Subcultural Identity Work in Social Movements: Barriers to Collective Identity Changes and Overcoming Them

Over time, social movements must contend with a vast array of forces that can lead to changes in the movement's collective identity. As such changes may impact the alignment of movements and their membership, this study explores how changes are perceived by members and how they are interactively addressed. Drawing on ethnographic data gathered from two Native American social movement organizations, this study specifically asks why some changes suggested by movement members might be pursued and others are not. While movement members felt that there were a number of barriers to changes in their movements, the study revealed that it was the resonance of collective memories – presented during interactions as narrative commemorations – that encouraged the pursuit of suggested changes or the maintenance of a status quo.     

Symbolic Violence and Collective Identity: Pierre Bourdieu and the Ethics of Resistance

Social movement researchers have only recently begun to make use of the rich explanatory leverage offered by Pierre Bourdieu's theory of practice. The normative implications of his framework remain almost entirely undeveloped. This paper seeks to redress these shortcomings by applying central concepts from Bourdieu's work—symbolic violence and his realist philosophy of science—to social movement analysis. Using North American lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer collective identities to illustrate this application, the paper advocates shifting analysis of collective identities from models based on negotiation to one based on domination and advocates treatment of social movement organizations as sites of justice amenable to normative evaluation and critique.     

Ritualizing the Routine: Collective Identity Affirmation

Groups use rituals to create and preserve collective identities. Separation of sacred practices from customary activities has long been considered a key property of ritual. However, customary activities form the basis of some ritual celebrations. We explain how a different process of identity creation results: identity affirmation. We find that groups affirm their customary practices on ritual occasions when they intend to celebrate practices already associated with the sacred, and we explain the structure of such rituals using a case study of a university centennial celebration. We argue that attention to variation in ritual casts light on the values and collective identity of groups.     

Protest Through Presence: Spatial Citizenship and Identity Formation in Contestations of Neoliberal Crises

We live in a contested, crisis-prone era, indicative of ongoing processes of neoliberalization. The most recent global financial and food crises have disproportionately impacted those already marginalized in society: people of colour and the working classes. The spatial expressions of this disproportionality are especially acute, evidenced by the uneven distribution of the basic necessities of food and home. Activists in the USA are responding with forms of spatial citizenship, namely exercising their right to peaceably assemble and reclaiming public spaces. During the creation of spaces of dissent, we observe the fluid formation of a collective spatialized identity among social movement actors, contingent on political identities and ideology. We use two cases based in Florida to highlight these processes. The first case is a local iteration of the Occupy Wall Street protests, Occupy Gainesville, which has occupied the city's most central public gathering place, the Bo Diddley Community Plaza. The second case involves Food Not Bombs in the city of Orlando where attempts were made to ban the group from distributing food in public parks to the homeless and working poor. First, these cases highlight the spatiotemporal relationships between unjust economic systems and the state surveillance and policing apparatus and those resisting such systems. Second, they reveal how collective identity influences and in turn is influenced by space. Our article furthers a processual, dynamic understanding of activist mobilizations to reduce the uneven burdens of neoliberalization and argues for greater attention to the spatialities of contentious politics.     

Disability Identity Formation and Affirmation: The Experiences of Persons with Severe Mental Illness

This article examines the pervasive nature and extent of the debilitating sense of shame associated with disability. It then explores the emergence of disability identity, pride, and culture to challenge such shame—illustrated in personal narrative accounts of the individual and collective journeys of people coping with severe mental illness.     

Sexual Identity Formation of Women Who Love Women: A Contextual View Point

Nonheterosexuals experience oppression and discrimination that affect personal development on all levels. An increased awareness of sexual identity development could create more inclusive sexual identity models, better understanding for counselor educators, and better training for counselors on issues of sexual identity. The purpose of this study was to identify the life experiences that influence sexual identity in women who love women. This study required that participants attach meaning to sexual identity formation. From the data collected, four themes emerged: I was just different, information seeking, view of self as a woman within the context of culture, and contextual relationships. Findings of this study did not support a stage model of sexual identity development. Instead, this study supported the view that sexual identity is fluid and strongly related to relationships with peer groups.     

The biographical consequences of protest and activism: a systematic review and a new typology

Most research on activist participation has aimed to explain motives to engage in protest and collective action or becoming an activist. The outcomes, for the individual, have been neglected. Therefore, we set out to systematically document and organize the psychological and behavioural changes associated with activism into a typology of change. The review contains 57 papers describing changes. Psychological changes identified in the literature can be classified into 19 main forms: marital status, children, relationship ties, work-life/career, extended involvement, consumer behaviour, identity, empowerment, radicalization/politicization, legitimacy, sustained commitment, self-esteem, general well-being, ‘traits’, self-confidence, religion, organizing, knowledge and home skills. Our analysis highlights the lack of analysis of the relation between type of protest and type of change, and lack of research into the processes behind the various psychological changes. What is needed now is more precise investigation of the relationship between types of protests, social and psychological processes, and psychological outcomes. Further, more longitudinal studies are required to explore the relationship.     

Formation of Identity in Wartime El Salvador: Protective and Harmful Factors

In a qualitative study of the effects of war on identity in rural postwar El Salvador, 11 interviews from data collected 3 years after the war were analyzed for social and individual identity factors. Subjects had been adolescents during the civil war. Prolonged war experiences, especially for those who became combatants at a very early age, had a negative impact on identity formation. Those who had the greatest identity problems felt a deep sense of betrayal, abandonment, and/or a general lack of trust. This included those who felt betrayed by their group, which in war consisted of an armed political one.     

Identity Dilemmas: Toward a More Situated Understanding

When are identity dilemmas—when people possess identities that conflict with one another and both are potentially stigmatizing—most likely to occur? Are they the result of generic social processes? A review of some of the extant research on “identity work” suggests that historical “misalignments” of culture and stratification, which we refer to as “lag,” create the greatest potential for stigma and the reproduction of inequalities. Lag is exacerbated by complex, intersecting axes of hierarchy, and amplified as symbolic environments globalize and subcultures multiply. Articulating culture and structure reveals how power plays out in interaction, and highlights the omnipresence of struggles for treatment as “fully human.” We consider whether “alignment” is even possible when multiple dimensions of social location intertwine, compete, and collide. Following Schwalbe and Mason‐Schrock (1996), we argue that “subcultural” or collective identity work that brings new meanings into dominant cultural narratives may offer the greatest hope, but in the interim all coping strategies are costly.     

School Bullying as a Collective Action: Stigma Processes and Identity Struggling

The aim of this study was to investigate the collective action of bullying and its stigma processes and influences on identities. In accordance with interactionism, identity is a social process, constructed and reconstructed in everyday social interactions. Ethnographic fieldwork was conducted in four school classes, investigating six bullying cases. Grounded theory methods were used to explore and analyse data. Co‐constructing differentness was found to be a core process in bullying. Bullying often appeared to function like a self‐serving and socially inclusive ritual in which the bullies co‐constructed the ‘normal us’. Loss of belonging, self‐deprecation and identity struggling followed closely upon the sense of becoming socially discredited. Victims were trapped in the collective action. The findings highlight the significance of addressing peer cultures and the social psychology of everyday school life in anti‐bullying policies and practices.     

Looking Forward,Looking Back: Collective Memory and Neighborhood Identity in Two Urban Parks

Collective memory and narratives of local history shape the ways people imagine a neighborhood's present situation and future development, processes that reflect tensions related to identity and struggles over resources. Using an urban culturalist lens and a focus on collective representations of place, I compare two nearby New York parks to uncover why, despite many similarities, they support different patterns of meaning making and use. Drawing on ethnographic observation, interviews, and secondary analysis, I show that multi‐vocal and fragmented contexts of collective memory help explain the uneven nature of gentrification processes, with one park serving as its cultural fulcrum while the other is left at the sidelines.     

Generations,Identities, and the Collective Memory of Che Guevara1

Has the image of Che Guevara lost its power to evoke radical politics in the face of pervasive commodification? The commercialization of this 1960s political icon has called into question the power of the market to shape collective memories. Meanwhile, antisystemic movements of the left continue to erect his image at protest events. In light of this contest over how Che Guevara is remembered, we investigate, using data from a survey of Spanish citizens, who is most likely to recall him. We find qualified support for the theory of generational imprinting—Che is more often recalled by those generations who saw him rise to prominence during their formative years, although prominent as a collective symbol rather than as a living person. Our results also corroborate the claim that historical figures or events are more salient for, and therefore more likely to be remembered by, some subgenerational units than others. Thus, although the younger generations are in general more likely than their elders to recall Che, he is most frequently remembered by the highly educated leftists who espouse postmaterialist and posttraditionalist values and identify more with their local regions than with the nation of Spain. These patterns suggest that, in contrast to the dire predictions of mass culture theorists, the memory of Che Guevara has become increasingly tied to markers of social, ethnic‐regional, and political identity.     

Intergroup Behaviour and Ethnicity: A Social Psychological Perspective

Humans exist not only as unique individuals, but also as members of social groups that are formed on the basis of ethnicity, gender, age and so forth. Reflecting this duality are interpersonal and intergroup modes of behaviour, respectively. Thus, humans can act in terms of their personal self and treat others as individuals (interpersonal behaviour); they can also act in terms of group membership and relate to others as members of this or that group (intergroup behaviour). In a mixed marriage, for example, the couple's behaviour toward each other is ‘normally’ interpersonal, but can become intergroup when war breaks out between their respective ethnic groups. Contrary to common sense, factors more minimal than a war are often sufficient to trigger intergroup behaviour. Indeed, seemingly interpersonal encounters are in fact intergroup. How does behaviour shift from interpersonal to intergroup, and with what consequences? To address these questions, I outline a social psychological perspective based on social identity theory and conclude with a discussion on the enigmas of ethnicity.     

African American Street Gangs: A Quest for Identity

Abstract

This paper examines the phenomenon of African American street gangs. It examines the scope of the gang problem, gives a historical review of gangs in America, and examines gang activity and membership for African American youth. Some of the causes for gang formation are delineated, and comprehensive programs for addressing the gang problem are proposed.     

Dual Impact: Outness and LGB Identity Formation on Mental Health

Conflicting literature exists for the relationship among outness, sexual minority identity formation, and mental health among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals. The present study examines the complex relationship among outness, identity, and mental health among 192 lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals collected from an online sample. The findings revealed that outness has a complex, dual impact on mental health. Specifically, outness was found to have both positive and negative consequences for mental health, with identity development accounting for the positive aspects of outness. Directions for future research and implications for clinicians are discussed.     

Collective Identity and Memory: A Comparative Analysis of Community Response to Environmental Hazards

Research has explored the ways in which communities respond to local polluting facilities. In some cases, residents mobilize to confront corporate and state polluters, whereas in other cases residents remain quiescent in the wake of documented environmental threats. The variation in community response is often linked to demographic variables, including age, gender, education, and length of residence; yet cultural factors remain largely unexamined. We examine how cultural factors such as community identity and memory mitigate the relationship between community residents and polluting facilities. We present a comparative study of two heavily polluted communities—Blackwell, Oklahoma, and Cañon City, Colorado—that had divergent responses to contamination. The data for these cases come from in‐depth interviews with community residents and various officials (N = 105), content analyses of newspaper coverage and relevant organization documents, and direct observation of meetings and organizing activities. Our findings indicate that cultural factors play a critical role in understanding the relationship between local residents and polluting facilities. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for future research on rural communities and environmental contamination.     

Race Talk and Local Collective Memory among African American Men in a Neighborhood Tavern

This article examines how African American men, through face-to-face conversation, create individual and collective memories around issues of race. I use ethnographic data collected in an African American neighborhood tavern in Chicago to argue that tavern patrons' race talk: 1) generates a collective memory of negative interracial interaction that gives reported racial encounters a compounding effect; and 2) empowers patrons through catharsis and gives them an opportunity to re-create themselves with a positive racial self-identity. Consequences of this microlevel collective memory for interracial interaction are discussed.     

The Codex,the Codicil and the Codpiece: Some Thoughts on Diminution and Elaboration in Identity Formation

This article is about the way in which the processes of diminution and elaboration can be detected in gendered accounts of identity formation. Firstly, it considers the ways in which power is denied to women through a series of reductions, restrictions and controls, and looks at the ways in which men, in contrast, elaborate their identities via a range of enlargements and extensions. The codex of the title refers to the role of the ‘Law’, in Kristeva's sense of the term, in authorizing such arrangements. The codpiece offers a metaphor for elaboration and extension: a male form of extension and elaboration. The codicil, an appendage to a last will and testament, is intended to convey the position of women as appendages, afterthoughts, marginal notes. The article is an example of what Pullen and Rhodes have called ‘dirty writing’, that is to say, it is written with the purpose of allowing the intrusion of the author into the text: with a deliberate confusion of the authorial standpoint and the content. Dirty writing contaminates. This article is written with the intention of contaminating the regulatory mechanisms of the production of the codex, to reveal the enormity of the codpiece and to permit the codicil to assume a role within the codex rather than simply occupying the position of appendage to it. The article is not auto‐ethnographic, although it has elements of autobiography. Rather this article seeks to ‘undo’ gender by fragmenting the coherence of the codex. More tentatively, it seeks to lay bare the male erection which is concealed by the codpiece and to expose it for what it is: an elaborate construction — an elaborate creation masking a less adequate membership. And so this piece of writing attempts to undermine the extravagance of masculine forms of writing; of writing to produce the codpiece, writing as conceit; writing which is antagonistic to fragmented experience. It will not satisfy some, it will irritate others. The article is unbalanced, unresolved: like life itself. It is about stories, illustrations, asides, observations. It is also, with all its attempts to subvert, (with all its attempts to make it ‘dirty’), a piece of male writing.     

Newlywed Couple Leisure: Couple Identity Formation Through Leisure Time

An interpretative phenomenological study of newlywed couple leisure was conducted to understand the role of leisure in the development of relationship dynamics and couple identity. Nine couples were interviewed twice, using open-ended questions that explored the role of leisure in their relationship development. Data were analyzed using interpretive phenomenological processes. Couples viewed leisure as a crucial part of their relationships, helping them develop their identities as couples through creating shared meaning and opportunities to improve communication and conflict management skills. Findings can be used to encourage couple exploration of positive leisure experiences during courtship and early marriage, including therapeutic interventions and relationship education programs that teach couples to incorporate joint leisure strategically into their relationships.     

Collective Action and Property Rights for Poverty Reduction: A Review of Methods and Approaches

This article provides a review of literature on the relationship between poverty and the institutions of collective action and property rights, as outlined in the conceptual framework of Di Gregorio et al. (2008). Using the elements of the framework as a guide, it offers an overview of how researchers and practitioners identify and evaluate these concepts. The article emphasises the multidimensionality of poverty and the necessity of applying various approaches and tools to conceptualising and measuring it. In addition to highlighting the crucial role that institutions play in poverty reduction, it shows power relations and the political context to be of fundamental importance in poverty‐related studies.