The Mobilizing Effect of Resources and Threat: A Mixed Model Analysis of the Occupy Movement

• In Event: 474 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 14. The Occupy Movement

Abstract

This paper contributes to the literature on social movement emergence by transcending a long-standing and largely counterproductive debate that too often framed threat and resources as mutually exclusive explanations of movement activity. By contrast, the analysis here rests on the assumption that mobilization capacity, conceptualized as access to relevant resources, and the presence of threatening conditions are complementary, not competing, facilitators of movement mobilization. The paper extends and refines our understanding of the nuanced interplay between resources and threats through a county-level study of the Occupy movement. The findings indicate a segmented response to more chronic economic threats based on the movement’s claims after controlling for state-to-state differences and less support that Occupy groups emerged in response to more acute adverse conditions linked to the recession. We also find that Occupy protest groups were more likely to emerge in localities with greater access to pre-existing of human and social-organizational resources.

Authors

• Nathan Charles Lindstedt, Washington State University

• Erik W. Johnson, Washington State University

• Patrick F. Gillham, Western Washington University

• Bob Edwards, East Carolina University