Πολιτικές ταυτότητες: πώς λειτουργούν;

Abstract

Identity-based approaches to social movements are often seen in opposition to structures and to structural approaches. Oddly, identity-based approaches share with structural approaches a static perspective on how new political identities are formed, how they relate to existing ones, and how they interact with significant others and political regimes. Instead, this paper focuses on actor constitution. Drawing on three historical and contemporary episodes of contentious politics, we propose answers to three related questions: (1) How do political actors form, change, and disappear? (2) How do they acquire and change their collective identities? (3) How do they interact with other political actors, including holders of power? To do so, we first distinguish among intermittent actors, established interests, and activist groups. We then relate identity work to the classical structuralist construct of opportunity structures. We conclude by examining the relationship between identities and boundaries, suggesting that identity work is most critical in what we call “composite systems”.