‘We Have to Bring Something Different to this Place’: Principled and Pragmatic Nonviolence Among Accompaniment Workers

Abstract

Many scholars of social movements and nonviolence frame the salient ideological divisions among nonviolent activists as a dichotomy or a continuum between principled and pragmatic nonviolence. Yet, there is a notable lack of empirical analyses on the prevalence of these nonviolent orientations among activists, and how they might contribute to tactical choices and shape emotional fields of interaction with opponents. Building from fieldwork and interviews (N = 25), this case study analyzes the nonviolent performances of Christian Peacemaker Teams and the International Solidarity Movement in Israel–Palestine. It is contended that international accompaniment workers perform nonviolence in starkly divergent ways depending on their personal commitments to either principled or pragmatic nonviolence, as well as organizational norms on this dimension. It is proposed that linking ‘tragic’ and ‘comic’ dramaturgical styles to the performance of nonviolent activism offers a route for specifying the mechanisms of pragmatic and principled nonviolence while helping to explain diverse outcomes in the field.