Dieter Rucht
Biographic Data
| ID | 239893 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Dieter Rucht |
| GIVEN NAMES | Dieter |
| FAMILY NAME | Rucht |
| SIGNATURE | RUCHT D |
| AFFILIATIONS | WZB Berlin Social Science Center |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 77 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 665 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 68 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 9 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1982 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Karl-Werner Brand
Social Movements: A Theoretical Approach
This treatise offers a theoretically informed approach to social movements as a phenomenon of modern societies. It combines three basic perspectives: interactionist, constructivist, and process-oriented (ICP-approach). The overall ambition is to link the analysis of social movements to general theories of society and processes of social change. To this aim, the treatise mainly draws on ideas from Jürgen Habermas, Pierre Bourdieu, and Anthony Gidd…
Die Letze Generation: Eine kritische Zwischenbilanz
Die Klimaaktivist*innen der „Letzten Generation“ polarisieren. Ein Teil der Bevölkerung befürwortet die provokanten Proteste, die vor allem auf die Maximierung medialer Aufmerksamkeit abzielen. Der andere Teil hält die Protestierenden für Fanatiker, die rücksichtlos und unter Missachtung geltender Gesetze ihre politischen Ziele durchsetzen wollen. Wie und warum ist die Letzte Generation (LG) entstanden und wie hat sie sich bis heute verändert? Si…
Replik des Autors
Wissenschaft im Dienst von Sicherheitsbehörden
Nassehi, Armin 2020: Das große Nein. Eigendynamik und Tragik des gesellschaftlichen Protests. Kursbuch edition
Article Nassehi, Armin 2020: Das große Nein. Eigendynamik und Tragik des gesellschaftlichen Protests. Kursbuch edition. was published on June 1, 2022 in the journal Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen (volume 35, issue 2)
Wer demonstriert da?: Ergebnisse von Befragungen bei Großprotesten von Fridays for Future in Deutschland im März und November 2019
Deutsche Protestgeschichte
Mobilisierungsprozesse von Fridays for Future: Ein Blick hinter die Kulissen
Oligarchy and Organization
Oligarchy is evaluated strikingly different among both practitioners, in various kinds of organizations (state administrations, political parties, interest groups, social movements), and scholars. Some see it as an unavoidable or even necessary structure to create organizational unity and allow for strategic action; others consider it to be an evil to be eliminated or mitigated. Promoters of “strong” democracy especially seek to curb or reduce ol…
Exploring the Backstage: Preparation and Implementation of Mass Protests in Germany
This article aims to shed light on the understudied backstage of mass street protest preparation and implementation. In this article, I present an exploratory framework for systematizing the basic tasks and challenges of organizing a mass protest in the streets or other places. I elaborate on the concept of backstage and provide an overview of the basic tasks and challenges in preparing and organizing mass protest. These tasks are fleshed out wit…
Inwiefern und warum ist Pegida erfolgreich?
Neuere kapitalismuskritische und antikapitalistische Bewegungen
Die in westlichen Ländern seit den 1970er Jahren abflauende linke Kapitalismuskritik hat seit dem Aufkommen globalisierungskritischer Bewegungen und nachfolgender Mobilisierungen (Occupy, Anti-Austerity-Bewegungen, Blockupy-Netzwerk, einer weiteren Generation von Antifa-Gruppen) wieder an Dynamik und Attraktivität gewonnen. Allerdings setzt diese Kritik auch neue Akzente und geht über einen traditionellen – zumal von revolutionärer Emphase getrag…
Transnational Struggles for Recognition: New Perspectives on Civil Society since the 20th Century
Social Movements in a Globalising World
Media and Revolt: Strategies and Performances from the 1960s to the Present
Changes of Protest Groups’ Media Strategies from a Long-Term Perspective
Bürgerschaft, Öffentlichkeit und Demokratie in Europa
Protest movements and their media usages
Die Protestierenden gegen „Stuttgart 21“einzigartig oder typisch?
Meeting Democracy: Power and Deliberation in Global Justice Movements
The concepts of power and democracy have been extensively studied at the global, national and local levels and within institutions including states, international organizations and political parties. However, the interplay of those concepts within social movements is given far less attention. Studies have so far mainly focused on their protest activities rather than the internal practices of deliberation and democratic decision-making. Meeting De…
Political Participation in Europe
Leadership in Social and Political Movements: A Comparative Exploration
As long as we use the generic term 'leadership', we imply that there is a common denominator regardless of the specific contexts, types, and requirements. At the most general level we can characterize leadership as a relational concept, or, more precisely, a concept of vertical relationship within a collectivity. Some theorists have characterized this relationship as 'symbiotic' (Burns 1978, 452). Others rather stress the aspect of asymmetry, sin…
Civility: Introductory notes on the history and systematic analysis of a concept
This introductory text has several goals. First, it sets the stage for the topic. Why give thought to civility? Second, it discusses various concepts of civility including their paradigmatic backgrounds. Third, the authors suggest a definition of civil society for future research. In operational terms, the authors subdivide civility into five fields of research: the history of the concept (‘Begriffsgeschichte’), and the four analytic dimensions o…
Civil society and civility in twentieth-century theorising
This essay explores the roots, significance and meaning of various concepts of civil society and civility in both sociology and moral philosophy from a comparative perspective. It identifies liberalism, pragmatism, communitarianism and critical theory as key approaches that implicitly or explicitly highlight the norms and practices of civility as prerequisites for the integration of modern societies and the peaceful co-existence of nation-states …
Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements: Political Opportunities, Mobilizing Structures, and Cultural Framings
Social movements such as environmentalism, feminism, nationalism, and the anti-immigration movement are a prominent feature of the modern world and have attracted increasing attention from scholars in many countries. Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements, first published in 1996, brings together a set of essays that focus upon mobilization structures and strategies, political opportunities, and cultural framing and ideologies. The essays a…
The Cross-National Diffusion of Movement Ideas
Current theory and research on social movements continue to treat these movements as discrete entities, rather than to focus on the ways in which activists in one struggle borrow elements from other similar groups. With its emphasis on the spread of information or other cultural elements, the diffusion literature represents a potentially fruitful starting point for theorizing about the transfer of ideas or tactics from one movement to another. Dr…
Mesomobilization: Organizing and Framing in Two Protest Campaigns in West Germany
The concept of mesomobilization is introduced as a specification to the prevailing literature on mobilization processes. Mesomobilization actors have a dual function: They first provide the structural basis for mobilization by coordinating micromobilization groups and collecting the resources required for action and then try to achieve a cultural integration of the various groups by developing a master frame to interpret the triggering event in a…
Four models of the public sphere in modern democracies
The Dynamics of Environmental Campaigns
Environmental movements and their activities are studied from various angles, by different methods, and at different levels. While both detailed studies on single incidents of conflict and broad overviews of movements are available, relatively little work has been done at the intermediate level between these extremes. We argue that it is fruitful to engage at this level by undertaking comparative analysis of environmental campaigns. Such studies …
Linking Organization and Mobilization: Michels'S Iron Law of Oligarchy Reconsidered
Robert Michels's iron law of oligarchy has rarely been submitted to rigorous empirical investigation. This article specifies the key assumptions of Michels's theory and tests them by the use of two data sets that focus on collective protest and the evolution of organizational features of German new social movement groups. With some significant exceptions, the data support Michels's theory. Movements tend to become more centralized-bureaucratic an…
Towards a 'Movement Society'? On the possibilities of institutionalizing social movements
Social movements come into existence only on the basis of certain preconditions. The concurrence of distinct factors on the levels of individual experience, collective framing and societal structure favour the emergence and stabilization of social movements. Drawing on a model that links these three levels with aspects of problematization, mobilization and stabilization, we argue that there is a growing probability for social movements to come in…
The changing role of political protest movements
2003). The changing role of political protest movements. West European Politics: Vol. 26, No. 4, pp. 153-176
German Unification, Democratization, and The Role of Social Movements: A Missed Opportunity
Citizen movements were an important factor in triggering the peaceful East German revolution that abolished the communist regime and contributed to achievement of elementary civil rights that are taken for granted in Western democracies. However, the movements failed in their efforts to resist quick German unification via the largely uncontested transplantation of the West German institutional system to East Germany. This article analyzes why the…
The German environmental movement at a crossroads
To outsiders, the environmental movement in Germany is relatively strong and successful. Measured in terms of its organisational strength and protest activities, the movement is not in decline. Professionalisation and institutionalisation have allowed it to become a respectable player in established politics. Nowadays, environmentalism seems to be embraced by all social forces. Yet the movement is confronted with a number of crucial questions abo…
Civil society and civility in twentieth-century theorising
This essay explores the roots, significance and meaning of various concepts of civil society and civility in both sociology and moral philosophy from a comparative perspective. It identifies liberalism, pragmatism, communitarianism and critical theory as key approaches that implicitly or explicitly highlight the norms and practices of civility as prerequisites for the integration of modern societies and the peaceful co-existence of nation-states …
Mobilization Against Large Techno-Industrial Projects: A Comparative Perspective
In recent decades, large techno-industrial projects such as power stations, dams, and airports have been confronted with fierce opposition. Resistance against such projects, however, also occurred in earlier periods, though in different forms. This article overviews both historical and contemporary oppositional groups fighting against large projects. When looking at the long-term development over roughly a century, it becomes obvious that resista…
Neither decline nor sclerosis: The organisational structure of the German environmental movement
The conventional view of the life‐course of social movements is that they institutionalise, develop hierarchical structures and, as a consequence, de‐radicalise. This article assesses this image by examining the recent history of the German environmental movement, using two surveys of national and Berlin‐based environmental groups. The analysis suggests that there are no indications of a decline or sclerosis in the movement. Contrary to what some…
Civility: Introductory notes on the history and systematic analysis of a concept
This introductory text has several goals. First, it sets the stage for the topic. Why give thought to civility? Second, it discusses various concepts of civility including their paradigmatic backgrounds. Third, the authors suggest a definition of civil society for future research. In operational terms, the authors subdivide civility into five fields of research: the history of the concept (‘Begriffsgeschichte’), and the four analytic dimensions o…
Zur Europäisierung politischer Mobilisierung
Jugendkulturen, Politik und Protest: Vom Widerstand Zum Kommerz?
Exploring the Backstage: Preparation and Implementation of Mass Protests in Germany
This article aims to shed light on the understudied backstage of mass street protest preparation and implementation. In this article, I present an exploratory framework for systematizing the basic tasks and challenges of organizing a mass protest in the streets or other places. I elaborate on the concept of backstage and provide an overview of the basic tasks and challenges in preparing and organizing mass protest. These tasks are fleshed out wit…
Zum Stand der Forschung zu sozialen Bewegungen
Sociedade como projeto-projetos na sociedade Sobre o papel dos movimentos sociais
A pretensão deste ensaio é expandir a tese da sociedade de movimento (Bewegungsgesellschaft) e defendê-la ofensivamente. Diferente do que na publicação precedente de Neidhardt e Rucht em que este conceito foi originalmente formulado, não está em pauta aqui uma sistematização das condições de estabilização de movimentos sociais, mas a pergunta pela importância e função de movimentos sociais na modernidade histórica e atual. Palavras-chave: Movimen…
Lassen sich personale, soziale und kollektive Identität sinnvoll voneinander abgrenzen
Article Lassen sich personale, soziale und kollektive Identität sinnvoll voneinander abgrenzen? was published on December 1, 2011 in the journal Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen (volume 24, issue 4
New Social Movements in Western Europe: A Comparative Analysis
New social movements are defined as those that have arisen since the late sixties, and include the ecology, gay rights, peace, and women’s movements. This volume provides a cross-national comparison of the development, mobilization, and impact of new social movements in four Western European nations-France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. Seeking to move beyond classical theories of collective behavior, this study suggests that social …
Movimenti Sociali E Sistema Politico: Un Confronto Fra Italia E Germania
IntroduzioneLa letteratura sulle forme di protesta si è arricchita, di recente, di numerosi contributi che hanno, tra l'altro, affrontato il tema dei rapporti tra sistema politico e movimenti sociali. Ispirati da Eisinger, che aveva dimostrato una relazione curvilinea tra l'incidenza della protesta nelle città americane e l'accesso dei movimenti collettivi nelle arene politiche locali (Eisinger 1973, 28), modelli sempre piò complessi sono stati e…
Neue soziale Bewegungen oder: Die Grenzen bürokratischer Modernisierung
Will man den Zeitdiagnosen aus unterschiedlichen wissenschaftlichen und politischen Lagern folgen, so treiben die westlichen Demokratien einer ernsthaften Krise zu. Zwar fehlt es nicht an Versuchen, zumindest die Angemessenheit und Stabilitt des politi schen Institutionengefges zu beschwren und den Krisenbefund einer "wohlfeilen Krisen-und Diffamierungsrhetorik" (Sontheimer) zuzuschreiben oder
Institutionalisierungstendenzen der neuen sozialen Bewegungen
Der Verfasser geht zunächst in allgemeiner Form auf den Unterschied zwischen sozialer Bewegung und formaler Organisation ein. Er stellt die Bedeutung des Institutionalisierungsgrades als zentrales Unterscheidungsmerkmal heraus und betont besonders die Rolle sozialer Bewegungen als sich auch durch das "Politikum der Form" manifestierende Opposition gegen die auf formalen Organisationen basierende soziale Ordnung. Im Anschluß daran werden im einzel…
Zur Organisation der neuen sozialen Bewegungen
Organisation, soziale Bewegung, Protestbewegung, Organisationsentwicklung, Organisationsstruktur, historische Entwicklung, Sozialforschung, Organisationsforschung
Movimenti Sociali E Sistema Politico: Un Confronto Fra Italia E Germania
IntroduzioneLa letteratura sulle forme di protesta si è arricchita, di recente, di numerosi contributi che hanno, tra l'altro, affrontato il tema dei rapporti tra sistema politico e movimenti sociali. Ispirati da Eisinger, che aveva dimostrato una relazione curvilinea tra l'incidenza della protesta nelle città americane e l'accesso dei movimenti collettivi nelle arene politiche locali (Eisinger 1973, 28), modelli sempre piò complessi sono stati e…
Mesomobilization: Organizing and Framing in Two Protest Campaigns in West Germany
The concept of mesomobilization is introduced as a specification to the prevailing literature on mobilization processes. Mesomobilization actors have a dual function: They first provide the structural basis for mobilization by coordinating micromobilization groups and collecting the resources required for action and then try to achieve a cultural integration of the various groups by developing a master frame to interpret the triggering event in a…
Research on Social Movements: The State of the Art in Western Europe and the United States of America
The Cross-National Diffusion of Movement Ideas
Current theory and research on social movements continue to treat these movements as discrete entities, rather than to focus on the ways in which activists in one struggle borrow elements from other similar groups. With its emphasis on the spread of information or other cultural elements, the diffusion literature represents a potentially fruitful starting point for theorizing about the transfer of ideas or tactics from one movement to another. Dr…
The Making of the New Environmental Consciousness: A Comparative Study of the Environmental Movements in Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands
Environmental issues throughout the world are increasingly becoming a permanent feature in political and everyday life. This series looks at the social and political aspects of the environmental crisis. International and multi-disciplinary in scope, the series aims to provide scholarly and up-to-date studies of some of the key issues facing environmental movements both in the past and in the present. This book is a systematic comparative analysis…
The impact of national contexts on social movement structures: A cross-movement and cross-national comparison
Political opportunity theorists have mainly dealt with mobilization for protest as the primary dependent variable. Opportunities were clearly assets of their environment and not properties of the protest groups themselves. Thus, the crucial question was: “Which opportunities facilitate or restrict the kind and/or extent of mobilization?” Some authors have treated the level of mobilization (Kriesi, 1989b, 1991; Tarrow, 1989b, 1991b) or the strengt…
Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements: Political Opportunities, Mobilizing Structures, and Cultural Framings
Social movements such as environmentalism, feminism, nationalism, and the anti-immigration movement are a prominent feature of the modern world and have attracted increasing attention from scholars in many countries. Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements, first published in 1996, brings together a set of essays that focus upon mobilization structures and strategies, political opportunities, and cultural framing and ideologies. The essays a…
German Unification, Democratization, and The Role of Social Movements: A Missed Opportunity
Citizen movements were an important factor in triggering the peaceful East German revolution that abolished the communist regime and contributed to achievement of elementary civil rights that are taken for granted in Western democracies. However, the movements failed in their efforts to resist quick German unification via the largely uncontested transplantation of the West German institutional system to East Germany. This article analyzes why the…
New Social Movements in Western Europe: A Comparative Analysis
New social movements are defined as those that have arisen since the late sixties, and include the ecology, gay rights, peace, and women’s movements. This volume provides a cross-national comparison of the development, mobilization, and impact of new social movements in four Western European nations-France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. Seeking to move beyond classical theories of collective behavior, this study suggests that social …
Ökologische Frage Und Umweltbewegung Im Spiegel Der Soziologie
Acts of dissent: New Developments in the Study of Protest
Konfrontation und Gewalt
Viele politische und soziale Konflikte enthalten einen Sprengstoff, der unter bestimmten Bedingungen in gewaltförmigen Auseinandersetzungen explodiert. Vergegenwärtigt man sich die Bauernaufstände des 16. Jahrhunderts und die Bürgerkriege des 17. Jahrhunderts in Europa, so wird allerdings deutlich, daß heutzutage die meisten inneren Konflikte zumindest in den westlichen Demokratien vergleichsweise friedfertig ausgetragen werden. Dafür gibt es dre…
Social Movements in a Globalizing World
Table of Contents Social Movements in a Globalizing World: an Introduction D.della Porta & H.Kriesi PART I: NATIONAL MOBILIZATION WITHIN A GLOBALIZING WORLD Alternative Types of Cross-national Diffusion in the Social Movement Arena D.A.Snow & R.D.Benford The Gendering of Abortion Discourse: Assessing Global Feminist Influence in the United States and Germany M.Marx Ferree & W.A.Gamson A Comparison of Protests against the Gulf War in Germany, Fran…
Linking Organization and Mobilization: Michels'S Iron Law of Oligarchy Reconsidered
Robert Michels's iron law of oligarchy has rarely been submitted to rigorous empirical investigation. This article specifies the key assumptions of Michels's theory and tests them by the use of two data sets that focus on collective protest and the evolution of organizational features of German new social movement groups. With some significant exceptions, the data support Michels's theory. Movements tend to become more centralized-bureaucratic an…
The German environmental movement at a crossroads
To outsiders, the environmental movement in Germany is relatively strong and successful. Measured in terms of its organisational strength and protest activities, the movement is not in decline. Professionalisation and institutionalisation have allowed it to become a respectable player in established politics. Nowadays, environmentalism seems to be embraced by all social forces. Yet the movement is confronted with a number of crucial questions abo…
Öffentlichkeit, Akteure und Deutungsmuster: Die Debatte über Abtreibungen in Deutschland und den USA
Die Frage der gesetzlichen Regelung von Abtreibungen und damit verbunden die Frage nach der Legitimität von Abtreibungen standen und stehen sowohl in den USA als auch in der Bundesrepublik seit den 60er bzw. den 70er Jahren dauerhaft auf der Agenda der politischen und öffentlichen Auseinandersetzungen (Rucht 1994; Lee 1998; Gante 1991). Der zentrale Streitpunkt der Debatte ist, ob und unter welchen Bedingungen Abtreibungen zulässig sind. Immer, w…
Jugendliche heute: Hoffnungsträger im Zukunftsloch
Das Terrain, das in diesem Band mit den thematischen Eckpunkten „Jugendkulturen, Politik und Protest“ abgesteckt ist, markiert kein neutrales Gebiet. Es ist aufgeladen mit Ängsten und Hoffnungen. Meist dient es Erwachsenen als emotionale Projektionsfläche für Bedrohungsgefühle und Wunschträume. Gelegentlich sind es die Kinder und Enkel selbst, die nicht nur in die Positionen einrücken wollen, die von den Älteren geräumt werden, sondern eine ander…
Zur Europäisierung politischer Mobilisierung
Jugendkulturen, Politik und Protest: Vom Widerstand Zum Kommerz?
Neither decline nor sclerosis: The organisational structure of the German environmental movement
The conventional view of the life‐course of social movements is that they institutionalise, develop hierarchical structures and, as a consequence, de‐radicalise. This article assesses this image by examining the recent history of the German environmental movement, using two surveys of national and Berlin‐based environmental groups. The analysis suggests that there are no indications of a decline or sclerosis in the movement. Contrary to what some…
Shaping Abortion Discourse: Democracy and the Public Sphere in Germany and the United States
Using controversy over abortion as a lens through which to compare the political process and role of the media in these two very different democracies, this book examines the contest over meaning that is being waged by social movements, political parties, churches and other social actors. Abortion is a critical battleground for debates over social values in both countries, but the constitutional premises on which arguments rest differ, as do the …
Gewalt und neue soziale Bewegungen
Der Gewaltbegriff wird von manchen sehr weit gefasst. Gemäß dem Verständnis von "struktureller Gewalt" (Johan Galtung) gelten gesellschaftliche Verhältnisse, die massive soziale Benachteiligung und Ungerechtigkeit zur Folge haben, als gewaltförmig. Ebenso werden zuweilen relativ harmlose Formen zivilen Ungehorsams, etwa kurzzeitige Sitzblockaden, unter den Gewaltbegriff subsumiert. Diese Dehnungen machen den Gewaltbegriff unscharf und letztlich u…
Political science (55 works) · Sociology (30 works) · Law (27 works) · Politics (22 works) · Philosophy (18 works) · Humanities (17 works) · Political economy (15 works) · Social movement (14 works) · Social Policy and Reform Studies (14 works) · Law (13 works)