Protest: Studies of Collective Behaviour and Social Movements

Description

This volume addresses three major issues: What are the circumstances in which people elect to protest; what are the forms of such action; and how do people organize to do so? Phrased differently, what are the contexts of protest (collective behavior), personal readiness for protest (conversion), and finally joining together for protest in movement organizations and movement strategies. The key to the book's value is its theoretical sophistication. These studies address in a systematic way fundamental alternatives to organizing protests and outline in detail options for structuring units of social movement. The author deals especially with movement organization locals, including "corps" and "cells." Such units are examined in terms of how they coexist and how they exist sequentially through time. Several case studies of movement organization are included, such as the Unification Church and Mankind United. The work places a heavy emphasis on protest action or strategy. In the final section four chapters examine the entire gamut of strategic possibilities, ranging from polite politics to violent action. Protest is a distinctive and complex strategy. The work carefully evaluates varieties of protest that have become significant in the 1980s. In each section of the book Lofland draws out underlying themes and issues that interrelate the studies and places protest in the larger context of political and social change and theories to date. Contents List of Figures Preface and Acknowledgments Introduction: Protest and the Public Arena Part One Collective Behavior: Contexts of Protest Introduction 1. Elementary Forms of Collective Behavior 2. Crowd Joys 3. The Youth Ghetto Part Two Conversion: Readiness for Protest Introduction 4. Becoming a World-Saver 5. Becoming a World-Saver Revisited 6. Conversion Motifs Part Three Movement Organization Introduction 7. Religious Movement Organizations 8. Social Movement Locals 9. Social Movement Culture 10. White-Hot Mobilization 11. Mankind United Part Four Movement Action: Doing Protest Introduction 12. Social Struggle and the Protest Occupation 13. Sociologists as an Interest Group 14. Crowd Lobbying 15. Symbolic Sit-ins Bibliography Index