Putting Social Movements In Their Place: Explaining Opposition To Energy Projects In The United States, 2000-2005 (cambridge Studies In Contentious Politics)
by Professor Doug McAdam /
2012 / English / PDF
11.6 MB Download
The field of social movement studies has expanded dramatically over
the past three decades. But as it has done so, its focus has become
increasingly narrow and "movement-centric." When combined with the
tendency to select successful struggles for study, the conceptual
and methodological conventions of the field conduce to a decidedly
Ptolemaic view of social movements: one that exaggerates the
frequency and causal significance of movements as a form of
politics. This book reports the results of a comparative study, not
of movements, but of 20 communities earmarked for environmentally
risky energy projects. In stark contrast to the central thrust of
the social movement literature, the authors find that the overall
level of emergent opposition to the projects to have been very low,
and they seek to explain that variation and the impact, if any, it
had on the ultimate fate of the proposed projects.
The field of social movement studies has expanded dramatically over
the past three decades. But as it has done so, its focus has become
increasingly narrow and "movement-centric." When combined with the
tendency to select successful struggles for study, the conceptual
and methodological conventions of the field conduce to a decidedly
Ptolemaic view of social movements: one that exaggerates the
frequency and causal significance of movements as a form of
politics. This book reports the results of a comparative study, not
of movements, but of 20 communities earmarked for environmentally
risky energy projects. In stark contrast to the central thrust of
the social movement literature, the authors find that the overall
level of emergent opposition to the projects to have been very low,
and they seek to explain that variation and the impact, if any, it
had on the ultimate fate of the proposed projects.
