Florence Passy

Social Networks and Individual Perceptions: Explaining Differential Participation in Social Movements

This paper seeks to explain differential participation in social movements. It does so by attempting to bridge structural-level and individual-level explanations. We test a number of hypotheses drawn from the social networks and the rationalist perspectives on individual engagement by means of survey data on members of a major organization of the Swiss solidarity movement. Both perspectives find empirical support: the intensity of participation depends both on the embeddedness in social networks and on the individual perceptions of participation, that is, the evaluation of a number of cognitive parameters related to engagement. In particular, to be recruited by an activist and the perceived effectiveness of ones own potential contribution are the best predictors of differential participation. We specify the role of networks for social movements by looking at the nature and content of networks and by distinguishing between three basic functions of networks: structurally connecting prospective participants to an opportunity to participate, socializing them to a protest issue, and shaping their decision to become involved. The latter function implies that the embeddedness in social networks significantly affects the individual perceptions of participation.

Life-Spheres, Networks, and Sustained Participation in Social Movements: A Phenomenological Approach to Political Commitment

This article proposes an account of individual participation in social movements that combines structural and cultural factors. It aims to explain why certain activists continue to be involved in social movements while others withdraw. When activists remain embedded in social networks relevant for the protest issues and, above all, when they keep a symbolic linkage between their activism and their personal life-spheres, sustained participation is likely to occur. When these two factors become progressively separated from each other and the process of self-interaction by activists loses its strength, disengagement can be expected. The argument is illustrated with life-history interviews of activists who have kept their strong commitment to a major organization of the Swiss solidarity movement, and others that, in contrast, have abandoned their involvement. The findings support the argument that the interplay of the structural positions of actors and the symbolic meanings of mobilization has a strong impact on commitment to social movements and hence on sustained participation or disengagement. In particular, the interviews show the importance of a sense of coherence and of a holistic view of ones personal life for keeping commitment over time. This calls for a view of individual participation in social movements that draws from social phenomenology and symbolic interactionism in order to shed light on the symbolic (subjective) dimensions of participation, yet without neglecting the crucial role played by structural (objective) factors.

Resilient or adaptable Islam?: Multiculturalism, religion and migrants' claims-making for group demands in Britain, the Netherlands and France

This article investigates multiculturalism by examining the relationship between migrants’ group demands and liberal states’ policies for politically accommodating cultural and religious difference. It focuses especially on Islam. The empirical research compares migrants’ claims-making for group demands in countries with different traditions for granting recognition to migrants’ cultural difference – Britain, France and the Netherlands. Overall, we find very modest levels of group demands indicating that the challenge of group demands to liberal democracies is quantitatively less than the impression given by much multicultural literature. Group demands turn out to be significant only for Muslims, which holds across different countries. Qualitative analysis reveals problematic relationships between Islam and the state, in the overtly multicultural Dutch approach, within British race relations, and French civic universalism. This implies that there is no easy blueprint for politically accommodating Islam, whose public and religious nature makes it especially resilient to political adaptation.This article investigates multiculturalism by examining the relationship between migrants’ group demands and liberal states’ policies for politically accommodating cultural and religious difference. It focuses especially on Islam. The empirical research compares migrants’ claims-making for group demands in countries with different traditions for granting recognition to migrants’ cultural difference – Britain, France and the Netherlands. Overall, we find very modest levels of group demands indicating that the challenge of group demands to liberal democracies is quantitatively less than the impression given by much multicultural literature. Group demands turn out to be significant only for Muslims, which holds across different countries. Qualitative analysis reveals problematic relationships between Islam and the state, in the overtly multicultural Dutch approach, within British race relations, and French civic universalism. This implies that there is no easy blueprint for politically accommodating Islam, whose public and religious nature makes it especially resilient to political adaptation.

The Denationalization of Immigration Politics

Many scholars have recently argued that nation-state—centered approaches in comparative sociology and political science are obsolete. In this view, we have entered, or are about to enter, a new “postnational” or “transnational” era characterized by complex and qualitatively new patterns of multilevel governance, in which the nation-state still plays a role, though a drastically reduced one.1 This decline of the nation-state’s sovereignty is said to be accompanied by a growing importance of supranational and transnational actors, institutions, legal norms, and discourses, on the one hand, and increased local autonomy from national constraints, on the other. Given the inherently transnational nature of migration, it is not surprising that this critique of national approaches has been particularly prominent in this field of study.

Does Commitment Change Worldviews

In this chapter, we ask whether political and civic commitment changes a person’s worldviews. Over a timeframe of eleven years (1999–2009), we consider worldviews of individuals who either become members of an environmental protection organization, a charitable organization, or a union. We show that commitment differs in relation to different groups of joiners: the majority joins an organization with worldviews similar to those who have already committed. Thus, the worldviews of this group are hardly affected by commitment. Other members, however, engage in joint action with worldviews that differ from those already committed. This group synchronizes their worldviews over time with the community they commit to. In addition, changes are durable. Commitment hence affects worldviews of new members in different ways and consequently, longitudinal analysis of subgroups is a fruitful enterprise for scholars interested in the life course effects of commitment.

Rechtsradikale Mobilisierungen in Frankreich und der Schweiz

Zu den relevantesten Folgen des Globalisierungsprozesses gehoren der wachsende Strom von Einwanderern und Asylsuchenden nach Westeuropa sowie eine grosere kulturelle Heterogenitat in diesem Teil der Welt. Diese Entwicklungen haben dazu gefuhrt, dass in den gegenwartigen politischen Kontroversen in Europa Einwanderung und das Verhaltnis zu Auslandern eine entscheidende Rolle spielen. Die extreme Rechte ist ein zentraler Akteur in diesem Bereich. Da sie Immigration und eine multikulturelle Gesellschaft als Bedrohung fur die nationale Identitat empfinden, haben rechtsextreme Parteien und Gruppierungen vor allem diese Themen auf ihre Fahnen geschrieben und erheblich zu deren Politisierung beigetragen. Doch Form und Ausmas rechtsradikaler Reaktionen unterscheiden sich von Land zu Land. Das legt die Vermutung nahe, dass zwischen Globalisierung und politischer Mobilisierung kein unmittelbarer Zusammenhang besteht, sondern dass eine Reihe landes-spezifischer Variablen dieses Verhaltnis beeinflusst.