Twenty-three practitioner-informants were interviewed in depth and were asked to complete Rokeach's (1972) Value Survey in an attempt to identify the motivations for white persons to initiate, continue, and discontinue involvement as activists and organizers in low-income, urban, interracial community organizations. In order to create a context for the data, the literature regarding various types of organizers and activists for social change is examined as well as five theories of racial prejudice, the dynamics of majority-worker/minority-client relationships, and possible new models of behavior. The interview and Value Survey data are analyzed, compared, and used as a basis for the construction of a profile of an hypothetical "typical" organizer/activist. The informants' characteristics then are analyzed using Hampden-Turner's (1971) Model of Psycho-Social Development and it is concluded that informants are creative, productive, psychologically mature radicals who create dynamic, intense existences through their dedication to living by and fighting for certain key principles. Their initial motivations for involvement are found to be primarily personal benefit and curiosity. Current motivations, however are discovered to be political, i.e., helping the powerless to gain power, and personal, i.e., their own growth and learning and personal relationships. Motivations for discontinuing involvement are found to be lack of understanding the process and inappropriate ego-investment. Theories of radicalization are discussed and special attention is given to the concept of an environmentally-fostered predisposition to radicalism.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UMASS/oai:scholarworks.umass.edu:dissertations-4869 |
| Date | 01 January 1981 |
| Creators | NAVIN, PAUL CHRISTOPHER |
| Publisher | ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst |
| Source Sets | University of Massachusetts, Amherst |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest |
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