First…

First task…

Read the syllabus!

• We have a shiny (continually developing) website for the course
  • https://michaelzeller.de/course-sm/
• Before our next meeting, your task is to peruse the website
  • especially the Syllabus and Readings pages.

Defining social movements

• Broadly: collections of people that mobilise, coordinate, and campaign for some objective
  • We will focus on movements with socio-political objectives

A current example - French student protests

protests through 8 October 2026

Connection to Prof. Bolleyer’s lecture

• This course is one of the Grundkurse for Prof. Bolleyer’s Einführung in das politische System Deutschlands
• This course is a detailed investigation of a related topic—not a tutorial on the material in Prof. Bolleyer’s lecture
  • So—as should go without saying—for both the lecture and GK: read and attend classes

Coverage of cases within and outside Germany

• Social movements are numerous and varied
• In this course, we will consider some of the most influential/most studied movements (NB: U.S. bias in research)
• As often as possible, we will refer to a set of movements (organisations) active in Germany
  • several to be introduced next week
  • in Week 3, you will be assigned a case to study in depth
    • all of the cases were/are active in Germany

Aims

• acquire substantive knowledge of aspects of social movements (theory, cases) and manifestation within Germany and elsewhere
• enhance critical knowledge to evaluate research thereof
• gain familiarity with methodological approaches to studying social movements
• (further) develop the capacity to…
  • assess episodes and broader cycles of movement activity, especially by identifying underlying factors and comparing across contexts
  • critically evaluate reporting and research on social movements, especially by evaluating the data and methods used

Assessment: within this course

Course assessment - Participation

• No examination in this course, BUT there is in ‘Einführung Politisches System der BRD’. There, you respond to an essay question from this course.
  • Exam on 1 February (Monday) at 14.00 in the AudiMax
  • 90-minutes written exam: response to 3 of 5 short-answer prompts from Prof. Bolleyer’s lecture and to 1 of 3 essay prompts from this course
  • Exam registration deadline sometime in December—careful not to miss it
• attend class and actively participate
  • do required reading
  • develop knowledge of assigned social movement group

Course assessment - Presentation

• Presentation
  • short (max. 20 minutes) group (2-4 students) talk on a method for studying social movements
  • A method is a system of data collection and analysis
    1. introduce method,
    2. explain its utility for studying social movements,
    3. [the crucial part] and discuss one applied example

Essay (Hausarbeit): Data report

• data report on a social movement phenomenon (e.g., protests events, violence, framing, news coverage)
  • why a dataset? Helpful preparation for thinking about validity, reliability, etc. → relevant for quant. and qual.
• gather and present data, generate analytical insights
• 2000-3000 words (excluding citations)
• 2027-01-15: short synopsis due. 2027-03-05: full, final report due.
• consider working with data visualisation and analysis software
  • but not required! Students have aced essay with Excel/Word
• A rule: no data from or use of Statista or data curation services.

submit all assignments by email: m.zeller@lmu.de

For the paper, and writing in general…

Patriotta, G. (2017). Crafting papers for publication: Novelty and convention in academic writing. Journal of Management Studies, 54(5), 747-759.

Further: tools of the research trade…

• qualitative data management: e.g., MAXQDA, ATLAS.ti
• quantitative (and qual.) data analysis software: e.g., R (and R Studio), Stata
• typesetting programmes: LaTeX (through TexStudio) and RMarkdown

Elements of a typical class meeting

Cases for students

• to be assigned in Week 3

Open data - on slides coloured like this

• data from published research and ongoing projects
  • available for download (in slides or from external website)
• interactive visualisations
  • scalable line/bar plots
  • network graphs
  • maps
• a chance to explore data related to a topic
  • recognised patterns and describe the world of social movements
  • opportunity to go further, if it interests you

Blessed with too much material

• most classes are overfull with videos, research snapshots, poll questions, etc.
  • this is a seminar
    • discussion is the priority
  • makes it even more important to do required reading, review any slides that we cannot cover in class

Classroom air quality

In case class cannot meet…

• If it is not possible to convene in-person,
  • you will receive an email:
  1. the class will meet online via Zoom (link in email), or
  2. the class will be cancelled, a recorded lecture uploaded on the ‘Slides’ page of the website, and a short review at the start of the next meeting
     • 7 December (Class 9) will be cancelled and replaced with a recorded lecture

Colour scheme for course slides

• Why? To make concepts and important points easier to identify and review

Office hours and communication

• best to send an email
  • michael.zeller@gsi.uni-muenchen.de
  • m.zeller@lmu.de
• 11.00 - 12.00 on Wednesdays at GSI (Oettingenstr. 67) - Room H105
• or by appointment
• Please use your LMU email address for communication
  • this is important for the security of the university email system

Course website

• no use of Moodle
• a purpose-built website: https://michaelzeller.de/course-sm/
  • all readings available
  • slides available before class
    • PDF copies may omit some parts of HTML slides (e.g., animations, data visualisations)—but those HTML copies will always be available for you too
  • (if necessary) video lectures
  • example data report
  • some resources

Resources

About me

• tell me if you have problems understanding me
  • there’s an accent at work that I tragically cannot shake off
• Ph.D. in political science from Central European University (CEU)
  • specialisation in qualitative methods (QCA, [Bayesian] process tracing), but also quant. text analysis, network analysis
• researcher in funded projects on …
  • violent/banned far-right groups and online content moderation
  • radicalisation, violent extremism, polarisation, and resilience
• current work: militant democracy; far-right activist networks; political violence (in 1970s Northern Ireland; in contemporary Italy); paths to female leadership in Asia; protest and polarisation

About the course

About you! Poll results

Most influential in success of a social movement?

influence_successCounts = aq.from(surveyResults)
  .select("influence_success")
  .groupby("influence_success")
  .count()
  .derive({ measure: d => "" })

// Calculate the maximum count from your dataset
influence_success_maxCountRE = Math.max(...influence_successCounts.objects().map(d => d.count));

plot_influence_success = Plot.plot({
  marks: [
    Plot.barY(influence_successCounts, {
      x: "influence_success",
      y: "count",
      fill: "influence_success",
      stroke: "black",
      strokeWidth: 1
    }),
    Plot.ruleY([respondentCount], { stroke: "#ffffff99" })
  ],
  color: {
    domain: [
      "media coverage",
      "public support",
      "mass participation",
      "elite alliances",
      "ability to disrupt",
      "coalition building",
      "other"
    ],
    range: [
      "darkred",
      "darkorange",
      "goldenrod",
      "forestgreen",
      "blue",
      "indigo",
      "violet"
    ]
  },
  marginBottom: 300,
  x: { label: "", tickSize: 2, tickRotate: -35, padding: 0.3,
    domain: ["media coverage", "public support", "mass participation", "elite alliances", "ability to disrupt", "coalition building", "other"]
  },  
  y: {
    label: "",
    tickSize: 10,
    tickFormat: d => d,
    tickValues: Array.from(
      new Set(influence_successCounts.objects().map(d => d.count))
    ).sort((a, b) => a - b),
    domain: [0, influence_success_maxCountRE]
  },
  facet: { data: influence_successCounts, x: "measure", label: "" },
  marginLeft: 70,
  style: {
    width: 1600,
    height: 500,
    fontSize: 40,
  },
});

About you! Student introductions

• Information about you, possibly including…
  • Expectations for this course
  • favourite joke
  • Study programme
  • favourite song
  • Country (place) of origin
  • top source for news
  • Background in education/research
  • secret skill
  • Academic/professional aspirations

About you! Poll results: biggest concern

concernCounts = aq.from(surveyResults)
  .select("concern")
  .groupby("concern")
  .count()
  .derive({ measure: d => "" })

// Calculate the maximum count from your dataset
concern_maxCountRE = Math.max(...concernCounts.objects().map(d => d.count));

plot_concern = Plot.plot({
  marks: [
    Plot.barY(concernCounts, {
      x: "concern",
      y: "count",
      fill: "concern",
      stroke: "black",
      strokeWidth: 1
    }),
    Plot.ruleY([respondentCount], { stroke: "#ffffff99" })
  ],
  color: {
    domain: [
      "Participating in class discussions",
      "Passing the Klausur",
      "Studying and discussing in English",
      "Talking about politics and political views (about movements)",
      "Understanding abstract concepts"
    ],
    range: [
      "darkred",
      "darkorange",
      "goldenrod",
      "forestgreen",
      "blue"
    ]
  },
  marginBottom: 600,
  x: { label: "", tickSize: 2, tickRotate: -35, padding: 0.3,
    domain: ["Participating in class discussions", "Passing the Klausur", "Studying and discussing in English", "Talking about politics and political views (about movements)", "Understanding abstract concepts"]
  },  
  y: {
    label: "",
    tickSize: 10,
    tickFormat: d => d,
    tickValues: Array.from(
      new Set(concernCounts.objects().map(d => d.count))
    ).sort((a, b) => a - b),
    domain: [0, concern_maxCountRE]
  },
  facet: { data: concernCounts, x: "measure", label: "" },
  marginLeft: 70,
  style: {
    width: 1600,
    height: 500,
    fontSize: 40,
  },
});

Concept formation

• concepts are the building blocks of social science research
  • a term denoting an abstract idea

Concept formation

• identifying bounds of concepts
  • See Sartori (1970)
• broadly, three types of concepts in social science

Visualising classical/radial concepts

Family resemblance: no criterion shared by all (e.g., games)

Classical vs. radial (Collier and Mahon 1993)

Tarrow (2011) - conceptual framework

Contentious politics is triggered when changing political opportunities and constraints create incentives to take action for actors who lack resources on their own. People contend through known repertoires of contention and expand them by creating innovations at their margins. When backed by well-structured social networks and galvanized by culturally resonant, action-oriented symbols, contentious politics leads to sustained interaction with opponents – to social movements.

Tarrow (2011) - key definitions

• social movements (p. 7): “sequences of contentious politics based on underlying social networks, on resonant collective action frames, and on the capacity to maintain sustained challenges against powerful opponents”
• framing (p. 31): “relates to the generalization of a grievance and defines the “us” and “them” in a movement’s structure of conflict and alliances.”
• opportunities (p. 32): “consistent – but not necessarily formal, permanent, or national – sets of clues that encourage people to engage in contentious politics.”
• threats (p. 32): “those factors – repression, but also the capacity of authorities to present a solid front to insurgents – that discourage contention.”

Situating movements, Tarrow (2011) concepts

Situating movements, Tarrow (2011) concepts

Situating movements, Tarrow (2011) concepts

Situating movements, Tarrow (2011) concepts

Situating movements, Tarrow (2011) concepts

Situating movements, Tarrow (2011) concepts

Situating movements, Tarrow (2011) concepts

Situating movements, Tarrow (2011) concepts

Situating movements, Tarrow (2011) concepts

Situating movements, Tarrow (2011) concepts

Social movements in contention (Tarrow 2011, 33)

Tarrow (2011), prelude to next two meetings

Examples of social movements?