The Dramatization of Beliefs, Values, and Allegiances: Ideological Performances Among Social Movement Groups and Religious Organizations

Abstract

The recent ‘performative turn’ in sociology has meant a renewed interest in the dramaturgical aspects of social life. This has appeared in the literature on social movements as a concern with the performance of opposition, usually within public protest events. This focus on performance as a tactic to be used in public displays of meaning by political actors misses how social performance is woven into our everyday lives. This paper presents a review of relevant literature towards the end of creating a theoretical concept, the ‘ideological performance,’ which presents a more holistic approach to understanding performativity within social movements, both publicly and privately. I suggest that this concept provides a useful lens through which to look at the formation and maintenance of collective identity at the level of interaction. To demonstrate this theoretical concept, I apply it to qualitative data collected on religious organizations that conduct social justice work as well as participant observation among Global Justice Movement activists in Chicago, IL. I conclude that members of the groups I observed use various cultural elements, including humor, boundary objects, understandings of the audience, language, and style, both consciously and unconsciously, to enact their ideological performances, situating performers and audiences within meaning systems and formulating collective identities.