TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction - Benjamin Abrams
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226826820.003.0001
[affinity-convergence theory;comparative history plus;mass mobilization;affinity;convergence]
The introduction to The Rise of the Masses puts in place the foundational questions investigated in the book and introduces its central theoretical contribution: affinity-convergence theory. Affinity-convergence theory advances that spontaneous mass mobilization can be explained by the combination of popular predispositions for protest (affinity) and large-scale structural shifts that help turn these predispositions into action (convergence). The introduction also sets out the methods used in the book: a combination of comparative historical methods and in-depth qualitative research, termed "comparative history plus."The chapter sets the scene for the chapters to come and closes by offering a brief overview of the book’s contents. (pages 1 - 12)
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1. What We Know about Mobilization, and What We Need To - Benjamin Abrams
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226826820.003.0002
[mobilization;collective behavior;resource mobilization;political processes;political opportunities;framing;social movements;contentious politics;disruption;spontaneous mobilization]
Chapter 1 of The Rise of the Masses outlines the state of academic knowledge about mobilization, and the important gaps in this body of research. It covers, in turn: classical theories of social movements and collective behavior; resource mobilization theories and spontaneist theories of disruption; theories of political processes, political opportunities, and threats; networked theories of mobilization; framing theories and cultural approaches to mobilization; and, finally, cutting-edge social psychological research on mobilization. Having surveyed what existing research can tell us about mobilization, the chapter turns to outline the various "missing pieces": important areas where what we know about mobilization currently falls short of explaining or predicting empirical phenomena. The chapter shows that these principally concern the problem of spontaneous mobilization: the question of how and why the masses may partake in contentious politics of their own accord. (pages 15 - 30)
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2. Affinity-Convergence Theory - Benjamin Abrams
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226826820.003.0003
[affinity;convergence;affinity-convergence theory;social affinities;psychological affinities;exceptional conditions;opportune conditions;paramount conditions;dispositions;drives]
Chapter 2 of The Rise of the Masses explains the book’s affinity-convergence theory of mobilization in depth. Affinity-convergence theory (ACT) is designed to address the problem of spontaneous mobilization: when ordinary people beyond the reach of organizations and activist networks mobilize of their own accord. The chapter explains ACT’s two core elements: affinity and convergence. Affinity constitutes a predisposition to participate in a cause, and can be disaggregated into a variety of specific social and psychological affinities. Social affinities include one’s patterns of activity, social status, resources, and obligations. Psychological affinities include dispositions—such as one’s attitudes, perceptions of injustice, and social identity—and drives, the interests and psychological needs to which a cause may cater. Convergence refers to the social conditions that catalyze participation among people with affinity to a cause. There are three subtypes of convergence: exceptional conditions, opportune conditions, and paramount conditions. The context in which these conditions arise may be physical spaces, structural situations, or cognitive frames. (pages 31 - 54)
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3. Egypt on the Eve of Revolution - Benjamin Abrams
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226826820.003.0004
[Egyptian Revolution;Mubarak;Muslim Brotherhood;National Association for Change;affinity;resistance;revolutionary mobilization;Kefaya]
Chapter 3 of The Rise of the Masses covers the build-up prior to the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, investigating the context in which the revolution took place. The chapter begins by detailing the political and social context that helped give many ordinary Egyptians an affinity for revolutionary mobilization, before offering a deep analysis of the state and scope of resistance to Egypt’s Mubarak regime during the decade before the revolution. It covers major players such as the National Association for Change, Kefaya, and the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as the activities of digital activists, football Ultras and more sporadic anti-Mubarak efforts. The chapter shows that although there existed organized anti-Mubarak resistance and a popular affinity for revolt, the Egyptian people were far from ‘revolutionaries in waiting.’Rather, revolutionary mobilization would only become possible under quite distinct convergence conditions. (pages 59 - 70)
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4. The Anatomy of a Revolutionary Moment - Benjamin Abrams
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226826820.003.0005
[Tahrir Square;Eighteen Days;Egyptian Revolution;affinity;convergence;affinity-convergence mobilization;psychological affinities;activists;Cairo;social affinities]
Chapter 4 of The Rise of the Masses turns to the emergence, explosion, and denouement of the 2011 Egyptian Revolution’s apex: the so-called "Eighteen Days."The chapter carefully deconstructs this period, with a primary focus on events in Cairo, showing how amid the rapid disappearance of organized activism, mass mobilization by means of affinity and convergence took center stage during the revolutionary period.The chapter begins by tracing how initial organizing efforts by a small number of activists operating beyond the purview of most established movements and parties were able to loosely focus revolutionary energy brewing in the country, before showing how these small efforts were overwhelmed by mass spontaneous affinity-convergence mobilization, which served to support revolutionary participation thereafter. The chapter outlines how key social affinities and psychological affinities were catalyzed by a wide spectrum of convergence conditions, including the exceptional characteristics of Cairo’s central Tahrir Square. (pages 71 - 90)
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5. The Fall and Fall of Revolutionary Egypt - Benjamin Abrams
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226826820.003.0006
[Egyptian Revolution;revolutionary mobilization;affinities;convergence;demobilization;repression;counterrevolution;institutional politics;mobilization;participation]
Tracing the declining trajectory of Egyptian revolutionary mobilization following the Eighteen Days, Chapter 5 of The Rise of the Masses draws particular attention to two complementary explanations for this decline. The first explanation concerns the Egyptian revolutionary movement’s notable organizational deficits. The second explanation concerns the actions of the hundreds of thousands who flocked to Tahrir from beyond such movements, their affinity to the revolutionary cause, and the cessation of the convergence conditions that brought them there.This chapter explains how and why revolutionaries were unable to capitalize on Egypt’s revolutionary period and build an effective mobilizing apparatus, as well as how established organizations shifted their focus away from revolutionary change and toward institutional politics shortly after Mubarak’s downfall. The chapter also details how Egyptians’ affinities for revolutionary mobilization came undone, and how the conditions of convergence that supported their participation were thwarted by a variety of factors, laying the foundations for demobilization, repression, and counterrevolution. (pages 91 - 106)
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6. Globalizing the Revolution - Benjamin Abrams
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226826820.003.0007
[Occupy Wall Street;convergence;2011;exceptional space;opportune space;paramount frame;organizational weakness;emergence;Arab Spring]
Chapter 6 of The Rise of the Masses details the emergence of Occupy Wall Street and the movement’s early development. The chapter explains how Occupy Wall Street emerged in response to the Arab Spring, showing how a loose band of anarchists sought to restage the conditions under which the 2011 revolutions took place, semi-successfully achieving an array of convergence conditions. This chapter covers the period between February and October 2011, explaining the movement’s initial organizational weakness and the synergy between the three conditions of convergence from which Occupy Wall Street benefited. The first of these was the occupation of Zuccotti Park’s character as an exceptional space: an open, participatory, and horizontal arena in which participation could take almost any form. The second was the occupation’s role as an opportune space: an arena in which protest and dissent was at once protected and attended to. Third was a paramount frame: a sense that the movement was summiting a national moment of collective resistance to the status quo. (pages 111 - 122)
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7. Enter the Occupiers - Benjamin Abrams
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226826820.003.0008
[Occupy Wall Street;social affinities;psychological affinities;drives;dispositional affinities;Zuccotti Park;convergence conditions;affinity-convergence mobilization;space;framing]
Chapter 7 of The Rise of the Masses details the underlying affinities which led many to participate in Occupy Wall Street and discusses how they interacted with the conditions of convergence evoked by the movement. During Occupy, a wide array of social and psychological affinities underpinned the pathways to participation taken by new participants. In addition to a more general discussion of affinity-convergence mobilization in the case, the chapter traces two prominent interactions between participants’ affinities and the case’s convergence conditions. The first concerns the role of the occupation as an exceptional space in encouraging people to participate based on a diverse range of social affinities and drives. The second concerns how the occupation’s paramount framing and character as an opportune space attracted participation on the basis of dispositional affinities. Finally, the chapter considers some of the pathways that fall through the cracks of these general depictions, as well as cases of nonparticipation. (pages 123 - 138)
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8. The End of the Extraordinary - Benjamin Abrams
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226826820.003.0009
[demobilization;Occupy Wall Street;activists;social ties;Zuccotti Park;organizational forms;social movements;conditions of convergence;state opponents;mobilization]
Chapter 8 of The Rise of the Masses analyzes the decline of the Occupy Wall Street movement, following its eviction from Zuccotti Park in November 2011. Conditions of convergence underpinning the movement’s success were methodically undermined by state opponents, as well as accidentally subverted by shifts in movement activity. Yet, the dwindling of mass mobilization and demobilization of Occupy Wall Street activists left a huge array of new causes in the movement’s place. In its closing pages, the chapter explores how the social ties and organizational forms arising from the movement have persisted since its decline, influencing disaster relief efforts, electoral campaigns, and novel social movements across the United States. (pages 139 - 152)
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9. From Tragedy to Uprising - Benjamin Abrams
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226826820.003.0010
[George Floyd;Black Lives Matter;riots;mass mobilization;spontaneous protest;police brutality;Minneapolis;Atlanta;Seattle;Portland]
Chapter 9 of The Rise of the Masses examines the birth of the 2020 Black Lives Uprising, tracing how peaceful protests in Minneapolis following the police murder of George Floyd cascaded into police brutality-provoked riots across the Twin Cities, which in turn galvanized popular spontaneity elsewhere, spiraling into a similar pattern of spontaneous protest, police-provoked riot, and mass mobilization across the United States. Drawing on qualitative interviews with participants, published eyewitness testimonies, livestream footage, social media posts, government documents, and media reportage, this chapter explores the uprising’s early months through an indicative selection of the cites in which prominent Black Lives Matter protests occurred: Minneapolis, Atlanta, Seattle, and Portland. (pages 157 - 174)
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10. Mass Mobilization for Black Lives - Benjamin Abrams
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226826820.003.0011
[affinity;convergence;affinity-convergence mobilization;COVID-19 pandemic;claimed spaces;Black Lives Matter;framing;movement organizations;mobilization;2020]
Chapter 10 of The Rise of the Masses turns its focus to the specific dynamics of affinity and convergence that played out during the Black Lives Uprising, detailing their role in fomenting popular mobilization without reliance on movement organizations and their networks. It shows how the exceptional situation stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic combined with emergent paramount and opportune situations arising from violent showdowns with police forces to catalyze greater participation in protest, as well as discussing the role of preemptive local concessions and federal authoritarian threats in framing participation as first opportune, then paramount. The chapter also discuses how certain claimed spaces in cities like Seattle and Portland provided opportune and exceptional physical conditions for participation in protest.These various convergence conditions interacted with a wide array of social and psychological affinities. The chapter closes by detailing how protesters sought to maintain mobilization, how they interacted with more established forces such as official Black Lives Matter groups, and how the alternative structures and relationships they developed during the 2020 uprising have persisted. (pages 175 - 196)
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11. Mass Mobilization against the Ancien Régime - Benjamin Abrams
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226826820.003.0012
[French Revolution;1789;affinities;Bastille;Great Fear;Women's March on Versailles;perceptions of injustice;attitudes;patterns of activity;social status]
Chapter 11 of The Rise of the Masses turns to the French Revolution of 1789, laying out how an affinity-convergence approach to mobilization helps us understand the puzzle of French revolutionary spontaneity in 1789. Drawing on archival documents, historical accounts, and official records, the chapter carefully dissects the contentious powder keg of the revolution’s first year. The chapter pays particular attention to how the convocation of the Estates General and subsequent showdown between the king and the Third Estate in 1789 established the situational groundwork for revolutionary agitation on the basis of long-standing affinities such as perceptions of injustice, antiseigneurial attitudes, patterns of activity, and social status and obligations. The chapter covers landmark events from 1789 such as the fall of the Bastille, the Great Fear, and the Women’s March on Versailles. (pages 199 - 214)
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12. The Development of Revolutionary Mobilization - Benjamin Abrams
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226826820.003.0013
[French Revolution;revolutionary mobilization;affinity-convergence mobilization;hybrid mobilization;revolutionary mobilization;convergence;affinities;revolution;propaganda]
Chapter 12 of The Rise of the Masses begins by drawing together the affinities and conditions of convergence that developed throughout the French Revolution of 1789, detailing how the dynamics of mobilization shifted in the subsequent months and years. The chapter begins by surveying the affinities and convergence conditions that characterized revolutionary mobilization by the end of 1789, showing how the revolution progressively transformed from a process underpinned primarily by the dynamics of affinity-convergence mobilization to one in which highly organized forms of mobilization became dominant. During this transition, instances of hybrid mobilization occurred, in which revolutionary forces sought to control or replace spaces of convergence with factionally controlled clubs and other gathering spaces, built an organized propaganda apparatus to instill political predispositions in sectors of the populace under their influence, and even cultivated convergence conditions by leveraging limited control over elements of state power. (pages 215 - 228)
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Conclusion - Benjamin Abrams
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226826820.003.0014
[affinity-convergence theory;counter-movements;demobilization;repression;disruptive protest;organization;spontaneity;affinity-convergence mobilization;convergence;affinity]
Drawing together comparative lessons from across the book’s four cases (The Egyptian Revolution, Occupy Wall Street, the Black Lives Uprising and the French Revolution), the concluding chapter of The Rise of the Masses reiterates the contribution of its theory and casesbefore moving to investigate an array of corollary questions. These include the relationship between organization and spontaneity, the impact of disruptive protest, and the role of repression and state opponents in shaping spontaneous participation. The chapter also briefly outlines some of the granular patterns and tendencies in processes of affinity-convergence mobilization occurring across cases in the book. The chapter closes by offering reflections upon areas for future research such as the impact of convergence conditions on counter-movements and the relationship between affinity, convergence, and demobilization, as well as potential routes to further improve affinity-convergence theory (ACT). (pages 229 - 246)
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