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Selective Mobilization in Craft Protest
Author(s) -
HAYDU JEFFREY
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
journal of historical sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.186
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1467-6443
pISSN - 0952-1909
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6443.1989.tb00135.x
Subject(s) - craft , mobilization , resource mobilization , argument (complex analysis) , collective action , political science , community mobilization , political economy , resource (disambiguation) , action (physics) , public relations , sociology , law , social movement , politics , history , computer network , biochemistry , chemistry , archaeology , computer science , physics , quantum mechanics
Resource mobilization theory, while useful for understanding the conditions under which individuals act together to remedy their grievances, neglects other problematical features of collective action. In some settings the more interesting question is not why mobilization occurs but, instead, why individuals with varied grievances mobilize around certain goals and in certain alliances rather than others. Collective protest among skilled workers confronting industrial change illustrates this problem of selective mobilization. Characteristics of the labor process, craft unionism, industrial relations, and workshop organization favored the mobilization of some interests, goals, and coalitions and inhibited others. Contrasting patterns of protest among British engineers and American machinists before 1920 support the argument.