Social movement theorizing has been invigorated in recent years by the
contentious politics approach to studying political protest activity. In 2002, a
conference sponsored by the Collective Behavior and Social Movements Section of
the American Sociological Association was held at the University of Notre Dame
to consider this development in the field. But the conference organizers also
wanted to consider more broadly social movement research and theorizing. This
means moving beyond a state-centered view of contentious politics and toward a
more open definition of what phenonmena areis fruitfully examined by social
movement theories, and in turn, what empirical situations can inform theory.
This volume is the fruit