POLS 251 Lecture Notes - Social Movement Theory, Resource Mobilization, Collective Behavior

• School: U of S
• Department: Political Studies
• Course: POLS 251
• Professor: David York

Document Summary

Early assumptions on who joins included: marginal and alienated members of society. Individuals that were compensating for some kind of personal inadequacy: difficult given young middle class youth, easy associated, out casted, disempowered. Imitate the short falls: b) the larger picture of collective behavior as irrational appeared unfounded. Margit mayer argues, the failure of liberal politics provided the trigger for a wave of social movements that could hardly be read as irrational outbursts of deviant or marginal groups (mayer, 1995). Political interest, political culture, couldn"t address the problems: dissatisfaction, context specific. 1960s to early 1970s: dominate frame work. The problems with these conclusions and the lack of empirical research to demonstrate these claims led to the emergence of the resource mobilization paradigm and a body of work that known as resource mobilization theory (rmt). Core assumptions of rmt: grievance is constantly present in any society as is structural strain. (note the emphasis on countering functionalist theory in this important claim).