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Concludes a text on the potential of social movements to act as agents of social & political change by identifying four recent trends in social movements: (1) establishment of the social movement as a routine institutionalized feature of Western democratic politics; (2) spread of modern social movements in nondemocratic, non-Western settings; (3) creation of a transnational advocacy network in the form of nongovernmental organizations; & (4) development of multiple levels of political authority other than the nation-state to confront & confound protest groups. This last trend obliges protest groups to mobilize at multiple levels, thereby stretching their already scarce resources. The result may be a gradual diminution of the capacity of social movements to transform society & politics. While this conclusion is merely conjecture, it ought to serve as a sobering reminder that social movements must work very hard to maintain their ability to influence social & political life. D. Ryfe

Scholars of nonprofits, interest groups, civic associations, and social movement organizations employ samples of organizations derived from directories or other available listings. In most cases, we are unable to evaluate the representativeness of these samples. Using data on the population of environmental organizations in North Carolina, we assess the methodological strengths and weaknesses of widely used strategies. We find that reliance on any single source yields bias on theoretically important characteristics of organizations. We show that scholars can reduce bias significantly by combining sources, creating what we call a "peak list" compiled from different types of sources. Compared to any single source, our peak list differed less from the population on the thirty-one organizational characteristics including geographical coverage, issues, discursive frames, targets, and organizational demographics such as age, organizational form, and resources. From these analyses, we offer methodological recommendations for making better-informed decisions for constructing representative organizational samples.

Dieter Rucht offers a theoretically and historically informed approach to social movements as a phenomenon of modern societies. He links the analysis of social movements to general theories of society and processes of social change, and combines three basic perspectives: interactionist, constructivist, and process-oriented (ICP-approach).

The rise of social movements in US legal scholarship is a current response to an age-old problem in progressive legal thought: harnessing law for social change while maintaining a distinction between law and politics. This problem erupted in controversy around the civil rights–era concept of legal liberalism defined by activist courts and lawyers pursuing political reform through law. Contemporary legal scholars have responded by building on social science to develop a new concept — movement liberalism — that assigns leadership of transformative change to social movements to preserve conventional roles for courts and lawyers. Movement liberalism aims to achieve the lost promise of progressive reform, while avoiding critiques of legal activism that have divided scholars for a half-century. Yet rather than resolving the law-politics problem, movement liberalism reproduces long-standing debates, carrying forward critical visions of law that it seeks to transcend.

This fully revised and updated edition of Social Movements and Protest Politics provides interdisciplinary perspectives on the sociology of protest movements. It considers major theories and concepts, which are presented in a clear, accessible, and engaging format. The second edition contains new chapters on methods and ethics of social movement research, and legal mobilisation, protest policing and criminal justice activism, including calls to abolish or defund police made at protests during the COVID-19 pandemic. This edition introduces readers to the concept of the ⁰́₈post-protest society⁰́₉ wherein the right to protest is whittled away to near vanishing point, and authorities have considerable legal recourse to ban protests and render the tactics of protest movements ineffective. The book also looks at recent developments and novel social movements, including Black Lives Matter, Extinction Rebellion, Gilets Jaunes, #MeToo, and Hong Kong⁰́₉s Umbrella Movement, as well as the rise of contemporary forms of populism in democratic societies. The book presents specific chapters outlining the early origins of social movement studies and more recent theoretical and conceptual developments. It considers key ideas from resource mobilisation theory, the political process model, and new social movement approaches. It provides extensive commentary on the role of culture in social protest (including visual images, emotions, storytelling, music, and sport), religious movements, geography and struggles over space, media and movements, and global activism. Historical and contemporary case studies and examples from a variety of countries are provided throughout, including the American civil rights movement, Greenpeace, Pussy Riot, Indigenous peoples⁰́₉ movements, liberation theology, Indignados, Occupy, Tea Party, and Arab Spring. Each chapter also contains illustrations and boxed case studies to demonstrate the issues under discussion. Social Movements and Protest Politics will be an indispensable resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students in the social sciences and humanities wanting to be introduced to or extend their knowledge of the field. The book will also prove useful to university teachers and academic researchers, activists, and practitioners interested in the study of social, cultural, and political protest.

Machine generated contents note: Introduction: 1. The consequences of social movements: taking stock and looking forward Lorenzo Bosi, Marco Giugni and Katrin Uba; Part I. People: 2. All is not lost: the 1984-85 British miners' strike and mobilization after defeat Karen Beckwith; 3. Personal effects from far-right activism? Kathleen M. Blee; 4. The biographical impact of participation in social movement activities: beyond highly committed new left activism Marco Giugni and Maria Grasso; 5. Examining the intergenerational outcomes of social movements: the case of feminist activists and their children Camille Masclet; 6. Aggregate level biographical outcomes for gay and lesbian movements Nancy Whittier; Part II. Policies: 7. Protest against school closures in Sweden: accepted by politicians? Katrin Uba; 8. Feminist mobilization and the politics of rights Joseph E. Luders; 9. Reputation, risk, and anti-corporate activism: how social movements influence corporate outcomes Brayden G. King; 10. Tactical competition and movement outcomes on markets: the rise of ethical fashion Philip Balsiger; Part III. Institutions: 11. The impact of social movements on political parties Daniela R. Piccio; 12. Watershed events and changes in public order management systems: organizational adaptation as a social movement outcome Mattias Wahlström; 13. The institutionalisation processes of a neo-Nazi movement party: securing social movement outcomes Abby Peterson; 14. Incorporation and democratization: the long-term process of institutionalization of the Northern Ireland civil rights movement Lorenzo Bosi; Conclusion: 15. Protest online: theorizing the consequences of online engagement Jennifer Earl