Eventfulness, Emotion and Social Movement Strategy


Lesley Wood, York University

Examining internal processes within movements, this paper asks, how do emotionally intense events shape subsequent movement strategies? Bringing together Sewell, McAdam, Sewell, Bourdieu, and symbolic interactionist insights on temporality and emotion, this paper analyses over 40 interviews with Toronto activists to understand how the post-event assessment of three events (a victory, an activist suicide, and a repressive event) affects subsequent movement strategy. The paper shows how these assessments vary in terms of their emotional and temporal characteristics. The patterned relationship between trauma, grief and hope; and past, present and future orientations shape activist logic. Understanding the way that these features of activist assessments shape movement strategy gives us a better understanding of the direct and indirect impacts of transformative events.

This paper will be presented at the following session: