The organizational shaping of collective identity: The case of lesbian and gay film festivals in New York |
| |
Authors: | Joshua Gamson |
| |
Institution: | (1) Department of Sociology, Yale University, P. O. Box 208265, 06520-8265 New Haven, Connecticut |
| |
Abstract: | Using information gathered during fieldwork on New York lesbian and gay film festival organizations, this paper argues that
scholarship on identity has not paid sufficient attention to the organizational mediation of collective identity. The shape
of collective identity—how internal instabilities and diversities are accommodated, in this case—depends not only on the emergent
characteristics of the “collective,” but also on the resolution of challenges particular to organizational fields. Two very
differently conceived lesbian and gay festival organizations, sites at which decision making about collective identity is
ongoing and self-conscious, are examined. The analysis traces how each responds to two related tasks: maintaining community
legitimacy, which requires racial diversification, and surviving within an altered institutional environment. Rather than
imposition from “above” or construction from “below,” the adaptive responses by organizations (to changes in both community
expectations and the resource environment) transform the collective identity formulations reaching public visibility.
Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the Colloquium Series of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies, City University
of New York, 1995, and at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Washington, DC, 1995. |
| |
Keywords: | collective identity organizations sexuality film festivals |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|