The organizational stigma of motorcycle groups

Abstract

Since scholars have come into contact with Erving Goffman's work, "Stigma: Notes on the Handling of Deteriorated Identity," many issues have been discussed in an interdisciplinary way on the subject of stigma, at the individual level and, more recently, in the organizational level. At this level, there are studies on organizations that have been stigmatized since its inception; have become stigmatized; developed actions to circumvent stigma; and, they obtained the destigmatization. This is the level of analysis chosen for the development of this study. The general objective of this article is to describe how motorcycling groups respond to the organizational stigma that is typical of this urban tribe. And, the specific objectives were to identify and compare the emotional, social and collective responses and motivations that underlie and drive the actions used by motorcycling groups in the Brazilian context. Through an exploratory study, conducted through interviews with members of Brazilian motorcycling groups (some belonging to the motorcycle club), it was found that, surprisingly, despite the ethnic and cultural diversity among Brazilian motorcyclists, there are few women, blacks and homosexuals who drive and are members of motorcycle groups. Most motorcyclists encourage / collaborate on fraternization and philanthropic events, some of which are designed to circumvent the stigma of the organizations of which they are part and thus reduce the individual stigma they carry when they publicly show themselves as motorcyclists belonging to these groups.