“We Do This at Dancing Rabbit”: Recruitment and Collective Identity Processes in the Ecovillage

2021 ◽  
pp. 089124162199465
Author(s):  
Zach Rubin
Keyword(s):  
Collective Identity ◽  
Alternative Model ◽  
Focal Points ◽  
Intentional Community ◽  
Barriers To Entry ◽  
Recruitment And Retention ◽  
Identity Processes ◽  
Boundary Maintenance ◽  
Identity Based

This article outlines the various ways members of an intentional community erect barriers to entry in their village and lifestyle, and how they use boundary maintenance tactics to both protect their own personal spheres as well as the integrity of their mission and vision. Members of Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage (“DR”) seek to create an alternative model for a more just and sustainable world. They face twin challenges in seeking to expand that model through recruitment to their community and retaining the integrity of their unique lifestyle that makes it possible and enjoyable. DR utilizes processes of recruitment and retention to construct and defend a collective identity based in accommodating for personal and political concerns, one characterized specifically by the values of egalitarianism and environmentalism as focal points for their shared lifestyle. Yet they also erect barriers to keep out potential recruits who may compromise that identity.

Becoming an Ex: Dynamics of Disengagement from Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood after 2011

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-231
Author(s):  
Mustafa Menshawy ◽  
Khalil Al-Anani
Keyword(s):  
Collective Identity ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Original Material ◽  
Affective Processes ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
Identity Based ◽  
Political Project ◽  
The Uk

Abstract This article explores the disengagement of members from Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. Following both the 2011 uprising and the 2013 coup, increasing disenchantment with the group’s ideology and political project have led many members to reconsider their commitment to, and membership in, the Brotherhood. While scholarship examining the Brotherhood’s processes of recruitment and forming of collective identity is burgeoning, few works have assessed members’ disengagement from the movement and abandonment of its ideology, or how former members make sense of their “ex” identity. Based on rich, original material and extensive interviews with former Brotherhood members in Egypt, Turkey, the UK, and Qatar, this article investigates how former members seek new meanings and identities. Adopting a processual and discursive perspective on disengagement from the Brotherhood, we identify disengagement as consisting of distinct ideological, political, and affective processes. These processes shape individuals’ strategies for exiting the Brotherhood and forming their new identities as ex-members.

Defenders of Nature and the Comarca: Collective Identity and Frames in Panama

2010 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynn Horton
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
Land Claims ◽  
Institutional Practices ◽  
Indigenous Identity ◽  
Identity Based ◽  
Multiple Frames ◽  
Indigenous Land

This article examines collective identities as both a resource and constraint in framing processes of social mobilization through a case study of Panama's Kuna Indians, one of Latin America's most effectively organized indigenous peoples. It highlights tensions between movement nurturance of distinct indigenous identity as intrinsically valuable and to a degree counterhegemonic and instrumental use of an environmental frame to advance indigenous land claims. This article also explores shifts in dominant discourse and institutional practices that provide both opportunities for identity-based movements as well as risks. One way identity groups address tensions between appropriation of externally generated frames for instrumental goals and the nurturing of distinct collective identities is to manage multiple frames aimed at distinct audiences with distinct content. errors are the sole responsibility of the author.

Unintended consequences: the negative impact of e-mail use on participation and collective identity in two ‘horizontal’ social movement groups

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Flesher Fominaya
Keyword(s):  
Social Movement ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Global Justice ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Identity Processes ◽  
E Mail

The relation between face-to-face and online communication and its impact on collective identity processes is understudied. In this article I draw on two case studies conducted during a 3-year ethnographic study of the Global Justice Movement network in Madrid, Spain, from 2002 to 2005 to explore the unintended impact of e-mail on the sustainability, internal dynamics, and collective identity of two groups committed to participatory and deliberative practices as key features of their collective identity. I found that despite an explicit commitment to ‘horizontalism’ the use of e-mail in these two groups increased existing hierarchies, hindered consensus, decreased participation, and worked towards marginalization of group members. In addition, the negative and unintended consequences of e-mail use affected both groups, independently of activists’ evaluation of their experience in their face-to-face assemblies (one of which was overwhelmingly perceived as positive and one of which was perceived as negative). The article draws on e-mail research in organizations, online political deliberation research, and existing studies of e-mail use in social movement groups to analyse these findings.

scholarly journals Terms of Engagement: Re-Defining Identity and Infertility On-line

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 431-449 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elzbieta Korolczuk
Keyword(s):  
Collective Identity ◽  
Social Engagement ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Specific Element ◽  
The Public ◽  
Sick People ◽  
Digital Community ◽  
The Social ◽  
On Line ◽  
Identity Based

This article focuses on the identity work that takes place on the biggest Polish Internet forum for infertile people (www.nasz-bocian.pl). It is an example of a wider trend of “digital groupings created by and for those who struggle with the physical and emotional burden of a disease or disability, and through blogs, chats and forums contact others who have similar experiences, while staying anonymous. Participating in on-line discussions often leads to various forms of social engagement, both on-line and off-line. The sick, their family members, partners and friends cooperate in order to change the public discourse, as well as the regulation and financing of research and the treatment of certain diseases. Emergence and proliferation of such digital groupings raise questions such as: what ails these communities? How the collective identity is constructed on-line? This article examines “boundary work, which is a specific element of collective identity construction processes. The analysis concerns how the borders are established between the different sub-groups within the digital community, and how this process involves producing novel forms of identity based on a fragmented “socially legitimized childlessness. It focuses on a sub-forum” Conscious Childlessness and is based on qualitative analysis of the posts placed there. This sub-forum was established by users who do not necessarily share the dominant collective identity around which the social mobilization on infertility in Poland coalesces. They refuse to see themselves as sick people, or as patients, attempting to construct a new collective identity based on the idea of choice and the pursuit of happiness.

scholarly journals A Consideration of the Relationship Between Music and Collective Identity: From the Viewpoint of Cultural Psychology of Music

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Đorđević
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Cultural Psychology ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Cultural Artifact ◽  
Social Trends ◽  
Identity Processes ◽  
Psychology Of Music ◽  
The Relationship

The aim of the present study lies in an effort of converging anthropological, ethnomusicological and psychological approach to the relationship between music and collective identity. Music is considered a socio-cultural artifact, which mediates the processes of collective identity construction, and whose function in such process can be multiple. In order to understand the ways in which it is sutured into (in)formal processes of collective (self)identification, we propose simultaneous consideration of various dimensions: cultural, social, political, psychological. Although there already has been interdisciplinary research of the role of music in the emergence of identity, we advocate for a more complementary approach, by a consideration of the psychological accounts, adjusted to the needs of ethno-anthropological analysis. As the most comprehensive theoretical approach, we propose cultural psychology of music. Future empirical research on specific identity processes mediation by music as cultural artifact, should include the analysis of intersecting local and global social trends, aspects of musicological analysis, specificities of psychological development of identity, the role of socio-political strategies of identity formation, and, last but not least, cultural specificity of the community in focus of the research. We find the complexity of the phenomenon in focus to be obligatory for the complexity of the theoretical and methodological approach.

scholarly journals Contentious precarious generation in anti-austerity movements in Spain and Italy

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Massimiliano Andretta ◽  
Donatella Della Porta
Keyword(s):  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Organizational Network ◽  
Network Embeddedness ◽  
Political Opportunities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Identity Based ◽  
Formal Network

This article focuses on the precarious generation protesting in Spain and Italy in times of crisis and austerity (2010-2012). Their many similarities notwithstanding, the two countries have experienced different types of mobilization against austerity measures. In Spain, a relatively autonomous mobilization –characterized by new collective actors and new forms of action– has made possible the building of a political actor, Podemos, able to seriously challenge the established political parties. In Italy, instead, the mobilization was dominated by established political actors, especially trade unions, did not produce innovative forms of action and has not been able to overcome (so far) the fragmentation of the social movement sector. In both countries, however, the anti-austerity protests have been characterized by a strong presence of what we call hear the “precarious generation”, particularly exposed to the economic crisis and the austerity measures. By relying on data from several surveys conducted in demonstrations on social, economic and labor issues in the two countries from 2010 to 2011, in this article we single out differences and the similarities in terms of presence, social composition, grievances and emotion, collective identity and network embeddedness of the precarious generation. Our findings show that the precarious generation was almost equally present in the selected demonstrations in the two countries, share similar socio-graphic features and similar types of grievance and emotions. Nonetheless, in Spain it seems to have built a more cohesive and radical collective identity based upon a more informal and internet based network integration while in Italy it seems embedded in a more traditional and formal network, which prevented the formation of a strong collective identity. Moreover, while in Spain the differences between the older and the precarious generation reveal that, both have a strong identity based on different networks; more formal the older and more related to informal and online instruments the latter; in Italy, the older generation has a much stronger collective identity based on a organizational network, while the precarious one is less but still integrated in organizational network. We conclude that the more autonomous civil society tradition in Spain, together with the particular political opportunities, under the pressure of a harsher economic crisis, may account for the differences we found.

The Role of Social Identity in Decisions to Protest

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Burt Klandermans ◽  
J.Van Stekelenburg
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Identity Processes ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual

Social identity processes play a crucial role in the dynamics of protest, whether as antecedents, mediators, moderators, or consequences. Yet, identity did not always feature prominently in the social or political psychology of protest. This has changed—a growing contingent of social and political psychologists is involved now in studies of protest behavior, and in their models the concept of identity occupies a central place. Decades earlier students of social movements had incorporated the concept of collective identity into their theoretical frameworks. The weakness of the social movement literature on identity and contention, though, was that the discussion remained predominantly theoretical. Few seemed to bother about evidence. Basic questions such as how collective identity is formed and becomes salient or politicized were neither phrased nor answered. Perhaps social movement scholars did not bother too much because they tend to study contention when it takes place and when collective identities are already formed and politicized. Collective identity in the social movement literature is a group characteristic in the Durkheimian sense. Someone who sets out to study that type of collective identity may look for such phenomena as the group’s symbols, its rituals, and the beliefs and values its members share. Groups differ in terms of their collective identity. The difference may be qualitative, for example, being an ethnic group rather than a gender group; or quantitative, that is, a difference in the strength of collective identity. Social identity in the social psychological literature is a characteristic of a person. It is that part of a person’s self-image that is derived from the groups he or she is a member of. Social identity supposedly has cognitive, evaluative, and affective components that are measured at the individual level. Individuals differ in terms of social identity, again both qualitatively (the kind of groups they identify with) and quantitatively (the strength of their identification with those groups). The term “collective identity” is used to refer to an identity shared by members of a group or category. Collective identity politicizes when people who share a specific identity take part in political action on behalf of that collective. The politicization of collective identity can take place top-down (organizations mobilize their constituencies) or bottom-up (participants in collective action come to share an identity). In that context causality is an issue. What comes first? Does identification follow participation, or does participation follow identification?

The Dynamics of Emotion and Activism: Grief, Gender, and Collective Identity in Revolutionary Nicaragua

2006 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 461-474 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorraine de Volo
Keyword(s):  
Causal Relationship ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Dynamic Relationship ◽  
Cultural Expectations ◽  
Identity Based

This article argues for a multidirectional and gendered understanding of the causal relationship between emotion and collective identity. Based on interviews and participant observation with core members of a Nicaraguan mothers' organization, I identify four ways in which emotion and identity are causally linked: emotion-based identity, therapy, affective bonds, and change in collective identity leading to change in grieving style. These indicate a dynamic relationship between emotion and collective identity. Furthermore, to understand emotion-based collective identity and perceptions of the emotional benefits of participation, this relationship must be understood through gendered cultural expectations about emotion.

scholarly journals Collaboration and identity formation in strategic interorganizational partnerships: An exploration of swift identity processes

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 171-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Ungureanu ◽  
Fabiola Bertolotti ◽  
Elisa Mattarelli ◽  
Francesca Bellesia
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Regional Innovation ◽  
Identity Processes ◽  
Material Artifacts

We investigate how collective identity formation processes interplay with collaboration practices in an inter-organizational partnership promoting regional innovation. We found that initial collaboration challenges are dealt with by setting up an early “swift identity” which is associated with material artifacts to increase its strength and stability (“swift identity reification”). However, as the partnership evolves, the reified identity becomes misaligned with partners’ underdeveloped collaboration practices. To ensure realignment, new attempts at reification are performed, as partners buy time for learning how to collaborate. Our findings contribute to extant identity research by proposing alternative (i.e. “swift” and “reified”) mechanisms of identity formation in contexts characterized by both heterogeneity challenges and integration imperatives. They also integrate the debate about the role of identity formation in the evolution of interorganizational partnerships. For both literatures, we highlight the important role of materiality.

The Power of the Jama‘A: The Role of Hasan Al-Banna in Constructing the Muslim Brotherhood’s Collective Identity

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 41-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khalil al-Anani
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Social Activism ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Frame Of Reference ◽  
Identity Based ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood

This article explores the role of Hasan al-Banna (1906-1949) in creating the collective identity of the Muslim Brotherhood. It examines the enduring impact of al-Banna’s thoughts and legacy on the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). The article argues that al-Banna interweaved a distinctive frame of identity for the MB which is still vibrant and operative. It also contends that the MB’s identity plays a pivotal role in preserving the movement’s coherence and sustaining its political and social activism. Al-Banna, the founder and the chief ideologue of the MB, had crafted what this article calls the ‘Jama‘a’ paradigm. It refers to the cognitive system of aims and objectives, duties and means, phases and norms, symbols and meanings that encompasses and guides the MB’s members in everyday life. The Jama‘a paradigm operates as a frame of reference to the MB’s collective action. While other studies focused on the historical and chronological journey of al-Banna, this study unpacks al-Banna’s legacy and investigates its effects on the MB’s identity. Based on a field research, the article provides a fresh and nuanced account for al-Banna enduring impact on the MB.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document