The demand and supply of participation: Social psychological correlates of participation in social movements

Participation in social movements is a multifaceted phenomenon. Indeed, there are many different forms of movement participation. Two important dimension to distinguish forms of participation are time and effort. Some forms of participation are limited in time or of a once-only kind and involve little effort or risk—giving money, signing a petition, or taking part in a peaceful demonstration. Examples in the literature are the demonstration and petition against cruise missiles in the Netherlands (Klandermans and Oegema 1987, Oegema and Klandermans 1994). Other forms of participation, are also short-lived but involve considerable effort or risk— a sit-in, a site occupation or a strike. Participation in the Mississippi Freedom Summer (McAdam 1988) and participation in the Sanctuary movement (Nepstadt and Smith 1999) are cases in point. Participation can also be indefinite but little demanding—paying a membership fee to an organization or being on call for two nights a month. Pichardo et al (1998) studied a variety of such forms of participation in the environmental movement. Finally, there are forms of participation that are both enduring and taxing like being a member on a committee or a volunteer in a movement organization. Examples are the members of neighborhood committees (Oliver 1984) and the members of underground organizations (Della Porta 1988, 1992). From a social psychological viewpoint taxonomies of participation are relevant because one may expect different forms of participation to involve different motivational dynamics. This is indeed what Passy (2001) found in one of the rare comparative studies of types of movement participation. In this chapter I will try to develop a social psychology of movement participation that takes these intricacies into account. In doing so I borrow the 'demand and supply' metaphor from economics. Demand refers to the potential in a society for protest; supply refers, on the other hand, to the opportunities staged by organizers to protest. Mobilization brings a demand for political protest that exists in a society together with a supply of opportunities to take part in such protest. The demand-side of participation requires studies of such phenomena as socialization, grievance formation, causal attribution and the formation of collective identity. The study of the supply-side of participation concerns such matters as action repertoires, the effectiveness of social movements, the frames and ideologies movements stand for, and the constituents of identification they offer. Mobilization is the process that links demand and supply. Mobilization is the marketing mechanism of the …