1980/07/01 by Hank Johnston · 20 citations
Arts and Humanities · Mathematics · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Aesthetics #Business #Child Therapy and Development #Geography #History #Law #Marketing #Mathematics #Meditation #Movement (music) #Multinational corporation #Political science #Product (mathematics) #Psychology #Public relations #Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices #Scale (ratio) #Social movement #Sociology #Transcendental meditation #Youth Development and Social Support
paper · doi:10.2307/1388826
published in The Pacific Sociological Review 23(3), 333-354 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 1980/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
The transcendental meditation (TM) movement has grown from a small cult to a multinational organization in 15 years. Success is largely due to TM's recruitment and organizational strategy, which follow a pattern similar to the organizational form and marketing strategy of a large-scale consumer products firm. Based on the analysis of TM, the marketed social movement is offered as an ideal type which may be generalizable to other contemporary social movements. The marketed social movement differs from traditional thinking about social movements in four ways: (1) the use of sophisticated promotional and recruiting techniques; (2) a radical divergence in the status of the membership; (3) participation as a product package; and (4) the extension of membership as the dominant goal of the movement.