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This first chapter discusses some principal hypotheses from literature on political mobilization and social movements, but also from research on Europe and Europeanization, within which these mobilizations can be located: in particular the influence of the political opportunity structure, both at national and European level and the characteristics of specific actors, with their capacity to mobilize material and symbolic resources. It defines some main concepts (among which Europeanization and social movements) and discusses the role for civil society actors within different approaches to European integration and multi-level policy making, as well as within theories of supranational democracy and political participation. It also presents the main methodological sources as well as the structure of the volume.

Notwithstanding its limited capacity in terms of members and mobilization, the extreme right is perceived as an increasing challenge even in established democracies. On delicate issues such as migration, nationalism, and religious practices, the extreme right has been successful in putting exclusive frames and practices on the agenda, often influencing moderate right-wing and even centre-left parties. While the political parties on the right are well-studied, this is the first volume to address, in a comparative perspective, the social movement organizations on the Extreme Right. In particular, in chapter one, we introduce the main concepts and definitions of the research, presenting our theoretical questions in a cross-country comparison of the extreme right in three countries (Germany, Italy, and the US).

Chapter 11 In the conclusions, the authors summarize their main results and reflect on the contributions that social movement studies give to the understanding of the phenomenon, as well as, vice-versa, how research on the extreme rights could contribute to the theorization on social movements’ dynamics.

The introductory chapter sets the scene with a description of the mass wave of immigrant rights marches that filled city streets across the United States in the spring of 2006. It notes the role of both social media and Spanish language mass media in the mobilizations, and introduces the idea that widespread changes in our communications system have deeply altered the relationship between social movements and the media. Next, the chapter positions the author as an engaged scholar, and briefly reviews the participatory research and design methods employed in the development of the book. The next section, ‘the revolution will be tweeted, but tweets alone do not the revolution make,’ engages recent debates about social movements and social media, and urges scholars to learn from social movements about how they use various information and communication technologies to communicate, organize, and mobilize. The penultimate section reviews the unique history of Los Angeles as the epicenter of both immigrant rights activism and the media industries. The introduction concludes with a summary of the book’s chapters.

This chapter looks at the use of a specific type of in-depth interview in social movement studies: life histories, in which a subject tells his/her life story. The chapter discusses the different phases of the research design, and the main dilemmas in each when using life histories: from theories and concepts, to the research outline, the selection of the interviewees, the relations between interviewer and interviewee during the interview itself, and the analysis of the empirical results. It discusses the main topics to be addressed in a narration, the main reasons behind the selection of interview partners, the best ways to contact them, and the special challenges of developing a balanced relationship between interviewers and interviewees in the discussion of often very delicate issues. Finally, it provides some examples of the analysis and presentation of materials collected through life histories.

This chapter presents focus groups (or group interviews) as a technique of data collection based on discussions within a small group, moderated by a researcher, and oriented to obtain information on a specific topic. The chapter departs from the discussion of the main theoretical questions focus groups might help answer, focusing especially on the analysis of collective identities—a central topic for social movement research. In addressing the method’s implementation in various research designs, the author notes that, based on a modality of discussion among equals, focus groups allow us to recreate—almost as in an experiment—conditions similar to those considered as belonging to paths of opinion formation, particularly in social movements. The chapter then discusses the methodological challenges when using group interviews in social movement studies, looking at major milestones such as the preparation of the outline, selection of participants, conducting of the interview, and analysis of transcriptions.