Political opportunity, resource mobilization, and social movement organization

The chapter examines the political process model, which itself is critical of classical approaches that considered social movements as psychological phenomena, but is also critical of resource mobilization theory for being apolitical and presenting a static model of collective action. Key to the political process model is the concept of ‘political opportunity structure’, which is discussed and evaluated. The cases of New Zealand’s anti-nuclear weapons movement and US anti-corporate activism are used to show how the political opportunity structure concept has been extended and modified.