Contentious Politics

by Charles Tilly, Sidney Tarrow

Overview

Revolutions, social movements, religious and ethnic conflict, nationalism and civil rights, and transnational movements: these forms of contentious politics combine in Charles Tilly's and Sidney Tarrow's Contentious Politics. The authors present a set of analytical tools and procedures for study, comparison, and explanation of these very different sorts of contention. Drawing on many historical and contemporary cases, the book shows that similar principles describe and explain a wide variety of struggles as well as many more routine forms of politics. This fully revised and updated edition explores some of the major contentious events that have taken place since the original book was published in 2007, including the Occupy movement in the United States, the campaign for free elections in the city of Hong Kong, insurrections against Middle Eastern dictatorships, and armed conflicts on the border of the former Soviet Union. Comprehensive and empirically rich, Contentious Politics, 2nd edition remains a valuable resource for developing a more nuanced understanding of modern social movements and political conflicts for students and scholars.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190255077
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	08/18/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Charles Tilly was Joseph L. Buttenweiser Professor of Social Science at Columbia University, and before his death in 2008 was the author of Identities and Social Ties (Paradigm 2005), Trust and Rule (Cambridge 2005), Democracy (Cambridge 2007), and Contentious Performances (Cambridge 2008). He was the first winner of the Albert Hirschman prize for distinguished contributions to the social sciences from the Social Science Research Council. Sidney Tarrow is Maxwell M. Upson Emeritus Professor of Government and Visiting Professor of Law at Cornell University. His latest books are Strangers at the Gates: Movements and States in Contentious Politics (Cambridge 2012), The Language of Contention: Revolutions in Words, 1789-2012 (Cambridge 2013) and War, States, and Contention (Cornell 2015). He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Science and a holder of the John McCarthy Prize for Social Movement Scholarship.

Table of Contents

List of Tables, Figures and Boxes Preface PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Making Claims 2. How to Analyze Contention PART TWO: REPERTOIRES, REGIMES AND OPPORTUNITIES 3. Democracy, Undemocracy, and Change in Repertoires 4. Contention in Hybrid Regimes PART III: INTERACTION AND MOBILIZATION 5. Contentious Interaction 6. Mobilization and Demobilization PART IV: MOVEMENT AND LETHAL POLITICS 7. Social Movements 8. Lethal Conflicts PART V: CONTENTION TODAY AND TOMORROW 9. Transnational Contention 10. Conclusions Appendix A: Concepts and Methods References Index About the Authors

Editorial Reviews

"The second edition of Contentious Politics offers state-of-the-art tools for examining contemporary and historical movements and wider forms of collective action from transnational terrorism to civil wars. The text will be indispensable in social movement-related courses as well as a resource for scholars of resistance movements and historical struggles."
—Paul Almeida, University of California-Merced

"What do anti-slavery protests in 18th century Great Britain share with the Maidan encampment and its outcome for contemporary conflicts in Ukraine and in Europe as a whole? This must-read volume addresses this question by leading us through the complexity of contentious politics. Much more than just an introduction to a vital field of study, it contributes to it at several levels. Not only does it cover a broad range of popular contention in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas, but it also magisterially highlights the theoretical achievements and potential of the field of contentious politics."
—Donatella della Porta, Scuola Normale Superiore and the European University Institute

"I would be highly inclined to use the second edition of Contentious Politics as a main textbook for an undergraduate course on contentious politics and social movements. I believe that this updated edition will inspire discussions around the dialogue between theory and empirical cases. Moreover, its up-to-date analysis of major episodes of contention in the past decade will undoubtedly stimulate students to apply the theoretical definitions of contentious politics to real-world cases."
—Diana Fu, University of Toronto

"Clearly presented and engaging, Contentious Politics remains essential reading for undergraduate and graduate courses on sociopolitical mobilization."
—M.L. Weiss, University of Albany, Choice

From the Publisher