SMT Responses

1. The point of Social Movement Theory (SMT) is to explain when, how, and why people act collectively and succeed in achieving their shared goals.

2. I think that that the same analytical frameworks - political opportunities/constraints, resource mobilization, and discursive opportunities/constraints can be used to study both the American Civil Rights Movement and political change in the MENA region. However, although I believe that in theory this analysis would work, the contexts - historical, social, and political of both scenarios would have to be taken into account of any analysis. In other words, we could use the same frameworks to analyze these two phenomena but in no way could we expect to see identical origins or results - directly as a result of the two different contexts in which each respective movement occurred.

3. Social Movement Theory is extremely helpful in understanding the success of Islamist movements for it allows us to examine the political constrains and opportunities of each movement on a case by case basis - in context of what is happening in a particular country. This allows us to hypothesize the notion that the reason one movement was successful in one country could be entirely different from the reason for success in another. We are then able to study the conditions prevalent in a certain society and analyze as to why these conditions have occurred and how they have either aided or hindered the rise of Islamist movements. In conjunction with this, the theory allows us to examine the social hierarchy of the country and movement and see how unity or disunity among certain groups can garner success to an Islamist movement.