Seizing on European Institutions?

2013 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 493-509 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Jasiewicz
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Minority ◽  
New Institutionalism ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Political Opportunity Structure ◽  
Sociology Of Culture ◽  
Political Opportunity ◽  
Opportunity Structure ◽  
Minority Leaders ◽  
Rights Protection ◽  
The Impact

This article provides an overview of how ethnic minority and state actors in Poland draw on the European Union and other supranational institutions in their publicized claims. Its objectives are twofold. First, the article relies on the new institutionalism, political opportunity structure and sociology of culture perspectives to interpret the impact of supranational organizations on the domestic public debate in Poland. Second, drawing on the claims-analysis method, it examines the extent to which ethnic minority leaders seized the opportunity to address supranational organizations and legislation on minority rights protection promoted by these institutions. The analysis reveals that ethnic minorities do not take full advantage of the novel political circumstances and only seldom refer to the supranational organizations and symbols. The findings contradict the hypotheses stemming from the new institutionalism and the political opportunity structure approaches and provide support for the sociology of culture perspective.

scholarly journals Finding Political Opportunities: Civil Society, Industrial Power, and the Governance of Nanotechnology in the European Union

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 33
Author(s):  
Anna Lamprou ◽  
David J. Hess
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Industrial Development ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Political Opportunity Structure ◽  
Political Opportunity ◽  
Opportunity Structure ◽  
Industrial Monitoring

The European Union encourages and institutionalizes participation by environmental, consumer, and labor organizations in the governance of nanotechnology. Interviews with leaders of the civil society organizations (CSOs) show that they identified multiple problems with nanotechnology policy but had only limited success in gaining the changes that they sought. CSO leaders explain their lack of success as due to the overwhelming power of industry and the support of the European Commission for new industrial development, including nanotechnology. We analyze the perspectives of CSO leaders about their difficulties to develop the theory of the political opportunity structure in the situation of a highly scientized policy field with strong industrial monitoring. We suggest the need to extend the theory to pay more attention to the strategies that reformers can use to maneuver in and to open a relatively closed political opportunity structure. We argue that formal stakeholder engagement is not very effective and suggest instead the importance of the following: building coalitions with government actors, threatening or mobilizing grassroots mobilization, making the issue salient to the public, and pursuing the full range of institutional repertoires. 

scholarly journals From words to actions: potentials of the ethnographic method for the study of integration policies

1970 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco José Cuberos Gallardo
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Political Opportunity Structure ◽  
Political Opportunity ◽  
Opportunity Structure ◽  
Associative Networks ◽  
Latin Americans ◽  
Municipal Council ◽  
Integration Policies ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City

Many institutions all over Europe have been working to create forums with the objective of fostering the active participation of immigrants and strengthening their associative networks. The political opportunity structure (POS) concept can help us understand the impact these measures have on the process of integrating immigrants. However, doing so means using an investigative methodology that also picks up on the undesired effects of these policies and analyses their transcendence. This project's main objective is to measure the potentials which the ethnographic method offers in this regard. To this end the authors present an analysis of the city of Seville's (Spain) Municipal Council for Immigrant Participation (CMPI) and its effects on the associative networks of Latin Americans who live in the city.

Political Context, Organizational Engagement, and Protest in African Countries

2011 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 351-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katia Pilati
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Political Context ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Opportunity Structure ◽  
Political Opportunity ◽  
Opportunity Structure ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Organizational Engagement ◽  
The Impact

This article analyzes levels of protest mobilization in eighteen African countries—by far the region least studied by researchers of protest dynamics. Theoretically, its goal is to integrate the role of organizational engagement into political opportunity approaches to protest mobilization. Empirically, it uses African data to test whether Western-driven theories provide useful insights for analyzing protest dynamics in developing countries. The analysis yields three major findings: (1) the more open and democratic the political context, the more individuals mobilize, although the impact of the political opportunity structure in repressive contexts is less certain; (2) the more individuals are engaged in organizations, excluding religious organizations, the more they mobilize; (3) the impact of individual organizational engagement on the probability of mobilizing in protests does not change across contexts.

How Students on College Campuses Created Opportunities for Workers in Sweatshops

Contention ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 21-52
Author(s):  
Matthew S. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
College Campuses ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Opportunity Structure ◽  
Political Opportunity ◽  
Opportunity Structure ◽  
College Administrators ◽  
Political Opportunities ◽  
Apparel Companies ◽  
A Chain

Political opportunity structure (POS) refers to how the larger social context, such as repression, shapes a social movement’s chances of success. Most work on POS looks at how movements deal with the political opportunities enabling and/or constraining them. This article looks at how one group of social movement actors operating in a more open POS alters the POS for a different group of actors in a more repressive environment through a chain of indirect leverage—how United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) uses the more open POS on college campuses to create new opportunities for workers in sweatshop factories. USAS exerts direct leverage over college administrators through protests, pushing them to exert leverage over major apparel companies through the licensing agreements schools have with these companies.

Mobilizing Under the Gun: Theorizing Political Opportunity Structure in a Highly Repressive Setting

2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eitan Alimi
Keyword(s):  
Research Program ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Political Opportunity Structure ◽  
Political Opportunity ◽  
Opportunity Structure ◽  
Opportunity Structures ◽  
Political Events ◽  
Political Opportunity Structures ◽  
Different Levels

Although episodes of contentious politics in undemocratic regimes constitute the lion's share of contentious political events worldwide, the theorizing of political opportunity structures is based largely on contentious episodes in democratic/liberal political settings. This anomaly hampers recent attempts to redefine the boundaries among episodes of contention across time and place. Employing the case of the first Palestinian Intifada (1987-1992), I critically examine three theoretical aspects of political opportunity structures (POS): (1) how the link between POS, strateg, and tactics is forged; (2) how different levels of POS interact; and (3) the ability of multiactor movements to cope with the shifting nature of POS. I conclude by briefly illustrating the relevance of my findings to other structurally similar cases, and discuss the implications of my analysis for further sensitization of the Dynamics of Contention research program.

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