ABSTRACT
Divide et Impera! (Divide and Rule!). This adage suggests that everybody who has power over other people and wants to preserve that status quo should prevent those others from uniting (Apfelbaum, 1979). It also accords with the common observation that it is united individuals or, in other words, groups that are the typical agent of change in the social power structure, and not single, isolated individuals. Accordingly, social movements have been defined – from a social-psychological perspective – as “efforts by large numbers of people, who define themselves and are also often defined by others as a group, to solve collectively a problem they feel they have in common, and which is perceived to arise from their relations with other groups” (Tajfel, 1981, p. 244; italics added).
