Social Network Centrality, Movement Identification, and the Participation of Individuals in a Social Movement: The Case of the Canadian Environmental Movement

The objective of this chapter is to illustrate some ways in which social network analysis is employed in sociology by examining the role that personal networks play in a social movement.With regard to the latter, we examine survey data collected from a nationwide random sample of members of environmental organizations in Canada. We examine the empirical relationships between social network centrality, level of identification in the environmental movement, and level of participation in the environmental movement (or level of activism). We employ a quantitative analysis. In this regard, we calculate several measures of social network centrality based on affiliations and ties with environmental organizations and then use thesemeasures as independent variables in a series of ordinary least squares (OLS)multiple regression analyses to statistically explain identificationwith, andparticipation in the environmentalmovement.