week 2 notes

"Social movements are not organizations, not even of a particular kind. They are networks of interaction between different actors which may either include formal organizations or not, depending on shifting circumstance."

Common features

• Structure of political opportunities & restraints
• Forms of organization (formal & informal) available
• Collective process of interpretation, attribution & social construction that mediate between opportunity & action.

Questions::

• Does the internet introduce new repertoires of contention or extend old ones?
• Does each new development in new media provide the potential for new movement actions?
• What impact are the internet & social media having on the opportunity structures available to movement actors?
• Are there drawbacks to making new media central to movement activism?