Mobilizing Structures and Cycles of Protest:
Post-Stalinist Contention in Poland, 1954-1959
Author: Maryjane Osa
Abstract
This article considers the conditions for protest mobilization and the creation of oppositional networks under authoritarianism. Archival data identifying membership in eighteen social action groups provide the basis for social network analysis of the opposition domain. Network development is traced through three phases of anti-Stalinist mobilization. The study finds that the opening of political opportunity in a non-democratic setting stimulates both civic association and contention. It is suggested that future research be conducted to identify the relational contention of ties in order to determine when influence in a network is likely to facilitate or to inhibit collective action.
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