Collective Action Flashcards
Recent protest movements:
- Mapping protests held in solidarity with palestine
Collective action:
- “A group member engages in collective action anytime that he or she is acting as a representative of the group and the action is directed at improving the condition of the entire group.” (Wright, Taylor, & Moghaddam, 1990)
- “Collective action is traditionally defined as any action that aims to improve the status, power, or influence of an entire group, rather than that of one or a few individuals” (van Zomeren & Iyer, 2009)
Points to keep in mind:
- An individual can engage in collective action alone
- People can engage in collective action to defend other groups - solidarity-based collective action, allyship
Nonviolent collective action:
- Boycotts
- Marches
- Freedom rides
Violent collective action:
- Terrorism
Collective action may seek to:
- Attenuate an existing hierarchy (human rights groups)
- Defend or enhance an existing hierarchy or create a new hierarchy (e.g., right-wing groups)
- Sidanius and Pratto, 2012
Grievances:
- People generally take collective action to oppose an injustice against a group blamed on an outgroup
- Greater perceived injustice against one’s group is associated with greater engagement in collective action (meta-analysis by van Zomeren et al., 2008 shows correlational and causal links, 65 independent samples, N=15,855)
- Grievances are at the heart of both nonviolent and violent collective action
- Grievances can be of different types: social, economic, political, environmental grievances. (van Stekelenburg & Klandermans, 2013)
Grievances - group deprivation:
- Relative deprivation theory:
- Awareness of shared grievances
- Egoistic vs fraternal deprivation (or group deprivation)
- See meta-analysis by Smith and Ortiz (2002) and by Smith et al (2012)
Grievances - relative deprivation:
· Relative Deprivation Theory: what matters is people’s subjective relative sense of deprivation (relative) rather than their objective deprivation (Smith et al., 2012).
· Relative deprivation rests on social comparison.
· Group members experience deprivation depending on their reference point.
· Deprivation can result from comparison with:
- an outgroup
- the ingroup’s past situation
- a desired situation for the ingroup
Collective action model:
· Perceived injustice (grievances) + collective action
· Perceived efficacy + collective action
· Identification + collective action
Efficacy:
· Although people are discontented in many places all over the world, they do not always protest about their state of affairs
· If people one day choose life, then destiny must respond
- Meta-analysis by van Zomeren et al (2008) shows that efficacy perceptions positively predict collective action (correlational and casual links, using 53 independent samples, N = 12,758)
Group efficacy:
· The belief that it is possible to address grievances through collective action (see Mummendey et al, 1999)
Social identity:
· Social Identity approach: individuals take collective action on behalf of groups their care about and identify with. (Tajfel & Turner, 1979)
· Social identification: “that part of an individual’s self-concept which derives from his [sic] knowledge of membership of a social group (or groups) together with the emotional significance attached to that membership” (Tajfel, 1981, p.251).
Identity:
· Direct positive effects of social identification with a disadvantaged group or social movement on collective action (meta-analysis by van Zomeren et al., 2008 shows correlational and causal links, using 64 independent samples, N= 10,051).
Social identity model of collective action (SIMCA):
· Social identity has both direct and indirect effects on collective action
· Indirect effects:
- identification with one’s group is linked to stronger feelings of injustice against one’s group, which leads to greater collective action engagement
- Identification with one’s group is linked to a stronger sense of efficacy to achieve the desired social change for the group, which leads to greater collective action engagement
Emotions:
· Affective reactions to injustice are more powerful predictors than perceptions of injustice or relative deprivation (see meta-analyses by van Zomeren et al., 2008; Smith et al., 2012).
· Anger is a prototypical emotion associated with collective action
Emotions 2:
· Different emotions can predict different types of collective action.
· Group-based anger toward the outgroup is positively associated with nonviolent forms of collective action (e.g. Tausch et al., 2011).
· Violent collective action: emotions other than anger may be at play: Contempt (Tausch et al., 2011)
Emotions 3:
· Researchers explore the role of different emotions:
- in motivating collective action (e.g. anger, contempt, pride, sympathy, guilt)
- in inhibiting collective action (e.g. fear)
Identity 2:
· Identification with a disadvantaged group e.g., black, woman
· Politicised identification e.g., black lives matter, feminist
Identity - politicised identification:
· identification with a social movement (Simon & Klandermans, 2001) is a more proximal predictor of collective action than identification with the disadvantaged group:
- It specifies the target that we should move against
- It creates an inner obligation to act in line with what the group stands for.
- It can also be more inclusive of people who belong to powerful or third-party groups.
· (see van Stekelenburg & Klandermans, 2013)
Identity 3:
· Meta-analysis by van Zomeren et al. (2008) shows politicized identification is a stronger predictor of collective action than identification with the disadvantaged group
Dual pathway model of collective action (Sturmer and Simon, 2004):
· Two pathways to collective action:
1. Identity pathway (intrinsic motivation)
2. Instrumental pathway (cost-benefit calculations-extrinsic motivation)
a. Collective motive
b. Social motive
c. Reward motive
Dual pathway model of collective action (Sturmer and Simon, 2004) - identity pathway:
· The social identity approach (Tajfel & Turner, 1979)
- Politicized identification as the main proximal predictor of collective action
Dual pathway model of collective action (Sturmer and Simon, 2004) - instrumental pathway:
· The model is built on:
- The expectancy-value theory: behavior results from the value of the expected outcomes of that behavior. (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980)