New Social Movements in Western Europe

This research provides a cross-national comparison of the development, mobilization, and impact of new social movements in four Western European nations (France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland). Seeking to move beyond classical theories of collective behavior, this study suggests that social change affects political mobilization indirectly through a restructuring of existing power relations. This study employs empirical analysis to demonstrate that the mobilization of social movements is closely linked to conventional politics in the parliamentary and extra parliamentary arenas of each of the countries under discussion.

Data description

Data file: protest events (France, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands).
Observational unit: protest event.
Spatial coverage: France, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands.
Temporal coverage: 1975-1989.
Method/source: content analysis of one major newspaper in each country (Le Monde in France, Frankfurter Rundschau in Germany, Neue Zürcher Zeitung in Switzerland, NRC in the Netherlands).
Sampling method: Monday issue (Tuesday issue for France).
Content: all protest events, regardless of the actor involved. For five movements (peace, ecology, antinuclear, solidarity, urban autonomous, homosexual movements), both conventional and unconventional events have been coded (only unconventional events for other movements, organizations, and groups).

Format: nsmwe.sav , nsmwe.dta
Documentation: recodings nsmwe-recodings.sps

Data file: protest events (Switzerland).
Observational unit: protest event.
Spatial coverage: Switzerland.
Temporal coverage: 1975-1999 (data for 1975-1989 come from the four-country dataset).
Method/source: content analysis of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung.
Sampling method: Monday issue.
Content: all protest events, regardless of the actor involved. For five movements (peace, ecology, antinuclear, solidarity, urban autonomous, homosexual movements), both conventional and unconventional events have been coded (only unconventional events for other movements, organizations, and groups).

Format: nsmwe-switzerland.sav , nsmwe-switzerland.dta

Data file: SMOs (France, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands).
Observational unit: social movement organization (SMO).
Spatial coverage: France, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands.
Year of survey: 1989.
Method/source: survey through questionnaire submitted to selected SMOs.
Content: information on various dimensions of selected SMOs of five new social movements (peace, ecology, antinuclear, solidarity, urban autonomous, homosexual movements).

Format: nsmwe-smo.sav , nsmwe-smo.dta

Main publications

Duyvendak, Jan Willem (1995). The Power of Politics: New Social Movements in France. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. [French version: Duyvendak, Jan Willem (1994). Le poids du politique: Nouveaux mouvements sociaux en France. Paris: L’Harmattan.]

Duyvendak, Jan Willem, Hein-Anton Van der Heijden, Ruud Koopmans, and Luuk Wijmans (1992). Tussen verbeelding en macht: 25 jaar nieuwe sociale bewegingen in Nederland. Amsterdam: SUA.

Giugni, Marco (1995). Entre stratégie et opportunité. Zurich: Seismo.

Giugni, Marco, and Florence Passy (1997). Histoires de mobilisation politique en Suisse. Paris: L’Harmattan. Giugni, Marco and Florence Passy (1999). [German version: Giugni, Marco, and Florence Passy (1999). Zwischen Konflikt und Kooperation: Die Integration der sozialen Bewegungen in der Schweiz. Zurich: Verlag Rüegger.]

Kriesi, Hanspeter, Ruud Koopmans, Jan Willem Duyvendak, and Marco Giugni (1992). “New Social Movements and Political Opportunities in Western Europe.” European Journal of Political Research 22: 219-44.

Kriesi, Hanspeter, Ruud Koopmans, Jan Willem Duyvendak, and Marco Giugni (1995). New Social Movements in Western Europe. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Koopmans, Ruud (1995). Democracy from Below: New Social Movement and the Political System in West Germany. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.