Book review: what is a social movement? by Hank Johnston

Focusing on movement organizations and networks, what they do, and how they articulate their ideas of justice and collective interests, What is a Social Movement? aims to lay the essential groundwork for understanding this significant and exciting field of research, where it came from, and where it is headed. What makes this book so useful is how thoroughly it maps the topography of social movement research. It not only summarizes particular approaches and tendencies within the literature, but also draws out the points of contention between them and illuminates the fault lines upon which social movements research has grown and changed over the previous century, writes Mark Carrigan

Frames We Can Believe In: Official Framing and Ideology in the CCP’s Quest for Legitimacy

In the debate on authoritarian resilience, the importance of persuasion to regime legitimacy has been widely acknowledged, yet a conceptual framework explaining the role of persuasion is still lacking. Against this backdrop, we argue that the framing perspective (Benford and Snow 2000) provides a useful basis for such a framework. Drawing on Beetham’s (1991) model of legitimacy, we contend that the ruling elites in authoritarian regimes propagate official frames in a continuous effort to reproduce the belief of the populace in the elites’ leadership qualities and their determination to serve the common interest. In the empirical part of our paper we look at the case of China, where the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has in recent years reemphasized persuasion as a means of reproducing legitimacy. We then apply our theory in an analysis of the conceptual shifts in the CCP’s frames and ideology, as propagated under its secretary general, Hu Jintao.China, authoritarianism , legitimacy, ideology

Trends in Student Radicalization across University Campuses in Afghanistan

This study aims to examine the trends in student radicalization across eight university campuses in Afghanistan. We conclude from our survey of student and staff views and an analysis of the character of protests across campuses that the extent of student radicalization varies. In particular, we come to three noteworthy findings. First, most university students are more concerned over prospects of post-graduation follow-on careers than ideological ambition. Second, while we find that most students and lecturers denounce radical views and violence, a relatively more aggressive response to both the policies of the Afghan government and the armed international intervention exhibited by students from universities in Kabul, Qandahar and Nangarhar suggests differentiated patterns across university campuses, with these campuses suggestive of a stronger tendency toward radicalized views. Finally, as an institution, the university does not play a strong role in the radicalization of its students. Rather, a charged political climate and the readily available opportunity to mobilize quickly enable students to stand in protest rather easily. However, findings also suggest that it is this same easy access to mobilize in protest that seems to attract a number of external groups as evident by the black, white and green flags representative of al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and the militant wing of Hezb-e- Islami Hekmatyar. Moreover, it is these protests that seem to encourage polarization and consequential division on campus which increasingly resemble the practice of takfir. Referring to the practice of excommunication wherein one Muslim declares that another Muslim has abandoned Islam, takfir is in direct competition with the more tolerant teachings common to the characteristically liberal curriculum of public universities. While protest in and of itself is a characteristic common to progressive democracies, evidence suggests that some student protests do call for division along sectarian lines or the suppression of women’s rights, both of which stand in contradiction to democratic principles and pose a threat to stability. With more than sixty-three percent of the Afghan population under the age of twenty-four, left unchecked such influence has the likelihood and potential to expand with substantial consequences for development and security in Afghanistan. As Afghanistan moves into a new phase of its era of state-building, a special focus on meeting the needs of its youth and in particular of Afghan university students is indispensable in meeting and maintaining lasting stability and prosperity. This study is the first part of an ongoing series of papers dedicated to examining the trends in radicalization across the various sectors throughout Afghanistan. Launched in late 2013, we plan follow-on studies to complement the series, including examinations of the trends in radicalization in madrassas across Afghanistan and within the Afghan security forces

Transnational Labor Mobilizing in Two Mexican Maquiladoras: The Struggle for Democratic Globalization

The struggle to improve workers\u27 rights in Mexican maquiladoras and export processing zones elsewhere in the world is central to the politics of global economic integration. State-centered development is increasingly compromised by supranational institutions and trade agreements. Meanwhile, multinational corporations are relocating at an unprecedented rate to overseas locations. Export processing zones are notorious for poor working conditions and result in a race to the bottom. The maquila sector in Mexico is a prime example of this phenomenon. This article uses two case studies to examine ways in which grassroots organizing has successfully resisted low wages and poor working conditions through international network building and information sharing. It combines social movement theory with the literature on international relations to conceptualize the internationalization of grassroots efforts to pressure multinational corporations and host governments to respect labor laws included in international trade agreements, national standards, and self-mandated corporate codes of conduct. Key to the success in both cases has been the role that nonstate actors played in domestic and international politics, operating outside of national borders to simultaneously target the local, national, and international level

Constructing 'the anti-globalisation movement'

This article interrogates the claim that a transnational anti-globalisation social movement has emerged. I draw on constructivist social movement theory, globalisation studies, feminist praxis and activist websites to make two main arguments, mapping on to the two parts of the article. First, a movement has indeed emerged, albeit in a highly contested and complex form with activists, opponents and commentators constructing competing movement identities. This article is itself complicit in such a process – and seeks to further a particular construction of the movement as a site of radical-democratic politics. Second, the movement is not anti-globalisation in any straightforward sense. Focusing their opposition on globalised neoliberalism and corporate power, activists represent their movement either as anti-capitalist or as constructing alternative kinds of globalised relationships. Threading through both my arguments is a normative plea to confront the diverse relations of power involved in both globalisation and movement construction in order that globalised solidarities be truly democratic. This is to challenge hierarchical visions of how best to construct ‘the anti-globalisation movement’

The Effects of Selective and Indiscriminate Repression on the 2013 Gezi Park Nonviolent Resistance Campaign

We investigate the differential effects of selective and indiscriminate repression on the rate of protest actions during the nonviolent resistance campaign in Gezi Park, Turkey, in 2013. After deriving theoretical expectations about how and why these forms of repression will influence protest actions, we test them with protest event data that were collected from a major local newspaper and subsequently validated through a comparison with two other independent Twitter datasets. Utilizing a Poisson autoregressive estimation model, we find that selective repression, as measured by the number of arrested activists who were detained while they were not demonstrating, decreased the rate of protest actions. Meanwhile, indiscriminate repression, as measured by the frequency of the government’s use of lethal and nonlethal violence against protesters during demonstrations, increased the rate of protest actions. Our findings support prior research on the influence of indiscriminate repression on backfire outcomes. They also provide evidence for the impact of selective repression on movement demobilization through the removal of opposition activists. Finally, the targeted arrest strategy of selective repression that was employed in the Gezi campaign has implications for the feasibility of the strategic incapacitation model of protest policing

Collective Identity and Protest Tactics in Yogyakarta Under The Post-Suharto Regime

In response to an uncertain political situation, since 1998, Yoyakartans have engaged in resistance through groups called indigenous organizations. Such groups reproduce existing cultural resources as part of a broader movement to oppose democra-tization reforms that have been raised by the central government. Based on interviews, fieldwork and newspaper reports, this study finds that: (1) collec-tive identity can be understood in different ways from political and cultural perspectives, and indigenous groups are part of the “deep cultural resources” that establish collective identity; (2) such organizations use cultural resources in ways that conform to social movement theory; and (3) the existence of indig-enous groups contributes to shaping and reshaping the activities of the movements in which they partici-pate

Communicative planning theory and community initiatives

We evaluate lender discrimination during the mortgage default process. A telephone survey was conducted to evaluate the extent of lender discrimination in defaults that lead to foreclosure in New Orleans, Louisiana between 1985-1990. We use these data to estimate the independent effects of race and neighborhood characteristics on the extent of lender assistance or forbearance during the foreclosure process. Our analysis indicates that the proportion of black residents in the neighborhood where the property was foreclosed is a more significant predictor of forbearance than the race of the borrower. This is a foreboding indication of the possibility that recent gains in black home buying may be partially offset by the persistence of residential segregation in U.S. cities