Self Identity And Social Movements

Bridging psychology and sociology, this volume demonstrates the importance of self, identity, and self-esteem in analyzing and understanding social movements. The scholars gathered here provide a cohesive picture of how self and identity bear on social movement recruitment, activism, and maintenance. The result is a timely contribution to the social movements literature and to a greater understanding of the social and psychological forces at work within them.

A full-length analysis of social movements from a cultural perspective. This work considers the different approaches to culture, how movements are affected by their cultural environment and internal cultures within the movements themselves.

Hong Kong’s ‘Umbrella Revolution’ has been widely regarded as a watershed moment in the polity’s post-1997 history. While public protest has long been a routine part of Hong Kong’s political culture, the preparedness of large numbers of citizens to participate in civil disobedience represented a new moment for Hong Kong society, reflecting both a very high level of politicisation and a deteriorating relationship with Beijing. The transformative processes underpinning the dramatic events of autumn 2014 have a wide relevance to scholarly debates on Hong Kong, China and the changing contours of world politics today. This book provides an accessible entry point into the political and social cleavages that underpinned, and were expressed through, the Umbrella Movement. A key focus is the societal context and issues that have led to growth in a Hong Kong identity and how this became highly politically charged during the Umbrella Movement. It is widely recognised that political and ethnic identity has become a key cleavage in Hong Kong society. But there is little agreement amongst citizens about what it means to ‘be Hong Konger’ today or whether this identity is compatible or conflicting with ‘being Chinese’. The book locates these identity cleavages within their historical context and uses a range of theories to understand these processes, including theories of nationalism, social identity, ethnic conflict, nativism and cosmopolitanism. This theoretical plurality allows the reader to see the new localism in its full diversity and complexity and to reflect on the evolving nature of Hong Kong’s relationship with Mainland China.

Why do social movements take the forms they do? How do activists' efforts and beliefs interact with the cultural and political contexts in which they work? This book considers the intersections of opportunities and identities, structures and cultures, in social movements.

Cultural changes over the past two decades have led to a proliferation of new social movements in Europe and the United States. New social movements such as ecology, peace, ethnicity, New Age philosophies, alternative medicine, and gender and sexual identity are among those that are emerging to challenge traditional categories in social movement theory. Synthesizing classic and modern perspectives the contributors help to redefine the field of social movements and advance an understanding of them through cross-cultural research, comparison with older movements, and an examination of the dimensions of identity—individual, collective, and melding of the two.

For years, students of social movements and other forms of contentious action have been sharply divided over what motivates people to engage in protest. Early on, analysts generally agreed that participation in acts of protest was motivated by various deprivations pushing toward action. Newer perspectives began to reject these views, holding that grievances were permanent and ubiquitous, and could not therefore explain new forms of action. Goods to be pursued were then seen as the essential and pulling motivational force. However, even those came to be seen as inessential and the focus turned toward structural factors such as organizations, resources, opportunities, and mobilization as the crucial determinants of protest. After exposing the limitations of these conflicting perspectives, Maurice Pinard elaborates on an entirely new synthesis, one that involves several motivational components. The pushing force of felt grievances, now with qualifications, is brought back but accompanied, or at times replaced, by other forces, such as feelings of moral obligation or simple aspirations. With regard to pulling factors, collective goods or goals pursued can be involved or replaced by individual material or social rewards granted to participants. Expectancy of success, a generally neglected component, also enters the picture. Finally, the effect of emotions and collective identities are among additional factors that must be considered. By developing theoretical distinctions that have important empirical implications and enriching and sharpening our understanding of the motivational factors for collective action, Pinard offers a major contribution destined to become an essential new starting point for any future writers addressing these issues.

Movements for social change are by their nature oppositional, as are those who join change movements. How people negotiate identity within social movements is one of the central concerns in the field. This volume offers new scholarship that explores issues of diversity and uniformity among social movement participants.