1. Class and Concepts of Leadership in US Social Movement Organizations.
- Author
-
Leondar-Wright, Betsy
- Subjects
SOCIAL movements ,LEADERSHIP ,FOCUS groups ,SOCIAL classes ,U.S. states - Abstract
What do activists think leaders are supposed to do in order to get less-active members more involved? The answer varies by the class background of the activist and the class culture of the group, which has implications for cross-class coalition building. In the Culture Contrasts in Coalitions study, including 51 interviews with active members of 18 voluntary groups in 5 US states, almost all interviewees spoke positively about encouraging more member input and involvement. But their conceptions of how leaders produce more member involvement varied greatly, however. The three most common strategies favored by informants to the informant's class trajectory and to the predominant class of the group membership. These 3 strategies for member activation are:1.Using stylized group process techniques: Concerted cultivation of equal participation;2.Holding back from over-participation to allow autonomous action; 3.Entrusting strong, protective leaders to ensure input and mutual aid and allow the accomplishment of natural involvement.The first two strategies were advocated most often by activists from professional middle-class backgrounds in globally focused groups; the third strategy was advocated most often by activists from working-class and lower-middle-class backgrounds in grassroots and labor groups. Two of these class associations parallel Annette Lareau's two categories of childrearing. Lareau observed working-class and middle-class children and how parents and teachers related to them, and found a consistent class difference in child-rearing methods, the working-class "accomplishment of natural growth" and the middle-class "concerted cultivation." ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2009