The Contribution of Social Movement Theory to Understanding Genocide

• In Event: 252 - Section on Comparative-Historical Sociology Paper Session. Can Comparative Historical Sociology Save the World? (3) Genocide

Abstract

Despite a recent turn in the field of contentious politics towards the study of political violence, scholars have yet to focus their lens on genocide. Moreover, research on genocide is characerized by fundamental disagreements about its definition, origins, and dynamics, leading to the lack of a generalizeable theory that this paper suggests can be improved by the consideration of concepts from social movements. I review the history of social movement studies and genocide studies — where the two both converge and diverge — and then analyze the Rwandan genocide as one example of how theories from social movements can be applied to make sense of mobilization for genocide. Given constraints of space and the substantial array of research on social movements, this essay focuses mainly on the classic tripartite paradigm of resource mobilization, framing, and political opportunity structures, as well as social networks, for mobilizing civilians with no pre-existing history of violence to kill their neighbors. With data from perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide, I argue that empirically observable phenomena found in social movements can also be found in mobilization processes for genocide. Further, I propose that a social movements approach to genocide would consider it one form of contentious politics among others, analyzable within the existing framework of social movement theory. A start, it is hoped this paper will spur more research on the relationship of social movement theory to genocide, deepening and developing synthetic theoretical work on genocide, as well as validating and extending research on social movements.

Author

• Aliza Luft, University of Wisconsin-Madison