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Article: Ideas and symbols as resources in intrareligious conflict: the case of American Mennonites.
- Article from:
- Sociology of Religion
- Article date:
- March 22, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Association for the Sociology of Religion. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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One of the important current debates in the study of social movements and social conflict concerns the role of cultural or ideological factors. The resource mobilization theories that have dominated the field, at least in American sociology, have emphasized the role of material and political resources in their explanations. McCarthy and Zald (1977) go the furthest in this respect, but Tilly (1978), Gamson (1990), and others working from this perspective have also suggested that ideas and symbols are epiphenomenal or are irrelevant for understanding the process of a social movement or conflict. The "new social movements" approach originating in Europe (e.g., Melucci 1980) is ...