Claiming Credit: Stories of Movement Influence as Outcomes

Abstract

Taking credit for achieving some desirable outcome is an essential element of politics, and the stakes of doing so are particularly high for social protest movements. Popular narratives of social change assign some movements a critical role for promoting change, but ignore the influence of others. Winning acceptance of a preferred narrative of influence is a neglected, but important, social movement outcome. I use disparate stories of movement success in claiming credit to underscore the analytical problem of why some challengers end up deriving credit, both in the short and long term, for their efforts, while others don't. Movement activists and their competitors offer narratives of past influence as a kind of claims-making activity to serve current political goals. In this way, the process of claiming credit is analogous to that of establishing a reputation. I examine contextual factors likely to affect why some social movements, and some social movement actors, may be better positioned, or more interested, in promoting a narrative of their own influence than others. I argue that movement factions that place identifiable individuals in prominent positions in institutional politics are more likely to be able to promote their story of influence, but paradoxically this comes with a narrative that emphasizes the importance of mainstream politics. I conclude with a call for more research on the process and the outcomes of contests for credit.