Bøker i Social Movements, Protest and Contention-serien

How activists changed the trajectory of the new agricultural biotechnologies.

Examines how strategies within social movements develop and work

On one side are the policy makers, on the other, the movements and organizations that challenge public policy. Where and how the two meet is a critical juncture in the democratic process. Bringing together a distinguished group of scholars from several different disciplines in the social sciences, Routing the Opposition connects the substance and content of policies with the movements that create and respond to them. Local antidrug coalitions, the organic agriculture movement, worker's compensation reforms, veterans' programs, prison reform, immigrants' rights campaigns: these are some of the diverse areas in which the contributors to this volume examine the linkages between the practices, organization, and institutional logic of public policy and social movements. The authors engage such topics as the process of involving multiple stakeholders in policy making, the impact of overlapping social networks on policy and social movement development, and the influence of policy design on the increase or decline of civic involvement. Capturing both successes and failures, Routing the Opposition focuses on strategies and outcomes that both transform social movements and guide the development of public policy, revealing as well what happens when the very different organizational cultures of activists and public policy makers interact.

Szasz identifies the force that pushed environmental policy away from pollution removal towards the logic of prevention. He describes how lawmakers sought to appease popular discontent by reinforcing toxic waste laws, and suggests this force may be a further impulse for progressive politics.

Citing the critical importance of empirical work to social movement research, the editors of this volume have put together the first systematic overview of the major methods used by social movement theorists. Original chapters cover the range of techniques: surveys, formal models, discourse analysis, in-depth interviews, participant observation, case studies, network analysis, historical methods, protest event analysis, macro-organizational analysis, and comparative politics. Each chapter includes a methodological discussion, examples of studies employing the method, an examination of its strengths and weaknesses, and practical guidelines for its application.

With any formal government, there is political contention - an interaction between ruler and subjects involving compliance or resistance, co-operation, resignation, condescension and resentment. This work examines the interaction between these forces at the very heart of contentious politics.