Editorial Type:
Article Category: Research Article
 | Online Publication Date: 15 Apr 2009
The Importance of being "We": Collective Identity and the Mobilizing Work of Progressive Activists in Hartford, Connecticut
The Importance of being "We": Collective Identity and the Mobilizing Work of Progressive Activists in Hartford, Connecticut
Page Range: 65 – 84
This article examines the ways that collective identity influences the mobilizing work activists perform in a wide variety of progressive activities in Hartford, Connecticut, as reported in open-ended life history interviews. Using a collective identity typology based on ideology, organization, and biography, the analysis demonstrates the variety of ways in which these different "group allegiances" affect how activists raise consciousness, choose strategies and goals, pursue allies, and build coalitions. These myriad differences in mobilizing by activists with different collective identities within the same movement sector speak to the flexibility of social movement structures and to the importance of activist identity in maneuvering within those structures.
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