Biographical Availability Research Articles

Peaceful or Disciplined?

Abstract Differential participation in violent protests has been explained in terms of protesters’ personal values, biographical availability, and network embeddedness. However, the form of mass protest may be influenced less by the microstructure of protesters and more by their collective past experiences of resistance. Through the South Korean candlelight protests of 2008 and 2016–2017, this article examines novices’ and repeaters’ perceptions of nonviolent protest. Onsite survey and interview data show that previous frustrating protest experiences in 2008 made repeater protesters more perseverant, even when violence was expected. Repeaters had little faith in “disciplined” protests, whereas novices hoped for change through “peaceful” protests. I argue that previous experiences of resistance and their outcomes influenced protesters’ perceptions on the efficiency and legitimacy of violent protest. By examining protesters’ varying perseverance, which mediates the condition of violence, this article advances the relationship between violence and civic participation.

Defiant conformists: gender and resistance against genocide

AbstractThis article argues that college-educated women play a crucial part in successful resistance against genocide because they are more likely to forge secure interregional networks and, consequently, better able to shelter victims of mass-persecution than their male peers. We develop our argument through a study of Jewish rescue networks in the Netherlands during the Holocaust. College-educated women were especially valuable during rescue efforts due to their ability to operate as defiant conformists. These women – a small minority who were anything but traditional – could more fully exploit their biographical availability and university networks by concealing interregional resistance work through the strategic performance of traditional feminine roles. Statistical analyses of geocoded rescue networks reveal that rescue networks involving college-educated women were more successful because they funneled Jews across the country without getting exposed. More in-depth exploration of distinct networks identifies three dramaturgical strategies that college-educated women deployed to facilitate clandestine and geographically expansive rescue work: 1) strategic coquetry; 2) strategic self-devaluation; 3) strategic motherhood and wedlock. Taken together, our findings suggest we should focus on how gender and other forms of social status interact to produce the relational and dramaturgical underpinnings of civilian agency in times of emergency.

Contentious Millennials and generational dimensions in contemporary social movements in Greece

ABSTRACT Although there has been much talk about the new generation and its key role in the post-2010 anti-austerity and anti-authoritarian movements across the world, only recently has the generational component of social movements been constituted as a research topic, and despite a few notable exceptions, the issue of intergenerational relationships within social movements is but rarely addressed. In this article, I attempt to demonstrate the role of the Millennial Generation in recent developments within the social movement field in Greece, where research into these areas is still particularly scarce, while testing the hypothesis of generational discontinuity. In this context, I examine Millennials’ perceptions and practices in comparison with the older generations of the Greek progressive movement community. The analysis focuses on the intergenerational differences with respect to a) biographical availability and type of political engagement, b) organizational practices and coalitional patterns, c) forms of action and digital communication, and d) claims, frames, and discourse. Original data come from 58 interviews and 44 questionnaires. My sample includes members of SMOs, trade unions, leftist parties, local collectivities, prefigurative projects, and unaffiliated activists, representing the entire spectrum of progressive movements and covering a wide range of ideological and political tendencies. The Millennial Generation has substantially changed the social movement landscape in Greece, but data suggest intergenerational differences should not be overemphasized, while pointing to a simultaneous change for all generations on some topics and an intergenerational agreement with regard to others.

Mental health, availability to participate in social change, and social movement accessibility

People with illnesses and disabilities routinely face obstacles to political participation, including participation in social movements. Conventional social movement studies primarily theorize impediments to social movement participation in terms of personal constraints, as implied by the term “biographical (un)availability.” However, studies in disability, health, and illness resist locating disability-related constraints solely within the individual, pushing fields to ask how environments can be disabling in and of themselves. Thus, by extending social movement theory through this Disabled/Crip/Mad lens, this article attempts to balance the notion of personal biographical availability or constraints with the notion of what the author calls “movement accessibility.” Drawing on data from almost ∼130 respondents, this article develops a framework for understanding how movement accessibility might be deepened within social movement contexts.

Is it Worth the Risk? Grievances and Street Protest Participation During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Chile

The COVID-19 pandemic started in Chile as the country was experiencing massive protests and a deep political crisis. Sanitary measures restricting movement and gatherings were implemented while the process of constitutional change responding to this crisis developed. In this context of conflict, we study why people continued participating in street protests despite the restrictions and the health risks involved. Using two surveys, we test key factors addressed in extant scholarship: biographical availability, perceived risks, and grievances. We find that grievances related to the pandemic were the most important factor, while biographical availability was much less relevant in the pandemic context. There is no evidence that perceived health risks mattered when deciding whether to join a street protest or not. These results suggest that under conditions of political crisis, grievances related to the administration of the pandemic can motivate political participation even when the latter put people's health at risk.

Has There Been a Transgender Tipping Point? Gender Identification Differences in U.S. Cohorts Born between 1935 and 2001.

Using a probability-based sample from 39 U.S. states from a general health survey, the author evaluates popular claims of a "transgender tipping point" by estimating probabilities of identifying as transgender and gender nonconforming among cohorts of respondents born between 1935 and 2001. Respondents born after 1984 are significantly more likely to identify as transgender or gender nonconforming than respondents in earlier cohorts. However, cohort changes in identification as transgender and gender nonconforming vary along lines of sex assigned at birth, race/ethnicity, and college attendance. Within different cohorts, these factors have different associations with higher or lower odds of identifying as transgender or gender nonconforming, sometimes contrasting with popular narratives and media representation patterns. Analyzed in context, these findings provide empirical evidence that several distinct population-level biographical availability patterns, including convergences, reversals, and persistence of demographic associations, have shaped the prevalence and composition of U.S. transgender and gender nonconforming populations over time.

Elder Civic Engagement and Rural Community Development.

Rural areas are becoming more and more concerned about their aging population and perceived loss of youth. Analysts see the older members of communities as a burden, and focus their development strategies on attracting and retaining the young. In doing so, they may be missing the value that elders’ civic engagement can provide to rural community development. This qualitative study, based on interviews with 40 elders in mostly rural areas of Wisconsin, in the United States, shows the benefits that their civic engagement brings to rural areas. They have biographical availability, political and economic freedom, and life-long experience to offer. They do face some challenges, including occasional health issues, lack of technological agility, and change-resistant peers. The paper concludes by considering how communities can better access and honour elder civic engagement, including understanding elders’ motivations and skills for civic engagement.

A Penchant for Protest?

Abstract Much has been made of the Millennial generation's seemingly low rates of political participation. Some argue that this generation is politically apathetic, while others suggest that Millennials have eschewed traditional politics in favor of protest as a means of political participation. Drawing on Canada's 2013 General Social Survey (Cycle 27, Social Identity), I employ an exploratory latent class analysis to determine whether the Millennial generation can be usefully categorized according to their participation in various forms of political, civic, and social movement activities. I then use binary logit regression to determine how well the biographical availability hypothesis explains Millennial politics. This research reveals that Canadian Millennials may be grouped into four categories: the politically unengaged, the politically expressive, the civically engaged, and activist. Support for the biographical availability hypothesis is mixed. As expected, students are more likely to be activists and parenthood reduces the odds of being politically expressive or an activist, but home ownership does not decrease the chances of Millennials being politically engaged and increases the chances of being civically engaged. Younger Millennials (ages 15–24) are much more likely to be politically unengaged compared to older Millennials (ages 25–34).

Editorial

This issue is—in many ways—united by a common theme: revisiting the past and rethinking the problems it poses. Beginning with a renewed test of the biographical availability hypothesis, moving through a reassessment of the dynamics of collective identity formation, and stopping at a re-evaluation of the legacies of the 2011 protest wave, this issue begs that we reconsider that which we thought we already knew and open our minds to novel nuance and differential dynamics. It is thus fitting that it closes with a reflection on the life's work of William Gamson, whose work prompted a great many scholars of social movements and contentious politics to reassess and re-evaluate much that we had assumed to know over the years.

An Illusory March towards Equality between Women and Men

This article offers a comparative analysis of the careers of men and women flight attendants in air transport. Using personnel records, collective agreements and interviews with flight attendants, we show that the picture of improvements in career equality in the airline studied here is illusory. For earlier cohorts, the massive prevalence of women as flight attendants has been accompanied by growing access to positions of in-flight responsibility (cabin manager) and on the ground (base manager), while repeated cross-sectional data indicate a narrowing of the gap between men and women in entry and exit conditions over time. However, our longitudinal analysis of a cohort of flight attendants who entered the company more recently (between 1998 and 2001) reveals gender inequalities in the likelihood of promotion, to the disadvantage of women. Career models are also highly gendered, with women notably more likely to work part-time. Rather than countering this tendency, the shift from a system of promotion based on seniority to one based more “on choice” reinforces gender inequalities, contrary to the claims associated with the equal-opportunity policy implemented by the airline, as of the early 2000s. This is because the new system is more heavily based on employees’ investment in the company throughout their careers, and thus on “biographical availability”, which is greater among men than women.

An Illusory March Towards Men-Women Equality. Biographical Availability and Career Inequalities Among Flight Attendants

Cet article propose une analyse comparee des carrieres des hotesses et des stewards dans le transport aerien. L’exploitation des fichiers du personnel, adossee a l’analyse des accords collectifs des personnels navigants commerciaux et des entretiens de salaries, met en evidence une progression de l’egalite professionnelle en trompe-l’œil dans la compagnie etudiee. Alors que pour les generations passees, la presence massive de femmes parmi les personnels navigants commerciaux s’accompagne d’un acces croissant, a l’anciennete, aux postes a responsabilite en vol (chef de cabine) et au sol (cadre de secteur), et que les donnees en coupes repetees font etat d’un rapprochement des conditions d’entree et de sortie de la compagnie entre femmes et hommes, l’analyse longitudinale d’une cohorte d’hotesses et de stewards entres plus recemment dans la compagnie (entre 1998 et 2001) montre d’inegales chances de promotion entre femmes et hommes au detriment des premieres, ainsi que des modeles de carriere tres sexues, avec un poids bien plus important du temps partiel chez les femmes. Loin de reduire cette tendance, le passage d’un systeme de promotion a l’anciennete a un systeme de promotion au choix renforce les inegalites de sexe, a l’encontre de la politique d’egalite professionnelle mise en œuvre par la compagnie aerienne depuis le debut des annees 2000. En effet, il donne davantage de poids a l’investissement professionnel dans l’entreprise tout au long de la carriere et donc a la « disponibilite biographique », moindre pour les femmes que pour les hommes.

Survivor: spectators and gladiators in the US environmental movement, 2000–2010

What motivates people to participate in which forms of environmental activism? To address this question, we revise empirical models examining environmental activism by disaggregating the outcome variable of movement participation and dichotomizing two key motivational factors. Using repeated cross-sectional data from the US General Social Survey of 2000 and 2010, this study conducts logistic regression of four forms of participation on perceived severity and sense of efficacy, while accounting for biographical availability and political engagement. Results from regression analysis show that vocabularies of motive have substantial impacts on an individual’s likelihood of: (1) signing a petition; (2) giving money; (3) joining a group; and (4) joining a protest or demonstration. Their effects are large enough to override the noticeable impacts of liberalism and education. This study also finds that the level of participation in the movement across all forms has decreased between 2000 and 2010. These findings direct our attention to the limited capacity of the public sphere to accommodate the environmental movement during the last decade, as well as to potential changes in environmental activism in the coming decades that may mobilize those previously less likely to participate.

Persistent Activist Communication in Occupy Gezi

We revisit the notion of activist persistence against the backdrop of protest communication on Twitter. We take an event-based approach and examine Occupy Gezi, a series of protests that occurred in Turkey in the early summer of 2013. By cross-referencing survey data with longitudinal Twitter data and in-depth interviews, we investigate the relationship between biographical availability, relational and organisational ties, and social and personal costs to persistent activism online and on location. Contrary to expectations, we find no clear-cut relationship between those factors and sustained commitment to participation in the occupation. We show that persistent activist communication did not feed into enduring organisational structures despite the continuous online activity observed during and beyond the peak of the Gezi occupation. The article concludes with reflections on the organisational ramifications of persistent communication and its significance in a political context posing high risks to participation in dissident politics.

Persistent Activist Communication in Occupy Gezi

We revisit the notion of activist persistence against the backdrop of protest communication on Twitter. We take an event-based approach and examine Occupy Gezi, a series of protests that occurred in Turkey in the early summer of 2013. By cross-referencing survey data with longitudinal Twitter data and in-depth interviews, we investigate the relationship between biographical availability, relational and organisational ties, social and personal costs to persistent activism online and on-location. Contrary to expectations, we find no clear-cut relationship between those factors and sustained commitment to participation in the occupation. We show that persistent activist communication did not feed into enduring organisational structures despite the continuous online activity observed during and beyond the peak of the Gezi occupation. The article concludes with reflections on the organisational ramifications of persistent communication and its significance in a political context posing high risks to participation in dissident politics.

Youth, activism, and social movements

AbstractThere has been considerable debate over the extent and role of young people's political participation. Whether considering popular hand‐wringing over concerns about declines in young people's institutional political participation or dismissals of young people's use of online activism, many frame youth engagement through a “youth deficit” model that assumes that adults need to politically socialize young people. However, others argue that young people are politically active and actively involved in their own political socialization, which is evident when examining youth participation in protest, participatory politics, and other forms of noninstitutionalized political participation. Moreover, social movement scholars have long documented the importance of youth to major social movements. In this article, we bring far flung literatures about youth activism together to review work on campus activism; young people's political socialization, their involvement in social movement organizations, their choice of tactics; and the context in which youth activism takes place. This context includes the growth of movement societies, the rise of fan activism, and pervasive Internet use. We argue that social movement scholars have already created important concepts (e.g., biographical availability) and questions (e.g., biographical consequences of activism) from studying young people and urge additional future research.

The Influence of Biographical Situational Factors upon Environmental Activist Behaviour: Empirical Evidence from CEE Countries

This study aims to provide an empirically verified exploration of factors influencing environmental activist behaviour. The authors focus on the determinants of personal environmental activist behaviour as a characteristic of the culturally specific group of Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. A two-stage model of the biographical availability thesis is explored. Results reveal evident regional differences in patterns of public-sphere environmental behaviours across Europe. CEE countries exhibit lower levels of engagement in environmental activist behaviours than Western and Nordic European countries. The two-stage model of the biographical availability thesis is only partially confirmed. Age and employment status have a significant influence on behaviour: specifically, being 17–24 years old and in education increases availability for environmental activist behaviour. Gender has an additional influence upon participation in demonstrations and protests, with men being more participative. A low-commitment partnership status has additional influence on behavioural intentions. The results imply the need for further research into the context and cognitive determinants of environmental activist behaviour in CEE countries.

Economic Crisis and Popular Protest in Iceland, January 2009: The Role of Perceived Economic Loss and Political Attitudes in Protest Participation and Support*

The recent wave of protest associated with the global financial crisis provides opportunity to examine the link between economic crisis and collective action in the context of affluent democratic society. I study the mobilization of individual citizens in one of the first of these protests occurring in Iceland in January 2009. Using a survey representing the adult population of the Reykjavík area (N = 610), I examine the role of perceived economic loss and political attitudes in protest behavior (controlling for biographical availability). I find that perceived financial loss predicts both protest participation and support, but only if individuals believe their losses to be greater than the losses of others. Moreover, political attitudes congruent with the political opportunities emerging in the crisis (and the resulting collective action framing)—that is, having a left-wing political attitude and belief in extensive corruption— predict protest participation and support.

Counter Cultures, Group Dynamics and Religious Terrorism

Totalistic ideologies are breeding grounds for radicalization. Communities that adhere to such ideologies tend to rally when they feel threatened by powerful outsiders. Under such circumstances, community leaders become central. If they frame the situation as an existential threat to the community itself or to its most sacred values, they will accelerate the radicalization process and subsequently increase the prospects of violent actions by group members. The shift to violence takes place in the framework of close-knit social networks within the broader radicalized community. These networks consist of individuals who usually live in the same area and engage in continuous interaction among themselves. Such interactions bolster their communal commitment and develop a collective mindset that facilitates the slide of some of the individuals into violence. Those who eventually descend into terrorism usually exhibit strong identification with the community’s values and extreme alienation towards the outside world. They also enjoy high levels of biographical availability. These hypotheses are tested using the case study of Jewish terrorism in Israel between 1948 and 2006.

Dynamics of Individual Participation: Surveying Italian Protestors

This article investigates the factors that explain differential individual involvement in political demonstrations. Though the question of who actually participates in (protest) politics is by no means new, the authors build here upon existing literature in social movement studies in order to test some of the existing hypotheses. Reviewing existing research on individual participation in contentious politics, four theoretical arguments used to explain participation differentials were highlighted: the socio-biographical argument pointing to either social centrality or biographical availability; the collective identity process based on the interaction between norms, values, and actions; the network integration argument; and the argument that emotions are in the driver's seat. The article proposes an original analysis based on surveys carried out during nine demonstrations that occurred in Italy between 2011 and 2013 on a variety of issues, some directly related to the economic crisis and the consequent austerity policies, others mainly addressing new social movements claims. Looking at the participation in demonstrations of 1624 protestors, we conclude that social centrality and collective identity formation have higher explanatory power in examining degrees of participation in protest.

Recruiting High‐risk Activists: Exploring the Roles of Structural and Cultural Factors

AbstractWhat motivates activists to leave the security of their country and the comforts of home to risk their lives on someone else's behalf? This paper summarizes the current literature on how individuals get involved in transnational social movements, including those that require them to put their lives on the line. I begin by outlining structural explanations for participation and specifically discuss how prior contacts and biographical availability draw new recruits into activism. Then, I discuss cultural explanations, which emphasize meaning‐making and collective identities in the recruitment process. Finally, I outline scholarly attempts to bridge structural and cultural explanations as well as offer recommendations for future research.