The “Stop the Sweeps” Movement and Collective Identity Formation Across Place

• In Event: 20861 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 1: Collective Identity and Solidarity

Abstract

Over the last twenty years, many American cities have seen the resurgence of large-scale homeless encampments, with some cities choosing to increase criminalization and sweeps of the unhoused. In response, concerned community members in cities across the country have formed a national campaign to “Stop the Sweeps” of unhoused people. Despite the movement's focus on class and material conditions, activists within the movement make up a diverse coalition of identities, not necessarily coalescing based on class solidarity. Instead, these SMOs have managed to create cohesion across difference, demonstrating possibilities for collective identity formation within new social movements. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 24 activists in Seattle, Washington and Los Angeles, California, I show how these SMOs can and do organize across difference, moving beyond traditional class based solidarities. Secondly, I point to the place based factors that affect the formation of collective identity within SMOs. While we know that social identities evolve based on context, there is little research on that demonstrates how certain place contexts might shape collective identities. I draw attention to three identity-based factors that shape the formation of collective identity within each city: ideology and political orientation, race and ethnicity, and class and lived experience. I also highlight ancillary factors that play a role in the foundation of collective identity in both cities: age, gender and queerness, personalities. This paper has important implications for understanding the challenges and possibilities of organizing across difference within distinct place contexts.

Author

• Alex Michelle Kempler, The Ohio State University