Collective Action

Collective action

Definition: 

Collective action is the joint movement made by a group of people towards a common purpose. It is the result of multiple processes that form the frameworks needed for action to occur. Focuses on the "result of purposes, resources, and limits, as a purposive orientation constructed by means of social relationships within a system of opportunities and constraints" (Melucci 332).

Example from the text or from a protest movement:

There has to be a collective action in every protest in order to be considered a protest. It is basically a common purpose that the collective is working towards and how they are getting there. For example, in the SlutWalk, the collective action would be ending rape culture through this group event. 

Passage from the text that help define or contextualize the term:

“In the view I am proposing here collective action is thus considered as the result of purposes, resources, and limited, as a purposive orientation constructed by means of social relationships within a system of opportunities and constraints. It therefore cannot be considered the simple effect of structural preconditions or the expression of values and beliefs. Individuals acting collectively ‘construct’ their action by means of ‘organized’ investments: that is, they define in cognitive terms the field of possibilities and limits which they perceive, while at the same time activating their relationships so as to give sense to their ‘being together’ and to the goals they pursue… Collective action is not a unitary empirical phenomenon, and the unity, if it exists, should be considered as a result rather than a starting-point, a fact to be explained rather than evidence. The events in which individuals act collectively combine different orientations, involve multiple actors, and implicate a system of the opportunities and constraints that shape their relationships.” (Melucci 332)

Works Cited: 

Melucci, Alberto. "Getting Involved: Identity and Mobilization in Social Movement." International Social Movement Research. col. 1. 1988. p 332.