Risk and Recruitment: Patterns of Social Movement Mobilization in a Government Town

Abstract

Based on document analysis and in-depth interviews with 80 respondents, this paper examines the importance of risks associated with activism in shaping recruitment and participation patterns in a government town. Residents have a history of involvement in civil rights activism, peace activities, and environmental organizing outside their community. However, citizens have not mobilized around local environmental problems despite a 50-year legacy of contamination from nuclear weapons production. I examine two organizing efforts in the community and analyze how residents' perceptions of risk associated with activism contributed to the relative success and failure of each. I argue that risk is an important variable that is critical to our understanding of social movement recruitment and participation patterns.