Continuities and Transformations in Processes of Collective Action

Phenomena of collective action – of collective political conflict1 – are neither uniform nor stable. They comprise institutional and non-institution- al actors as well as routine, confrontational, or even violent forms of action. They take place in different arenas, change over time and involve individu- als in different ways, roles, and trajectories. This variance and heterogene- ity corresponds to a diversified research landscape, with separate fields of research specializing on different phenomena of collective action, such as social movement organizations, political parties, NGOs, interest groups, and armed groups. As these fields of research have generally preferred to affirm the boundaries between them and to highlight the special relevance and par- ticular nature of the conflicts, actors, and forms of action that they study, the connections and continuities between these phenomena have been under- researched. This flux, with different types of action, actors, and conflicts co-existing, interacting, shifting, and transforming over the course of episodes of political conflict. In this article, we seek to build upon and further develop processual perspectives that highlight conti- nuities and transformations of collective action across time and within specific contexts, and throughout indi- viduals’ and collective actors’ trajectories. In particular, we aim to improve and expand theoretical and con- ceptual tools for capturing continuity and transforma- tion, emphasizing the need for processual-comparative research to explore related phenomena in different social, political, and cultural settings and across time. We discuss methodological innovations that can help to analyse and explain continuities and transformations in processes of collective action, thus setting the stage for the papers that comprise this special issue and pointing out concerns and arguments that connect them.