Date of Award
4-1992
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Sociology
First Advisor
Dr. James Petersen
Second Advisor
Dr. Stanley Robin
Third Advisor
Dr. Gerald Markle
Access Setting
Masters Thesis-Open Access
Abstract
This thesis is a socio-historical analysis of the animal rights social movement in the United States of America at the end of the 19th and 20th centuries. The theoretical model is resource mobilization theory, especially McCarthy and Zald's (1973) entrepreneurial model. The method, which contrasts this social movement at two points in time, is informed by Skocpol's (1984) interpretative historical sociology. In particular, leadership, ideology, organizational structure, and strategy tactics in both eras are examined. Comparing the two manifestations of animal rights protest, the data show that: (a) Leadership and organizational structure, though similar in many respects, are more professionalized in the contemporary era; (b) Ideology has developed from an emphasis on welfare, to a concern with rights and in the 1980s, to a call for liberation of animals; (c) Strategy and tactics are remarkably similar in the two eras, though the use of mass media, and the consideration of civil disobedience is more characteristic of the modern movement. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)
Recommended Citation
Rynbrandt, Linda J., "From Welfare to Liberation: A Socio-Historical Analysis of the Animal Rights Movement" (1992). Masters Theses. 848.
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/848