Social Movements And Networks: Relations Approaches To Collec

Description:
This text examines the extent to which a network approach should inform research on collective action. Leading social movements researchers systematically map out and assess the contribution of social network approaches to their field of enquiry in light of broader theoretical perspective. By exploring how networks affect individual contributions to collective action in both democratic and non-democratic organizations, and how patterns of inter-organizational linkages affect the circulation of resources within and between movements, the authors show how network concepts improve our grasp of the relationship between social movements and elites and of the dynamics of the political processes.

Table of Contents:
Introduction; 1. Social movements, contentious actions, and social networks: 'from metaphor to substance'?; PART I. INDIVIDUAL NETWORKS; 2. Social Networks Matter. But How?; 3. Movement development and organizational networks: The role of 'single members' in the German Nazi party, 1925-1930; PART II. INTERORGANIZATIONAL NETWORKS; 4. Networks in opposition: Linking organizations through activists in the Polish People's Republic; 5. 'Leaders' or brokers? Positions and influence in social movement networks; 6. Community embeddedness and collaborative governance in the San Francisco Bay Area environmental movement; PART III. NETWORKING THE POLITICAL PROCESS; 7. Contentious connections in Great Britain, 1828-1834; 8. Networks, diffusion, and cycles of collective action; 9. Movement in context: Thick networks and Japanese environmental protest; PART IV. THEORIES OF NETWORKS, MOVEMENTS, AND COLLECTIVE ACTION; 10. Why do networks matter? Rationalist and structuralist interpretations; 11. Cross-talk in movements: Reconceiving the culture-network link; 12. Beyond structural analysis: toward a more dynamic understanding of social movements; 13. Networks and social movements: A research programme