Organizations are frequent targets for social activists aiming to influence society by first altering organizational policies and practices. Reflecting a steady rise in research on this topic, we review recent literature and advance an insider-outsider framework to help explicate the diverse mechanisms and pathways involved. Our framework distinguishes between different types of activists based on their relationship with targeted organizations. For example, “insider” activists who are employees of the target organization have certain advantages and disadvantages when compared with “outsider” activists who are members of independent social movement organizations. We also distinguish between the direct and indirect (or spillover) effects of social activism. Much research has focused on the direct effects of activism on targeted organizations, but often the effects on non-targeted organizations matter more for activists goals of achieving widespread change. Drawing on this framework, we identify and discuss eight specific areas that are in need of further scholarly attention.

组织是社会活动家的常见目标，他们旨在通过首先改变组织政策和做法来影响社会。为了反映有关该主题的研究的稳定增长，我们回顾了最近的文献并提出了一种由内而外的框架，以帮助阐明所涉及的各种机制和途径。我们的框架根据他们与目标组织的关系来区分不同类型的活动家。例如，与作为独立社会运动组织成员的“局外人”活动家相比，作为目标组织的雇员的“局内人”活动家具有某些优点和缺点。我们还区分了社会行动主义的直接和间接（或溢出）影响。许多研究都集中于行动主义对目标组织的直接影响，但对非目标组织的影响通常对维权人士实现广泛变革的目标更为重要。利用这个框架，我们确定并讨论了八个需要进一步学术关注的特定领域。