And how is the researcher to decide between competing accounts? and the ability to use them. Definition and Examples, What Is a Grassroots Movement? American Book, New York. Resource Mobilization to Help People Experiencing Homelessness, What Is Role Strain? Definition and Examples, https://doi.org/10.1177/107769900207900113, https://www.jstor.org/stable/2096310?seq=1, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781405165518, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9780470999103, https://www.jstor.org/stable/2777934?seq=1. Researcher Bernadette Barker-Plummer investigated how resources allow organizations to gain media coverage of their work. The former perspective was captured well in Burgess’s (Burgess & Locke 1945) influential idea of a shift from ”marriage as an institution” to ”marriage as a relationship,” with some seeing the growth of ”companionate” marriage as a sure indicator that marriage would increasingly become a relationship of equality (Clark 1991). Additionally, they emphasize the importance of studying protests that occur outside of formal SMOs. Attention in this article will be given to the theory of social resources as it is applied to the context of instrumental actions. This is the reason why many women have spoken out after more than 20 years. Although highly influential, Blood and Wolfe’s conclusions were questioned by many researchers concerned with marital power, on a combination of theoretical and methodological grounds. Clark, D. (1991) Marriage, Domestic Life, and Social Change. In particular, ideas about historic shifts in the dominance of husbands/fathers within families have vied with feminist inspired views of the continuing significance of patriarchal control in both public and private spheres. What Is the Resource Mobilization Theory? How revealing of power are routine, everyday decisions? It matters little who decides on a particular issue if the decision that is reached sustains an already unequal status quo. Within the study of marriage, it is further complicated by dominant ideologies of personal commitment that imbue behavior with motives of love and altruism rather more than power and self-interest. In social movement: Other theories The first, called resource mobilization theory, takes as its starting point a critique of those theories that explain social movements as arising from conditions of social disorganization and strain and as finding their recruits among the isolated and alienated in society. In their paper, McCarthy and Zald began by outlining terminology for their theory: social movement organizations (SMOs) are groups that advocate for social change, and a social movement industry (SMI) is a set of organizations which advocate for similar causes. Blumstein, P. & Schwartz, P.  (1983) American Couples: Money, Work, Sex. The first concerned the issues about which the respondents had been questioned. The issue here was not its size or scope per se, but whether studies of marital power could ever be valid if only one party to the relationship was questioned. Polity Press, Cambridge. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London. As a result of their findings, Blood and Wolfe concluded that decision making, and thus power, within marriage was based on the level of social and economic resource that each spouse brought to the marriage. How… In 1977, John McCarthy and Mayer Zald published a key paper outlining the ideas of resource mobilization theory. Seemingly simple, these criticisms of themselves raise important questions about what power is. Social resources have broad implications for both types of social actions (Lin 1986). When the theory first appeared, it was a breakthrough in the study of social movements because it focused on variables that are sociological rather than psychological. (For example, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch would each be SMOs within the larger SMI of human rights organizations.) Others, however, argued that marriage continued to be a structurally unequal relationship as a consequence of both the differential opportunities open to men and women, especially in the workplace, and the continuation of a highly gendered division of labor within the home (see, e.g., Delphy & Leonard 1992). Cherlin, A. So too, within contemporary constructions of “partnership,” divisions in domestic and paid labor tend to be viewed as negotiated familial and household organization rather than the operation of structural inequalities. (2004) The Deinstitutionalization of American   Journal of Marriage and Family 66: 848 61. In the light of this, analyzing who makes decisions in marriage is not of itself necessarily revealing of power. If these arguments are accepted, then it becomes questionable whether decision making can be used to reflect marital power in any simple fashion. Edgell, S. (1980) Middle Class Couples. In the 1960s and 1970s, sociology researchers began to study how social movements depend on resources in order to bring about social change. this theory … Delphy, C. & Leonard, D. (1992) Familiar Exploitation: A New Analysis of Marriage in Contemporary Western Societies. Questions about who has access to more leisure time, who has more money for personal expenditure, whose needs are prioritized within the family, become more central than decision making per se. Definition, Pros, and Cons, What Is a Failed State? Delegation of these decisions, as well as a social order that makes some decisions so ”obvious” as to be non-contentious, can help legitimize the consequences of the decisions that are made. Three levels of criticism were of particular moment. Marital Power/Resource Theory Questions about inequalities in marriage and the distribution of power within the relationship have long been a concern within sociology of family . Burgess, E. & Locke, H. (1945) The Family: From Institution to Companionship. According to resource mobilization theory, being able to effectively utilize resources is a determinant of the success of a social movement. Palgrave, Basingstoke. Thus, as Edgell (1980) argued, joint, apparently democratic, participation within marital decision making can help legitimize the relational basis of the marriage, while still operating to secure a structurally embedded and (largely) taken for granted gender order which prioritizes men’s interests. In other words, Barker-Plummer suggests, as NOW grew as an organization and developed more resources, it was also able to also gain media coverage for its activities. Overall though, the criticisms made of the study raised important questions about the nature of power in marriage and helped generate a far more sophisticated understanding of its exercise than had existed previously. Allen & Unwin, London. That is, conventional and normative agreements often disguise the distribution of benefits between actors. Sociological theory allows us to understand that (in the words of C. Wright-Mills) our private troubles are in fact public issues. SMOs seek out adherents (people who support the goals of the movement) and constituents (people who are involved in actually supporting a social movement; for example, by volunteering or donating money). In the 1960s and 1970s, sociology researchers began to study how social movements depend on resources in... Types of Resources. More specifically, Blood and Wolfe were interested in finding out about who made decisions within the marriage, arguing that decision making was a clear indicator of the exercise of power and authority within any relationship.

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