Building Group Ties by Stripping the Self and the Perils of Inclusion in Identity Politics

• In Event: 277 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 06. Individual and Collective Identities

Abstract

This paper draws on comparative ethnographic data from two sexuality-based civic groups to show how flexibility and inclusion, as neoliberal strategies to promote difference, can undermine collective civic participation. It argues that in these groups, promoting difference paradoxically entailed engaging in a process of “stripping the self,” whereby members interactionally produced and discovered a common “natural,” “presocial,” “prepolitical” self. This common self seemingly already knew that it belonged in association with other widely diverse members in what is conceptualized as “natural community.” While this strategy prevented differences from disrupting group cohesion, it also constrained civic-mindedness and depoliticized contentious topics, precluding the emergence of structural or comprehensive critiques. As a result, this strategy stripped the very bonds that might sustain group participation. This analysis suggests that these invocations of the natural were central to producing neoliberal political culture. This study compels further research into how and when the natural gets produced, and what interactional or ethical work it accomplishes.

Author

• Demetrios Psihopaidas, University of Southern California