The Cannabis Action Network: A Structural Analysis of a Grassroots Organization
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Authors
Henrickson, Heidi Allene
Issue Date
1992
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
This is a study of the Cannabis Action Network (CAN hereafter), one of the many
organizations and one of the most active in the Marijuana Movement CAN is a unique
organization based purely on volunteers, or full-time and part-time activists living and working
together to achieve change. The basis for this study will be Randall Collins' conflict theory of
organizations from Conflict Sociology: Toward an Explanatory Science. Collins' elements
of an organization include:
... individuals pursuing their own interests; sanctions they may use to gain
compliance, and the administrative forms through which they are applied; the
way in which particular kinds of tasks, attempted with particular technologies
and in particular geographic situations, shape these conflicts and give the
organizational network its particular changing shape over time.4
The sanctions Collins refers to are the forms of control an organization uses to produce its
goals, to control its members to function toward that same end. Three types of control
discussed by Collins are material, coercive and nonnative. Individually, these forms of control
produce certain outcomes. Used in combinations, these forms of control determine the
structure of the organization.
The methods used in this study were participant observation and interviewing. I lived
and worked with CAN for two months, interviewing all of my full-time co-workers,or
volunteers, (with the exception of one person) and others and who I felt would benefit my
study with their input and who were associated with CAN and active in their goals. It was
made clear and was overwhelmingly understood that my position at CAN was that of a
temporary, full-time activist and most importantly as a researcher. Although I was expected to
be as responsible as the others for my CAN-related tasks, it was known and respected that my
research was not based on a judgement of the political cause or of my co-workers as
individuals, but based on the organization as a whole and how it functioned.
Description
iv, 119 p.
Citation
Publisher
Kalamazoo, Mich. : Kalamazoo College.
License
U.S. copyright laws protect this material. Commercial use or distribution of this material is not permitted without prior written permission of the copyright holder. All rights reserved.