Context matters: Explaining how and why mobilizing context influences motivational dynamics

The emphasis in the social-psychological collective action literature is on why individuals take part in collective action; however, it does not elaborate on how different mobilizing contexts may appeal to distinct motivational dynamics to participate. The present study connects the microlevel of motivational dynamics of individual protesters with the mesolevel of social movement characteristics. To do so a field study was conducted. Protesters were surveyed in the act of protesting in two different demonstrations in two different town squares simultaneously organized by two social movements at exactly the same time against the same budget cuts proposed by the same government. But with one fundamental difference, the movements emphasized different aspects of the policies proposed by the government. This most similar systems design created a unique natural experiment, which enabled the authors to examine whether the motivational dynamics of individual protesters are moderated by the social movement context. Previous research suggested an instrumental path to collective action, and the authors added an ideology path. The authors expected and found that power-oriented collective action appeals to instrumental motives and efficacy and that value-oriented collective action appeals to ideological motives, and, finally, that efficacy mediates on instrumental motives and motivational strength, but only so in power-oriented action. © 2009 The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues

Le monde des militants d’extrême droite en Belgique, en France, en Allemagne, en Italie et aux Pays Bas

À partir d’une enquête comparative menée à l’aide d’histoires de vie dans cinq pays (Allemagne, Belgique, France, Italie, Pays-Bas), auprès de militant(e)s d’extrême droite, cet article montre que le trait commun, qui structure leur identité politique, est la stigmatisation dont ils font l’objet. Prenant l’exemple des Pays-Bas, où celle-ci atteint son paroxysme, les auteurs montrent comment les stratégies de réponse des militants, qui vont de la négation au retournement du stigmate, varient en fonction de leurs trajectoires d’entrée dans le mouvement, selon qu’elles sont vécues sur le mode de la continuité, de la conversion ou de la dépendance.Based on a comparative survey of the personal experiences of far-right activists in five countries (Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, and the Netherlands), this paper shows that the common factor structuring their political identity is the stigmatization to which they are subjected. The case of the Netherlands, where this has reached its paroxysm, is used by the authors to show how the activists’ response strategies, which range from denial to reversal of the stigma, vary according to the trajectories along which they joined the movement and on whether they perceive it in terms of continuity, conversion, or dependence

Revolutionaries, wanderers, converts, and compliants: Life histories of extreme right activists

Life-history interviews were conducted with thirty-six extreme right activists in the Netherlands (1996-1998). Becoming an activist was a matter of continuity, of conversion, or of compliance. Continuity denotes life histories wherein movement membership and participation are a natural consequence of prior political socialization; conversion to trajectories wherein movement membership and participation are a break with the past; and compliance to when people enter activism, not owing to personal desires but because of circumstances they deemed were beyond their control. Stories of continuity in our interviews were either testimonies of lifetimes of commitment to extreme right politics (labeled revolutionaries) or lifelong journeys from one political shelter to the other by political wanderers (labeled converts). Activists who told us conversion stories, we labeled converts and those who told compliance stories, compliants. The article presents a prototypical example of each type of career and suggests each prototype to hold for different motivational dynamics. © 2007 Sage Publications