2008 Reports

On Social Networks and Social Protest: Understanding the Organizational Embeddedness of Large-Scale Protest Events

Fisher, Dana R.

How do large-scale protest events differ across nation-states? Do social networks play different roles in different places and, if so, how do they matter? This paper compares the roles that social networks play in mobilizing participants in large-scale domestic protest. Comparing two relatively recent events in the United States and France, I find that different types of social ties did not play the same role in each country. Although personal and organizational ties played almost equal roles in mobilizing participants at the protest-event during the Republican National Convention in 2004, organizational ties played a much more significant role in mobilizing participants to protest the Contrat Première Embauche (CPE) in France in 2006. In addition, participants in these two protest events reported being involved in dissimilar types of organizations at varying levels, which may help to explain the differential outcomes of these two protests.