1.1 Mobilising human resources
People sometimes think of ‘mobilising resources’ as meaning financial resources. Indeed, an organisation or group will likely need some money to undertake a campaign. But here, this narrow understanding can obscure the real reason for undertaking a campaign. After all, what is the real aim of, say, a public relations or advertising campaign? It is to mobilise human resources, what can be referred to as a constituency, to take some form of action. For advertising it might be buying a product or service; for a political party it might be voting for a particular candidate; for a social movement it could be taking part in a demonstration.
Understanding people as resources can be instructive for how you view campaigns, particularly in the case of social movement campaigning where, quite often, money is not the primary resource available.
Building on an understanding of campaigning as mobilising resources, you will now learn what is meant by mobilising a constituency.