Perpetual struggle: Sources of working-class identity and activism in collective action.

摘要

Whereas previous scholarship on popular mobilization has focused on its sources or causes, this study redirects attention to its effects on participants---in particular, to the subjective consequences of different modes of collective action. In dialogue with a rich theoretical tradition focused on the tension between workplace/production versus community/citizenship as competing sources of class formation, my central research question is: How do contrasting patterns of collective action differentially transform working-class consciousness and subjectivity? To answer this question I compare what I conceptualize as "economic" versus "political" logics of collective action as empirically represented, respectively, by a workplace strike at a small auto parts manufacturer in the industrial Midwest and a community-based campaign to secure a "living wage" in Chicago. Drawing primarily on in-depth interviews, and comparing respondents from the two cases in a way that accounts for the possibility of selection bias, the project analyzes how these two modal types of collective action yield distinct forms of consciousness and subjectivity.;The key difference that emerges in the two cases is the development of a "perpetual struggle orientation" where conflict and protest are perceived as ongoing. Although Chicago's living wage campaign was profoundly diverse, participants nevertheless developed an expansive solidarity with other workers and a long-term commitment to struggle on their behalf. In contrast, the striking autoworkers---despite their structural power, denser social networks, and immediate success against their employer---failed to develop any such orientation toward future struggle or understanding of their place as part of a wider social class. These findings challenge our usual assumptions about the divisive dynamics of diversity, about the solidity of concrete networks, and about the role of the workplace in working-class life. More generally, the analysis demonstrates how key features of collective action---constituency, emotion, duration, and type of leverage used---are constitutive of distinct working-class identities and understandings of struggle. This study traces how solidarity with other workers, an activist identity, and a sense of collective efficacy emerge as participants are transformed through mobilization, advancing our theoretical understanding of group formation, collective action, social movements, and social change.