HSS: Beyond Repertoires of Contention: Conceptualizing Strategy Making In Social Movements

In this talk I propose two concepts with the aim of contributing to a better understanding of historically rooted and collective processes of strategy making and performing that transcend the overemphasis of the specialized literature on contentious and public action. These concepts are repertoire of strategies and stock of legacies. I propose these concepts as a complement to Charles Tilly’s “repertoire of contention.” The implications of incorporating a focus on strategies are central for social movement studies because they lead us to pay attention to actors and their intentions, and the interactions among the intentions of a variety of deliberate actors. Moreover, with these concepts I aim to recover Machiavelli’s analysis of strategies through a historical understanding of the construction of strategies.

In this talk I claim that when studying the interaction of any social movement with the state, allies and antagonists, the public performances identified by a “repertoire of contention” approach is just part of the story. There are many other activities performed by social movements that are part of their strategic quest for influencing political decisions that are neither contentious nor public. However, I do not propose as an alternative reducing analysis to the study of micro-tactics. The complete story is built by the multiple and simultaneous strategies that guide and give meaning to each tactical action performed by the collectives that constitute a movement.

I illustrate both concepts with an analysis Argentina’s piqueteros (picketers) –the main unemployed workers’ movement of the world.