As political opportunities shift, social movement, decline or mobilization may result. The first section of this volume examines this phenomenon in depth while also moving theory-building forward. Significant contributions are made to collective identity theory, stalemate theory, and political process theory. accomplished through a focused series of papers that include case studies of specific social movements, comparative case studies of social movements, and comparative case studies of transnational issue networks. The movements discussed include the US anti-nuclear power movement, the...

Over the past decade social movement scholarship has reflected the robust nature of many of the movements themselves. Innovative lines of inquiry and new theoretical frameworks have opened up to reinvigorate the field. This volume reflects this welcome trend.

The volume opens with two papers analyzing tactical and strategic innovations in movement organizing. One establishes that the woman's suffrage movement relied on both outsider (contentious) politics and insider (institutionalized) politics, while the other addresses the promises and pitfalls of transitional...

This volume of "Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change" contains a strong collection of theoretically rich and data-driven papers, which address a series of interrelated questions that are at the forefront of todays social movement scholarship. For example, political opportunity theory has been justly criticized for privileging structure over agency, politics over culture, and for failing to adequately specify how political opportunities differ for social movements in democracies vs. in non-democracies. In this volume, political opportunity theory receives careful,...

Despite the ubiquity of conflict, significant gaps remain in our knowledge of what influences its escalation and resolution. How collective identity formation impacts social conflicts is taken up in these compelling case studies, ranging from church and community disputes, ethnic conflicts, environmental disputes, to international trade disputes and wars. Important themes include the dynamics of enemy-imaging, the constructs of race and gender, in-groups and out-groups, and the double-edged potential of collective identity formation to both escalate and de-escalate conflicts. Throughout,...

A long-standing characteristic of the Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change series is publishing new theoretical and empirical work that connects previously disparate sub-fields. This volume continues that tradition by opening with five papers that join social movements research with organizational theory, new institutionalism, strategic action fields, and nonviolent action. One study does this by examining how the Fenian Brotherhood organized a transnational revolutionary movement for Ireland's independence. Another paper analyzes the strategic relations between conservative,...

This volume focusses on non-state actors and political conflicts but also attends to the broader themes of the series. The research emphases the roles and motivations of non-state actors in conflicts or post-conflict situations in the post-Cold War era; as well outlining the dynamics of social movements, conflicts, or change. This volume highlights the motivations and interests of non-state violent actors (NSVAs) in the post-Cold War era; the role of identity and/or ideology in the conflicts or resolutions of so-called "new wars;" the impact of NSVAs in conflict and/or peace-making; and the...

This important collection addresses the critically important dimensions of the relationships that social movements, their activists, and their organizations have with the state and other institutions. It also examines three movements linked by frame and discourse analysis, before concluding with a survey of the biographical trajectory of activism.