Winning Real Food on Campus: The Role of Strategy and Strategic Capacity in Campaign Outcomes

• In Event: 3451 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 12. Repertoires, Tactics, and Strategies

Abstract

This paper presents one area of analysis from a qualitative, comparative case study of four Real Food Challenge (RFC) campaigns. This comparative case study forms the qualitative portion of a dissertation on local and sustainable campus food initiatives and activism in the U.S. The qualitative study compares Real Food Challenge campaigns and their outcomes at University of Pittsburgh, The Ohio State University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and University of Georgia. In addition to strategic capacity, the larger study also analyzes the influence of campus and regional context, or “opportunity structures,” movement goals, and identity on campaign outcomes. While campus opportunity structures significantly influenced the difficulty student leaders had advancing their “real food” objectives with administrators and the outcomes of their campaigns, their strategic choices--particularly the extent to which they aligned frames and tactics with context--also influenced outcomes. Campaigns that incorporated greater diversity in strategic planning, enhancing salient knowledge, demonstrated greater flexibility aligning tactics and frames with context. This analysis of RFC supported campaigns suggests ways in which federated Social Movement Organizations that manage networks of campus campaigns might support greater strategic capacity and more effective strategizing among member groups.

Author

• Rebecca Watts Hull, Georgia Tech