The Mobilization Against the 2005 Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe: A French Mobilization for Another Europe |
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Authors: | Pascale Dufour |
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Institution: | 1. Département de Science Politique , Université de Montréal , Québec , Canada pascale.dufour@umontreal.ca |
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Abstract: | ABSTRACTOffering a contribution to cultural approaches to studying social movements, this paper explores how people incorporate social change efforts into broader self-projects. I use the contemporary abstinence pledge movement as an archetypal example of a lifestyle movement, a movement that advocates for lifestyle change as its primary challenge to perceived cultural problems. To capture the public face crafted by this movement, I coded complete website content for ten pledge organizations, as well as their print and social media presence. The data demonstrate: how pledge organizations explicitly target culture, rather than pressuring the state to enact policy change; how participants employ individualized tactics while still believing in their collective power to engender change; and that pledgers craft a moral self, engaging in ‘personal’ identity work. Expanding the lifestyle movement literature to think about outcomes and influence, I then show how pledgers contest perceptions of movement success, redefining effectiveness towards abstract, long-term, and subjective measures. I conclude by locating lifestyle movements in the context of late modernity and suggesting how theorists might use and further develop the concept in the future. |
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Keywords: | France multi-organizational fields alterglobalist movement European integration territorial belonging |
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