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This feels a bit weird to share, but since so many ppl are talking about research on violent social movements, a couple of years ago I published an article that summarized the lit & discussed how we lost track of in contentious politics research. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/soc4.12304 
I study why ordinary people participate in violence, especially genocide, and when and why they defect. IMHO, civilian participation in genocide is **very different** from what we saw the other day (in part bc most civilians arenât eagerly awaiting opportunities to kill their...
neighbors, tho this changes over time & w/cognitive adaptation to violence). So donât read the above as thinking Iâm arguing these 2 are the same âcause Iâm not. The point of sharing this is just to provide a guide for ppl thinking of writing on the history of social movements...
...theory & what it has to say about violence. THAT SAID, I do want to shoutout some of the research that is really shaping my thinking about what is happening in the US today specifically w/RT right-wing violence (& please add on if you have suggestions!):
Not-on-Twitter Kathleen Blee https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Racist-Activism-Research-Routledge-ebook/dp/B0744P98H1
...and, honestly, these are just books published in the last few years on violent right-wing and racist movements **specifically.** There is so much more out there! And though I donât say this in my article, linked above (in fact, Iâd argue itâs a flaw of it), I do think...
...we need much more work on how violent movements that resist the state differ from violent movements that have state support and ties to those in power, specifically in how and whether their mobilization processes differ in theory & in practice. As an obvious example, if...
we consider political opportunity to be necessary for mobilization, and we consider that the literature shows âopportunityâ can be defined as an internal or externally-provided structural opening but also repression that motivates people who feel they have âno other way outâ (to
cite Goodwin), then obviously it makes a huge difference if the state is on your side. Maybe rethinking theories of political opportunity in relation to whether or not a movement has ties to state power can help refine what is arguably an empirically vague catchall concept.
One thing about my paper above is I review the literature on violent & nonviolent movements & suggest we have lots to gain from considering what they share in common. Now I think we should try and meaningfully theorize what, despite their commonalities, makes violent
movements & their mobilization processes differ, specifically insofar as they do or do not have ties to state power. /fin (& please, if I missed anything, add below!)
Lost track of **IT.** Makes sense Iâd make a typo first time trying to type a real academic-y Twitter thread 
https://twitter.com/alizaluft/status/1348397722223607810
https://twitter.com/alizaluft/status/1348397722223607810