Collective action and industrial protest

1. Collective action and industrial protest Alina S. Hernandez Bark 24.06.2012

2. http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/spaniens-minenarbeiter-gehen-auf-die-barrikaden-1.1380618http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/spaniens-minenarbeiter-gehen-auf-die-barrikaden-1.1380618 http://prod-euronews.euronews.net/2012/06/15/spain-striking-miners-scuffle-with-police/ http://www.euronews.com/2012/06/18/deadtowns-show-solidarity-with-striking-spain-miners/ Collective Action and Industrial Protest

3. Agenda Primitive instincts Individual differences Cognitive approaches Relative deprivation SI and collective action Empirical evidence Collective Action and Industrial Protest

4. Protest / Collective action = Product of lowest forms of psychological impulse and drive Expression of higher-order human sociality? VS. Collective Action and Industrial Protest

5. Primitive instincts • Sharedregressiontopre-intellectualinstinctsofaggressionandanarchy (LeBon, 1895/1947) • Loose sense of personal accountability collectiveunconsciousness (Allport, 1924) • Deindividuation looseofself • Strikers = senselessanimals / crazedpoliticalextremist Collective Action and Industrial Protest

6. Primitive instincts Suggestedinterventionsstrategies (e.g. Weller, 1985, p. 300) „Shiftingattention, impelling a realizationof personal identity an values, usingevenstrongerstimulithanthatwhichignitedthecrowd (such asgunfire), dividingtheopinionsofthegroupand isolatingtheringleaders.“ Collective Action and Industrial Protest

7. Individual differences approaches High internallocusofcontrol(Rotter, Seeman & Liverant, 1972) High politicalefficacy (Fiske, 1987)  but: more a matter ofgroup-basedideologythanpersonality Frustration-aggression asprimarycauseofparticipation in collectiveaction(e.g., Krech & Crutchfield, 1948) Collective Action and Industrial Protest

8. Individual differences approaches „…industrialconflict …[are] frustrationreactions… needsarefrustrated. The worker, thusfrustrated, recognizesmanagementpoliciesasthebarrieresinterveningbetweenhimandhisgoalsand he reactsbydirectactionagainstthosebarrieresthroughstrikingorotherformsofindustrialprotest (Krech & Crutchfield, 1948, p.547) Collective Action and Industrial Protest

9. Individual differences approaches • Collectivistorientation (Kelly & Breinlinger, 1996; Smith & Bond, 1993; Triandis, et al., 1988) • Strong ingroupfavour • Group goalsareveryimportant – evenmorethan personal ones • Susceptibletosocialinfluence morelikelytoparticipate in collectiveaction Collective Action and Industrial Protest

10. Cognitive approaches • Expectancyvaluemodel (Klanderman, 1984) • Consensus mobilization: prospectiveactionisbroughttotheattentionofmembersandsupportissought • Action mobilization: theunionmarshalsmembersintoactivities in ordertoachievethegoals  membersanalysecostsandbenefits Collective Action and Industrial Protest

11. Relative deprivation (theory, Gurr, 1970) • Individuals perception of inequality • People are sensitive to relative nor abstract injustice • Egoistic vs. fraternal relative deprivation (Runciman, 1966): • Latter one = Feeling of deprivation experienced by individuals as memebrs of a group  relevant for collective action • Necessary but not sufficent condition for protest Collective Action and Industrial Protest

12. Relative deprivation = stripped down version of SIA Before the group work, I present some interesting and relevant empirical results… Collective Action and Industrial Protest

13. SI and perception of social injustice (Smith et al., 1994) 2 (groupmembershipsalient vs. not salient) x 2 (paid vs. not paid) design Participants in non-paid + socialidentitysalientconditionweremostlikelytoreportfeelingofinjustice Participants in paid + socialidentitysalientconditionfeltthelowest sense ofdeprivationandinjustice  “the salience of group membership did not encourage personally gratified subjects to challenge the distribution of the pie, it only made their slice of it taste sweeter” (p. 298) Collective Action and Industrial Protest

14. SI and participation in collective action Kelly & Kelly (1994) N = 350 Goal: identitfy predictors of participation in union-based collective action Collective Action and Industrial Protest

15. SI and participation in collective action Collective Action and Industrial Protest • Willingness to participate in industrial action dependsboth on: • Identification with the group (Kelly & Kelly, 1994) • The frame of reference and informational content to which the members are exposed (Veenstra & Haslam, 2000)  the reaction of union members are highly sensitive to specific features of the social and political reality at any point in time

16. Impact of perceived social structure • Taylor et al. (1987) • Where the outgroup’s actions were distributivelyand procedurally just → acceptancewas the preferred option • Where the outgroup’s actions were distributively and procedurally unjust → collective action was much more popular • A second experiment suggested that a desire for collective action was stronger when the participants’ score was close to the cut-off for entry into the high status group. Collective Action and Industrial Protest

17. Impact of perceived social structure • Wright et al. (1990) • When group boundaries permable: the remotest possibility to gain entry was sufficienttodeterparticipantsfromcollectiveaction. • Only in the totally closed condition the preferred option was collectiveaction Collective Action and Industrial Protest

18. Group work Please, readthetextandexplain SI andcollectiveaction (Group 1) Applythetexttotheprotest in Spain. Howexplainthe different approachestheprotest? (Group 2) Anysuggestions, howto „solve“ theprotest?? Collective Action and Industrial Protest

19. SI = prerequisite for collective action • Eclectic model of different phases of protest (Klandermans & Oegema, 1992) • Psychological process: • People’s initial perception of grievance and their identification with a group • Emerging salience of social identity: • Individuals become motivated • Social identity-based mutual influence: • Individuals trust and cooperate with each other, agree to participate in collective response Collective Action and Industrial Protest

20. SI = prerequisite for collective action • Different components of protest: discrete processesoperatingat different levels • But also potential for unitary analysis: • The binding element is sharedness of belief • Common social identity leads to shared beliefs • Protest is staged by people who share: • Anger about injustice done to them and • The conviction that collectively they can exact changes from those they hold responsible Collective Action and Industrial Protest

21. SI = prerequisite for collective action Reality of conflict, awareness of a common fate and a common enemy → increase the comparative fit of a shared self-categorization Prior meaning and accessibility (e.g. union member) → increase the likelihood to define oneself in terms of a given socialself-categorization Impermeable group boundaries and status-based group relations, which are perceived to be unstable and illegitimate → increase the likelihood of direct collective challenges to a high-status outgroup Collective Action and Industrial Protest

22. SI as basis for creative leadership of a collective • To the extent that leaders have a vision that is groundedin: • what the group is and • what it needs to do in order to promote its collective interests they are in a position to mobilize resources, to motivate and act on behalf of followers • Leaders who are not perceived by followers to reflect the group’s interest or are unrepresentative  will beineffectual Collective Action and Industrial Protest

23. Collective action as a meaningfulexpression of social identity • Industrial protest: • Reflects and is made possible by a redefinition (not loss – LeBon) of self • Is a meaningful, collective response to a particular configuration of intergroup relations (Reicher, 1982) • Difference is one of perspective • Whether industrial protest is good and should be actively encouraged or not is a completely different matter Collective Action and Industrial Protest

24. Thank you for your attention! Collective Action and Industrial Protest