Determinants of collective action and strategies to undertake for activist organizations

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Topics in Organizational Behavior Prof. Patricia Garcia-Prieto Chevalier

Nic GÖRTZ

Determinants of collective action and strategies to undertake for activist organizations Nic GÖRTZ PhD student Centre de Sociologie des Organisations Centre Emile Bernheim Université Libre de Bruxelles

"First they ignore you Then they laugh at you Then they fight you Then you win." Gandhi

As Klandermans (2002) states : « Collective action is not a very common response to injustice ». Most people will just continue do what are used to, that is, nothing. However, we state it is the activist organizations’ purpose to make people deliberately react towards a perceived as unjust situation and to correct and better the situation they face. In the field of social psychology of protest, Klandermans (1997) identified three core concepts leading to collective action: injustice, efficacy – “the conviction that it is possible to change the situation via collective action at reasonable cost” (Klandersmans, 2002, p.888) – and group identity – the affective component of social identity. These concepts echo back Gamson’s Talking Politics (1992) that highlighted the importance of injustice, agency – the belief that together, people can do something about a problem – and identity. Considering that activist organizations have to build up collective actions, and based on these three collective action pillars, the purpose of this paper is to identify various resources and operations that activist organizations should be aware of in order to reach their goals. -1-


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