Bert Klandermans – författare

Researchers and students from divergent academic disciplines share an interest in the study of social movements and collective action. Through a variety of disciplinary approaches and techniques, researchers seek to understand the emergence and development of collective action. In the last few decades, the field of social-movements-studies has proliferated enormously, covering a wide array of movements, issues and places. With this growth, social movement scholars have criticized the traditional vision of collective mobilization as the results of irrational behavior and have instead developed a range of new approaches. The expansion of the field has also led to increased theoretical debates and attempts to synthesize the different perspectives. But these attempts have met with the obstacle of the field being multidisciplinary. Discussion a theory from many areas of research can lead to misunderstandings.

This book offers novel insights into the way in which people talk about politics across various countries. Drawing on focus groups research in nine countries, including ‘mature’ democracies, post-communist ‘new’ democracies and post-authoritarian ‘new’ democracies, it offers comparative reflection on how talk about political activity is shaped by peoples’ perceptions of specific opportunities to participate, the issues that concern them and the broader political environment. It thus examines citizens’ views of major issues and political grievances in their own words and helps to shed new light on reasons for engagement in political acts, whether through electoral or protest channels, or political disengagement.

This book offers novel insights into the way in which people talk about politics across various countries. Drawing on focus groups research in nine countries, including ‘mature’ democracies, post-communist ‘new’ democracies and post-authoritarian ‘new’ democracies, it offers comparative reflection on how talk about political activity is shaped by peoples’ perceptions of specific opportunities to participate, the issues that concern them and the broader political environment. It thus examines citizens’ views of major issues and political grievances in their own words and helps to shed new light on reasons for engagement in political acts, whether through electoral or protest channels, or political disengagement.

This handbook provides a broad and comprehensive overview of the study of social movements and collective action, discussing the different disciplinary approaches that have developed. In addition to updated discussions of topics that were included in the 1st edition, this handbook includes substantial advances in the research and scholarship in the field. The study of collective behavior and contentious politics has spread to a number of new disciplines such as communication science, organization science and law. The international wave of new protests in 2013 spurred new scholarship as well. This revised and updated edition integrates the wealth of new theoretical insights and empirical work since 2007.