Sunday, 5 July 2015

Self, Identity, and Social Movements (Social movements, protest & contention),
Ed. Sheldon Stryker, Timothy J Owens and Robert W White, University of Minnesota Press, 2000,
Chapter 2 "Identity Work Processes in the Context of Social Movements" (pp. 41-67), page 44

In examining the correspondence between and individual and a collective identity, David A. Snow and Doug McAdam talk about the 'Structuralist Perspecive'. This sees individual identities as embedded in elements of social structure - specifically in roles, networks and groups.

They summarise that it is nearly impossible to belong to a movement without here having an identity change:

Reviews of movement research as wellas studies of various movements clarly indicate that movement participation almost always modifies and sometimes even transforms participant identities, such that movement identities reflect experience in a movement as much as pre-existing identities.

Join something and it will change you. The question for Jews in churches is how much and do they want to go aong with that. Are they even aware of it?