This volume, first published in 1996, examines various social movements from a comparative perspective.

Introduction: opportunities mobilizing structures and framing processes Doug McAdam; Part I. Political Opportunities: 1. Clarifying the concept of political opportunities Doug McAdam; 2. States and opportunities: the political structuring of social movements Sidney Tarrow; 3. Social movements and the state: thoughts on the policing of protest Donatella della Porta; 4. Opportunities and framing in the East European revolts of 1989 Anthony Oberschall; 5. Opportunities and Framing in the Political Cycle of Perestroika Elena Zdravomyslova; Part II. Mobilizing Structures: 6. Mobilizing structures: constraints and opportunities in adopting, adapting and inventing John D. McCarthy; 7. The organizational structure of new social movements in relation to their political context Hanspeter Kriesi; 8. The impact of national contexts on social movement structures: a cross-movement and cross-national comparison Dieter Rucht; 9. Organizational form as frame: collective identity and political strategy in the American Labor Movement 1880-1920 Elisabeth S. Clemens; 10. The collapse of a social movement: the interplay of mobilizing structures, framing, and political opportunities in the Knights of Labor Kim Voss; Part III. Framing Processes: 11. Culture ideology and strategic framing Mayer N. Zald; 12. Accessing public media electoral and governmental agendas John D. McCarthy, Jackie Smith, and Mayer N. Zald; 13. Media discourse, movement publicity, and the generation of collective action frames: theoretical and empirical exercises in meaning construction Bert Klandermans and Sjoerd Goslinga; 14. Framing political opportunity William A. Gamson and David S. Meyer; 15. The framing function of movement tactics: strategic dramaturgy in the American civil rights movement Doug McAdam.