Showing papers on "Social movement published in 1983"

Resource Mobilization Theory and the Study of Social Movements

Abstract: Resource mobilization theory has recently presented an alternative interpretation of social movements. The review traces the emergence and recent controversies generated by this new perspective. A multifactored model of social movement formation is advanced, emphasizing resources, organization, and political opportunities in addition to traditional discontent hypotheses. The McCarthy-Zald (1973) theory of entrepreneurial mobilization is critically assessed as an interpretation of the social movements of the 1960s-1970s, and the relevance of the Olson (1968) theory of collective action is specified. Group organization is argued to be the major determinant of mobilization potential and patterns. The debate between the Gerlach-Hine (1970) and entrepreneurial theories of social movement organization is traced in terms of historical changes in the social movement sector and the persistence of organizational diversity. A model of social movement politics is outlined, building on Gamson’s (1975) theory of strate...

Social Movement Involvement in the Wake of a Nuclear Accident: Activists and Free Riders in the TMI Area

Abstract: Focusing on the community mobilization processes following the Three Mile Island (TMI) accident, this paper presents the first empirical tests of central hypotheses derivedfrom Olson (1965) involving both activists andfree riders in a natural setting. Focusing initially on a randomly selected sample of free riders from the TMI area, we first investigate the extent of, and reasons for, this phenomenon. Free riding in an actual mobilization process is revealed to be more widespread than Olson's critics suggest, and also more complex than Olson alleged. We then compare the most politically active citizens in the TMI area with the free riders on solidarity, ideology, grievance, and other dimensions in an attempt to discern the most important correlates of social movement involvement. The paper concludes with a model which synthesizes the resource mobilization and alternative perspectives.

Rethinking Social Movements

Abstract: inherent in the unattractive alternative between reformist and revolutionary political strategy has become patently obvious in the two models erected on the basis of this choice: social democracy and Bolshevism. The inadequacies of the classical Marxian theory and practice to the current situation are as clear to the non-dogmatic

Solidarity: The Analysis of a Social Movement: Poland 1980–1981

Abstract: Acknowledgements Vocabulary and abbreviations Glossary of names Introduction Part I. The Movement: 1. 1856-1968-1980. Resistance to Communist rule in Central Europe 2. Class, nation, democracy 3. A self-limiting movement Part II. The Liberation of society: 4. The movement evolves 5. The militants analyse their own action 6. The problem of political power 7. Radicalism and compromise 8. Resistance Conclusion: the end of Communist society Chronology of events Biliography.

Political Radicalism in Imperial Vienna: Origins of the Christian Social Movement, 1848-1897

Abstract: Preface Acknowledgments Map of Vienna 1: Austrian Liberals and Liberal Politics, 1848-79: Burger Privilege and the Fragmentation of Bourgeois Politics 2: The Viennese Artisans and the Origins of Political Antisemitism, 1880-90 40 3: Catholic Politics in Vienna: The Radical Clergy and the Restoration of Mittelstand Society 4: Karl Lueger and the Radicalization of Viennese Democracy, 1875-90 5: The Transformation of Viennese Politics: Metropolitan Vienna, White Collar Radicalism, and the Elections of 1891 6: The Collapse of the Liberals and the Antisemitic Conquest of Vienna, 1893-97 Conclusion Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index

The new conservative feminism

Abstract: rise of the New Right, an organized antifeminist social movement with legions of devoted female activists, forced feminists to the painful recognition that we could not speak for or to all the women we hoped to represent. Then the collapse of liberalism sealed a profound rightward shift in the social and political climate that made attacks on feminist ideology and politics attractive vocations, not only for neoconservatives, but, more disturbingly, for prominent leftists as well.1 Soon the media was welcoming the appearance of a "postfeminist" era whose arrival it celebrated with tales of the accomplished young women who had rejected feminist ideology.2 And now a feminist backlash has emerged. Mounted by notable, self-identified feminists, this backlash represents an attack on the core beliefs and politics of the women's liberation movement and gives chastening evidence that the New Right and the collapse of liberalism have taken their toll. Responding to a widespread crisis in personal life and to perceived inadequacies in the ways feminism has addressed this crisis, the backlash poses a serious challenge to the women's movement. Indeed, it initiates a new and conservative terrain of struggle over what feminism will mean in the next historical period. This internal backlash was foreshadowed in 1977 by Alice Rossi's "A Biosocial Perspective on Parenting," a then startling rejection of feminist cultural analysis by an eminent feminist scholar.3 In recent literature by Betty Friedan and Jean Bethke Elshtain, the two most significant contemporary voices of what I tentatively am labeling the new conservative feminism, the backlash has become far more explicit and more strident.4 Recent writing by Friedan and Elshtain, however, commands feminist attention for nearly opposite reasons. On the one hand, Friedan's pivotal, highly public role in the founding of contemporary femi

Femininity and feminism: To be or not to be a woman

Abstract: This essay treats the rhetorical movement called feminism. It argues that the two feminist social movements, one from 1848 and the other from 1963, are one rhetorical movement. Feminism as a rhetorical movement is typified by an ideological conflict between the concepts of “womanhood” and “personhood” and by the rhetorical strategies summed up by the term “consciousness raising.“

Comparative Politics: An Institutional and Cross-National Approach

Abstract: I. Comparative Political Analysis: An Introduction II. Constitutions and Ideologies III. Political and Economic Development IV. Legislatures and Legislative Structures V. The Executive VI. Judiciaries and the Legal Order VII. Interest Groups, Political Parties VIII. The Individual and the Political Environment Part II: Area Studies IX. The British Political System X. The French Political System XI. The German Political System XII. The Japanese Political System XIII. The Mexican Political System XIV. The Nigerian Political System XV. The Russian Political System XVI. The Indian Political System XVII. Comparative Political Analysis: A Concluding Perspective

Urban Workers and Labor Unions in Chile 1902-1927

Abstract: During the first quarter of the twentieth century, there originated in Chile a labor movement which was to prove both important and unique. Peter Deshazo sets out here to furnish a detailed case study of that movement. By challenging previously held and often politically motivated conceptions of the Chilean unions, and by examining such hitherto unexplored sources as government documents and labor newspapers, he is able to illuminate the origins and development of an often successful and surprisingly autonomous labor campaign. Students and scholars of Latin America, labor history, comparative social movements, and political science will find the resultant pathbreaking study of the Chilean working class and its progressive mobilization valuable reading.

Social and Political History

Abstract: The Manchester Guardian Archive is a major source for studies of the political, military, economic, social and technological developments of the twentieth century. It contains correspondence with a large number of politicians and statesmen, and almost every major political event and social trend is documented in the correspondence and despatches. The papers of W.P. Crozier, former editor of the Manchester Guardian, contain interviews with leading politicians and statesmen, while the manuscript collection of A.P. Wadsworth, another former editor, is important for the

The mid-nineteenth-century crisis in France and England

Abstract: The European crises that culminated in 1848 were perhaps the clearest coincidence of "global" economic and political instability of which we know. That year witnessed a revolutionary conflagration of continental proportions. In sheer scope it was unprecedented, and even a century and a half later we have not seen its equal. The three years preceding this outburst had been marked by an economic crisis that though not without precedent, caused acute distress through most of Europe. The nature and significance of the connection between this crisis and these social movements has been the

THE INDIAN MANAGEMENT DILEMMA Economic vs Political Unions

Abstract: The theory that trade unions exist to protect and advance the job interests of working men has dominated the precept and practice of unionism for as long as unions have been in existence. Uneasiness over the crasser forms of "bring-home-the-bacon" unionism has often led labor theorists to claim that there is more to trade unionism than mere money. Perlman argued five decades ago that business unionism would be a misnomer if it were intended to mean a labor movement without ideology, for all unions possessed the idealism of upholding the interests of the collectivity-what he termed "Tom, Dick and Harry idealism."1 More recently, Flanders has stressed the importance of union participation in rule making. For him, the most enduring social achievement of trade unions has been the "creation of a social order in industry embodied in a code of industrial rights."2 If in liberal pluralist theory trade unionism is more than mere money, it is also less than a broad social movement aimed at exterminating the very source of unequal social relationships. The outer limit to union purpose in this theory is set by a method-collective bargaining. It is argued that industrial methods have primacy over political methods because the members' expectations are distinctly more industrial than political.3 Economic unionism-crude forms if possible, refined forms if necessary-undoubtedly suits the interests of management best. "Their [the unions'] purely economic objectives conflict with the capitalist's desire to minimize costs of production ... while any connection between trade unionism and socialist politics is a potential threat to his very existence.... Where unions are willing to confine their objectives within comparatively innocu-

Humor and hostility: A neglected aspect of social movement analysis

Abstract: Most research on social movements has focused on their chronology and structure, and on the social conflict generated by collective attempts to bring about or thwart change. The seriousness and intensity of such activity have led sociologists to ignore the lighter side of social movements. Humor is an important means of communication and in this article it is shown to be intimately related to conflict in social movements. A four-cell model of “conflict humor” is proposed. The relationship between humor and social movements is demonstrated in a brief case study of the Western Canadian separatist movement.

The Interaction of Grievances and Structures in Social Movement Analysis: The Case of JUST*

Abstract: Drawing upon insights from the social movement literature as well as leadership experience in a successful social movement organization, this paper suggests aspects of a framework for integrating t...

Further thoughts on social networks and movement recruitment

Abstract: WALLIS and Bruce (1982) have recently questioned the adequacy of our analysis of the relationship between social networks and the movement recruitment process (Snow et al. 1980). Our aim in that paper was to further empirical and theoretical understanding of the spread and growth of social movements by examining the role of such micro-structural factors as social networks in relation to differential recruitment (e.g., Why are some people rather than others recruited into a particular social movement organization?) and the differential growth of social movements (e.g., Why do some movement organizations attract a larger following and grow at a more rapid rate than others?). If Wallis and Brace's critique is used to measure the adequacy of that endeavour, then it is clear that we have failed to shed additional light on the movement recruitment process. Wallis and Bruce object mainly to our conclusion that 'both the network attributes of movement organizations and members function as important structural determinants of differential recruitment to and the differential growth of movement organizations' and, as a consequence, that such 'micro-structural variables are of equal, and perhaps greater, importance than dispositional susceptibilities in the determination of differential recruitment' (Snow et al. 1980: 798). That thesis, Wallis and Bruce (1982: 103) contend, is not only too 'mechanistic', but 'cannot be supported by closer examination of the evidence (we) adduce, nor by the concepts (we) employ'. In short, Wallis and Bruce find our analysis flawed on meta-theoretical, empirical, and conceptual grounds. We think they are wrong on the first two accounts, and only partially correct on the third. We thus find it necessary not only to respond to Wallis and Bruce's criticisms, but also to clarify our position so as to reduce the possibility that others might similarly misread or misrepresent our work.

Figure and ground in the analysis of social movements

Abstract: Social movements are great stinings that rattle and threaten the institutional order, attracting adherents whose motivations are diverse and producing manifold effects in society. The na’ive observer selects only certain of these motivations and effects and treats them as the significant, representative, or essential features of the movement. Commonsense explanations for the movement typically treat this highly selective picture as if it were a balanced or complete account of the movement. To a considerable extent the sophisticated observer and the social scientist follow a similar procedure, sorting adherent motivations and movement effects into figure and ground, and constructing a theory of movement dynamics to explain figure rather than ground. The assumptions underlying this separation between figure and ground are often not made explicit, and advocates of competing theories often debate their versions of movement dynamics as if they were competing explanations for the same phenomena, when this is not the case. In this article I wish to suggest that recent fashions in movement analysis incorporate to a large extent a revised image of what is figure and what is ground in movement effects. While debates have ranged explicitly about the utility of disproportionate or even exclusive attention to organization and the control of resources as explanatory variables, the reconceptualization of movement effects in terms of figure and ground has remained largely implicit. But the relevance of theory depends upon what it explains. So a clear statement of what is to be explained must preceed any assessment of the utility of competing approaches and theories. The body of recent work to which I refer consists of elaborations and applications of resource mobilization theory. In the earliest extended exposition of this approach, Oberschall ( 1973:27) suggests that social change and conflict be viewed as “mobilizing, converting, and transferring resources from one group and one arena of action to other groups and

The Family, Politics, and Religion in the 1980s In Fear of the New Individualism

Abstract: The major objective of this article is to examine the process of the politicization of the family and to provide a sociological interpretation. Major social changes have led to the definition of the family as a social problem. Because old patterns have been disrupted, a “normative reaction to normlessness” has set in providing the motivation for the profamily social movement on both the religious and the political level. New Right familism can be viewed as a reaction to what are actually worldwide changes in family patterns that force a reevaluation of the “old individualism” (centered on male prerogatives) and encourage the acceptance of the “new individualism,” which respects the developing extrafamilial prerogatives of females, the young, and the elderly.Various developments may provide further success or failure for the profamily movement, but the ultimate impact of the movement on society will depend upon the interaction of social organizational and normative dynamics. To the extent that liberal view...

Commitment and endurance: common themes in the life histories of civil rights workers who stayed.

Abstract: First-person life histories of a group of civil rights workers who have maintained a long-term commitment to the Movement are summarized and analyzed. The importance of relationships with others, changes in the ways the workers viewed themselves, the development of faith in their work, and the reconciliation of their Movement experiences with those of their past life emerge as central themes in their accounts.

Soft Tech/Hard Tech, Hi Tech/Lo Tech: A Social Movement Analysis of Appropriate Technology*

Abstract: Much of the contemporary debate over technology is explicitly and implicitly focused on the question of whether certain technological styles are appropriate or inappropriate. The framing of the debate in this way is due to an active social movement that advocates appropriate technology (AT). The movement is growing from urgent concerns with the undesirable “hard” equity, environmental/resource, and quality of life impacts of modern industrial technologies, both in developing and developed countries. The major features of the AT movement and its social sources are examined. Then the emerging hi techs are characterized and analyzed in terms of the major impacts of concern in the AT movement.

Social Movement as Meaning.

Abstract: (1983) Social movement as meaning Central States Speech Journal: Vol 34, No 1, pp 74-77

Redistributive Goals versus Distributive Politics: Social Equity Limits in Environmental and Appropriate Technology Movements*

Abstract: Contrary to conventional social problems models that depict environmental problems as arising from either “sin” or “error,” such problems are rooted in the modern treadmill of production. Following the classification of Theodore Lowi, recent environmental movement organizations appear to have emphasized a social redistributive rhetoric (sin), but have engaged in practices of distributive politics (error). As a result, even with the advent of the “radical” appropriate technology movement in the mid 1970s, the central issues relate to the forces of production, with far less attention given to the social relations of modern production. The explanation for this disparity lies partly in the substantial decline of a participatory base for social movement organizations in the 1970s. Hence the advent of appriate technology movement organizations has raised competition for limited membership pools, inducing older organizations to become more diffuse in their ideologies in order to maintain and/or attract constituents. Second, the social context makes successful redistributive policies less likely, encouraging movement organizations to find successes in more decentralized distributive negotiations.

An Historical Perspective on the Study of Social Movements.

Abstract: (1983). An historical perspective on the study of social movement. Central States Speech Journal: Vol. 34, No. 1, pp. 67-69.

Regional Crisis: the State and Regional Social Movements in Southern Europe

Abstract: The main concern of this chapter is to discuss the political implications of uneven regional development in southern Europe. A major thesis underlying this concern is that the present conjuncture suggests the increasing importance of the political element in the formation of the so-called ‘regional crisis’: a few regions only are favoured, leaving behind most of them, despite all the efforts and resources that are mobilised to rectify these conditions and re-establish spatial equilibrium.