Reconceptualizing social movements and power: towards a social ecological approach

Au, Anson (2017) Reconceptualizing social movements and power: towards a social ecological approach. Sociological Quarterly, 58 (3). pp. 519-545. ISSN 0038-0253

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Abstract

Existing social movement theories subsume protests into abstract conceptualizations of society, and current ethnographic studies of protests overburden description. Through a case study of London protests, this article transcends these limitations by articulating a social ecological approach consisting of critical ethnography and autoethnography that unearth the organizational strategies and symbolic representations exchanged among police, protesters, and third-party observers, while mapping the physical and symbolic characteristics of space bearing on these interactions. This approach points to a conceptualization of power at work as transient, typological structures: (a) rooted in collective agency; (b) both mediating and mediated by symbolic representations; (c) whose sensibilities are determined by symbolic interpretations; and (d) thrown into binary opposition between protester power and police power, who mutually represent meanings to resist and be resisted by.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/utsq20/current
Additional Information:	© 2017 Midwest Sociological Society
Divisions:	Methodology LSE Health
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform
Date Deposited:	24 Jan 2018 15:16
Last Modified:	22 Nov 2024 03:51
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/86532

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