Sociology 924: Social Movements Seminar Calendar Pamela Oliver

 

Resource Mobilization &Professionalization

The major themes of this week are issues of resource mobilization, external resources, professionalization, and the shifting forms of movement organizations across time. Our goal in reading for this week is not a close textual analysis of any one article, but rather to become familiar with the vocabulary and some of the major results of examining the organizational and resource-dependency aspects of social movements. For this reason, I have assigned more reading than can possibly be read closely and have emphasized review chapters to help you get oriented in the literature.

Assignment (Spring 2011): (1) Read the two "classic" McCarthy/Zald articles; we will focus on them as agenda-setting. (2) Read the Della Porta/Diani chapter. (3) Read the Morris/Staggenborg, Clemens/Minkoff, and Edwards/McCarthy chapters in the Blackwell Companion.

How to read: I suggest that you begin by skimming all this material and taking brief notes for yourself on the topics covered in each. Then, depending on your interests, either go back and read some sections more closely or look into some of the other articles listed on this page or cited by the review articles. Writing: Given the breadth of this week's readings, my suggestion for written notes this week is that you focus on short outline/summaries of the content of each of the required pieces and on writing down the issues/questions that seem most important to you for further study.

 

A. Resource Mobilization Theory: "Classic" articles

  1. John McCarthy and Mayer Zald. The Trend of Social Movements in America: Professionalization and Resource Mobilization. (1973) This is the original. It is more subtle than you would think from citations to it. Thirty years later, it is an interesting historical retrospective. The "parts" are arbitrarily broken, but there are different themes in each section. It is exploring reasons for the intense movement mobilization of the 1960s. Part 1 reviews and dismisses a variety of explanations focuses on a "participation revolution" and concludes that the key is more students with discretionary time. Part 2 is most linked to issues of organization, with a lot of emphasis on money for movements, professional activists and movement careers. There is also a short section on the increasing use of mass media by movements. Part 3 continues the professionalization theme and asks whether movements will be shaped by the interests of those with money. Electronic Copy
  2. John McCarthy and Mayer Zald. "Resource Mobilization and Social Movements." American Journal of Sociology 82 (May, 1977): 1212-1242. (Lots of hypotheses derived from notion that only resources matter; some are clearly wrong, others are quite useful. This is the article that takes all the heat.) Stable URL link to JSTOR: From the introduction: "The resource mobilization perspective adopts as one of its underlying problems Olson's (1965) challenge: since social movements deliver collective goods, few individuals will 'on their own' bear the costs of working to obtain them. Explaining collective behavior requires detailed attention to the selection of incentives, cost-reducing mechanisms or structures, and career benefits that lead to collective behavior (see, especially, Oberschall 1973)."

B. General overviews of organizational issues

  1. Social Movements : An Introduction. Donatella Della Porta and Mario Diani. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. 2006. Chapter 6. Social Movements and Organizational Form. Begins with New Left debates about organization, and then discusses models of organization. Discussion of changes in organizational forms, and then issues of organizational form and goals, functionality.
  2. Tarrow, Power in Movement, Chapter 3. General literature review
  3. J. Craig Jenkins. "Resource Mobilization Theory and the Study of Social Movements." Annual Review of Sociology 9 (1983): 527-53. Definitive on RM through the early 1980s.
  4. Morris, Aldon and Suzanne Staggenborg (2004). Leadership in Social Movements. The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements. D. A. Snow, S. A. Soule and H. Kriesi. Malden, MA and Oxford, UK, Blackwell Publishing: 171-196. Need to theorize leadership. Summary of history of literature. Social composition of leadership: who they are. Gender and leadership, inside and outside leaders. Cultural contexts for the emergence of leaders. Leadership and mobilization. Agency and structure in interaction. Leaders and framing, including institutions and mass media. Leadership and outcomes.
  5. Clemens, Elisabeth S. and Debra Minkoff (2004). Beyond the Iron Law: Rethinking the Place of Organizations in Social Movement Research. The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements. D. A. Snow, S. A. Soule and H. Kriesi. Malden, MA and Oxford, UK, Blackwell Publishing: 155-170. Interactions and how organizations are created and defined, not just question of oligarchy. Culture of interaction combined with anaysis of structure. Movements inside organizations. Also studies of org ecology. Adds up to an essay on different ways organizations in movements are handled in the literature..
  6. Edwards, Bob and D. McCarthy John (2004). Resources and Social Movement Mobiliation. The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements. D. A. Snow, S. A. Soule and H. Kriesi. Malden, MA and Oxford, UK, Blackwell Publishing: 116-152. analysis of types of resources and mobilization issues, including organizations, people etc. This is a very broad synthesis that pulls together many different strands of argument and empirical research.
  7. Kniss, Fred and Gene Burns (2004). Religious Movements. The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements. D. A. Snow, S. A. Soule and H. Kriesi. Malden, MA and Oxford, UK, Blackwell Publishing: 694-715. 3 types of questions: 1) New religions: causes and consequences. 2) Movements within religions. 3) Religion as a facor in movements. Also levels of analysis: cultural/ideological, organizational, macropolitical. 1) Studies of religious movements: classical studies, "new" religions, fundamentalism, immigrant religions; 2) Movements within religions, e.g. gay rights or feminism or abortion within religion. Notes that if religion is autonomous from the state, religious organizations can be homes for movements. 3) Religion and otehr movements. Problem of difference bewteen leaders and followers in tracing impact of ideas. Makes the point of the contrast between white and black evangelicals. Organizations as homes. Also religons and the state.

C. Cooptation

  1. Herbert Haines. "Black Radicalization and the Funding of Civil Rights: 1957-1970" MS 440-449. Social Problems 32: 31-43. 1984. Electronic Copy Focus is on changes in the capacity of moderate organizations to mobilize monetary resources from extramovement groups during periods in which other movement organizations are becoming increasingly radical.
  2. J. Craig Jenkins and Craig M. Eckert. "Channeling Black Insurgency: Elite Patronage and Professional Social Movement Organizations in the Development of the Black Movement." American Sociological Review 51 (Dec. 1986): 812-829. Takes McAdam's data and extends the series, nailing down the argument: elite money mostly went to moderates, did not fund the "revolution" Stable URL link to JSTOR:

D. Abeyance Structures

  1. Verta Taylor. 1989. "Social Movement Continuity: The Women's Movement in Abeyance." American Sociological Review 54 (Oct): 761-775. Abeyance structures are how the movement survives in downtimes. Reprinted in MS 409-420 or BC 423-440 Stable URL link to JSTOR:

E. Movement Professionalization

  1. Suzanne Staggenborg. 1988. "The Consequences of Professionalization and Formalization in the Pro-Choice Movement." American Sociological Review 53 (Aug): 585-606. Professionals and entrepreneurs are different roles. Entrepreneurs found movement organizations, professionals stabilize them. Comparative study of many organizations. reprinted in MS 421-439 Stable URL in JSTOR:
  2. Kleidman, Robert. Volunteer Activism and Professionalism in Social Movement Organizations. Social Problems 1994, 41, 2, May, 257-276. Professionals have varying effects on volunteer mobilization; need more complex concepts to understand issues. Electronic copy
  3. Pamela Oliver. (1983). “The Mobilization of Paid and Volunteer Activists in the Neighborhood Movement.” Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change 5: 133-170. Test theories using survey data, conclusion that activists are mobilized through commitment processes, not job opportunities, but that this mobilization is constrained by the availability of resources. Appendix an inventory of types of paid activists.
  4. Pamela E. Oliver and Gerald Marwell. "Mobilizing Technologies For Collective Action." In Aldon Morris and Carol Mueller, editors, Frontiers of Social Movement Theory. New Haven: Yale University Press. 1992. An analytic piece on fundraising and mobilizing volunteer labor. How the problems of getting money for professionalism or getting volunteers constrain the actions and goals of activists. Closely linked to the empirical articles in this section. Copy of paper.
  5. Dana Fisher. Author of Activism, Inc. about canvassing. This is a plain text copy of an article by her in the American Prospect that summarizes her argument, that canvassign has hurt progressive movements. Text file.

F. Organizational Characteristics and Mobilization or Success

  1. John D. McCarthy. "Pro-Life and Pro-Choice Mobilization: Infrastructure Deficits and New Technologies." In Mayer N. Zald and John D. McCarthy, eds., Social Movements in an Organizational Society. Paper written in the early 1980s. Pro-life depends on volunteers has relatively little money, pro-choice depends upon financial contributions from dispersed donors; linked to the different social structure of the two groups (church ties for pro-life, absence of ties for pro-choice). PDF
  2. Elisabeth S. Clemens. Organizational Repertoires and Institutional Change: Women's Groups and the Transformation of U.S. Politics, 1890-1920. American Journal of Sociology 1993, 98, 4, Jan, 755-798. Because women couldn't vote, they created new forms of politics leading to the educational lobbying system prominent today. PDF file Stable URL:
  3. Edwards, B. and S. Marullo (1995). "Organizational Mortality in a Declining Social Movement: The Demise of Peace Movement Organizations in the End of the Cold War Era." American Sociological Review 60(6): 908-927. Factors affecting survival or demise. Stable URL
  4. Robnett, B. (1996). "African-American Women in the Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1965: Gender, Leadership, and Micromobilization." American Journal of Sociology 101(6): 1661-1693. Stable URL
  5. McCarthy, John D.; Wolfson, Mark "Resource Mobilization by Local Social Movement Organizations: Agency, Strategy, and Organization in the Movement against Drinking and Driving" American Sociological Review; 1996, 61, 6, Dec, 1070-1088. Stable URL in JSTOR:
  6. Cress, Daniel M.; Snow, David A. "Mobilization at the Margins: Resources, Benefactors, and the Viability of Homeless Social Movement Organizations" American Sociological Review; 1996, 61, 6, Dec, 1089-1109. Stable URL
  7. Pamela Oliver and Mark Furman. 1989. "Contradictions Between National and Local Organizational Strength: The Case of the John Birch Society." International Social Movement Research 2: 155-177. Mobilizing action is local, mobilizing money is national. Different problems. Copy (will be highlighted when available)
  8. Fantasia, Rick and Judith Stepan Norris (2004). The Labor Movement in Motion. The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements. D. A. Snow, S. A. Soule and H. Kriesi. Malden, MA and Oxford, UK, Blackwell Publishing: 555-575. US labor movement over time
  9. Suh, Doowon (2003). "Leadership Effectiveness and Interorganizational Solidarity Formation." Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change 24: 189-228.
    This article uses comparative, empirical research to analyze organizational network formation (here, networks connecting unions, not interpersonal networks) by the attempts of Korean white-collar unions to intensify interunion solidarity. Networks are created by organizers' tactical efforts -- based on participants' endorsement -- to elevate the collective power of their movements. Successful networks feature moderate organizational leadership centralization & intervention in the activities of discrete unions. Such leadership best promotes a democratic network structure & directs coalition efforts -- two, mutually conflicting, requirements for effective networks. Excessive leadership centralization & decentralization equally attenuate network cohesion & effectiveness. The former impedes internal organizational democracy, whereas the latter hinders interorganizational coalition.
  10. Soule, Sarah A. and Brayden G. King (2008). "Competition and Resource Partitioning in Three Social Movement Industries." American Journal of Sociology 113(6): 1568-1610. Drawing hypotheses from resource mobilization and resource partitioning theories (RMT and RPT), this article examines how interorganizational competition and social movement industry (SMI) concentration affect the level of tactical and goal specialization of protest organizations associated with the peace, women's, and environmental movements. Additionally, the article examines how specialization affects the survival of these organizations. By and large, the findings are commensurate with the expectations of RMT and RPT. Results indicate that interorganizational competition leads to more specialized tactical and goal repertoires. Concentration in the SMI also leads to specialization, but this is only true for less established organizations. Results also indicate that tactical and goal specialization decrease organizational survival, unless the industry is highly concentrated.

 

Sociology 924: Social Movements Calendar Pamela Oliver

Last updated January 24, 2011 © University of Wisconsin.