Currently, I am involved in three projects. 

Since 1998 I have worked on the project “Global Justice Movement International Study.  Analysis of social movement organizations involved in global protests.”  This study is concerned with the effects of social movement organizational characteristics on participation in protests mobilized against the global institutions like the World Trade Organization (WTO), World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).  My dissertation “Mobilizing for Global Justice: Social Movement Organization Involvement in Three Contentious Episodes, 1999-2001[pg1] ” is the primary publication to come from this project so far.  The central findings are that access to monetary and organizational resources increase the chances that social movement organizations (SMOs) will participate over several protest episodes and in more important sponsoring and organizing roles.  In addition, reliance on resources and being connected to elites has no effect on co-opting SMO involvement.  Finally, most SMOs involved in each protest episode were locally based groups, rather than outside agitators as claimed by conventional wisdom.  I have recently completed a report [pg2] that succinctly recounts these findings.  I am currently seeking funding to analyzed the importance of networks in pulling SMOs across or out of subsequent protest episodes and will eventually examine the health of the U.S. branch of the global justice movement by identifying those organizations that remain involved and those that have shifted their focus to other issues, or have gone into hibernation or have expired.
 
A second project, Global Justice Policing and Protests Study: Analysis of Policing and Protesting in Western Democracies” examines with John Noakes[pg3]  shifts in public order policing and protester tactics.  We have published several manuscripts related to this project and are currently editing a special issue of Mobilization (Forthcoming fall 07) examining changes in policing and protesting since the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle.  Our central finding is that there seems to be a shift occurring in the U.S. policing of protest from “negotiated management” (CITE) to what we refer to as “strategic incapacitation.” Moreover, we have noted that tactics and organizational forms characteristic of “transgressive protesters” (CITE) have challenged police efforts to control protests, leading in part to their efforts to engage in strategic incapacitation (with questionable success).  We anticipate advancing our analysis from the U.S. to other western democracies, particularly those hosting G8 meetings over the next several years, where mass demonstrations and public order policing will likely occur.
 
The third project, conducted in coordination with Bob Edwards[pg4]  examines the influence of legitimacy on organizational involvement and/or withdrawal from global justice protests.  [Project Name] also traces the shift of the U.S. branch of the global justice movement to the emergence of the antiwar movement.  Future research will examine the importance of networks in expanding the movement and identification of transnational network ties for organizations involved in G8 protests.
 
To access some of my publications click on a link below.
 [pg1]Link to document
 [pg2]Link to document
 [pg3]Link to John’s info
 [pg4]Link to Bob info