This list is the top 50 highly cited papers, 1975-2015, with ‘social movement(s)’ in the title, abstract or keywords; Scopus data.

1. McPherson M., Smith-Lovin L., Cook J.M. (2001) ‘Birds of a feather: Homophily in social networks’, Annual Review of Sociology 27. Cited by 3719.
2. Benford R.D., Snow D.A. (2000) ‘Framing processes and social movements: An overview and assessment’, Annual Review of Sociology 26. Cited by 1901.
3. DiMaggio P. (1997) ‘Culture and cognition’, Annual Review of Sociology 23. Cited by 845.
4. Fligstein N. (1996) ‘Markets as politics: A political-cultural approach to market institutions’, American Sociological Review 61. Cited by 612.
5. Strang D., Soule S.A. (1998) ‘Diffusion in organizations and social movements: From Hybrid Corn to Poison Pills’, Annual Review of Sociology 24. Cited by 597.
6. Escobar A. (2001) ‘Culture sits in places: Reflections on globalism and subaltern strategies of localization’, Political Geography 20. Cited by 595.
7. Gieryn T.F. (2000) ‘A space for place in sociology’, Annual Review of Sociology 26. Cited by 553.
8. Polletta F., Jasper J.M. (2001) ‘Collective identity and social movements’, Annual Review of Sociology 27. Cited by 548.
9. Rao H., Monin P., Durand R. (2003) ‘Institutional change in toque ville: Nouvelle cuisine as an identity movement in French gastronomy’, American Journal of Sociology 108. Cited by 382.
10. Paxton P. (2002) ‘Social capital and democracy: An interdependent relationship’, American Sociological Review 67. Cited by 378.
11. Meyer D.S., Staggenborg S. (1996) ‘Movements, countermovements, and the structure of political opportunity1’, American Journal of Sociology 101. Cited by 365.
12. Li T.M. (2000) ‘Articulating indigenous identity in Indonesia: Resource politics and the tribal slot’, Comparative Studies in Society and History 42. Cited by 305.
13. Centola D., Macy M. (2007) ‘Complex contagions and the weakness of long ties’, American Journal of Sociology 113. Cited by 297.
14. Bernstein M. (1997) ‘Celebration and suppression: The strategic uses of identity by the lesbian and gay movement’, American Journal of Sociology 103. Cited by 280.
15. Cerulo K.A. (1997) ‘Identity Construction: New Issues, New Directions’, Annual Review of Sociology 23. Cited by 275.
16. Jasper J.M. (1998) ‘The emotions of protest: Affective and reactive emotions in and around social movements’, Sociological Forum 13. Cited by 270.
17. Kozinets R.V., Handelman J.M. (2004) ‘Adversaries of consumption: Consumer movements, activism, and ideology’, Journal of Consumer Research 31. Cited by 263.
18. Hancock A.-M. (2007) ‘When multiplication doesn’t equal quick addition: Examining intersectionality as a research paradigm’, Perspectives on Politics 5. Cited by 262.
19. Benford R.D. (1997) ‘An insider’s critique of the social movement framing perspective’, Sociological Inquiry 67. Cited by 259.
20. Allen P., FitzSimmons M., Goodman M., Warner K. (2003) ‘Shifting plates in the agrifood landscape: The tectonics of alternative agrifood initiatives in California’, Journal of Rural Studies 19. Cited by 257.
21. Taylor D.E. (2000) ‘The rise of the environmental justice paradigm: Injustice framing and the social construction of environmental discourses’, American Behavioral Scientist . Cited by 255.
22. Merry S.E. (2006) ‘Transnational human rights and local activism: Mapping the middle’, American Anthropologist 108. Cited by 253.
23. Cress D.M., Snow D.A. (2000) ‘The outcomes of homeless mobilization: The influence of organization, disruption, political mediation, and framing’, American Journal of Sociology 105. Cited by 247.
24. Rao H., Morrill C., Zald M.N. (2000) ‘Power plays: How social movements and collective action create new organizational forms’, Research in Organizational Behavior 22. Cited by 240.
25. Huysmans J. (2000) ‘The European Union and the securitization of migration’, Journal of Common Market Studies 38. Cited by 240.
26. Voss K., Sherman R. (2000) ‘Breaking the iron law of oligarchy: Union revitalization in the American labor movement’, American Journal of Sociology 106. Cited by 239.
27. Mann M. (1997) ‘Has globalization ended the rise and rise of the nation-state?’, Review of International Political Economy 4. Cited by 235.
28. Simon B., Stürmer S., Loewy M., Weber U., Freytag P., Habig C., Kampmeier C., Spahlinger P. (1998) ‘Collective Identification and Social Movement Participation’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 74. Cited by 233.
29. O’Connor J. (1988) ‘Capitalism Nature, Socialism A Theoretical Introduction’, Capitalism Nature Socialism 1. Cited by 231.
30. Routledge P. (2003) ‘Convergence space: Process geographies of grassroots globalization networks’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 28. Cited by 230.
31. Lounsbury M. (2001) ‘Institutional sources of practice variation: Staffing college and university recycling programs’, Administrative Science Quarterly 46. Cited by 223.
32. Bakker K. (2007) ‘The “Commons” Versus the “Commodity”: Alter-globalization, anti-privatization and the human right to water in the global south’, Antipode 39. Cited by 210.
33. Pattillo-McCoy M. (1998) ‘Church culture as a strategy of action in the black community’, American Sociological Review 63. Cited by 205.
34. Howard J.A. (2000) ‘Social psychology of identities’, Annual Review of Sociology 26. Cited by 203.
35. Giugni M.G. (1998) ‘Was it worth the effort? The Outcomes and Consequences of Social Movements’, Annual Review of Sociology 24. Cited by 203.
36. Hargrave T.J., Van De Ven A.H. (2006) ‘A collective action model of institutional innovation’, Academy of Management Review 31. Cited by 195.
37. Bartley T. (2003) ‘Certifying forests and factories: States, social movements, and the rise of private regulation in the apparel and forest products fields’, Politics and Society 31. Cited by 193.
38. Garrett R.K. (2006) ‘Protest in an information society: A review of iterature on social movements and new ICTs’, Information Communication and Society 9. Cited by 187.
39. Schlosberg D. (2004) ‘Reconceiving environmental justice: Global movements and political theories’, Environmental Politics 13. Cited by 186.
40. Connell R.W. (1996) ‘Teaching the boys: New research on masculinity, and gender strategies for schools’, Teachers College Record 98. Cited by 186.
41. Kaplan S. (2008) ‘Framing contests: Strategy making under uncertainty’, Organization Science 19. Cited by 185.
42. Leitner H., Sheppard E., Sziarto K.M. (2008) ‘The spatialities of contentious politics’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 33. Cited by 179.
43. Creed W.E.D., Scully M.A., Austin J.R. (2002) ‘Clothes make the person? The tailoring of legitimating accounts and the social construction of identity’, Organization Science 13. Cited by 177.
44. Tarrow S. (2001) ‘Transnational politics: Contention and institutions in international politics’, Annual Review of Political Science 4. Cited by 176.
45. Bennett W.L., Segerberg A. (2012) ‘The logic of connective action: Digital media and the personalization of contentious politics’, Information Communication and Society 15. Cited by 174.
46. Edelman M. (2001) ‘Social movements: Changing paradigms and forms of politics’, Annual Review of Anthropology 30. Cited by 174.
47. Carragee K.M., Roefs W. (2004) ‘The neglect of power in recent framing research’, Journal of Communication 54. Cited by 172.
48. Schofer E., Fourcade-Gourinchas M. (2001) ‘The structural contexts of civic engagement: Voluntary association membership in comparative perspective’, American Sociological Review 66. Cited by 172.
49. Clark A.M., Friedman E.J., Hochstetler K. (1998) ‘The sovereign limits of global civil society: a comparison of NGO participation in UN world conferences on the environment, human rights, and women’, World Politics 51. Cited by 170.
50. Oliver P.E., Myers D.J. (1999) ‘How events enter the public sphere: Conflict, location, and sponsorship in local newspaper coverage of public events’, American Journal of Sociology 105. Cited by 168.