The Political Context of Collective Action: Power, Argumentation and Democracy (European Political Science)

The study of social and popular movements continues to attract great interest, but little is known of political activity which takes place outside of traditional political structures. Tnis volume looks at informal political action which arises when conventional frameworks, such as those provided by welfare states, are in crisis or decline. At such times the usual expectations about politcal action may not apply, so what actually goes on? Greatly expanding the scope for research into collective action, this volume will be of great interest to students and researchers of politics and sociology interested in this important area. Book Cover......Page 1 Half-Title......Page 2 Series Title......Page 3 Title......Page 4 Copyright......Page 5 Contents......Page 6 Series editor's preface......Page 8 Tables......Page 11 Contributors......Page 12 Introduction: the context of collective political action......Page 14 Part I Relations between context and action: knowledge and ontology......Page 25 1 Movement in context: women and miners’ campaigns in Britain......Page 27 2 The merging of context into collective action......Page 43 3 Technology and context: the impact of collective action on the development of knowledge......Page 56 4 Social movement theory and the political context of collective action......Page 72 Part II Collective action in political context......Page 86 5 Shaping collective action: structure, contingency and knowledge......Page 88 6 Soil pollution, community action and political opportunities......Page 110 7 Context and interpretation in managing the long-term unemployed: implementing an ‘active labour-market policy’ in Dutch cities......Page 130 8 Problems of collective action for associations of the unemployed in France and in Ireland......Page 148 9 Neighbourhoods in the city: contexts for participation in politics?......Page 164 Part III Collective action: knowledge, power and democracy......Page 183 10 Participatory expertise and the politics of local knowledge: a post-positivist perspective......Page 185 11 Integrating contexts: are there general rules for contextualising political decision-making?......Page 196 12 Knowledge, rhetoric and political action in context......Page 209 Index......Page 239 Although the early literature on political opportunity frameworks focused on political institutions and their practices as major structuring devices which condition the possibilities for success and failure of collective action, more recent theorising has emphasised the extent to which non-institutional structures and political and cultural arrangements affect possibilities for collective action. The contributors to this study argue that the analysis of informal collective action should be focussed on the context in which it takes place and on the relation between the concepts of power and knowledge