Post on 18-Jan-2023
24
Social Movements and the Dynamics of Collective Action
Abstract
This chapter is devoted to the mechanisms of engagement and disengagement in
collective action as they are currently conceived in social and political psychology.
Dynamics of collective action are decomposed into dynamics of demand, supply, and
mobilization. Dynamics of demand are about people and their motives, dynamics of
supply about organizations and their appeals, and dynamics of mobilization about the
convergence of demand and supply. So far, the core business of political psychology has
been the demand side of protest. This chapter describes five core concepts affecting
collective action participation: grievances, efficacy, identity, emotions, and
embeddedness. As for the supply side of protest and mobilization, new research lines
(framing, the perceptions of the sociopolitical context, and the role of social media for
dynamics of mobilization and participation) are discussed. The chapter closes with a
discussion of new directions research methodology has taken.
Keywords
social movement, participation, disengagement, engagement, collective action, dynamics,
demand and supply, protest, mobilization, grievances, efficacy, identity, emotions,
embeddedness
Protests in the “new” democracies in central Europe about “stolen elections,” street
demonstrations in the “old” democracies against austerity measures, ongoing protests in
the Arab world for more democracy, and occupied city squares throughout the world to
denounce inequality and to demand better governance: Almost daily our news media
report on how people try to influence politics in contentious manners. This is not to say
that political protest is something people regularly do. In fact, participants in political
protest are most of the time a minority. Even mass mobilization rarely encompasses more
than a few percent of the population. This raises a question that has always occupied
students of social movements and collective action, especially social and political
psychologists: Why do some individuals participate in collective action while others
don’t? The answer to that question is less obvious than many assume.
In 1965 Mancur Olson published his Logic of Collective Action. The core of the
book was the argument that rational actors will not take part in collective action unless
selective incentives persuade them to do so. Olson’s reasoning was soon applied to social
movement participation, as it helped to explain why so often people do not participate in
social movements despite the interest they have in the achievement of the movement’s
goals. Movement scholars argued that movement goals are collective goods. Therefore, if
the goal is achieved, people will enjoy the benefits irrespective of whether they have
participated in the effort. In view of a goal for which achievement is uncertain, but for
which benefits—if materialized—can be reaped anyway, rational actors will take a free
ride, so the Olsonian reasoning goes.
The problem with Olson’s logic of collective action is that indeed it provides an
explanation for why people do not participate in collective action (although one of us
demonstrated that nonparticipation often has reasons other than free riding—
Klandermans, 1988), but fares poorly in explaining why people do participate. While we
are writing, the world witnesses the uproar in the Arab world, worldwide protests against
austerity measures, and the Occupy movement demonstrating if anything that people do
protest. A recurring criticism is that Olson’s model assumes that individuals make their
decisions in isolation, as if there are no social media, no other people with whom they
interact, with whom they feel solidary, and by whom they are kept to their promises. Yet
Olson’s dilemma of collective action can serve well to explain why participation in
collective action cannot be taken for granted even if it seems to be in someone’s interest.
This is the paradox that lies at the roots of the argument we will unfold in the pages to
come. We propose a political psychology of collective action participation. In doing so,
we will introduce dynamics of collective action of engagement, sustainable participation,
and disengagement. But we will begin with a definition of social movements and
collective action, the phenomena we are interested in.
1. Defining Social Movements and Collective Action
“Social movements are collective challenges by people with common purposes and
solidarity in sustained interaction with elites and authorities” (Klandermans, 1997, p. 2;
Tarrow, 1998, p. 4). This definition includes three key elements that deserve elaboration.
First, social movements are collective challenges. They concern disruptive collective
direct action against elites, authorities, other groups, or cultural codes. There is an
obvious reason why this is the case. Social movements typically though not always
encompass people who lack access to politics. Had they had access, there would have
been no need for a social movement. Disruptive collective action forces authorities to pay
attention to the claims brought forward. Second, it concerns people with a common
purpose and solidarity. Social movement participants rally behind common claims; they
want authorities to do something, to change a state of affair or to undo changes. Such
common claims are rooted in feelings of collective identity and solidarity. Third, isolated
incidents of collective action are not social movements. Only sustained collective action
turns contention into a social movement.
Although movement participants are a minority, several authors have observed
that movement types of action has become more frequent over the last 30 years (Jenkins,
1995; Mayer, 2013; but see McCarthy, Rafail, & Gromis, 2013 for diverging figures on
the United States; Meyer & Tarrow, 1998; Neidhart & Rucht, 1993; van Stekelenburg, &
Boekkooi, 2013; 2010). Others have argued that social movements have become a
regular phenomenon in democratic societies (Goldstone, 2003; Johnston, 2011). Some of
these authors have labeled this trend “movimentization of politics” (Neidhardt & Rucht,
1993), while others coined the term “movement society” (Meyer & Tarrow, 1998;
Johnston, 2011). This is also observed at the individual level by Dalton, Van Sickle, and
Weldon (2009). With data from the 1999–2002 wave of the World Values Survey
(WVS), they demonstrate that political protest is seemingly a ubiquitous aspect of politics
in contemporary advanced industrial societies, and that its use may be spreading to less
developed nations as well.
Engaging in social movements most of the time implies taking part in some form
of collective action. In the words of Wright, Taylor, and Moghaddam (1990) an
individual takes part in collective action “any time that [she or he] is acting as a
representative of the group and the action is directed at improving the conditions of the
entire group.” Wright (2001) proposes a simple taxonomy of possible forms of political
action. In response to some political issue, people can chose to stay inactive; if they get
into action, they can engage in individual or collective action; and collective action can
be noncontentious or contentious. Participation can further be distinguished in terms of
duration (ad hoc versus sustained) and effort (weak versus strong) (figure 24.1).
[Insert Figure 24.1]
Some activities require little effort, others a lot, and some are limited in time,
while others are unlimited. Activities in the low-effort/limited duration square typically
require large numbers to make any impression on policymakers. It does not make much
sense to have a petition with only 10 signatures; you need thousands if not hundreds of
thousands. People know this, and thus for them to be motivated it is important to know
that some threshold level will be reached. Therefore, an important element of the
persuasion strategy must be how to convince people that enough other people will
participate. Activities in the high-effort/unlimited duration square, on the other hand,
must solve the free-rider dilemma. For high-effort/long duration activities it usually
suffices to have only a few participants who are willing to make an effort. As a
consequence, many people can afford to take a free ride. Willingness to participate in this
type of activity thus implies readiness to give 90% or more of the supporters that free
ride. The social psychological dynamics vary, as the story of thresholds and free riders
illustrate. Attempts to explain (non)participation must thus take into account the kind of
activity we are talking about.
In this chapter we focus on individuals—what are their fears, hopes, and
concerns? What are the choices they make and the motives they have? These questions
bring us to the level of analysis of the individual and therefore to the realm of political
and social psychology. Obviously, other disciplines like sociology and political science
have social movements and collective action as their study object too; in this chapter we
will focus on the political psychological approach and will point to literature from
sociology and political science where applicable. People live in a perceived world. They
respond to the world as they perceive and interpret it. Indeed, this is what a political
psychology of social movements and collective action is about—trying to understand
why people who are seemingly in the same sociopolitical configuration respond so
different. As political psychology explores the causes of the thoughts, feelings, and
actions of people―and primarily how these are influenced by sociopolitical context―it
has a lot to offer to the study of protest participation. Indeed, context matters. Therefore,
questions we want to ask as well include the following: How are citizens embedded in
their social environment, and how does that influence their political orientation and
behavior? What kind of politics do citizens encounter? In this chapter we concentrate on
movement politics, but we must not forget that movement and party politics are
counterparts and that contextual factors influence whether citizens choose to employ one
or the other.
2. Why Social Movements Emerge
In this chapter we concentrate on why individuals participate in movement activities. The
question of why social movements come into being and why they have become common
practice is not our focal question. There is a rich literature available on that matter (for
instance, Buechler, 2000; della Porta & Diani, 2006; Klandermans, 2001; McAdam,
McCarthy, & Zald, 1996; McAdam, Tarrow, & Tilly, 2001; Meyer & Tarrow, 1998;
Snow, Soule, & Kriesi, 2004; Tarrow, 2011). For our purpose it suffices to summarize
the global answers that have been forwarded, in brief: because people are aggrieved,
because people have the resources to mobilize and seize the political opportunity to
protest, and because their collective identities politicize. These answers parallel the
history of theoretical approaches to collective action. Research began in the 1950s and
1960s with classical theories such as symbolic interactionism, structural functionalism,
and relative deprivation theory. Buechler (2000) classified these theories as classical
collective behavior theories, a category that he characterizes as theories that understand
social movements as a reaction to social stress, strain, or breakdown. The direct causes of
collective behavior are seen as rooted in individuals who are experiencing various forms
of discontent or anxiety. Basically, discontent is viewed as the origin of protest. In social
movement literature these theories have also been labeled “breakdown theories,” which
alludes to the fact that researchers conceived of social movements as indicators of the
existence of major cleavages in a society and of societal tension or even breakdown as a
consequence. The works of Blumer (1951), Turner and Killian (1987), Smelser (1962),
Davies (1962), and Gurr (1970) are classic examples of this research tradition. The first
two are associated with symbolic interactionism, describing social movements as
phenomena emerging in the interaction between dissatisfied people. Smelser is associated
with structural functionalism, an approach that defines social movements as a process to
restore equilibrium in a society. Davies and Gurr brought relative deprivation to the field,
explaining the emergence of social movements from high levels of relative deprivation in
a society. But it was obvious that many aggrieved people never engage in protest. Indeed
in the early 1970s protagonists of resource mobilization theory began to argue that
grievances are ubiquitous and that the real question is not so much what makes people
aggrieved but what makes aggrieved people participate in social movements (McCarthy
& Zald, 1976; Oberschall, 1973).
Resource mobilization theorists saw social movements as normal, rational,
institutionally rooted political challenges by aggrieved people. Differential availability of
resources explains in their eyes why some aggrieved people become involved in social
movements while others don’t. It was argued that people need resources to stage
collective political action, and a key resource for such action is organizations and
networks that exist among the affected population (so-called indigenous organizations,
Morris, 1984). Applying an economic metaphor, McCarthy and Zald (1976) made the
distinction between social movements (beliefs that represent a preference for change in a
society), social movement organizations (organizations that identify with a social
movement), social movement industries (social movement organizations that belong to
the same social movement), and social movement sectors (all social movement industries
in a society). Within the resource mobilization framework, participation in collective
action was analyzed in terms of the costs and benefits associated with it. Rational choice
models of behavior (Klandermans, 1984; Oberschall, 1973; Opp, 1988) and Olson’s
theory of collective action (1965) were employed as models to explain individuals’
participation and nonparticipation in collective action. When the potential benefits
outweigh the anticipated costs, people opt to participate. Paradoxically, the same
deprivation that might motivate people to stage collective action might deprive them of
the resources needed for such action. Indeed, it was proposed that external resources
could tip the balance. Soon a variant of resource mobilization theory developed within
political science—the political process approach—which proposed that political
opportunities available to aggrieved groups with the resources to take action make the
difference (McAdam, 1982). Political opportunities are “those consistent—but not
necessarily formal or permanent—dimensions of the political environment that provide
incentives for people to undertake collective action by affecting their expectations of
success and failure” (Tarrow, 1998, p. 85). Among the many aspects of the political
environment that have been referred to as factors influencing success expectations are the
strength of the state, the level of repression, the party system, the degree of access to
policy, and the dividedness of elites.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, partly as the result of exchanges between
American and European social movement scholars (Klandermans, Kriesi, & Tarrow,
1988), an interest began to develop in the cognitive and affective origins of social
movements. In response to the structuralist approach of the then dominant paradigms—
resource mobilization and political process theories—social movement scholars from
various angles began to highlight the processes of interaction, the symbolic definition and
negotiation among participants, opponents, and bystanders of collective action.
Grievances, resources, and opportunities are all needed for social movements to develop,
but these scholars hold that they are also the result of the presence of social movements.
They are in the eyes of the beholder and thus socially constructed. Moreover, researchers
working from this perspective argued that aggrieved people might have the resources and
opportunities to protest, but they still need to construct a politicized collective identity to
engage in collective political action. Over the last decade and a half this new approach to
collective action has been elaborated in studies of framing, collective identity, and
emotions in the context of social movements. Together they have been labeled social
constructionist approaches to protest. Snow, Rochford, Worden, and Benford (1986)
were among the first to elaborate on the role of cognitive processes in their treatment of
frame alignment—that is, attempts by movement organizers to persuade people to adopt
the movement’s reading of the situation. At the same time, Melucci (1989) began to point
to the importance of collective identity (Cohen, 1985). In social psychology, scholars
began to elaborate social identity theory and intergroup emotions theory (see Huddy,
chapter 23, this volume). Soon cognition and identity began to proliferate in social
movement literature (see Morris & McClurg Mueller, 1992 for an overview of scholarly
work at that time). The most recent social constructionist attempt to move away from
structural approaches such as resource mobilization and political process concerns the
role of emotions in collective action (Goodwin, Jasper, & Polleta, 2001; van
Stekelenburg & Klandermans, 2007). By way of conclusion it suffices to assert that
social constructionism has carved out its own niche as a legitimate approach to the
analysis of social movements (Buechler, 2000, p. 54).
In sum, breakdown theories, resource mobilization and political process theories,
and social constructionist theories all tried to account for the emergence of social
movements in our societies. All agree that somehow grievances are at the roots of social
movements and contention, but they diverge in their explanations of what makes
aggrieved people protest. While breakdown theories offer little in terms of mobilization
processes beyond high levels of discontent, resource mobilization and political process
theory point to resources and political opportunities as factors in the environment that
impact on the formation and fate of social movements. Social constructionists, on the
other hand, focus more on processes of interaction and sense-making among the
aggrieved as internal factors stimulating the emergence of social movements. The
remainder of this chapter will be devoted to the mechanisms of engagement and
disengagement in collective action as they are currently conceived in social and political
psychology.
3. The Dynamics of Collective Action
Dynamics of collective action can be decomposed into dynamics of demand, supply, and
mobilization (Klandermans, 2004). Dynamics of demand are about people and their
motives, dynamics of supply about organizations and their appeals, and dynamics of
mobilization about the convergence of demand and supply. Although the three are
interdependent, each concerns different aspects of the dynamics of collective action,
refers to different mechanisms, and relates to different literatures.
The demand side of collective action concerns characteristics of a social
movement’s mobilization potential. What is its demographic and political composition?
Which collective identities does it comprise? What are the shared grievances and
emotions? What is the composition of its organizational field; and to what extent are
individuals socially and virtually embedded? The supply side of collective action
concerns the characteristics of the movement. Is it strong; is it effective? Is it likely to
achieve its goals at affordable costs? Does it have charismatic leaders? Is it an
organization people can identify with? What does its action repertoire look like? Does it
stage activities that are appealing to people? Which ideology does the movement stand
for, and what constituents of identification does it offer? Demand and supply do not
automatically come together. In a market economy, marketing is employed to make sure
that the public is aware of a supply that might meet its demand. Mobilization is—so to
speak—the marketing mechanism of the movement domain. The study of mobilization
concerns such matters as the effectiveness of (persuasive) communication, the influence
of social networks, and the role of new media such as the Internet, (smart)phones, and
social media.
Studies of participation tend to concentrate on mobilization and to neglect the
development of demand and supply factors. Yet there is no reason to take either for
granted. To be sure, grievances abound in a society, but that does not mean that there is
no reason to explain how grievances develop and how they are transformed into a
demand for protest. Nor does the presence of social movement organizations in a society
mean that there is no need to understand their formation and to investigate how they stage
opportunities to protest and how these opportunities are seized by aggrieved people.
Between the paradigms a division of labor seems to exist in terms of the study of
demand and supply. Whereas resource mobilization and political process theorists
typically study supply factors, social constructionists study demand factors, and all three
study mobilization. As we are concentrating on the study of collective action in social
and political psychology, we will put an emphasis on demand and mobilization, but we
cannot do without a brief discussion of the dynamics of supply.
3.1. Dynamics of Demand
Little is known about how exactly demand is formed. A few decades ago Klandermans
introduced the distinction between consensus mobilization and consensus formation
(1984; 1988). While consensus mobilization concerns “the deliberate attempts to spread
the view of a social actor among parts of the population,” consensus formation concerns
“the unplanned convergence of meaning in social networks and subcultures”
(Klandermans, 1988, p. 175). Gamson (1992) in his Talking Politics shows that people
use any kind of information source if they talk with their friends about politics.
Employing time-series analysis Vliegenthart (2007) demonstrated for the issues of
immigration and integration that in a complex interplay between real-life events, media
attention, debates in the parliament, and debates between politicians, public opinion is
formed and converted into anti-immigrant party support in the Netherlands. In research
she has yet to report on, van Stekelenburg investigates how, in a newly built
neighborhood, demand for protest develops as a function of the development of formal,
informal, and virtual networks. These days the Internet and social media play a crucial
role in this regard (Earl & Kimport, 2011; van Stekelenburg, Petrovic, Pouw, Limburg,
& Nederlof, 2012).
Indeed, the formation of demand is a process that takes place in social interaction.
Individuals are embedded in formal, informal, and virtual networks, which in turn are
embedded in multiorganizational fields. Taylor (2013) proposes the concept of discursive
communities to signify these settings in which consensus formation takes place.
Understanding the formation of demand in a society requires insight in these processes of
consensus mobilization and formation. We will return to the subject in our section on
mobilization.
3.1.1. Grievances
Grievances concern “outrage about the way authorities are treating a social problem”
(Klandermans, 1997, p. 38). In The Social Psychology of Protest, while expanding on
this definition, Klandermans made the distinction between illegitimate inequality,
suddenly imposed grievances, and violated principles. The notions of suddenly imposed
grievances and violated principles, in fact, originate in the sociological social movement
literature. Walsh (1983) coined the first and Kriesi (1993) the second. Suddenly imposed
grievances—such as the establishment of a waste incinerator or a highway trajectory—
are powerful mobilizers, as are violated principles. Illegitimate inequality is dealt with in
the literatures on relative deprivation and social justice. Relative deprivation theory holds
that feelings of relative deprivation result from a comparison of one’s situation with a
certain standard—one’s past, someone else’s situation, or an ideological standard such as
equity or justice (Folger, 1986). If a comparison results in the conclusion that one is not
receiving what one deserves, a person experiences relative deprivation. The literature
further distinguishes between relative deprivation based on personal comparisons (i.e.,
individual deprivation) and relative deprivation based on group comparisons (i.e., group
deprivation; Kelly & Breinlinger, 1996). Research demonstrates that group relative
deprivation is particularly important for engagement in collective action (Major, 1994),
but work by Foster and Matheson (1999) suggests that so-called “double deprivation,”
that is, a combination of group and individual deprivation, is even more effective. On the
basis of a meta-analysis, van Zomeren, Postmes, and Spears (2008) conclude that the
cognitive component of relative deprivation (i.e., the observation that one receives less
than the standard of comparison) has less influence on action participation than does the
affective component (i.e., such feelings as dissatisfaction, indignation, and discontent
about outcomes).
Social psychologists have applied social justice theory to the study of social
movements (Tyler & Smith, 1998). The social justice literature distinguishes between
two classes of justice judgments: distributive and procedural justice. Distributive justice
is related to relative deprivation in that it refers to the fairness of outcome distributions.
Procedural justice, on the other hand, refers to the fairness of decision-making procedures
and the relational aspects of the social process, that is, whether authorities treat people
with respect and can be trusted to act in a beneficial and unbiased manner (Tyler & Lind,
1992). Research has found that people care more about how they are treated than about
outcomes. Based on these findings, Tyler and Smith (1998) propose that procedural
justice might be a more powerful predictor of social movement participation than
distributive justice; that is what we found indeed both in our research in South Africa
(Klandermans, Roefs, & Olivier, 2001) and among migrants in the Netherlands and New
York (Klandermans, Van der Toorn, & van Stekelenburg, 2008).
Political trust and political cynicism further influence the formation of grievances.
Folger (1986) argues that perceived inequalities will not turn into discontent if people
trust responsible actors (mostly authorities) to deal with the problem. Indeed, we found in
our research in South Africa that relative deprivation is substantially reduced when
people display trust in government (Klandermans et al., 2001). On the other hand, if
people are cynical about politics, feelings of injustice are more likely to turn into
contestation, as our migrants study demonstrated (Klandermans, Van der Toorn, & van
Stekelenburg, 2008).
Table 24.1 summarizes what grievances are strong motivators: suddenly imposed
grievances, group and double deprivation rather than individual deprivation, procedural
justice rather than distributive justice, the emotional component of grievances rather than
the cognitive component, violated principles and threatened interests, and political
cynicism rather than trust.
[Insert Table 24.1]
3.1.2. Efficacy
It would be hard to deny that people who are part of a movement’s mobilization potential
are aggrieved, but as we know meanwhile grievances do not provide a sufficient reason
to participate in collective action. Therefore, the key question of any grievance theory to
address is: why do some aggrieved people protest, while others do not? The first to raise
that question were the resource mobilization theorists (e.g., Oberschall, 1973; McCarthy
and Zald, 1976) and a social psychological expansion thereof (Klandermans, 1984).
More recently, in a large comparative study based on WVS surveys, Dalton et al. (2009)
found that grievances are weak predictors of protest. Rather than aggrieved people, it is
those who possess political skills and resources who generally protest more, independent
of their level of grievances. The underlying political psychological concept is efficacy.
People are more likely to participate in movement activities when they believe this will
help to redress their grievances at affordable costs (Klandermans, 1984). The more
effective an individual believes collective action participation to be, the more likely the
person is to participate. Van Zomeren, Spears, Fischer, and Leach (2004) propose
efficacy as the core of what they call problem-focused coping—one of the two pathways
to collective action they define, the other being emotion-focused coping, with group-
based anger at its core (see below). In a cross-national study Corcoran, Pettinicchio, and
Young (2012) demonstrated the significant role of efficacy for protest participation
across 48 countries. Qualifying the assertions of political process approaches, these
authors report important contextual influences. Feelings of efficacy make people more
likely to participate in collective action, especially if they are faced with closed political
opportunities. But for those who feel efficacious, opportunities or lack of repression don’t
make any difference. Efficacious people participate in collective action no matter what
the opportunities are. Indeed, opportunities or absence of repression only make fatalistic
people take part in collective action. The authors report that social embeddedness is of
crucial importance for the generation and role of feelings of efficacy in that respect. We
will come back to that later.
3.1.3. Identity
Next to efficacy, identity, specifically collective identity, became an important concept in
the social movement literature in the past 25 years. Melucci was among the first to
emphasize the significance of collective identity (1981). In the years to follow the
concept began to gain prominence in the social movement literature (see Stryker, Owens,
& White, 2000). Meanwhile, social psychologists began to explore the role of group
identification in movement participation (Kelly & Breinlinger, 1996; Simon et al., 1998;
de Weerd & Klandermans, 2000; Simon & Klandermans, 2001; Stürmer & Simon, 2004)
and concluded that the more one identifies with a group involved in a protest activity, the
more likely one is to take part in that activity.
A complicating matter in this respect is the fact that people simultaneously hold
multiple identities, while movements tend to emphasize a single identity and refer to a
single place in society. As a consequence, people may experience being steered in
different directions by conflicting identities (cf. Kurtz, 2002). Individuals might find
themselves under cross-pressure when two groups they identify with are on opposite
sides of a controversy (e.g., union members faced with the decision to strike against their
own company). Indeed, workers who go on strike or movement activists who challenge
their government are often accused of being disloyal to the company or the country. This
problem is especially relevant in the case of protest participation by immigrants, these
days specifically Muslim immigrants, which can easily be (mis)interpreted as disloyalty
to their new country of residence. González and Brown (2003) coined the term “dual
identity” to point to the concurrent workings of supra- and subordinated identities. They
argue that identification with a subordinate entity (e.g., ethnic identity) does not
necessarily exclude identification with a supraordinate entity (e.g., national identity). In
fact, they claim that dual identity is a healthy configuration, as it implies sufficient
identification with one’s subgroup to experience basic security and sufficient
identification with the overarching group to preclude divisiveness.
There is evidence that indeed people who hold a dual identity are more satisfied
with their situation than people who do not (González & Brown, 2003; Simon, 2010).
Furthermore, studies of Spanish and Dutch farmers, South African citizens, and
immigrants in the Netherlands and New York suggest that individuals who report holding
a dual identity are more satisfied with their social and political situation than those who
do not hold a dual identity (Klandermans et al., 2001; Klandermans, Sabucedo, &
Rodriguez, 2004; Klandermans et al., 2008). However, if they are dissatisfied,
individuals who hold a dual identity are more likely to participate in collective action.
Simon and his students (Simon & Grabow, 2010; Simon & Ruhs, 2008) have
argued that a politicized collective identity is by definition a dual identity. In 2001 Simon
and Klandermans published their influential paper on the politicization of collective
identity (PCI). In order to become the vehicle of collective action, collective identity
must politicize, they argued. Shared grievances, common enemies, and a search for third-
party support are the building blocks of PCI the authors refer to. Some sense of
identification with the superordinate political entity seems to be a basic requirement of
social and political mobilization in that it ensures that this entity is acknowledged as
one’s own social or political habitat or arena. More specifically, to the extent that one
identifies with the superordinate entity, one should feel entitled to make political claims,
because identity confers rights. Similarly, one should feel motivated to get actively
involved in the political game, because it becomes one’s own game, and one should feel
encouraged to approach third parties as potential allies, because they can be viewed as in-
group members at the superordinate level (Simon and Ruhs, 2008). Politicization divides
people’s social environment into allies and opponents and results in polarization.
Polarization concerns the process of distancing of the opposing camps. The more
polarized the relationship becomes, the less deviation from own opinions and actions is
accepted and the more opinions and acts of the opponents are rejected. Eventually, this
may result in radicalization. Simon suggests that in a polarized situation, to the extent that
PCI is a dual identity including identification with the superordinate polity, PCI has a
pacifying effect on politicization and associated collective action in that it prioritizes
normative claims and actions (i.e., claims and actions that stay within the limits of
normative acceptance in the larger polity). In contrast, collective identities lacking this
pacifying effect, such as separatist identities based on more exclusive cultural, ethnic, or
religious allegiances, should be more prone to nonnormative escalation and
radicalization.
3.1.4. Emotions
Recent work in sociology and social and political psychology has brought emotions to the
study of social movements (Goodwin et al., 2001; Jasper, 1998; van Stekelenburg, 2006;
van Zomeren et al., 2004). For those of us who have been part of protest events or
watched reports on protest events in the news media, this is hardly surprising. Indeed, it is
hard to conceive of protest detached from emotions. Emotions can be avoidance or
approach oriented. Fear, which makes people refrain from taking action, is an example of
an avoidance-oriented emotion. Anger is an approach oriented emotion and is known to
be an antecedent of protest participation (van Zomeren et al., 2004). There appears to be
a relation between emotions and efficacy. When people do not feel efficacious, they are
more likely to experience fear; feeling efficacious, on the other hand, is associated with
experiencing anger (Mackie, Devos, & Smith, 2000). Findings from our study among
migrants confirm this: feelings of efficacy reinforced anger and reduced fear, while in
their turn anger fostered collective action participation, while fear undermined it
(Klandermans et al., 2008). Van Zomeren et al. (2004) show that anger is an important
motivator of protest participation of disadvantaged groups. Leach and colleagues (2007)
examined readiness for political action among advantaged Australians to oppose
government plans to redress disadvantaged Aborigines. They found that symbolic racism
and relative deprivation evoked group-based anger, which in turn promoted willingness
for political action. But advantaged group members can also perceive the in-group
advantage as unfair and feel guilt and anger about it. Anger related to in-group advantage,
and to a lesser degree guilt, appears to be a potent predictor for protest (Leach et al.,
2006). Anger, guilt, and fear are not the only emotions relevant in the context of
movement participation; indeed other emotions such as hope and despair are proposed as
well (D. Gould, 2009; Stürmer & Simon, 2009; Taylor, 2013). Anger moves people to
adopt a more challenging relationship with authorities than subordinate emotions such as
shame and despair (Taylor, 2009) or fear (Klandermans et al., 2008).
In explaining different tactics, efficacy appears to be relevant, too. Anger is
mainly observed in normative actions were efficacious people protest. However, in
nonnormative violent actions contempt appears to be the more relevant emotion (Fischer
& Roseman, 2007; Tausch, Becker, Spears, & Christ, 2008). This suggests two
emotional routes to protest (cf. van Stekelenburg & Klandermans, 2010): an anger route
based on efficacy leading to normative action, and a contempt route when legitimate
channels are closed (Wright et al., 1990) and the situation is seen as hopeless, invoking a
“nothing to lose” strategy leading to nonnormative protest (Kamans, Otten, & Gordijn,
2010).
3.1.5. An Integrating Framework
Strikingly, a comprehensive framework integrating identities, grievances, and emotions
into a single model was lacking for a long time. Recently, however, Simon et al. (1998),
van Zomeren et al. (2008), and van Stekelenburg and Klandermans (2007; 2009, 2011)
have each attempted to build such models. The three models these authors have offered
have in common that they distinguish various pathways to collective action. While Simon
et al. distinguish an instrumental and identity pathway, and van Zomeren et al. distinguish
between an emotion- and a problem-focused pathway, van Stekelenburg and
Klandermans distinguish instrumentality, identity, ideology, and anger as determinants of
participation in collective action. Central to all three models are processes of
identification; in order to develop the shared grievances and shared emotions that
characterize demand, a shared identity is needed. Similarly, all three models include an
instrumentality component with efficacy as a key aspect. In a comparison of the three
models van Zomeren et al. concluded that injustice, identity, and efficacy each
contributed to the explanation of collective action participation (2008).
[Insert Figure 24.2]
Figure 24.2 depicts our summary of the various models. As dependent variable
we took the strength of the motivation to participate in collective action. Motivational
strength results from group-based anger, and instrumental and/or ideological motivation.
Instrumental and ideological motivation each result from grievances and feelings of
efficacy shared with a group that the individual participants identify with. Grievances
may originate from interests and/or principles that are felt to be threatened. The more
people feel that interests of the group and/or principles that the group values are
threatened, the angrier they are and the more they are prepared to take part in collective
action to protect their interests and/or to express their indignation. Whether a specific
level of motivation turns into actual participation depends also on the supply of
opportunities to act.
3.2. Dynamics of Supply
Social movement organizations are more or less successful in satisfying demands for
collective political participation, and we may assume that movements that are
successfully supplying what potential participants demand gain more support than
movements that fail to do so. Movements and movement organizations can be compared
in terms of their effectiveness in this regard. This is not to say that it is easy to assess
effectiveness (Giugni, 1998; 2004; Giugni, McAdam, & Tilly, 1999). Measures of effect
differ (e.g., impact on and access to polity, impact on public opinion, attention of mass
media) and people’s assessment of effectiveness differs as well. A movement
organization’s effectiveness can also be assessed on its ability to provide selective
incentives (McCarthy & Zald, 1976; Oliver, 1980). Nonetheless, movement
organizations try to convey the image of an effective political force. They can do so by
pointing to the impact they have had in the past, or to the powerful allies they have. Of
course, they may lack all this, but then, they might be able to show other signs of
strength. A movement may command a large constituency, as witnessed by turnout on
demonstrations, or by membership figures, or large donations. It may comprise strong
organizations with strong charismatic leaders who have gained respect, and so on.
The political system and the organizational field movement organizations are
embedded in may also show considerable variation that influences the supply side of
movement participation. Repressive political environments may increase the costs of
participation considerably: people may lose friends, they may risk their jobs or otherwise
jeopardize their sources of income, they may be jailed, and they may even lose their lives
(Davenport, Johnston, & Mueller, 2005; Tilly, 1978).
An important element of the supply side of participation is the provision of
information about the behavior of others. Social networks—real and virtual—are of
strategic importance in this respect, because it is through these networks that people are
informed about the behavior or intentions of others (Chew, 1999; Earl & Kimport, 2011;
Kim & Bearman, 1997; Oegema & Klandermans, 1994; Passy, 2001). In his paper on the
Chinese student movement of 1989, Zhao (1998) gives a striking illustration of this
mechanism. He describes how the ecological circumstance that most students in Beijing
live in the same part of town made the success of the movement in terms of mobilization
visible in the streets in front of the dormitories. In the virtual world, social media such as
Facebook do the same (van Stekelenburg & Klandermans, 2012)
Movements offer the opportunity to act on behalf of one’s group. This is most
attractive if people identify strongly with their group (de Weerd & Klandermans, 1999;
Kelly & Breinlinger, 1996; Klandermans, 2002; Simon et al., 1998; Stürmer & Simon,
2004). Interestingly, all these studies show that identification with the more exclusive
group of movement participants is far more influential than identification with the more
inclusive category. Indeed, in addition to the opportunity to act on behalf of the group,
collective political action participation offers further constituents of identification: the
leader of the movement; the movement’s cause; the people in the movement, the
movement organization, or the group one is participating in. Not all these sources of
identification are always equally appealing. Movement leaders can be more or less
charismatic, or the people in the movement can be more or less attractive. Moreover,
movements and movement organizations may be, and in fact often are, controversial. As
a consequence, movement participants are frequently stigmatized (Klandermans &
Mayer, 2006; Linden & Klandermans, 2006). Within the movement’s network, this is, of
course, completely different. There the militant does have the status society is denying
him or her. Indeed, it is not uncommon for militants to refer to the movement
organization as a second family, a substitute for the social and associative life society is
no longer offering them (Orfali, 1990; Tristan, 1987). Movement organizations not only
supply sources of identification, they also offer all kinds of opportunities to enjoy and
celebrate the collective identity: marches, rituals, songs, meetings, signs, symbols, and
common codes (see Stryker et al., 2000 for an overview).
Social movements play a significant role in the diffusion of ideas and values
(Eyerman & Jamison, 1991). Rochon (1998) makes the distinction between “critical
communities,” where new ideas and values are developed, and “social movements,”
which are interested in winning social and political acceptance for those ideas and values.
“In the hands of movement leaders, the ideas of critical communities become ideological
frames” (Rochon, 1998, p. 31). Through processes such as consensus mobilization
(Klandermans, 1988), framing (Snow et al., 1986), or dialogue (Steinberg, 1999)
movements seek to disseminate their definition of the situation to the public at large.
Such definitions of the situation have been labeled “collective action frames” (Gamson,
1992; Klandermans, 1997). Collective action frames can be defined in terms of
injustice—that is, some definition of what’s wrong in the world; identity—that is, some
definition of who is affected and who is responsible; and agency—that is, some beliefs
about the possibilities of changing society. We may assume that people who join a
movement come to share some part of the movement’s ideas and values.
Social movements do not invent ideas from scratch; they build on an ideological
heritage as they relate their claims to broader themes and values in society. In so doing
they relate to societal debates that have a history of its own, and that history is usually
much longer than that of the movement itself. Gamson (1992), for example, refers to the
“themes” and “counterthemes” that in his view exist in every society. One such paired
theme and countertheme he mentions is “self-reliance” versus “mutuality,” that is, the
belief that individuals must take care of themselves versus the belief that society is
responsible for its less fortunate members. In a study of the protests about disability
payments in the Netherlands we demonstrated how in the Netherlands these two beliefs
became the icons that galvanized the debates (Klandermans & Goslinga, 1996). While
“self-reliance” became the theme of those favoring restrictions on disability payments,
“mutuality” was the theme of those who defended the existing system. Another example
is what Tarrow (1998) calls “rights frames”: human rights, civil rights, women’s rights,
animal rights, and so on, in other words, collective action frames that relate a
movement’s aims to some fundamental rights frame. For decades Marxism has been such
an ideological heritage movements identified with, positively by embracing it or
negatively by distancing themselves from it. In a similar vein, fascism and Naziism form
the ideological heritage right-wing extremism must come to terms with either by
identifying with it or by keeping it at a distance.
The supply side of collective action is not static or a constant. In fact, it has to be
constructed again in every mobilization campaign. McAdam et al. (1996) have defined
this phenomenon as mobilizing structures, which are “those collective vehicles, informal
as well as formal, through which people mobilize and engage in collective action”
(McAdam et al., 1996, p. 3). Mobilizing structures are the connecting tissue between
organizers and participants. At any time, all kinds of groups, organizations, and networks
that exist in a society can become part of a mobilizing structure. However, none can be
assumed to automatically become part of it. Networks need to be adapted, appropriated,
assembled, and activated by organizers in order to function as mobilizing structures
(Boekkooi, Klandermans, & van Stekelenburg, 2011). Many studies have shown that
networks are important in explaining differential recruitment and mobilization (e.g.,
Klandermans & Oegema, 1987; Snow, Zurcher, & Ekland-Olson, 1980; Walgrave &
Klandermans, 2010). Assembling a mobilizing structure is an important step in the
process of micromobilization. Which organizations join the mobilizing coalition is an
important predictor of who will participate in the protest (e.g., Heaney and Rojas, 2008).
Most studies assessing organizational affiliations show that organizations predominantly
mobilize their own members. Similarly, networks tend to reach those who are embedded
in their structures. Thus, organizers who assemble different mobilizing structures, be they
coalitions of formal organizations or networks of informal networks or both, reach
different subsets of a movement’s mobilization potential (Boekkooi et al., 2011).
Roggeband and Duyvendak (2013) raise the question of whether traditional
networks and organizations such as parties, unions, or churches have lost their mobilizing
force and are being replaced by light communities and highly fluid mobilizing structures.
They suggest that more and more people avoid “heavy” long-term engagements and leave
more formal institutions for looser engagements in informal, sometimes temporary, or
issue-specific networks. As they also see a change from “identity politics” to “issue
politics,” these authors speculate that the emergence of “light” communities will be
accompanied by a process of individualization resulting in a shift from collective to
individual action. It does not come as a surprise that the Internet and virtual networks are
central in their reasoning. Although the authors admit that much of their argument is
speculative, developments like these raise important questions for social movement
researchers.
In processes of framing social movements, organizations work hard to turn
grievances into claims, to point out targets to be addressed, to create moral outrage and
anger, and to stage events where all this can be vented. They weave together a moral,
cognitive, and ideological package and communicate that appraisal of the situation to the
movement’s mobilization potential. In doing so, social movement organizations play a
significant role in the process of construction and reconstruction of collective beliefs and
in the transformation of individual discontent into collective action. Grievances can be
framed in terms of violated interests and/or violated principles. We demonstrated that
campaigns that emphasize the violation of interests more likely resonate with
instrumental motives, while campaigns that emphasize the violation of principles more
likely resonate with ideological motives (van Stekelenburg, Klandermans, & van Dijk,,
2009). With the concept of resonance we have entered the terrain of mobilization.
3.3. Mobilization
Mobilization is the process that gets the action going; demand and supply would remain
potentials if processes of mobilization did not bring the two together. Social networks are
indispensable in the processes of mobilization. Individual grievances and feelings are
transformed into group-based grievances and feelings within social networks. As early as
1965, Almond and Verba observed a positive correlation between active engagement in
voluntary associations and political efficacy. Hence, a movement’s mobilization potential
can be described in terms of the social capital accumulated in it. Lin (1999, p. 35)
defined social capital as “resources embedded in a social structure which are accessed
and/or mobilized in purposive actions.” Paxton (2002) argued that associational life
cumulates social capital, which “provides space for the creation and dissemination of
discourse critical of the present government, and it provides a way for active opposition
to the regime to grow” (p. 257).
3.3.1. Social Embeddedness
The concept of social capital has important implications for advancing our
understanding of the role of social embeddedness in protest participation.
Exploring the impact of social capital takes into account the social context in
which the decision to participate or not is taken. As a set of relationships, social
capital has many different attributes, which are categorized into three
components: a structural, a relational, and a cognitive component (Nahapiet &
Ghoshal, 1998). The structural component of social capital refers to the presence
or absence of network ties between actors, and it essentially defines who people
can reach. Structural social capital encourages cooperative behavior, thereby
facilitating mobilization and participation. The relational component of social
capital concerns the kinds of personal relationships people have developed
through a history of interaction (Granovetter, 1973). It focuses on the particular
relationships people have, such as respect, trust, and friendship. The structural
position may be necessary, but it does not appear sufficient to help individuals
overcome the collective action dilemma. Relational capital implies what people
are actually able to receive in terms of informational, physical, and emotional
support. When trust is built between people, they are more willing to engage in
cooperative activity through which further trust can be generated (on trust: Lind
& Tyler, 1988; on respect: Simon & Stürmer, 2003). The third—cognitive—
component is defined as those resources providing shared representations,
interpretations, and systems of meaning. It constitutes a powerful form of social
capital in the context of protest (and politics in general, as Huckfeldt, Mondak,
Hayes, Pietryka, & Reilly, chapter 21, this volume, argue). The cognitive
dimension is in protest literature referred to as raised consciousness—a set of
political beliefs and action orientations arising out of an awareness of similarity
(Gurin, Miller, & Gurin, 1980, p. 30). Consciousness-raising takes place within
social networks. It is within these networks that individual processes such as
grievance formation, strengthening of efficacy, identification, and group-based
emotions all synthesize into a motivational constellation preparing people for
action and building mobilization potential. Both resource mobilization theory and
political process theory emphasize the structural component, the role of social
networks, especially as mobilizing structures (Diani & McAdam, 2003; Kitts,
2000; McAdam et al., 1996). Social constructivistic approaches put more
emphasis on the relational and cognitive component.
Part of the infrastructure of a movement’s mobilization potential is the
communication networks that connect individuals. Walgrave and Klandermans (2010)
demonstrate how open and closed communication channels and weak and strong ties
weave a web of connections that influence how easy or difficult it is to reach a
movement’s mobilization potential. Polletta, Chen, Gardner, and Motes suggest that the
Internet plays an important role in grievance formation (2013). This corroborates van
Stekelenburg and Klandermans’s observation that technologies such as mobile phones,
the Internet, Facebook, and so on, played a crucial role in the mobilization of high school
students in the Netherlands in a protest campaign against educational policy (2012).
Social embeddedness―be it in formal, informal, or virtual networks―plays a
pivotal role in the context of protest, but why? The effect of interaction in networks on
the propensity to participate in politics is contingent on the amount of political discussion
that occurs in social networks and the information that people are able to gather about
politics as a result (McClurg, 2003). Klandermans et al. (2008) provide evidence for such
mechanisms: immigrants who felt efficacious were more likely to participate in protest
provided that they were embedded in social networks, especially ethnic networks, which
offer an opportunity to discuss and learn about politics. In other words, this is where
people talk politics and thus where the factuality of the sociopolitical world is constructed
and people are mobilized for protest. Being integrated in a network increases the chances
that one will be targeted with a mobilizing message and that people are kept to their
promises to participate. For example, people with friends or acquaintances who are
already active within social movements are more likely to take part in movement actions
than others (R. Gould, 1993; Klandermans, 1997). Social networks function as
communication channels, discursive processes take place to form consensus that makes
up the symbolic resources in collective sense-making (Gamson, 1992), and people are
informed of upcoming events and social capital as trust and loyalty accumulates in
networks to provide individuals with the resources needed to invest in protest.
3.3.2. The Process of Mobilization
Mobilization is a complicated process that can be broken down into several conceptually
distinct steps. Klandermans (1988) proposed to break the process of mobilization down
into consensus and action mobilization. Consensus mobilization refers to dissemination
of the views of the movement organization, while action mobilization refers to the
transformation of those who adopted the view of the movement and turned into active
participants. The more successful consensus mobilization is, the larger the pool of
sympathizers a mobilizing movement organization can draw from. In their frame
alignment approach to mobilization Snow and Benford and their colleagues elaborated
consensus mobilization much further (see Benford, 1997 for a critical review; and Snow,
2004 for an overview). Klandermans and Oegema (1987) broke the process of action
mobilization down further into four separate steps: people (1) need to sympathize with the
cause, (2) need to know about the upcoming event, (3) must want to participate, and (4)
must be able to participate (see figure 24.3).
[Insert Figure 24.3]
Each step brings the supply and demand of protest closer together until an
individual eventually takes the final step to participate in an instance of political protest.
The first step accounts for the results of consensus mobilization. It divides the general
public into those who sympathize with the cause and those who do not. A large pool of
sympathizers is of strategic importance, because for a variety of reasons many a
sympathizer never turns into a participant. The second step is equally obvious as crucial;
it divides the sympathizers into those who have been the target of mobilization attempts
and those who have not. The third step concerns the social psychological core of the
process. It divides the sympathizers who have been targeted into those who are motivated
to participate in the specific activity and those who are not. Finally, the fourth step
differentiates the people who are motivated into those who end up participating and those
who do not.
In their research on the mobilization campaign for a peace demonstration
Klandermans and Oegema (1987) found that three-quarters of the population of a
community south of Amsterdam felt sympathy for the movement’s cause. Of these
sympathizers, three-quarters were somehow targeted by mobilization attempts. Of those
targeted, one-sixth were motivated to participate in the demonstration. And finally, of
those motivated, one-third ended up participating. The net result of these different steps is
some (usually small) proportion of the general public that participates in protest. With
each step smaller or larger numbers drop out, but the better the fit between demand and
supply, the smaller the number of dropouts.
3.3.3. Mobilization with Minimal Organization
Sometimes the demand for protest can be so overwhelming that very little is needed to
bring large numbers onto the streets. In the context of the massive indignation regarding
the kidnapping and serial killing of children by Dutroux and judicial errors in Belgium in
dealing with it, television and newspapers sufficed as mobilizing actors (Walgrave &
Manssens, 2000). Yet the mobilizing power of the media should not be overestimated
(Kingdon, 1984). They only have the power to mobilize in case of so-called consensual
issues (Verhulst, 2011), that is, issues that root in suddenly imposed grievances that
evoke a communal sense of repulsion and indignation. Examples are the death of a child
caused by drunken driving (McCarthy & Wolfson, 1996) or senseless violence
(Lodewijkx, Kersten, & van Zomeren, 2008). The salience and the consensual character
of the issues compensate for the lack of organizational brokerage, making mobilization
via the mass media possible. Similarly, Walgrave & Klandermans (2010) report findings
from a demonstration against the Iraq war revealing that appeals via mass media were
more effective in countries with high levels of opposition against the war.
Mobilization with minimal organization has become more effective with the
appearance of virtual networks and social media. In November 2007, we conducted a
study on protests staged in the absence of any form of organization (van Stekelenburg &
Boekkooi, 2013; van Stekelenburg & Klandermans, 2012). That week in November
20,000 Dutch secondary school pupils took to the streets protesting the deteriorating
quality of their education. The movement took the shape of protests by several groups
geographically scattered and diffused over a period of time that were impromptu and
short-lived. They were initiated by the stereotypical guy next door, Kevin, whose call for
action was “virally” spread via face-to-face personal and virtual networks (e.g. MSN,
social network sites). Via mobile phones, videos of unrest were uploaded on YouTube,
and the YouTube films facilitated frame-alignment. In nearly real-life time, would-be
protesters came to share grievances and emotions with actual protesters. Questions
related to expected participation of others were instantly answered by the uploaded films
and instant messages. Social media, smartphones, and YouTube facilitated organizing
without organizations.
The secondary school protests are examples of so-called connective action (cf.
Bennett and Segerberg, 2012; van Stekelenburg & Klandermans, 2012). Mobilization for
connective action moves from one person to another―individually, as part of a larger
email list, a listserv, or a social network such as Facebook or MySpace. In a process that
continues to reproduce itself, the message is copied and redistributed. An original sender
cannot know where or when the message stops traveling, stops being copied and
redistributed, stops being translated. Messages with higher degrees of resonance will be
dispersed in greater densities. The Arabian revolutions from Tunisia to Syria and earlier
the Green Protests in Iran are all examples of the power of connective action. The
working of these new forms of mobilization is far from clear. What at first sight seems
mobilization without organization, may in hindsight appears to be more organized than
presumed. For the time being, there are more questions than answers.
4. Dynamics of Sustained Participation
Most research on protest concerns a comparison of participants and nonparticipants in a
specific instance of participation at a specific point in time—be it a demonstration, a
boycott, a sit-in, a rally, or a petition. In terms of our participation typology, this concerns
short-term, most of the time low-risk or little effort participation, and sometimes high risk
or effort. We argue that such short-term activities have different motivational dynamics
than sustained participation, be it low or high risk or effort. Our research among long-
term extreme right activists corroborates that assumption (Klandermans & Mayer, 2006).
Life-history interviews with long-term extreme right activist in Belgium, France, Italy,
Germany, and the Netherlands reveal that such activism has significant impact on
someone’s life and sometimes comes with serious measures of stigmatization. Therefore,
long-term activists tend to be true believers; otherwise someone would not be prepared to
take such consequences (Van Laer, 2011). Nonetheless, even true believers do not always
take the repercussions of their activism easily.
A movement has only a limited number of core activists. For example, 5%–10%
of the membership of the Dutch labor unions is core activists. Empirical evidence
suggests that most core activists are perfectly aware of the fact that they are giving 90%
or more of the movement’s supporters a free ride, but do not care. On the contrary, this is
what seems to motivate them to take the job (Oliver, 1984). They care so much for the
movement’s cause that they are prepared to make that effort knowing that most others
won’t. Indeed, for 29% of the core activists within Dutch unions, this was the single most
important motivation for their sustained participation.
Becoming a long-term activist is to a large extent a matter of biographical
availability. After all, sustained participation requires discretionary time for an extended
period. The concept of biographical availability was proposed by McAdam in his study of
participation in the Mississippi Freedom Summer (McAdam, 1988). What McAdam had
in mind was freedom from other societal commitments. “If college students are uniquely
free of life-course impediments to activism, the Freedom Summer applicants were freer
still. And the actual volunteers were the freest of all” (Goldstone & McAdam, 2001).
Indeed, participants in the Mississippi Freedom Summer Campaign were students who
were biographically available. But in terms of a life history, there is more than available
time, there is also mental availability, that is, susceptibility to the ideas a movement is
propagating.
Activism frequently persists despite pessimism regarding the action’s ostensible
goals (Louis, 2009). Why do people continue participating in movements even if it does
not effectuate their goals? Drury and Reicher (2009) suggest that participation generates
a “positive social-psychological transformation.” They argue that participation
strengthens identification and induces collective empowerment. The emergence of an
inclusive self-categorization as “oppositional” leads to feelings of unity and expectations
of support. This empowers people to offend authorities. Such action, they continue,
defines the participant’s oppositional identity vis-à-vis the dominant out-group. Protest
participation strengthens empowerment and politicization, paving the path to sustained
participation. Sustained participation need not necessarily take the form of the same
activity all the time. People often go from one activity to another, sometimes from one
movement to another, and in so doing build activist careers (Andrews, 1991).
Paths to sustained participation vary. Linden and Klandermans (2007) distinguish
four trajectories: revolutionaries, wanderers, converts, and compliants. The first two
trajectories are instances of biographical continuity (Roth, 2003), that is, life histories
whereby participation appears as the logical result of political socialization from
someone’s youth onwards. Revolutionaries are convinced right-wingers early on, while
wanderers are lifelong political homeless, wandering from one political shelter to the
other. The latter two are examples of conversion (Blee, 2002), trajectories that imply a
break with the past—in the case of converts because some critical events made their
minds turn; in the case of compliants because a significant other persuaded them to
become involved.
Critical events are supposed to play a crucial role in both continuity and
conversion. In the context of biographical continuity the event means the last push or pull
in a direction in which the person is already going, whereas in the context of conversion
the event means an experience that marks a change of mind. Obviously, such conversion
does not come out of the blue. It is rooted in a growing dissatisfaction with life as it is.
The critical event is the last push toward change. Teske (1997) describes the example of
a journalist who ends up in front of the gate of a nuclear weapons plant and whose
experience with the authorities’ suppressive response to that demonstration turns him into
an activist. The story of this journalist made clear that on the one hand it was no accident
that he ended up at that gate, but on the other hand, had the demonstration not taken that
dramatic turn, it would not have had this impact on his life.
Sustained participation is surprisingly absent in the social movement literature—
surprisingly, because long-term participants keep the movement going. Knowing the
motives, conditions, and mechanisms that facilitate or hinder people to become and
continue to be activists is essential for social movements to secure continuity. Therefore,
understanding the mechanisms that make people become activists and persist in their
activism, and which make protest veterans terminate their active involvement, is of
crucial importance not only theoretically, but also for understanding the growth and
decline of social movement involvement.
5. Dynamics of Disengagement
The dynamics of sustained participation in social movements have a clear counterpart,
namely, the dynamics of disengagement. Indeed, the sustainability of a fit between
demand and supply is by no means obvious. Why do people defect from the movement
they have worked so hard for? Surprisingly little attention has been given to that
question. Compared to the abundant literature on why people join movements, literature
on why they exit is almost nonexistent (but see Fillieule, 2012; Fillieule & Broqua,
2005). The guiding principle of our discussion of disengagement is the simple model
shown in figure 24.4.
Insufficient gratification in combination with declining commitment produces a
growing intention to leave. Eventually, some critical event tips the balance and makes the
person quit. Obviously, the event itself only triggers the final step. Against that
background, its impact may be overestimated. After all, it was the decline in gratification
and commitment that causes defection; the critical event only precipitated matters.
[Insert Figure 24.4]
5.1. Insufficient Gratification
The integrated motivational framework presented at the end of the demand section
distinguishes three fundamental motives for participation: identification, instrumental,
and ideological motivation. Social movements may supply the opportunity to fulfill these
demands, and the better they do, the more movement participation turns into a satisfying
experience. However, movements may also fall short on each of these motives. The most
likely reason for movements to fall short is inadequate instrumentality. Although it is
difficult to assess the effectiveness of social movements, it is obvious that many a
movement goal is never reached. Opp (1988) has argued that indeed people are very well
aware of the fact that movement goals are not always easy to achieve, but that they
reason that nothing happens in any event if nobody takes any action. Yet sooner or later
some success must be achieved for instrumental motivation to continue to fuel
participation. In addition to not being achieved, movement goals may lose their urgency
and drop lower on the societal agenda. Finally, the individual costs or risks of
participation may be too high compared to the attraction of the movement’s goals.
Repression adds to the costs and might make participation too costly for people (Tilly,
1978).
Movements offer the opportunity to act on behalf of one’s group. This is the most
attractive if people identify strongly with their group. But the composition of a movement
may change, and as a consequence people may feel less akin to the others in the
movement (Whittier, 1997). Schisms are another reason why movements fail to satisfy
identity motives. Sani and Reicher (1998) and Catellani et al. (2006) demonstrate that
schisms result from fights over the core identity of a movement and that people who
leave no longer feel that they can identify with the movement. Finally, people occupy a
variety of positions in society, and consequently identify with a variety of collectives. A
change in context may make one collective identity more and the others less salient, and
therefore identification with a movement may wither. For example, in their study of
farmers’ protests in the Netherlands and Spain, Klandermans, Sabucedo, Rodriguez, and
de Weerd (2002) observed that in Spain during a campaign for local and provincial
elections the identification with other farmers declined.
Social movements provide the opportunity to express one’s views. This is not to
say that they are always equally successful in that regard. Obviously, there is not always
full synchrony between a movement’s ideology and a person’s beliefs. Indeed, many a
movement organization ends in fights between ideological factions, with schisms and
defection as a consequence (Gamson, 1975).
5.2. Declining Commitment
Movement commitment does not last by itself. It must be maintained via interaction with
the movement, and any measure that makes that interaction less gratifying helps to
undermine commitment. Downton and Wehr (1997) discuss mechanisms of social
bonding that movements apply to maintain commitment. Leadership, ideology,
organization, rituals, and social relations, which make up a friendship network, each
contribute to sustaining commitment, and the most effective context is, of course, a
combination of all five. Although not all of them are equally well researched, each of
these five mechanisms is known from the literature on movement participation as a factor
that fosters people’s attachment to movements. For example, it is known from research
on union participation that involving members in decision-making processes increases
commitment to a union. Taylor and Whittier (1995) demonstrated how rituals in lesbian
movement groups strengthened the membership’s bond to the movement. Unions and
other movement organizations have developed many kinds of services for their members
to make membership more attractive. Selective incentives may seldom be sufficient
reasons to participate in a movement, but they do increase commitment.
5.3. The Role of Precipitating Events
When gratification falls short and commitment declines, an intention to leave develops.
Yet this intention does not necessarily turn into leaving. Many participants maintain a
marginal level of participation for extended periods until some critical event makes them
quit. For example, Goslinga (2002) calculated that a stable 25% of the membership of
Dutch labor unions considered leaving. Such critical events can have many different
appearances, and sometimes even appear trivial. When some decades ago Dutch labor
unions changed to a different system of dues collection and members had to sign an
agreement to participate in the new system, quite a few members chose not to sign. A
change of address may be seized as an opportunity to leave the movement, simply by not
renewing contacts in the new place of residence. More substantial reasons might be a
conflict with others in the organization, disappointing experiences in the movement, a
failed protest, and so on.
5.4. Disengagement versus Radicalization
When a movement declines, many activists quit. But becoming inactive is not the only
response to movement decline. Indeed, radicalization appears as an alternative response
to movement decline (della Porta, 1995). Although violence tends to be present from the
very beginning of a protest cycle, the more dramatic forms of violence occur when the
mass phase of the protest cycle is over (della Porta, 1995). Violence as mobilization
declines is attributed to people’s dissatisfaction with protest outcomes and their attempts
to compensate for the “reduction in numbers” (della Porta, 1995), At the same time the
repression apparatus becomes more effective toward the end of a cycle. Against that
background, sustained participation can take the form of radicalization, making radical,
sustained participation and disengagement different sides of the same coin.
6. Conclusion
A decade has passed since the first edition of the Handbook of Political Psychology was
published. In those years protest participation has gained the interest of social and
political psychologists. This resulted in a whole host of studies, of which we have tried to
take stock in this chapter. Has this burgeoning scholarship moved the field ahead? Let us
return to the unanswered questions Klandermans closed with in 2003. These were
questions concerning the formation of demand and supply and how they affect
mobilization; questions about the relative weight of instrumentality, identity, and
ideology and how these motivations interact; and questions about the role of identity in
the context of movement participation, the formation of collective identity, and the
politicization of collective identity. Equally understudied were the roles of ideology and
emotions, and despite all the work done on networks, their exact roles remained unclear.
Little was known about leadership in social movements, and, finally, many unanswered
questions regarded sustained participation, commitment, disengagement, and the life
course.
Indeed, we have made progress with regard to the dynamics of demand, especially
the role of identity, emotions, and motivation. Compared to a decade ago, the social and
political psychology of protest has become richer, more sophisticated, and more rooted in
state-of-the-art social and political psychology. Yet students of social movements have
for too long neglected social and political psychology. At the same time, social and
political psychologists have for too long neglected to study such phenomena as social
movements and collective action. As a consequence, social movement scholars are not
aware of new developments in social and political psychology, while social and political
psychologists are unaware of the many unanswered questions that they could help to find
an answer to. We hope this chapter has been useful in exemplifying what political
psychology has to offer to the study of social movements and where we stand.
So, where are we heading the next 10 years? One unanswered question a decade
ago that remains largely unanswered concerns sustained participation, disengagement,
and the life course. Basically, many of the same questions are still waiting for answers.
Fillieule (2005) edited a volume on disengagement (unfortunately for English-language
scholars, in French, which makes the work less accessible to the non-French community).
More generally, the theme of sustained participation raises another underexplored issue,
namely the personal consequences of movement participation. But in recent studies
Drury et al. (Drury, Cocking, Beale, Hanson, & Rapley, 2005; Drury and Reicher, 1999;
2000; 2009); Louis (2009), and van Zomeren and colleagues (2012) have begun to
investigate the individual consequences of participation in collective action.
This brings us to probably the most important challenge of the political
psychology of protest, namely to move from static decontextualized explanations of
protest to more dynamic, contextualized models of protest. In 2007 we made a plea for
more dynamic models (van Stekelenburg and Klandermans, 2007). We argued that a
more dynamic approach would provide the opportunity to study mechanisms through
concepts like identification, participation motives, efficacy, emotions, and feelings of
injustice as consequence and antecedent of collective action. This approach is not easy, as
Ellemers, Spears, and Doosje observe: “From an investigational point of view, it is
difficult to deal with a variable that, at the same time, can be a dependent and an
independent variable, can develop over time or change across contexts” (1999, p. 3). Yet
studying protest participation in a more dynamic way would do more justice to the
theoretical and empirical richness of the concepts and may be crucial to gain better
insights in the processes at hand (cf. McAdam et al., 2001). An example of such a
dynamic model, in addition to those we discussed in the previous pages, is van Zomeren
et al.’s dual pathway model of protest (van Zomeren, 2012; van Zomeren, Leach, &
Spears, 2012). These authors introduce a dynamic model that integrates many common
explanations of collective action (i.e., group identity, unfairness, anger, social support,
and efficacy). The model conceptualizes collective action as the outcome of two distinct
processes: emotion-focused and problem-focused coping. The former revolves around the
experience of group-based anger, while the latter revolves around beliefs in the group’s
efficacy. The model makes explicit the dynamic nature of collective action by explaining
how undertaking collective action leads to the reappraisal of collective disadvantage, thus
inspiring future collective action. Tausch and colleagues are among the first to report
empirical findings on how emotions affect the dynamic nature of collective action
participation. They show that protest participants experience more out-group-directed
anger and contempt, and self-directed positive affect. Out-group anger and contempt,
rather than self-directed positive affect, inspire future collective action (Becker, Tausch,
& Wagner, 2011). In yet another study―a two-wave longitudinal field study―they
examined how emotional responses to success and failure of collective action inspire
future collective action (Tausch & Becker, 2012). They found that both pride (in relation
to success) and anger (in response to failure) motivated future collective action. While
anger stemming from failure predicted future protest directly, pride resulting from
success enhanced feelings of efficacy that inspired future actions. These few examples
are an excellent start for the years to come; taking the dynamic nature of collective action
seriously will shed light on the many unanswered questions related to sustained
participation and disengagement—and indeed on another question: Protest, and then
what? (Louis, 2009).
In addition to antecedents and consequences of protest, our plea for dynamic
models also alludes to the thorny issue of causality. Indeed, the majority of the findings
and relations we reported are based on correlational data. Correlational data can be
interpreted in causal terms based on the theories we have, but cannot demonstrate
causality. Take, for instance, the relation between efficacy, embeddedness, and protest.
Based on social capital theories, we interpreted our correlational data in causal terms: that
is, the more embedded people are, the more efficacious they feel and the more they
protest. However, are more efficacious people more inclined to become members of
organizations, or do people become more efficacious in their networks? We simply do
not know. Social psychologists attempt to overcome the problem of causality by
employing experimental methods. These experiments have a high internal validity and
have the potential to make strong causal statements. However, laboratory experiments are
often detached from natural settings, resulting in low ecological validity. Indeed, are
students in the lab who report strong intentions to protest really willing to take onto the
streets? We cannot be sure about it. First of all, this is because the correlation between
intentions and actual participation is moderate at best (Oegema and Klandermans, 1994),
but perhaps more important, we simply do not know whether artificially created
grievances, identification, and efficacy are comparable to real-life indignation stemming
from imperiled interests or violated principles. In a longitudinal field study in a natural
setting we are seeking to address this issue of causality (van Stekelenburg et al., 2012).
Longitudinal data were collected in a newly built Dutch neighborhood. Within
approximately a month of their arrival inhabitants received a questionnaire with four
follow-up surveys, which encompasss predictors of protest, several protest intentions, and
actual participation and network questions. Thus, we monitor the development of demand
and supply of protest as it starts from scratch. This means moving beyond correlation
studies and studies of isolated individuals in surveys or laboratories (see also Huckfeldt
et al., chapter 21, this volume). In that way, we hope to be able to shed more light on
causality issues in protest participation.
The second challenge we envision is to develop protest models that incorporate
contextual variation. Little political psychological research has focused on the subjective
experience of meso- and macro-level factors. Nonetheless, at the meso or macro level,
variables can be identified that affect peoples’ subjective interpretations of their situation
in terms of identities, opportunities, or constraints and injustice. Koopmans and Statham
(2000) and Roggeband (2002, 2004), for example, acknowledge that the dynamics of
participation are created and limited by characteristics of the national contexts in which
people are embedded. Collective action participation is context dependent (van
Stekelenburg et al., 2009), but political psychology theories are not always good at taking
that into account and in conceptualizing how contextual factors impact on social
psychological mechanisms. In a large-scale study of participation in street demonstrations
in different countries and on different issues, we sought to assess the combined impact of
national and mobilizing context on who participates in street demonstrations
(Klandermans et al., 2010). In that way, we hoped to be able to demonstrate the context-
dependency of action participation.
One such matter of contextualization concerns the conceptualization of political
protest, that is, social movement participation (movement politics) vis-à-vis that other
form of political behavior, namely participation in the electoral arena (party politics).
Movement politics centers around active participation in protest events, such as mass
demonstrations, occupations of public sites, boycotts, blockades, and riots. The modal
form of participation in the electoral arena consists of a vote for a candidate (person or
party) who seeks a public office. In a recent paper, reflecting on the state of the art of the
study of contentious politics, McAdam & Tarrow (2013) observe that scholars of social
movements have largely neglect to pay attention to elections, while on the other hand
election researchers have failed to include social movements in their designs. Two
assumptions regarding party and movement politics are encountered in the literature
(Hutter, 2010). (1) The two reinforce each other—people who engage in party politics are
more likely to engage in movement politics as well and vice versa. In statistical terms one
would expect a positive correlation. (2) The two alternate—that is, people who participate
in the one activity are less likely to participate in the other (a negative correlation).
Recently, Hutter (2010) proposed and found empirical support for a third option, namely,
that (3) the two follow a logic of their own (hence, no correlation). We take as our point
of departure that any kind of arrangement between movement and party politics is
conceivable. Movements and parties may compete, complement each other, or
collaborate (Goldstone, 2003; Johnston, 2011). If movements institutionalize, citizens
may opt for party politics, a decision then reflected in electoral successes and declining
protest activity. Conversely, if party politics fail, citizens may resort to movement
politics, a change reflected in declining votes and rising protest activity. We know that all
these options exist and are actually practiced by citizens who want to influence politics
(cf. Teorell, Torcal, & Montero, 2007), but we know very little about the conditions and
mechanisms that make citizens want to influence politics and to take the one option or the
other.
We propose that the relative importance of movement and party politics is context
dependent (see also McAdam & Tarrow, 2013). Figure 24.5 maps the political landscape
citizens are faced with if they want to influence the state. Sociopolitical context can be
described in terms of political opportunities and cleavages that divide citizens along lines
of interests and principles. The social cleavages that are prevalent in a society shape its
multiorganizational field. Political parties and movement organizations are embedded in
such organizational fields. Within the multiorganizational field, movements and parties
assemble mobilizing structures that offer opportunities to participate in politics—party
politics, movement politics, or both (supply of politics). Citizens who want to promote or
protect their interest or principles (demand of politics) may take one or more of these
opportunities to act. Capitalizing on their abilities to mobilize, the political parties and
movement organizations are more or less able to put pressure on the state.
[Insert Figure 24.5]
Evidence underscores the context dependency of the relative importance of
movement and party politics. McAdam and Tarrow (2013) illustrate this with examples
from US history of how electoral politics have influenced protest politics and vice versa.
In the United States, so these authors argue, protest politics increasingly interferes in
electoral politics. They refer to the Tea Party movement as an example. In Europe they
observe the opposite pattern. Movements institutionalize into parties, while parties
professionalize. As a consequence, there is a growing gap between politicians and
citizens, which in its turn results in the growth of populist parties. Hutter (2010) similarly
observed the growth of populist parties, but interprets this development as a consequence
of processes of globalization. Hutter’s observation is made in the context of a study
regarding the question of how electoral politics relates to protest politics. Building on a
study in six European countries, he observes three patterns of relations between the two
forms of politics: congruence—more contestation in the electoral arena goes with more
contestation in the protest arena; counterweight—more contestation in the electoral arena
comes with less contestation in the other; different logic—the direction of the relationship
differs depending on the political orientation of the actors involved.
Burstein (1999) suggests that as long as public opinion is unified and clear,
politicians do not need social movement organizations to define their politics. This
implies that movement politics gains significance if public opinion on an issue is
polarized or diffuse. In other words, according to this reasoning the social movement
sector has grown so much because Western societies have become less hegemonic. A
different sort of reasoning takes the movement sector’s relative effectiveness as its point
of departure (Giugni et al., 1999; Jenkins, 1995). If party politics fails, movement politics
takes over, and, indeed, compared to working one’s way through political institutions,
contentious collective actions can be remarkably effective provided that the right
ingredients are in place, as so convincingly demonstrated by the “Colored Revolutions”
and the events in the Arab world.1 Indeed, some 20 years ago one of us estimated on the
basis of an overview of various literature reviews that approximately one-third of the
instances of collective political action had some degree of success (Klandermans, 1989).
We are not aware of similar estimates for political parties, but we may assume that
experiencing success encourages similar actions in the future, while seeing others
succeed is an incentive to try oneself (Eisinger, 1973; see Tunisia and Egypt for recent
examples). And yet another process of reasoning reveals that protest is the continuation
of party politics because, as Dalton and colleagues show, protesters are those citizens
who already have access to party politics (Dalton et al., 2009).
In other words, evidence underscores that citizens attempt several routes to
political influence, but so far, it is inconclusive and unclear who takes what route and
how that choice is influenced by contextual variation. As political psychology explores
the causes of the thoughts, feelings, and actions of people―and primarily how these are
influenced by sociopolitical context―we believe it has a lot to offer to future work that
will attempt to incorporate contextual variation in protest models.
Note
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Figure 24.1
The process of participation (Klandermans, 1997)
Figure 24.2
Motivational dynamics of collective action participation
Figure 24.3
The process of action mobilization (Klandermans & Oegema, 1987).
Figure 24.4
The dynamics of disengagement
Figure 24.5
Routes to political influence
Table 24.1
Strongly Motivating Grievances
Suddenly imposed grievances
Group and double deprivation
Procedural justice
The emotional component of grievances
Violated principles and threatened interests
Political cynicism