Mobilizing resources to the square: Hong Kong’s Anti-Moral and National Education movement as precursor to the Umbrella Movement

Abstract

Little research has paid attention to the Anti-Moral and National Education (Anti-M&N) movement during 2011–12 in Hong Kong, which, to a large extent, provided the resources and tactical preparations for the 2014 Umbrella Movement. In this study, the author unfolds the mobilization of the 2012 Anti-M&N movement: the dynamics of different organizations as well as the processes of accumulating and integrating movement resources. Studies of movement resource mobilization have focused on material resources and professional-based human resources. In recent years, much research has claimed that the new technologies have transformed the way movements are mobilized. Founded on the resource mobilization premise, this study unveils how the mobilization process has become hybrid, as the existing social movement organizations (SMOs) and their coalition networks and online channels collectively drive the evolution of activism in terms of format and scale. Visual resources were also manufactured by organizers as a way to increase the affective connection among the general public.