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Ideologically Structured Information Exchange among Environmental Groups *
Author(s) -
Lhotka Laura,
Bailey Conner,
Dubois Mark
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
rural sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.083
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1549-0831
pISSN - 0036-0112
DOI - 10.1526/003601108784514552
Subject(s) - ideology , typology , information exchange , politics , state (computer science) , social group , sociology , resource (disambiguation) , social exchange theory , social psychology , political science , psychology , social science , law , engineering , telecommunications , computer network , algorithm , anthropology , computer science
A bstract We use social network analysis to test the hypothesis that group ideology affects information exchange among environmental groups. The analysis is based on interviews with leaders of 136 environmental groups in Alabama. This paper adds to the literature on resource mobilization among social movement organizations by exploring information exchange among a wide range of environmental groups across an entire state, and by incorporating ideology into our analysis. A typology of environmental groups was developed based on willingness to engage or not engage in political and legal activism to pursue their goals. We found a level of information exchange between activist groups twice that among all other groups. We also found that differing ideological profiles did not limit the flow of information between groups, taken as a whole. We conclude that the relatively high level of connectivity is attributable in part to the presence of paid staff among several key activist groups, making these groups important resources for technical and non‐technical support for all groups across the state.