This book presents three social action models - rational, normative and emotional. It proposes the emotional model of social action and shows the many ways in which social structures, formal organizations and social movements are pervaded by emotions. The core of the book contains three empirical case studies focused on the question of how emotions, interests and symbolic worlds account for conformism and defiance. Its last part assesses the current state of the theory of social movements and the sociology of emotions. It suggests how their agendas could be expanded.