The recruitment of followers by social movements : an exploratory study of the labor movement in the United States

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Henry Kayes Townsend (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
Joseph Himes

Abstract: Interest in the participants in social movements has been focused primarily on the leaders of the movement. Studies generally treat followers as being present at the time a study begins or it is assumed that the recruitment of followers can be accounted for by the preconditions of movement formation. I suggest that, in fact, social movements actively recruit members and followers, and that this is an issue of theoretical concern for sociology. This study is based on James A. Geschwender's theory of social movements and revolutions which states that the formation of a movement is the result of an attempt to reduce the dissonance produced by the simultaneous possession of three reality based cognitions. The three cognitions include the belief that one is entitled to better conditions of life, that those better conditions are possible, and that one is not enjoying those conditions.

Additional Information

Publication
Thesis
Language: English
Date: 1974
Subjects
Labor movement $z United States

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