publications

2024

1. Beyond the protest paradigm: Four types of news coverage and America’s most prominent social movement organizations

   Edwin Amenta, Neal Caren, and Weijun Yuan

   Sociological Forum, Sep 2024

   Abs DOI

   Abstract What determines the quality of coverage received by social movement organizations when they appear extensively in the news? Research on the news coverage of social movement organizations is dominated by case studies supporting the “protest paradigm,” which argues that journalists portray movement activists trivially and negatively when covering protest. However, movement organizations often make long‐running news for many different reasons, mainly not protest. We argue that some of this extensive news will lead to worse coverage—in terms of substance and sentiment—notably when the main action covered involves violence. Extensive coverage centered on other actions, however, notably politically assertive action, will tend to produce “good news” in these dimensions. We analyze the news of the twentieth century’s 100 most‐covered U.S. movement organizations in their biggest news year in four national newspapers. Topic models indicate that these organizations were mainly covered for actions other than nonviolent protest, including politically assertive action, strikes, civic action, investigations, trials, and violence. Natural language processing analyses and hand‐coding show that their news also varied widely in sentiment and substance. Employing qualitative comparative analyses, we find that the main action behind news strongly influences its quality, and there may be several news paradigms for movement organizations.

2023

1. Black lives matter protests and the 2020 Presidential election

   Neal Caren, Kenneth T. Andrews, and Micah H. Nelson

   Social Movement Studies, May 2023

   Publisher: Routledge _eprint: https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2023.2216652

   Abs DOI

   Can protest influence elections? We examine whether Black Lives Matters (BLM) protest during the summer of 2020 shaped the November presidential election. We hypothesize that BLM demonstrations are associated with increased voting for the Democratic candidate. We examine a secondary hypothesis that more contentious events (with arrests, injury, or violence) are likely to produce a negative impact. We use data collected from news media, official election returns, and survey data combined with demographic and political control measures to test our hypotheses. We find strong evidence that BLM protests were associated an increased likelihood of voting for the Democratic candidate, with this effect concentrated among the less contentious protest events. Our findings bolster and extend the emerging theoretical claims and evidence that protest plays a substantial role in shaping electoral behavior.

2. What Drives the News Coverage of US Social Movements?

   Weijun Yuan, Neal Caren, and Edwin Amenta

   Social Forces, May 2023

   Abs DOI

   What drives the news coverage of social movements in the professional news media? We address this question by elaborating an institutional mediation model arguing that the news values, routines, and characteristics of the news media induce them to pay attention to movements depending on their characteristics and the political contexts in which they engage. The news-making characteristics of movements include their disruptive capacities and organizational strength, and the political contexts include a partisan regime in power, benefitting from national policies, and congressional investigations. To appraise these arguments, we analyze approximately 1 million news articles mentioning 29 social movements over the twentieth century, published in four national newspapers. We use negative binomial regression analyses and separate time-series analyses of the labor movement to assess the model’s robustness across different movements, time periods, and news sources. In each analysis, the results support the hypotheses based on the institutional mediation model. More generally, we argue that the influence of social movements on institutions depends on the structure and operating procedures of those institutions. This insight has implications for future studies of the influence of movements on major social institutions.

3. Four Eras of Studies of Politics and Social Movements in Social Forces

   Neal Caren

   Social Forces, Apr 2023

   Abs DOI

   Over the last hundred years, there have been approximately four eras of studies of collective political mobilizations in the pages of Social Forces. While each of the four periods contains a diversity of topics, each also has a central tendency influenced by the sociology of the era, the journal’s focus, and current events. In this essay, I describe the different eras and identify some notable areas of continuity across the century.In its first decade, Social Forces articles primarily discussed collective action in reports on current political organizations or analysis of ongoing racist violence, particularly lynching and the Klan. From the 1930s to WWII, the focus of articles expanded to a wider variety of movements and activities and were more likely to incorporate sociological theory. The social movements of the 1950s and 1960s were closely examined in the next phase, and articles continue to evolve to include both theory and analysis in the same pieces. Finally, the contemporary era saw a vast increase in the movements studied, methods employed, and a more granular examination of movement processes. Throughout all the periods, two major themes, examining anti-Black collective violence and the role of organizations in politics, were consistently fruitful research areas.

4. Comparing Perceived Disruptiveness and Effectiveness of Protest Tactics

   Katherine Furl, Todd Lu, Austin Hoang-Nam Vo, and 1 more author

   Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, Jan 2023

   Abs DOI

   How do U.S. voters view the disruptiveness and effectiveness of social movement tactics? Strategically-used assertive tactics can enable movement success, though tactics considered too disruptive or violent may reduce public support. The authors investigate how U.S. voters perceive the disruptiveness and effectiveness of various protest tactics. In a representative survey experiment, 497 U.S. voters ranked the disruptiveness and effectiveness of 65 tactics. The authors find that tactics’ perceived disruptiveness and effectiveness exhibit an inverse relationship and a continuous character. The findings suggest that multiple, contextual factors influence public perceptions of protests.

5. Extracting protest events from newspaper articles with ChatGPT

   Neal Caren, Kenneth T. Andrews, and Rashawn Ray

   Aug 2023

   Abs DOI

   This research note examines the abilities of a large language model (LLM), ChatGPT, to extract structured data on protest events from media accounts. Based on our analysis of 500 articles on Black Lives Matter protests, after an iterative process of prompt improvement on a training dataset, ChatGPT can produce data comparable to or better than a hand-coding method with an enormous reduction in time and minimal cost. While the technique has limitations, LLMs show promise and deserve further study for their use in protest event analysis.

2022

1. Rough draft of history : a century of US social movements in the news

   Neal Caren Edwin Amenta

   Aug 2022

2020

1. Racial, ethnic, and immigration protest during year one of the Trump presidency

   Kenneth T Andrews, Neal Caren, and Todd Lu

   In Racialized Protest and the State: Resistance and Repression in a Divided America, Aug 2020

   Abs

   Donald Trump’s election in 2016 sparked a major upsurge in protest in the U.S. In the year after the historic Women’s March, activists held more than 6,500 protest events with two million participants across nearly 850 counties in all fifty states and Washington, DC. Activists focused on a broad set of issues including health care, abortion, the environment, science, and political corruption. Racial, ethnic, and immigration politics comprised central and durable themes. We take stock of this wave of protest with a protest focused on race, ethnicity, and immigration using protest event data. Our analysis has two main components. First, we present a descriptive profile tracking the prominence of racial, ethnic, and immigration events between the first and second women’s marches. Second, we examine local variation in racial and immigration mobilization motivated by central expectations in social movement theory. Our analyses focus on the role of partisan political dynamics, prior movement activity, and threat as major drivers of movement mobilization. We find that attendance at protests on racial and immigration issues was highest in cities with a prior history of activism; Democratic votes also predicted protests overall but did not predict racial or immigration protests after controlling for participation in the women’s march protests. The size of the immigrant population affects immigration protests.

2. Contemporary Social Movements in a Hybrid Media Environment

   Neal Caren, Kenneth T. Andrews, and Todd Lu

   Annual Review of Sociology, Aug 2020

   _eprint: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-121919-054627

   Abs DOI

   Media are central to the dynamics of protest and social movements. Contemporary social movements face a shifting environment composed of new media technologies and platforms that enable new identities, organizational forms, and practices. We review recent research focusing on the ways in which movements shape and are shaped by the media environment and the ways in which changes in the media environment have reshaped participation, mobilization, and impacts of activism. We conclude with the following recommendations for scholarship in this burgeoning area: move toward a broader conception of media in movements; expand engagement with scholarship in neighboring disciplines that study politics, media, and communication; develop new methodological and analytical skills for emerging forms of media; and investigate the ways in which media are enhancing, altering, or undermining the ability of movements to mobilize support, shape broader identities and attitudes, and secure new advantages from targets and authorities.

2019

1. The Science of Contemporary Street Protest: New Efforts in the United States

   Dana R. Fisher, Kenneth T Andrews, Neal Caren, and 5 more authors

   Science Advances, Aug 2019

   Abs

   Since the inauguration of Donald Trump, there has been substantial and ongoing protest against the Administration. Street demonstrations are some of the most visible forms of opposition to the Administration and its policies. This article reviews the two most central methods for studying street protest on a large scale: building comprehensive event databases and conducting field surveys of participants at demonstrations. After discussing the broader development of these methods, this article provides a detailed assessment of recent and ongoing projects studying the current wave of contention. Recommendations are offered to meet major challenges including making data publicly available in near real time, increasing the validity and reliability of event data, expanding the scope of crowd surveys, and integrating ongoing projects in a meaningful way by building new research infrastructure.

2018

1. The Political Institutions, Processes, and Outcomes Movements Seek to Influence

   Edwin Amenta, Kenneth T Andrews, and Neal Caren

   In The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Social Movements, Aug 2018
2. Protesting Trump

   Kenneth T Andrews, Neal Caren, and Alyssa Browne

   Mobilization: An International Quarterly, Aug 2018

   Abs DOI

   This article charts the emergence of protest in the wake of the 2016 presidential election describing trends in protest activity from the first to second Women’s Marches. We document characteristics including the magnitude, issue diversity, geographic range, tactical repertoire, and persistence of street protest, and we highlight key similarities and differences between this wave of protest and other recent episodes in the U.S. We conclude by pointing to important empirical and theoretical questions that movement scholars should address through analysis of this case.

2016

1. Economic breakdown and collective action

   Neal Caren, Sarah Gaby, and Catherine Herrold

   Social Problems, Aug 2016

   Abs DOI

   While social movement scholarship has emphasized the role of activists in socially constructing grievances, we contend that material adversity is a reoccurring precondition of anti-state mobilization. We test the effect of economic decline on the count of large-scale, anti-government demonstrations and riots. Using multiple sources of newspaper reports of contentious events across 145 countries during the period 1960-2006, we find a statistically significant negative relationship between economic growth and the number of contentious events, controlling for a variety of state-governance, demographic, and media characteristics. We find that the effect is strongest under conditions of extreme economic decline and in non-democracies. These findings highlight the need for social movement scholars to take seriously the role of economic performance as an important factor that enables mobilization.

2. Recipes for attention: Policy reforms, crises, organizational characteristics, and the newspaper coverage of the LGBT Movement, 1969–2009

   Thomas Alan Elliott, Edwin Amenta, and Neal Caren

   Sociological Forum, Aug 2016

   Abs DOI

   Why do some organizations in a movement seeking social change gain extensive national newspaper coverage? To address the question, we innovate in theoretical and empirical ways. First, we elaborate a theoretical argument that builds from the political mediation theory of movement consequences and incorporates the social organization of newspaper practices. This media and political mediation model integrates political and media contexts and organizations’ characteristics and actions. With this model, we hypothesize two main routes to coverage: one that includes changes in public policy and involves policy‐engaged, well‐resourced, and inclusive organizations and a second that combines social crises and protest organizations. Second, we appraise these arguments with the first analysis of the national coverage of all organizations in a social movement over its career: 84 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights and AIDS‐related organizations in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Wall Street Journal from 1969 to 2010. These analyses go beyond previous research that provides either snapshots of many organizations at one point in time or overtime analyses of aggregated groups of organizations or individual organizations. The results of both historical and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analyses support our media and political mediation model.

3. The rise of inequality: How social movements shape discursive fields

   Sarah Gaby, and Neal Caren

   Mobilization: An International Quarterly, Aug 2016

   Abs DOI

   Social movement scholars have considered several political and cultural consequences of social movements, but have paid limited attention to whether and how social movements shape discourse. We develop a theory of discursive eruption, referring to the ability of radical movements to initially ignite media coverage but not control the content once other actors— particularly those that can take advantage of journalistic norms—enter the discourse. We hold that one long-term outcome of radical social movements is the ability to alter discursive fields through mechanisms such as increasing the salience and content of movement-based issues. We examine the way movements shape discourse by focusing on newspaper articles about inequality before, during, and after the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement. We analyze changes in the salience and content of coverage as well as shifts in actor standing and influence. Using 7,024 articles from eight newspapers, we find that the OWS movement increased media attention to inequality, shifting the focus of the discourse toward movement-based issue areas (e.g., the middle class and minimum wage). Further, we find that compared to the pre-OWS period, the influence of social movement organizations and think tanks rose in discourse on inequality. In addition, the discourse on inequality became more highly politicized as a result of the Occupy movement. These findings highlight the importance of social movements in shaping discourse and indicate that social movement scholars should further consider discursive changes as a consequence of social movements.

4. The unbuilt environment: culture moderates the built environment for physical activity

   Andrew J Perrin, Neal Caren, Asheley C Skinner, and 2 more authors

   BMC public health, Aug 2016

   Abs DOI

   Background: While research has demonstrated a link between the built environment and obesity, much variation remains unexplained. Physical features are necessary, but not sufficient, for physical activity: residents must choose to use these features in health-promoting ways. This article reveals a role for local culture in tempering the effect of the physical environment on physical activity behaviors. Methods: We developed Systematic Cultural Observation (SCO) to observe place-based, health-related culture in Lenoir County, NC (population ~60,000). Photographs (N = 6450) were taken systematically from 150 most-used road segments and geocoded. Coders assessed physical activity (PA) opportunities (e.g., public or private activity spaces, pedestrian-friendly features) and presence of people in each photograph. Results: 28.7% of photographs contained some PA feature. Most were private or pedestrian; 3.1% contained public PA space. Only 1.5% of photographs with any PA features (2% of those with public PA space, 0.7% of those with private) depicted people despite appropriate weather and daylight conditions. Conclusions: Even when PA opportunities existed in this rural county, they were rarely used. This may be the result of culture (“unbuilt environment”) that disfavors physical activity even in the presence of features that allow it. Policies promoting built environments designed for healthy lifestyles should consider local culture (shared styles, skills, habits, and beliefs) to maximize positive outcomes.

2015

1. Disruptive Democratization: Contentious Events and Liberalizing Outcomes Globally, 1990–2004

   Mohammad Ali Kadivar, and Neal Caren

   Social Forces, Aug 2015

   Abs DOI

   Does contentious collective action matter? Whereas most social movement literature has addressed this question in the US context for policy change outcomes, this paper takes a different approach by bringing the question to a global context and examines democratization as a structural outcome. Accordingly, we test several hypotheses about the ephemeral, positive, and negative influences of contentious collective action on the democratization process in a given country, as well as the cross-border effect of the contention. To go beyond the limitations of previous studies, this paper uses a monthly time-series, cross-national model to examine potential liberalizing or deliberalizing effects of protest activities. Using data from 103 non-democratic countries from 1990 to 2004, we find that protests and riots increase the probability that a country will liberalize in a given month. We find that while contentious events in other countries do not directly increase the risk of liberalization, external contentious events, especially those that lead to political liberalization, increase the count of contentious events, thus indirectly boosting liberalization. We find no evidence that protest significantly increases the chances of deliberalization. Together, our findings show a key role for non-elite political actors to influence political liberalization.

2014

1. Political and cultural dimensions of Tea Party support, 2009–2012

   Andrew J Perrin, Steven J Tepper, Neal Caren, and 1 more author

   The Sociological Quarterly, Aug 2014

   Abs DOI

   The Tea Party Movement (TPM) burst onto the political scene following the 2008 elections. Early on, the movement attracted broad public support and seemed to tap into a variety of cultural concerns rooted in the changing demographic, political, and economic face of the nation. However, some observers questioned whether the Tea Party represented anything more than routine partisan backlash. And what had started as a seemingly grassroots movement that changed the face of American politics in the 2010 election was reduced to being mainly a caucus within Congress by 2012. In this article, we examine the cultural and political dimensions of Tea Party support over time. Using polling data from North Carolina and Tennessee and quantitative media analysis, we provide new evidence that cultural dispositions in addition to conservative identification were associated with TPM favorability in 2010; that these dispositions crystallized into shared political positions in 2011; and that by 2012 little distinguished TPM adherents from other conservatives.

2013

1. Frontiers in Social Movement Methodology

   Neal Caren

   Mobilization: An International Quarterly, Aug 2013
2. Are children of parents who had same-sex relationships disadvantaged? A scientific evaluation of the no-differences hypothesis

   Andrew J Perrin, Philip N Cohen, and Neal Caren

   Journal of Gay & Lesbian Mental Health, Aug 2013

   Abs DOI

   In a widely publicized and controversial article, Regnerus (2012a) seeks to evaluate what he calls the “’no-differences’ paradigm” with respect to outcomes for children of same-sex parents. We consider the scientific claims in Regnerus (2012a) in light of extant evidence and flaws in the article’s evidence and analytical strategy. We find that the evidence presented does not support rejecting the “no-differences” claim, and therefore the study does not constitute evidence for disadvantages suffered by children of same-sex couples. The state of scientific knowledge on same-sex parenting remains as it was prior to the publication of Regnerus (2012a).

3. Outcomes, political

   Edwin Amenta, and Neal Caren

   The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements, Aug 2013

2012

1. Political Reform and the Historical Trajectories of US Social Movements in the Twentieth Century

   Edwin Amenta, Neal Caren, and James E Stobaugh

   Social Forces, Aug 2012

   Abs DOI

   We propose a political reform theory, a political and historical institutionalist argument that holds that shifts in political structures, partisan regimes and policy greatly influence movements. We appraise this argument, along with resource mobilization, political opportunity and media alternatives, by analyzing 600,000 articles in the New York Times and Washington Post that mention national U.S. social movement organizations (SMOs) in the largest 34 SMO industries across the twentieth century. We provide multivariate analyses of industry-level article mentions of SMOs and detailed analyses of the historical trajectories of coverage across the century. Although we find some support for major theories of movements and media influences, the political reform theory is strongly supported and outperforms standard political opportunity models. We conclude with suggestions to synthesize theories and for research on movement and media outcomes.

2. A Social Movement Online Community: Stormfront and the White Nationalist Movement

   Neal Caren, Kay Jowers, and Sarah Gaby

   Media, Movements, and Political Change, Aug 2012

   Abs DOI

   Purpose – We build on prior research of social movement communities (SMCs) to conceptualize a new form of cultural support for activism – the social movement online community (SMOC). We define SMOC as a sustained network of individuals who work to maintain an overlapping set of goals and identities tied to a social movement linked through quasi-public online discussions. Method – This paper uses extensive data collected from Stormfront, the largest online community of white nationalists, for the period from September 2001 to August 2010 totaling 6,868,674 posts. We systematically analyzed the data to allow for a detailed depiction of SMOCs using keyword tags. We also used Stata 11 to analyze descriptive measures such as persistence of user presence and relation of first post to length of stay. Findings – Our findings suggest that SMOCs provide a new forum for social movements that produces a unique set of characteristics. Nevertheless, many characteristics of SMOCs are also in line with conventional offline SMCs. Originality of the paper – This research broadens our understanding of the differences between online and offline SMCs and presents the special case of the SMOC as a way for scholars to conceptualize and study social movements that use the Internet to form their collective identity.

3. Occupy online: How cute old men and Malcolm X recruited 400,000 US users to OWS on Facebook

   Sarah Gaby, and Neal Caren

   Social Movement Studies, Aug 2012

   Abs DOI

   What attracted so many supporters of the Occupy Wall Street movement to the movement’s Facebook pages? Using a database of 1500 Facebook Occupy group pages, we analyze the types of posts that recruit new users. In the case of the Occupy movement, the success of recruiting over 400,000 users to Facebook was driven by user-created content produced in a medium that encourages contributions and sharing to an existing set of dense networks of potential movement sympathizers. We find that the posts that are most successful at recruiting active Facebook engagement utilize existing forms of communication, such as sharing pictures and status updates. We also find that posts that use confrontational messages and messages about solidarity appear most often in the top posts. Our findings suggest that online social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter provide a powerful tool for movements to rapidly spread information and reach broad audiences. In addition, we offer some analysis of the impact of these findings for social movements that hope to utilize Facebook.

2011

1. A social movement generation: Cohort and period trends in protest attendance and petition signing

   Neal Caren, Raj Andrew Ghoshal, and Vanesa Ribas

   American Sociological Review, Aug 2011

   Abs DOI

   This project explores cohort and period trends in political participation in the United States between 1973 and 2008. We examine the extent to which protest attendance and petition signing have diffused to different kinds of actors across multiple generations; we test claims central to understanding trends in social movement participation. Using aggregated, cross- sectional survey data on political involvement from 34,241 respondents, we examine changes in the probability of ever having attended a protest or signed a petition over time periods and across cohorts using cross-classified, random-effects models. We find a strong generational effect on the probability of ever having attended a protest, which explains much of the observed change in self-reports of protest behavior. More than half of this generational effect is a result of compositional change, but we find little evidence that protest attendance dif- fused to new types of actors. We compare these findings with a less confrontational form of protesting, petition signing, which shows more period than cohort effects. We argue that social movement activities have not become a widespread means of civic engagement.

2. Cultures of the tea party

   Andrew J Perrin, Steven J Tepper, Neal Caren, and 1 more author

   Contexts, Aug 2011

2010

1. The Political Consequences of Social Movements

   Edwin Amenta, Neal Caren, Elizabeth Chiarello, and 1 more author

   Annual Review of Sociology, Aug 2010

   Abs DOI

   Research on the political consequences of social movements has recently accelerated. We take stock of this research with a focus on movements in democratic polities and the United States in comparative and historical perspective. Although most studies demonstrate the influence of the largest movements, this research has not addressed how much movements matter. As for the conditions under which movements matter, scholars have been revising their initial hypotheses that the strategies, organizational forms, and political contexts that aid mobilization also aid in gaining and exerting political influence. Scholars are exploring alternative arguments about the productivity of different actions and characteristics of movements and movement organizations in the varied political contexts and institutional settings they face. Researchers are also employing more innovative research designs to appraise these more complex arguments. Scholarship will advance best if scholars continue to think through the interactions between strategies, organizations, and contexts; address movement influences on processes in institutional politics beyond the agenda-setting stage; situate case studies in comparative and historical perspective; and make more comparisons across movements and issues.

2. Making the News: Movement Organizations, Media Attention, and the Public Agenda

   Kenneth T Andrews, and Neal Caren

   American Sociological Review, Dec 2010

   Abs DOI

   Increasingly, scholars have come to see the news media as playing a pivotal role in shaping whether social movements are able to bring about broader social change. By drawing attention to movements’ issues, claims, and supporters, the news media can shape the public agenda by influencing public opinion, authorities, and elites. Why are some social movement organizations more successful than others at gaining media coverage? Specifically, what organizational, tactical, and issue characteristics enhance media attention? We combine detailed organizational survey data from a representative sample of 187 local environmental organizations in North Carolina with complete news coverage of those organizations in 11 major daily newspapers in the two years following the survey (2,095 articles). Our analyses reveal that local news media favor professional and formalized groups that employ routine advocacy tactics, mobilize large numbers of people, and work on issues that overlap with newspapers’ focus on local economic growth and well-being. Groups that are confrontational, volunteer-led, or advocate on behalf of novel issues do not garner as much attention in local media outlets. These findings have important implications and challenge widely held claims about the pathways by which movement actors shape the public agenda through the news media.

2009

1. All the movements fit to print: Who, what, when, where, and why SMO families appeared in the New York Times in the twentieth century

   Edwin Amenta, Neal Caren, Sheera Joy Olasky, and 1 more author

   American Sociological Review, Dec 2009

   Abs DOI

   Why did some social movement organization (SMO) families receive extensive media coverage? In this article, we elaborate and appraise four core arguments in the literature on movements and their consequences: disruption, resource mobilization, political partisanship, and whether a movement benefits from an enforced policy. Our fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analyses (fsQCA) draw on new, unique data from the New York Times across the twentieth century on more than 1,200 SMOs and 34 SMO families. At the SMO family level, coverage correlates highly with common measures of the size and disruptive activity of movements, with the labor and African American civil rights movements receiving the most coverage. Addressing why some movement families experienced daily coverage, fsQCA indicates that disruption, resource mobilization, and an enforced policy are jointly sufficient; partisanship, the standard form of “political opportunity,” is not part of the solution. Our results support the main perspectives, while also suggesting that movement scholars may need to reexamine their ideas of favorable political contexts.

2007

1. Big city, big turnout? Electoral participation in American cities

   Neal Caren

   Journal of Urban Affairs, Dec 2007

   Abs DOI

   This article seeks to describe and explain variation in voter turnout in American big city municipal elections using data from 332 mayoral elections in 38 large U.S. cities over 25 years. In my cross‐sectional time‐series analysis of turnout in mayoral elections, I find that city‐level demographic factors are only weakly correlated with turnout. By contrast, institutional and campaign factors explain much of the variation. The effect of Progressive era reforms on depressing turnout is greatest in the most competitive elections. I conclude by discussing the implication of the overall downward trend in turnout and changes cities can make to increase participation.

2005

1. Age for leisure? Political mediation and the impact of the pension movement on US old-age policy

   Edwin Amenta, Neal Caren, and Sheera Joy Olasky

   American Sociological Review, Dec 2005

   Abs DOI

   This article elaborates a political mediation theory of the impact of social movements on states and policy, positing that the influence of mobilization and specific strategies of collective action depends on specified political contexts and the type of influence sought. Examining the influence of the U.S. old-age pension movement, which involved millions of people, this article appraises the mediation model using state-level data from the 1930s and 1940s on Old Age Assistance—the main support for the aged at the time-and a Senate vote for generous senior citizens’ pensions in 1939. Our models control for other potential influences, notably public opinion, which is often ignored in empirical studies and sometimes claimed to be responsible for causal influence mistakenly attributed to challengers. We employ pooled cross-sectional and time series analyses and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (FSQCA), which is especially suited to appraising the combinational expectations of the political mediation model. Both sets of analyses show that the pension movement was directly influential on the outcomes and provide support for the political mediation arguments.

2. newspaper coverage of social movement organizations in the 20th century

   Edwin Amenta, Neal Caren, and Sheera Joy Olasky

   contexts, Dec 2005

   DOI
3. TQCA: A Technique for Adding Temporality to Qualitative Comparative Analysis

   Neal Caren, and Aaron Panofsky

   Sociological methods & research, Nov 2005

   DOI

2004

1. The Legislative, Organizational, and Beneficiary Consequences of State-Oriented Challengers

   Edwin Amenta, and Neal Caren

   The Blackwell companion to social movements, Nov 2004

   DOI

2002

1. Mobilizing the Single-Case Study: Doug McAdam’s Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930–1970

   Michael Armato, and Neal Caren

   Qualitative sociology, Nov 2002

   Abs DOI

   We apply a set of rules for theorizing developed to expand the “rigorous” methodology of quantitative research to Doug McAdam’s Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930–1970 (1982). We contend that the strength and breadth of McAdam’s data and his application of that data to refute extant theories combined with his new flexible—perhaps overly so—concepts allowed political process theory (PPT) to rise to prominence in the field. We find his book to be a good example of how a single-case study, despite its shortcomings, can play a crucial role in the development of theory and the emergence of influential research paradigms.

2. Challengers and states: Toward a political sociology of social movements

   Edwin Amenta, Neal Caren, Tina Fetner, and 1 more author

   Research in Political Sociology, Nov 2002

2001

1. US social policy in comparative and historical perspective: Concepts, images, arguments, and research strategies

   Edwin Amenta, Chris Bonastia, and Neal Caren

   Annual Review of Sociology, Nov 2001

   Abs DOI

   In this article we review theory and comparative and historical research on US social policy. We discuss first the conceptual frameworks used to think about social policy, the changing images of American social policy implied by these different frameworks, and the questions they raise. From there we examine the arguments offered to answer questions about US social policy as well as the research strategies and evidence used to appraise the arguments. We address work that situates US social policy in comparative perspective as well as work that examines the development of American social policy historically or across states. Although many lines of argumentation have some empirical support, we find that some lines of political and institutional analyses provide the best supported answers to the questions and the greatest potential for wide usage in comparative and historical studies. We conclude that scholars would do well not to treat American social policy as so exceptional as to require separate images, explanations, and approaches. We suggest promising new lines of empirical inquiry prompted by new conceptualizations of social policy and other developments in this literature.