Study of Political Mobilization and Social Movements

Ondej Csa
Fall 2016
Goals:
The goal of the course is to introduce students to the study of social movements, interest
groups, civil society, political mobilization, and protest. Its main objective is to provide
students with theoretical concepts and methodological tools for their independent research.

Requirements:
1. Students are expected to read the required reading(s) for each seminar. If there are two
or three required readings rather than one, students are expected to read all of them. The
optional reading is only for those who have special interest in the topic.
2. Students are encouraged to actively participate in the seminars by posing questions of
clarification or bringing up problems for discussion.
3. Students are expected to write five short position papers (300-600 words each) on five
different seminar topics. The papers should include a summary of the main points of the
required reading(s), a critique of these readings, questions of clarification, and possible
questions for discussion.
To enable the organization of the in-class discussion, papers must have two clearly identified
sections:
1) A summary section entitled "Summary";
2) a critique section entitled "My Comments and Questions".
Papers that do not have this structure and contain different points scattered throughout the text
will be rejected and will not count towards the students grade. The position papers should be
submitted no later than 1 p. m. of the day before the seminar for which the paper is
written.
4. Each class will be open by a student presentation. It should be focused on the topic of a
respective class. The goal is not to summarize readings, but to bring up problems for
discussion. If you opt for a presentation, you can write only four short papers.
5. At the end of the semester students should submit a 10-page long final paper on a topic
relevant to the course.

Course Syllabus
** - required reading
* - optional reading
1. Introductory Class (4. 10.)
2. Activism, Interest Groups, Social Movements and Protest in the View of Four
Research Traditions (11. 10.)
** Rucht, Dieter. 2007. The Spread of Protest Politics. In The Oxford Handbook of
Political Behavior, eds. Russell Dalton a Hans-Dieter Klingemann. Oxford University
Press, 708723.
** Csa Ondej. 2015. Social Movements in Political Science. In Oxford Handbook of
Social Movements, eds. Donatella della Porta & Mario Diani. Oxford University Press,
5067.
** Bennett, Lance. 2005. Social Movements beyond Borders: Understanding Two Eras
of Transnational Activism. In Transnational Protest and Global Activism, eds. Donatella
della Porta and Sidney Tarrow. Lanham, Boulder, New York, Oxford: Rowman and
Littlefield Publishers, 208226.
* Norris, Pippa. 2002. Democratic Phoenix: Reinventing Political Activism. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 188-212.
* Walker, Jack. 1986. The Origins and Maintenance of Interest Groups in America. The
American Political Science Review 77, 2, 390-406.
* Meyer, David and Sidney Tarrow. 1998. A Movement Society: Contentious Politics for a
New Century. In The Social Movement Society, eds. David Meyer and Sidney Tarrow.
Lanham, Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield, 1-28.
* Maloney, William, Grant Jordan, and Emma Clarence. 2007. Democracy and Interest
Groups: Enhancing Participation? Palgrave Macmillan.
I. SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
3. Political Opportunities and Resources (18. 10.)
** Kriesi, Hanspeter. 2004. Political Context and Opportunity. In The Blackwell
Companion to Social Movements, eds. David Snow, Sarah Soule and Hanspeter Kriesi.
Malden, Oxford, Carlton: Blackwell Publishing, 6790.
** Tarrow, Sidney. 2011. Power in Movement: Social Movements and Contentious Politic,
3rd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 195214.

** Edwards, Bob and John McCarthy. 2004. Resources and Social Movement
Mobilization. In The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements, eds. David Snow,
Sarah Soule and Hanspeter Kriesi. Malden, Oxford, Carlton: Blackwell Publishing, 116
152.
* Jenkins, Craig J. 1983. Resource Mobilization Theory and the Study of Social
Movements. Annual Review of Sociology 9: 527-553.
* Zald, Mayer. 1992. Looking Backward to Look Forward: Reflections on the Past and
Future of the Resource Mobilization Program. In Frontiers in Social Movement Theory, eds.
Aldon Morris a Carol McClurg Mueller. New Heaven: Yale University Press, 326-348.
* Kriesi, Hanspeter, Ruud Koopmans, Jan Willem Duyvendak, and Marco Giugni. 1995. New
Social Movements in Western Europe. A Comparative Analysis. London: UCL Press.
* Meyer, David. 2004. Protest and Political Opportunities. Annual Review of Sociology, 30:
125145.
* Della Porta, Donatella a Mario Diani. 2006. Social Movements. An Introduction. Malden,
Oxford: Blackwell.
* Kurzman, Charles. 1996. Structural Opportunity and Perceived Opportunity in Social
Movement Theory: The Iranian Revolution of 1979. American Sociological Review, 61: 153170.
* Csa, Ondej and Kateina Vrblkov. 2010. The Europeanization of Social Movements
in the Czech Republic: The EU and Local Womens Groups. Communist and PostCommunist Studies 43(2): 209-219.
4. Cultural Dimensions of Social Movements (25. 10.)
** Williams, Rhys. 2004. The Cultural Contexts of Collective Action: Constraints,
Opportunities, and Symbolic Life of Social Movements. In The Blackwell Companion to
Social Movements, eds. David Snow, Sarah Soule and Hanspeter Kriesi. Malden, Oxford,
Carlton: Blackwell Publishing, 91115.
** Tarrow, Sidney. 2011. Power in Movement: Social Movements and Contentious Politic,
3rd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 140156.
** Snow, David, Rochford Jr., Burke, Worden, Steven and Robert Benford. 1986.
Frame Alignment Processes, Micromobilization, and Movement Participation.
American Sociological Review 51(4): 464481.
* BenfordRobertD.andDavidSnow.2000.FramingProcessesandSocialMovements:An
OverviewandAssessment.AnnualReviewofSociology26:611639.
* Koopmans, Ruud a Paul Statham. 1999. Ethnic and Civic Conceptions of Nationhood and
the Differential Success of the Extreme Right in Germany and Italy. In How Social
Movements Matter, eds. Marco Giugni, Doug McAdam and Charles Tilly. Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 225-252.
* Steinberg, Marc. 1998. Tilting the Frame: Considerations on Collective Action Framing
from a Discursive Turn. Theory and Society 27(6): 845-872.
3

* Steinberg, Marc. 1999. The Talk and Back Talk of Collective Action: A Dialogic Analysis
of Repertoires of Discourse among Nineteenth-Century English Cotton Spinners. American
Journal of Sociology 105(3): 736-780.
* Spillman, Lyn. 1995. Culture, Social Structures, and Discursive Fields. Current
Perspectives in Social Theory 15: 129-154.
Csa, Ondej. 2003. The Transnationalisation of Political Conflict: Beyond Rationalism
and Constructivism. Journal of International Relations and Development, 6, 1, 6-22.
*

II. POLITICAL ECONOMY OF PROTEST

5. Bringing Capitalism Back In? (1. 11.)
** Hetland, Gabriel and Jeff Goodwin. 2013. The Strange Disappearance of Capitalism
from Social Movement Studies. In Marxism and Social Movements, eds. Colin Barker,
Laurence Cox, John Krinsky and Alf Gunvald Nilsen. Leiden: Brill, 83102.
** Wallerstein, Immanuel. 2003. Decline of American Power: The U.S. in a Chaotic
World. New York: New Press, 249272.
* Della Porta, Donatella. 2015. Social Movements in Times of Austerity: Bringing Capitalism
Back Into Protest Analysis. Polity Press.
* Bermeo, Nancy and Larry M. Bartels, eds. 2014. Mass Politics in Tough Times: Opinions,
Votes, and Protest in the great Recession. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
* Wallerstein, Immanuel. 2004. World-Systems Analysis. An Introduction. Durham and
London: Duke University Press.
* Laclau, Ernesto and Chantal Mouffe. 1985. Hegemony and Socialist Strategy. London and
New York: Verso.
* Tilly, Charles. 1978. From Mobilization to Revolution. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
* Piven, Frances Fox and Richard A. Cloward. 1977. Poor Peoples Movements: Why They
Succeed, How They Fail. New York: Vintage Books/Random House.
* Barker, Colin, Laurence Cox, John Krinsky and Alf Gunvald Nilsen, eds. 2013. Marxism
and Social Movements. Leiden: Brill.
6. New New Social Movements and the Revolt against Globalization (8. 11.)
** Graeber, David. 2002. The New Anarchists. New Left Review 13: 6173.
** Van Stekelenburg, Jacquelien. 2012. The Occupy Movement: Product of This Time.
Development 55(2): 224231.
** Hutter, Swen. 2014. Protesting Culture and Economics in Western Europe.
Minneapolis, London: University of Minnesota Press, 3-24, 63-96.

* Pichardo, Nelson A. 1997. New Social Movements: A Critical Review. Annual Review of
Sociology 23, 411430.
* Csa, Ondej and Martin Koubek. 2012. Include Em All? Culture, Politics and a Local
Hardcore/Punk Scene in the Czech Republic. Poetics: Journal of Empirical Research on
Culture, the Media and the Arts 40(1): 121.
* Habermas, Jrgen. 1995. New Social Movements. In Redclift, M. Woodgate, G. (eds.).
The Sociology of the Environment (Vol. 3). Aldershot: Edward Elgar Publishing, 421-425.
* Melucci, Alberto. 1994. A Strange Kind of Newness: Whats New in New Social
Movements? In Laraa, E. Johnston, H. Gusfield, J. R. (eds.) New Social Movements: From
Ideology to Identity. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 101-130.
* Buechler, Steven. 1995. New Social Movement Theories. The Sociological Quarterly 36:
441-464.
* Csa, Ondej. 2013. Post-Communism and Social Movements. In Encyclopedia of Social
and Political Movements, vol. 3, eds. David Snow, Donatella della Porta, Bert Klandermans
and Doug McAdam. London: Blackwell, 994-999.
III. INTEREST GROUPS AND THEIR NETWORKS
7. Movements and Interest Groups: Masses vs. Professionals? (15. 11.)
** Csa, Ondej. 2013. Interest Groups and Social Movements. In Encyclopedia of
Social and Political Movements, vol. 2, eds. David Snow, Donatella della Porta, Bert
Klandermans and Doug McAdam. London: Blackwell, 616620.
** Skocpol, Theda. 2004. Voice and Inequality: The Transformation of American Civic
Democracy. Perspectives on Politics 2(1): 320.
** Walker, Edward T., John D. McCarthy, Frank Baumgartner. 2011. Replacing
Members with Managers? Mutualism among Membership and Nonmembership
Advocacy Organizations in the United States. American Journal of Sociology 116(4):
12841337.
* Maloney, William A. 2012. The Democratic Contribution of Professionalized
Representation. In New Participatory Dimensions in Civil Society: Professionalization and
Individualized Collective Action, eds. Jan W. van Deth & William A. Maloney. London and
New York: Routledge and ECPR, 84-96.
* Grant, Jordan. 2012. Professionalized Supply-Side Mobilization. Are Financial
Contributors Meaningful Participants? In New Participatory Dimensions in Civil Society:
Professionalization and Individualized Collective Action, eds. Jan W. van Deth & William A.
Maloney. London and New York: Routledge and ECPR, 97-111.
* Jenkins, Craig J. 1998. Channeling Social Protest: Foundation Patronage of Contemporary
Social Movements. In Private Action and the Public Good, eds. Walter W. Powell a
Elisabeth Clemens. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 206-216.

* Beyers, Jan, Rainer Eising and William Maloney. 2008. Researching Interest Group
Politics in Europe and Elsewhere: Much We Study, Little We Know? West European Politics
31(6): 1103-1128.
* Beyers, Jan and Bart Kerremans. 2007. Critical Resource Dependencies and the
Europeanization of Domestic Interest Groups. Journal of European Public Policy 14(3):
460481.
8. Professionalization without Participation? Movements and Interest Groups under
Post-communism (22. 11.)
** Howard, Marc Morje. 2002. Postcommunist Civil Society in Comparative
Perspective. Demokratizatsiya 10(3): 285305.
** Petrova, Tsveta and Sidney Tarrow. 2007. Transactional and Participatory Activism
in the Emerging European Polity: The Puzzle of East Central Europe. Comparative
Political Studies 40(1): 7494.
** Csa, Ondej and Navrtil, Ji. 2015. Promoting Competition or Cooperation? The
Impact of EU Funding on Czech Advocacy Organizations. Democratization 22(3): 536
559.
* Csa, Ondej. 2010. Externally-Sponsored Contention: The Channelling of Environmental
Movement Organisations in the Czech Republic after the Fall of Communism.
Environmental Politics 19(5): 736-755.
* Jacobsson, Kerstin and Steven Saxonberg, eds. 2013. Beyond NGO-ization: The
Development of Social Movements in Central and Eastern Europe. Aldershot: Ashgate
Publishing.
* Csa, Ondej. 2013. The Diffusion of Public Interest Mobilization: A Historical Sociology
View on the Advocates without Members in the Post-Communist Czech Republic. East
European Politics 29(1): 69-82.
* Csa, Ondej and Kateina Vrblkov. 2013. Transnational Activism of Social Movement
Organizations: The Effect of European Union Funding on Local Groups in the Czech
Republic. European Union Politics 14(1): 140160.
* Howard, Marc Morje. 2003. The Weakness of Civil Society in Post-Communist Europe.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
* Ekiert, Grzegorz and Jan Kubik. 2001. Rebellious Civil Society: Popular Protest and
Democratic Consolidation in Poland, 1989-1993. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan
Press, 108-139.
9. Reading Week (29. 11.)

IV. POLITICAL PARTICIPATION + RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES

10. Forms of Political Participation and Democracy (6. 12).
** Dalton, Russel J. 2008. Citizen Politics. Public Opinion and Political Parties in
Advanced Industrial Democracies. Washington, DC: CQ Press, 32-76.
** Stolle, Dietlind and Marc Hooghe. 2011. Shifting Inequalities: Patterns of Exclusion
and Inclusion in Emerging Forms of Political Participation. European Societies 13(1):
119142.
* van Deth, Jan W. 2011. Is Creative Participation Good for Democracy? In Creative
Participation: Responsibility-Taking in the Political World, eds. Michele Micheletti and
Andrew S. McFarland. Boulder, London: Paradigm Publishers, 148-172.
* Maloney, William A., and Jan W. van Deth, eds. 2010. Civil Society and Activism in Europe.
Contextualizing Engagement and Political Orientations. London: Routledge.
* Schlozman, Kay Lehman, Sidney Verba and Henry E. Brady. 2012. The Unheavenly
Chorus: Unequal Political Voice and the Broken Promise of American Democracy. Princeton:
Princeton University Press.
* Verba, Sidney, Kay L. Schlozman, and Henry E. Brady. 1995. Voice and Equality: Civic
Voluntarism in American Politics. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
* Dalton, Russel. 2008. The Good Citizen. How a Younger Generation Is Reshaping
American Politics. Washington, DC: CQ Press.
11. Political Participation, Connective Action and the Internet (13. 12.)
** Bennett, Lance and Alexandra Segerberg. 2012. The Logic of Connective Action.
Information, Communication and Society 15(5): 739768.
** Van Laer, J. and Van Aelst, P. 2010. Internet and Social Movement Action
Repertoires: Opportunities and Limitations. Information, Communication & Society
14(8): 11461171.
** Theocharis, Yannis, Lowe, Will, van Deth, Jan, W. & Garcia-Albacete, Gema. 2015.
Using Twitter to Mobilize Protest Action: Online Mobilization Patterns and Action
Repertoires in the Occupy Wall Street, Indignados and Aganaktismenoi Movements.
Information, Communication & Society 8(2): 202220.
* Bennett, Lance and Alexandra Segerberg. 2013. The Logic of Connective Action: Digital
Media and the Personalization of Contentious Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
* Earl, Jennifer and Katrina Kimport. 2011. Digitally Enabled Social Change: Activism in the
Internet Age. Cambridge: MIT Press.
* Earl, Jennifer et al. 2013. This Protest Will be Tweeted: Twitter and Protest Policing during
the Pittsburgh G20, Information, Communication & Society, 16 (4): 459-478.
* Lievrouw, Leah H. 2011. Alternative and Activist New Media. Cambridge: Polity Press.
7

12. How to Research Social Movements? (20. 12.)

** Della Porta, Donatella. 2014. In-Depth Interviews. In Methodological Practices in
Social Movement Research, ed. Donatella della Porta. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
228261.
** Hutter, Swen. 2014. Protest Event Analysis and Its Offspring. In Methodological
Practices in Social Movement Research, ed. Donatella della Porta. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 335364.
** Van Stekelenburg, Jacquelien, Stefaan Walgrave, Bert Klandermans, and Joris
Verhulst. 2012. Contextualizing Contestation. Framework, Design and Data.
Mobilization 17(3), available as MS.
* Klandermans, Bert and Staggenborg, Suzanne. Eds. 2002. Methods of Social Movement
Research. Minneapolis, London: University of Minnesota Press.
* della Porta, Donatella, ed. 2014. Methodological Practices in Social Movement Research.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
13. Course Wrap-Up