The Business of Social Movements

Abstract

An overview of chapters in this volume notes how they challenge the rational approach that equates social movements & collective political behavior with business activity, ie, led by "ideological entrepreneurs" who "compete in markets" for the "allegiance of potential participants." In so doing, these contributors seek a return to an earlier, more "romanticized" notion of social movements as "passion-driven." Here, the process by which such previous conceptualizations were shifted into models of calculative, interest-driven action is described & located within the larger processes of the modernization, rationalization, & demystification of social life. K. Hyatt Stewart