Expanding on Psychological Theories of Engagement to Understand Activism in Context(s)

Abstract

Recent years have seen an increase in theoretical and empirical interest in the dynamics of social change. Missing from much of this literature, which has focused broadly on collective action, is attention to the people who seek to bring about social change, activists. Mass collective action is unlikely to occur without the involvement of people to recruit, mobilize, and organize social change campaigns. Including recent research from Australia, Europe, and North and South America, and studies of global online activists, this issue highlights multimethod approaches to studying activists and activism across a variety of different regional, issue-based, and sociopolitical contexts. In addition to contributing to ongoing theoretical and empirical discussions, the issue addresses the policy and strategic implications of this research for social change agents and organizations.In December 2011, the U.S. publication Time declared "The Protester" to be the person of the year (Anderson, 2011). Indeed, 2011 was a year of large-scale visible protest and social change around the world: from the Arab Spring; to the "Occupy" (U.S.) and Indignados (Spain) movements; anticorruption protests in India; and protests over accusations of vote rigging in Russia and the Democratic

Giving versus acting: Using latent profile analysis to distinguish between benevolent and activist support for global poverty reduction

“…In contrast, the activist group engaged in similar levels of donation but also attempted to influence the political process directly by lobbying MPs, signing petitions, attending rallies, and indirectly through public opinion by posting on social media several times a year (Curtin & McGarty, ; Louis, ). The activist supporters comprised a minority of the sample (~10%).…”

“…Empirically, this research is novel in adopting a person‐centred approach to determine the similarities within, and differences between, people (not variables or specific behaviours) as defining features of activists and benevolent supporters (see also Baysu & Phalet, ). The activist group may be numerically small (depressingly small if you are an international development activist) but Curtin and McGarty () recently pointed out that activists play a vital role in the broader dynamics of social mobilization and social change. However, many people who do the work of activists eschew this label (Stuart, Thomas, Donaghue, & Russell, ), making it more difficult to study this socially important group.…”

A model for predicting prejudice and stigma expression by understanding target perceptions: The effects of visibility, politicization, responsibility, and entitativity

“…Minority movements are heavily dependent on allies from privileged groups (Thomas, McGarty, & Mavor, 2010). Allies of highly politicized target groups can join social change efforts through shared ideologies of opinion-based identities (Curtin & McGarty, 2016) to act on the basis of salient opinions about how to change an unjust intergroup situation (Gee & McGarty, 2013). Allies of highly politicized target groups can join social change efforts through shared ideologies of opinion-based identities (Curtin & McGarty, 2016) to act on the basis of salient opinions about how to change an unjust intergroup situation (Gee & McGarty, 2013).…”

“…Successful allyship requires the acknowledgement of intergroup bias by some members of the perpetrator group, which can take place more easily in intergroup situations where prejudice appears in overt forms (see Durrheim et al, 2015). Allies of highly politicized target groups can join social change efforts through shared ideologies of opinion-based identities (Curtin & McGarty, 2016) to act on the basis of salient opinions about how to change an unjust intergroup situation (Gee & McGarty, 2013). In sum, SPEM can help explain differences in demobilization among disadvantaged groups and ally mobilization across intergroup contexts.…”

Privilege and Marginality: How Group Identification and Personality Predict Right‐ and Left‐Wing Political Activism

“…Although social group membership is widely believed to be a crucial starting point in identifying who becomes politically active, there is also widespread recognition that social group membership alone is not enough to move individuals to political action (Curtin & McGarty, 2016). Although social group membership is widely believed to be a crucial starting point in identifying who becomes politically active, there is also widespread recognition that social group membership alone is not enough to move individuals to political action (Curtin & McGarty, 2016).…”