The Activist Self: Collective Identity in Anti-Nationalist, Anti-Militarist, Feminist Mobilization in Serbia

BAIOCCHI, MARÍA LIS

Budapest

Conferencia; 5th CEU Graduate Conference in Social Sciences: Old Challenges in a New Era: Development and Participation; 2009

Department of Political Science, Central European University

This paper will present a study of the process of collective identity formation via feminist, anti-nationalist, anti-militarist mobilization. Based on qualitative data gathered from semi-structured interviews with Women in Black activists in Serbia between April and May 2008, the paper will look at how activists' participation in this organization represents a process of construction of shared self-definitions as feminist, anti-nationalist, anti-militarist activists. The construction of a collective identity is facilitated by previous activist experiences, the various functions of social networks, emotions, as well as value identities as the bases for specific ideological orientations. Most importantly, the paper highlights how the collective identity of anti-nationalist, anti-militarist, feminist activist becomes central to activists' concepts of self. In this context, activism is not only a civic duty but above all a personal necessity for existence--which, at the same time, guarantees group cohesion and the continued existence of feminist, anti-nationalist, anti-militarist mobilization even in circumstances of high social and political repression.