Social Movements and Political Violence
Lecture 1: Introduction
Goals of the course:
- practical experience in collecting and managing data
- data collection methods
- perform data collection and examine validity and reliability
- analyse and interpret data
- relate these findings to the broader academic literature and formulate conclusions
- collaborate in a team
- introduce to key theories that have informed understandings of contentious politics and
violent social movements
- understand key concepts, theories and approaches
- appraise the explanatory power of these frameworks by applying them to contexts
We will draw from empirical research on problematic social movements across a range of contexts to
better understand the various manifestations of far-right extremism and terrorism across Europe and
North America
- The Manosphere
- IRA
- The Ulster Volunteer Force
- The Suffragette Movement & the feminist movement
- American Nazi Party
- Soldiers of Odin
- PEGIDA
- English Defense League
The course at a glance
> Lecture 1: Defining Social Movements
> Lecture 2: a history of social movement research: introducing collective identity
> Lecture 3: Methods
> Lecture 4: explanatory models of collective action
> Lecture 5: Group dynamics
> Lecture 6: Political Violence and Terrorism
> Lecture 7: Methods (important for assignment)
> Lecture 8: Persuasion (role of media)
> Lecture 9: group work
> Lecture 10: group work
> Lecture 11: emotions
> Lecture 12: Gendering extremism
> Lecture 13: Methods
> Lecture 14: Extremist movements: lived experience (Billy McCurrie)
Assignments
1. Assignment 1: Due date 18 September at 18:00, 15% (prep for assignment 2)
, a. Develop a dataset of disruptive incidents targeting climate change policies and
explain your approach to data collection
b. All incidents need to meet inclusion criteria in the data sheet
2. Assignment 2: groups, 30%, due 9th of October at 18:00
a. Build a dataset of radicalised military service personnel
b. overrepresentation of radicalised people in the military > something drawing them in
c. Collect most viable reliable data (names of the people given to you)
3. Assignment 3: individual, 55%, due 27th October 18:00
a. Using the data collected by the entire cohort you will write a 5-page policy
memorandum on the threat posed by the presence of far-right elements within the
Canadian, American, British or German military
b. Actionable takeaways (makes theoretical sense) latch on to provided frameworks
Characterising social movements
> Confusion and disagreement often occur due to society’s tendency to label all sorts of collective
phenomena as movements.
- trends, fights, riots, cults, revolutions, etc
- but there is a specific set of criteria that needs to be met for a social movement
Criteria:
1. An organised collectivity (if we cannot identify leaders, followers, or coalitions, the
phenomenon being investigated is most likely a trend, far, riot, or unorganised protest)
a. the number and degree of organisations can vary (individual organisations can
become a global movement = a ‘general’ social movement → see American Civil
Rights Movement)
b. “General” Social Movement: these are constituted by gradual and pervasive changes
in the values of people. These ‘cultural drifts’ are usually rooted in what people
believe they are entitled to (Blumer, 1995). Examples of cultural drifts as results of
social momvents in recent history are the increased value of health, free education,
the extension of the franchise, the emancipation of women, regard for children
c. Believing that you deserve something: self-efficacy. Then fighting for it. (Labour
Movement, Youth Movement, Peace Movement, Feminist Movement). Sense that
when you talk about a movement that a journey has happened
d. Does it need to be that organised? > a highly structured group with a clear hierarchy
of leadership, charter or constitution, membership requirements and headquarters is
most likely a social movement organisation.
i. Minimal organisation is both a reality and a necessity for social movements
to persist. Being extremely organised is not a guarantee for a group’s survival
or for a group’s becoming of a social movement.
ii. The illusion of organisation: media huge impact of how we perceive a social
movement. A dangerous social movement wouldn’t hire outsiders, doesn’t
want to connect with the outgroup. By labelling and treating relatively
isolated (but similar rhetorical situations) as an organised activity
2. Uninstitutionalised
a. social movements (and their associated social movement organisations) are not part
of established systems that govern, maintain or change social, political, religious or
econmic norms and values (Bowers et al, 2009)
, b. A social movement will bring about change through agitation from the outside:
not through institutionalised means and procedures. → needs to bring about
change in a novel way
c. they have no legislative, judicial or enforcement powers or any assured means of
financial support → members of a social movement are, by definition, outsiders.
You need to believe that your opinions are different from the majority of the public
and that it needs to change. If you’re part of an institution, you are not an outsiders
i. the media often exacerbates this element of social movements, particularly
when members or adherents do something spectacular or violent
d. Identity formed around their perception of illegitimacy by society
e. Courting insiders: many social movements form relationships with institions that may
have wide-ranging positive and negative influences on their causes and independence
i. example: Christian Evangelical Movement courting the Republican Party
(certain of the same characteristics)
f. Becoming institutionalised: some social movements and SM organisations go on to
become institutionalised (ex: Lutheran Church)
3. Large in scope
a. social movements are large in terms of geographical area, life span,e vents,
oraganisations, leaders, participants, goals strategies and adaptations
b. Size: to effect change social movements must increase size of their memberships and
the scope of their activities. Small ventures tend to be seen as inconsequential or
dangerous. “One person marching for a thousand hours is not the same as a thousand
people marching for one hour”.
i. social loafing (idk how to spell): some people let others within the social
movement do most of the job
c. Time: changes in social structures, norms and values may take decades if not
centuries. Why? → tactics wear out. Social movements need to innovate new
tactics and keep surprising people. The public loses interest.
d. Events: social movements thrive on ‘happenings’ (ex: nonviolent civil disobedience,
theatre, destruction of property, boycotts). However, few social movements have
sufficient resources to satisfy this appetite, meaning few persevere.
e. Characteristics of social movements rather than strict definition because hard to
operationalise ^
4. Promotes or opposes change
a. most social changes began as social protests that evolved into social movements.
i. ex: abolition of slavery → one of the first ideas that formed the Civil
Rights Movement
b. Belief-disbelief systems: can social movements ideologies be easily categorised?
i. ‘reform’ (those who wsh to achieve political and social changes by improving
the status quo, but without necessarily overthrowing the existing order)
versus ‘revolution’ (act of resistance that results in the overthrowing of the
status quo)
1. these ideas came forward in the 50s and 60s and has lost much of
their relevance now (ex: Martin Luther King no longer seen as
