The Convert as a Social Type

Snow, David A.; Machalek, Richard

doi:10.2307/202053

Cited by 121 publications

(87 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Then, it's been really useful for me […] being here and 6. See McAdam (1982) and others such as Snow and Machalek (1983) The greatest value-expressive benefit is that which manifests itself as satisfaction or pleasure. It is the benefit that Hirschman (1986: 99) speaks of when he writes: "In full-time dedication to collective action, calculation operates the other way around: instead of deducting the cost of participation from the benefit of it, cost and benefit are added."…”

Section: Acquiring Competencies and Values For Private And Public Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

Civic Participation as Means of Empowerment. Preventing Social Exclusion of Youth in Precarious Life Conditions in Spain

Rivas

Robles

2016

PapRevSoc

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This article explores the possible effects of empowerment as a result of being involved in civic associations in people living in conditions of precariousness, focusing specifically on Spanish youth at risk of social exclusion. The article shows that, in the absence of individual economic and educational resources, the environmental stimuli provided by particular associations may prove highly relevant in order to improve the situation of this group of young people. These associations teach youth civic practices and values that help them manage precariousness and provide them with new resources to seek new life opportunities. To a certain degree, these associations manage to compensate for the lack of personal resources. We present the results of a qualitative study for which data were collected from 122 young individuals. The study identifies specific factors of vulnerability and explains how they can be dealt with. It also demonstrates that, thanks to civic engagement, the young people involved were able to develop capabilities that reduced their risk of falling into marginality and enhanced their chances of finding new life opportunities. Resumen. Participación cívica como fuente de empoderamiento. Prevenir la exclusión social de los jóvenes en condiciones precarias en EspañaEste artículo estudia posibles efectos de empoderamiento, como consecuencia de participar en asociaciones cívicas, en personas que viven en condiciones de precariedad; nos centramos en jóvenes en riesgo de exclusión social en España. Encontramos que en ausencia de recursos económicos y educativos individuales, estímulos contextuales procedentes de específicas asociaciones permiten mejorar su situación. Estas asociaciones enseñan prácticas cívicas y valores que les ayudan a manejar su precariedad y les dotan de recursos para encontrar nuevas oportunidades. En alguna medida, estas asociaciones compensan la carencia de recursos individuales. Presentamos resultados de una investigación cualitativa en la que trabajamos con una muestra de 122 jóvenes. Identificamos factores de vulnerabilidad y cómo manejarlos y comprobamos que a través de la participación aprendieron a reducir el riesgo de caer en la marginación y encontraron nuevas oportunidades. Palabras clave: prácticas cívicas; riesgo de exclusión; oportunidades contextuales; empoderamiento Participation, resources and opportunities: the debateThe aim of this article is to explore the chances of constructing active citizens by means of participative practices in populations with scarce resources and limited opportunities and, if such chances exist, to explore their actual effects. People's civic engagement and their ability to act as citizens are usually related to both their socioeconomic and educational opportunities and resources. Nevertheless, we wanted to determine whether people lacking the optimal socioeconomic and/or cultural resources do indeed engage in the public sphere and, if they do so, to explore the causes and the processes of their participation. We also wanted to e...

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Section: Acquiring Competencies and Values For Private And Public Lifementioning

confidence: 99%

Civic Participation as Means of Empowerment. Preventing Social Exclusion of Youth in Precarious Life Conditions in Spain

Rivas

Robles

2016

PapRevSoc

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“…Snow and Machalek suggested that biographical reconstruction was a distinctive feature of convert self-expression: it actually confirmed the convert's identity by hiding the true story of their conversion from view. You could tell the real convert by the manner in which they revised their past [50,51]. Drawing upon a sample of interviews with evangelical Christians, Clifford Staples and Armand Mauss developed this insight further, suggesting that biographical reconstruction had a functional as well as indicative significance: it was an instrument by which people who were immersed in the process of conversion endeavored to achieve that goal [52,53].…”

Section: Conversion Narratives In Evangelical Traditionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How to be (the Author of) Born Again: Charles Colson and the Writing of Conversion in the Age of Evangelicalism

Oliver

2014

Religions

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Charles Colson's Born Again was the most celebrated spiritual memoir of the 1970s evangelical revival, and remains the best-known book-length conversion narrative of the twentieth century. Its account of how Colson-notoriously ruthless as a political aide to President Nixon-abruptly invited Christ into his life in the late summer of 1973 following a long searching discussion with a Christian friend and of how he came to submit himself completely to God's will, inspired evangelicals to hope that the broader national crisis of morals exemplified by Watergate might be purged by the fires of revival. Colson went on, as founder of the world's largest prison ministry and as a leading evangelical thinker and writer, to place a highly-structured model of conversion at the centre of his ambitions for evangelical mission in the world. However, as revealed by his private papers, Colson's own conversion experience was more complex and ambiguous than either his published memoir or later works of advocacy suggest. His editor, Leonard LeSourd, played a significant role in shaping Born Again to match the conceptual norms of popular evangelicalism and contribute the force of a recent, conspicuous and apparently secure example of individual spiritual rebirth to the wider evangelical project of religious revival.

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“…With specific reference to drug addiction, some authors have argued that religious conversion gives a new identity to rehabilitated drug addicts that enable them to begin a new life (Ng & Shek, 2001). Snow and Machalek (1983) call this embracing a master role in which the subject sees a full integration of the new religious identity with all other identities, the subordination of all other identities to the new religious identity, or the elimination of other identities incompatible with the new religious identity.…”

Section: Addiction Conversion Testimony and Recoverymentioning

confidence: 99%