Social movement theorizing has been invigorated in recent years by the contentious politics approach to studying political protest activity. In 2002, a conference sponsored by the Collective Behavior and Social Movements Section of the American Sociological Association was held at the University of Notre Dame to consider this development in the field. But the conference organizers also wanted to consider more broadly social movement research and theorizing. This means moving beyond a state-centered view of contentious politics and toward a more open definition of what phenonmena areis...