Doug McAdam provides an historical sociology of the birth of Freedom Summer. He takes a look at the people who elected to, first, apply to participate in the project, and then those who actually chose to go. He examines their what characteristics distinguishes those individuals from the ones who decided not to go. (His big schtick here was that people who ended up signing on for Freedom Summer were idealistic youths
He then asks, "What happened?" why did it all seem to end. Where did these people go? What did they end up doing with their lives.
While I don't recall that he's a kool aid drinking follower of the resource mobilization model of social movements (which is the sociological name for what Justin and Carrol have described in the past week), he's not hostile to it <<<<<>>>>>
as for where - at least some - freedom summer folks went, interested listers can check out: http://www.crmvet.org/
mcadam's 'political opportunity' theory - developed in book about black insurgency published some years prior to _freedom summer_ - holds that macro-level/structural changes can facilitate/hinder social movement development, hence, chances for success/failure...
re. freedom summer participants, mcadam refers to 'recruitment networks' (don't recall if that's his term or if he borrowed it from someone else), kind- of social science language for 'operationalizing' having friends 'signing up' as influencing factor in one's own decision to go, mcadam especially emphasizes importance of this when activism involves 'high personal risk'... michael hoover
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