Editorial Type:
Article Category: Research Article
| Online Publication Date: 16 Apr 2010
Reflexivity in Mobilization: Gender and Memory as Cultural Features of Women's Mobilization in Vieques, 1999-2003
Reflexivity in Mobilization: Gender and Memory as Cultural Features of Women's Mobilization in Vieques, 1999-2003
Page Range: 81 – 97
This article explores the significance of reflexivity as a cultural process in social movements. It examines the roles that gender and memory played in mobilizing women in the antimilitary movement in Vieques, Puerto Rico, between 1999-2003. In particular, the analysis focuses on the articulations and actions undertaken by the Alianza de Mujeres Viequenses. While some emerging research stresses the novelty of women's participation in the latest effort to remove the U.S. Navy from this island, none have operationalized the event in a theoretical context and highlighted key nuances. This article engages literatures on the significance of gender in the mobilization process as well as the cultural nature of remembrance and its significance in the meaning-making process for collective actors. It does so through an examination of the mobilization of women in the antimilitary movement. Furthermore it argues for the acknowledgement of reflexivity in the examination of claims articulation for mobilization.
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