Social movements

This chapter discusses scholarship on social movements that follows a comparative perspective. We consider five broad ways to conduct a comparative analysis of social movements and protest activities: the traditional comparative framework across contexts; the comparison of different movements or movement families within a given context; comparisons over time; comparing beyond the more traditional focus on Western Europe and/or the United States; and the so-called contentious politics agenda advocating an analysis focusing on episodes, mechanisms and processes rather than movements as such. The concluding remarks address the implications of the increasing interconnectedness of the world for the comparative study of social movements and protest activities. In this regard, we endorse the view that nation-states continue to matter in important ways to social movements even in an era of globalization.