Power in Movement: Social Movements and Contentious Politics (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics)

What I disliked about this book was the writing style of the author. It seemed that he was trying to express even the most simple concepts with verbose, pedantic language that made his arguments difficult to understand and distracted the reader from the points he was trying to make. For example, he defines a cycle of contention like this: "a phase of heightened conflict across the social system: with a rapid diffusion of collective action from more mobilized to less mobilized sectors; a rapid pace of innovation in the forms of contention; the creation of new or transformed collective action frames; a combination of organized and unorganized participate; and sequences of intensified information flow and interaction between challengers and authorities. Such widespread contention produces externalities that give challengers at least a temporary advantage and allows them to overcome the weaknesses in their resource base. It demands that states devise broad strategies of response that are either repressive or facilitative, or a combination of the two." (Page 142.)

The only reason I can fathom that anyone would feel the need to write in such an absurdly inflated style would be if the author's argument and thesis weren't strong to begin with, and the author's intention was to confuse the reader. I think the author could have gotten his point across in a much clearer and concise way. I would advise anyone who is thinking about reading it to peruse the sample pages for more examples of the author's style- then decide if you can stomach this book.

Overall, good information, but the writing style is ridiculous.


Ideal for the social movement student   August 24, 2001
 8 out of 10 found this review helpful

I had to read an earlier edition of that book for a course on social movements. It was one of my first contacts with social movements literature. Since then, I plug almost everything I read on social movement to the theoretical framework described in this book. I guess the main quality of this book is that the author recognise the contributions made by different schools of thought on social movements and tries to situate them in a larger framework rather then dismiss them. Therefore, anyone working within a specific area of social movement studies can gain something from the reading of this book. However, the major contribution of this book is probably the theorization of the "cycles of contentions" based on changing political opportunity structure. As the opportunity structure open for a social movement, the movement is on the rise... when it close, for example because of a change in the public opinion caused by a rise in insecurity and violence, the movement disolve. Although a very simple theory, it appers very effective in understanding the rise and fall of social movements.

As any student of social movements would argue, this book does not cover all aspect of social movements (e.g. identity, emotions, ...) but Tarrow does leave enough space for other approaches while developing is how theoretical approach to social movements. An excellent book!