Abstract
AbstractThe present study investigates how attendees at national celebratory crowd events—specifically St. Patrick's Day parades—understand the role of such events in representing and uniting the national community. We conducted semi‐structured interviews with people who attended St. Patrick's Day parades in either Dublin or Belfast. In year 1, full‐length interviews were conducted before and after the events (N = 17), and in years 1 and 2, shorter interviews were conducted during the events (year 1 N = 170; year 2 N = 142). Interview data were analysed using thematic analysis, allowing the identification of three broad themes. Participants reported that (i) the events extend the boundary of the national group, using participation to define who counts as Irish; (ii) the events strategically represent the nature of the national group, maximising positive images and managing stereotypical representations; and (iii) symbolism serves to unify the group but can also disrupt already fragile unity and so must be managed. Overall, this points to a strategic identity dimension to these crowd events. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research in terms of the role of large‐scale celebratory events in the strategic representation of everyday social identities. © 2015 The Authors. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Highlights
Psychological accounts of crowd behaviour suggested that crowd participation led to impulsivity and a loss of identity (Le Bon, 1895/1947)
We aim to investigate how participants understand the role of public collective displays of national identity in representing and uniting the national community, across contexts
The social identity approach has been applied to celebratory events such as festivals (Neville & Reicher, 2011) and an annual Indian pilgrimage event, the Magh Mela (Prayag Magh Mela Research Group, 2007), which have similarities with the type of event we focus on here
Summary
Psychological accounts of crowd behaviour suggested that crowd participation led to impulsivity and a loss of identity (Le Bon, 1895/1947). Recent social psychological accounts have developed to suggest that rather than losing identity in crowds, people’s behaviour shifts from acting in terms of personal identity, to social identity. Drury, Cocking, & Reicher, 2009) and (ii) immersion in a crowd of fellow ingroup members allows one to fully express that social identity and to strategically present a certain version of that identity (Reicher, Spears, & Postmes, 1995; Klein, Spears, & Reicher, 2007). From this general perspective, collective events allow one to feel like an ingroup member and to express this to others
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