Establishing shelters for battered women: Local manifestations of a social movement

This paper analyzes how decentralized social movements manifest themselves on the local level, by studying twenty-five social movement organizations within the battered women's movement. Data consist of in-depth interviews with group members, the study focuses on six issues faced by the groups: how they recognized the need in their communities for alternative services for battered women; how they enlisted community support; how they defined themselves in terms of feminism and the participation of men, how they developed a working relationship with the battered women whom they wanted to help; how they structured their organizations; and how they established goals and strategies. Since the groups were at different stages of development, a dynamic analysis is made of each issue. Groups dealt with the issues on the basis of local resources, values, and other conditions. The movement's structure allowed this independence, which strengthened each group's ability to mobilize resources and accomplish goals. However, it also resulted in local decisions that were often inconsistent with movement goals and weakened the ability of movement leaders to control strategy.The author is grateful to Barrie Thorne, Kathleen Ferraro, the editors and two anonymous reviewers of QUALITATIVE SOCIOLOGY for their extensive reviews of earlier drafts of this paper. Support for writing the paper was provided by a summer fellowship from the Faculty Research Committee of the University of Richmond.     

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS AND THE IRISH QUESTION:

This article builds on theoretical work in the social movements literature that uses "master frames" (Snow and Benford 1992) to account for the cyclical clustering of social movement activity within certain historical periods. I identify "master frame alignment" as the dynamic process by which social movement actors rhetorically transform the master frames within a cycle of protest to make them resonate more clearly with a movement's unique social and historical situation. Just as frame alignment processes serve to link a movement organization's activities, goals, and ideology with those of a potential group of adherents, master frame alignment processes link the activities, goals, and ideology of a movement organization with those espoused within the broader symbolic atmosphere of the social movement. I present historical data from Irish newspapers and political documents to show how the Irish Sinn Féin movement, seeking self-determination during the early twentieth century, rhetorically reconstructed the master frames generated by the League of Nations in order to better exploit this particular window of political opportunity.     

Decisions to Make a Difference: The Role of Efficacy in Moderate Student Activism

Radical student protest has declined in the USA since the 1960s, but less militant forms of campus activism have continued to be a substantial part of larger social movement efforts. However, little research examines participation by today's youth in these moderate campus-based social movement organizations. This study addresses our lack of knowledge about less sensational forms of student activism with fieldwork and semi-structured interviews that illuminate the reasons for undergraduate participation in a student-led environmental group. The data show how school and employment considerations, career goals and social networks influence student decisions to join the organization. Moreover, the findings demonstrate the importance of organizational outcomes to participatory decisions. Students were led to actively participate according to their determination of the social movement organization's ability to achieve tangible goals and the perceived necessity of their contribution.     

PARTICIPANT NARRATIVES AND COLLECTIVE IDENTITY IN A METAPHYSICAL MOVEMENT

In this article we explore social movement solidarity through an examination of narratives offered by participants in a metaphysical movement. Drawing from contemporary social movement theory, we focus on how members develop a carefully built collective identity that perpetuates movement goals and ideology. Data for this project are drawn from in-depth interviews with local psychics, participant observation in various metaphysical fairs, and document analysis. We find that the movement's collective identity is centered around several narratives that help establish boundaries, identify antagonists, and create a collective consciousness. Together these narratives form a web of belief that binds members to the movement. The data we present in this article have implications for understanding other expressive movements, as well as for social movement theory in general.     

The Environmental Movement and the Left: Antagonists or Allies?

This paper examines the potential impact of the Left on the goals, issues, strategies, and constituencies of the contemporary environmental movement, Contrasting the earlier disparagement of the movement by the Left with increased Leftist attraction to the mature movement, it is argued that the Left could contribute a theoretical context for environmental issues and influence segments of the environmental movement through an emphasis on protest strategies and the differential economic impacts of environmental problems.     

On Movement Frames and Negotiated Identities: The Case of Poland's First Solidarity Congress

How do participants in a social movement come to agree on goals and strategies? Recent scholarship has moved in two theoretical directions. Some writers focus on movement leaders and their efforts to excite and attract potential supporters by formulating a vision that conveys optimism and moral outrage, yet is congruent with long-standing popular beliefs. Other writers focus far less on leaders and their frames and insist, instead, that movements are organizationally decentralized and typically lack consensus on goals and strategies. From this second perspective, programs are best seen as the byproducts of ongoing clashes and messy negotiations between a myriad of local activists with different beliefs, diverse values, and frequently divergent interests. Using the First Solidarity Congress as a historical case study, this article argues for the utility of combining both approaches – one that focuses on leaders’ ongoing efforts to build consensus around a seemingly effective frame, and the other that stresses the extent of intra-movement discord and the decentralized nature of movement organizations.     

Social Networks and Sustained Activism in Local NIMBY Campaigns

This paper compares six NIMBY (not-in-my-backyard) movement organizations to explain why some of these social movement organizations expanded their goals while others did not. Analysis of interview and survey (N = 113) data reveals that friendship networks within the movement foster goal expansion (in part because people want to preserve the context for these friendships). External local political networks promoting their own rhetorical and resource agendas will inhibit goal expansion if they establish trusted links to the NIMBY organizations.     

Tax-funded unionism III: Front organizations

This article shows that unions are deeply involved in nonprofit organizations which ostensibly pursue such goals as helping the elderly and protecting consumers, but a major goal of these organizations is to obtain taxpayer funds for union organizing and other activities. The senior citizens’ political movement, for example, is controlled by union officials who use the movement to further union objectives. The authors gratefully acknowledge research support provided by the John M. Olin Foundation, the J.M. Foundation, the Sarah Scaife Foundation, and the Earhart Foundation.     

Symposium on political communication and social movements: audience,persuasion, and influence

ABSTRACT

This article argues that an important contribution that political communication can offer social movement studies is a more variegated understanding of social movement audiences and their role in social movement strategy and processes. Specifically, the article introduces a coarse typology of social movement audiences and discusses the importance of understanding differences in the goals of these audiences and what kinds of influence, from messaging or other forms of pressure, may be important to affect different audiences in movements’ favors. The article also examines the ways in which audiences are active, shaping what messages they are exposed to, consume, believe, and act upon. The call of the article is to bring a concern for audiences into social movement studies in the hopes of wedding these more media and communication-focused concerns with the kinds of structural and material influences social movement studies is so accomplished in investigating.     

The Interaction of Grievances and Structures in Social Movement Analysis: The Case of JUST*

Drawing upon insights from the social movement literature as well as leadership experience in a successful social movement organization, this paper suggests aspects of a framework for integrating traditional and contemporary approaches. The case history of JUST (Johnstowners United to Stop anoiuci Tragedy) is used to illustrate the interaction of grievances and structures in the career of a social movement organization. In addition to helping fill a lacuna in the literature on the internal dynamics of such organizations, this analysis also demonstrates the importance of the nature of the grievance as well as the target group's structural entrenchment. The paper focuses upon a relatively anomalous case for U.S. social movement organizations: an SMO which was successful despite displacement goals. The final section of the paper includes a summary diagram of the factors involved in JUSTs successful protest effort as well as broader generalizations suggesting the conditions under which grievances or infrastructures are more salient in explaining social movement phenomena.     

The Dual Strategy and Gender Policies of the Women's Movement in Korea: Family Headship System Repeal through Strategic Innovation

Abstract

Social movements sometimes successfully attain their goals by implementing policies and laws that represent their claims. Movement leaders raise issues susceptible to enactment as policies or laws, exploit legally and institutionally assured resources, and even participate at times in governmental policymaking and parliamentary lawmaking processes. This engagement strategy maximizes a movement's power to achieve its goals only when it is combined with the conventional activities of mobilizing collective action and forming dense networks across movement organizations to pressure the state. Based on the case study of Korean women's movements and their efforts to abrogate the patrilineal succession of family headship, I argue that movement activists' strategic innovation of blending “institutional politics” with conventional “movement politics”—that is, pursuing a dual strategy (Cohen and Arato 1992) and evolving into “movement institutionalization”—is critical to accomplishing gender policies and laws that, at least institutionally and legally, ensure gender equality.     

Clothing and social movements: Tibet and the politics of dress

The ‘cultural turn’ in social movement studies has brought a renewed outlook on new social movements and lifestyle movements. In this development on the symbolic challenge of contemporary movements, research has expanded to both music and art. However, little is known about the role of clothing in movements and how activists use it for social change. In making the case for a greater consideration of clothing’s tactical use in identity work, this paper explores the case of the Tibetan Lhakar movement. I argue that for Lhakar activists, clothing is the materialization of the political consciousness of the movement and symbolically acts as a mechanism of communication in shaping its political goals. By using social media to observe individualized collective actions of wearing Tibetan clothing, the paper demonstrates how activists frame and create new political opportunity structures for civic participation in a one party state that controls all speech and movement.     

The current status and future of centers for independent living in Korea

In Korea the independent living movement has made great strides since the late 1990s. This paper describes the current status and future directions of Centers for Independent Living (CIL) in Korea. This paper discusses the following. First, the demographic and historical perspectives of disabilities are described for context. Second, the disability movement and the independent living movement are described. The current status and operations of CIL are then explored in detail. Finally, the current issues and future directions of CIL are discussed. To facilitate independence among disabled people several critical tasks must be addressed: the establishment of relevant laws, the development of various funding sources, unification of the two associations for CIL, the development of the capacity of CIL staff and the establishment of an international network for sharing information and experiences. Achieving the goals listed above will advance the Korean independent living movement and, therefore, the international independent living movement.     

The Benefits of Frame Resonance Disputes for Transnational Movements: The Case of Botswana's Central Kalahari Game Reserve

Internal rifts over framing and tactics often hinder groups from mobilizing the degree of support and resources necessary to achieve their stated goals. As a result of disparities in political culture and ideology, the existence of such rifts may be especially frequent and disabling for forms of transnational collective action. However, using the case of the transnational movement lobbying on behalf of Botswana's minority groups, particularly the indigenous San, this paper argues that frame resonance disputes can sometimes facilitate the achievement of a movement's immediate goals. This is for two main reasons. First, by appealing to different audiences, the movement can gain complementary and reinforcing forms of legitimacy and support. Second, states and their societies may possess different points of vulnerability, which can be more effectively targeted through the simultaneous use of multiple frames. By helping minority groups receive legal entitlement to their ancestral lands and opening a debate about the nature of Botswana's democracy, the transnational movement campaigning for the return of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve underscores the benefits of frame resonance disputes.     

The Bitter End: Emotions at a Movement's Conclusion

In Chile, not long after Pinochet stepped down, many shantytown women who had fought hard in the pro‐democracy movement felt very bitter. What explains this despondence, despite the positive outcome of their movement? This article addresses a question the social movement literature neglects: the question of how people feel when a movement ends. In doing so, it contributes to the literatures on movement decline and emotions in movements. I use ethnographic data from a year's fieldwork in Chile to suggest that at the end of a movement, even when it has succeeded in terms of achieving its goals, activists can feel disillusioned, disconnected, and abandoned.     

Framing Feminism: News Coverage of the Women's Movement in British and American Newspapers, 1968–1982

This article analyses the framing in four British and American newspapers of the second-wave feminist movement during its most politically active period (1968–1982). Using content and critical discourse analysis of 555 news articles, the article investigates how movement members were represented, what problems and solutions to women's oppression/inequality were posed and whose voices were used. This paper identifies: opposition to the movement, support for the movement, conflict and movement defined in terms of its goals. In addition to exploring nuances in coverage across time and space, we use a feminist perspective to make political statements about how gendered hierarchies function through media discourse, and argue that the circulation of patriarchal and capitalist ideologies worked to prevent women's equal partnership with men in both countries.     

The Impact of Anti‐Gay Politics on the LGBTQ Movement

Since the late 1970s, the Religious Right has mobilized to oppose the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) movement in the United States. Sociologists have studied the relationship between these two movements as a classic movement‐countermovement dynamic, in which the strategies, actions, and framing of one movement impact the other. I analyze the way Religious Right reactive and proactive opposition to gay rights has affected the LGBTQ movement. First, I provide an overview of the literature on the negative impacts of the Religious Right, including the diversion of movement goals, transformation of frames, and marginalization of queer politics. Second, I examine the way Religious Right activism may increase mobilization.     

The lesbian rights movement and feminism in South Korea

The lesbians' rights movement in South Korea has undertaken various projects for solidarity with feminist movement groups for over 10 years. In spite of these efforts, lesbian issues have been blatantly excluded from all the agendas of women's rights. The same thing has happened in Women's Studies. Some feminists express homophobic thoughts without understanding the reality of lesbians, and other young scholars take on a lesbian identity temporarily as a sign of being progressive and liberated; in neither situation are they committed to dealing with the oppression of lesbians or seeing lesbian rights as a feminist concern. In order to further lesbian rights there are two strategies possible: forming a movement only for lesbians or forming solidarity with feminists. In the latter case, a concern about lesbian rights will help achieve the goals of a true feminism as patriarchy is built upon heterosexism. doi:10.1300/J155v10n03_11.     

YOU'VE WON,NOW WHAT? THE INFLUENCE OF LEGAL CHANGE ON GAY AND LESBIAN MOBILIZATION, 1974–1999

Research on movement outcomes primarily examines the conditions under which social movements influence the law. Less attention has been given to the influence that legal change might have on the movement's subsequent development. Does the achievement of legal goals help the movement mobilize or does the movement experience decline once change occurs? Using unique measures of gay and lesbian mobilization, I investigate the influence of legal change on the number of gay and lesbian movement organizations in each state from 1974 to 1999. Results demonstrate that the impact of legal change is contingent on the type of reform achieved and the cultural context surrounding the decision.     

Political Activist As Participant Observer: Conflicts Of Commitment In A Study Of The Draft Resistance Movement Of The 1960's*

In studying the draft resistance movement of the 1960's the author combined sociological observation with active and politically committed participation in the movement. The resulting conflicts of loyalty were rooted in basic characteristics of the movement, and of field research as a way of being in and experiencing the world. There were conflicts between political and research goals in daily decisions about how to allocate time and energy, and in larger choices about whether to take risks and to more fully join the community of fate of the movement. The role of researcher became a retreat, expressing limits to involvement and risk-taking, and providing a point of outside leverage which full participants lacked. The movement's ways of defining and interpreting experience ran counter to the more detached and routihizing perspectives of sociology. Conflicts between being a committed participant and an observing sociologist culminated in a sense of betraying the movement, and raised basic questions about uses, organization, and types of knowledge.