Close Encounters of the Friendly Kind: Friendship Networks and the Activist Career of Suffrage Campaigners

• In Event: 474 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 13. Social Networks and Mobilization

Abstract

This paper argues for the importance of looking at activist identities and positions in terms of an ‘activist career’ (Becker), and explores the role that friendship networks and social encounters (Goffman) with friends play in shaping the trajectory of an activist career. While the notion of activist career has been used sparingly in social movement studies (Aronson, 1993), it is suggested here that it should be further exploited in order to stress the fluid and shifting nature of political identities. The paper outlines the research project on which these arguments rest, which studies six female suffrage campaigners from the early twentieth century in the UK, some of whom shifted position into anti-war campaigning, and others of whom ceased activism altogether by 1914. The social networks of these campaigners, and the role that friendship played in their activist career, are explored using SNA and qualitative analysis.

Author

• Gemma Edwards, University of Manchester