Resource Mobilization Theory

Abstract Resource mobilization theory (RMT) developed during the 1970s as a new generation of scholars sought to understand the emergence, significance, and effects of the social movements of the 1960s (see Jenkins 1983; McAdam, McCarthy, & Zald 1988; Edwards & McCarthy 2004). Rejecting both the view held by some earlier movement scholars that social movement actors were deviant or anomic, and the pluralist assumption that all parties willing to engage in the political process have a reasonable chance that their grievances will be heard and addressed, resource mobilization scholars sought to understand how rational and often marginalized social actors mobilized effectively to pursue their desired social change goals (Freeman 1975; Gamson 1975; McCarthy & Zald 1977; Tilly 1978; McAdam 1982; Morris 1984; Zald & McCarthy 1987; Staggenborg 1988; Tarrow 1994).