Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Many analysts of social movements are interested in how it is that people come to participate in social movement activity. The decision to participate is not a simple one – social movement participants may face significant risks and personal costs, such as arrest or violence, if they become involved. In addition, individuals often perceive social movements as being able to obtain desired goals without their own personal action, a dilemma that has come to be known as the “free-rider” problem. Some popular explanations for individuals’ decisions to join social movements have included biographical availability ( McAdam 1986 ) and mobilization through preexisting social networks. However, there are individuals who participate in social movements without being connected to any existing networks or being in any significant way biographically available. The moral shocks perspective shows how these individuals, often ignored in research about participation in social movements, can recruit themselves into social movement activity due to their experience of a moral shock. The term “moral shock” refers to the experience of a sudden and deeply emotional stimulus that causes an individual to come to terms with a reality that is quite opposed to the values and morals already held by that individual. Moral shocks can take a variety of forms. They often emerge as suddenly imposed grievances, but ... log in or subscribe to read full text