Abstract: This chapter introduces a new theory of micro-level mobilization that challenges and extends the more common macro- and meso-level approaches to social movement studies. Rooted in the concept of identity, the theory allows scholars to capture and explain individual-level variations in how people participate across three key moments of a social movement: initial mobilization, on-going participation, and re- or de-mobilization. Social movement organizers regularly use emotion-laden narratives to target specific identities for recruitment. Individuals are most likely to accept these invitations when a shifting macro-level context—conceptualized as an “arena”—re-shapes their network memberships and encourages the expansion of their existing identities. Once mobilized, movements assign participants to different tasks, and limit the number and kind of social ties they can form, thus structuring how their identities might change through participation. Finally, the different identities developed through initial mobilization and on-going participation interact in the post-movement environment to determine whether a participant will remain politically active after the initial social movement ends (re-mobilization), or will eschew future political participation (demobilization). The chapter concludes that capturing individual-level variations across participants will improve scholars’ answers to central questions like why social movements begin, how they endure, and whether they change the societies they target.
Publication Year: 2013
Publication Date: 2013-11-21
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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