An Introduction to Social Psychological Perspectives on Grassroots Organizing

The primary goals of this issue of the journal are to advance our understanding of the mobilization and empowerment of people who organize locally for social change and to identify strategies for initiating and sustaining such grassroots activism. A secondary aim is to encourage the use of action research in this domain. The author defines grassroots organizing and explains its suitability for social psychological analysis at the individual, interpersonal, collective, and cultural levels. Action research as a strategy for studying grassroots participation is considered. To situate the present volume in its intellectual context, the author outlines prior related perspectives on collective action. The article concludes with summaries of the remaining articles in the present volume.