Nuclear Pacifism as Collective Action
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3917259 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Paul Wehr (University of Colorado Boulder, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1986 |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 103-113 |
| Publication date | 1986-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Peace Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-3433 • E-ISSN: 1460-3578 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/002234338602300202 |
| OpenAlex | W2045001394 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 22 |
Nuclear pacifism as a social movement has received inadequate attention from North American sociolo gists. The author analyzes the growth and crisis phases of contemporary nuclear pacifism using the social disorganization and resource mobilization paradigms of collective behavior theory. He identifies certain growth stimuli ranging from particular precipitating, dramatizing, and encounter events to the dis appearance of major non-nuclear events that were competing with nuclear war for the attention and energy of the politically conscious segment of the US population. The author examines the conducive- ness and social control factors in US society that have stimulated and restrained nuclear protest in the 1975-1985 period. The ideological diversity within nuclear pacifism is seen as both a strength, in that it indicates imagination and widespread initiative, and a weakness in its vagueness and lack of goal clarity. The movement's low capacity for sustained resource mobilization is judged by the author to be its most serious shortcoming, which can be traced primarily to its underdeveloped organizational structures of leadership and decentralized decision making. The author concludes that indirect institutionalization and social invention hold the greatest promise of survival and policy impact for nuclear pacifism. While he found both the social disorganization and resource mobilization theories useful, the metamovement character, and size and heterogeneity of nuclear pacifism suggest that prescription for its increased ef fectiveness might better be approached through analysis of individual and small group protest
CLARITY · Collective action · Disarmament · Economics · Ideology · Institutionalisation · Mobilization · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Population · Positive economics · Resource (disambiguation) · Resource mobilization · Social movement · Sociology · Vagueness · American Political and Social Dynamics · Law · Nuclear Issues and Defense · Psychology · Risk Perception and Management · Social Psychology
Introduction to social movements.
Encounters with unjust authority
The strategy of social protest
Social conflict and social movements.
From mobilization to revolution
Injustice
Theory of collective behavior.
Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society, by Ralf Dahrendorf
A Sociological Survey of American Peace Movements
The Price of Defense
Citizens' Images of Nuclear War
Making Europe Unconquerable
Invulnerability without Threat
Injustice
Resource Mobilization Theory and the Study of Social Movements
Ideological Themes in the Antinuclear Movement
| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,16 |
| Citation span | 1988 - 2017 (30) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |