The chapter addresses the surveying of social movement activists. The chapter starts with the observation that, some 15 years after select scholars argued that a “strange lacuna” in social movement studies—the paucity of research based on surveys—was over: activists’ characteristics and motivations are more and more often investigated within international projects thanks to the use of surveys during protest events. Originally thought of as a methodological device to capture the degree of overlap between the ideological themes of the movement and the individual beliefs of demonstrators, the survey has since been used for a larger number of research questions concerning individuals getting involved in collective action, becoming an established methodology. The chapter aims at addressing some of the main challenges in the use of the (very established) survey method during protest events. It discusses problems and solutions referring to bias in the implementation of random sampling, ways to control response bias, main trade-offs in the preparation of the questionnaires, as well as main caveats in the analysis of results. The authors’ own use of surveys in research on the global justice movement at the beginning of the millennium as well as during protests in times of austerity are referred to by way of illustration.
Surveying Protestors: Why and How
Andretta, Massimiliano;
2014-01-01
Abstract
The chapter addresses the surveying of social movement activists. The chapter starts with the observation that, some 15 years after select scholars argued that a “strange lacuna” in social movement studies—the paucity of research based on surveys—was over: activists’ characteristics and motivations are more and more often investigated within international projects thanks to the use of surveys during protest events. Originally thought of as a methodological device to capture the degree of overlap between the ideological themes of the movement and the individual beliefs of demonstrators, the survey has since been used for a larger number of research questions concerning individuals getting involved in collective action, becoming an established methodology. The chapter aims at addressing some of the main challenges in the use of the (very established) survey method during protest events. It discusses problems and solutions referring to bias in the implementation of random sampling, ways to control response bias, main trade-offs in the preparation of the questionnaires, as well as main caveats in the analysis of results. The authors’ own use of surveys in research on the global justice movement at the beginning of the millennium as well as during protests in times of austerity are referred to by way of illustration.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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