IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/socres/v14y2009i1p26-41.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

It's Not Just Structural: Social Movements are not Homogenous Responses to Structural Features, but Networks shaped by Organisational Strategies and Status

Author

Listed:
  • Clare Saunders

Abstract

Political opportunity structures are often used to explain differences in the characteristics of movements in different countries on the basis of the national polity in which they exist. However, the approach has a number of weaknesses that are outlined in this article. The article especially stresses the fact that such broad-brush approaches to political opportunity structures fail to account for the different characteristics of movement organisations within the same polity. The article therefore recommends using a more fine-tuned approach to political opportunities, taking into account that the strategies and status of organisations affect the real political opportunities they face. This fine-tuned approach is used to predict how the status and strategy of environmental organisations might influence the extent to which different types of environmental organisations in the UK network with one-another. We find that organisations that face an open polity - those with a moderate action repertoire and a constructive relationship with government institutions - tend not to cooperate with those with a radical action repertoire and negative relations with government institutions. On the other hand, those that vary their action repertoires, and which have variable status according to the issues involved or campaign targets, have a much broader range of network links with other types of organisations. Thus, there is much more diversity in types of environmental organisation in the UK than the broad-brush to political opportunity structures would account for. Nonetheless, it does seem that environmental organisations are aware of how their own behaviours might influence (non-structural) political opportunities, and that they mould their strategies and networking patterns around this awareness.

Suggested Citation

  • Clare Saunders, 2009. "It's Not Just Structural: Social Movements are not Homogenous Responses to Structural Features, but Networks shaped by Organisational Strategies and Status," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 14(1), pages 26-41, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:14:y:2009:i:1:p:26-41
    DOI: 10.5153/sro.1856
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.5153/sro.1856
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.5153/sro.1856?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kitschelt, Herbert P., 1986. "Political Opportunity Structures and Political Protest: Anti-Nuclear Movements in Four Democracies," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(1), pages 57-85, January.
    2. Ian Welsh, 2001. "Anti-nuclear Movements: Failed Projects or Heralds of a Direct Action Milieu?," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 6(3), pages 36-50, November.
    3. Alana Lentin, 1999. "Structure, Strategy, Sustainability: What Future for New Social Movement Theory?," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 4(3), pages 193-205, September.
    4. Ross A. Klein, 2007. "The Politics of Environmental Activism: A Case Study of the Cruise Industry and the Environmental Movement," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 12(2), pages 17-29, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ondřej Černý & Petr Ocelík, 2020. "Incumbents’ Strategies in Media Coverage: A Case of the Czech Coal Policy," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(2), pages 272-285.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jung-In Jo & Hyun Jin Choi, 2019. "Enigmas of grievances about inequality: Effects of attitudes toward inequality and government redistribution on protest participation," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 22(4), pages 348-368, December.
    2. Newton, Kenneth & Giebler, Heiko, 2008. "Patterns of participation: Political and social participation in 22 nations," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Democracy and Democratization SP IV 2008-201, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    3. Sierra, Jazmin & Hochstetler, Kathryn, 2017. "Transnational activist networks and rising powers: transparency and environmental concerns in the Brazilian National Development Bank," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 79089, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Livia Johannesson & Noomi Weinryb, 2021. "How to blame and make a difference: perceived responsibility and policy consequences in two Swedish pro-migrant campaigns," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 54(1), pages 41-62, March.
    5. Wu, Jing & Chang, I-Shin & Yilihamu, Qimanguli & Zhou, Yu, 2017. "Study on the practice of public participation in environmental impact assessment by environmental non-governmental organizations in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 186-200.
    6. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/8523 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Rucht, Dieter, 1994. "Öffentlichkeit als Mobilisierungsfaktor für soziale Bewegungen," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, pages 337-358.
    8. Zorn, Annika, 2002. "Wie die Löffelente bis nach Brüssel kam - oder: Wie sucht man nach europäischen Bewegungen?," Discussion Papers, Working Group Political Communication and Mobilization P 02-701, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    9. Jale Tosun & Aurel Croissant, 2016. "Policy Diffusion: A Regime-sensitive Conceptual Framework," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 7(4), pages 534-540, November.
    10. Sergio Belda-Miquel & Jordi Peris Blanes & Alexandre Frediani, 2016. "Institutionalization and Depoliticization of the Right to the City: Changing Scenarios for Radical Social Movements," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(2), pages 321-339, March.
    11. Kimberly Turner, 2023. "A win or a flop? Measuring mass protest successfulness in authoritarian settings," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 60(1), pages 107-123, January.
    12. Kim, Seongcheol, 2022. "Von Lefort zu Mouffe. Populismus als Moment und Grenze radikaler Demokratie [From Lefort to Mouffe: Populism as moment and limit of radical democracy]," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 32(4), pages 767-786.
    13. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/8523 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Cornelia Woll & Alvaro Artigas, 2007. "When trade liberalization turns into regulatory reform: The impact on business–government relations in international trade politics," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 1(2), pages 121-138, June.
    15. Satyapriya Rout & Annu Yudik, 2021. "Environmental Movements in North-East India: Political Opportunity Structure and Movement Success," Review of Development and Change, , vol. 26(2), pages 226-246, December.
    16. Scherhaufer, Patrick & Klittich, Philipp & Buzogány, Aron, 2021. "Between illegal protests and legitimate resistance. Civil disobedience against energy infrastructures," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    17. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/8526 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Patibandla Srikant, 2009. "Koodankulam Anti-Nuclear Movement: A Struggle for Alternative Development?," Working Papers 232, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore.
    19. Rucht, Dieter, 1991. "Soziale Bewegungen, Gegenbewegungen und Staat: der Abtreibungskonflikt in den USA, Frankreich und der Bundesrepublik Deutschland," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 4(2), pages 31-42.
    20. Richard Cowell & Susan Owens, 2006. "Governing Space: Planning Reform and the Politics of Sustainability," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 24(3), pages 403-421, June.
    21. Lars Sorge & Anne Neumann & Christian von Hirschhausen & Ben Wealer, 2019. "Nuclear Power, Democracy, Development, and Nuclear Warheads: Determinants for Introducing Nuclear Power," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1811, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    22. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/8523 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. Kriesi, Hanspeter, 2001. "Die Rolle der Öffentlichkeit im politischen Entscheidungsprozess: Ein konzeptueller Rahmen für ein international vergleichendes Forschungsprojekt," Discussion Papers, Working Group Political Communication and Mobilization P 01-701, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    24. Waleed A. Jami & Clayton Peoples, 2022. "Political opportunity, democracy, and 40 years of protest, 1981–2020: A cross‐national analysis," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 103(6), pages 1440-1458, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:14:y:2009:i:1:p:26-41. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.