Parsing the Dimensionality of Activist Identity Politics in Social Movements

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

Abstract

I establish a novel typology of activists using a cross-tabulation of responses to two questions by members of two social movement organizations separated nearly a decade apart: What is an activist? Do you consider yourself an activist? The focus of this paper is on three categories in particular—Emphatics, Demarcators, and Reconcilers. Using memoing and content analysis of semi-structured interviews with thirty-five movement participants from two distinctly different social movement organizations interviewed several years apart, I identify social location phenomenon (age, career, position within organization, duration of involvement), social psychology (lived experiences with activism, meaning-making of activist), and personality characteristics to explain the complexity of ‘activist’ identities. I draw upon sociological and social psychological theories of ‘perfect standard’ of activism, identity competition, boundary disruption, and ‘identity not’ to help social movement scholars and participants explain why particular people may be more likely to fall into particular categories over another.

Author

• Daniel K. Cortese, Governors State University