The Exclusiveness of the Political Field: Networks and political mobilization

This paper applies social network analysis to three case study social movement organizations based in the north of England: a local Labour Party branch, an environmental group, and a conservation group. Using a postal survey of members, we chart the extent of ties between members of these three groups, indicating how each group has its own internal social dynamics and characteristics that are related to the nature of the movement organizations themselves. We explore how the network structures interrelate with the socio-demographic structure of the membership of the three organizations, and we show there are important differences in the way that core members of the three organizations are recruited compared to those who are either peripheral or isolated. Our paper is the first to analyse the networks of whole populations of case study organizations in the UK, and can therefore be read as developing the potential of social network analysis for case study research and for understanding social movements. Analytically we argue it is important to distinguish two different types of ways that networks are important. They can be seen as offering resources for mobilization, or they can be seen as providing a means of integrating particular types of individuals into organizations. It is this latter sense that offers a more fundamental role for network analysis, and we argue that it offers an important way of developing insights from resource mobilization theory by relating them to Bourdieu's provocative arguments regarding the exclusiveness of the political field.     

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.     

Charting the Course: An Overview of Domestic Violence in the South Asian Community in the United States

In the South Asian community in the United States, domestic violence is a prevalent problem of significant magnitude. Although the community stridently denies the existence of this horror, women have been systematically organizing antiviolenceagainst- women work for the last 15 yearsAt this time, it is a vibrant movement struggling with several complex issues that are perhaps less common in thedominant white community. As in the lives of immigrant women of color, much of the intricacies of domestic violencein the South Asian context emerge from the intersections of race, class, andsresidencystatus problems. Consequently, a slew of personal, institutional, and cultural barriers commingle to form roadblocks for battered South Asian women, who attempt to escape family violence. As the needs of battered South Asian first and second generation women enlarge and become more perceptible, the community-based organizations have to ready themselves for more complicated activities in the future.     

Charting the Course: An Overview of Domestic Violence in the South Asian Community in the United States

In the South Asian community in the United States, domestic violence is a prevalent problem of significant magnitude. Although the community stridently denies the existence of this horror, women have been systematically organizing antiviolence-against-women work for the last 15 years. At this time, it is a vibrant movement struggling with several complex issues that are perhaps less common in the dominant white community. As in the lives of immigrant women of color, much of the intricacies of domestic violence in the South Asian context emerge from the intersections of race, class, and residency status problems. Consequently, a slew of personal, institutional, and cultural barriers commingle to form roadblocks for battered South Asian women, who attempt to escape family violence. As the needs of battered South Asian first and second generation women enlarge and become more perceptible, the community-based organizations have to ready themselves for more complicated activities in the future.     

Cultural Preservation of the Sea Island Gullah: A Black Social Movement in the Post-Civil Rights Era

Abstract Historians have long noted the existence of many rural Souths in lieu of the single rural monolith noted by Cash. Analysis, then, must be done on local and not solely on regional issues. Morris (1984) chronicled the emergence of the Civil Rights Movement. His thesis is that indigenous community groups were linked together by black church leadership and were recruited by national movement organizations (e.g., NAACP, SCLC). The thesis of this article is that after the Civil Rights Movement, small black social movements emerged to address issues in local areas. These new, emerging social movement organizations differed with the Civil Rights Movement in terms of leadership, formalization, goals, and tactics. We treat the emergence of the Sea Island Gullah in South Carolina and Georgia as an example of one such movement. From Reconstruction to the Depression, the descendents of slaves lived in isolated settlements on the remote sea islands. During this time, they reestablished a culture with authentic African components and developed mechanisms to transmit the culture to other islands. By the late 1970s, the land base for the culture (small farming and fishing) was threatened by land developers. A social movement organization was formed by movement entrepreneurs with the help of white and black volunteers. This movement has aided small farmers who have lost their land to tax reassessments. It has also sought to reestablish agriculture in the Sea Islands and promote the Gullah culture.     

Constructing identity and oppositional knowledge: The framing practices of peace movement organizations during the Persian gulf war

Social movement organizations (SMOs) engage in the formation of public policy and social beliefs by framing issues and events for the public. These framing activities may offer an alternative source of knowledge and challenge status quo definitions of important social issues. Analyzing the statements and press releases of four peace movement organizations during the seven months of military escalation and war in the Persian Gulf in 1990 and 1991, this article explores the structure and content of social movement framing of a specific event. Findings suggest that the shape and content of the frames used by these SMOs are rooted in a complex amalgamation of each organization's historical and public identity, intended audiences, and contemporary motivations and organizational goals. The collective identity of an organization influences the shape and content of the organization's framing activities. The organizations studied made use of their specific structural and organizational strengths as part of a credentialing process, wherein they shaped their oppositional voices so they could be heard and accepted by specific audiences. This was in turn a matter of the organization's historical practice, the ways it presented that history, and how it constructed its con temporary collective identity (e.g., as Quakers or as Catholic peacemakers). All of this is done with a view toward claiming a voice in the public debate, a voice that may help the SMO create oppositional bases of knowledge, influence public policy, sustain and embolden members, and establish a historical record of opposition.     

Safety for battered women in a textually mediated legal system 1

This paper proposes a shift in legal advocacy approaches employed by activists in the US battered women's movement that would take into account how the work of criminal justice professionals (police officers, probation officers, judges, and prosecutors) is organized. While judicial procedures may be more successful in bringing domestic abusers to justice than in the past, they are less successful in producing safety for the victims of abusers. Using institution ethnography as a research strategy, I explore aspects of how the work of practitioners in the police and court system is organized in ways that are not observable to activists working with the victims of abuse. An important aspect of the institutional process are its texts. Texts, as they are produced and processed in people's work settings, coordinate and regulate the different phases of practitioners’ work. In these work processes, organized and limited by formalized texts, women's experience of violence and intimidation is erased and issues of their safety disappear. In conclusion, I propose a method of engaging criminal justice professionals and community advocates in an investigation of local criminal justice settings with the intent of making changes in practices which fail to attend to the safety needs of women who are battered.     

The Organizational Demography of Japanese Environmentalism*

Although a macro‐organizational perspective has become increasingly commonplace in social movement analyses, few studies examine the full spectrum of organizations in any single social movement industry (SMI). Utilizing a unique source of data on Japanese environmental movement organizations, we compare characteristics of groups focused primarily on environmental issues with those for whom environmental issues are part of a larger multi‐issue focus. We then profile across distinct, and theoretically important, organizational domains to assess how local, prefectural and national groups compare on a variety of organizational attributes, including: size, membership type, tactics and activities, and issues. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for understanding both Japanese environmentalism and the structure of SMIs generally.     

How Local Social Movement Groups Handle a Presidential Election

How do local social movement groups respond to national electoral politics? Previous studies, often based on aggregated data on public protests, focus on the effects of elections on established social movement organizations (SMOs). Some find that SMOs flourish during election years, taking advantage of the political opportunities that elections pose. Others conclude that elections hurt SMOs, siphoning members and resources. Using ethnographic, in-depth interview, and document data on new and emerging social movement groups (SMGs) in Pittsburgh for 20 months before and after the 2004 U.S. presidential election, we examine how members think about elections and whether and how groups decide to respond to national electoral campaigns. We find that SMGs vary considerably in the strategies of action or inaction they adopt, depending on their changing sense of whether the election poses an opportunity or a threat to the group and that these strategies of action are patterned in path-dependent sequences. We conclude with a discussion of the possibilities for integrating concepts of path-dependency and timing into social movement research.     

FRAMING THE ABORTION DEBARTE: Organizational Resources, Media Strategies, and Movement-Countermovement Dynamics

This study examines how ideologically opposed social movement organizations, the National Organization for Women (NOW) and Concerned Women for America (CWA), get media coverage during critical moments of the abortion debate. I analyze how organizational structure and identitate or constrain a social movement organization's ability to get mainstream media coverage. Specifically, I use the social movement framing literature to analyze how the organizations strategically construct media frames and packages in response to opposition, the tactics they use to get media coverage, and the relative success of each organization's efforts in mass media outlets. The analysis suggests that an organization's media strategy matters, but that organizational structure and organizational identity color these strategies.
One of the best ways to develop press relations is to know how a particular newspaper or broadcast station operates. Make friends with reporters or newscasters who are sympathetic to the issues. They can be strong allies. Remember, publicity means "information with news value" issued as a means of gaining public attention. recognition, understanding or support for a person, an organization, an institution or a cause.
National Organization for Women Records (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University)
Conservative groups did not understand media or its importance then [ten years ago] as much as they do now. [Now they understand that] media is the name of the game and whoever frames the issue wins the argument. Communications Director for Concerned Women for America     

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.     

COUNSELING BATTERED WOMEN FROM FUNDAMENTALIST CHURCHES*

In addition to the emotional, physical, and economic issues that all abused women face, battered women from fundamentalist churches have religious issues that need to be addressed. While therapists usually leave discussion of such matters to the clergy, in the case of domestic violence, the fundamentalist clergy is likely to be unsupportive or to even unknowingly endanger battered women because of their legalistic attitudes about marriage and sex roles. It is, thus, imperative that the professional counselor understand these issues and be willing to discuss them. This article explains five teachings of fundamentalist churches, explores how they help perpetuate violent relationships, and offers suggestions to therapists on how to speak with clients about these issues.     

Thinking about "culture": some programme pointers

This article exhorts development workers to develop an understanding of their own cultural heritage in order to understand how cultural subjectivity influences their work. While not endorsing "cultural relativism," the authors stress that women must work within their own cultures to develop empowerment and combat culturally legitimized practices which are harmful to women. Cultural constructs must be examined in order to understand such issues as the Northern tendency to encourage personal individualism and the Southern tendency to organize along communal lines. Gender identity is also a social construction which calls for a consideration of each situation (or harmful practice) as uniquely based in a given cultural context. General agreement exists, however, that in order to tackle gender oppression, women must be empowered and their status must be improved. Thus development initiatives should support longterm investment in research and programs, illiteracy rates must be decreased, and educational opportunities must be sought in every program. Women's groups must link up to share resources with each other and with traditional nongovernmental organizations. Governments should 1) integrate a gender component into every Ministry; 2) emphasize literacy for girls and women; 3) support local women's initiatives; 4) provide gender-sensitive training for professionals in critical fields; 5) increase attention to the needs of young women; and 6) offer more women visible official posts in public service.     

Hide and don’t seek: analyzing strategies for concealing organizations and their members

Although the contemporary landscape is filled with organizations promoting their identity to various audiences, we know very little about how a different set of collectives purposely conceal themselves (e.g., anonymous support groups, secret societies, covert military units, terrorist organizations). In this study, we qualitatively analyzed concealment strategies used by 12 hidden organizations as they attempt to hide themselves and their members to achieve various goals. We found both organizations and their members use a variety of communicative strategies to conceal themselves, which we label administrative, partial concealment, complete concealment, deception, moving target (organization only), and membership exit (individual member only). These findings have implications for hidden organizations and those who wish to reveal them; furthermore, they add to our understanding of the role of communication in concealing and revealing organizational identity.     

“I Help the Ones that Want Help”: Emotion Work and the Victim Advocate Role

Using data gathered from participant observation and 32 individual in-depth interviews, this study examines how victim advocates achieve emotion management in their work with battered women. This research reveals that victim advocates often experience difficulty coping with occupational stress via daily “deep acting” strategies as they work to change their understandings of battered women and the advocate role from the “inside out.” The data reveal that the core of their ability to cope requires victim advocates to redefine their perceived role from “savior” to “options giver” to more accurately define their role interactions with battered women.     

"Victims" and "Survivors": Emerging Vocabularies of Motive for "Battered Women Who Stay"*

This paper reviews the literature providing reasons for why battered women "stay" in abusive relationships and examines the emergence of images of battered women as "survivors" in early and contemporary activists' discourses, drawing on ideas from social constructionist approaches to social problems, identity, and deviance to explore this phenomenon. Most of the early representations of battered women I analyze emphasize their emotionality and their victimization, while the more recent constructions of this collective identity discussed here emphasize their rationality and their agency. Both "victim" and "survivor" typifications provide accounts for why battered women stay in violent relationships, thus providing a vocabulary of motive for this oft-imputed "deviance." Constructing battered women as survivors, however, may also remediate some of the stigma that can attach to victimization more generally. After situating victim and survivor discourses and considering how the image of a survivor may meet normative expectations that a victim image perhaps violates, I briefly discuss some implications of these alternate collective identities.     

Organizational Responsibility for Age-Friendly Social Participation: Views of Australian Rural Community Stakeholders

This qualitative study critically explores the barriers experienced by diverse rural community stakeholders in facilitating environments that enable age-friendly social participation. Twenty-six semi-structured interviews were conducted across two rural Australian communities with stakeholders from local government, health, social care, and community organizations. Findings identify that rural community stakeholders face significant difficulties in securing resources for groups and activities catering to older adults, which subsequently impacts their capacity to undertake outreach to older adults. However, in discussing these issues, questions were raised in relation to whose responsibility it is to provide resources for community groups and organizations providing social initiatives and whose responsibility it is to engage isolated seniors. These findings provide a much-needed critical perspective on current age-friendly research by acknowledging the responsibilities of various macro-level social structures—different community-level organizations, local government, and policy in fostering environments to enable participation of diverse rural older adults.     

Organizational identity,political contexts,and SMO action: Explaining the tactical choices made by peace organizations in Israel,Northern Ireland,and South Africa

Students of social movements have long been interested in the question of why social movement organizations (SMOs) employ the tactics that they do. This paper explores this question by examining twenty-seven SMOs engaged in peace and conflict resolution in Israel, Northern Ireland, and South Africa. While the investigation reveals that SMOs across the sample employed an eclectic mix of tactics to pursue their goals, both cross-region and within-region variations in SMOs' tactical behavior are identified. The paper argues that cross-region variations in tactical behavior are best explained by the political contexts of each region and demonstrates that SMOs' organizational identities best account for within-region variations. Overall, the analysis supports scholars' claims that organizational identities ultimately drive the goals that SMOs pursue, the mix of tactics they emphasize, the degree to which they change their tactics over time, and, most importantly, the extent to which they are willing to engage in extra-institutional modes of action (protest, civil disobedience, violence).     

East German Feminists in the New German Democracy

Abstract

This article describes the contemporary women's movement in eastern Germany and assesses its ability to adapt to the political opportunity structure of post-unification Germany. The configuration of feminist groups is categorized into three distinct components, and the success of each component in adapting its political goals and strategies to the new political system is analyzed. Successful adaptation is found to be determined in part by the structure of opportunities, which favors local-level “non-political” social organizations over explicitly political groups and in part by the differing abilities and willingness of movement activists within each of the three segments to identify and seize new opportunities.