Identity redefinition succeeds only where mobilization outpowers sedimented resistance.
Evidence
We suggest that the answer lies in considering the balance between the power generated by any social mobilization and the nature of the resistances that this mobilization must overcome. These resistances derive from (a) from the way in which past versions of identity have become sedimented into the organization of laws, institutions and customs, and (b) from the immediate and active opposition of other leaders and their social groups. — Stephen Reicher, S. Alexander Haslam, and Nick Hopkins, Social identity and the dynamics of…, 106
Categorization
- XREF: The ‘sedimented in laws, institutions and customs’ framing explains why some threat-frames land effortlessly as description (past mobilizations made them look natural) while others read as transparent assertion. — connects to: Whoever controls category definitions holds the basis of social power. — Stephen Reicher, S. Alexander Haslam, and Nick Hopkins, Social identity and the dynamics of…, 77; Leadership requires shared identity but also active identity entrepreneurship by leaders. — Stephen Reicher, S. Alexander Haslam, and Nick Hopkins, Social identity and the dynamics of…, 124; Identity is transformed by political action, not a precondition of it (+5 more)
Related
- Leaders’ power to define reality depends on the balance between mobilization and resistance (similarity 0.86)
- Identity arises from action and struggle rather than preceding politics (similarity 0.81)
- Social identities empower even when shaped by oppressive power relations. (similarity 0.81)
- Leadership requires shared identity but also active identity entrepreneurship by leaders. (similarity 0.80)
- A processual perspective links specific conditions to workers’ political recognition capacities. (similarity 0.79)
- Social identity theory’s contribution is integrative rather than wholly original (similarity 0.79)
- Leaders convert social identity into social reality by initiating group and societal structures (similarity 0.79)
- Identity is a positional political choice, not an ascribed primordial given (similarity 0.79)
- Category definitions determine who mobilizes, for what, and who leads (similarity 0.79)
- Identity is a political claim to belonging, not a fixed trait (similarity 0.79)
- Identity politics presumes identity guarantees politics when it is actually forged through struggle (similarity 0.79)
- Leaders strategically define social categories to advance their mobilization projects (similarity 0.79)
- Leadership is impossible without a pre-existing or manufactured shared social identity (similarity 0.79)
- National identity requires crafted enemies to become activist ideology (similarity 0.78)
- Social power needs supporting structures to achieve lasting transformation. (similarity 0.78)
Broader Connections
- Politicized collective identity requires power struggles reaching beyond immediate antagonists
#expands(0.82) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4395 - Identity is transformed by political action, not a precondition of it
#qualifies(0.80) - Identity arises from action and struggle rather than preceding politics
#qualifies(0.78) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 121 - Change comes only through action, not passive acceptance or endurance
#corroborates(0.76) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 557 - Identity politics needs supplementing by wider solidarity-directed struggles
#expands(0.75) - Reclaimed identity terms retain traces of struggle rather than being cleansed of negativity
#corroborates(0.72) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 397