Lecture 6 Flashcards
Resource Mobilization
The emergence/persistence of social movements depend on the availability of resources that can be used for the movement
John McCarthy and Mayer Zald
Basically, the more resources available to the SMS, the greater the likelihood that new SMIs(social movement industries) and SMOs(social movement organizations) will develop
SMO’s
SMOs: a formal organization which identifies its goals with the preferences of a SM and attempts to implement those goals
Networks are important for SMOs to be able to achieve their goals.
Social capital: important to SMOs
- Means you have access to social resources depending on the connections you have
- Ties can be weak or strong
- Weak ties are people who you are loosely connected to who you see infrequently, and later that person ends up helping you get a job. Having a lot of weak ties is beneficial because you have a little bit of connections with lots of people (having weak ties is actually good because you are connected to more people who can help you)
- Ties are important because they are the social network you have access too
SMO example MADD
Example MADD(mothers against drunk driving)
Chapters with weaker ties at founding had greater survival advantages
- A mother who had weaker ties she had more chances of surviving and persisting
Conversely, chapters had lower survival chances if the chapter emerged form a leader with strong ties
- Except if they de-emphasized victim services
- Could be because people are embarrassed to ask for money to support these victims
- The only way to get rid of the contingent effects of strong ties, having a strong leader was important but had to de-emphasize victim services
This scholar further the argument that with the emergence of a social movement are also really important
Social movement Industries (SMI)
Where different SMOs compete for resources and attention
The collection of all SMOs focused on a given issue
- Ex green peace, other environmental things come together
Social movement Sector (SMS)
Compromised of all SMIs in a society
All the sectors
When see business failures you see less SMs.
Environmental SMOs appear more when the economy is doing good, and appear less when business failures appear.
- Ex wasting money on cleaning up the ocean, rather than wasting it on, people put these issues on the backburner, and invest in other business
- Looking at economy, a good economy produces more social movements.
Another big issue, citizen participation tends to be related to national health
- People more likely to dedicated to invest time into SMs that may not be an issue that affects you directly
Types of resources
Legitimacy
People and money
Not all resources matter in the same way for all SMs
Some movements had a greater need for material resources, while for some it may not be as important
Resource deprivation
External sources
The constituent base
Most of the time SMS, need both
Resource deprivation
External sources
- Concerned constituents: If I give money to an organization that is supporting siren migrants, I am a concerned constituent, not participating in SM, just donate money (people who support a SM without being directly involves or benefiting)
- Ex. Homeless, SM (75% external sources)
The constituent base
- The civil rights movements
- Resources from SM members itself
- Black churches donate lots of resources,
- Not surprising that the civil rights movement was unable to give money to and resources. Came from people who were directly impacted by movement.
- The actually base of organization that is keeping it together
- Come at a cost, loss of autonomy
- Also an issue for scholars, if resources are really important for social movements, how far are you willing to go? Does this resource dependence theory, change the goals and tactics of a SM?
Most of the time SMS, need both
The cost of externally derived resources
1) Moderates goals and tactics
- Lower chance of militant/radical action : if you have a SM that is successful you don’t need radical action
- Ex: If the parkland students initial goal was to ban guns and take them away from them, but then an organization comes in and donates money and tries to shift the goal to a more attainable goal rather than going door to door and taking guns from people
2) Channels dissent into more professional and publicly acceptable forms
- Allows you to protest in a more professional/ meanigful way
- Ex lobbying, getting your way of things.
3)It depends on the degree of correspondence between the aims of the SM and resource providers
- If you have a lot of disconnect from the SM and social movement, the resource provider may have less movement
- Where the organization providing resources is located
- Do the organization start providing early on in the SM life?
Ecological factors
1) The spatial arrangement of movement populations and physical places which facilitate collective action
-Ex 1989 Beijing student movement
-All schools were in one area which allowed communication in all areas, universities were walled off with a brick wall that separated them
-Universities have more total institution
-Allowed the spread of revolutionary ideas
-Had those universities not been close together, if the have more diversity, more open campus,
Other structural factors that matter
2)Free spaces
- Small-scale community or movement settings that are located beyond the surveillance and control of institutionalized authority
- We saw this in the seeds of change where they had to have those office spaces outside of the view from the government
- You have to have a safe place to meet with the opposition group not knowing about it
- Ex Black people would meet in black churches, they couldn’t meet in places that were dominated by white people.
- Although these places are not free of governmental intervention they are still seen as a safe place, in general people feel safe in churches and university type settings
- For this reason, that churches and colleges have been historically as free spaces for mobilization
- The importance of ecological factors and free spaces, if everything else is equal, have the same grievances, but have different free space, the movement would have never emerged(Beijing Students)
- A lot of people are starting to have encounters with people that aren’t like you make people more acceptable
- Ex equal marriage, more people encounter gay people so it is seen more normal.
