Tactical Innovation and the Pace of Insurgency

“Figure 1 shows data from McAdam (1983) on the number of civil rights collective actions, for example bus boycotts and sit-ins (see also Chang, 1991), while Figure 2 shows the dramatic increase in the registration of black voters in Southern states which took place over this period.”

“For instance, scholarship on strategic and tactical development, such as the study of repertoires of contention (Tilly 1979, 1995), tactical innovation and diffusion (McAdam 1983, Soule 1997), and tactical overlap (Olzak & Uhrig 2001), has been facilitated by the use of newspaper data.”

“Although students of tactics do offer accounts of their sources (Tilly 1981; Freeman 1979) and their effect on outcomes (Lipsky 1968; Gamson 1975; McAdam 1983), they do not explain why one organization should devise tactics that turn out to be more or less strategically effective than those of…”

“Along with this focus on events, scholars have come to highlight the importance of external factors like political opportunities rather than internal organizational dynamics when accounting for movement tactics (McAdam 1983; Tilly 1995).”

“Several authors have argued that, contrary to the pluralist claim that moderation in politics is more effective than disruption, the use of force by social movements increases the chances that they reach their goals (Astin et al 1975, McAdam 1983, Tarrow 1994, Tilly et al 1975).”

“McAdam has written extensively about the origins and subsequent development of the civil rights period of the African-American freedom struggle (McAdam 1982, 1983, 1988, 1998, 1999).”

“In fact, this tendency has been noted in numerous scholarly works (McAdam 1983; Snow & Benford 1992; Soule & Tarrow 1991; Tarrow 1989, 1994; Tilly 1978, 1993; Zolberg 1972).”

“Following the lead of others (Kriesi et al., 1981; McAdam, 1983; Tarrow, 1989; Tilly et al., 1975), we have collected systematic data on protest events on the basis of a contents analysis of newspaper^.”

“The civil rights movement has been the core case around which these ideas have been developed (Andrews 2004; Jenkins, Jacobs, and Agnone 2003; McAdam 1982, 1983; Meyer and Minkoff 2004).”

“These repertoires often need to be updated through cycles of “tactical innovation” (McAdam, 1983) to remain in the public eye.”

“Tactical Solutions Tactical solutions play an important role in the development of collective action (McAdam 1983; Morris 1993b).”

“…challengers analyze and exploit in- 5 Just as social movements select their targets for protest strategically (Rucht 1988), targets are also strategic actors, involved in an ongoing interaction with their challengers and seeking out movement vulnerabilities (McAdam 1983; Jasper and Poulsen 1993).”

“The emergence of diaspora protest is also influenced by the pace of statechallenger conflicts (McAdam 1983; Rasler 1996; Viterna 2006) in the home country.”

“Movement researchers from a variety of perspectives (Feierabend and Feierabend, 1972; Gurr, 1968a, 1968b; Hibbs, 1973; Marx, 1979; McAdam, 1983; Muller, 1985; Smelser, 1962; Titly, 1978) have stressed the importance of state coercion and control.”

“Movements must innovate in order to effectively agitate for change, but more seasoned activists (in most cases, adults) may be more likely to draw on the same tactical repertoires that they used for past campaigns (McAdam, 1983; Taylor & Van Dyke, 2004).”

“A long line of research has examined the causes and consequences of tactical repertoires within social movements (Gamson 1990; Ganz 2000; McAdam 1982, 1983, Minkoff 1999, Piven and Cloward 1979, Tarrow 1998, Zald and Ash 1966).”

“Engaged in an evolving dynamic of tactical adaptation against dissidents (Diamond, 2010; Lynch, 2011; McAdam, 1983), governing authorities have recognized that everyday uses of ICTs can threaten their monopoly over information and communications and can be harnessed to fuel oppositional…”

“In fact, a major resource of the environmental movement is to present a sharp challenge to the political establishment and thereby mobilize public support for their cause, much as social movement scholars have argued for other challenging groups (Lipsky, 1968; McAdam, 1997).”

“This is consistent with empirical studies showing that peaks of mobilization are around distinct tactics or issues (e.g. Markoff 1997; McAdam 1983).”

“In focusing on different tactics employed by a social movement, we recognize that activists can and do challenge multiple targets using a variety of tactics and repertoires (McAdam 1983, Morris 1993, Soule 2009).”

“…has, for a long time, been one of the methodological staples of social movement research (Andrews 1997, 2001; Burstein and Freudenberg 1978; Jenkins 1985; Jenkins and Perrow 1977; Koopmans 1993, 1995; Kriesi et al. 1995; McAdam 1983, 1999 [1982]; McAdam and Su 2002; Olzak 1992; Tarrow 1989).”

“In one of the few investigations of the forces that shape strategy choices, McAdam (1983) finds that tactical innovations in the civil * I am grateful to Karen Campbell, Ellen Granberg, and Chris Mowery for help with data collection and to David Meyer, Leila Rupp, Wayne Santoro, and Verta Taylor…”

“McAdam has described the black insurgency of the 1955-1970 period in terms of a process of tactical interaction between civil rights advocates and their opponents--a continuous process in which tactical innovations are met by counter-measures (McAdam 1983).”

“In an analysis of tactical innovations within the civil rights movement, McAdam (1983) examined how tactical innovations increased the collection action of that movement and affected its outcomes.”

“On one hand, prior research on activist tactics has focused on their direct effects on targeted organizations (McAdam, 1983; Rojas, 2006; King, 2008).”

“…literature on social movement practices, exemplified by work on organizing structures (e.g., Freeman 1975; McAdam 2001), mobilizing strategy (e.g., McAdam 1983), and tactical repertoires (e.g., Tilly et al. 1975), understands movement practices as independent scripts and schemas that can be…”

“Some have studied the spread of new protest tactics (Soule, 1995, 1997; McAdam, 1983; Meyer & Whittier, 1994; Tilly, 1995b); others the diffusion of ideological frameworks (McAdam, 1995; McAdam & Rucht, 1993; Snow & Benford, 1992); still others the adoption of new organizational forms (Clemens,…”

“In moving this research beyond individual episodes of conflict, researchers will benefit from drawing on the tactical innovation and protest dynamics literature within social movement theory (McAdam 1983; Tarrow 1995; McAdam 1995), as well as literature on learning at the organisational and societal level (The Social…”

“Learning of a tactical innovation ^ like the sit-down strike ^ likewise provides an opportunity to adopt it.(53) Second, the actions of others can in£uence a group’s expectations of their own success.”

“This diversity of actors and tactics may be a strength of the movement, as prior research has shown that organizational diversity and tactical innovation boosts the vitality and success of mobilization efforts (McAdam, 1983; Olzak & Ryo, 2007).”

“Social unrest has been attributed to a variety of social, political, economic, and environmental causes including racial and ethnic tensions [11], food scarcity and food price increases [6–10], variations in international commodity”

“For McAdam (1983), protesters need to constantly innovate their tactics to maintain an edge, while Piven and Cloward (1993) propose that rapid expansions in welfare rolls should be seen as a response to violence on the part of the urban poor.”

“By and large, political science and social movement research expects NGOs to be loosely structured and to engage in "alternative" action repertoires, especially protest activities (Lipsky 1968; McAdam 1997).”

“adversaries adapted their tactics to counter those of the movement, the social movements changed their tactics in order to continue to mobilize (McAdam 1983).”