W7 L2: Collective Action II

BARRIERS OF COLLECTIVE ACTION

• repression - multifaceted phenomenon that seeks to stifle political protest

• a state or private action meant to prevent, control, or constrain non institutional collective action (eg. protests)

Typologies of repression

• reactive repression → demobilise, reacts to existing collective action

• proactive repression → prevents the initiation of collective action

• Smithey & Kurtz (2018) - repression is a continuum of demobilisation depending on the level of force used

  • intermediate manipulation: cooptation and faux concessions

  • soft representation: media manipulation, counter-protests, stigmatisation, etc.

- BARRIERS TO PERCEIVING INJUSTICE

• policies that legitimise inequalities or disadvantage in society constitute a barrier to experiencing perceived injustice

  • Social creativity (Becker 2012) → can social creativity undermine collective action?

    • social creativity - comes from SIT (people motivated to feel good and motivated about themselves) → high identification with in-group is motivated to positively distinguish it form out-groups

    • how disadvantaged groups acquire a positive social identity?

    • identity management strategies:

  • INDIVIDUAL MOBILITY

    • disadvantage group members may seek to escape, deny being part of the group (bleaching skin, immigrants assimilating to culture, etc.)

    • HOWEVER, it doesn’t change structural inequality

  • SOCIAL CREATIVITY

    • group members seek to redefine intergroup comparison by representing in-group in positive rather than negative ways using:

      • compensating bias: yes we are ….. but we are …..

      • engage in downward comparison: compare in-group with lower status instead of higher groups

      • reevaluate value of comparison dimension: downplaying importance of negative attribute in-group is compared on

    • SOCIAL COMPETITION

      • fighting with group in order to improve conditions of group rather than an individual

  • Becker STUDY 1

  • 63 german middle class, mix gender ppts

  • 2 conditions

  • experimental: compared people like them to the richest 10% of population on the attitudes of warmth

  • collective action tendencies were also measured (likelihood of participation)

  • FINDINGS

  • ppts were less likely to participate in collective action after comparison with richest 10%

  • STUDY 2

  • 60 german woman

  • read text on social change in terms of salary and how women are still disadvantaged

  • 2 conditions then mande

  • experimental: compared women to men in attitudes of warmth

  • collective action tendencies were measured

  • less interest against gender inequality after the comparison

  • STUDY 3

  • 74 unemployed people

  • 3 conditions: download comparison, upward comparison and control

- BARRIERS TO IN-GROUP IDENTIFICATION