Poor People's Social Movement Organizations: The Goal Is to Win

Melvin F. Hall

Jul 1995 · Greenwood Publishing Group

About this ebook

The goal of this book is to join social movement analysis with collective action theory. To that end, the author introduces the organizational empowerment model of collective action. All social movement theories lack a discussion of the influence of movement organization on the tactics of an organization. A national survey of social movement organizations is employed to develop a model of how the organizational features of the local group, competition among social movement organizations, the political settings of the organization, and organizational empowerment influence collective action style. This model will allow for testing some long held assumptions about organizational change as well as assumptions about the efficacy of poor people organized to achieve change.

About the author

MELVIN F. HALL is the director of Research and Corporate Operations for Press, Ganey Associates and an Adjunct Professor of Sociology at Indiana University, South Bend. His academic background includes extensive study of social movements. Hall was a minister and community organizer in Detroit for seven years before receiving his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Notre Dame.