Moral entrepreneur

A moral entrepreneur is an individual, group or formal organization that seeks to influence a group to adopt or maintain a norm. Moral entrepreneurs are those who take the lead in labeling a particular behaviour and spreading or popularizing this label throughout society. This can include attributing negative labels to behaviour as well as the removal of negative labels, positively labeling, or removing positive labels. The moral entrepreneur may press for the creation or enforcement of a norm for any number of reasons, altruistic or selfish. Such individuals or groups also hold the power to generate moral panic; similarly multiple moral entrepreneurs may have conflicting goals and work to counteract each other. Some examples of moral entrepreneurs are: MADD (mothers against drunk driving), the anti-tobacco lobby, the gun control lobby, anti-pornography groups, LGBT social movements, and the pro-life and pro-choice movements (an example of two moral entrepreneurs working against each other on a single issue).

The term "moral entrepreneur" was coined by Howard S. Becker. In his view, moral entrepreneurs fall into roughly two categories: rule creators, and rule enforcers.

Rule creators generally express the conviction that some kind of threatening social evil exists that must be combated. They can be seen as moral crusaders, who are concerned chiefly with the successful persuasion of others, but are not concerned with the means by which this persuasion is achieved. Successful moral crusades are generally dominated by those in the upper social strata of society (Becker, 1963). They often include religious groups, lawmaking bodies, and stakeholders in a given field. There is political competition in which these moral crusaders originate crusades aimed at generating reform, based on what they think is moral, therefore defining deviance. Moral crusaders must have power, public support, generate public awareness of the issue, and be able to propose a clear and acceptable solution to the problem (Becker, 1963). The degree of a moral entrepreneur's power is highly dependent upon the social and cultural context (Reinarman, 1994). Social position determines one's ability to define and construct reality; therefore, the higher one's social position, the greater his or her moral value.

...
Wikipedia