Frontiers in Social Movement Theory

by Aldon D. Morris

Social protest movements such as the civil rights movement and the gay rights movement mobilize and sustain themselves in ways that have long been of interest to social scientists. In this book some of the most distinguished scholars in the area of collective action present new theories about this process, fashioning a rich and conceptually sophisticated social psychology of social movements that goes beyond theories currently in use.The book includes sometimes competing, sometimes complementary paradigms by theorists in resource mobilization, conflict, feminism, and collective action and by social psychologists and comparativists. These authors view the social movement actor from a more sociological perspective than do adherents of rational choice theory, and they analyze ways in which structural and cultural determinants influence the actor and generate or inhibit collective action and social change. The authors state that the collective identities and political consciousness of social movement actors are significantly shaped by their race, ethnicity, class, gender, or religion. Social structure--with its disparities in resources and opportunities--helps determine the nature of grievances, resources, and levels of organization. The book not only distinguishes the mobilization processes of consensus movements from those of conflict movements but also helps to explain the linkages between social movements, the state, and societal changes.

Genres: Theory, Social Movements

Paperback Bunko

First published August 26, 1992

About the author

Aldon Morris is the Leon Forrest Professor of Sociology and African American Studies at Northwestern University. He has published widely on social movements, race, religion, social inequality, and the sociology of W. E. B. Du Bois. He is the author of The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement (Free Press, 1984), which won the 1986 Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Award from the American Sociological Association, and co-editor of the volumes Frontiers in Social Movement Theory (Yale, 1992) and Opposition Consciousness: The Subjective Roots of Social Protest (University of Chicago, 2001). Most recently he authored the award-winning book The Scholar Denied: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Birth of Modern Sociology (University of California, 2015). In 2009 Morris won the Cox-Johnson-Frazier Award from the American Sociological Association for a lifetime of research, scholarship, and teaching.