Editorial Type:
Article Category: Research Article
 | 
Online Publication Date: 21 Feb 2006

Rethinking Recruitment to High-Risk/Cost Activism: The Case of Nicaragua Exchange

and
Page Range: 25 – 40
DOI: 10.17813/maiq.4.1.8152670287r21558
Save
Download PDF

We report the findings of our research on differing levels of movement involvement by focusing on participation in a high-risk/cost campaign mobilized by Nicaragua Exchange, a solidarity organization in the U.S.-Central America peace movement of the 1980s. Our data confirm the importance of relational ties in high-risk activism, yet raise questions about the relevance of biographical availability and the unique functions of organizational ties. We argue that McAdam's model is an important advance in our understanding of the factors that facilitate high-risk/cost activism, yet its micro-structural approach does not sufficiently account for human agency and individual abilities to negotiate and overcome barriers to activism.

Snow, David, Louis Zurcher, Jr., and Sheldon Ekland-Olson. 1980. "Social Networks, and Social Movements: A Micro-Structural Approach to Differential Recruitment." American Sociological Review 45: 787-801.

Taylor, Phyllis. 1990. Interview, Philadelphia, PA.

Von Eschen, Donald, Jerome Kirk, and Maurice Pinard. 1971. "The Organizational Substructure of Disorderly Politics. "Social Forces 49: 529-544.

Walsh, Edward, and Rex Warland. 1983. "Social Movement Involvement in the Wake of a Nuclear Accident: Activists, and Free Riders in the Three Mile Island Area. "American Sociological Review 48: 764-781.

Wiltfang, Gregory, and Doug McAdam. 1991. "Distinguishing Cost, and Risk in Sanctuary Activism." Social Forces 69: 987-1010.

Briet, Martien, Bert Klandermans, and Frederike Kroon. 1997. "How Women Become Involved in The Women's Movement of the Netherlands." In The Women's Movements of the United States, and Western Europe: Consciousness, Political Opportunities, and Public Policy, eds. Mary Fainsod Katzenstein, and Carol McClurg Mueller. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Conway, M. Margaret. Political Participation in the United States. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press.

Curtis, Russell, and Louis Zurcher, Jr. 1973. "Stable Resources of Protest Movement: The Multi-Organizational Field." Social Forces 52: 53-60.

Downton, James, and Paul Wehr. 1997. The Persistent Activist: How Peace Commitment Develops, and Survives. Boulder, CO: Westview.

Barnes, Samuel, and Max Kaase. 1979. Political Action. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

McAdam, Doug. 1986. "Recruitment to High-Risk Activism: The Case of Freedom Summer." American Journal of Sociology 92 (1): 64-90.

McAdam, Doug, and Ronnelle Paulsen. 1993. "Specifying the Relationship Between Social Ties, and Activism." American Journal of Sociology 99: 640-67.

McAdam, Doug. 1988. Freedom Summer. New York: University of Oxford Press.

McAdam, Doug. 1992. "Gender as a Mediator of the Activist Experience: The Case of Freedom Summer." American Journal of Sociology 97 (5): 1211-40.

Fernandez, Roberto, and Doug McAdam. 1988. "Social Networks, and Social Movements: Multi-Organizational Fields, and Recruitment to Mississippi Freedom Summer." Sociological Forum3: 357-382.

Gerlach, Luther, and Virginia Hine. 1970. People, Power, and Change: Movements of Social Transformation. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.

Gould, Roger. 1991. "Multiple Networks, and Mobilization in the Paris Commune, 1871. "American Sociological Review 56 (6): 716-29.

Gould, Roger. 1993. "Collective Action, and Network Structure." American Sociological Review 58 (2): 182-96.

Jones, Jeff. 1986. Brigadista: Harvest, and War in Nicaragua. New York: Praeger.

Marten, Suzanne. 1995. Personal telephone interview. New York City.

Marwell, Gerald, Pam Oliver, and Ralph Prahl. 1988. "Social Networks, and Collective Action: A Theory of the Critical Mass. III." American Journal of Sociology 94: 502-534.

Miles, Sara. 1995. Personal telephone interview. San Francisco.

Nepstad, Sharon Erickson. 1996. Nicaragua Libre: High-Risk Activism in the U.S.---Nicaragua

Solidarity Movement. Doctoral dissertation. Sociology. University of Colorado, Boulder.

Orum, Anthony M. 1972. Black Students in Protest. Washington, D.C.: American Sociological Association.

Rafferty, Corrine. 1995. Personal telephone interview. Minneapolis.

McCarthy, John. 1987. "Pro-Life, and Pro-Choice Mobilization: Infrastructure Deficits, and New Technologies." Pp. 49-66 in Social Movements in an Organizational Society, eds. Mayer Zald, and John McCarthy. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.

Rosenthal, Naomi, Meryl Fingrutd, Michelle Ethier, Roberta Karant, and David McDonald. "Social Movements, and Network Analysis: A Case Study of Nineteenth-Century Women's Reform in New York State. "American Journal of Sociology 90: 1002-1055.

Smith, Christian. 1996. Resisting Reagan: The U.S. Central America Peace Movement. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Bolton, Charles. 1972. "Alienation, and Action: A Study of Peace Group Members." American Journal of Sociology 78: 537-61.

  • Download PDF