EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE Jury: Klaus EDER, Humboldt Universität, Berlin, FR Germany (Supervisor) Mario DIANI, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom Christian JOPPKE, European University Institute, San Domenico di Fiesole, Italy Ákos RÓNA-TAS, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, United States The New Age Movement: Genesis of a High Volume, Low Impact Identity Dissertation May 5, 2000 Thomas König Department of Social and Political Sciences European University Institute Via dei Rocettini 9 I-50016 San Domenico di Fiesole (Fi) Italy tel. +49 (551) 39 7221 fax. +49 (55) 39 7341 [email protected] TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 New Age: A High Volume, Low Impact Identity..........................................1 A First Glimpse at New Age......................................................................................................6 The Societal Context.................................................................................................................. 6 2 Theory: The Literature ...................................................................................9 2.1 The Concept of a Social Movement..............................................................................9 2.1.1 Types of Collective Action ................................................................................................... 9 2.1.2 Social Movements............................................................................................................... 11 2.1.3 New Movements?................................................................................................................ 13 2.1.4 Other Movement Types....................................................................................................... 18 2.1.5 The Empirical Case: New Age............................................................................................ 18 2.2 Sociology of Religion Approaches ..............................................................................21 2.2.1 The Lofland-Stark Model.................................................................................................... 23 2.2.2 Cult/Sect Theory ................................................................................................................. 25 2.2.3 The New Religious Movement Paradigm ........................................................................... 26 2.2.4 Religious Markets ............................................................................................................... 28 2.3 Social Movement Approaches.....................................................................................28 2.3.1 Mass Society Theory........................................................................................................... 29 2.3.2 Collective Behavior and Relative Deprivation.................................................................... 31 2.3.3 Action Sociology................................................................................................................. 33 2.3.4 Strategy and Identity ........................................................................................................... 33 2.3.5 Strategy ............................................................................................................................... 34 Rational Choice Proper............................................................................................................ 34 Taxonomy of Groups......................................................................................................................... 34 The Critique....................................................................................................................................... 35 Analytical Marxism ................................................................................................................. 37 Strands of Resource Mobilization Theory ............................................................................... 38 Resource Mobilization Proper........................................................................................................... 39 Political Process Model ..................................................................................................................... 41 Critique.............................................................................................................................................. 44 2.3.6 Identity ................................................................................................................................ 45 New Social Movement Theories.............................................................................................. 45 New Values ....................................................................................................................................... 46 New Organization and Action Forms................................................................................................ 50 New Risks.......................................................................................................................................... 51 New Classes....................................................................................................................................... 51 Constructionism....................................................................................................................... 52 2.3.7 Political Process à la Constructionism ................................................................................ 53 i ii 3 Theory: The Model ........................................................................................55 3.1 Overview .......................................................................................................................55 Collective Identity and Collective Action Frames................................................................... 55 The State .................................................................................................................................. 57 Social Class Position................................................................................................................ 57 Movement Organization and Recruitment Patterns ................................................................. 58 Political and Cultural Impact ................................................................................................... 59 3.2 The Central Variable: Collective Identity.................................................................62 3.2.1 Collective Identity and Collective Action........................................................................... 62 Identity as a Resource .............................................................................................................. 62 Identity as Stabilizing Element for Modern Societies ............................................................. 62 Identity as a Goal in itself ........................................................................................................ 63 Identity as a Prerequisite for Collective Action....................................................................... 63 3.2.2 The Concept of Collective Identity ..................................................................................... 64 Primordialism........................................................................................................................... 66 Collective Memory .................................................................................................................. 69 Structuralism............................................................................................................................ 71 A Remark on Catnet .......................................................................................................................... 74 Excursus: Class Structure as Analytical Concept.............................................................................. 75 Social Constructionism ............................................................................................................ 76 The Concept of Collective Identity ................................................................................................... 76 A Typology of Collective Identities .................................................................................................. 80 3.3 Explanatory Variables.................................................................................................82 3.3.1 Identity Discourses.............................................................................................................. 83 Identity Fields .......................................................................................................................... 83 Framing Processes ................................................................................................................... 84 Narrative Fidelity and Empirical Credibility ........................................................................... 85 Masterframes............................................................................................................................ 87 3.3.2 Explanatory Variables......................................................................................................... 89 iii Resources and Organization .................................................................................................... 89 Social Structural Variables .....................................................................................................