Contentious politics analysis must steer between abstraction and particularity

Evidence

How can we possibly discipline descriptions of contentious politics? How can we avoid the two tempting but destructive extremes: sum up all sorts of contention into something abstract like “turbulence,” “conflict,” or “disorder,” thereby losing all sense of connections with the political context; or describe each episode in all its particularity, thereby making comparison among places, times, and regimes impossible. We must find a middle ground. — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 288

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 288
• XREF: connects to: The correspondence model reduces political analysis to automatic schema-building — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 139; Contingency of historical conjunctures is a precondition for political possibility; The scope of political analysis determines whether change seems possible — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 730 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Cultural Studies theory must descend from abstraction into concrete messy politics and power #corroborates (0.85)
• Dichotomous simplification and imprecision are the very condition of political action #complicates (0.79) — Ernesto Laclau, On Populist Reason, 62
• Historical-political typologies are interpretive criteria, not rigid predicting schemata #expands (0.78)
• Comparing politically different struggles requires studying shared causal mechanisms across forms #corroborates (0.76) — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 1207
• The scope of political analysis determines whether change seems possible #qualifies (0.75) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 730
• Contingency of historical conjunctures is a precondition for political possibility #qualifies (0.74)
• Historico-political analysis explains order from below through confusion, violence, and strife #exemplifies (0.73) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 284
• The correspondence model reduces political analysis to automatic schema-building #complicates (0.72) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 139