Vollversion (5.75 MB) - Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen

FORSCHUNGSJOURNAL NSB, JG. 8, HEFT 1, 1995
Dieter Rucht: Collective identity: Conceptual reflections on an important tool of
social movement research; FJ NSB 1/1995, pp. 9-23
The author stresses the crucial importance of collective identity in order to locate social
movements. He analyzes the collective identity of social movements in a threefold manner,
adapting the concepts of identite, Opposition and totalite by ALAIN TOURAINE: Collective
identity as the connection of interactions based on a certain structural network, as a challenge for
other social groups and as the 'interpretor' of a social conflict. RUCHT discusses these three
dimensions in the light of recent theories within the realm of social movement research. He
concludes with some remarks on the factors which may constribute to the decline of the collective
identity of social movements. Positively spoken: To stabilize collective identity permanently it is
necessary to keep the adequat relationship between exclusion and inclusion of a social movement.
Oliver Schmidtke: Collective identity and the political mobilization of territorial
movements: An analytical perspective; FJ NSB 1/1995, pp. 24-31
The function of collective identity is defined as a means to standardize social relationships and to
secure continuity. SCHMIDTKE distinguishes three types of collective identity: primordial,
cultural, and civic identity. The author reconstructs how the identity of the Italian Lega Lombarda
had shifted from a primordially defined one towards a cultural identity. This was due to a changed
'political opportunity structure' that necessitated an extension of 'politics of identity' to mobilize
people beyond the initially restricted territory of Northern Italy and to gain relevance in the whole
country.
Veit Michael Bader: Ethnic identity and ethnic culture. Limits of constructivism and of
manipulation; FJ NSB 1/1995, pp. 32-45
Collective ethnic identity is the focus of this essay. BADER defines collective identity in general
(1) by an awareness of belonging to a group, (2) by the discrimination of non-members, (3) by the
collective interpretation of belonging, (4) by a functional relationship towards individual identity
that induces action for the individual, (5) by situations of rivalry and struggle and (6) by a mutual
relationship of definitions of oneself by oneself and by others. Ethnic identity is also discussed
referring to ANTHONY SMITH's study 'The Ethnic Origins of Nations' (1986).
Bernd Simon: Individual and collective seif: Sociopsychological basics of social
movements, in the case of the gay movement; FJ NSB 1/1995, pp. 46-55
The analysis of the relationship between the individual and a group and the transformation of one
into the other is central to modern experimental social psychology. It is generated by discontinuous
individual behavior. The author refers to psychological approaches towards the concept of seif and
the problem of self-interpretation. Individual self-interpretation is presented as being composed
of several social aspects of the seif, allowing the individual to be defined more easily. However,
such self-interpretation gradually becomes less stable. SIMON exemplifies his findings on the
basis of empirical surveys of the gay movement: Stigmatized minorities tend to harmonize their
sense of identity by external as well as by self-induced influences. Social aspects of the seif are
shared and contribute to the experience of the common social fate.