Allies Forging Collective Identity: Embodiment and Emotions on the Migrant Trail

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chandra Russo
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Social Distance ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Illustrative Case ◽  
Embodied Experience ◽  
Emotional Experiences ◽  
The U.S

This article examines how embodied experience and the accompanying emotions help social movement allies to forge collective identity. The analysis is based on the Migrant Trail, an annual protest event in which allies of the border-justice movement spend a week walking seventy-five miles through the U.S.-Mexico borderlands to protest migrant deaths. Original data include four years of participant observation, interviews conducted during the 2011 Migrant Trail, and surveys conducted a year and a half after the event. Findings suggest that embodied and emotional experiences help allies overcome challenges such as social distance from beneficiaries, a lack of credibility in the movement, and no lineage of resistance. This study contributes to an understanding of collective identity formation among allies and offers an illustrative case for the important role embodiment plays in the emotions of collective action.

Buying an Activist Identity: Reproducing Class through Social Movement Philanthropy

1998 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 303-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ira Silver
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Resource Mobilization ◽  
Racial Privilege ◽  
Community Organizers

Those who lack the financial means to organize for social change may turn to elite funders, yet in doing so risk having their goals co-opted. Activist philanthropy minimizes this threat because its grant decisions are made by movement insiders. This structure leaves donors occupying a precarious position. Their money is essential, yet their class position is discrediting. The Crossroads Fund raises its money by integrating donors as activists alongside community organizers. Even though community organizers have greater power inside the foundation, integrating donors requires that community organizers defer to donors' wider class and racial privilege. By showing that securing funding from donors hinges on legitimating their identity claims, this study bridges social movement theories about resource mobilization and collective identity formation.

scholarly journals We are what we tell: an enquiry into NGOs' organizational identity and accountability

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Pianezzi
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Organizational Identity ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Documentary Analysis ◽  
Over Time

PurposeThis study offers a critical inquiry into accountability vis-à-vis organizational identity formation. It investigates how accountability evolves in the transformation of an NGO operating in the field of migration management from an informal grassroots group into a fully-fledged organization.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is the outcome of a participatory action research project on Welcome Refugees (WR), a UK-based NGO. The project involved documentary analysis, focus group and semi-structured interviews, field notes, and participant observation. The analysis draws from poststructuralist theorization to explain the interplay between organizational identity and different forms of NGO accountability over time.FindingsThe study shows how different forms of accountability became salient over time and were experienced differently by organizational members, thus leading to competing collective identity narratives. Organizational members felt accountable to beneficiaries in different ways, and this was reflected in their identification with the organization. Some advocated a rights-based approach that partially resonated with the accountability demands of external donors, while others aimed at enacting their feelings of accountability by preserving their closeness with beneficiaries and using a need-based approach. These differences led to an identity struggle that was ultimately solved through the silencing of marginalized narratives and the adoption of an adaptive regime of accountability.Practical implicationsThe findings of the case are of practical relevance to quasi-organizations that struggle to form and maintain organizational identity in their first years of operation. Their survival depends not only on their ability to accommodate and/or resist a multiplicity of accountability demands but also on their ability to develop a shared and common understanding of identity accountability.Originality/valueThe paper problematizes rather than takes for granted the process through which organizations acquire a viable identity and the role of accountability within them.

scholarly journals Emergence of inter-identity alliances in struggles for transformation of the Kenyan constitution

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob Mwathi Mati
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Civic Education ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Opportunity Structures ◽  
Dynamic Relationship ◽  
Political Opportunity Structures ◽  
The Government ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Depth Interviews

Struggles for transformation of the Kenyan constitution brought into alliances disparate movements from below, sections of middleclass, and factions of political, economic and religious elites, in challenging the government. The emergence of these alliances presents useful cases for examining the dynamic relationship and politics between these movements, and also for probing social movement theory. Specifically, given the centrality of identity consciousness in movements, how were intrinsic class, religious, gender, generational and ethnic identity interests, contestations and cleavages overcome to enable inter-identity alliances in these struggles? More critically, how relevant are the dominant social movement theories in explaining this phenomenon? Is theoretical straightjacketing useful for analysing movements with such diversity? Drawing from in-depth interviews and existing literature on Kenyan constitutional reform struggles, this paper illustrates how alliances between the different identities and movements were forged to allow for a common struggle. The paper further illustrates that while political opportunity structures explain certain aspects of this phenomenon, framing, civic education and community organising strategies were critical enablers for collective identity formation

Collective Identity and Movement Solidarity among Religious Left Activists in the U.S.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura R. Olson
Keyword(s):  
Social Movement ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Public Agenda ◽  
Religious Left ◽  
The Right ◽  
Movement Organizations ◽  
The U.S

Drawing on datasets that examine ideas and attitudes of religious activists on both the Left and the Right, Laura R. Olson’s chapter asks whether religious progressives share a collective identity as activists and whether they are committed to specific social movement organizations within their fields of action. She finds that when compared to religious conservatives, progressive religious activists are less committed to specific organizations and are less mobilized behind a coherent public agenda. Finally, Olson discusses the extent to which this difference may affect movement efficacy in political arenas.

scholarly journals Collective identity construction in international collaborations

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 123-140
Author(s):  
Ying Zhang ◽  
Chris Huxham
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Joint Venture ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Strategic Partnership ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Interorganizational Collaborations ◽  
Cross National

This article explores the dynamic processes of collective identity formation among the participating organizational members in interorganizational collaborations that cross national boundaries. A longitudinal, qualitative multi-case study research approach was adopted in the empirical investigation of collective identity in three international business collaborations that involve a Sino-British strategic partnership, a Sino-Australian, and a Sino-Polish joint venture. Based on the analyses of the data collected from in-depth interviews, participant observation, and archival materials, a theoretical framework of collective identity (re)formation is developed. It suggests that two inseparable elements (states and processes) constitute a cyclic and enduring process of collective identity formation through partners’ orchestrating discursive resources involving a common sense of ‘we-ness’. The shifts between various states are driven by partners’ processes of negotiation, integration, solidification, and reformation of collective identity. A deconstruction process may also emerge, giving rise to the termination of the collaborative relationship. The research presented in this article advances the understanding of collective identity formation in the field of organizational identity by extending the discursive perspective of collective identity into the context of interorganizational collaborations that cross national borders. This research also provides further empirical evidence on the active role played by organizational members in the use of cultural narratives as strategic resources to express their identity beliefs, which differs from the deterministic view of culture in shaping organizational members’ behaviors.

DENIAL, DEFLECTION, AND DISTRACTION: NEUTRALIZING CHARGES OF RACISM BY THE TEA PARTY MOVEMENT*

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-156
Author(s):  
Malaena J. Taylor ◽  
Mary Bernstein
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Political Efficacy ◽  
Identity Work ◽  
Tea Party ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Tea Party Movement ◽  
Racist Ideology ◽  
The U.S

This article integrates theory on contentious movements and racism to develop what we call the “stigma neutralization model,” which explains how activists challenge stigmatizing identities in order to build a positive collective identity. Using original ethnographic research, we examine the response of a local Tea Party group to charges of racism. If a social movement is seen as racist, their political efficacy may be damaged. By analyzing backstage identity work, we illustrate that the strategies involved in distancing both activists and the movement from charges of racism reflect broader cultural understandings of the U.S. as being a post-racial or “colorblind” society. Our stigma neutralization model illustrates how activists deny, deflect, and distract from charges that activists are racist, thus maintaining and reproducing racist ideology, while reconstituting both individual and movement identities as unspoiled and racially tolerant. We discuss the implications of our findings for antiminority majority social movements more generally.

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.

Dreadlocks: The Hair Aesthetics of Cultural Resistance and Collective Identity Formation

1998 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Kuumba ◽  
Femi Ajanaku
Keyword(s):  
Focus Group ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
African Descent ◽  
Historical Documents ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
Cultural Resistance ◽  
Everyday Resistance ◽  
New Social Movement

Growing dreadlocks, a hair practice usually associated with the Rastafarian movement, has become increasingly popular among people of African descent globally. In concert with other "makers," dreadlocks became symbolic accompaniment to oppositional collective identities associated with the African liberation/Black Power movements. Its spread among African liberationists, womanists, radical artists of African descent reflects counterhegemonic politics. From a combined new social movement and African cultural studies perspective, this research traces the sociopolitical and historical phases of "locking." On the microsociological level, the role that dreadlocks are perceived as playing along three main dimensions of collective identity formation: boundary demarcation, consciousness and negotiation, are explored. The study combines data from fifty-two dreadlocked persons' responses in surveys, interviews, and a focus group with historical documents and sources. Dreadlocks, as contemporary hair aesthetics, can be considered an example of culturally contextualized everyday resistance.

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

Ghost Dancing

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kélina Gotman
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Land Rights ◽  
State Of Exception ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
Dance Movement ◽  
Ghost Dance ◽  
The Government ◽  
Wasted Energy ◽  
The U.S

Native American dancers in the 1890s rebelling against the U.S. government’s failure to uphold treaties protecting land rights and rations were accused of fomenting a dancing ‘craze’. Their dancing—which hoped for a renewal of Native life—was subject to intense government scrutiny and panic. The government anthropologist James Mooney, in participant observation and fieldwork, described it as a religious ecstasy like St. Vitus’s dance. The Ghost Dance movement escalated with the proliferation of reports, telegraphs, and letters circulating via Washington, DC. Although romantically described as ‘geognosic’—nearly mineral—ancestors of the whites, Native rebels in the Plains were told to stop dancing so they could work and thus modernize; their dancing was deemed excessive, wasteful, and unproductive. The government’s belligerently declared state of exception—effectively cultural war—was countered by one that they performed ecstatically. ‘Wasted’ energy, dancers maintained, trumped dollarization—the hollow ‘use value’ of capitalist biopower.

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