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Dimensions of Participation in a Professional Social‐Movement Organization
Author(s) -
Cohn Steven F.,
Barkan Steven E.,
Halteman William A.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
sociological inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.446
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1475-682X
pISSN - 0038-0245
DOI - 10.1111/1475-682x.00059
Subject(s) - ideology , differential (mechanical device) , movement (music) , voluntary association , sociology , social organization , ethnography , perception , perspective (graphical) , sample (material) , social psychology , political science , politics , social science , psychology , law , philosophy , chemistry , chromatography , aerospace engineering , neuroscience , artificial intelligence , anthropology , computer science , engineering , aesthetics
Differential participation after recruitment remains a black box in the social‐movement and voluntary‐association literatures. This paper identifies several dimensions of membership participation in a professional social‐movement organization (SMO) with a national membership and analyzes the determinants of differential involvement in these forms. In general, members’ ideological beliefs, social and organizational ties, perceptions about their SMO, and communication with SMO officials all predict participation across the various forms. Our findings extend previous work on differential participation in three ways. First, we statistically isolate cultural dimensions of postrecruitment participation and, in so doing, complement recent ethnographic research. Second, our findings suggest that the distinct dimensions of external and internal participation found by Knoke (1988) in a national sample of voluntary associations may not generalize to national SMOs studied individually. Third, our results indicate that models combining ideological and microstructural factors should explain the multiple forms of participation in SMOs lacking these distinct dimensions.