From crowd events to social movements

John DrurySchool of Psychology, University of Sussex

EASP Medium Size Meeting on Collective Action and Social Change:

Toward Integration and InnovationJuly 3-6, 2009, Groningen, The Netherlands

From crowd events to social movements

Acknowledgements

Steve Reicher, Charles Abraham, Dermot Barr, Joseph Beale, Chris Cocking, Angela Haddow, Charlotte Hanson, Karl Marx,

Faye Rapley, Clifford Stott

From antecedents….

• Perceptions of collective illegitimacy and disadvantage (Wright & Tropp, 2002)

• Identification (Veenstra & Haslam, 2000; Van Zomeren et al., 2008)

• Instrumental rewards (Simon & Klandermans, 2001; Sturmer & Simon, 2004)

• Group efficacy (Kelly & Breinlinger, 1995; Klandermans 1992)

• Activist identity (Simon)

• Normative alignment (Thomas, 2009)

…to consequences…. Only lately have psychologists taken an interest:

• Human ‘flourishing’ (Kasser & Klar, 2006)

• Pride, policization, group relations (Fedi, Mannarini, & Rovere, in press)

• Consolidating or eroding commitment to the group (Louis, in press)

• Emotion, empowerment, well-being, resilience (Van Zomeren)

…to consequences….

But psychological consequences of CA have long been documented by sociologists, political scientists and historians:

• Class consciousness (Mann, 1973)

• Continued activism and liberal values (McAdam,

1989)

• Opposition to police, positive relations to other groups (Green, 1990)

• Pride (Britt & Heise, 2000)

…to consequences….

Seem to be subjectively and socially important!

Paris, 1968

‘ [t]he tumultuous development of the students' struggle ... transformed both the relation of forces in society and the image, in people's minds, of established institutions and of established leaders’ (Anon., 1968, p. 51).

‘The occupants of Censier suddenly cease to be unconscious, passive objects shaped by particular combinations of social forces; they become conscious, active subjects who begin to shape their own social activity … (Gregoire & Perlman, 1969, pp. 37-41).

From antecedents to consequences… and back?

Two-fold argument:

1. Prima facie, theoretical, and practical reasons to seek conceptual integration of antecedents and consequences of CA.

From antecedents to consequences… and back?

2. Crowd research offers a way into such integration.

• Crowd events provide insights into psychological and

social change

• We need the ESIM (or something like it) to grasp the

relation between antecedents/ crowd events and social

movements /consequences … and back

Overview

Reasons for conceptual integration of the antecedents and consequences of CA

1. A prima facie case

2. The theoretical case – The elaborated social identity model (ESIM) of the crowd and beyond

3. Practical reasons for research of this kind

1. A prima facie caseWatts riot, Los Angeles, 1965

AntecedentsGrievance/relative deprivationPolice racismNew black identities developingFailure of non-violent movement

ConsequencesEmpowerment and black prideBlack /working class social movementsLegislation and social policy

‘For the first time people in Watts feel a real pride in being black…’ (cited in Milgram & Toch, 1969)

2. The theoretical case

• Elaborated Social Identity Model (ESIM; Reicher,

Stott & Drury)

• A historical, interactive account of identity (self) and context (social world) change through crowd dynamics.

• Hence a framework for showing links between– Crowd events and social movements– Antecedents and consequences of CA

ESIM

Based upon social identity and self cat principles

To explain change in crowd events:1. Dynamics and conditions

2. Concepts

3. Types of change

ESIM (1): Dynamics and conditions

• Crowd may begin as divided• Police perceive crowd homogeneity. Police practices impose a

common fate on crowd members• Crowd unites around opposition to the police.

• Conditions(i) asymmetry of categorical representations between crowd

participants and the police(ii) asymmetry of power: the police initially able to impose

their definition of legitimate practice on the crowd.

• Where police action is seen as both indiscriminate and illegitimate more willingness to enter into conflict with the police.

• The emergence of a inclusive self-categorization (as ‘oppositional’) within the crowd leads to feelings of unity; this empowers crowd members to take on the police.

ESIM (2): Concepts

Identity: • a representation of one’s position in a set of

categorical social relations, along with the possible and proper actions that flow from that position

Context: • those social practices which enable or constrain our

actions.

Identity and context are different moments in time: One group’s identity forms context for other groups over time, and vice versa

ESIM (3): Types of identity change

Psych consequences of CA that help explain how crowd events become social movements

• Identity content – becoming oppositional (Drury & Reicher, 2000)

• Identity boundaries – joining with others (Drury, Reicher, & Stott, 2003)

• Empowerment (Drury, Cocking, Beale, Hanson, & Rapley, 2005; Drury & Reicher, 2005)

• Changed aims and purposes of future action (Drury, 1996; Drury & Reicher, 2005, in press)

Identity content – becoming oppositional

Longitudinal study of No M11 link-road campaign (1993-4)

Many (inexperienced) protesters entered events considering themselves ‘liberal individuals’.

But they were treated collectively as an illegitimate group.

In being positioned as oppositional, they saw themselves as oppositional: far from facilitating their ‘democratic rights’ the police were perceived as obstructing them.

Hence change in the content of the social identity – who ‘we’ are.

Identity content – becoming oppositional

Int: What in particular has radicalized you do you think?

CP25: The police. Simple as that. You can't win sticking to the rules; you can't win cos they don't. And you've got to do something like that, there's no other option left, I don't think. The day of the tree [eviction]… made me realize there's no way you're gonna win by just sort of going quietly, you've got to make as much fuss as you can. Really did change me, I think, that day the day the tree came down. (Interview)

Identity boundaries – joining with others

• Police action grouped ‘local’ protesters with ‘national’ activists

• The changed identity content protesters defined themselves as one with other oppositional groups– the Nigerian Ogoni tribe (protesting against Shell oil

company) – those who fought ‘injustice’ in the past (e.g., the British

miners’ strike, 1984-5).

• Hence, identity boundaries became more inclusive in both space and time.

• Following the M11 campaign, many participants graduated from the local protest in London– to the national anti-car ‘Reclaim the Streets’ parties– to the world-wide anti-capitalist/ anti-globalization

movement

Empowerment

Process (ESIM dynamics/conditions revisited)

Indiscriminate police action

from fragmentation to inclusive self-categorization

Subjective unity/homogenization in the crowd

Expectations and provision of support for ingroup normative action

Ingroup normative action as collective self-objectification

Empowerment

Collective self-objectification (CSO)‘Action which serves to realize (‘objectify’)

participants’ social identity (their definition of legitimate practice) in the world, over against the power of dominant outgroups.’

Some features of CSO– CSO can itself be empowering – CSO, like empowerment itself, feels good!– CSO can lead to further participation

Empowerment: Evidence for aspects of CSO

1. CSO is an outcome of the crowd dynamic specified in the ESIM

Cross-sectional, longitudinal survey of London demo against Israeli attack on Gaza, London, January 2009 (Haddow & Drury, in prep)

Identification Subjective unity

Expectations of support

Feelings of empowerment

CSO measures (i.e. campaign ‘success’, ‘achievement’, ‘goals’)

Empowerment: Evidence for aspects of CSO

2. CSO is collective action which transforms the social world

M11 protesters transformed a ‘construction site’ back into ‘common land’ through direct action

Their action (changed social world, in line with their collective identity) subjectively evidenced that their group was indeed an active and powerful subject. (Drury & Reicher, 2005)

Empowerment: Evidence for aspects of CSO3. CSO is not ‘success’ per se but must be group-identity

congruent

Interview study of march against Labour Party conference (Drury et al., 2005): socialists felt empowered; anarchists felt disempowered.

Lab analogue study (Drury & Cocking, in prep)

• Different identities induced in participants for which ‘intellectual achievement’ was more or less central.

• They complete activities which were described as ‘intelligence/ability’ tasks• Bogus feedback on success or failure• Then Ps completed ‘empowerment’ measures: ‘subjective success’, future

expectations of success, desire for participation and positive feelings. • Positive feedback increased the sense of subjective success for all

participants• BUT the effect of such feedback on feelings of empowerment was greater

when tasks were identity-relevant; and the effects of failure feedback on feelings of disempowerment was greater for those to whom the tasks were identity-relevant.

Empowerment: Evidence for aspects of CSO4. CSO is empowering

CSO is a result of having power, but empowerment is also an experiential outcome of CSO! (Drury et al., 2005; Drury & Reicher, 2005; Reicher & Haslam, 2006)

‘It was almost as if that kind of sent a kind of wave of—a wave of kind of empowerment through a lot of people, including protesters. I think a lot of people [ ] suddenly realized that they could actually—they could actually take some responsibility for what was going on and actually take control. [ ] A lot of people have just powered on since then, they really have.’ (M11 protester)

Empowerment: Evidence for aspects of CSO5. CSO is associated with positive emotions

Existing research demonstrates that empowering actions are experienced as joyful.

Interview study of activists’ accounts of empowering factors found CSO was statistically the best predictor of positive emotion (Drury et al., 2005)

‘That felt really brilliant, cos it was just I don’t know, there’s something about overcoming opposition. Like if we’d just walked out of the tube station and walked straight onto the road, it wouldn’t have been as good, as having to have got round the police lines first. So it was that kind of, you know, makes you feel more like you’ve achieved something. [ ] If you’re left completely free to do whatever you want, it doesn’t feel as wa-hey! Exciting as, as the whole crowd pulling together against some opposition and then achieving what it wants’ (M41 Reclaim the Streets party)

Cross-sectional survey of London demo against attack on Gaza (Haddow & Drury, in prep) found CSO variables predicted ‘happiness’

Empowerment: Evidence for aspects of CSO

6. CSO is associated with well-being

More speculative…

Pathway 1: Empowerment via CSOPerceived control reduces cardiovascular disease and associated risk

factors (de Lange et al., 2003). Consequently, the sense of empowerment and control engendered by the realization of identity in collective action may enhance well-being.

Pathway 2: Positive emotions via CSOJust as negative emotions predispose us to ill-health (Kiecolt-Glaser et al., 2002)

so positive emotions can contribute to well-being (Moskowitz, Epel, & Acree, 2008). Positive emotions such as joy reduce anxiety, which in turn lowers blood pressure levels and enhances immune functioning. Joy also broadens the range of healthy activities we engage in (Fredrickson, 2004).

Also follows the logic of ISIS (Haslam & Reicher) linking social identification with stress reduction (via support in CA for ingroup normative action)

Empowerment: Evidence for aspects of CSO

7. CSO can lead to further collective action

PositivelyCSO was associated with an upsurge in No M11 campaign activity

(Drury & Reicher, 2005)

NegativelyLack of CSO and ‘police control’ were best predictors of reduced

subsequent participation (Drury et al., 2005)

A positive cycle of collective action, its antecedents and consequences

From Reicher & Haslam (2006, in press)

Empowerment and CSO: Some caveats

1. Is collective action always ‘healthy’?Stress, injury, cold and lack of food all lower the immune system.No simple link from CA/CSO to well-being – many intervening

variables!Gaza survey study results (Haddow & Drury, in prep) mixed: • CSO marginally predicted ‘psychological health’• BUT ‘enduring empowerment’ correlated negatively with

physical health!

2. Is CSO always predictive of future collective action?Some of the best successes are also associated with burnout!E.g. the Reclaim the Streets events – followed by police persecution

and exhaustion. Hence no simple predictive relation between CSO and future action

(Drury et al., 2005)

Changed aims and purposesChanged aims link with change in identity content:

• After being ‘attacked’ by the authorities, M11 Protesters moved from saving particular pieces of land to exposing the illegitimacy of the police (Drury & Reicher, in press)

Means can become ends – fighting the police becomes an aim and achievement in itself rather than an occupational hazard:

‘Just giving the police such a run-around, you know, that was empowering, just like, um, seeing that the police were, like, quite pissed off, and: : : just a chance to demoralise the police, I think, although we couldn’t liberate any animals or anything like that, it was good to see the police demoralized.’ (P14, Shamrock).

This can cut both ways, however!

G8 activists elevated their protest camp (means) into an end in itself. They felt empowered. But promotion of ‘activist culture’ served to create an activist ghetto that alienated political neophytes. (Barr & Drury, in press).

3. Practical reasons for research on CA

Our interest lies in support for social change

Protests often have a bad press:• Protesters are criminalized, pathologized• Campaigns are put down by being described as ‘single issue’• Or the message is that collective action is self-sacrifice, hassle

By highlighting both ‘rational’ causes and positive experiences we can contribute to the political project of promoting collective action participation.

An example of the ‘ideological battle’ – as in the case when student protest at your university is criminalized by the

authorities in order to discredit it….

Conclusion and summaryThe argument:

• The antecedents and consequences of CA need to be linked theoretically

• ESIM is a framework for such integration and hence explaining how crowd events can become part of social movements

• In particular the ESIM suggests – (i) how change occurs (dynamics)– (ii) how we need to think of identity in explaining

change (concepts)– (iii) a typology of changes in identity

Conclusion and summaryWhy ESIM? Concepts common to related accounts:

BUT what we try to add is the historical interactive perspective – showing how key concepts relate over time

SIT ESIM SIMCA

Identity Identity

content and boundaries

Identification

Stability Empower-ment

Efficacy

Legitimacy, Aims, purposes

Injustice

Cognitive alternatives

Aims,

purposes

Conclusion and summaryWe can learn much from the crowd – but ESIM is not

just a crowd theory.

The examples show how particular events are interpreted in a wider context

Crowd events can become social movements because:

• The types of change described may be enduring changes for individuals and groups

• Consequences can translate into antecedents: motivations, rationales, confidence for future action