Life Histories and Political Commitment in a Poor People’s Movement

Abstract

Even though social movement research has developed an elaborate understanding of how individuals get involved in collective action, our theories frequently fail to capture the full diversity of activists’ experiences following recruitment. In this article, I argue that in order to analyze why people follow different trajectories after they join a movement we need to focus on the interaction between their individual backgrounds and their experiences while mobilized. I address these issues through the study of activists in the unemployed worker’s movement in Argentina (also known as the Piqueteros), one of Latin America’s most influential contemporary instances of collective action. Drawing on 133 in-depth interviews with current and former activists, as well as participant observation of events in their organizations, I find that through the interplay between their practices in the movement and other aspects of their lives, some of them gradually see participation as an end in itself. Their involvement provides refuge from the personal consequences of long-term socioeconomic decline by offering a combination of three particular rewards: access to places to belong, a feeling of empowerment, and the recognition by others in the community.