University of Maryland i
Sociology 432: Social Movements

Tarrow, "Cycles of Collective Action"

Sidney Tarrow, "Cycles of Collective Action:
Between Moments of madness and the Repertoire of Contention.
(chapter 27 in the McAdam and Snow reader, pages 328-339)

This is our first exposure to a reading that is structured like an article in a professional journal. Getting used to the style and conventions of a journal article will help you understand what the author is trying to prove. Articles are usually laid out in a conventional format:

  1. an opening that tries to demonstrate that the issue is important;
  2. theory and concepts;
  3. review of past empirical research;
  4. research methods (source of data, variables, statistical analysis);
  5. results;
  6. discussion: implications of results and (sometimes) alternative interpretations;
  7. summary
Not all articles have all these parts, but many do. The order of these parts is rarely different: academics can be great conformists on matters of style.

This article is wonderful because it introduces so many of the concepts we will be wrestling with throughout the semester. The research methods are also typical of several studies we will encounter. And we will encounter considerable other evidence that Tarrow's generalizations are probably sound.

Concepts and theory

The title captures most of what is important. Be sure you understand (and can explain):

Tarrow theorizes that five variables will change depending on the stage of the cycle of collective action. Be able to describe each of these five changes.

Methods

Tarrow gives a very abbreviated discussion of his methods (referring us to another publication in which there is more detail). Nevertheless, you should understand:

After you understand what Tarrow did, think more about these variables. Are there any variables that seem questionable to you? What might happen if different definitions were used?

Tarrow's data comes from Italy. They remind us that the upheaval of the sixties and seventies was not just an American phenomenon but was international. (That suggests problems with simple U.S. based explanations of the causes of the sixties protests, like student opposition to the war in Vietnam.)

Results

Empirical research is almost always about relationships between two (sometimes more) distinct variables ("X" and "Y"). You should be able to summarize each important result as a relationship between some X and some Y. Make a list.

Conclusions

The test of your understanding of an article is if you can summarize the main conclusion in a single sentence! Authors don't always make this easy -- nobody wants all their brilliant work to be reduced to a single over-simplified sentence. But most articles have one really important motivating idea and you will be able to remember them much better if you can identify that one idea. Then, all the other parts of the article will "fit" together better as ways in which the author describes, amplifies, tests, and modifies that idea. Try to do this for Tarrow. (It isn't easy!).
 
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Last updated September 8, 2005
comments to: reeve@umd.edu