Tilly (2003:45): Proposes considering collective claims as interactive performances: “like veteran members of a theatrical troupe, political actors follow rough scripts to uncertain outcomes as they negotiate demonstrations, humble petitions, electoral campaigns, expulsions of enemies, hostage taking, urban uprisings and other forms of contention. Such performances link pairs or larger sets of actors, the simplest pair being one claimant and one object of claims. The actors in question often included governmental agents, polity members, and challengers as well, with challengers sometimes newly mobilizing from the regime’s previously unmobilized subject population. In any particular regime, pairs of actors have only a limited number of performances at their disposal. We can conveniently call that set of performances their repertoire of contention.”
Tilly (2003:46): Sees repertoires as providing “approximate scenarios” of political interaction, allowing more effective coordination, anticipation of consequences, and agreed-upon meanings (agreed as events unfold or after the event).