The present dissertation explores the collective identity of the Anonymous movement. This movement is characterised by the heterogeneity of its activities, from meme-crafting to pranks to activist actions, with a wide range of goals and tactics. Such heterogeneity raises the question as to why such a diverse group of people makes the decision to act under the same name. To answer this question, the concept of collective identity is applied, which describes how participants collectively construct the definition of their group. This dissertation is based on a three-year ethnography. The main findings show that the collective identity of Anonymous rests on five sets of self-defining concepts related to: 1) Anonymous’ counterculture of offense and parrhesia, 2) its personification into two personae (the ‘trickster’ and the ‘hero’) that have differing goals, means, and relationships with the environment, 3) a horizontal organisation and a democratic decision-making process, 4) practices of anonymity and an ethics of self-effacement, and 5) its self-definition as a universal entity, inclusive, and unbounded. The collective identity construction process is marked by tensions due to the incompatibility of some of these concepts, but also due to differences between these collective identity definitions and actual practices. As a consequence, they have to be constantly reaffirmed through social actions and discourses. Not all individuals who reclaim themselves as Anonymous recognise the totality of these collective identity definitions, but they all accept a number of them that are sufficient to legitimate their own belonging to the movement, and most of the time to be recognised by others as such. The different groups constituting Anonymous are therefore symbolically linked through a web of collective identity definitions rather than an encompassing and unified collective identity. This ‘connective identity’ gives the movement a heterogeneous composition while at the same time permitting it to retain a sense of identity that explains the use of a collective name.

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For the past three decades, policy-makers in Santiago, Chile, have pushed laissez-faire free-market reforms on most sectors of the Chilean economy. On the Archipelago of Chiloe in southern Chile, these reforms have had the effect of introducing wage labor, on a massive scale, to communities that once relied primarily on collective practices of unpaid, reciprocal labor (mingas). My research examines the role of these changing labor practices and livelihoods in the shaping of local identities. I argue that while the Chilean government's neoliberal policies have brought increased commerce to Chiloe through the introduction of export-oriented fishing and aquaculture industries, the accompanying erosion of mingas and rural livelihoods has triggered a pronounced intergenerational shift in collective identity: whereas older islanders today bemoan the disappearance of an ethos of reciprocity, solidarity, and mutual assistance, younger islanders express an explicitly critical view of Chilote history while upholding select values of old.

Šio magistrinio darbo pavadinimas „Kolektyvinės tapatybės formavimas SSRS ir ES: ekonominio veiksnio įtaka“. Istorinės ribos apima laikotarpį nuo SSRS susikūrimo iki šių dienų aktualijų, žodis "formavimas" nurodo analizuojamo proceso t��stinumą. Pagrindinė darbo analizės ašis – kolektyvinė tapatybė. Darbo pagrindinis tikslas yra įvertinti ES kolektyvinio tapatumo formavimo perspektyvumą, remiantis Sovietų Sąjungos patirtimi ir nustatyti ekonominio veiksnio ryšį su kolektyvinio tapatumo formavimo procesu. Siekiant užsibrėžtų tikslų, reikia atlikti šiuos išsikeltus uždavinius: visų pirma, reikia išsiaiškinti kaip yra konstruojamas kolektyvinis tapatumas, kokie veiksniai tai lemia ir kokia yra ekonominio veiksnio reikšmė kolektyvinio tapatumo formavimui; antra, reikia išanalizuoti SSRS kolektyvinio tapatumo formavimo trūkumus; trečia, reikia išanalizuoti ES kolektyvinio tapatumo formavimo ypatumus bei į perspektyvą nukreiptą formavimo politiką, įvertinant ekonominio veiksnio svarbą; ketvirtą, reikia palyginti ES ir Sovietų Sąjungos kolektyvinio tapatumo formavimo specifiką, remiantis gautais duomenimis, padaryti išvadas. Darbe yra keliamos šios hipotezės: 1. ekonominis veiksnys yra svarbus kolektyvinio tapatumo formavimo procese; 2. kolektyvinio tapatumo formavimo specifika SSRS ir ES turi sąryšio taškų, tai yra - juos įtakoja tie patys veiksniai; 3. ES turi daugiau perspektyvų suformuoti kolektyvinį tapatumą nei SSRS. Darbe taikomi tyrimo metodai: analitinis – aprašomasis... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The title of this master thesis is “Formation of Collective Identity in USSR and EU: Impact of Economic Factor“. It defines historical period from USSR foundation till nowadays. The main aspect according to which these multinational blocks are analyzed is collective identity. Special efforts are given to analyze factors which have impact to collective identity formation, but the biggest attention is paid to analyze importance of economic factor. Identity – the sense of dependence. This concept at one time contains as the connective as also separative elements. This is a result of identification process which helps to define human or group exceptional indications. As individual or collective identity formation problems are widely discussed in today’s society discourses. Its importance is comprehensible as to the individual as also to the communities behavior motivation. The perception of identity allows to know better your historical or cultural roots, and also to know yourself and others better. But the concept of identity is so wide and variant, that it leaves a lot of place to the following discussions. This work appoints a lot of attention to collective identity forming and it’s specific. Actuality of the topic remains also in today’s political discourses undisputed – if we clear, how to construct common identity it would emerge a possibility to evaluate, what main mistakes in it forming maid USSR and what perspectives in common identity constructing has EU. This... [to full text]

The idea that the internet enables disparate individuals to link together easily has focused attention on characterising collective action under these circumstances. My research looks instead at a situation which mixes the disparate and those united by various forms of shared identity, and material grievance. The case I focus on involves overlapping groups of benefits claimants: disabled people, carers and older people. These groups are under-represented online and their political activity in a digital environment has rarely been researched. The context of my research is a consultation over social care, which provoked a campaign of opposition and the posting online of nearly 3,000 comments on the green paper’s executive summary. This constitutes collective action because it was undertaken for a collective purpose: to defend disability benefits from a perceived threat. In order to take the focus I want, I develop a conceptual framework that includes all three drivers of collective action that feature in social psychology models - efficacy, injustice and identity. Much comparable research considers just one or two of these drivers. My analytical approach is primarily inductive but I employ a mixed-methods design, including digital tracing, inductive thematic coding and basic statistical analysis. The data is drawn from the campaign and the comments. I find that most of the comments exhibit a shared sense of injustice. They also frequently include expressions of collective identity made with reference to various groups, rather than to one overarching group. Personal narratives often accompany these collective expressions. The campaign messages spread horizontally among varied, but mostly pre-existing, forums, social networking sites and blogs. The mobilisation also had a vertical element due to the involvement of private company acting, in a hybrid manner, as a campaigning organisation. My research contributes to knowledge by showing that when online action includes people who are motivated by collective identity, traditional and more contemporary collective action processes do not simply co-exist: there is a dynamic interplay between them. It also demonstrates the value of focusing on lower-level networks. This shows that the role of the drivers can vary among the groups of actors involved and, where the drivers combine, they have a reinforcing tendency.

Thesis advisor: Gerald Easter / In this thesis I trace the modern political history of Korea as experienced by the Korean people in the twentieth century. By focusing largely on my family's own experience, I trace the master narrative of Korea's modern political identity, and analyze how the political forces and changes of the past century have impacted the Korean people and shaped their identity, from Japanese annexation to division after World War II, through the Korean War and until the present. By also analyzing the uniquely Korean national collective identity, I also analyze how this political identity and collective suffering will in turn impact prospects for Korean reunification. Though policy analysis and the character of modern Korean politics are essential to understanding these prospects, I ultimately conclude that the desires of the Korean people as one nation for national reunification is a force too unique and strong to ignore. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2007. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

Thesis advisor: Lisa Dodson / Service learning has emerged as one of the most popular mechanisms to promote and teach students about civic, moral, and political responsibility in American colleges and universities. This dissertation offers a critical exploration of the potential and limitations that engagement in service activities, and service learning in particular, can offer. The research was designed to explore how individual long-term volunteers attach meaning to their service experience, as well as how these meanings are constructed. In other words, what is the process by which students come to make sense of the volunteer work in which they are engaged? Of particular interest are the potential connections between these constructed meanings and a sense of politics or a sense of social change strategies. To explore the ways in which volunteers attach meaning to their service experience, I conducted participatory observation, in-depth interviews, and focus groups with a number of college students currently participating in a structured long-term service learning program; along with staff members of this program and of community partner organizations; and a group of comparison volunteers. This research provides an overview of the relationships, roles, responsibilities, benefits, challenges, and overall structure and design of a long-term service learning program. Participation in a structured service learning program shapes the ways in which students think about their service as it relates to a sense of politics and social change. However, the connection between service and political engagement is often complicated by a lack of political opportunities, a perceived lack of civic skills or political knowledge, and views of politics as divisive and ineffective. This dissertation also contributes to a greater understanding of the ways in which collective identity can develop among student service learners, and how this collective identity may impact their work. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

At a peripheral glance the collective action of a social movement group creates a perception of rational and homogenous internal group identity. This fa??ade has led some social movement theorists to take for granted the internal cohesiveness of the groups they are studying. Yet this emphasis on the rationality and structure of collective action over-simplifies the complex and dynamic interactions that occur in the construction of individual and collective identities. Accordingly, the constructivist New Social Movement theoretical paradigm actively eschews these misleading assumptions, instead granting primacy to the study of the reflexive, complex and dynamic interactions that occur in the construction of individual and collective identities. By employing the tools provided by New Social Movement theory my study unravels one such under-researched identity, namely the diverse and multifaceted ??eco-spiritual?? identity. The rich narratives of actors who consider themselves spiritual and are environmental activists are analysed through a case study of the Wilderness Acton Group, a collective within The Wilderness Society, Sydney. Analysis of the fieldwork data informs a theoretical and empirical understanding of social movements with regard to the negotiation and construction of political goals; trajectory and rejuvenation; individual movement motivation and participation; ongoing construction of group identity and solidarity; emotional commitment; action event selection; and group rituals, activism and practices

<p>Both England and Sweden has an aim to improving the health of those groups that are most vulnerable to ill health, and those groups in society, who are most vulnerable to ill health, are also those who face the most discrimination.</p><p>The main purpose of this paper is to study how female mental health service user/survivor experiences their health. The paper is composed of two studies carried out in a city in Sweden and a city in England, UK.  Four women from Sweden participated and two from England, UK. The empiric material has been collected by semi-structured interviews and the method that has been used for analysing the material was qualitative content analysis.</p><p>The result shows that almost all of the women did experience discrimination. Almost all of the women that did experience discrimination did also express that experience of discrimination also influenced their health in a negative way. However, all of the women also resisted the experience of an oppressive society and the view that they are just “victims”, by reclaiming their identity and experiencing a collective identity or a self-identity. These experiences of identity have given them a sense of wellbeing and health.</p>

In Auseinandersetzung mit dem Konzept kollektiver Identität werden drei Bürgerschafts-Modelle (republikanisches, liberales und cäsarisches) diskutiert. Bürgerschaft wird im Sinne von citizenship anstelle von Staatsbürgerschaft wegen deren etatistischer Konnotation in der deutschen Sprache verwendet. Abschließend wird die europäische Bürgerschaft sowie deren korrespondierende kollektive Identität betrachtet. / The article refers to collective identity as a sense of commonness between individuals that fosters a general commitment to the public interest. In order to establish the link between collective identity and citizenship, three models of citizenship are explored (republican, liberal and caesarean). Finally, the model of European citizenship and its corresponding collective identity are elaborated.