1 Donatella della Porta: Social Movement Studies and Methodological Pluralism: An Introduction; 2 Alice Mattoni: The Potentials of Grounded Theory in the Study of Social Movements; 3 Claudius Wagemann: Qualitative Comparative Analysis: What It Is, What It Does, and How It Works; 4 Phillip M. Ayoub, Sophia Wallace, and Chris Zepeda-Millan: Triangulation in Social Movement Research; 5 Daniel Ritter: Comparative Historical Analysis; 6 Lorenzo Bosi and Herbert Reiter: Historical Methodologies in Social Movement Research:. Historical Methodologies in Social Movement Research: Archival Research and Oral History; 7 Philip Balsinger and Alexandre Lambelet: Participant Observation; 8 Stefan Malthaner: Field Work in the Context of Violent Conflict and Authoritarian Regimes; 9 Lasse Lindekilde: Discourse and Frame Analysis:In-Depth Analysis of Qualitative Data in Social Movement Research; 10 Donatella della Porta: In-depth Interviews; 11 Donatella della Porta: Life Histories; 12 Donatella della Porta: Focus Groups; 13 Massimiliano Andretta and Donatella della Porta: Surveying Protestors: Why and How; 14 Swen Hutter: Protest Event Analysis and Its Offspring; 15 Manuela Caiani: Social Network Analysis; 16 Lorenzo Mosca: Methodological Practices in Social Movement Online Research; 17 Nicole Doerr and Noa Milman: Working with Images; 18 Stefania Milan: The Ethics of Social Movement Research

Donatella Della Porta is professor of sociology in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the European University Institute and professor of political science at the Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane (on leave of absence). At the EUI, she has launched COSMOS (Consortium on Social Movement Studies). She is now starting a major ERC project Mobilizing for Democracy, on civil society participation in democratization processes in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. She is co-editor of the European Political Science Reviews (ECPR-Cambridge University Press). In 2011, she was the recipient of the Mattei Dogan Prize for distinguished achievements in the field of political sociology. Her main fields of research are social movements, the policing of public order, participatory democracy and political corruption.

Social movement studies have grown enormously in the last few decades, spreading from sociology and political science to other fields of knowledge, as varied as geography, history, anthropology, psychology, economics, law and others. With the growing interest in the field, there has been also an increasing need for methodological guidance for empirical research. This volume addresses this need by introducing the main methods of data collection and data analysis as they have been used in past research on social movements.
Unlike other volumes, the book offers a practical, how-to approach and not simply a review of the methodological literature. Each author writes on a method they are very familiar with, having used it extensively in their own work. And each chapter presents specific discussions on every stage of research: from research design to data collection and the use of the information gathered. Throughout, research dilemmas and choices are presented, illustrated, and discussed. The volume offers an essential point of references for anyone undertaking research on social movements.