Collective Trauma and Contentious Behavior: The Lingering Effects of Transformative Events

• In Event: 277 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 02. Culture and Movements 1

Abstract

Over the past decades, scholars of social movements and collective behavior have recognized the role of particular transformative events in the emergence of social movements and contentious behavior (McAdam and Sewell, 2001). These include political, economic, social, and watershed moments (Zerubavel, 2003). However, with a few exceptions (e.g., Adler Hellman, 2008; Brockett, 2005; Davis, 1990; Holzner, 2006; Perez, 1999), current research in social movements has paid little attention to natural disasters as catalysts of contentious actions), and much of the research that does exist tends to focus on the immediate aftermath of the event, neglecting the long-term implications of disasters for mobilization. Therefore, scholarship in social movements can benefit from examining the longer-term implications of natural disasters and their lingering effects on the formation and growth of mobilization. In this paper we argue that natural disasters, as transformative events, have lingering effects that are powerful forces in motivating mobilization efforts. While clearly linked to the transformative event, these lingering effects are distinct aspects of mobilization processes that emerge over time. To illustrate our argument we draw on empirical evidence from a case study in New Orleans in the months and years following hurricane Katrina. The lingering effects of this event took the form of collective traumas, that in and of themselves, motivated residents to blog, network and organize for contentious actions in the months and years after the flood.

Author

• David G. Ortiz, Tulane University