Collective Identity and the Subjective Terrain of Political Opportunities: Movement Dissension over Participation in Party Politics

Abstract

Extant research emphasizes the ways in which collective identity is negotiated within broader political and economic opportunity structures. However, the interplay between collective identity and the subjective nature of opportunities has been largely unexplored. We address this gap in the literature by delineating how conflicting perceptions of salient political opportunities can fuel animosity and threaten movement identity. We draw from a unique qualitative dataset on the Czech environmental movement collected over a ten-year span. In 2002, a group of movement leaders circulated a manifesto urging environmentalists to stage a coup d'état of the Czech Green Party. Controversy erupted as some activists felt that the rallying call violated their longstanding independence from party politics. Our findings reveal that the movement's collective identity ultimately became fragmented as a result of activists' dissonant perceptions of this opportunity. We conclude by discussing the implications of our results for social movement research.