Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change: Volume 22

This paper surveys the movement outcomes literature and finds that the literature is unevenly developed. “Intra-movement” outcomes have received more attention than “extra-movement” outcomes, and within extra-movement outcomes political outcomes have been studied more often than cultural outcomes. I argue that the differential impact of two major methodological burdens explains these discrepancies in research productivity. Specifically, I examine the difficulties extra-movement outcome researchers face in (1) defining and operationalizing outcomes; and (2) in defending causal claims and non-spuriousness. Further, I analyze and critique current approaches in the literature to handling these two issues. Finally, I offer seven solutions to these problems, each of which is intended to ease the methodological burdens presently slowing the study of movement outcomes.

The social movement literature is replete with review essays of the various theoretical formulations (i.e., Buechler 1993; Jenkins 1983; Tarrow 1989). Frequently, these intellectual histories contain descriptions of how one cohort of sociologists glamorized or debunked the favored theories of earlier generations (i.e., before the “resource mobilizers” were supplanted by the “framing” crowd, there was a supposed “collective behaviorist” heyday). While these theoretical depictions flourished, the number of methodological overviews remains small (see Crist and McCarthy 1996; Diani and Eyerman 1992; Morris and Herring 1987; Olzak 1989; Rucht, Koopmans, and Neidhardt 1998). To augment these methodological essays, this paper explores the problematic choice of using newspapers for protest information. In doing so, this inquiry initially compares some media and researcher impressions of a local protest mobilization (i.e., demonstrations against the Persian Gulf War in San Diego). Later, this paper chronicles a content analysis of 20 national, regional, and alternative news organizations. In the end, this investigation shows that every newspaper missed most of the protests and that coverage rate varied by newspaper. Furthermore, the widely praised New York Times fared badly and none of the papers displayed consistent coverage rates throughout time. With these warnings in hand, the discussion section provides some techniques that might offset these newspaper deficiencies.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Parliamentarians for Global Action, a nongovernmental disarmament organization, advanced a “challenger frame” that demanded more concrete steps toward nuclear disarmament than the superpowers were willing to take. They used their status as a nongovernmental actor to intervene in global diplomatic processes in ways that states could not. Parliamentarians for Global Action took advantage of the fact that the majority of the world's governments favored steps toward nuclear disarmament and worked to leverage the numbers and moral legitimacy behind this goal against the stubborn resistance of the global nuclear powers. Using language and procedures embedded in global treaties, they helped advance dialogue on nuclear disarmament during a time when the global superpowers preferred to keep such issues off the global agenda.

This paper illustrates the resistance of environmentally concerned groups and citizens against the establishment and growth of corporate-operated confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in the Panhandle region of Texas. We contend that local resistance was partially successful as locally based groups were able to create a contested terrain of political discourse and defend pro-quality of the environment, pro-quality of life and pro-personal property stands against corporate actions. Additionally, we maintain that this success is limited as corporations are powerful. This power is expressed through strategies which present a pro-environment and pro-community based corporate image and are complemented by the corporate capacity to control political processes and economically affect the actions of local communities. The paper concludes with some brief reflections on the primary analytical aspects of the case and avenues which would engender improved social relations in the region.

This paper seeks to improve our understanding of which types of movement organizations participate in coalitions. Past research examined why groups join coalitions and documented their importance for policy success, yet the question of which types of groups are likely to engage in coalition work has largely been ignored. A survey of environmental group leaders was conducted to examine the connection between movement organizations and coalition building. The factors analyzed among movement organizations are the degree of centralization, leadership qualities, membership activity, and advocacy tactics. The findings indicate that groups led by professional leaders with social network ties to other movement organizations are more likley to engage in coalition work. Two organizational attributes, high membership activity and inside advocacy tactics, were associated with coalition participation as well. These findings hold important implications for organizations seeking to engender coalition work among movement groups.

This paper examines the impact that the global economy and local institutional environment had on the rise and demise of the small-scale industrialists movement in Peru. Informed by Alan Lipietz's regime theory, the author argues that as the mode of regulation changes according to major transformations in the regime of accumulation, these macrostructural factors impact social movements' strategy and collective identity. Each mode of regulation has a locus of resource allocation. The small-scale industrialists' movement reoriented its actions and redefined itself in adaptation to the locus of resource allocation, which shifted from the state to international funds. Two periods in the history of the movement are compared in order to test this argument. Under populism (1968–1975), the Peruvian state centralized the distribution of resources, organized the population in a corporate fashion, and ethnicized the language of protest and distributed resources along corporate lines. This institutional framework fostered a class movement which, ultimately centralized in two national associations, advocated an industrialization strategy based on the promotion of small-scale industry. Under delegative democracy the locus of resource allocation was dispersed among dozens of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), while human rights violations multiplied. The dispersion of resources fostered the multiplication of trade-specific, ethnic, or gender associations of small-scale industrialists. The decline of the national movement resulted from its atomization and the intensification of state repression.

The basis of ethnic groups' economic status remains among the enduring controversies in both popular and social scientific discussions of inequality. While this debate commonly opposes cultural attributes to structures of opportunity and disadvantage, we point out that various policies—including banking, public employment, business development programs, and refugee resettlement—have also had important impacts on ethnic economies. Because our definition of the ethnic economy includes both the ethnic-owned economy of the self-employed as well as the ethnic-controlled economy, wherein ethnic networks help locate jobs in non-co-ethnic firms or the public sector, we are able to incorporate a wide range of groups and contexts in our analysis. Our results suggest that the economic status of certain ethnic groups in American society reflects the outcome of specific policies that helped or hindered the growth of their ethnic economies. We conclude that policies, such as public employment, which incorporate various ethnic groups, are a more viable means of nurturing ethnic economic growth than selective programs that benefit some groups while excluding others.

In a little-studied historical case, we find that ethnic and racial stratification in the workplace overlaps with labor market segmentation based on skill, authority, and seniority, muddling the historic discrimination involved in generating inequality. To explain the historic origins of ethnic inequality in the workplace, we examine the interaction of ethnicity and skill in the development of the Arizona copper mining industry from small-scale craft production to the biggest copper producer in the world, employing thousands of low-skilled industrial workers. The mechanization of mining deskilled traditional craft workers, leaving only the need for a small number of workers with new skills. Conflict between capital and labor over autonomy of work and control of hiring resulted in a segmented labor market. Most of the lower skilled workers were recent immigrants and their skill levels, turnover rates, and mobility chains differed significantly by ethnicity. As a result, immigration interacted with segmentation to create an ethnic segmentation of labor that was racist and discriminatory in character.

In 1993 and 1994 it was assumed that Israeli-Palestinian economic cooperation would drive Israeli-Palestinian peace. However, in the period from 1994 to 1999, the peace process basically did not move forward. The first goal of this paper is to explain why the Israeli-Palestinian peace process stalled in this time period. The second goal of this paper is to suggest policies that could increase the likelihood of arriving at, and maintaining, a stable Israeli-Palestinian peace in the future. I argue that the failure of the peace process from 1994 to 1999 is related to the political rivalry between the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Islamic movement Hamas, Hamas' lack of participation in the peace process, and the nature of Israeli-Palestinian economic relations. The interaction of these issues creates a highly unstable situation, resulting in periodical spells of Israeli-Palestinian violent conflict. I conclude a stable peace requires an independent Palestinian state with a capital in parts of East Jerusalem, a unified territory without Israeli extra-territorial enclaves, a fair share of natural resources, control over public policies, and an economy not integrated with that of Israel. The issue of Palestinian refugees must be resolved, but the return of refugees to Israel is not practical; a viable alternative is a financial settlement. In the short run, Israel should strengthen the Palestinian Authority by granting it tangible political gains. Hamas should be formally invited to participate in the peace process.