Defining a social problem: socio-historical analysis of the antinuclear weapons movement

Thesis/Dissertation · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1988

OSTI ID:6169297

McCrea, F B

This dissertation is a socio-historical analysis of the anti-nuclear weapons movement in the United States. This work conceptualizes social movements in advanced industrial societies by synthesizing certain aspects of social constructionism, resource mobilization, and new class theory. The research design is a socio-historical, comparative case study. Both qualitative and quantitative methods are employed for data analysis. Extensive content analysis of documents and interviews with key actors are supplemented with a critical analysis of a wide variety of primary and secondary data. All major antinuclear weapons protest, particularly the Atomic Scientists Movement of the 1940s, the Ban-the-Bomb Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, and the Freeze Movement of the 1980s, shared similar characteristics, and experienced similar problems. The findings are congruent with the theoretical synthesis. Antinuclear weapons protest is best understood as a new class phenomenon, in which intellectuals have mobilized resources to challenge the ruling elite. Yet, though the protest has succeeded in challenging the legitimacy of the ruling apparatus, successes of the movement have been mostly symbolic.

• Research Organization: Western Michigan Univ., Kalamazoo (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6169297
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290200 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Economics & Sociology
290600* -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Nuclear Energy
45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
450202 -- Explosions & Explosives-- Nuclear-- Weaponry-- (-1989)
ADVERSARIES
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
INTEREST GROUPS
NUCLEAR FREEZE
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
PUBLIC RELATIONS
SOCIAL IMPACT
WEAPONS