The Future of Social Movement Research: Dynamics, Mechanisms, and Processes

7. Organization and Community in Social Movements

125 7 Organization and Community in Social Movements Social movement scholars influenced by resource mobilization theory and the seminal work of McCarthy and Zald (1973, 1977) have long focused on social movement organizations (SMOs) as the major organizational structures in social movements. SMOs remain important to the study of social movements , and recent scholarship confirms the critical role of organizations in the mobilization of collective action (Sampson et al. 2005). Yet scholars recognize that SMOs are not the only organizational forms that support movement mobilization; other important mobilizing structures include social networks, cultural groups, movement habitats within institutions, movement-related commercial establishments, coalitions, alternative institutions, and more established organizations that become movement allies at times, such as unions and community organizations. Moreover, there may be changes over time in the types of structures employed by social movements. Some scholars suggest that movement structures might currently be changing from more organized ones, with more formalized SMOs, to less formal issue networks and groups, owing in part to the influence of globalization and improved communication technologies (Roggeband and Duyvendak, chapter 5; Van Stekelenburg and Boekkooi, chapter 11). If such a shift is in fact occurring, changes in movement structures are expected to have important implications for mobilization, collective identity, and strategies. In this essay, I argue that the concept of social movement community (SMC) is useful in conceptualizing the diffuse nature of social movements and their changing structures (Buechler 1990; Taylor and Whittier 1992; Lichterman 1995; Stoecker 1995; Staggenborg 1998). Particularly at the grassroots level, Suzanne Staggenborg suzanne staggenborg 126 where much of the activity of social movements takes place, the concept allows us to consider how a range of mobilizing structures, including decentralized and informal structures as well as formal SMOs, affect the mobilization, collective identity, and strategies of social movements. Depending on how centralized they are, and what types of organizations and networks exist within them, movement communities can support different types of collective action campaigns, which in turn affect the organizational shape of the movement. By examining changes in movement communities over time, we can see how the structures of movements are changing in the wake of new movement campaigns and in response to developments such as new communications technologies. We can then see how changes in the structures of movement communities affect subsequent movement mobilization and collective campaigns. I begin with a discussion of SMCs and three related components: organization and culture, collective identity, and movement campaigns. Next, I discuss a methodological approach to the study of movement communities. I then draw on case studies of two campaigns, the World March of Women (WMW) and the Pittsburgh G20 protests, to explore the analytic benefits of focusing on movement communities. Social Movement Communities Social movements and their organizational structures have been conceptualized in a variety of ways. Tilly (2008; Tilly and Wood 2009) and Tarrow (2011) view movements as “sustained interactions” with authorities, elites, or opponents, consisting of a series of collective action campaigns. McCarthy and Zald (1977) conceptualize social movements as “preferences” for social change that are mobilized by SMOs within a “social movement industry” (SMI) consisting of all SMOs that share a general goal. Melucci (1989) describes enduring movements as consisting of “submerged networks” that emerge from time to time for collective actions. Diani (1992) sees movements as “networks of informal interaction” among individuals and groups that engage in political or cultural conflict and share a collective identity. The concept of a “multiorganizational field” refers to all of the organizations with which a movement organization interacts, including opponents as well as supporters (Klandermans 1992). The concept of “ideologically structured action” (Zald 2000) emphasizes that movements engage in a variety of movement-inspired actions besides contentious politics in many different arenas, ranging from schools and families to government agencies and political parties. The concept of a SMC is broader than the concepts of a SMI and a multiorganizational field in that it includes various types of movement contributors such as individuals, informal groups, and networks as well as SMOs and other organization and community in social movements 127 organizations. Like multiorganizational fields, SMCs contain different types of organizations, including SMOs, cultural groups, alternative organizations, and established organizations that lend support to movement activities. As in Melucci’s and Diani’s conceptions of social movements, movement communities include networks of individual activists, who may belong to different groups at different times and participate in movement campaigns from...