ABSTRACT
For a movement to mobilize, some theorists argue, the movement’s collective identity must become uppermost (salient) and motivating in the minds and hearts of its participants. This proposition has become a truism, but it may not in fact be true. To understand participant motivation, we must question whether identity is really “collective” and where identity comes from. Charles Tilly says that a movement’s collective identity derives from (is “sited” in) the network of social relations among the members of a categorical group (such as “African American” or “worker”; henceforth a “catnet”). In contrast, the research in this chapter indicates that the salient identity of participants need not arise from an existing catnet nor even fully join in a collective identity. Rather, a movement may harbor a diversity of salient identities among participants, including the personal, role, and social symbolic identities.
