Mobilization and Participation: Social-Psychological Expansisons of Resource Mobilization Theory

Resource mobilization theorists have nearly abandoned social-psychological analysis of social movements. In this paper a fresh case is made for social psychology. New insights in psychology are combined with resource mobilization theory in an attempt to overcome the weaknesses of traditional social-psychological approaches to social movements. Expectancy-value theory is applied to movement participation and mobilization. It is assumed that the willingness to participate in a social movement is a function of the perceived costs and benefits of participation. Collective and selective incentives are discussed. Expectations about the behavior of others are introduced as an important expansion of expectancy-value theory to make this framework applicable to movement participation. The theory is applied to mobilization campaigns of the labor movement, and empirically tested in a longitudinal study of a campaign during the 1979 collective negotiations in the Netherlands. Outcomes support the theory. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.