Vollversion (5.41 MB) - Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen

FORSCHUNGSJOURNAL NSB, JG. 11, HEFT 4, 1998 ^^Mmml
ABSTRACTS
Kai-Uwe Hellmann: Protest and violence - in sight of the structural strains-approach,
FJ NSB 4/98, pp. 20-28
In the first contribution, Kai-Uwe Hellmann raises the question whether social-structural conditions
can be identified under which protest generates violence. He presents the general contours
of the ,structural strain' approach and proposes adistinction between power and violence. Drawing
on Wilhelm Heitmeyer's research approach, he shows how social structure connects to violence.
In conclusion, only a multidimensional approach seems capable to do justice to the complex
relation between protest and violence.
Klaus Eder: Protest and symbolic violence. On the logic of mobilizing collective
identities, FJ NSB 4/98, pp. 29-40
Klaus Eder addresses the question to what extent the mobilization of collective identities is related
to symbolic relations of power and violence. Drawing on Parsons, he defines symbolic power as
the blocking of communication chances. He then goes on to connect symbolic power to processes
of symbolic exclusion, in which the drawing of boundaries leads to exclusion in terms of belonging,
recognition, and collective identity construction. This brings Eder to the hypothesis that physical
violence increasingly gives way to symbolic violence, because of the increasing relevance of a
politics of identity, for instance in ethnie conflicts.
Reinhard Kreissl/Fritz Sack: Framing - The cognitive-social dimension of social
protest, FJ NSB 4/98, pp. 41-54
Reinhard Kreissl and Fritz Sack begin their contribution with a discussion of the development of
the ,framing' approach, and give a brief overview of recent research on violence. They then analyze
the relevance of framing for our understanding of violence, both form a social research and from
a mass media perspective. In a next step, they offer a critical discussion of the myth of the monopoly
on violence, the pacifying effects of which tend to be seen as the core function of the State. The
authors conclude by pointing out a number of methodological weaknesses in the framing model,
which are particularly aggrevating for the analysis of the relation between protest and violence.
Ekkart Zimmermann: Resource mobilization and violence, FJ NSB 4/98, pp. 55-67
Ekkart Zimmermann's contribution focusses on the role of resource mobilization in the genesis of
violence. He presents a thoughtful discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the resource
mobilization approach, placing it in the context of its conceptual predecessor ,relative deprivation',
and its offspring ,political opportunity structure'. Drawing on this discussion, Zimmermann
discusses the issue of violence and presents new results from his study of the propensity to protest
and violence in East and West Germany in 1993 and 1995. In this context, he particularly
emphasizes the role of the State in the escalation of violence.