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Identity Processes in Collective Action Participation: Farmers' Identity and Farmers' Protest in the Netherlands and Spain
Author(s) -
Klandermans Bert,
Sabucedo Jose Manuel,
Rodriguez Mauro,
De Weerd Marga
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
political psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.419
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1467-9221
pISSN - 0162-895X
DOI - 10.1111/0162-895x.00280
Subject(s) - collective action , collective identity , identity (music) , action (physics) , social psychology , social identity theory , identification (biology) , preparedness , salient , sociology , political science , public relations , social group , psychology , politics , law , physics , quantum mechanics , acoustics , botany , biology
This study tested the assumption that a sense of collective identity stimulates participation in collective action. Contextual circumstances supposedly make a collective identity more salient and compel people to act as members of the group; protest participation is more likely among people with a strong collective identity. Group identification and participation in identity organizations were used as indicators of collective identity in a study of 248 farmers from Galicia (Spain) and 167 farmers from the Netherlands. The farmers were interviewed three times at intervals of 1 year. The longitudinal design also allowed a test of causality. A sense of collective identity appeared to stimulate preparedness to take part in farmers' protest. Action preparedness leads to action participation, which in turn appears to foster collective identity.