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Dieter Rucht sets out a theoretically oriented discussion of social movements. His intent is not to develop a full-blown theory of social movements but rather to establish the sociological theoretical groundwork that can shape a more fruitful approach to understanding social movements, what he terms an "interactionist, constructionist and process-oriented" approach. The result is a wide-ranging discussion through the lens of this approach of the concepts and arguments that have dominated the field of social movements, although with disappointingly little attention to the scholarship that has challenged and reshaped these dominant ideas.

New activist groups brim with big ideas, but the decisions they make quickly constrain which actions and activities are seen as possible.

A year after the publication of my book on women in the contemporary organized racist movement,Inside Organized Racism: Women in the Hate Movement (2002), I received a series of emails from a woman I will call Jenny. The study of racist activists in this book was based in part on my interviews with women in the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazi and white supremacist skinhead groups, and Christian Identity communities. Although Jenny was not among those I had interviewed or even met in the course of the study, she had heard about my book–although not read it, as I later discovered–and contacted me to complain. Jenny insisted that I had inaccurately characterized people in the racist movements as motivated by hatred. In her experience, the movement, at least in the past, had been composed largely of "well-meaning" and "fairminded" people. Only recently had it attracted less savory characters who were just "looking for a home for their hate"—people, Jenny concluded, who were making the racist movement less comfortable for the good people like her.

"White supremacist groups are highly secretive, so their public propaganda tells us little about their operations or the people they attract. To understand the world of organized racism it is necessary to study it from the inside by talking to their members and observing their groups. Doing so reveals a disturbing picture of how fairly ordinary white people learn to embrace the vicious ideas and dangerous agendas of white supremacism.This book takes the reader inside organized racism, revealing the kind of women and men who join groups, such as the Ku Klux Klan or neo-Nazi skinheads, and what they do in those groups. The volume collects significant published works from renowned scholar Kathleen M. Blee's work on racist activism, alongside new essays on the theories, methods, and approaches of studying racist activism. Discussing topics such as emotional issues in research, the place of violence and hate in white supremacism, and how women are involved in racial terrorism, Blee makes use of a range of sources, including oral histories, ethnographic observations, and interviews, to shape her findings.Written by the pioneer and leading scholar of women in racist activism, this volume is essential reading for students, scholars, and general readers interested in the areas of social movements, politics, race studies, and American history."--Provided by publisher.

Scholars of white supremacism adopted the framework of social movement research later and less completely than did scholars of progressive movements. Although the shift to considering racist groups as a social movement had many analytic benefits, it also nudged analysis away from some of the most central aspects of white supremacism. This article suggests how social movement research and scholarship on organized racism can benefit from a more reflective engagement with each other.