Hank Johnston

Subcultures and the Emergence of the Estonian Nationalist Opposition 1945–1990

It is widely recognized that subcultural organization provides fertile soil for the development of social movements. There has not, however, been a systematic analysis of how different subcultures may be configured and what characteristics may encourage or inhibit mobilization. This paper takes an initial step in that direction by suggesting a typology of subcultures based on the degree of congruency of subcultural values and behaviors with the those of the dominant culture. We examine two subcultural types which are particularly relevant to social movement development: accommodative subcultures and oppositional subcultures. By drawing on interviews with activists in the former Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, we specify the conditions by which accommodative and oppositional subcultures exist and are successfully transformed into social movements. We trace the evolution from an accommodative subculture under Stalinist terror to an oppositional subculture as state repression lessened under Krushchevs liberalizations, to mass mobilization of the Estonian independence movement in the late 1980s.

Unobtrusive Practices of Contention in Leninist Regimes

This article broadens understanding of the mobilization-repression relationship by drawing on materials from eastern European Leninist regimes. It identifies “unobtrusive practices of contention” as an important yet understudied and undertheorized element of political contention in repressive regimes. Three general forms of unobtrusive practices are identified. First, oppositional speech situations are settings in which participants use tacitly understood rules about what can and cannot be said to criticize the regime and “tell the truth.” Second, duplicitous groups and organizations are officially recognized associations where oppositional speech tends to cluster. This allows for denser and more continuous interaction that imparts to them a mildly oppositional milieu. Third, dissident circles are the most contentious and least unobtrusive form of opposition. They blur the public-private distinction by emphasizing innovative public tactics such as samizdat press and access to foreign media. All three forms are precursors to public protest and the appearance of movement organizations during white-hot mobilization phases.

Ritual, strategy, and deep culture in the Chechen national movement

This paper probes the dichotomy between strategic performance of cultural text and a strong approach to culture that sees fundamental texts as encompassing and determining social action. The central question posed is whether the paradigmatic emphasis on strategy in cultural analysis of protest and social movements misses the compelling influences that cultural texts may exert under certain conditions. Regarding protest movements and political contention, I am especially interested in the ‘deep textual grammar’ of the conflict, which can strongly constrain and guide social action. By identifying and analysing the deep cultural text of the Chechen nationalist movement for the period 1989–1999, this study shows that, in addition to strategic decisions, movement trajectories are sometimes strongly – almost ritualistically – culturally determined. As a first step towards reconceptualising the role of culture in social movements and to spur further investigation, this paper offers several propositions derived from the Chechen case about the relationship of deep culture and mobilisation.

Generations, Microcohorts, and Long-Term Mobilization: The Estonian National Movement, 1940–1991

Generational cohorts are often key collective actors in large-scale mass mobilizations and in movements that develop over long periods. Based on seventy-two biographical interviews, we analyze the generational composition of the Estonian national opposition. Several microcohorts are identified on the basis of experience of historical events and specific political opportunities. These microcohorts clustered around two master collective action frames that, over the long term, shaped the trajectory of the movement into two wings, one claiming a pure Estonian frame for collective action and the other an accommodationist frame. This article traces these dual streams of the national movement during its forty-year trajectory and extrapolates from the analysis several conditions in which generational cohorts are likely to be fundamental causal elements in social movement development.

COLLECTIVE BEHAVOR AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN THE POSTMODERN AGE: Looking Backward to Look Forward

This article specifies several ways in which the collective behavior portion of Collective Behavior/Social Movement (CBSM) studies may be revitalized in the near future. The revitalization will occur because repertoires of extra-institutional challenge emerging in the postmodern age seem to fall outside the way social movements have been theorized in the last twenty-five years. Todays postmodern trends—increasing consumerism and affluence, individualism, demographic complexity, ideological diversity, global migration, and constant innovation in communications technology—have proliferated new social identities and deconstructed social identities imposed by the Other. As a result, postmodernitys complexities are multiplying the number of small, diverse, and diffuse groupings defining themselves in challenging ways outside the corridors of politics. Indeed these groupings may in the years to come recast what some see as a social movement society into a CBSM Society of diverse challenges to the institutional order.

Protest Artifacts in the Mexican Social Movement Sector: Reflections on the “Stepchild” of Cultural Analysis

This chapter examines a neglected dimension in the cultural analysis of social movements: cultural artifacts. We argue that the material productions of movement association such as music, art, literature, speeches, narratives, videos, recruitment texts, and so on, are not just secondary representations of more basic processes, but rather serve as ongoing foci of interaction and meaning production during mobilization. The materiality of artifacts means that they are stable sites where the ongoing creation of culture is accomplished, bridging the diversity of a movement and fostering collective identity so that coordinated movement activities can occur. To elaborate the central role of cultural artifacts, we analyze two that played significant roles in the contemporary Mexican social movement sector: the Estela de Luz and online posting of #YoSoy132. We discuss the (1) temporal processes of how an object becomes an artifact; (2), the diversity of interpretations that surround it; (3) the ongoing processes that hone a widely shared representation; and (4) its central role in mobilization as a trigger of these interpretations, which in the lexicon of protest studies are called collective action frames. We close by discussing the impact of digital artifacts such as the video, “131 Ibero Students” YouTube posting, in future social movement processes.

Theory, Method, and the Mechanism of Framing: Reflections on the Syrian Civil War and Palestinian Intifada

This article bridges two literatures: research on social movements, in which framing is widely recognized as an important causal mechanism; and research in civil wars and insurgencies, which tends to deemphasize cultural-interpretative factors such as framing. We argue that it is important that insights of framing be applied to insurgencies because there is a fundamental framing action that often occurs. We have in mind civil wars in which oppositional activists, who previously had pursued nonviolent tactics, apply a prognostic frame of ‘what to do’ that specifies armed conflict. Drawing on methodologies of subject–verb–object grammars used to analyze political texts, this article elaborates a comprehensive approach to framing that involves not only shifts in the < verb>, or specifications of ‘what to do’, but also shifts in a < subject>, or definitions of ‘who we are’, and in an < object>, or the targets of ‘who the enemy is’. We use organizational texts from the first Palestinian Intifada to demonstrate the approach. We also consider frame shifts in the Syrian civil war, inferring the grammatical structures of the frame transformations for secularists and radical Islamists from events leading up to the outbreak of sustained violence. This article proposes that a three-part grammatical approach captures the interrelated elements of a full and robust framing mechanism that is generalizable. It represents an advance over framing perspectives that typically isolate identity and target components from action prognoses, therefore missing the synchronization among the three, and how limits and/or opportunities for one shape the definition of the others.

El reencuentro de la Psicologia Social con la conducta colectiva y los movimientos socials

Resumen El autor discute tres tendencias recientes que refuerzan la marea creciente de interés hacia los factores sociopsicológicos. Al hacerlo, el autor intenta situar la perspective psicosocial, la tesis central del artículo de Javaloy, 2003 (en este mismo número), justamente en el centro del progreso científico del estudio de la conducta colectiva y los movimientos sociales. Estas tendencias son las siguientes: 1) el interés en los procesos enmarcadores de la acción colectiva, 2) la renovación del interés en torno a las emociones y los movimientos sociales, y 3) la focalización en el espacio geográfico y las relaciones espaciales y su papel de moldeamiento de la conducta colectiva y los movimientos socials.