Christian Lahusen

The rhetoric of moral protest : public campaigns, celebrity endorsement, and political mobilization

The 1960s retain an iconic status in the annals of popular protest. The coincidence of rising discontent with the status quo and the new accessibility of televisual news media—itself yet to become the victim of slick, commodifying news management techniques—resulted in the more widespread perception of institutional fragility and consequently the heightened sense of fear on the part of the ruling classes. This fear manifested in a variety of ways: firehoses in Birmingham, Alabama; police riots in Chicago and London; tanks in Prague; and a burgeoning academic industry in the production of literature relating to political and social order (e.g. Crozier et al., 1975; Huntington, 1968). Since then, popular protest has become markedly less common in the West, where reference is now most frequently made to political apathy and cynicism. Reportage has become much more programmed too. The initial novelty and apparent spontaneity of protest has given way to a greater familiarity, and consequently news editors are now better equipped in the arts of management of both content and form. In some measure a response to this more difficult climate of protest, campaigners have relied increasingly upon celebrity endorsement and other mediafriendly techniques involving spin-doctoring, the use of eye-catching graphic designs, accompanying music and conformity to conventional standards of personal appearance. Thus, campaigning itself has become professionalized—a far cry from the spontaneity and ‘politics from below’ of the 1960s:

Commercial consultancies in the European Union: the shape and structure of professional interest intermediation

Commercial consultancies in the realm of public affairs and interest intermediation have become an important player within the European Union. This paper presents findings from a survey of commercial interest intermediation. It illustrates that the business has grown and established itself gradually as an accepted and legitimate route of monitoring and influencing European policy-making. Moreover, we perceive that a certain integration and concentration of the business is under way at the European and global level. It is argued that these developments have an impact on European interest intermediation, first, because this business makes public affairs and interest intermediation more systematic, plural and competitive, and, second, because the business serves as an interface between European and global, internal and external affairs.

International Campaigns in Context: Collective Action between the Local and the Global

International campaigns have strongly shaped the image of social movements in the public eye. Protest actions at the most distant places (e.g. the nuclear testing on the Mururoa Atoll in August and September 1995) and forums of non-governmental organizations (NGO) at the international conferences of the United Nations both seem to belong to the routine activism of the international networks of social movements and their organizations. Apparently grass-roots activism is increasingly being replaced by a jet set of NGO diplomats and professional activists who bring some of the exotic flair of the politically engaged ‘global village’ onto our TV screens. The aim of this chapter is to ask whether this representation is adequate, i.e. whether social movements are internationalizing and thus transcending the national and cross-national level to erupt onto a global arena. In particular, the role and structure of political mobilization will be addressed along these lines.1

Transcending Marginalization: The Mobilization of the Unemployed in France, Germany, and Italy in a Comparative Perspective

Mobilization by the unemployed was long considered highly improbable. The obstacles have been abundantly outlined in the literature and related to powerful forces of social and political atomization (Richards 2002). First of all, we are dealing with a very heterogeneous group of people with different biographies, diverse interests, and a range of identities and belief-systems. Mobilization is further hindered by the public stigmatization of the unemployed (Piven and Cloward 1977). This stigma impedes the formation of collective mobilizations and leads rather to social isolation (Wolski-Prenger 1996). Moreover, the job insecurity of the unemployed complicates the formation of stable networks, memberships, and organizations. Finally, scholars tend to argue since the path-breaking Marienthal study (Jahoda, Lazarsfeld and Zeisel 1971 [1933]) that unemployment, particularly long-term joblessness, drives individuals into apathy and fatalism, and leads to the erosion of social capital (e.g. trust, personal contacts, and organizational memberships). Most scholars have taken these sociological and psychological features and consequences of unemployment for granted and have thus tended to argue that the collective mobilization of the jobless is either improbable or even impossible. However, at least in the light of the recent rise of collective action by the unemployed in Europe, such analyses require substantial qualification.

Moving Into the European Orbit

European integration has attracted numerous interest groups to the European Union, but also many commercial consultancies that work in the realm of public affairs and interest representation. The article offers empirical evidence on this business and aims to answer two questions: which sectoral and national interests are being serviced and how is the business organized in terms of working areas and levels of action? The findings illustrate that the consulting business has a centre of gravity in Brussels and champions economic interests from Anglo-Saxon countries. Beyond that, it has established itself as an accepted European player operating on several levels of action, working for a broader range of sectoral and national clients and maintaining strong working relations with other European actors. I contend that this development is due to the particular goods delivered and to the complex and disjointed structure of European policy-making.

The Protests of the Unemployed in France, Germany and Sweden (1994–2004): Protest Dynamics and Political Contexts

Collective protest actions by the unemployed and the precariously employed spread throughout the European countries during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Social movement scholars became interested in these mobilizations because these protest actions challenged the assumption that poor people and weak interests rarely engage in such activities. This paper deals with these challenges by summarizing and discussing the latest research on the mobilization of the jobless in order to present available findings from three European countries and to unveil conducive conditions. Particular emphasis is placed upon mobilization structures. This paper argues that ongoing changes at a societal level—here mainly related to grievances, constituencies and organizational infrastructures—provide a beneficial background for increasing the probability of collective action by the jobless. While local protests were much more common, attempts to stabilize and widen political mobilization across time and space proved to depend on available political opportunities at the national level. Here, apparent differences between the European countries become evident.

The good government: cooperative environmental regulation in a comparative perspective

On both the national and European levels, cooperation between state and society has developed considerably with regard to decision-making and regulatory enforcement, often with the explicit intention of raising the effectiveness and legitimacy of the regulatory practices. A number of instruments (e.g. voluntary agreements, joint implementation, environmental dispute resolution, legislative consultation and concertation procedures) have been developed and introduced, which seem to generalize and expand cooperation as a principle of environmental regulation altogether. The present paper aims to take up these developments by drawing a picture of ‘cooperative’ environmental regulation in Great Britain, France, Germany and the USA, the purpose being to delineate and compare national styles or patterns of cooperation. It is argued that each country has a proper way of organizing and moulding cooperation within public administration and between state and society. Moreover, each style of cooperation is linked to distinct working relationships, problem-solving approaches and strategies of validation and legitimization. In spite of these different traditions and styles, however, it will be argued that all countries are bringing about a less autonomous and more cooperative state. This general development, which is repeated on the European level as well, raises the need for a more strongly structured and transparent organization of cooperative relations between the state and society. Copyright

Politiknetzwerke — Vorteile und Grundzüge einer qualitativen Analysestrategie

Der Netzwerkbegriff hat in der sozialwissenschaftlichen Politikforschung eine herausgehobene Bedeutung erlangt. Damit reagieren Politikwissenschaftler und Soziologen auf die Tatsache, dass politische Willensbildung und Entscheidungs-findung stets eine Vielzahl von staatlichen und nicht-staatlichen Akteuren ein-binden. Regieren ist eine Sache der politischen Verhandlung und Abstimmung vielfaltiger und widerstreitender Interessen, Argumente oder Bewertungen und damit eine Sache der interorganisationellen Kooperation und Koordination. In diesem Sinne argumentiert die Forschung, dass man die Struktur eines Politik-feldes und damit die „Logik“ der darin entwickelten Politiken adaquat einfangen kann, indem man die Netzwerke, die sich zwischen den beteiligten politischen Organisationen entwickeln, herausarbeitet und analysiert (Knoke 1990; Weyer 2000).

Action organization analysis: Extending protest event analysis using hubs-retrieved websites

The comprehensive and systematic study of collective action organizations (AOs) requires a new methodological approach that takes into account the rise of online sources as well as the new ways in which people interact and participate in politics. This article aims to present and situate in the related literature such an approach, which was recently created and applied in two European Commission funded research projects, LIVEWHAT and TransSOL, across nine and eight countries respectively. Moving beyond recent studies using online sources, our research used a hubs website based approach to study alternative action organizations (AAOs) in the LIVEWHAT project and transnational solidarity AOs in the TransSOL project. The hubs and subhubs websites that aggregate data on AOs in multiple regions were scraped to identify national samples that offer advanced coverage of the repertoire of AO activities, as defined by the teams. These nodal websites were used as sources, similar to the way in which newspapers are treated in protest event analysis. The article situates and compares the new action organization analysis approach against its foundational protest event, protest case, and political claims analyses, as well as other approaches offering data on online activism. It outlines its main features and the related data construction process, while showcasing its application in the two European Commission cross-national projects. Finally, its merits and limitations are discussed, including a reference to how it can be used as a foundation for a mixed-methods approach.

Institutionelle Umwelten und die Handlungsfähigkeit von NGOs

Nichtregierungsorganisationen (NGOs) genossen in den letzten Jahren ein erhohtes Mas an offentlicher Aufmerksamkeit, denn in der offentlichen Diskussion wurden die NGOs angesichts eines grassierenden Unbehagens am Staats- oder Marktversagen als ein alternatives Instrument der Regulierung offentlicher Belange eingefuhrt. Diese offentliche Aufmerksamkeit ist aber nicht nur hoher, sie ist damit auch enttauschungsanfalliger, denn man muss annehmen, dass die NGOs die in sie gesetzten Hoffnungen nur schwerlich in dem erhofften Mase erfullen konnen. In der Tat erhoht sich der Erfolgsdruck auf fast allen Ebenen. Denn die Aufgabenlast und Verantwortung des NGOSektors wachst in fast allen Tatigkeitsbereichen (soziale und Gesundheitsdienste, Kultur und Erziehung etc.), gleichwohl die Finanzierung angesichts knapper offentlicher Kassen und eines nur langsam wachsenden Spenden- und Dienstleistungsmarktes an Grenzen stost und damit die Bemuhungen um eine starkere offentliche Prasenz und Unterstutzung, um neue Fordertopfe oder Marktnischen steigert.