David and Goliath?: A Pragmatic Strategy Theory of Social Movement Target Selection

• In Event: 474 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 10. Media and Movements

Abstract

In selecting targets, social movements face a tradeoff between ambition and feasibility. Past research on anti-corporate mobilization suggests a win-win alternative whereby activists can successfully challenge highly prominent organizations by using their target’s prominence as a means to attract media attention and mobilize adherents. However, prominent targets generally also possess the means to resist or redirect challengers, making this a high-risk, high-reward strategy. Instead this paper develops a theory of activists as pragmatic strategists who will target weaker opponents, seeking to build a groundswell of change starting from the bottom of an organizational field rather than from the top. The pragmatic strategy model receives the most support in analyses of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign, which has helped to retire more than one-third of existing U.S. coal plants since 2010. The results have implications for studies of social movements, organizations, and the environment.

Author

• Todd Schifeling, University of Michigan