The recruitment functions of social ties: Weak and strong tie mobilization for 84 demonstrations in eight countries

Abstract

Although recruitment is often studied by social movement scholars, the literature lacks an integrated account of what recruitment actually entails and there is disagreement about who the recruiters are (weak- or strong-tie contacts). This study develops a theoretical account of different recruitment “functions” that can be fulfilled by social ties and that enhance protest participation. Participants need to be informed about the protest event, many of them need to be persuaded before they join a demonstration, and most of them also want to have suitable company to attend the protest with. We expect that these three recruitment functions—information, persuasion, and company—are often fulfilled by the same social tie (homogeneous pattern). However, when this is not the case, we expect that strong ties become more important the closer one comes to actual participation (centripetal pattern). Drawing on individual-level information about more than 14,000 protesters, we find that these patterns are robust across 84 demonstrations in eight countries. Nevertheless, there are systematic differences across countries and across types of social movements. The centripetal recruitment pattern is significantly more apparent when people protest for socio-economic issues compared to when they participate in demonstrations on other, non-socio-economic issues.