Parenting as Activism: Identity Alignment and Activist Persistence in the White Power Movement

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2016

Publication Title

Sociological Quarterly

Volume

57

Issue

3

First page number:

491

Last page number:

519

Abstract

This article addresses the relationship between identity and activism and discusses implications for social movement persistence. We explain how individuals negotiate opportunities as parents to align and extend an activist identity with a movement's collective expectations. Specifically, we focus on how participants in the U.S. white power movement use parenting as a key role to express commitment to the movement, develop correspondence among competing and potentially conflicting identities, and ultimately sustain their activism. We suggest that parenting may provide unique opportunities for activists in many movements to align personal, social, and collective movement identities and simultaneously affirm their identities as parents and persist as social movement activists. © 2016 Midwest Sociological Society

Keywords

collective behavior and social movements; crime; law and deviance; culture; gender and class; race; social psychology; sociology

Language

English

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