Contention Across Social Fields

Manipulating the Boundaries of Labor Struggle in the Workplace, Community, and Market

Bibliographic Data

ID2245144
AuthorsPablo Gastón (University of California, Berkeley, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume65
Issue2
Pages231-250
Publication date2018-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Problems (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0037-7791 • E-ISSN: 1533-8533
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/socpro/spw039
OpenAlexW2647971212
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited68

A growing literature examines the dynamics of social movement contention within and across “social fields.” While fields tend toward stability, events and processes elsewhere in a broader system of fields can provide opportunities for movement mobilization. Most accounts see these cross-field dynamics as exogenous events, granting movements little control over when and how these opportunities might emerge. In contrast, this article argues that activists can and do purposely create cross-field effects. Examining changes in contentious practice in the American labor movement—which in recent decades, has reoriented contention over workplace issues away from workplaces themselves, and toward political arenas more traditionally dominated by community concerns—this article advances the concept of cross-field manipulation, purposive strategic action that accounts for the positioning of actors across social fields, triggering events in one field so as to reorder the dynamics of another. Using a historical study of evolving organizing practices in a Southern California hotel workers’ union, including interviews and archival sources, the paper identifies three mechanisms—power analysis, alliance building, and actor-triggered crises—whereby labor activists purposely generate cross-field effects. Through repeated interactions with employers and polities, activists learned a unique campaign model that politicized workplace conflict in communities and markets, generating opportunities for workplace gains.

Economic geography · Economics · Field (mathematics) · Labour economics · Sociology · Employment and Welfare Studies · Labor Movements and Unions · Social Policy and Reform Studies

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