SOCIAL MOVEMENTS For Wladimiro della Porta and Vittorio Diani, in memoriam SECOND EDITION SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AN INTRODUCTION DONATELLA DELLA PORTA AND MARIO DIANI © 1999, 2006 by Donatella della Porta and Mario Diani BLACKWELL PUBLISHING 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148–5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK 550 Swanston Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia The right of Donatella della Porta and Mario Diani to be identified as the Authors of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. First edition published 1998 Second edition published 2006 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd 1 2006 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Della Porta, Donatella, 1956– Social movements : an introduction / Donatella della Porta and Mario Diani. – 2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-1-4051-0282-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-4051-0282-9 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Social movements. I. Diani, Mario, 1957– II. Title. HN17.5.D45 2006 303.48¢4 – dc22 2005011636 A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library. Set in 10 on 12.5 pt Dante by SNP Best-set Typesetter Ltd, Hong Kong Printed and bound in the United Kingdom by TJ International, Padstow, Cornwall The publisher’s policy is to use permanent paper from mills that operate a sustainable forestry policy, and which has been manufactured from pulp processed using acid-free and elementary chlorine-free practices. Furthermore, the publisher ensures that the text paper and cover board used have met acceptable environmental accreditation standards. For further information on Blackwell Publishing, visit our website: www.blackwellpublishing.com CONTENTS Preface to the Second Edition vii 1 The Study of Social Movements: Recurring Questions, (Partially) Changing Answers 1 1.1 Four Core Questions for Social Movement Analysis 5 1.2 What is Distinctive about Social Movements? 20 1.3 On This Book 29 2 Social Changes and Social Movements 33 2.1 Social Structure, Political Cleavages, and Collective Action 36 2.2 States, Markets, and Social Movements 42 2.3 Knowledge, Culture, and Conflicts 47 2.4 Structural Transformations, New Conflicts, New Classes 52 2.5 Summary 62 3 The Symbolic Dimension of Collective Action 64 3.1 Culture and Action: The Role of Values 67 3.2 Culture and Action: The Cognitive Perspective 73 3.3 Problems and Responses 85 3.4 Summary 87 4 Collective Action and Identity 89 4.1 How Does Identity Work? 93 4.2 Multiple Identities 98 4.3 Does Identity Facilitate Participation? 100 4.4 How Is Identity Generated and Reproduced? 105 4.5 Summary 113 5 Individuals, Networks, and Participation 114 5.1 Why Do People Get Involved in Collective Action? The Role of Networks 117 vi CONTENTS 5.2 Do Networks Always Matter? 121 5.3 Individuals and Organizations 126 5.4 Individual Participation, Movement Subcultures, and Virtual Networks 131 5.5 Summary 134 6 Social Movements and Organizations 135 6.1 Organizational Dilemmas in Social Movements 140 6.2 Types of Social Movement Organizations 145 6.3 How Do Social Movement Organizations Change? 150 6.4 From Movement Organizations to Social Movement Networks 156 6.5 Summary 161 7 Action Forms, Repertoires, and Cycles of Protest 163 7.1 Protest: A Definition 165 7.2 Repertoires of Action 168 7.3 The Logics and Forms of Protest 170 7.4 Strategic Options and Protest 178 7.5 Factors Influencing Repertoire Choice 181 7.6 The Cross-National Diffusion of Protest 186 7.7 Cycles of Protest, Protest Waves, and Protest Campaigns 188 7.8 Summary 191 8 The Policing of Protest and Political Opportunities for Social Movements 193 8.1 The Policing of Protest 197 8.2 Political Institutions and Social Movements 201 8.3 Prevailing Strategies and Social Movements 206 8.4 Allies, Opponents, and Social Movements 210 8.5 Discursive Opportunity and the Media System 219 8.6 Summary 221 9 Social Movements and Democracy 223 9.1 Social Movement Strategies and Their Effects 226 9.2 Changes in Public Policy 229 9.3 Social Movements and Procedural Changes 233 9.4 Social Movements and Democratic Theory 239 9.5 Social Movements and Democratization 245 9.6 Summary 248 Notes 250 References 261 Index of Names 329 Index of Subjects 341 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION Many things have happened since the first edition of this book appeared in January 1999. Only a few months later, in November of the same year, what would have become known as “the battle of Seattle” drew public opinion’s atten- tion worldwide towards the sustained challenge that broad coalitions of very het- erogeneous actors were mounting against neoliberal globalization and its main institutional protagonists, such as the IMF or the WTO. All of a sudden, neolib- eralism turned from being regarded as the only possible path to development, on the basis of the TINA (There Is No Alternative [to free market]) dogma and the so-called “Washington consensus,” into a highly disputed and increasingly unpopular option. Leading financiers, economists, and policymakers as well as political leaders across the left–right spectrum were confronted with the claim that another world was indeed possible. Time will tell whether the last few years have actually seen the emergence of a new major political force, in the shape of the global justice movement(s) active across the five continents. We think they have, as we shall try to point out throughout this book, but we might be wrong. Whatever the case, the last years have certainly seen new problems arising for social movement analysts, and there- fore also for a book like ours. The first edition of Social Movements was strongly embedded in, and reflective of, the experience of the “new social movements”: that is to say, the movements which had developed since the late 1960s on issues such as women’s rights, gender relations, environmental protection, ethnicity and migration, peace and international solidarity – with a strong (new) middle- class basis and a clear differentiation from the models of working-class or nation- alist collective action that had historically preceded them. While there are surely continuities between those movements and the current wave of global justice campaigns, there are also many suggestions that the overall patterns of collec- tive action they display is significantly different from those we had grown accus- tomed to. After many years “in the doldrums,” to borrow Leila Rupp and Verta Taylor’s felicitous expression, working-class action seems to be back with a viii PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION vengeance; over all, mobilizations by the dispossessed (be they unskilled workers on precarious employment in the US, populations affected by famine and disease in West Sudan, or local communities threatened by new dams in India) have gained increasing attention and visibility. Basic survival rights and social entitle- ments seem to play a more balanced role in contemporary mobilizations, along- side more postmaterial ones, related to quality of life, than was the case in the recent past. It is not for us to discuss here whether the oblivion in which collective action on social inequality has been left in the past decades was due to its actual diminished relevance, or to oversights on the part of most social movement researchers (surely not all, as people like Colin Barker or Paul Bagguley in the UK or Judith Stepan-Norris, Maurice Zeitlin, Rick Fantasia, Kim Voss, or Gio- vanni Arrighi in the US have constantly reminded us). Either way, the conse- quence for this new edition of Social Movements has been that the context within which we had located our work appeared to us, after only five years, very dif- ferent. Our first response has been that of changing most of the examples of col- lective-action processes with which we start each chapter of the book. In this new edition they mostly refer to instances of conflicts or personal experiences of activism, somehow linked with global justice campaigns or perhaps mobi- lizations on a transnational scale. Adapting our conceptual framework has been, unsurprisingly, far more difficult. At the end, we have gone for a “mini- malist” solution: instead of trying to formulate a radically new approach, inspired by the new phenomena, we have shown how established analytical categories could be used and – when necessary – modified to account for recent developments. The degree to which we have been successful is obviously a matter for the readers to evaluate. There is no doubt, however, that we are as usual indebted to many people who, in different ways, have made this a better book than it would have been otherwise. At Blackwell, Susan Rabinowitz first and later Ken Provencher have proved both patient and supportive editors, while Hank Johnston has presented us with an exceptionally thorough and helpful review of our first draft. Three anonymous colleagues reviewed our proposal for the second edition, again providing valuable insight and advice. Among members of our “inner circle,” we would like first of all mention Chuck Tilly for his relent- less, critical appreciation. Thanks also to Massimiliano Andretta, Delia Baldas- sarri, Colin Barker, Bob Edwards, Olivier Fillieule, Marco Giugni, Doug McAdam, John McCarthy, Hanspeter Kriesi, Lorenzo Mosca, Friedhelm Neid- hardt, Alessandro Pizzorno, Herbert Reiter, Chris Rootes, Dieter Rucht, David Snow, and Sidney Tarrow. Finally, Christina Tischer proved a very reliable assistant with the bibliography of the book, while Sarah Tarrow did nothing to damage her reputation as an outstanding language editor on chapters 2 and 7–9.