Theories of Political Protest and Social Movements: A Multidisciplinary Introduction, Critique, and Synthesis

How can political protest and social movements be explained? The book provides an introduction to each of the existing theories by restating and clarifying them. This is the basis for a detailed assessment of their strengths and weaknesses. Finally, a single theoretical paradigm is proposed that shows how the theories can be integrated.

Author: Karl-Dieter Opp
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 04/06/2009
Pages: 404
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.45lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.10w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9780415483896

Review Citation(s):
Reference and Research Bk News 08/01/2009 pg. 131

About the Author

Karl-Dieter Opp is Professor at the University of Leipzig (Germany) and Affiliate Professor at the University of Washington (Seattle). His areas of interest include collective action and political protest, rational choice theory, philosophy of the social sciences and the emergence and effects of norms and institutions.

Karl-Dieter Opp is the author of The Rationality of Political Protest (1989), coauthor of The Origins of a Spontaneous Revolution. East Germany 1989 (1995) and editor (with M. Hechter) of Social Norms (2001).

Karl-Dieter Opp has widely published in the field of social movements and protest. Articles were published in the journals mentioned before, and I have written two books about the theme.