Sidney Tarrow
Encyclopedia
Sidney G. Tarrow is a professor
of political science and sociology
, known for his research in the areas of comparative politics
, social movements, political parties
, collective action
and political sociology
.
, 1960, American Studies; M.A. Columbia University
, 1961, Public Law and Government; Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley
, 1965, Political Science.
He is currently Maxwell Upson
Professor of Government and Sociology at Cornell University
.
in the 1960s. In the 1970s he moved to the study of comparative local politics and in the 1980s to the study of social movements and protest cycle
s (or 'cycles of contention
'). A specialist in European politics and society, Sidney Tarrow has written widely on Italian and French politics, centre-periphery relations, new social movements
, and contentious politics
. Tarrow is a leading expert on new social movements and, more broadly, the phenomena of contentious behaviour.
His 1998 book Power in Movement analyses the cultural, organizational and personal sources of social movements' power
, stressing that the life cycle
of social movements is a part of political struggle influenced by the existence (or lack of) the politial opportunity structures
. Tarrow's five political opportunity structures includes: 1) increasing access, 2) shifting alignments, 3) divided elites, 4) influential allies and 5) repression and facilitation. Tarrow writes that unlike political or economic social institutions, social movements power is less obvious, but as real. In the book Tarrow tries to explain the cyclical history of social movements (visible in the form of the protest cycle
s). He also shows how movements can affect various spheres of life, such as personal lives, policy reforms and political culture. In that book he also lists four prerequisites of sustainable social movements: 1) political opportunities, 2) diffuse social network
s, 3) familiar forms of collective action (also known as the Charles Tilly
's repertoires of contention), and 4) cultural frames that can resonate throughout a population.
In 2001, Tarrow, with Doug McAdam
and Charles Tilly
, published Dynamics of Contention (Cambridge 2001), in which the authors broadened the social movement framework to cover a broader spectrum of forms of contention. This was followed by Tarrow's New Transnational Activism (Cambridge 2005), in which he applied the framework to the new transnational cycle of contention, and by a textbook with Tilly called Contentious Politics (Paradigm, 2006). He is currently working on international human rights
.
He is also on the advisory board of FFIPP-USA http://www.ffipp.org/about_us (Faculty for Israeli-Palestinian Peace-USA), a network of Palestinian, Israeli, and International faculty, and students, working in for an end of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and just peace.
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of political science and sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
, known for his research in the areas of comparative politics
Comparative politics
Comparative politics is a subfield of political science, characterized by an empirical approach based on the comparative method. Arend Lijphart argues that comparative politics does not have a substantive focus in itself, but rather a methodological one: it focuses on "the how but does not specify...
, social movements, political parties
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
, collective action
Collective action
Collective action is the pursuit of a goal or set of goals by more than one person. It is a term which has formulations and theories in many areas of the social sciences.-In sociology:...
and political sociology
Political sociology
Contemporary political sociology involves much more than the study of the relations between state and society . Where a typical research question in political sociology might have been: "Why do so few American citizens choose to vote?" or even, "What difference does it make if women get elected?" ...
.
Biography
B.A. Syracuse UniversitySyracuse University
Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
, 1960, American Studies; M.A. Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, 1961, Public Law and Government; Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, 1965, Political Science.
He is currently Maxwell Upson
Maxwell Upson
Maxwell Mayhew Upson was a member of the Cornell University Board of Trustees for over 35 years.Upson graduated in 1899 from Cornell with a bachelor's degree in engineering...
Professor of Government and Sociology at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
.
Ideas
Tarrow's first area of interest was the study of communismCommunism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
in the 1960s. In the 1970s he moved to the study of comparative local politics and in the 1980s to the study of social movements and protest cycle
Protest cycle
Protest cycles refers to the cyclical rise and fall in the social movement activity...
s (or 'cycles of contention
Contention
Contention may refer to:* The main contention, in rhetoric, the main point being argued* Resource contention, a general concept in communications and computing, is competition by users of a system for the facility at the same time:...
'). A specialist in European politics and society, Sidney Tarrow has written widely on Italian and French politics, centre-periphery relations, new social movements
New social movements
The term new social movements is a theory of social movements that attempts to explain the plethora of new movements that have come up in various western societies roughly since the mid-1960s which are claimed to depart significantly from the conventional social movement paradigm.There are two...
, and contentious politics
Contentious politics
Contentious politics is the use of disruptive techniques to make a political point, or to change government policy. Examples of such techniques are actions that disturb the normal activities of society such as demonstrations, general strike action, riot, terrorism, civil disobedience, and even...
. Tarrow is a leading expert on new social movements and, more broadly, the phenomena of contentious behaviour.
His 1998 book Power in Movement analyses the cultural, organizational and personal sources of social movements' power
Power (sociology)
Power is a measurement of an entity's ability to control its environment, including the behavior of other entities. The term authority is often used for power perceived as legitimate by the social structure. Power can be seen as evil or unjust, but the exercise of power is accepted as endemic to...
, stressing that the life cycle
Life cycle
Life cycle or lifecycle may refer to: * Biological life cycle* Enterprise life cycle* Life cycle assessment* New product development* Product lifecycle , various meanings* Project life cycle...
of social movements is a part of political struggle influenced by the existence (or lack of) the politial opportunity structures
Opportunity structures
Opportunity Structures, in sociology and related social science disciplines, are exogenous factors which limit or empower collective actors...
. Tarrow's five political opportunity structures includes: 1) increasing access, 2) shifting alignments, 3) divided elites, 4) influential allies and 5) repression and facilitation. Tarrow writes that unlike political or economic social institutions, social movements power is less obvious, but as real. In the book Tarrow tries to explain the cyclical history of social movements (visible in the form of the protest cycle
Protest cycle
Protest cycles refers to the cyclical rise and fall in the social movement activity...
s). He also shows how movements can affect various spheres of life, such as personal lives, policy reforms and political culture. In that book he also lists four prerequisites of sustainable social movements: 1) political opportunities, 2) diffuse social network
Social network
A social network is a social structure made up of individuals called "nodes", which are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.Social...
s, 3) familiar forms of collective action (also known as the Charles Tilly
Charles Tilly
Charles Tilly was an American sociologist, political scientist, and historian who wrote on the relationship between politics and society. He was the Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science at Columbia University....
's repertoires of contention), and 4) cultural frames that can resonate throughout a population.
In 2001, Tarrow, with Doug McAdam
Doug McAdam
Doug McAdam is Professor of Sociology at Stanford University. He is the author or co-author of over a dozen books and over fifty articles, and is widely credited as one of the pioneers of the political process model in social movement analysis. He wrote one of the first books on the theory in 1982...
and Charles Tilly
Charles Tilly
Charles Tilly was an American sociologist, political scientist, and historian who wrote on the relationship between politics and society. He was the Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science at Columbia University....
, published Dynamics of Contention (Cambridge 2001), in which the authors broadened the social movement framework to cover a broader spectrum of forms of contention. This was followed by Tarrow's New Transnational Activism (Cambridge 2005), in which he applied the framework to the new transnational cycle of contention, and by a textbook with Tilly called Contentious Politics (Paradigm, 2006). He is currently working on international human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
.
He is also on the advisory board of FFIPP-USA http://www.ffipp.org/about_us (Faculty for Israeli-Palestinian Peace-USA), a network of Palestinian, Israeli, and International faculty, and students, working in for an end of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and just peace.
Publications
Selected Publications:- Peasant Communism in Southern Italy, New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1967; (revised and translated as Partito comunista e contadini nel Mezzogiorno, Turin: Giulio EinaudiGiulio EinaudiGiulio Einaudi was one of the most important publishers in Italian history.-Biography:Giulio Einaudi was born in Dogliani in 1912, the son of Luigi Einaudi, future president of the Italian Republic, and his wife Ida.He attended the Massimo d'Azeglio liceo classico, and became a student of noted...
, ed., 1972). - Between Center and Periphery: Grassroots Politicians in Italy and France, Yale University Press, 1977; (translated as Tra centro e periferia, Il Mulino, 1979).
- Democracy and Disorder, Oxford University Press, 1989 (revised and translated as Democrazia e disordine, Laterza, 1990).
- Power in Movement: Collective Action, Social Movements and Politics, Cambridge University Press, 1994. (Spanish trans.: El Poder en Movimiento, Alianza, 1998; revised as Power in Movement: Social Movements and Contentious Politics, Cambridge University Press, 1998).
- The New Transnational Activism, Cambridge University Press, 2005.
- (with Bert Klandermans and Hanspeter Kriesi, eds.) From Structure to Action: Comparing Social Movement Research Across Cultures, International Social Movement Research I, (JAI Press, 1988).
- (with David S. Meyer) The Social Movement Society: Contentious Politics for a New Century. Rowman & Littlefield, 1998.
- (with Doug Imig) Contentious Europeans: Protest and Politics in a Europeanizing Polity. Rowman and Littlefield, 2001.
- (with Doug McAdamDoug McAdamDoug McAdam is Professor of Sociology at Stanford University. He is the author or co-author of over a dozen books and over fifty articles, and is widely credited as one of the pioneers of the political process model in social movement analysis. He wrote one of the first books on the theory in 1982...
and Charles TillyCharles TillyCharles Tilly was an American sociologist, political scientist, and historian who wrote on the relationship between politics and society. He was the Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science at Columbia University....
) Dynamics of Contention. Cambridge University Press, 2001. - (with Ron Aminzade, et al.) Silence and Voice in the Study of Contentious Politics. Cambridge U. Press, 2001.
- (with Donatella della PortaDonatella della PortaDonatella della Porta is a professor of political science and sociology, known for her research in the areas of social movements, corruption, political violence and political sociology....
) Transnational Protest and Global Activism, Rowman and Littlefield, 2005.
External links
- Homepage at Cornell, includes a CV
- "Contention and Institutions in International Politics" (2001)
- "The Dualities of Transnational Contention" (2005)
- "Rooted Cosmopolitans," (2005)
- "Identity Work" from Tilly and Tarrow, Contentious Politics (2006)
- Beyond Globalization:Why Creating Transnational Social Movements is so Hard and When is it Most Likely to Happen
- interview with Sidney Tarrow about social science methodology