Scaffolding Social Movements: How Different Types of Social Movement Organizations Mobilize the U.S. Anti-Human Trafficking Movement.

• In Event: 40209 - The Drivers and Deterrents of Collective Action

Abstract

Resource Mobilization Theory offers a way to distinguish how different types of Social Movement Organizations (SMO) and the ways they interact explain coalition building and resource mobilization across social movements. However, not all consequential SMO typologies have been explored. In this paper I examine the case of the anti-trafficking movement in the United States. Scholars describe it as enduring and influential for political and social outcomes related to trafficking, sex work and beliefs about sex and gender but have not widely applied social movements literature to understand it as a social movement field. I rely on observation, interviews and archival work to describe how a yet unspecified type of SMO - the generalist and expansive “Scaffolding Organization” builds coalition and mobilizes resources among narrowly focused “Satellite Organizations.” I discuss how this new SMO typology contributes to both anti-trafficking and social movements literature.

Author

• Elizabeth Trudeau, Appalachian State University