| FT-57086-09 | Research Programs: Summer Stipends | Karen Beckwith | "Mobilization after Loss? Social Movements and the Effects of Losing" | 6/1/2009 - 7/31/2009 | $6,000.00 | Karen | | Beckwith | | | | Case Western Reserve University | Cleveland | OH | 44106-1712 | USA | 2009 | Political Science, General | Summer Stipends | Research Programs | 6000 | 0 | 6000 | 0 |
Why do some social movements persist in the face of continuing loss? What are the conditions under which social movements remobilize for a new campaign after loss, and what factors instead lead some social movements into abeyance, demobilization or dispersion? I plan to answer these questions by examining women's activism in three coalfield communities during the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) strike against the National Coal Board in Britain in 1984-85, and by exploring women's remobilization opportunities in the NUM's anti-pit closure campaign in 1992-94. Relying on evidence from field research, primary documents and interviews with activists, I will assess the impact of the prior strike loss on the 1992-94 campaign by considering three possible explanations for post-loss remobilization: opportunity for political learning; framing of loss by the social movement; and reshaping the political opportunity structure. |