The desire for power within activist burnout. An illustration of the value of interpretive social science

Abstract

AbstractEven though we know activists want to change the world, including the people living therein, we are often disinclined to see in activism the desire for social power, thinking of “power” as a dirty word. However, by overlooking this aspect of activist motivation, we may be occluding our view onto an important aspect of activist frustration which can lead to burnout. Data collected among German environmental activists suggest that, controlling for self‐esteem and resilience, social power motivation does indeed predict levels of burnout. However, rather than causing burnout as though it were an independent variable apart from burnout (i.e., as seen within a “naturalistic” approach), it is argued that—given the nature of activism as the enacted desire to change others—the frustrated desire for social power is part of what burnout inherently is for activists. Thus, by taking the perspective of “interpretive social science,” the current piece attempts to encourage both reflection on the particulars of burnout among activists and greater sensitivity to the context‐dependent nature of burnout in general.