The Conference "Explaining peoples' motivations for engagement in Social Movement Organizations (SMOs) - Some Lessons from Attac Germany and France" by Daniel Stockemer - University of Ottawa, Canada will be held 12th May, 2011, 15,00h at ICS Polivalente Room.
Organization: Nina Wiesehomeier (ICS-UL)

Abstract: In this talk, I am to establish general engagement patterns by evaluating the motivations for an individual's decision to become and remain engaged social movement organizations. Based on a comparative study of the membership of Attac Germany and France, I find that there are mainly two types of activists. First, more instrumentally-oriented people - activists whose goal is policy change - are in the majority. They are short-term oriented, show fluctuating patterns of involvement and have no special connections to a particular group. In contrast more ideologically-oriented people - individuals who deem activism the right thing to do - are fewer in number. They are long-term oriented, have stable patterns of involvement and are emotionally connected to a particular group. In addition, I uncover that while the third motif, the identity motif (people look for an accommodating structure and comfortable atmosphere) is complementary to the two other motifs; it plays a stronger role in determining engagement patterns of more instrumentally-oriented people as compared to more ideologically-oriented activists.