Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T02:21:02.388Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Exploring Multi-Issue Activism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2010

Ellen Ann Andersen  and
M. Kent Jennings
Ellen Ann Andersen*
Affiliation:
University of Vermont
M. Kent Jennings
Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Barbara
*
Address all inquiries to Ellen Ann Andersen, Department of Political Science, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont 05405 (ellen.andersen@uvm.edu).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Multi-issue activists are sorely understudied, despite their acknowledged importance as bridges between social movements and issue domains. In this article we explore multi-issue activism, beginning with a large sample of AIDS activists and charting the degree and nature of overlapping issue involvement, the key role of “initiator” issues, and individual characteristics that promote multi-issue activism. We demonstrate that the great majority of these AIDS activists had sizable prior and ongoing participation histories in other issues, suggesting that movement across issue areas may be the norm rather than the exception. We also show that involvement in specific past issues served as gateways to later involvement in AIDS, that psychological engagement in politics prompted cross-issue activism even among these already activated individuals, and that unique personal characteristics (in this case gender and sexual orientation) led to more issue interconnectedness.

Type
Features
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 43 , Issue 1 , January 2010 , pp. 63 - 67
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Financial support for the conduct of this study came from the Institute for Social Research and the Rackham School of Graduate Studies, University of Michigan.

References

Densham, Andrea. 1997. “The Marginalized Uses of Power and Identity: Lesbians' Participation in Breast Cancer and AIDS Activism.” In Women Transforming Politics, ed. Cohen, Cathy J., Jones, Kathleen B., and Tronto, Joan C.. New York: New York University Press, 284–301.Google Scholar
Diani, Mario, and McAdam, Doug, eds. 2003. Social Movements and Networks: Relational Approaches to Collective Action. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferree, Myra Marx, and Roth, Silke. 1998. “Gender, Class, and the Interaction between Social Movements—A Strike of West Berlin Day Care Workers.” Gender & Society 12 (December): 626–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jennings, M. Kent. 1992. “Ideology among Mass Publics and Political Elites.” Public Opinion Quarterly 56 (Winter): 419–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jennings, M. Kent, and Andersen, Ellen Ann. 2003. “The Importance of Social and Political Context: The Case of AIDS Activism.” Political Behavior 25 (2): 177–99.Google Scholar
Kinder, Donald R., and Sanders, Lynn M.. 1996. Divided by Color: Racial Politics and Democratic Ideals. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kitts, James A. 2000. “Mobilizing in Black Boxes: Social Networks and Participation in Social Movement Organizations.” Mobilization 5 (2): 241–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klandermans, Bert, and Oegema, Dirk. 1987. “Potentials, Networks, Motivations, and Barriers: Steps Toward Participation in Social Movements.” American Sociological Review 52 (August): 519–31.Google Scholar
Klein, Ethel. 1984. Gender Politics. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McAdam, Doug. 1989. “The Biographical Consequences of Activism.” American Sociological Review 54 (October): 744–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McAdam, Doug. 1995. “‘Initiator’ and ‘Spin-off’ Movements: Diffusion Processes in Protest Cycles.” In Repertoires and Cycles of Collective Action, ed. Traugott, Mark. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 217–39.Google Scholar
McAdam, Doug, and Rucht, Dieter. 1993. “The Cross-National Diffusion of Movement Ideas.” Annals of the Academy of Political and Social Science 528: 56–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyer, David S., and Whittier, Nancy. 1994. “Social Movement Spillover.” Social Problems 41: 277–98.Google Scholar
Ohlzak, Susan, and Uhrig, S.C. Noah. 2001. “The Ecology of Tactical Overlap.” American Sociological Review 66 (October): 694–717.Google Scholar
Page, Benjamin I., and Shapiro, Robert Y.. 1992. The Rational Public: Fifty Years of Trends in Americans' Policy Preferences. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenstone, Steven J., and Hansen, John Mark. 1993. Mobilization, Participation, and Democracy in America. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Snow, David A., Zurcher, Louis, and Ekland-Olson, Sheldon. 1980. “Social Networks and Social Movements: A Microstructural Approach to Differential Recruitment.” American Sociological Review 45 (October): 787–801.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verba, Sidney, Schlozman, Kay Lehman, and Brady, Henry E. 1995. Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whalen, Jack, and Flacks, Richard. 1989. Beyond the Barricades: The Sixties Generation Grows Up. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Wolbrecht, Christina. 2000. The Politics of Women's Rights: Parties, Positions, and Change. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar