Identity Formation in Street Demonstrations

2019 ◽  
pp. 309-327
Author(s):  
Bert Klandermans ◽  
Jacquelien van Stekelenburg
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Union Member ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
Category Membership ◽  
Central Mechanism ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Shared Identity ◽  
The World ◽  
Group Members

Every day, somewhere in the world, citizens take to the streets to vent their anger about grievances they share. A central mechanism in our understanding of protest behavior is identity formation. To experience shared grievances and emotions, a shared identity must develop. We address the question with whom protesters identify. Rather than examine whether dynamics of identification determine mobilization and participation, we will assess whether dynamics of mobilization and participation foster identification. We distinguish deductive and inductive identity formation. Taking the deductive route, people deduce a shared identity from a higher-order category membership they share; for example, being a union member. Taking the inductive route, a collective identity emerges as group members interact. Hypotheses derived from this conceptualization are tested. We present data on identification from a study of 81 demonstrations and 16,597 participants in eight European countries. We find that inductive and deductive identity formation have different antecedents.

Identity and Persuasion: How Nations Remember Their Pasts and Make Their Futures

2000 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Consuelo Cruz
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
Normative Realism ◽  
Shared Identity ◽  
Critical Junctures ◽  
The World

Identity struggles are once again a salient problem in world politics. This article aims to throw light on the sources, dynamics, and consequences of identity formation and mobilization. It makes two theoretical arguments. First, because collective memory is both a seemingly factual narrative and a normative assessment of the past, it shapes a group's intersubjective conceptions of strategic feasibility and political legitimacy. This is why collective identity is above all an expression of normative realism: a group's declaration to itself and to others about what it can or cannot do; what it will or will not do. Second, at critical junctures competing actors assert or contest the normative realism underlying collective identity. They do this through rhetorical politics, deploying their powers of persuasion in order to engage the constitutive elements of the group's shared identity. In practical terms, rhetorical politics is structured by a dominant frame: a historically shaped discursive formation that does two things. It articulates in readily accessible ways the fundamental notions a group holds about itself in the world and allows or disallows specific strategies of persuasion on the basis of their presumptive realism and normative sway. Within this frame, rhetorical politics engenders acollective field of imaginable possibilities:a restricted array of plausible scenarios about how the world can or cannot be changed and how the future ought to look. Though circumscribed, this field is vulnerable to endogenous shifts, precisely because actors' rhetorical struggles introduce conflicts over the descriptive and prescriptive limits of what is “realistically” possible. Such conflicts may in fact produce a new dominant rhetorical frame and profoundly influence a nation's political and economic development. Two contrasting cases from Latin America offer empirical support for these arguments. The article shows that the sharp developmental divergence between Costa Rica and Nicaragua can be properly understood only through close analytical scrutiny of the different rhetorical frames, fields of imaginable possibilities, and collective identities that rose to prominence at critical points in these countries' colonial and postcolonial histories.

scholarly journals The Role of Humour in the Process of Collective Identity Formation in Autonomous Social Movement Groups in Contemporary Madrid

2007 ◽  
Vol 52 (S15) ◽  
pp. 243-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Flesher Fominaya
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Direct Action ◽  
Charismatic Leadership ◽  
Vertical Movement ◽  
Marginal Group ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Movement Organizations

This article draws on ethnographic research to analyse the role of humour in the process of collective identity formation within autonomous anti-capitalist groups in Madrid. Autonomous groups embrace the principles of horizontality, openness, diversity, participatory democracy, self-organization, and direct action, so defining themselves in contradistinction to more “vertical” movement organizations of the institutional left. The process of collective-identity formation involves both generating a sense of internal cohesion, and projecting an alternative identity. Autonomous groups in Madrid face a double challenge, for they must integrate ideologically heterogeneous activists, and they must define themselves as being alternatives to the much more consolidated groups of the institutional left. I shall analyse the different ways in which humour is used to address both those challenges: to sustain groups over time, to defuse tensions and try to resolve conflict, for myth-making, and to integrate marginal group members. I will also discuss the role humour plays in charismatic leadership and its use in the projection of an alternative political identity in direct actions. Finally, I will discuss the contested nature of humour as a political tool in the context of the Madrid network.

scholarly journals Disabled Capitalists: Exploring the Intersections of Disability and Identity Formation in the World of Work

2012 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dustin Galer
Keyword(s):  
Identity Development ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Personal Identity ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Personal Autonomy ◽  
People With Disabilities ◽  
Paid Work ◽  
The World ◽  
Liberal Individualism

<p><em>Many people with disabilities share the mainstream ethos that participation in the competitive workforce constitutes a primary feature of their identity. While unpaid work may fulfill the desire to be productive and provide a sense of purpose and contribution, the cultural imperative to achieve personal autonomy partly through material independence situates paid employment at the centre of personal identity formation. While disability activists struggle to carve out an empowered collective identity instilled with rights-based protections, many people with disabilities identify with the liberal individualism upon which participation in the capitalist labour market is largely based. Individuals with disabilities seek not simply to shrug off an identity defined by burden, but to claim an identity marked by self-fulfillment. Within the world of paid work, then, tension and compatibility co-exist regarding the nature and value of identity development for people with disabilities.</em></p> <p><em>&nbsp;</em></p> <p><strong>Keywords:</strong> disability, work, employment, identity, identity politics, disability activism</p>

scholarly journals Media Activism as Movement? Collective Identity Formation in the World Forum of Free Media

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 59-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hilde C. Stephansen
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
World Social Forum ◽  
Media Advocacy ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Media Activism ◽  
The World ◽  
Free Media ◽  
Building Project

More than simply tools used by social movements to reach other substantive aims, media are increasingly becoming <em>subjects</em> of activism. This article contributes to advancing understanding of such media-focused activism through a case study of the World Forum of Free Media, a thematic forum for media activists and media advocacy organisations linked to the World Social Forum. Based on qualitative research conducted between 2008 and 2016—including participant observation, in-depth interviews and textual analysis—the article critically explores the extent to which the World Forum of Free Media can be considered a ‘free media’ movement in the making, and examines some of the challenges and contradictions that such a movement-building project entails. Drawing on social movement theory, specifically the concept of collective identity, it analyses efforts by forum organisers to mobilise a very diverse range of actors—from alternative media activists to policy- and advocacy NGOs—around a plural and inclusive ‘free media’ identity. While the World Forum of Free Media has to some extent succeeded in facilitating convergence around a set of core principles and ideas, it has so far struggled to develop a clear outwards-facing identity and mobilise a broad grassroots base.

Discrimination, Advocacy, and Collective Identity

2021 ◽  
pp. 16-32
Author(s):  
Emily Cury
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Muslim American ◽  
Deep Roots ◽  
Advocacy Organizations ◽  
Collective Group ◽  
The World ◽  
Muslim Minorities ◽  
The Impact ◽  
American Nation

This chapter begins with the links between discrimination, identity formation, and minority advocacy. It examines how Muslim minorities and immigrants from disparate ethnic, national, linguistic, and socioeconomic backgrounds think of themselves, and act, as members of a collective group with a unified set of interests. It also highlights the impact of Muslim advocacy organizations in their ability to frame and communicate a particular Muslim American collective identity. The chapter recounts anti-Muslim prejudice that has deep roots in American history and the European Orientalist discourse that has been adopted by the American nation since the inception of that prejudice. It discusses the construction of Islam as a false religion and how Muslims from around the world are racialized as Arab, non-white, and therefore biologically and morally inferior.

Becoming Politicized

2017 ◽  
Vol 225 (4) ◽  
pp. 324-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimitrios Barkas ◽  
Xenia Chryssochoou
Keyword(s):  
Collective Identity ◽  
Political Socialization ◽  
Greek Society ◽  
Economic Vulnerability ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
Identity Model ◽  
Beliefs About The Future ◽  
Of Greece ◽  
The Way

Abstract. This research took place just after the end of the protests following the killing of a 16-year-old boy by a policeman in Greece in December 2008. Participants (N = 224) were 16-year-olds in different schools in Attiki. Informed by the Politicized Collective Identity Model ( Simon & Klandermans, 2001 ), a questionnaire measuring grievances, adversarial attributions, emotions, vulnerability, identifications with students and activists, and questions about justice and Greek society in the future, as well as about youngsters’ participation in different actions, was completed. Four profiles of the participants emerged from a cluster analysis using representations of the conflict, emotions, and identifications with activists and students. These profiles differed on beliefs about the future of Greece, participants’ economic vulnerability, and forms of participation. Importantly, the clusters corresponded to students from schools of different socioeconomic areas. The results indicate that the way young people interpret the events and the context, their levels of identification, and the way they represent society are important factors of their political socialization that impacts on their forms of participation. Political socialization seems to be related to youngsters’ position in society which probably constitutes an important anchoring point of their interpretation of the world.

Speculative Realism and Science Fiction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Willems
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Cormac Mccarthy ◽  
Doris Lessing ◽  
Speculative Realism ◽  
Neil Gaiman ◽  
The World ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Quentin Meillassoux

A human-centred approach to the environment is leading to ecological collapse. One of the ways that speculative realism challenges anthropomorphism is by taking non-human things to be as valid objects of investivation as humans, allowing a more responsible and truthful view of the world to take place. Brian Willems uses a range of science fiction literature that questions anthropomorphism both to develop and challenge this philosophical position. He looks at how nonsense and sense exist together in science fiction, the way in which language is not a guarantee of personhood, the role of vision in relation to identity formation, the difference between metamorphosis and modulation, representations of non-human deaths and the function of plasticity within the Anthropocene. Willems considers the works of Cormac McCarthy, Paolo Bacigalupi, Neil Gaiman, China Miéville, Doris Lessing and Kim Stanley Robinson are considered alongside some of the main figures of speculative materialism including Graham Harman, Quentin Meillassoux and Jane Bennett.

Desecularization as Phenomenon at the Turn of 21st Century

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 49-57
Author(s):  
Sergey V.  Lebedev ◽  
Galina N.  Lebedeva
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Islamic Revolution ◽  
Islamic Movement ◽  
The World ◽  
Rational Alternative ◽  
Role Of Religion

In the article the authors note that since the 1970s, with the rise of the Islamic movement and the Islamic revolution in Iran, philosophers and political scientists started to talk about religious renaissance in many regions of the world. In addition, the point at issue is the growing role of religion in society, including European countries that have long ago gone through the process of secularization. The reasons for this phenomenon, regardless of its name, are diverse, but understandable: secular ideologies of the last century failed to explain the existing social problems and give them a rational alternative.

The European identity formation in Ukraine

2017 ◽  
pp. 102-109
Author(s):  
Larysa Kovryk-Tokar
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
European Integration ◽  
European Community ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Political Integration ◽  
European Identity ◽  
European Values

Every nation is quite diverse in terms of his historical destiny, spiritual priorities, and cultural heritage. However, voluntary European integration, which is the final aim of political integration that began in the second half of the twentieth century from Western Europe, provided for an availability of large number of characteristics in common in political cultures of their societies. Therefore, Ukraine needs to find some common determinants that can create inextricable relationship between the European Community and Ukraine. Although Ukrainian culture is an intercultural weave of two East macrocivilizations, according to the author, Ukraine tends to Western-style society with its openness, democracy, tolerance, which constitute the basic values of Europeans. Keywords: Identity, collective identity, European values, European integration

Vagueness and the World

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Bacon
Keyword(s):  
Higher Order ◽  
Formal Models ◽  
Logical Space ◽  
The World ◽  
The Way

According to a fairly widespread assumption, there is some definite collection of completely factual or fundamental propositions upon which all truths supervene and which are unaffected by vagueness. This assumption manifests itself in formal models of vagueness as well—for example, the supervaluationist who represents propositions as sets of world-precisification pairs may divide logical space into propositions that only depend on the world-coordinate. This chapter argues that this assumption leads to paradoxes of higher-order vagueness, and, ultimately, should be rejected in favour of a weaker notion of fundamentality or factuality. It suggests an alternative picture in which there is vagueness ‘all the way down’: logical-space can be divided into basic propositions that settle all precise matters, but it is vague where those divisions lie.

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