Mobilization and Meaning: Toward an Integration of Social Psychological and Resource Perspectives on Social Movements*

This paper presents a model of the mobilization of people into movements that is compatible with a resource mobilization perspective on social movement organizations as the unit of analysis, but substitutes a cognitive social psychology based on attribution theory and the sociology of knowledge for the incentive model typically used in this perspective. We focus on the problem, neglected by resource mobilization theorists, of explaining the translation of objective social relationships into subjectively experienced, collectively defined grievances. On a macro level, our model gives independent causal weight to ideology without discounting the role that resources also play in defining group goals. On a social psychological level, we identify three distinct organizational strategies–conversion, coalition, and direct action–for mobilizing persons as participants and examine some cognitive and organizational consequences of each strategy. We conclude that incorporation of a more adequate social psychology of individual participation is not only compatible with the organizational focus and emphasis on rationality of the resource mobilization perspective, but can provide important insights into problems both social movement theorists and social movement organizers see as significant.     

Voluntary Association Membership and Political Participation: an Exploration of the Mobilization Hypothesis*

Survey data from 390 respondents was analyzed to determine the relative effects of organizational involvement, socioeconomic status, and political attitudes on political participation. Two theoretical perspectives were investigated: mobilization theory and selection theory. Both the mobilization and selection perspectives were supported by the data; however, organizational involvement was shown to explain more of the variance in political participation than did social status and political attitudes. The mobilization perspective was further examined to determine if it worked equally well in all types of organizations. We found that the relationship between organizational involvement and political participation was stronger for “instrumental” than for “expressive” groups and for organizations characterized by high, as compared to low, levels of political discussion.     

Community mobilization and health care in rural China

This study is based on interviews conducted in Xiao San Jiang Township, China. This article describes the health care system before and after the reforms of the late 1970s and the impact on community mobilization and health care provision. The success of the Chinese health care system is attributed to mass participation in disease prevention. There were the public health campaigns of the 1950s at the brigade level that mobilized people to adopt personal and environmental sanitation, pest control, and primary health education. There were organizations, such as the Youth Leagues and the Women's Federations. The large groups encouraged use of services, such as family planning services, gynecological screening, and immunization. The Barefoot Doctor and Cooperative Medical Care Insurance Schemes were introduced. Brigades became directly involved in health care delivery, and health workers increased access to primary health services. There was multisectoral collaboration between mass and government organizations. Each commune official had multiple roles and information flowed between sectors. The end result was community mobilization of resources in an organization-intensive social structure and increased hopes for improvements in health. The propaganda was effective in health promotion. In the late 1970s, township management districts and village committees replaced the brigades and communes. The responsibility system gave households responsibility for the productivity of specific plots of land in order to fulfill government quotas. Members of a health project funded by a Hong Kong-based primary health care organization discovered a number of problems. Community mobilization was waning, and mass organizations were not effective. The insurance system collapsed. People tired of political slogans. Although other countries are now adopting community health approaches, China is moving away from this approach.     

The Organizational Dynamics of the U.S. Environmental Movement: Legitimation,Resource Mobilization,and Political Opportunity*

Abstract We analyze the relationship between legitimation, resource mobilization, and political opportunity and the founding rate of national environmental organizations between 1895 and 1994. We address recent criticisms that organizational ecologists' reliance on the density dependence model—which treats legitimation as an unmeasured intervening variable—has failed to capture the active sociopolitical character of this process. We advocate a more historical approach to legitimation which relies on print media to construct direct measures of legitimation. Specifically, we use the yearly count of environmental books published as a measure of the legitimacy of environmentalism in the U.S. This count remains statistically significant and positively related to foundings even when other variables are added to the model. A negative second‐order effect of total books suggests that the recent proliferation of state and local environmental organizations is beginning to depress the founding rate of national organizations. Variations in resource mobilization and political opportunity also have affected foundings, though variables measuring the latter were not significant in the full model.     

Advocacy Tactics and Policy Outcomes of Sex Offender Rights Organizations

Social movement organizations for sex offender rights work to reduce harm to registrants and their family members by influencing sex offender registration and community notification policies. This study draws on two theories of social movement organizations—organizational emergence and political opportunities—to investigate the capacity (i.e., structure, resources, knowledge and skills) of these organizations to bring about policy changes. Data were gathered using in-depth, telephone interviews with 19 leaders of state-level advocacy organizations in the United States. Two types of strategies emerged, distinguishing organizations as proactive or reactive in their approach to policy change. Proactive organizations contribute to policy amendment, development or adoption, whereas reactive organizations focus on blocking policy. These two types of organizations have similar tactical repertoires; however, more proactive organizations report the use of networking and coalition building and media stories, and more reactive organizations report the use of legislative testimony and research and policy analysis tactics. This study informs social work policy and practice by highlighting effective and ineffective tactics used by highly stigmatized advocacy organizations.     

A theoretical framework for comparisons of social movement participation

This article attempts to draft a framework for the comparison of movement participation. The standards of comparison I developed at the movement level were the magnitude of mobilization potentials, the composition of multiorganizational fields, organizational characteristics, and action orientation. Utilizing this framework, I compared mobilization campaigns for three different types of activities conducted by three different movements: a campaign conducted by a labor union for, possibly, a strike, a campaign of the Dutch peace movement in a local community for a national demonstration, and campaigns by women's groups in a community for a variety of activities. I explain differences in motivational dynamics and levels of participation in terms of differing movement characteristics. Finally, I discuss the advantages of comparative work on social movements.     

The Organizational Demography of Japanese Environmentalism*

Although a macro‐organizational perspective has become increasingly commonplace in social movement analyses, few studies examine the full spectrum of organizations in any single social movement industry (SMI). Utilizing a unique source of data on Japanese environmental movement organizations, we compare characteristics of groups focused primarily on environmental issues with those for whom environmental issues are part of a larger multi‐issue focus. We then profile across distinct, and theoretically important, organizational domains to assess how local, prefectural and national groups compare on a variety of organizational attributes, including: size, membership type, tactics and activities, and issues. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for understanding both Japanese environmentalism and the structure of SMIs generally.     

THE IMPACT OF SUPPORT RESOURCES ON LOCAL CHAPTER OPERATIONS IN THE ANTIDRUNK-DRIVING MOVEMENT

Resource mobilization is critical for the development of social movement organizations. This study evaluates the differential impact of membership support and community organization support on the goals and operations of local chapters of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). It was found that membership support is associated with the programming goals of local chapters, that is, public awareness, victim assistance, and promoting antidrunk-driving legislation. Community organization support was only associated with youth education as a programming emphasis. In terms of organizational operations, membership support was associated with more central office contacts and increased contacts with other MADD chapters and more cooperative programming with the national central office of MADD. In contrast community organization support was associated with less contact and more disagreement with the central office on policies and less cooperation on programs.     

The Exclusiveness of the Political Field: Networks and political mobilization

This paper applies social network analysis to three case study social movement organizations based in the north of England: a local Labour Party branch, an environmental group, and a conservation group. Using a postal survey of members, we chart the extent of ties between members of these three groups, indicating how each group has its own internal social dynamics and characteristics that are related to the nature of the movement organizations themselves. We explore how the network structures interrelate with the socio-demographic structure of the membership of the three organizations, and we show there are important differences in the way that core members of the three organizations are recruited compared to those who are either peripheral or isolated. Our paper is the first to analyse the networks of whole populations of case study organizations in the UK, and can therefore be read as developing the potential of social network analysis for case study research and for understanding social movements. Analytically we argue it is important to distinguish two different types of ways that networks are important. They can be seen as offering resources for mobilization, or they can be seen as providing a means of integrating particular types of individuals into organizations. It is this latter sense that offers a more fundamental role for network analysis, and we argue that it offers an important way of developing insights from resource mobilization theory by relating them to Bourdieu's provocative arguments regarding the exclusiveness of the political field.     

“Spokes in the wheel” and how policy gains can diversify a social movement

ABSTRACT

Activists often use their resources to pursue protective legislation, like anti-discrimination or environmental protection laws, and the results are often compromised versions of what they wanted. This process of political institutionalization requires ongoing and robust mobilization to strengthen these resulting policies or prevent them from being rescinded all together. Therefore, to understand the pros and cons of political institutionalization we must understand the recursive effects between policy reform and consequent mobilization. Quantitative and qualitative data on the animal advocacy movement, a movement existing for over a century, are used to explore the effects of policy gains on consequent mobilization and explore whether policy gains were followed by de-escalation of protest forms. The findings indicate that policy gains for animal welfare do not de-escalate mobilization, both in terms of the use of disruptive collective action and proliferation of organizations. The article explores the ways that infighting over the terms of policy reform may be an important factor in diversifying the movement.     

THE CREATION OF POLITICAL SOLIDARITY IN SOCIAL MOVEMENT ORGANIZATIONS*

This article examines the debate within resource mobilization theory concerning the motivation of participants in social movement organizations. Conclusions based on a case study of a Chicago community organization emphasize the importance of political solidarity in movement groups. An argument is made for a stage model of mobilization in which different types of incentives dominate motivation at different levels of involvement in the organization.     

In movimento: ‘contamination’ in action and the Italian Global Justice Movement

Abstract In this article we explore the process of ‘contamination’ (namely cross‐fertilization) in the development of the Global Justice Movement in Italy during the 1990s. We focus on two specific organizational sectors of this movement: labour organizations and associations for solidarity with the global South. We concentrate on a stage of the protest cycle that has been overlooked in social movement studies, namely the emergence of mobilization after a period of latency, and shed light on the process through which individual and organizational networks actually facilitate mobilization and vice versa. The process of ‘contamination’ in action is presented as the combination of structural, cognitive and affective mechanisms. It operates through both individual and organizational networks that together facilitate logistic coordination, enable the emergence of tolerance and mutual trust and allow frame bridging and the transnationalization of identities.     

The Pyramid of Nonprofit Responsibility: The Institutionalization of Organizational Responsibility Across Sectors

Observers have noted that organizations in all sectors, whether business, nonprofit, or government, have been moving toward rationalized structures that presuppose and express empowered organizational actorhood. We draw upon neo-institutional theory in this paper to extend the argument: The arrival of organizational actorhood has precipitated a concomitant, cross-sectoral movement toward organizational social responsibility. Whereas existing research has tended to theorize the social responsibilities of businesses, we develop a pyramid conceptual schema to array the social responsibilities of nonprofits. We then document the coevolution of organizational actorhood and responsibility across both sectors with a metastudy of nearly 200 extant surveys. We chart the institutionalization of a slate of formal structures that express organizational actorhood (i.e., mission statements, vision statements, and strategic plans) and that profess and define organizational social responsibilities (i.e., core values, ethics codes, and responsibility communications). We close with implications and future directions for organizational studies and research on corporate social responsibility.     

Organizational Responsibility for Age-Friendly Social Participation: Views of Australian Rural Community Stakeholders

This qualitative study critically explores the barriers experienced by diverse rural community stakeholders in facilitating environments that enable age-friendly social participation. Twenty-six semi-structured interviews were conducted across two rural Australian communities with stakeholders from local government, health, social care, and community organizations. Findings identify that rural community stakeholders face significant difficulties in securing resources for groups and activities catering to older adults, which subsequently impacts their capacity to undertake outreach to older adults. However, in discussing these issues, questions were raised in relation to whose responsibility it is to provide resources for community groups and organizations providing social initiatives and whose responsibility it is to engage isolated seniors. These findings provide a much-needed critical perspective on current age-friendly research by acknowledging the responsibilities of various macro-level social structures—different community-level organizations, local government, and policy in fostering environments to enable participation of diverse rural older adults.     

From armed group to movement: armed struggle and movement formation in Northern Ireland and the Basque Country

In recent decades, social movement scholars have expanded our understanding of ‘terrorism’ by analyzing a particular trajectory, movement to armed group, whereby movement demobilization spurs armed struggle. This article analyzes an alternative trajectory: armed group to movement. Once armed struggle’s limitations become apparent, armed groups often adopt an attritional military strategy suited to their capacities. To securely wage an attritional campaign, groups disembed through the adoption of insular structures, removing them from their milieux and from recruits and resources needed for organizational reproduction. To offset this, armed groups reembed through the development of politico-military movement structures: forming allied aboveground movement organizations; coordinating armed and unarmed activism; and creating a ‘movement’ identity. This offsets disembedding in three ways. First, collective action augments armed groups’ violence by expanding the struggle into new domains. Second, mobilized support provides armed groups political legitimacy, countering the ‘terrorist’ label. Third, aboveground movement organizations assist in recruitment, alliance-formation, public communication, and mobilization, facilitating armed groups’ organizational reproduction. This paper investigates the strategic decision to adopt movement structures by analyzing documents produced by militants linked to the IRA and to rival ETAs, ETA Politico-Military and ETA Military, allowing for the exploration of different aspects of the decision to adopt movement structures. From Irish republican texts, insights into the basic benefits of movement development are gleaned. Basque separatist documents, on the other hand, provide perspectives on the nature of interorganizational centralization and coordination within politico-military movements.     

Organizational Maintenance,Sensitivity to Clients,and Vulnerability: Some New Suggestions About a Traditional Concept*

Maintenance, an important concept in the organizational literature, is often assumed to be a key factor in the low levels of sensitivity to client needs and demands apparent in many human service organizations. This paper uses data from a national sample of juvenile courts to demonstrate, however, that maintenance may relate to other variables in ways that are at variance with the common assumption. The maintenance of internal organizational operations is bound closely to the development of ties to the community; as a result, strong emphasis on maintenance actually leads to high levels of sensitivity to clients when certain environmental forces demand it. This positive relation is especially strong when organizations are highly vulnerable to external pressures. Such results suggest a contingent view of the role of maintenance in organizations and imply some further directions for research.     

Changing Issue Representation among Major United States Environmental Movement Organizations*

Abstract Histories of the environmental movement have emphasized the importance of a shift in focus from those issues traditionally associated with the movement, such as resource and wildlife protection, towards “new” quality of life issues, such as environmental pollution and its human health effects. Here, time‐series data between 1970 and 2000 on the issue agendas of fifty leading environmental movement organizations (EMOs) are used to empirically assess the veracity of this hypothesized shift. Results indicate that while there is dramatic growth in the salience of new environmental issues, those issues traditionally associated with the environmental movement continue to dominate the collective agendas of major EMOs. Further, new environmental issues are most likely to be represented in organizational fields composed of smaller EMOs on average.     

An application of the nonprofit virtual accountability index: Accountability in sport for development and peace

In this research note, we examine web-based accountability practices of human service nonprofits. Data were collected directly from the organizational websites of an international sample of 532 organizations involved in operating sport for social change programs, more commonly known as the field of sport for development and peace. Websites were coded using the nonprofit virtual accountability index—a theoretically grounded and robust tool—to measure information and interactivity available for stakeholders across five dimensions of accountability. Analyses of variance and independent t-tests were used to test potential group differences based on geographical region, the thematic types of social change efforts, and the type of sport used to deliver programming. The results of this analysis highlight the critical importance of geographical location and other organizational variables for web-based accountability practices. Furthermore, the results allow nonprofit leaders to identify common areas in need of improvement for smaller and emerging nonprofits.     

Effectiveness in Voluntary Organizations: An Empirical Assessment

Abstract

In the tradition of Knoke and Wood (1981) the effects of resources mobilization, employee commitment, and bureaucratization on the effectiveness of voluntary organizations were explored. The respondents consisted of ninety-five percent of the volunteers and all the administrators of a food distribution center and its satellites in the most economically depressed area of Texas. It was found that organizational effectiveness is a result of commitment (involvement). Effective service to the client is increased by member autonomy and participation in decision making, by identification with and loyalty to the organization, and by resource mobilization. As autonomy, participation in decision-making, involvement, and resource mobilization decline, unmet needs of clients increase.