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Exploring Multi-Issue Activism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2010

Ellen Ann Andersen  and
M. Kent Jennings
Ellen Ann Andersen*
Affiliation:
University of Vermont
M. Kent Jennings
Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Barbara
*
Address all inquiries to Ellen Ann Andersen, Department of Political Science, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont 05405 (ellen.andersen@uvm.edu).
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Abstract

Multi-issue activists are sorely understudied, despite their acknowledged importance as bridges between social movements and issue domains. In this article we explore multi-issue activism, beginning with a large sample of AIDS activists and charting the degree and nature of overlapping issue involvement, the key role of “initiator” issues, and individual characteristics that promote multi-issue activism. We demonstrate that the great majority of these AIDS activists had sizable prior and ongoing participation histories in other issues, suggesting that movement across issue areas may be the norm rather than the exception. We also show that involvement in specific past issues served as gateways to later involvement in AIDS, that psychological engagement in politics prompted cross-issue activism even among these already activated individuals, and that unique personal characteristics (in this case gender and sexual orientation) led to more issue interconnectedness.

Type
Features
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 43 , Issue 1 , January 2010 , pp. 63 - 67
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2010

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Footnotes

Financial support for the conduct of this study came from the Institute for Social Research and the Rackham School of Graduate Studies, University of Michigan.

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