The Organization of Expert Activism: Shadow Mobilization in Two Social Movements*
The organization of expert activism is a problem of increasing importance for social movement organizers and scholars alike. Yet the relative invisibility of expert activists within social movements makes them difficult to systematically identify and study. This article offers two related ways forward. First, we advance a theory of “shadow mobilization” to explain the organization of expert activism in the broader context of proliferating risk and intensifying knowledge-based conflict. Second, we introduce a new methodological approach for collecting systematic data on members of this difficult-to-reach population. Findings from comparative analysis of expert activists in the environmental justice movement in Louisiana and the alternative agriculture movement in Washington reveal both important commonalities and fine-grained differences, suggesting that shadow mobilizations are strategic collective responses to cumulative risk in contemporary society.
Contributor Notes
* We thank David Hess, Rebecca Lave, Gwen Ottinger, Laurel Smith-Doerr, three anonymous reviewers, and the Mobilization editor for helpful comments and suggestions. Our thinking about shadow mobilization has additionally benefited from critical engagement with academic audiences at Institut Francilien Recherche Innovation Sociétié (Paris), Maison Interuniversitaire des Sciences de l'Homme–Alsace (Strasbourg), Northeastern University, University of Wisconsin, and Vanderbilt University as well as at conferences of the American Sociological Association and the Society for Social Studies of Science, where we presented earlier versions of this research. Despite this wide safety net, the usual disclaimers apply.
† Scott Frickel is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Institute for the Study of Environment and Society, Brown University. Rebekah Torcasso is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology at Washington State University. Annika Anderson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at California State University San Bernardino. Please direct all correspondence to Scott Frickel at Scott_Frickel@brown.edu.