Cultural Repertoires and the Structural Reproduction of Social Change

• In Event: 277 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 14. Social Movement Theory

Abstract

Integrating Swidler’s theory on the cultural tool-kit (1986) and Sewell’s theory on structure and agency (1992), this paper aims to further theorize ways in which social movement participants develop and utilize cultural repertoires in their attempts to achieve social change. I question how movement participants construct cultural repertoires for use in their activities and mobilization, and whether they reproduce the structure of social change through their actions and deployment of resources. The paper situates both theories within the social movement literature, considering how individuals use configurations of their existing cultural repertoires to participate and, through their involvement, build their tool-kits and construct new strategies of action. In proposing theoretical connections and the analysis of interactions among movement participants, we may begin to understand the reproduction of social change structures in future movement waves and the adoption of movement cultural schemas into mainstream culture. The paper concludes with a proposal for using this integrated perspective in the analysis of ethnographic data from the Occupy Wall Street Movement.

Author

• Jesse Klein, Florida State University