recruitment. Yet these studies have been plagued by a troubling theoretical and empirical imprecision. This imprecision stems from three sources. First, these studies are generally silent on the basic sociological dynamics that account for the reported findings. Second, movement scholars have generally failed to specify and test the precise dimensions of social ties that seem to account for their effects. Finally, most studies fail to acknowledge that individuals are embedded in many relationships that may expose the individual to conflicting pressures. This article seeks to address these shortcomings by means of an elaborated model of recruitment that is then used as a basis for examining the role of social ties in mediating individual recruitment to the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer Project.
Journal Article
Dynamics of Contention
In recent decades the study of social movements, revolution, democratization and other non-routine politics has flourished. And yet research on the topic remains highly fragmented, reflecting the influence of at least three traditional divisions. The first of these reflects the view that various forms of contention are distinct and should be studied independent of others. Separate literatures have developed around the study of social movements, revolutions and industrial conflict. A second approach to the study of political contention denies the possibility of general theory in deference to a grounding in the temporal and spatial particulars of any given episode of contention. The study of contentious politics are left to 'area specialists' and/or historians with a thorough knowledge of the time and place in question. Finally, overlaid on these two divisions are stylized theoretical traditions - structuralist, culturalist, and rationalist - that have developed largely in isolation from one another. This book was first published in 2001.
eBook
Gender as a Mediator of the Activist Experience: The Case of Freedom Summer
Using data on 330 applicants to the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Summer project, the author seeks to assess the effect of gender on all phases of the activist process. The results indicate that gender powerfully influenced the dynamics of recruitment to the project, experiences during the summer, the long-term political effects that followed from participation in the campaign, and the subjects' owm assessment of the projects' impact on their lives. Interestingly, the behavioral effects of the project are greatest for the male volunteers. But it is the female volunteers who attribute the greatest personal significance to the project. It is suggested that this seeming paradox can be explained by two factors: (1) the more extensive histories of activism the female volunteers brought to the project and (2) the significance assigned to the project in feminist accounts of the origins of the women's liberation movement.
Journal Article