The construction of dissent: strategies and collective identities

Strategy and collective action choices are strongly related to the construction of collective identity in social movements. Their tactical plans place social movements in a field of contention outlining challengers, allied, and a strategic context where the movements are main actors and builders of dissent, contributing to build a collective identity that is developed in interaction with others.

The rising of alternative discourses on the public scene and ways employed to promote them contribute to define the movement and its members identity, played at collective level. The movement’s strategies and tactics and collective identity have a circular relationship: tactics are culturally based emerging from collective identity choices, but also providing chances for reaffirm and / or challenge the collective identity shape. Understanding movement activists’ actions and strategies will help social movements researchers in understanding the social movement identity and narrative.

The session welcomes theoretically driven or empirically grounded papers addressing the above circular relation and consequences.