Thesis
The mobilizing effect of threat and opportunity: a mixed model analysis of the Occupy movement
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2015
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/101612
Abstract
Social movement scholars have taken a renewed interest in the role that breakdowns, strains, and threats play in motivating collective action. Once viewed as a constraint on the possibility for social movement emergence, extant scholarship no longer regards threat as the inverse of opportunity. This paper extends and refines our understanding of the nuanced interplay between threat and opportunity through a county-level study of the Occupy movement. The findings indicate a segmented response to economic threats based on the movement's grievances and claims after controlling for state-to-state differences. For the Occupy movement, the greater the level of economic inequality in a county, the greater the prospect for the formation of a group in that county. Conversely, there is less support for the finding that the formation of Occupy groups in counties across the continental United States were a defensive reaction to the threats posed by rising unemployment rates or declining median household incomes. These findings are robust in the presence of other predictors derived from the dominant resource mobilization and political opportunity perspectives. Threats and opportunities may often combine in dynamic ways to motivate the emergence of social movements.
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Details
- Title
- The mobilizing effect of threat and opportunity
- Creators
- Nathan Charles Lindstedt
- Contributors
- Erik W. Johnson (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Sociology, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; [Pullman, Washington] :
- Identifiers
- 99900525149401842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis