Summary
Dynamics of Contention (McAdam, Tarrow & Tilly, Cambridge UP, 2001) codifies the contentious-politics frame: episodes of collective claim-making emerge, escalate, and decline through the interaction of mechanisms (brokerage, diffusion, certification, radicalization) and processes (insurgence, deterioration, reactive coalescence, brinkmanship, expansion). The academic anchor for contentious-politics.
Body
The book argues that contention is best explained not by structural grievance alone, nor by rational-cost-benefit calculation, but by mechanisms — recurring causal pathways — interacting with processes — historical sequences — that produce visible contention episodes. The frame rejects movement-specific theory; it seeks a unified vocabulary across strikes, revolutions, and movements. [source: dynamics-of-contention]
The book is the academic anchor of the contentious-politics and cycles-of-protest concepts in this wiki.
Use it for
Citing the canonical academic statement of contentious-politics theory; situating any movement-strategy claim in the academic frame.