RELATIONAL SEDIMENTS IN THE BACKWASH OF PROTEST WAVES: EXPLORING NETWORK CONSEQUENCES OF COLLECTIVE ACTION * Elias Steinhilper and Matthias Hoffmann † This article addresses the puzzling relational void in the analysis of collective action con- sequences by exploring how protest waves affect local network structures in two German towns. We compare three periods of time: a preprotest wave latency period, a protest wave period, and a postwave latency period, as defined in relation to contentious collective action around the refugee reception crisis in 2015. Adopting a field perspective, our analysis uses digital communication data to capture the referencing practices between all actors involved in local migration-related protests irrespective of actor type or political orientation. This results in networks of both supportive and antagonistic interaction. Applying network analysis, especially multiple regression quadratic assignment procedures (MRQAP), we find significant and distinct patterns of change and stability for supportive and antagonistic ties. We argue that these findings provide stepping stones for the emergent literature on relational consequences of collective action. Protest waves constitute intense moments of conflict with the potential to leave traces when they ebb: on individual activists, social movement organizations, and public institutions. In this article, we contribute to the relational turn in the study of consequences of collective action (Bosi, Giugni, and Uba 2016; Giugni 1998) by asking: how do protest waves influence the patterns of interaction or relational structure of civil society? Focusing on the modification of networks through mobilization, we pick up a research desideratum formulated by Mario Diani more than two decades ago (Diani 1997), which remains a gap in the burgeoning literature until this date (Bosi and Uba 2021). Given the scarcity of explicit engagement with the relational consequences of protest, we build upon Diani’s seminal work on social movements and social capital and put it in dialogue with the few references to relational consequences of collective action scattered over the literature on “cycles” or “waves” of collective action (Tarrow 1993; Koopmans 2006), relational dynamics of protest (della Porta 2008; Saunders 2007), and social movement outcomes (Bosi and Uba 2021). This scholarship tends towards a relational optimism stressing the positive effects of protests, such as network expansion and the creation of solidarities (della Porta 2008; Stjepandić, Steinhilper, and Zajak 2023). A parallel stream of literature on politicization and the ambivalences of civil society has instead suggested a more cautious reading, documenting that protest waves, as periods of heightened and visible conflict, can also sharpen polarization and antagonism (Coley, Raynes, and Das 2020; Grande 2022; McVeigh, Cunningham, and Farrell 2014). * Both authors contributed equally to this article. The authors acknowledge the funding for this research by the German Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend (BMFSFJ). We furthermore appreciate the valuable comments on previous versions of this article by Mobilization editor Maria Grasso, the three anonymous reviewers, and the participants of the international conference “Relational Outcomes and Collective Action” held at Scuola Normale Superiore in Florence in spring 2023. Elias Steinhilper acknowledges the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University for providing an ideal environment to finalize this article. † Elias Steinhilper is a postdoctoral researcher at the German Center for Integration and Migration Research (DeZIM), Berlin. Matthias Hoffmann is a postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences at Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj, Romania. Direct correspondence to steinhilper@dezim-institut.de. © 2024 Mobilization: An International Quarterly 29(2):167-183 DOI 10.17813/1086-671X-29-2-167 replacements.pdf Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/mobilization/article-pdf/29/2/167/3394127/i1938-1514-29-2-167.pdf by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill user on 07 July 2024