Agenda for Today

1. Agenda for Today • New Social Movements: defined • Examples • Impact of the Internet • Questions about NSMs • Core concepts & the Internet’s effects

2. New social movements • unconventional political behaviour • “Movements…are better defined as collective challenges by people with common purposes and solidarity in sustained interaction with opponents and authorities.” – Tarrow

3. Examples: • environmentalism • gay & lesbian rights • feminism • civil rights movement • peace movement • Solidarity (Poland) • anti-globalization movement

4. Impact of the Internet • NSMs well-positioned to take advantage of Net because of: • outsider status • high information costs • high coordination costs • global diffusion • every aspect of NSMs potentially affected

5. Questions about social movements: • How do social movements emerge? • Why do individuals participate in movements? • How do movements choose their tactics? • What determines the size of the movement? • What affects the success of the movement? • Why do movements collapse or end?

6. Core concepts • Political Opportunity Structures • Frames • Cycles of Protest • Resource Mobilization • Repertoires of Protest

7. Political Opportunity Structures • Protest/resistance more or less difficult at different times. • 3 dimensions: • degree of openness/closure of formal political access • degree of stability or instability of political alignments • availability of potential allies/partners • Internet dramatically changes the P.O.S. especially in repressive regimes • e.g. Indonesia, Philippines

8. Frames • how people understand the meaning of the movement • includes goals, values, identities • part of what recruits people to the movement • hotly contested • Internet disperses control over movement framing • e.g. environmentalist discussion

9. Cycles of Protest • NSMs have a typical life course: • start with clashes between early challengers and authorities • other social actors align with one or the other side • process accelerates: • additional organizations/movements form • methods of protest are diffused • protest widens and becomes more socially encompassing • Internet accelerates the cycles of protest • e.g. MAI

10. Resource Mobilization • success depends ability to mobilize resources via: • professional organizers • political entrepreneurs • financing/funding • Net makes resource moblization both less and more crucial • fewer barriers to entry • e.g. Changing the Climate • greater returns to resource investments

11. Repertoires • forms of protest have to be invented • e.g. sit-ins, marches, culture jamming • different repertoires associated with different movements • Internet has expanded the repertoire with: • e-mail petitions • online sit-ins and marches • hacktivism • e.g. Black Thursday

12. Discussion