Frontiers in Social Movement Methodology

Abstract

I am honored to serve as editor for this special issue of Mobilization on innovative methods in social movements research. I was delighted when Rory McVeigh originally conceived of the idea of compiling manuscripts that employed cutting edge methods of collecting and analyzing data in order to advance contemporary social movement theory. I enjoyed the opportunity to review the wide variety of scholarly works I received for this issue. The six pieces included here represent the best submissions and emerging trends in the field. This special issue encapsulates the breadth of contemporary social movements research. Combined, the pieces highlight both the promise and difficulties associated with using new sources of data and methods. Although there are several similarities across the works, each one offers a unique contribution to the study of social movements. Jennifer Earl’s piece presents a solution to the tricky problem of collecting a representative sample from the Internet when preexisting lists from which to sample do not exist. Critically, Earl shows that findings are heavily driven by sampling strategies. Her study of “reachable websites” reports much higher levels of online-focused protest than prior studies that relied on organizational sampling frames. Alex Hanna’s piece on Egypt’s April 6 youth movement utilizes computeraided content analysis methods. Hanna applies these innovative methods to answer central questions concerning the content of movement discourse and how that content changes over the course of a movement. [0]His piece also serves as an excellent primer on the quantitative analysis of text data, in this case using data gathered from Facebook in multiple languages. While Hanna and Earl’s work are in line with a major trend in the field, the following pieces show that the future will not rely solely on automating analysis or Internet data. Hank Johnston and Eitan Alimi’s careful analysis of the subject-verb-object structure of key documents created by the Palestinian national movement provides an alternate way to examine the process of movement framing. The technique they introduce is grounded in framing theory, methodologically rigorous, and able to provide new insights into framing dynamics. Methods focused on the semantic elements of language move beyond the content of movement texts to offer an additional and underexplored level of meaning construction. Using a similar subject-verb-object method, but with a focus on acts rather than frames, Gianluca De Fazio traces the evolution of contentious relations in Northern Ireland from 1968-1972. Using story grammars and semantic triplets, he maps how the networks of violence changed through mechanisms of radicalization, such as object shift and boundary activation. By moving beyond event counts, this manuscript demonstrates a useful technique appropriate for relational social movement theories. In addition to the data and methods discussed thus far, there remain opportunities for innovative work in case-specific instances. Michael Biggs’ study highlights the advantages of focusing on one rare and newsworthy tactic. He also convincingly shows how one event, the self-immolation of the Vietnamese monk Quang Duc, permanently altered the tactic’s trajectory. This manuscript highlights the value of constructing the genealogies of protest _______________________________