Collective action oucomes

Seminars

 

 

Overview of the course: The course aims on the one hand to provide a broad introduction to the growing empirical research about collective action outcomes, on the other hand to familiarize students with theoretical concepts of collective action outcomes. We will discuss a wide variety of topics that are central in collective action outcomes research: targets, organizational forms, policy outcomes, strategy, biographical outcomes, interrelated outcomes, effectiveness, political context, media, alliance, etc. Looking across-geographical areas and historical periods, the various sessions will discuss course readings as well as critical background, concepts, theories, and ideas that complement the readings referring to relevant studies in sociology, political science, and history. The course will serve as a guide for further independent study of how collective action matters.

 

Course format: The course is articulated into eight seminars according to the timetable provided below. Every seminar involves a  mixture of a lecture and some discussion. For each of the meetings, students are required to adopt a pro-active stance based on the reading of all the articles/chapters in the reading list. In particular, at each meeting, one student will present the readings, describing their content, methods and findings in critical perspective. Then a general discussion will follow. All students must do the readings and participation in the seminars is compulsory. Academic guests and PhD students from SNS will give invited talks on specific topics related to the course.

 

 

Requirements: Master (50%) and PhD students will be evaluated through their participation and active participation in class. PhD students are not required to write a paper as the instructor will only determine whether they have passed (or failed) the course. Those PhD students who arewilling to write their term paper on the topic of the course, between 5,000 and 6,000 words, must agree the topic of the paper with the professor. Master students must produce a final paper (in Italian or English) of not more than 3,000 words on one of the topics covered during the course (50%). Students are expected to attend all class meetings except in cases of Covid reasons, illness or urgent family issues. More detailed information on the requirements of the course will be discussed on the first day of class.

 

 

Schedule

 

 

Session N. 1 Introduction to collective action outcomes research

(4/4/2021, h. 10-13)

In the first session we will focus on the presentation of the course. This will be done by reviewing the main concepts and approaches on collective action outcomes research, while drawing attention to key contemporary debates and the main problems that have undermined this field of studies.

 

Required readings:

1. Bosi and Uba. 2021. Collective Action Outcomes: Ways Forward for the Subfield. Partecipazione e Conflitto 14 (3): 987-997.

 

Additional readings:

1. Earl. 2000. “Methods, Movements, and Outcomes.” Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change 22: 9-13.
2. Bosi, Giugni and Uba. 2016. “The Consequences of Social Movements: Taking Stock and Looking Forward” in Lorenzo Bosi, Marco Giugni and Katrin Uba (eds.) The Consequences of Social Movements: Policies, People and Institutions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 3-38.

 

 

Session N. 2 Political Outcomes

(6/4/2021, h. 10-12)

This session will address the political consequences of collective action in terms of policies, legislation, political institutions, and regimes, or the actions taken by political parties. This is the most frequently studied domain of social movement outcomes.

 

Required readings:

1. Amenta, Andrews and Caren. 2018. “The Political Institutions, Processes and Outcomes Movements Seek to Influence” in Snow, Soule, Kriesi and McCammon (eds) The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Social Movements, pp. 447-465.
2. Meyer. 2005. “Social Movements and Public Policy: Eggs, Chicken, and Theory.” Pp. 1-26 in Routing the Opposition: Social Movements, Public Policy, and Democracy, edited by David Meyer, Valerie Jenness, and Helen Ingram. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Additional readings:

1. Uba. 2009. “The contextual Dependence of Movements Outcomes: A Simplified Meta-Analysis” Mobilization, 14: 433-448.

2. McAdam and Tarrow (2010). “Ballots and barricades: On the reciprocal relationship between elections and social movements.” Perspectives on Politics, 8(2), 529-542.

 

 

Session N. 3 Biographical Outcomes

(13/4/2021, h. 10-12)

The third session will address the impact of mobilization on the lives of participants in collective action.

Required readings:

1. Fillieule and Neveau. 2019. “Activists’ Trajectories in Space and Time: An Introduction” in Neveu and Filliwule (eds.) Activists forever? Long-term impacts of political activism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1-37.
2. Passy, Florence and Gian‐Andrea Monsch. “Biographical Consequences of Activism.” In The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Social Movements. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell. Edited by David A. Snow, Sarah A. Soule, Hanspeter Kriesi, and Holly J. McCammon, 499-514. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell, 2019.

 

Additional readings:

1. Giugni. 2004. “Personal and Biographical Consequences”. In The Blackwell Compan- ion to Social Movements MA, edited by Snow, D. A., Soule, S. A., and Kriesi,  H. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 412–432.


 

 

Session N. 4 Social Movements’ trajectories

(15/4/2021, h. 10-12)

This session will look at how social movements shape cultural outcomes.

Required readings:

1. Bosi (2006) “The Dynamic of Social Movement Development: Northern Ireland's Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s” Mobilization 11(1), pp. 81-100.
2. Bosi. 2016. “Incorporation and democratization: the long-term process of institutionalization of the Norther Ireland Civil Rights Movement”. in Lorenzo Bosi, Marco Giugni and Katrin Uba (eds.) The Consequences of Social Movements: Policies, People and Institutions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 338-360.

 

Additional readings:

1. TBC
2. TBC

 

 

Session N. 5 Interrelated outcomes

(20/4/2021, h. 10-12)

This session will look at how different types of effects relate to each other.

Required readings:

1. Bosi. 2016. “Social Movements and Interrelated Effects.” Revista Internacional de Sociologia 74.
2. Bosi. 2019. “Contextualizing the Biographical Outcomes of Provisional IRA Former Activists: A Structure-Agency Dynamic” in Neveu and Filliwule (eds.) Activists forever? Long-term impacts of political activism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 202-220.

 

Additional readings:

1. TBC
2. TBC

 

 

Session N. 6 Enviromental movements outcomes

(27/4/2021, h. 10-12)

In the sixth session, we will focus on the impacts of environmental movements and activists.

 

Required readings:

1. Erik Johnson and Jon Agnone. 2022. “Policy and Legislative Outcomes of Environmental Movements ” in Grasso and Giugni (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Environmental Movements.
2. Joanna Huxster. 2022. “Influence of Environmental Movements on Public Opinion and Attitudes: Do People’s Movements Move the People?” in Grasso and Giugni (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Environmental Movements.

 

Additional readings:

1. David Hess. 2022. “Environmental Movements and Scientific, Technological, and Industrial Change” Social Forces 86.1 (2007): 137–163. in Grasso and Giugni (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Environmental Movements.
2. Sara Vestergren and John Drury. 2022. Biographical Consequences of Environmental Activism. in Grasso and Giugni (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Environmental Movements.

 

 

Session N. 8 Spillover as movement agenda setting

Guest speaker: Jennifer Earl, Arizona University, jennifearl@arizona.edu

(27/4/2021, h. 12-14)

In the third session, with the help of a renowned academic scholar in the field, we aim at extending the reflection on political outcomes by looking at agenda spillover, which occurs when the goals of one movement come to be taken up by another movement in a serious or enduring manner.

 

Required readings:

1. Earl and Misty. Forthcoming. “Spillover through shared agendas: understanding how social movements set agendas for one another” Partecipazione e Conflitto.
2. Earl and Misty. In progress. “Social Movement Organizations and Agenda Spillover: Evaluating the Importance of SMOs to Inter-movement Agenda Setting”

 

Additional readings:

1. King, Brayden G., Keith G. Bentele, and Sarah A. Soule. “Protest and Policymaking: Explaining Fluctuation in Congressional Attention to Rights Issues, 1960–1986.” Social Forces 86.1 (2007): 137–163.
2. WHITTIER, N. 2004. The Consequences of Social Movements for Each Other. In: SNOW, D. A., SOULE, S. A. & KRIESI, H. (eds.) The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

 

 

Session N. 9 Roundtable on social movement outcomes

 

(9/5/2021, h. 10-13)

This session will focus on the presentation of existing projects on social movement outcomes developed at the Faculty. We will focus in particular on biographical outcomes and coalitions/networks and their outcomes.