Robert Kleidman

Reviews the book "Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements: Political Opportunities, Mobilizing Structure, and Cultural Framings," edited by Doug McAdam, John D. McCarthy, and Mayer N. Zald.

In 1996, the Gamaliel Foundation, a national network of more than 40 congregation‐based community organizing projects, adopted a regional approach to community organizing, consolidating local projects into metropolitan organizations and addressing regional dynamics of sprawl and socioeconomic polarization. Through participant observation and interviews at metropolitan and national levels, I examine the effects of regionalism on community organizing. I find that a regional approach may help organizers manage longstanding dilemmas of ideology—how to balance broad appeal with sharp analysis—and scale—how to maintain democratic participation while organizing beyond the local level. I look briefly at the effects of grassroots organizing on regionalism, and find that it may give it a more radical and populist thrust.

The effects of professionalism on volunteer activism within social movement organizations (SMOs) are more complex than generally recognized. Professionalism can inhibit or erode, substitute for, or facilitate volunteer activism. Most studies identify one of these patterns as typical of SMOs or dominant in a particular case. This article argues that some combination of the three, rather than a single pattern, is probably more typical of SMOs. To identify such combinations two analytic tools are needed: a more complex concept of volunteer activism than is generally used, and, a broader understanding of the means by which professionals influence volunteer activism. This article develops these tools through a comparative case study of the umbrella organizations of three major peace campaigns - the Emergency Peace Campaign (1936-1937), the atomic test ban campaign (1957-1963), and the nuclear weapons freeze campaign (1979-1986). The umbrella organizations are then shown to incorporate different combinations of the three basic patterns of professional-volunteer relations.

The effects of professionalism on volunteer activism within social movement organizations (SMOs) are more complex than generally recognized. Professionalism can inhibit or erode, substitute for, or facilitate volunteer activism. Most studies identify one of these patterns as typical of SMOs or dominant in a particular case. This article argues that some combination of the three, rather than a single pattern, is probably more typical of SMOs. To identify such combinations two analytic tools are needed: a more complex concept of volunteer activism than is generally used, and, a broader understanding of the means by which professionals influence volunteer activism. This article develops these tools through a comparative case study of the umbrella organizations of three major peace campaigns — the Emergency Peace Campaign (1936-1937), the atomic test ban campaign (1957-1963), and the nuclear weapons freeze campaign (1979-1986). The umbrella organizations are then shown to incorporate different combinations of the three basic patterns of professional-volunteer relations.

A sociological analysis of three crucial episodes in the history of the peace movement in the United States. This study features the Emergency Peace Campaign (1936-1937); the Atomic Test Ban Campaign (1957-1963); and the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign (1979-1986).