Identity work explains how participants in social movements build and maintain their collective identities, uniting movement groups. This study, based on ethnographic fieldwork comparing two Zapatista community centers in Los Angeles, asks if the absence of identity work leads to the dissolution of organizations. Both of these groups neglected work of identity convergence and identity construction to integrate three subgroups—“activists,” “organizers,” and “community members”—into a whole. Yet a lack of identity work alone does not explain the relative stability of one group while the second experienced conflict and eventually disbanded. Additional structural influences—an external crisis facing the group and the internal proportions between members—combined with these cultural factors to bring about organizational schism.
Barnett, William P., and Michael Woywode .2004. From Red Vienna to the Anschluss: Ideological competition among Viennese newspapers during the rise of national socialism. American Journal of Sociology109 (6): 1452-99.
2.
Blee, Kathleen M.2002. Inside organized racism: Women in the hate movement. Berkeley: University of California Press.
3.
Brekhus, Wayne H.2003. Peacocks, chameleons, and centaurs: Gay suburbia and the grammar of social identity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
4.
Calhoun, Craig.1991. The problem of identity in collective action. In Macro-micro linkages in sociology, ed. J. Huber, 51-75. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
5.
Calhoun, Craig.1994. Social theory and the politics of identity. In Social theory and the politics of identity, ed. C. Calhoun, 9-36. Oxford, UK: Blackwell .
6.
Castells, Manuel.1997. The power of identity. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
7.
Cerulo, Karen.1997. Identity construction: New issues, new directions. Annual Review of Sociology23: 385-409.
8.
Charmaz, Kathy.2001. Grounded theory. In Contemporary field research, ed. R. M. Emerson, 1-26. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.
9.
Crowley, Jocelyn Elise.2008. On the cusp of a movement: Identity work and social movement identification processes within fathers’ rights groups. Sociological Spectrum28 (6): 705-24.
10.
Einwohner, Rachel L.2006. Identity work and collective action in a repressive context: Jewish resistance on the “Aryan side” of the Warsaw ghetto. Social Problems53 (1): 38-56.
11.
Einwohner, Rachel L., Jo Reger, and Daniel Myers.2008. Introduction: Identity work, sameness, and difference in social movements. In Identity work: Negotiating sameness and difference in activist environments, ed. J. Reger, D. Myers, and R. L. Einwohner, 1-17. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
12.
Emerson, Robert M.2001. The face of contemporary ethnography. In Contemporary field research: Perspectives and formulations, ed. R. M. Emerson, 27-54. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.
13.
Fantasia, Rick.1988. Cultures of solidarity: Consciousness, action, and contemporary American workers. Berkeley: University of California Press.
14.
Gamson, William A.1991. Commitment and agency in social movements. Sociological Forum6: 27-50.
15.
Gamson, William A.1992. Talking politics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
16.
Glaser, Barney G., and Anselm L. Strauss.1967. The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Chicago: Aldine.
17.
Greenwood, Ronni Michelle.2008. Intersectional political consciousness: Appreciation for intragroup differences and solidarity in diverse groups. Psychology of Women Quarterly32: 36-47.
18.
Hunt, Scott A., and Robert D. Benford.1994. Identity talk in the peace and justice movement. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography22: 488-517.
19.
Hunt, Scott A., and Robert D. Benford.2004. Collective identity, solidarity, and commitment. In The Blackwell companion to social movements , ed. D. A. Snow, S. Soule, and H. Kriesi , 433-60. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
20.
Hunt, Scott A., Robert D. Benford, and David A. Snow.1994. Identity fields: Framing processes and the social construction of movement identities. In New social movements: From ideology to identity, ed. E. Larana, H. Johnston, and J. Gusfield, 185-208. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
21.
Kanter, Rosabeth Moss.1977. Men and women of the corporation. New York: Basic Books.
22.
Levitsky, Sandra R.2007. Niche activism: Constructing a unified movement identity in a heterogeneous organizational field. Mobilization: An International Quarterly Review12 (3): 271-86.
23.
Lichterman, Paul.1999. Identity talk in the public sphere: Broad visions and small spaces in sexual identity politics. Theory and Society28 (1): 101-41.
24.
Lofland, John, David A.Snow, Leon Anderson, and Lyn Lofland .2006. Analyzing social settings: A guide to qualitative observation and analysis. 4th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
25.
Mansbridge, Jane J., and Aldon D. Morris.2001. Oppositional consciousness: The subjective roots of social protest. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
26.
Melucci, Alberto.1989. Nomads of the present: Social movements and individual needs in contemporary society. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
27.
Melucci, Alberto.1996. Challenging codes: Collective action in the information age. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
28.
Millàn, Márrgara.1998. Zapatista indigenous women . In Zapatista: Reinventing revolution in Mexico, ed. J. Holloway and E. Peláez , 64-80. London: Pluto Press.
29.
Munkres, Susan.2008. Being “sisters” to Salvadoran peasants: Deep identification and its limitations. In Identity work: Negotiating sameness and difference in activist environments, ed. J. Reger, D. Myers, and R. L. Einwohner, 189-213. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
30.
Nash, June.2001. Mayan visions: The quest for autonomy in an age of globalization . New York: Routledge.
31.
Piven, Frances F., and Richard A. Cloward.1979. Poor people’s movements . New York: Vintage.
32.
Polletta, Francesca.2002. Freedom is an endless meeting: Democracy in American social movements. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
33.
Polletta, Francesca.2005. How participatory democracy became white: Culture and organizational choice. Mobilization10 (2): 271-88.
34.
Polletta, Francesca, and James M. Jasper.2001. Collective identity and social movements. Annual Review of Sociology27: 283-305.
35.
Reger, J.2002. Organizational dynamics and construction of multiple feminist identities in the national organization for women. Gender & Society16 (5): 710-27.
36.
Robnett, Belinda.2005. We don’t agree: Collective identity justification work in social movement organizations. In Research in social movements, conflicts and change, ed. P. Coy, 201-38. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
37.
Rovira, Guiomar.2000. Women of maize: Indigenous women and the Zapatista rebellion . London: Latin America Bureau.
38.
Saunders, Clare.2008. Double-edged swords? Collective identity and solidarity in the environment movement. British Journal of Sociology59 (2): 227-53.
39.
Schwalbe, Michael L., and Douglas Mason-Schrock.1996. Identity work as group process . Advances in Group Processes13: 113-47.
40.
Simmel, Georg.1950. The sociology of Georg Simmel. Trans. K. Wolff. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
41.
Snow, David A.2001. Collective identity and expressive forms. In International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences, ed. N. J. Smelser and P. B. Baltes, 2212-19. London: Elsevier .
42.
Snow, David A., and Leon Anderson.1987. Identity work among the homeless: The verbal construction and avowal of personal identities. American Journal of Sociology92: 1336-71.
43.
Snow, David A., and Doug McAdam .2000. Identity work processes in the context of social movements: Clarifying the identity/movement nexus. In Self, identity and social movements, ed. S. Stryker, T. Owens, and R. W. White, 41-67. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
44.
Taylor, Verta, and Nancy Whittier.1992. Collective identity in social movement communities: Lesbian feminist mobilization. In Frontiers in social movement theory, ed. A. D. Morris and C. M. Mueller, 104-31. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
45.
Valocchi, Steve.2001. Individual identities, collective identities, and organizational structure: The relationship of the political left and gay liberation in the United States. Sociological Perspectives44 (4): 445-67.
46.
Ward, Jane.2008. Diversity discourse and multi-identity work in lesbian and gay organizations. In Identity work: Negotiating sameness and difference in activist environments, ed. J. Reger, D. Myers, and R. L. Einwohner, 233-255. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
47.
Whittier, Nancy.1995. Feminist generations: The persistence of the radical women’s movement. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
