Paul Almeida

Research Interests

Almeida’s research centers on the efficacy of collective action at the local, national and global levels of social and political life. He has empirically examined the timing, distribution, and outcomes of dozens of large-scale campaigns whereby ordinary citizens and excluded social groups mobilized to protect themselves from the loss of vital necessities such as health care, pensions, water services/utilities, environmental quality, and social citizenship rights. Almeida currently serves as the Chair-Elect of the Political Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association.

His articles have appeared in the American Journal of Sociology, Annual Review of Sociology, Social Forces, Social Problems, Mobilization, and other scholarly outlets. Almeida’s books include: Global Struggles and Social Change (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020; with Chris Chase-Dunn); Social Movements: The Structure of Collective Mobilization (University of California Press, 2019); Mobilizing Democracy: Globalization and Citizen Protest (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014); Waves of Protest: Popular Struggle in El Salvador, 1925-2005 (University of Minnesota Press, 2008); Handbook of Social Movements across Latin America (co-edited with Allen Cordero, 2015); and Latin American Social Movements: Globalization, Democratization and Transnational Networks (co-edited with Hank Johnston, 2006). He teaches courses on social movements, political sociology, environmental sociology, organizational behavior, climate justice, globalization, and sociological theory.

Honors And Awards

2018 - Author of the Month (November). UCA Editores (Central American University Press), San Salvador, El Salvador.
2016 - American Sociological Association, Best Book Award (Honorable Mention), Section on the Sociology of Development, for Book: Almeida, Paul. 2014. Mobilizing Democracy: Globalization and Citizen Protest. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
2015-2017 - Fulbright Scholar Award, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras
2015 -Pacific Sociological Association, Distinguished Scholarship Award, for Book: Almeida, Paul. 2014. Mobilizing Democracy: Globalization and Citizen Protest. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
2014 - American Sociological Association, Best Article Award, Section on the Political Economy of the World-System (PEWS), for: Almeida, Paul D. 2012. “Subnational Opposition to Globalization.” Social Forces 90(4): 1051-1072.
2009 - American Sociological Association, Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Article Award, Section on Labor and Labor Movements, for: Almeida, Paul D. 2008. “The Sequencing of Success: Organizing Templates and Neoliberal Policy Outcomes.” Mobilization 13(2): 165-187.
2008-2009 - Fulbright Scholar Award, Universidad de Costa Rica
2008 - Ray A. Rothrock ’77 Fellowship, College of Liberal Arts, Texas A&M University
2004 - American Sociological Association, Best Published Article Award, Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements, for: Almeida, Paul D. 2003. “Opportunity Organizations and Threat Induced Contention: Protest Waves in Authoritarian Settings.” American Journal of Sociology 109(2): 345-400.

Blogs

Almeida, Paul. 2014. “Mobilizing Democracy: from Dictatorship to Neoliberalism”. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Almeida, Paul. 2019. “Encroaching Threats and Twenty-First Century Social Movements”. University of California Press. Publisher's Version

*U.S. copyright law prohibits reproduction of the articles on this site “for any purpose other than private study, scholarship, or research” (see Title 17, US Code for details). If you would like to copy or reprint these articles for other purposes, please contact the publisher to secure permission.

Featured Publications

Almeida, Paul. 2019. Social Movements: The Structure of Collective Mobilization. Berkeley: University of California Press. Publisher's Version Abstract
almeida_social movements
collective_mobilization_.pdf
The work outlines the fundamental properties of social movements, including chapters focusing on: classification and methods of study; dominant and alternative theoretical frameworks; movement emergence; movement framing and messaging; individual recruitment/participation; movement outcomes/conditions associated with success; and social movement struggles in the global South as well as transnational movements. The book emphasizes the critical role of joint action by ordinary people to confront major economic, political and environmental threats in the twenty-first century. More specifically, Almeida examines how and when people mobilize against economic inequality, racism, environmental injustice, climate change, gender discrimination and other major issues and the likelihood of achieving desired social change.
Almeida, Paul, and Chris Chase-Dunn. 2018. “Globalization and social movements”. Annual Review of Sociology 44:189–211. Publisher's Version Abstract
A growing body of scholarship acknowledges the increasing influence of global forces on social institutions and societies on multiple scales. We focus here on the role of globalization processes in shaping collective action and social movements. Three areas of global change and movements are examined: first, long-term global trends and collective action; second, research on national and local challenges to economic globalization, including backlash movements and the types of economic liberalization measures most associated with inducing oppositional movements; and third, the emergence of contemporary transnational social movements. In each of these arenas we address debates on diffusion, intervening mechanisms, and the outcomes of collective mobilization in response to global pressures.
Almeida, Paul D. 2019. “The role of threat in collective action”. Pp. 43–62 in The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Social Movements, edited by D Snow, S Soule, H Kriesi, and H McCammon. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell. Publisher's Version
almeida_2019_threat.pdf
Almeida, Paul. 2019. “Climate justice and sustained transnational mobilization”. Globalizations 16 (7):973-979. Publisher's Version
almeida_2019_globalizations.pdf
Mora, Maria De Jesus, Rodolfo Rodriguez, Alejandro Zermeño, and Paul Almeida. 2018. “Immigrant rights and social movements”. Sociology Compass 12 (8):e12599. Abstract
mora_et_al-2018-sociology_compass.pdf
The disciplinary fields of immigration and social movements have largely developed as two distinct subareas of sociology. Scholars contend that immigrant rights, compared to other movements, have been given less attention in social movement research. Studies of immigrant‐based movements in recent decades have reached a stage whereby we can now assess how immigrant movement scholarship informs the general social movement literature in several areas. In this article, we show the contributions of empirical
studies of immigrant movements in four primary arenas: (a) emergence; (b) participation; (c) framing; and (d) outcomes. Contemporary immigrant struggles offer social movement scholarship opportunities to incorporate these campaigns and enhance current theories and concepts as earlier protest waves advanced studies of collective action.

Recent Publications

Almeida, Paul, Eugenio Sosa, Allen Cordero, and Ricardo Argueta. 2021. “Protest Waves and Social Movement Fields: The Micro Foundations of Campaigning for Subaltern Political Parties”. Social Problems 68 (4):831-851. Publisher's Version Abstract

The paper examines the individual-level building blocks of getting out the vote (GOTV) for electoral parties that represent subaltern sectors in resource scarce environments. Drawing on theories of protest waves, social movement fields, and threat-induced collective action, we examine the likelihood of campaigning in left party electoral mobilization and party identification. The study implements a modified version of the Caught in the Act of Protest: Contextualizing Contestation (CCC) survey protocol and respondent selection design. We use a sympathy pool sample of over 1,200 May Day participants in Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Honduras to explain the micro-foundations of electoral proselytizing of political parties advocating for disadvantaged populations. We found that involvement in left party electoral campaigning was largely driven by resources deposited during anti-neoliberal protest waves, including prior movement-type protest, civic organizational activity, and economic threat perceptions. Campaigning for the anti-neoliberal party was also associated with a higher level of post-election party identification. The findings suggest that left parties may at times partially overcome economic and political resource deficits by mobilizing individuals deeply embedded in the social movement field.

Almeida, Paul D, and Amalia Perez Martin. 2021. “Economic Globalization and Social Movements in Latin America”. Pp. 391-414 in the Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Latin America, edited by Xochitl Bada and Liliana Rivera. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Publisher's Version

Almeida, Paul. 2019. Social Movements: The Structure of Collective Mobilization. Berkeley: University of California Press. Publisher's Version Abstract

almeida_social movements

collective_mobilization_.pdf

The work outlines the fundamental properties of social movements, including chapters focusing on: classification and methods of study; dominant and alternative theoretical frameworks; movement emergence; movement framing and messaging; individual recruitment/participation; movement outcomes/conditions associated with success; and social movement struggles in the global South as well as transnational movements. The book emphasizes the critical role of joint action by ordinary people to confront major economic, political and environmental threats in the twenty-first century. More specifically, Almeida examines how and when people mobilize against economic inequality, racism, environmental injustice, climate change, gender discrimination and other major issues and the likelihood of achieving desired social change.

Almeida, Paul, and Chris Chase-Dunn. 2018. “Globalization and social movements”. Annual Review of Sociology 44:189–211. Publisher's Version Abstract

A growing body of scholarship acknowledges the increasing influence of global forces on social institutions and societies on multiple scales. We focus here on the role of globalization processes in shaping collective action and social movements. Three areas of global change and movements are examined: first, long-term global trends and collective action; second, research on national and local challenges to economic globalization, including backlash movements and the types of economic liberalization measures most associated with inducing oppositional movements; and third, the emergence of contemporary transnational social movements. In each of these arenas we address debates on diffusion, intervening mechanisms, and the outcomes of collective mobilization in response to global pressures.

Almeida, Paul. 2012. “Subnational opposition to globalization”. Social Forces 90 (4):1051–1072. Publisher's Version Abstract

almeida_2012.pdf

Using a unique dataset on the geographic distribution of reported protest events from local sources, the study explains the variation in community-level mobilization in response to neoliberal reforms in two countries in the global periphery. Building on insights from macro, cross-national studies of protests related to market reforms, this article highlights local structural conditions that more likely generate popular contention in poorer countries. Count regression models show that localities with greater levels of state and community infrastructure (highways, administrative offices, universities, NGOs and local chapters of oppositional parties) were associated with heightened collective action opposing the privatization of health care and public utilities. These state and community infrastructures were shaped by national contexts in the era of state-led development preceding the current epoch of accelerated globalization.

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