Unmaking a Movement: Identity Work and the Outcomes of Zapatista Community Centers in Los Angeles

Abstract

Identity work explains how participants in social movements build and maintain their collective identities, uniting movement groups. This study, based on ethnographic fieldwork comparing two Zapatista community centers in Los Angeles, asks if the absence of identity work leads to the dissolution of organizations. Both of these groups neglected work of identity convergence and identity construction to integrate three subgroups—“activists,” “organizers,” and “community members”—into a whole. Yet a lack of identity work alone does not explain the relative stability of one group while the second experienced conflict and eventually disbanded. Additional structural influences—an external crisis facing the group and the internal proportions between members—combined with these cultural factors to bring about organizational schism.

Subcultural Identity Work in Social Movements: Barriers to Collective Identity Changes and Overcoming Them

“…Where the first thread highlights the work of individuals to connect their personal identity with the group (and is perhaps more appropriately termed individual identity work ), the second thread draws on the concept of identity work to explore the work of a group to connect the collective identity with individuals. Recently explored by Glass (), this thread directs researchers to examine group efforts to bring the collective identity into correspondence with individual members. Following Schwalbe and Mason‐Shrock (:121), this may best be identified as subcultural identity work : the work people do together to create the signs, codes, and rites of affirmation that become shared resources for identity making.…”

“…Following Schwalbe and Mason‐Shrock (:121), this may best be identified as subcultural identity work : the work people do together to create the signs, codes, and rites of affirmation that become shared resources for identity making. For example, Glass () draws upon both interviews with members and also on field observations of movement meetings, to highlight factors that can lead to movement discord and the identity work involved in maintaining unity. Although approaching the condition somewhat differently, this thread still follows from the assertion by Schwalbe and Mason‐Schrock () that identity work can apply to groups defining a collective as well as individuals defining themselves.…”

“…Schwalbe and Mason‐Schrock () have already pointed to important pieces of the processes (notably: the defining, coding, affirming, and policing of identity), and although Crowley's () study is actually of individual identity work, she points out important differences between the internally oriented and the externally oriented identity work of social movement organizations. Finally, as noted by both Einwohner () and Glass (), the concept of identity work helps researchers develop a perspective that incorporates discord as a complementary element of a collective identity process instead of simply as a problem to be overcome in the pursuit of unity.…”

“…From these studies, the researchers gained important insights on individual experiences and the studies focused attention on individual identity work. To get at subcultural identity work, ethnographic methods, such as the participant observation study of Zapatista‐inspired groups conducted by Glass (), allows direct access to the interactions of movement members that make up subcultural identity work.…”

From Responsible Debtors to Citizens

“…So, while the activists' boundary work entails identifying members as insiders, it is the formation of a group consciousness that gives meaning to this distinction (Hunt and Benford 2007;Reger 2008). Because individuals bring with them their personal social identities that can facilitate or impede unity (Glass 2010;Munkres 2008;Reger 2002;Valocchi 2008;Youngman 2003), this process "requires a great deal of identity work" (Einwohner, Reger, and Myers 2008, 2) to give "meaning to themselves or others" (Schwalbe and Mason-Schrock 1996, 115). Because individuals bring with them their personal social identities that can facilitate or impede unity (Glass 2010;Munkres 2008;Reger 2002;Valocchi 2008;Youngman 2003), this process "requires a great deal of identity work" (Einwohner, Reger, and Myers 2008, 2) to give "meaning to themselves or others" (Schwalbe and Mason-Schrock 1996, 115).…”