The Efficacy Of Protest: Meaning And Social Movement Outcomes

Original abstract:

“Protest is aimed at achieving change. But what does it take to achieve the changes that protesters seek? Previous research on protest effectiveness focuses on three factors: tactics, organization, and political opportunity. The insights of new social movement theory, however, suggest that culture and identity can also shape movement outcomes. To test this idea, I compare four protest campaigns waged by the Progressive Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), a non-violent animal rights group in Seattle. These include campaigns against hunting, circuses, animal experimentation, and the fur retail trade. Despite similarities in tactics, organization, and political context, the campaigns have achieved different amounts of success. These cases are therefore useful in moving beyond previous research findings and exploring additional factors in protest outcomes.Analyzing data from several sources, including in-depth interviews with activists and targets, observations at protest events, newsletters and media reports, I find that assessments of the activists’ identity play a role in campaign outcomes. For instance, hunters dismiss PAWS activists, most of whom are women, as overly emotional and incapable of understanding hunting. The meanings attached to the practices targeted by each campaign also affect campaign achievement. Part of the reason for the fur campaign’s success is that it targets an item that is seen as unnecessary. In contrast, the behaviors targeted by the other campaigns are more fundamental to their practitioners’ lives. For instance, both animal experimenters and hunters see their practices as crucial to medical advances and wildlife management, and therefore are not swayed by protest activity.Overall, the study suggests that movement outcomes are not explained entirely by tactics, organization, and opportunity, but are also affected by the meanings associated with the movement actors and issues. These findings also call for a more interactive model of movement activity, one that views protest as something that is shaped by both its presentation and its reception.”