Part 3.4 Social Movements - Political Science PDF

Q1 - Political sciences | Anna Sonnenschein 4. Social mouvement : ressources, répertoires and mobilisation a. Introduction: social movement, coll...

Q1 - Political sciences | Anna Sonnenschein 4. Social mouvement : ressources, répertoires and mobilisation a. Introduction: social movement, collective action, mobilization, protest, contentious politics: what are we talking about There has been a particular concern with the political behaviors that can be referred with different phrases, names, denomination → There is a diversity of names which result from the history and the complexity of the field of research Social movements and political science We are focusing on a specific time of political participation which has been labelled differently over time: mobilization, collective action, social movements → civic activism. These denominations that can be found in scientific literature and result from a very long and complex history in this very specific field of study (end 1990s, beginning of the year 2000). Paradoxically, even if research were led a long time ago, there have been periods of disinterest on the question. We can find several reasons to explain this : → it's a form of political participation that concerns a minority of individuals, not all citizens o considered a less important subject → it's not easily analyzed through large opinion polls and surveys, o unlike electoral behaviors. o Since it includes difficult or time-consuming methodology, it explains the disinterest → it was seen as being linked to violence, illegitimate participation to political life and a threat to democracy: the study of these movements was less legitimate than others, like voting → citizen mobilization within social movements wasn't included in the 1st traditional theories of political participation, unlike the conditions for stability of democratic regimes → After WWII, for a log period, there were not so many social movements. o The phenomenon was not relevant because of economic growth and political stability BUT The situation dramatically changed in the 1960s-1970s with the rise of waves of protests throughout the West: → they raised a new interest in social movements and protest activities where progressively viewed as a “normal” political activity o standardization, routinization of the movements = new field of political research → Ex: movements in the US against the Vietnam war, Black riots, 1st environmental mobilizations etc All collective protests and contentious actions do not form a social movement. There are two additional characteristics to take into account for social movements to exist: → existence of, at least, a form of organization: there has to be a minimum of structure o one single demonstration cannot be considered a s a social movement as such → existence of a voluntary project: the counter example is that of the traffic jams: if you have traffic jams caused by taxi drivers deciding to block the roads because they disagree with Uber for instance, it's different 55  Q1 - Political sciences | Anna Sonnenschein Defining social movements Social movements can be defined as social activities which have 3 complementary characteristics: [ Collective ] It's not self-evident, because the very fact that these movements are collective induces a whole bunch of questions. It is as such an important and complex question of research: → where do the observed movements come from? → Are collective movements instituted beforehand, during or after mobilization? → Why and how are multiple individuals converging towards coordinated action? → How do they structure themselves more or less permanently? These are a set of questions that are link to that collective dimension [ oriented towards social change ] Not self-evident either! What king of change is exactly target by the actors by mobilizing? Most of the time, mobilization emerges because of dissatisfaction of the world and the desire to modify it → What kind of change do they want? → Why are they unsatisfied with the world ? A logic claim, a cause behind each social movement → large-scale social projects oriented at profound changes or → desire to resist changes and defend localized issues [ conflictual dimension ] Mobilization involve a relationship of opposition and confrontation with a more or less clearly identified common enemy → Ex: employer, administration, political power, specific company etc. → Collective action is by definition in interaction with its environment: mobilization cannot be grasped in isolation, but rather in relation with the environment b. Why people mobilize? Explaining the dynamics of social movements The “WHY” question : Explaining the factors at the orignis of the initiation of social movements → Why is it that at some point, a social movement begins? → Why does a revolution break out on that specific date ina given country? → Why is the end of the 1960s marked by a multitude of social movements? → Why is it that a particular social group tend, much more easily than other, to mobilize in order to have its protesting voice heard? There are five chronological approaches 56  Q1 - Political sciences | Anna Sonnenschein The psycho-sociologist approach Developed in France at the end of 19th century with Gabriel Tarde(The Opinion and the Crowd, 1903) and Gustave Le Bon (The Psychology of the Crowd, 1895) Both emphasized the irrationality of social movements. → They consider that society is a collection of individuals who tend to imitate each other. → As a way of consequence, there can be a contagion when a movement starts then it grows because people copy each other → When there is a favorable contest, → Mental unity of the crowd If there is a favorable context (crisis, war, strong emotions) there is the creation of the crowd, then this collection of individuals can form a “crowd” → This is very negative for them for it means that individuals are lost within specific entity and they lose their individuality in favor of a collective soul. They also consider that the crowd can be a powerful weapon activated by some leaders. → This view can be understood in the light of history: people were reminiscing the “Jacquerie” and the Revolutions. They have been criticized starting from the 1970s → It was argued that there is a psychological explanation which led to confusion between individual and collective determinants of action → They focused on irrationality → they neglected strategic behavior and → they saw social movements as exceptional phenomena. It can be underline that these theories were field with important class racism in a way and they thought to deny the political nature of this working class protest The relative frustration approach With Ted Gurr (Why Men Rebel ?, 1970) According to him, collective movements find their roots in the setting in motion of wills to respond to a set of frustrations. → These frustrations at the origin of mobilizations are relative: → gap between the actors' aspirations (the goods they expect), and what they are able to obtain (accessible goods). → Social movements develop when people see a gap between what they expect and what they obtain, it creates frustration. He developed 3 types of relative frustrations: [ Frustration of the decline ] The level of expected goods is constant but the level of accessible goods declines: external decline in accessible goods → ex : oil shock crisis, post-30 57  Q1 - Political sciences | Anna Sonnenschein [ Frustration rising aspirations ] You expect more but what you can gain remains constant → Ex : post-45 anticolonial revolts: feeling of equality with metropolitans before being demobilized [ Progressive frustration ] There is a divergence of the expected goods and what you can get is not enough Ex : eve of the French Revolution, phase of economic prosperity that contributed to raise the expectations of the people then there is an economic crisis, when the two lines diverge. Some conditions need to be met for specific collective action to emerge : Gurr pointed out some conditions related to the form, extent and result of these types of collective action: → existence of prior success → existence of leaders → existence of dissenting ideologies → existence of communication networks → conviction that violence can be effective “Relative frustration” approach allows to better identify some factors of mobilization. → Yet it cannot explain why → and under which conditions individuals decide to participate at some point. The paradox of collective action and the resources mobilization approach Mancur Olson (The Logic of Collective Action, 1965) : fundamental change of perspective → instead of starting out with the structural ad collective conditions of mobilization, he chose to focus on the individual (change of perspective) and their decision to participate or not to collective action → It's the idea of the individual as a rational actor in the economic sense of the term. → The individual will decide whether or not to participate based on an evaluation of the costs and benefits that participation will bring about. Conclusion of Olson's reasoning Olson starts from the postulate that people are rational individuals :This perspective leads to a surprising conclusion: → it's irrational for an individual to participate in a social movement for even if they are dissatisfied with their condition, → the most rational decision is not to participate → Ex: strike : o The rational worker shouldn't participate because it involves costs, a loss of time and salary, a risk to be laid off, nobody got time for that. o But if the strike is successful, then you will benefit from the improvement of the working conditions, whether you have participated or not in the strike 58  Q1 - Political sciences | Anna Sonnenschein This is the free rider strategy: an individual rationally chooses the solution that maximizes his profit without increasing costs = non-participation → If we go on with this reasoning, the consequence of this reasoning is that rationally, there shouldn't be any collective action/mobilization. → Yet there are mobilization and collective action, this is the paradox of collective action Olson's solution to the paradox Once he arrives to this conclusion, how can Olson solve this paradoxical situation? He defines two important conditions to explain why there are collective actions : [ influence of the size of the group ] it has a very important influence for him on the decision to participate or not → The smaller the group, then more visible your non-participation is, the more likely you are to be pressured by the group to participate → Ex: it's easier not to participate in a large demonstration, but then it's more difficult not to participate in a strike when there are only 20 workers in a company [ concept of “selective incentives ] It refers to a system of benefits which are used by the organizers of the mobilization to encourage people to participate and to overcome the “free rider” problem: → there are negative selective incentives : picket line for a company, those who want to go to work have to go in front of the picket line where their coworkers shame them → and positive selective incentives : trade unions can supply their members with goods and services, legal systems, … This is how organization makes it possible to overcome the free rider situation Resources mobilization paradigm : Olson's book (1965) has been really used by political science a few years later and it opened the way to a new approach called the resource mobilization paradigm → It refers to the accumulation of resources by the organizers and to the injection of these resources into the mobilization to lower the cost of individual participation → Mac Carthy and Zald (The trends of Social Movement in America: Professionalization and resource mobilization, 1973) Characteristics of the resources mobilization approach: → importance of the organization: structures the group, gathers resources, provides claims; – → social movements are compared to an economy: it's very much influenced by this economic view. All SMOs (SM organization) oriented towards a cause represent a SMI (SM industry), and all SMIs constitute the SMS (SM sector) → use of the resources: o how are they used and gathered within (members, time, money, network, argument, …) the movements and outside (media) ? o How are they made available to serve the cause ? → professionalization: it happens in all social movements (contesting become a profession) o it is complex to gather these resources and the redistribute them 59  Q1 - Political sciences | Anna Sonnenschein The political approach Following this stream of works, it is necessary to re-introduce the political dimension in the analysis of social movement in order to understand their existence: many argue that previous works forgot to do so. The main concept is the Political Opportunity Structure (POS). → It means that the political context will play a very important part in explaining if a movement develops or not and it can also explain if a specific social movement will have an influence or not o triggering and unfolding of the mobilizations are influenced by the opportunities that open to them, depending on the political context o Importance of the political system to understand the potential influence of social movements It will influence the opportunities for a movement to development or not and to have an influence or not. Variables of the POS: → type of state: strong or weak → degree of openness of the political system → degree of territorial centralization → electoral system (proportional or majority) → partisan system: number of parties, fragmentation, discipline → support from within the political and administrative system → strategies of political authorities with regard to the movement: confrontation or cooperation etc o Ex: France vs. Switzerland The question of identity The question of identity, ideas, values and beliefs starts to emerge at the beginning of the '90s with people such as Doug Macadam and David Snow → All previous approaches have neglected these dimensions while they have to be integrate in order to understand the mobilization Example : Doug MacAdam with the “Freedom Summer”, 1990. → In the summer of 1964, White American students mobilized to defend civil rights and especially the right to vote of the Black population in Southern states. → MacAdam reminds that this is a commitment that introduces a very high risk (physical) with no potential gain: they are white, they can already vote. → Nevertheless, they mobilize for other people to be able to exercise their civil rights as well. Through interviews of former students, he showed that they were motivated by the values included in the movement → Their identity as citizens and their political values demanded such sociopolitical participation in this specific movement He underlines that the rewards of mobilization can be material, but also symbolic → Ex: building a network of friends, good and high self-esteem because you act according to your values. As for MacAdam, this kind of motivation explains why people can accept significant costs for you mobilization. At the end of the day: → the dynamics of identity is crucial to understand the specific student mobilization → the social context of mobilization: This motivation based on values and identity is the result of a socialization within family and among friends which values some qualities. It's more essential (not only the political context). 60  Q1 - Political sciences | Anna Sonnenschein c. How people mobilize? Explaining the modes of actions of social movements entrepreneurs Analysis of social movements is a combination of 2 questions related to their existence: → why: factors, circumstances, contexts that favor their activation at one specific moment within one specific group of people o studies before → how: focus on the work of social movements/mobilization entrepreneurs o ex: people who organized the mobilization, who manage to denounce the social problem and who induce collective action. Their task is a heavy one, that requires means, strategies etc: they can either succeed of fail. The repertoire of collective action What are the strategies and the concrete forms of action used by the groups to defend their claims ? → As a special group you can resort to a very wide variety of ways to exercise pressure on the public authority and to be heard by the public opinion, be it physical violence or demonstrations. → At some point, a specific group will use a mode of action, rather physical violence. → The means of actions available to a given group in a given context are plural but limited The notion of repertoire of collective action: Charles Tilly (The Contentious French, 1986) → designed the concept of repertoires of collective action, in referring to this very wide range of means of action which are available to social movements entrepreneurs → one of the most important concepts in the notion of collective action “Every population has a limited repertoire of collective actions, that is to say means of acting together on the basis of shared interests. These various means of action compose a repertory, a little in the sense that we hear it in theatre and music, but rather resembles that of the commedia dell’arte or jazz than that of a classical ensemble” There is a link between → the mode of action mobilized by the protestors → and the political, social historical, institutional and even technological context in which the social movements are developing → Ex: petitioning wouldn't have existed without the invention of printing; there wouldn't have been coordinated events at the global level without the Internet (at least it would have been much more difficult) 61  Q1 - Political sciences | Anna Sonnenschein Repertoires of collective action are a major break in the second half of the 19th century : The « modern » repertoire of collective action (it is to be understood in the light of the industrial The « ancient » repertoire of collective action revolution, the centralization of the nation-state, the (farmer, peasants etc.) nationalization of political life and the emergence of political movements) Local : National : → small villages at the level of the parish; → it targets the central political power → very close to the target of the protest: → the protest most of the time doesn't target the central government « Patronized » : Autonomous specialized organizations: → the group that is collectively mobilizing seek → social movements don't ask for the support support of a local notable to legitimize of other groups to el them voice their claim. protest and make demands → He refers to the emergence of the national → Ex: priest, nobility etc as a way to legitimize trade unions. their protest and to act as an intermediary to uphold their demands Forms and modes of action borrowed from existing Forms of action specifically designed to express social rituals, but in a roundabout way protest Ex : Village festivals, carnivals, religious processions) Ex: strikes, demonstrations The transition from the “ancient” to the “modern” repertoire thus reflects the advent of social and political modernity: → progress in the means of communication, completion of state centralization, industrial revolution. → There is a need for new means of communication. → The fact that there is specialized autonomous groups such as trade unions means that there needs to be a concentration of workers in cities Composing from a repertoire The work of mobilization entrepreneurs is to select the most appropriate means of action within the repertoire. → Depending on the context, on what they want to achieve → they will either choose one specific way of action → or they can mix some of them etc The strategic role of these entrepreneurs is essential for they make a tactical evaluation of the respective advantages of the movement → Of course, if you are a very small, committed group, you will rather choose strike to have your cause heard rather than demonstration in the street. Contemporary repertoires of collective action Since the 90s century, with the work of Michel Offerlé who distinguished 3 main types of contemporary repertoires → NUMBER: the logic of numbers is the most traditional one o Appears as a number of representativeness of the cause o Factor of legitimacy and of efficiency 62  Q1 - Political sciences | Anna Sonnenschein o Entrepreneurs use the number to gather the group and to make the group exist on the public scene o Ex: street demonstration → EXPERTISE : some group do not have the opportunity nor the influence to mobilize though number, therefore they have to use other means such as knowledge and ideas o It is now as resource that can be added or oppose to the force of number in a society that values very much knowledge and experts o It is a very strong mobilization in some specific areas of collective actions such as the environment o Ex: organization of conferences → SCANDAL: there is a strategy of scandalization that o correspond to the actions that seek to cause scandal o but also to action that consist in staging that there is a scandal by shoving indignation in the name of the cause being defended o the use of scandal is also important and sometime necessary for the mobilization in a context of very strong media coverage o ex: using shoking photos But these different types of repertoire can be combined strategically by mobilization entrepreneurs d. The changing faces of social movements 4 main domains were there have been some major transformation : The members of the social movements More occasional involvement and multi-participation: Participants have themselves changed a lot We are not in the situation of people who are “married to the cause” and devote all their time, energy and resources, engage body and soul in the fight against this or that question. → Now, membership and involvement are much more punctual, you can move from one fight to another → Ex: sign a petition for a specific question on Monday, participate to a demonstration for another question on Friday etc → multi-participation has changed a lot recently From a member of a group to an individual, several feelings of belonging People tend to participate and to mobilize around their identity rather their belonging to a specific social group is important: → you can have diverse identities → there are not valued because there are just members of the groups but because they bring some personal skills and experience whiting the social movement → Ex: you can mobilize as a woman; as a religious woman etc. Importance of skills and experience: Participants are younger and graduate: → it's linked to the fact that participants from a specific social movement are not valued because there are member of a movement, → but they are valued because they bring specific skills and experience within the movement. 63  Q1 - Political sciences | Anna Sonnenschein The cause Limited objective: Many movements of delimited objective develop, as opposed to the big causes of the past, which risked never be fulfilled Medium-term temporality: individuals increasingly favor the efficiency and the achievement of negotiated partial results → rather than devotion of big causes and change of the whole changing order at the risk to never be fulfilled The repertoires and means of action Widening of the repertoires: There is this importance of the technological progress: repertoires tend to extend and include new modes of action, but also, the mode of action ten to combine differently between them. → Movements used to be quite specialized in the mode of actions they tended to invest. → Now we see new combinations, such as organizations that will resort on the one side to direct non- violent action (occupation of public or private places) and on the other side resort to expertise → Ex: squatters can at the same time can be people with degrees who will negotiate based on the law why the buildings should or shouldn't be given to families etc.; Importance of the media: Media influence the modes of action → It used the be the number that was important, now it's visibility: → being original or doing something that will please the media can bring as much attention than mass demonstration The scale of the action The transnational dimension of collective action is becoming increasingly important → role of the Internet → effect of globalization e. Conclusion: a gender perspective on social movements Why is the place of women in social movements characterized by their under-participation and their segregation within the movements ? 2 types of explanations: The role of external social dynamics Structural explanations: Women engage less in collective action because of unequal distribution of social resources → Indeed, women are less likely to have access to education (global level), socio-economic resources and status → and they have less free time: they are less able then men to free themselves from their family constraints in order to devote time to activism Cultural explanations: In addition to skills/resources, activism also requires motivation and interest to engage in public affairs → Role of the lower politicization of women (voy. supra) 64  Q1 - Political sciences | Anna Sonnenschein The role of dynamics internal to social movement Gendered inequalities are (re)produced and (re)configured within social movements → Ex: the “Freedom Summer” (Macadam). → He explains the role of identity and values but also includes a gendered perspective, since there is an influence of gender inequalities on: Recruitment of the students: less women are inclined to participate in social movements because they are not member of the same networks of students Experience within the movement: → subjective impact of participation: it is the same for women and men, they all consider that participating in the movement was very important so as to construct their vision of the world, self- esteem etc → objective impact of participation: where men are more able to capitalize on the fact they have been member of a movement, meaning that from a professional point of view, they were able to draw positive consequences for them. o Many men have become successful civil rights lawyers and the fact they participate as student sin mobilization was a legitimizing element in the professional trajectories. → When Macadam compared the impact, it was very different between men and women Distribution of the tasks: → valued: men are more likely to be asked to perform some “masculine” and more valued tasks o Ex: speaking in public → invisible: less valued tasks that are attributed to women o Ex: writing, organizing the meetings, taking notes etc. 65