Dynamics of Mobilization

Chapter 6 focuses on the dynamics of mobilization. Mobilization is the process that links demand and supply. It can be seen as the marketing mechanism of the movement domain. Mobilization campaigns attempt to bring demand and supply together. The mobilizing structure organizers assemble is the connecting tissue between the supply-side of organizers and their appeals and the demand-side of participants and their motives. This makes it highly dynamic: a fit – or misfit – between motives and appeals makes for successful or failed mobilization and as such effects movement outcomes and effects. An individual’s participation in a social movement is the outcome of processes of mobilization. Within a society, consensus formation sets the stage for consensus mobilization. Together these two processes build a movement’s mobilization potential for a specific issue. The more successful consensus formation and mobilization has been, the larger the pool of sympathizers a movement can draw from. In a final step, action mobilization turns sympathizers into participants. Each of these processes obeys a separate theoretical framework. This chapter will subsequently elaborate consensus formation, consensus mobilization, and action mobilization. In doing so, we will depart from the explanatory model along the lines of Coleman’s boat, as introduced in Chapter 3.