Comprehensive, authoritative, interdisciplinary, and up-to-date, The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements contains over 400 entries exploring social and political movements and related collective phenomena throughout the world. THE DEFINITIVE RESOURCE FOR SOCIAL AND POLITICAL MOVEMENTS Purchase The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements through Wiley Online Library. On Jan 14, 2013, Darcy K. Leach published the chapter: The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements in the book: The Wiley-Blackwell. It is possible The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements.

This definitive 8-volume reference is a comprehensive print resource covering the history of protest and revolution over the past 500 years – throughout the modern era of mass movements. For more information see www.revolutionprotestencyclopedia.com.

An important sociological predecessor is Emile Durkheim's analysis of modern society and the rise of individualism. With increasing size and complexity, social integration became problematic in two ways. Anomie involves insufficient regulation of behavior while egoism involves excessive individuation of people. Both signify weakened social integration and loosened social controls that contribute to dysfunctional outcomes, including suicide (Durkheim ).

The same logic applies to many types of unconventional behavior. It was in this context that William Kornhauser—trained in Chicago School sociology—wrote The Politics of Mass Society (1959). It remains one of the most explicit statements of the alleged links between mass society and social movements. Written in the shadow of aforementioned totalitarian tendencies, mass society theory sought to explain the rise of extremism abroad and the dangers to democracy at home. Recalling Durkheim's analysis of egoism and anomie, mass society emerges when small local groups and networks decline, leaving powerful elites and massive bureaucracies on one side and isolated individuals on the other. As Kornhauser wrote: “Mass society is objectively the atomized society, and subjectively the alienated population.

Therefore, mass society is a system in which there is high availability of a population for mobilization by elites [p]eople who are atomized readily become mobilized” (Kornhauser: 33, emphasis in original). Put slightly differently, mass society is one where “ both elites and non-elites lack social insulation; that is, when elites are accessible to direct intervention by non-elites, and when non-elites are available for direct mobilization by elites” (Kornhauser: 43, emphasis in original). Subsequent analysis and research have led many to conclude that the idea that the most socially isolated are most likely to engage in mass politics “is almost certainly false” (Rule: 109). Those who are socially isolated are actually less likely to join while those who are embedded in preexisting social ties are disproportionately likely to do so (Oberschall ). Chicago School sociologists Turner and Killian (: 390) themselves note that “[s]ubsequent study of totalitarian movements has raised serious questions about the applicability of Kornhauser's concept of mass movement.”. References and Suggested Readings • • • Blumer, H. Time Stopper 2.0 Tutorial.