SOCIAL NETWORKS AND COLLECTIVE ACTION OUTCOMES: DO MOBILIZATION AND ALLIANCE STRUCTURES MATTER?

Despite increasing scholarly interest in the relationship between social networks and collective action, there is still limited evidence on how networks matter at the global level in shaping collective action outcomes, and how these structures emerge in the first place. Consequently, this dissertation aims at addressing these relations within the context of collective action campaigns, and neighborhood level protest events that were identified using police records in Ankara, Turkey between 2006 and 2011. \ud The analysis of inter-organizational alliance networks shows that political opportunity structure related factors such as presence or absence of elite allies, relative openness or closeness of the institutional environment, still matter the most in understanding why some movements succeed while others don't in realizing their stated policy outcomes in semi-democratic settings. Different network structures have consequences only when political environment is conducive for successful outcomes. \ud With regard to explaining tie strength, certain homophily mechanisms such as operating at the same level of jurisdiction and specializing in similar issues areas seem to be most powerful in revealing why some organizations work intensively with each other while others don’t. \ud At neighborhood level protest events, the form and nature of pre-existing social networks present in the neighborhood appear to be highly associated with the outcome of the protest events. Spatial arrangements are found to be very influential in the construction of these existing networks. Findings suggest that hierarchical information networks are effective in mobilizing large numbers of participants for protest events whereas presence or absence of strong ties are crucial for explaining why only certain protest groups tend to embrace high-risk, disruptive protest strategies.\ud Overall, findings of this study indicate that different network structures interact with contextual factors in complex ways, and that certain types of networks are conducive to successful policy outcomes in combination with specific causal factors in particular contexts.\u