Karen Beckwith Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, OH 44106-4901)
FT-57086-09
Summer Stipends
Research Programs
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Totals:
$6,000 (approved) $6,000 (awarded)
Grant period:
6/1/2009 – 7/31/2009
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"Mobilization after Loss? Social Movements and the Effects of Losing"
Why do some social movements persist in the face of continuing loss? What are the conditions under which social movements remobilize for a new campaign after loss, and what factors instead lead some social movements into abeyance, demobilization or dispersion? I plan to answer these questions by examining women's activism in three coalfield communities during the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) strike against the National Coal Board in Britain in 1984-85, and by exploring women's remobilization opportunities in the NUM's anti-pit closure campaign in 1992-94. Relying on evidence from field research, primary documents and interviews with activists, I will assess the impact of the prior strike loss on the 1992-94 campaign by considering three possible explanations for post-loss remobilization: opportunity for political learning; framing of loss by the social movement; and reshaping the political opportunity structure.
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