Targets, Grievances, and Social Movement Trajectories

Abstract

Why do targets of social movement activities respond to movements in the ways they do? Many factors play a role in shaping targets’ responses to social movement activities. This article focuses on one particular factor: targets’ perceptions of social movement claims. The article argues that a target’s understanding of a social movement’s claims helps shape its response, which, in turn, shapes the evolution of the social movement. Two cases of social mobilization, one in response to water privatization in Bolivia and the other in response to rising corn prices in Mexico, serve as a lens through which to explore these issues. In each case, differences in how public authorities understood the movements’ claims help explain why they reacted in starkly different ways to the emerging movements. Where officials appreciated the symbolic value of the good at stake, they acted quickly to curtail resistance. Where officials failed to grasp those meanings, they dismissed the potential for widespread mobilization and inadvertently accelerated movement growth.