The survival of religious peace movements: When mobilization increases as political opportunity decreases

Abstract

Research on social movement life-cycles specifies four stages of movement progression: emergence, rise, decline, and dormancy. This article challenges conventional perspectives on the final stage of the movement life-cycle, arguing that movement trajectories do not always follow this pattern. At times, social movement organizations (SMOs) within a social movement campaign survive, or even thrive, even when the opportunity for mobilization declines. Using the Central American Solidarity Movement (CASM) campaign and the School of the Americas Watch (SOAW) social movement organizations as examples of this phenomenon, I argue that there are important characteristics of movement infrastructure that warrant movement survival. By sustaining the spirit of the CASM, the SOAW remains the organizational foundation for religious constituents of the peace movements. Moreover, the SOAW has also extended its frame, expanding its networks into broader, secular organizational support and framing it within non-CASM movement campaigns. Though scholars have suggested that the CASM has disappeared, the SOAW has kept the movement alive as it transitions into another movement campaign to secure its longevity.