Scenes and Social Movements

Abstract

Social movements operate in a realm between the public and private spheres. Researchers have long been aware of these intermediate spheres and have emphasized them as places where oppositional frames and collective identities are constructed. But even as the importance of free-space concepts has not been overlooked, we still know surprisingly little about their inner dynamics, the circumstances under which they arise, or their effect on social movement development.In our contribution we propose to identify this intermediate sphere as scene that is simultaneously a network of people who share a common identity and a common set of subcultural or countercultural beliefs, values, norms, and convictions as well as a network of physical spaces where members of that group are known to congregate.Drawing on data from two movement scenes in Germany we offer 10 propositions about movement-scene linkages that help to understand the roles scenes can play in movement processes related to mobilization, the construction and maintenance of collective identities, practices and organizational forms, and movement longevity.