Identity and Action
Opp, Karl-Dieter. "Collective identity, rationality and collective political action." Rationality and society 24.1 (2012): 73-105.
The article focuses on the relationship between identity and collective political action and the factors that influence that relationship – what makes it causal. It was initially thought that identity strengthens the protest and instigates more action. However, it’s apparent that the solidarity of a group’s identity decreases the amount of political action (Opp). When there is a protest, there is usually an end goal. The collective is fighting for that end goal, one way or another. The article drafts a key term – “identity-proposition” – that simply states identity being an important factor for protest behavior.
The article sets up an experiment to test this theory of identity decreasing the amount of action from a protest. Participants (who share the identity with a collective) are more likely to contribute to the group in a direct way (with donations or motivational support) than support indirectly (with their own exhibition of body rhetoric). It’s argued that the initial motivations of the protest pave the susceptibility of the execution portion of the protest. A protest initiating mostly for the sake of change will not be influenced so much with identity than another protest that aggregated for the sake of the identity.
According to this article, a collective placing focus on the identity will hinder achieving their end goal because there will be lack of physical action. The collective must focus on increasing political action in order to make the change that is desired.
Social Cognitive Theory of Moral Thought and Action
Bandura, Albert. Social Cognitive Theory of Moral Thought and Action. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1991. University of Kentucky. Web. <https://www.uky.edu/~eushe2/Bandura/Bandura1991HMBD.pdf>.
The piece "Social Cognitive Theory of Moral Thought and Action", written by Albert Bandura in 1991, speaks to an academic audience with the argument that a combination of cultural influences, self-regulation and universal standards form the instruments by which moral judgement is conducted in an ultimately internal process, thus creating a larger complexity in the process of parsing morality. I chose this source as relevant to my project because the tactics and priorities of the mothers protesting Los Desaparecidos in Mexico, mainly their usage of moral shock through their public grieving as 'good mothers', are intertwined with the moral judgements of Mexicans and Mexican culture, thus making it beneficial for me to include an examination of moral judgement as a conceptual framework.
Political Parties: The Iron Law of Oligarchy
Michels,
Robert. Political Parties: A Sociological
Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy. Kitchener, CA:
Batoche Books, 2000. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 23 October 2016.
The theory The Iron Law of Oligarchy was created by Robert Michels in Germany in 1911 and outlined in his book "Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy". This theory states that rule by an oligarchy (i.e. an elite) is inevitable, the iron law, in any large or complex democratic group as a result of the organizational demands. Therefore, even though a group may start out as purely democratic, as it grows and develops it will become an oligarchy. Michels is speaking to other scholars, particularly those interested in political party organization and structure.
This applies to my protest group (Students for a Democratic Society in the anti-war movement against Vietnam in the 1960s) because they believe in participatory democracy, the participation of all members within the organization and the ability to make contributions and participate in the decision-making process. This worked extremely well when the group was small enough to discuss with one another in the living room, however, when their numbers swelled to over 30,000 in 1968 a participatory democracy was no longer a possibility and an oligarchy formed, despite attempts to maintain a democracy.
Bennett, W. L. "The Personalization of Politics: Political Identity, Social Media, and Changing Patterns of Participation." The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 644.1 (2012): 20-39. Web.
ReplyDeleteThis article, which is written for an academic audience, main focus is on how social media works to address how large scale social protests are often coordinated though social media, and how media protest allows people with broad values to mobilize around multiple protest movements. Bennett makes the argument that social media has allowed for an "ethos of diversity" where many different viewpoints and life styles are respected and these vastly different groups of people can come together to create political social network.
This applies to my protest group (black men and women in the #blackout movement) because social media was the catalyst for the social movement, and it was started by a political group that really only socialized online. Social media double as both their means of rallying and their platform.