Social Movement Endurance: Collective Identity and the Rastafari |
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| Authors: | AlemSeghed Kebede Thomas E Shriver J David Knottnerus |
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| Institution: | Is a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His research is focused on the genesis and development of social movements in the non-Western world and their impact on the cultural/political repertoire of their respective societies. His papers (with colleagues at Oklahoma State University) have appeared in Sociological Perspectives, Sociological Inquiry;, and Research in Social Movements. is an assistant professor of sociology at Oklahoma State University. His primary research interests are in social movements and environmental sociology. He has published in these areas in Research in Social Problems and Public Policy, Sociological Spectrum, Sociological Inquiiy, and Sociological Focus;. is professor of sociology at Oklahoma State University. His interests are in social theory, social structure and inequality, social psychology, group processes, and collective behavior/social movements. He has recently published two books: Plantation Society and Race Relations: The Origins of Inequality;(Praeger), which he coedited with Thomas J. Durant Jr., and The Social Worlds of Male and Female Children in the Nineteenth-Century French Educational System: Youth, Rituals and Elites (Edwin Mellen Press) which he co-authored with Frbdbrique Van de Poel-Knottnerus. |
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| Abstract: | In this paper we argue that a movement's longevity depends on its ability to develop and sustain a strong sense of collective identity. We investigate social movement endurance by examining the Rastafari, whose membership is comprised primarily of disadvantaged Jamaicans of African descent. While many social movements fade after a short-lived peak, the Rastafari not only has persisted, but it also has become globally important. Despite its radical posture and its perceived threat to the Jamaican established order, the movement has prevailed for more than six decades. On the basis of a number of concepts derived from different theoretical traditions in social movement theory, we examine the dynamic processes involved in the construction of collective identity among the Rastafari. We are particularly interested in the concepts of "cognitive liberation,""movement culture/boundary structure," and "the politics of signification." These concepts allow us to describe and analyze the key dimensions of the Rastafarian collective identity. This framework, we argue, enhances our understanding of collective identity as well as the processes contributing to social movement longevity. |
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