Dimensions of Involvement in Social Movements

Abstract

Commitment to social movements is sometimes treated as a homogeneous, uni-dimensional phenomenon. Yet there are good theoretical reasons to expect that there are alternative, empirically distinct behavioral sources of commitment. Smallest Space Analysis (SSA) of questionnaire data on participation in Catholic Pentecostalism confirms the empirical distinctness of several modes of behavioral involvement in this contemporary movement. The SSA solution ordered the indicators of involvement along three dimensions. An interpretation of these dimensions is suggested, which appears to have applicability to a wide variety of social movements. Each dimension seems to reflect a dimension of variation in the behavioral sources of commitment to social movements. Should these dimensions indeed prove to be applicable to other movements, they would be useful for comparative analyses of social movement inuolvement.