Contentious Storytelling: Articulating Activism through Opposition to Meta-Narratives

• In Event: 2483 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 08. Narratives and Storytelling

Abstract

Gary Alan Fine (1995:128) once wrote, social movements are made up of so many different stories that “it is helpful to conceive of a social movement as a bundle of narratives.” This conception of social movements was based on the observation of activists in the physical sites of protest; however, it also applies to activism and social movements online. When it comes to the online practices of activists and participants in social movements, scholars are more likely to focus on how they are using these tools to communicate as opposed to the content of what is being communicated. This study, however, focuses on the content of the narratives shared by activists and how narratives are not only the vehicles of contention, they are also the targets of contention. In order to assess the ways in which narratives are used by those who engage in activism online, I analyze two cases of digital contention: the Occupy Movement (social movement) and the Swan Queen Movement (fan activism). By studying the narratives of two collectives, one a social movement and the other a case of fan activism, I am able to asses the narrative pattern that emerges in online contentious storytelling and how participants negotiate their own story in and amongst the dominant problematic stories that they are contesting. I find that the stories that participants contest are not necessarily those that can be attributed to any one organization or individual but are rather “metanarratives” that have largely influenced the norms and the expectations of certain experiences or behaviors. The primary tactic by which participants challenge meta-narratives is by invoking personal stories that deviate greatly from the standard plots proposed by the meta-narratives, a tactic that I suggest should be considered the “counter-plotting” of meta-narratives.

Author

• Victoria Marie Gonzalez, Rutgers University