Silence and Voice in the Study of Contentious Politics

Abstract

, a small group of labor organizers from the West German metalworker union, IG Metall, stand shivering in the dark outside a Siemens plant in the East German city of Rostock, passing out leaflets to the morning shift as it enters the plant. Siemens' West German management and other firms in the East have just tried to renege on an earlier promise to increase wages by 26 percent, claiming that they can no longer afford increased wage costs due to the disastrous conditions of the East German economy. That was the official story; but with 40 percent unemployment and massive job insecurity in the East, with no history of western-style collective bargaining, and with membership in free unions new and untested, the employers hope an aggressive united front against the union will win them reduced labor costs and more wage flexibility (Turner 1998:3). It seems-in Lowell Turner's words-like "an employer's dream labor conflict" (p. 4). The business community and the business press urge restraint from the union, while the Economist titles its article on the coming conflict "Mass Suicide" (p. 3). On that chilly morning in early April, it is by no means clear that the union effort to fight the wage freeze will succeed. And the stakes are high: Should it fail, the future of social partnership and unionization are uncertain-not only in the eastern laender but in Germany as a whole. Union leaders have planned only a "warning strike" for this day, but no one knows how the East German workers, after sixty years of Nazism and state socialism, will react. "Listen, I don't know 1 This incident is summarized from Turner (1998).

The spatialities of contentious politics

“…Within sociology, ‘contentious politics’ has come to replace ‘social movements’ as the term used to describe the phenomenon of organised social resistance to hegemonic norms. In the introduction to the book signalling this shift in discourse (Aminzade et al 2001), Sidney Tarrow quotes the following definition of contentious politics, taken from his previous work with Doug McAdam and Charles Tilly:…”

Emociones y movilización de alto riesgo en un contexto de posacuerdo de paz: una reflexión en torno al caso colombiano

“…Antes de contestarlas, debemos recordar que esa reflexión sobre las emociones en la movilización social se asienta sobre una revisión crítica de los principales enfoques de la teoría de la movilización y de sus vacíos hasta los ochenta (Aminzade, et al, 2001;Goodwin, Desafíos, Bogotá (Colombia), (31-2): 133-167, semestre II de 2019 Jasper, 2011;Stekelenburg & Klandermans, 2013). La expresión de las emociones 19 en la movilización fue tradicionalmente vista durante el siglo xx (desde los años 1920 hasta 1990) como un aspecto fuera del alcance del estudio sociológico y politológico.…”

Democratizing the City Through the Colonization of Public Space: A Case Study of Portland Food Not Bombs

“…These individuals do not hold office or formal positions. Rather, these leaders are "task-oriented" focused on completing the weekly meal serving, the movement's primary goal (Aminzade et al 2001). As FNB explicitly states a preference for horizontality, it must be examined if this form of leadership is understood as being synonymous with formal authority and a disguised top-down power structure.…”

“…As FNB explicitly states a preference for horizontality, it must be examined if this form of leadership is understood as being synonymous with formal authority and a disguised top-down power structure. Task-oriented leaders within Portland FNB are also "self-effacing" as they are able to separate themselves from their "power" in order to increase the likelihood that the movement will continue to sustain itself (Aminzade et al 2001). Within FNB, those who bottom-line meals, understood that the time spent within the movement and the knowledge that is accrued during this time, results in an imbalanced relationship between those who are bottom-liners and individuals new to the movement.…”

“…These individuals complete tasks essential to successful meal serving (conducting pick-ups, providing cooking supplies, etc.). This illustrates that leadership within Portland FNB stems from assuming tasks without the power associated with a title or formal position (Aminzade et al 2001). Bottom-liners within Portland FNB, actively disperse knowledge outwards in order to prevent potential hierarchies from forming.…”