This article examines how social movement actors can forge and sustain a collective identity despite heterogeneous backgrounds and the absence of pre-existing commonalities and networks. Based on an ethnography of the French yellow vest movement, we build on the concept of reactive identity to describe two key mechanisms. First, we show this movement’s collective identity crystallized through the actors’ shared reactions to the broader sociopolitical environment. Then, we describe how identification processes are reinforced when social movement actors feel rejected, stigmatized, and repressed in their interactions with national institutions, civil society, and individuals. We explain how these mechanisms are useful for understanding the development of collective identities within mass movements, which encompass individuals with various and fragmented identities. Exploring new dimensions of reaction beyond the us-versus-them mechanisms of identity formation, we show how collective identity can coalesce for groups who became stigmatized as they mobilize to oppose their environment.
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March 2023
ARTICLES|
March 22 2023
THE STRENGTH OF PUSHBACK COLLECTIVE IDENTITY IN A FRAGMENTED MASS MOVEMENT*
Elise Lobbedez;
Elise Lobbedez
* The authors of this article warmly thank Valerie Arnhold, David Courpasson, Claire Le Breton, and Dima Younes for their friendly reviews on earlier versions. We would also like to show our gratitude to the participants of the several workshops and conferences where we had the opportunity to present our work and especially to the people who kindly accepted to discuss our paper in these events. In particular, we thank the participants of 2020 EGOS conference’s subtheme “Collective Action in Crisis?”, emlyon Qualitative Research Seminar Series, 2021 emlyon 14th Chamonix Ph.D. seminar, and the members of the Organizations, Critical, and Ethnographic Perspectives research center (OCE). We would also like to thank the people met during the fieldwork for their time, trust, and generosity as well as Caitlin Garvey and Liz Laurie for their help throughout the writing process. Last, thank you to the anonymous reviewers and the editor of the journal Mobilization for their valuable reviews which helped us strengthen our argument.
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Lisa Buchter
Lisa Buchter
†
* The authors of this article warmly thank Valerie Arnhold, David Courpasson, Claire Le Breton, and Dima Younes for their friendly reviews on earlier versions. We would also like to show our gratitude to the participants of the several workshops and conferences where we had the opportunity to present our work and especially to the people who kindly accepted to discuss our paper in these events. In particular, we thank the participants of 2020 EGOS conference’s subtheme “Collective Action in Crisis?”, emlyon Qualitative Research Seminar Series, 2021 emlyon 14th Chamonix Ph.D. seminar, and the members of the Organizations, Critical, and Ethnographic Perspectives research center (OCE). We would also like to thank the people met during the fieldwork for their time, trust, and generosity as well as Caitlin Garvey and Liz Laurie for their help throughout the writing process. Last, thank you to the anonymous reviewers and the editor of the journal Mobilization for their valuable reviews which helped us strengthen our argument.
Search for other works by this author on:
Mobilization: An International Quarterly (2023) 28 (1): 61–88.
Citation
Elise Lobbedez, Lisa Buchter; THE STRENGTH OF PUSHBACK COLLECTIVE IDENTITY IN A FRAGMENTED MASS MOVEMENT*. Mobilization: An International Quarterly 1 March 2023; 28 (1): 61–88. doi: https://doi.org/10.17813/1086-671X-28-1-61
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