Resource Mobilization

During the 1980s, analysts developed the resource mobilization perspective to better understand and explain the emergence, significance, and impact of the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Resource mobilization is at root a theory explaining how individuals and groups overcome resource inequalities and organize themselves to pursue desired social, cultural, or political change.

A social movement is a set of preferences for social change within a population. Individuals who share those social change preferences are called adherents, while those who contribute resources of support are constituents. Bystanders are those who watch from the sidelines. A key analytical issue for resource mobilization theory (RMT) is understanding how social movements turn bystanders into adherents, adherents into constituents, and constituents to active participation. Such tasks of mobilization are undertaken most often by social movement organizations (SMOs). Many SMOs have professional staffs and substantial resources. However, the vast majority are small, are voluntary, and operate locally. All the SMOs pursuing social movement goals are called a social movement industry (SMI). SMIs vary greatly in size and capacity, with some quite large, like the environmental or women's movements in the United States, and others much smaller, like the movement to abolish the death penalty or promote homeschooling.

SMOs gain access to resources in multiple ways, and RMT highlights four mechanisms. In self-production, social movements produce resources themselves by the efforts of existing organizations, activists, and constituents. They also aggregate resources by getting individuals and groups to contribute their separate resources that are then pooled to support collective actions. Social movements often appropriate or co-opt resources by utilizing previous connections to other groups and organizations. Finally, patronage refers to foundation grants or large private donations provided by specific individuals or groups.

Resource mobilization analysts conceptualize five distinct types of resources. Moral resources include tilings like legitimacy, integrity, solidarity, support, sympathetic support, and celebrity. For example, receiving awards like the Nobel Peace Prize confer legitimacy on an SMO and its leaders, while celebrity endorsements increase media coverage, generate public attention, and open doors to policymakers and resource providers alike. Cultural resources include relevant productions like music, literature, and humor, as well as “savvy” and “know-how” that facilitate the recruitment and socialization of new adherents and help movements maintain readiness for collective action. Social-organizational resources include social networks and formal organizations that enable movements to connect, communicate, and coordinate actions. Human resources include recruiting individuals to participate and the labor, experience, skills, expertise, and leadership they bring with them. [Page 786]Material resources are money and physical property like office space, equipment, and supplies.

Currently, resource mobilization theory has three complementary branches. Political process theory focuses on how changes in political opportunity both influence social movements and are exploited by them. Collective action framing emphasizes how social movement actors conceptualize issues and communicate their concerns to both motivate adherents and draw in bystanders. The organizational/entrepreneurial branch examines how individuals who share preferences for social change gain access to resources to organize themselves and take action. Resource mobilization theory predominated in the rapidly growing sociological subfield of social movement research during the 1980s and 1990s and remains a vibrant perspective within the broader conflict paradigm in sociological theory.

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