Unearthing a Network of Resistance: Law and the Anti-Strip Mining Movement in Central Appalachia

Abstract The nexus where law, social movements, and organizations meet demands further explication. This research adds to our understandings of these dynamics by examining the case of the central Appalachian anti-strip mining movement. After developing a social network technique to analyze over thirty years of newspapers, we find a period of reduced movement activity following the passage of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977. Conversely, we observe a reinvigoration of the movement following the passage of the Clean Air Amendments of 1990 and the perverse incentives they created for mountaintop removal mining. Finally, we see that joint participation in lawsuits is a primary tie that binds these groups together.

[1]  R. Glennon.  The Role of Law in the Civil Rights Movement: The Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955–1957 , 1991, Law and History Review.

[2]  Roberto Franzosi,et al.  The Press as a Source of Socio-Historical Data: Issues in the Methodology of Data Collection from Newspapers , 1987 .

[3]  Mark Kelman,et al.  A Guide to Critical Legal Studies , 1987 .

[4]  D. Knoke,et al.  Political Networks: The Structural Perspective , 1992 .

[5]  H. Gans.  Deciding What's News: A Study of CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, Newsweek and Time , 1979 .

[6]  David V. Snyder,et al.  Conflict Intensity, Media Sensitivity and the Validity of Newspaper Data , 1977 .

[7]  C. Tilly.  From mobilization to revolution , 1978 .

[8]  D. Knoke.  Political Networks: Contents , 1990 .

[9]  Gerald N. Rosenberg.  The hollow hope : can courts bring about social change? , 1992 .

[10]  Maryjane Osa.  Networks in Opposition: Linking Organizations through Activists in the Polish People's Republic , 2003 .

[11]  P. Bearman,et al.  The structure of social protest, 1961–1983☆ , 1993 .

[12]  Homer R. Steedly,et al.  The success of protest groups: Multivariate analyses , 1979 .

[13]  D. Snow,et al.  Frame alignment processes, micromobilization, and movement participation. , 1986 .

[14]  Mustafa Emirbayer,et al.  Network Analysis, Culture, and the Problem of Agency , 1994, American Journal of Sociology.

[15]  V. Taylor,et al.  Collective identity in social movement communities: Lesbian feminist mobilization. , 1992 .

[16]  Sidney Tarrow,et al.  Power in Movement: Social Movements and Contentious Politics , 1994 .

[17]  David Kairys,et al.  The politics of law : a progressive critique , 1982 .

[18]  Peter K. Eisinger,et al.  The Conditions of Protest Behavior in American Cities , 1973, American Political Science Review.

[19]  Michael W. McCann,et al.  Rights at Work: Pay Equity Reform and the Politics of Legal Mobilization , 1994 .

[20]  M. Mccann.  Law and Social Movements , 2008 .

[21]  Nick Crossley,et al.  Towards Relational Sociology , 2010 .

[22]  Doug McAdam.  Recruitment to High-Risk Activism: The Case of Freedom Summer , 1986, American Journal of Sociology.

[23]  Mark S. Granovetter.  The Strength of Weak Ties , 1973, American Journal of Sociology.

[24]  Francesca Polletta,et al.  Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics , 1998 .

[25]  Scott W. Barclay,et al.  Two spinning wheels: Studying law and social movements , 2011 .

[26]  D. Knoke.  Political Networks: Political Networks , 1990 .

[27]  Alberto Melucci,et al.  Nomads of the Present: Social Movements and Individual Needs in Contemporary Society , 1989 .

[28]  David N. Pellow,et al.  Resisting Global Toxics: Transnational Movements for Environmental Justice , 2007 .

[29]  J. D. McCarthy,et al.  Resource Mobilization and Social Movements: A Partial Theory , 1977, American Journal of Sociology.

[30]  D. Stone,et al.  Causal Stories and the Formation of Policy Agendas , 1989, Anthologie Kulturpolitik.

[31]  V. Taylor.  SOCIAL MOVEMENT CONTINUITY: THE WOMEN'S MOVEMENT IN ABEYANCE* , 1989 .

[32]  M. Castells.  The Power of Identity , 1997 .

[33]  W. Freudenburg,et al.  Changing Public Policy: The Impact of Public Opinion, Antiwar Demonstrations, and War Costs on Senate Voting on Vietnam War Motions , 1978, American Journal of Sociology.

[34]  William A. Gamson,et al.  A theory of coalition formation , 1961 .

[35]  W. Hathaway,et al.  Competition and Cooperation in Social Movement Coalitions:: Lobbying for Peace in the 1980s , 1993 .

[36]  M. Savage,et al.  Social networks and the study of relations: networks as method, metaphor and form , 2006 .

[37]  Sheldon Ekland-Olson,et al.  Social Networks and Social Movements: A Microstructural Approach to Differential Recruitment , 1980 .

[38]  B. Epstein.  Political Protest and Cultural Revolution: Nonviolent Direct Action in the 1970s and 1980s , 1991 .

[39]  James C. Scott,et al.  Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance. , 1985, The Journal of Asian Studies.

[40]  William A. Gamson,et al.  Movements and Media as Interacting Systems , 1993 .

[41]  M. Mccann.  Law and Social Movements: Contemporary Perspectives , 2006 .

[42]  John Cowley,et al.  Poor People's Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail , 1978 .

[43]  Doug McAdam,et al.  On Law, Organizations, and Social Movements , 2010 .

[44]  D. S. Meyer.  Institutionalizing dissent: The United States structure of political opportunity and the end of the nuclear freeze movement , 1993 .

[45]  N. V. Dyke.  Crossing movement boundaries: Factors that facilitate coalition protest by American college students, 1930-1990 , 2003 .

[46]  W. Richard Scott,et al.  Organizations and Movements , 2002 .

[47]  Martin G. Everett,et al.  Models of core/periphery structures , 2000, Soc. Networks.

[48]  R. Burt.  Brokerage and Closure: An Introduction to Social Capital , 2005 .

[49]  Douglas NeJaime.  Convincing Elites, Controlling Elites , 2011 .

[50]  J. Craig Jenkins,et al.  Resource Mobilization Theory and the Study of Social Movements , 1983 .

[51]  R. Lasker,et al.  Partnership synergy: a practical framework for studying and strengthening the collaborative advantage. , 2001, The Milbank quarterly.

[52]  W. Bogart.  Consequences: The Impact of Law and Its Complexity , 2002 .

[53]  L. Vanhala.  Social Movements Lashing Back: Law, Social Change and Intra-Social Movement Backlash in Canada , 2010 .

[54]  Mario Diani,et al.  ‘Leaders’ Or Brokers? Positions and Influence in Social Movement Networks , 2003 .