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