Jeffrey Praed Broadbent (born in 1944) is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Minnesota whose academic focus includes comparative sociology; culture and structure; environmental sociology; Japanese society; networks and identity; political sociology; qualitative methods; social movements; and East Asian society. [1] He is also a member of the Institute for Global Studies at the University of Minnesota. [2]
Broadbent received his B.A. in religious studies-Buddhism at the University of California, Berkeley, his M.A. in regional studies—Japan at Harvard University, and his Ph.D. in sociology at Harvard University. [3]
Broadbent is the principal investigator for the COMPON Project (Comparing Climate Change Policy Networks), an ongoing international research project, focusing on societal reactions to climate change and the ways that these reactions influence international negotiations and governmental policy. [4]
From 1988-1989, Broadbent was a grantee of the Japan-United States Educational Commission (a Fulbright Program), and he was a Fulbright-Hays scholar from 1989-1990. In 2001, Broadbent was awarded the Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Prize for his book, Environmental Politics in Japan: Networks of Power and Protest (Cambridge University Press, 1998). [5]
Manuel Castells Oliván is a Spanish sociologist. He is well known for his authorship of a trilogy of works, entitled The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture. He is a scholar of the information society, communication and globalization.
A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some theories of political movements are the political opportunity theory, which states that political movements stem from mere circumstances, and the resource mobilization theory which states that political movements result from strategic organization and relevant resources. Political movements are also related to political parties in the sense that they both aim to make an impact on the government and that several political parties have emerged from initial political movements. While political parties are engaged with a multitude of issues, political movements tend to focus on only one major issue.
A social movement is a loosely organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal, typically a social or political one. This may be to carry out a social change, or to resist or undo one. It is a type of group action and may involve individuals, organizations, or both. Social movements have been described as "organizational structures and strategies that may empower oppressed populations to mount effective challenges and resist the more powerful and advantaged elites". They represent a method of social change from the bottom within nations.. On the other hand, some social movements do not aim to make society more egalitarian, but to maintain or amplify existing power relationships. For example, scholars have described fascism as a social movement.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to academic disciplines:
Environmental sociology is the study of interactions between societies and their natural environment. The field emphasizes the social factors that influence environmental resource management and cause environmental issues, the processes by which these environmental problems are socially constructed and define as social issues, and societal responses to these problems.
Theda Skocpol is an American sociologist and political scientist, who is currently the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard University. She is best known as an advocate of the historical-institutional and comparative approaches, as well as her "state autonomy theory". She has written widely for both popular and academic audiences. She has been President of the American Political Science Association and the Social Science History Association.
Social movement theory is an interdisciplinary study within the social sciences that generally seeks to explain why social mobilization occurs, the forms under which it manifests, as well as potential social, cultural, political, and economic consequences, such as the creation and functioning of social movements.
Sidney George Tarrow is an emeritus professor of political science, known for his research in the areas of comparative politics, social movements, political parties, collective action and political sociology.
Laurent Thévenot is a French sociologist Professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris).
David Allan Sonnenfeld is an American sociologist and Professor of Sociology and environmental policy at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, known for his work in the field of ecological modernisation.
Subrata Kumar Mitra was director and research professor at the Institute for South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore till May 20, 2018. Currently emeritus at the University of Heidelberg.
Vivien A. Schmidt is an American academic of political science and international relations. At Boston University, she is the Jean Monnet Chair of European Integration Professor of International Relations in the Pardee School of Global Studies, and Professor of Political Science. She is known for her work on political economy, policy analysis, democratic theory, and new institutionalism. She is a 2018 recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and has been named a Chevalier in the French Legion of Honor.
Donatella della Porta is an Italian sociologist and political scientist, who is Professor of political science and political sociology at the Scuola Normale Superiore. She is known for her research in the areas of social movements, corruption, political violence, police and policies of public order. In 2022, she was named a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Carlos Alberto Torres Novoa is a distinguished professor.
Grzegorz Ekiert is Professor of Government at Harvard University, Director of Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies and Senior Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. His teaching and research interests focus on comparative politics, regime change and democratization, civil society and social movements, and East European politics and societies.
Social movement impact theory is a subcategory of social movement theory, and focuses on assessing the impacts that social movements have on society, as well as what factors might have led to those effects.
Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range from mandate building in a community, petitioning elected officials, running or contributing to a political campaign, preferential patronage of businesses, and demonstrative forms of activism like rallies, street marches, strikes, sit-ins, or hunger strikes.
Legal opportunity structure or legal opportunity is a concept found in the study of law and social movements. It was first used in order to distinguish it from political opportunity structure or political opportunity, on the basis that law and the courts deserved to be studied in their own right rather than being lumped together with political institutions. Legal opportunities are made up of: access to the courts, which may be affected in particular by the law on standing or locus standi, and costs rules; 'legal stock' or the set of available precedents on which to hang a case; and judicial receptiveness. Some of these are more obviously structural than others - hence the term legal opportunity is sometimes preferred over legal opportunity structure.
Yutaka Tsujinaka is a professor of political science and the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Tsukuba. He is now teaching at the College of Social Sciences and the doctoral program in International and Advanced Japanese Studies. He is also the president of Japan Political Science Association, a member of the International Association of Universities (2012–2016), the director of Internationalization Subcommittee of IAU (2013–), the executive assistant to the President at University of Tsukuba (2013–) and the director of Institute for Comparative Research in Human and Social Sciences (ICR) (2014–). Youji Inaba professor of economy at Nippon University said in a newspaper column that Professor Tsujinaka talks in friendly Kansai dialect and always gives everyone warm smile as if he has "Tender-Heated DNA" in his body. (Nikkei: July 8, 2015)
Ruud Koopmans is a Dutch sociologist and professor at the Humboldt University of Berlin. His research focuses on migration, social integration and transnationalization.