Persistent Pacifism
How Activist Commitment is Developed and Sustained
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3917832 |
|---|---|
| Authors | James Downton, Paul Wehr (Department of Sociology, University of Colorado, Boulder) |
| Year | 1998 |
| Volume | 35 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 531-550 |
| Publication date | 1998-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Peace Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-3433 • E-ISSN: 1460-3578 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0022343398035005001 |
| OpenAlex | W2139416824 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 46 |
| References cited | 22 |
How and why do activists persist in their commitment to a social movement beyond its initial mobilization phase? How do they manage their commitments? What role does creativity play in helping them keep their peace commitment intact over the long term? These are questions explored in this study. Based on extensive interviews with thirty persistent peace activists, a theory of sustained commitment is developed. It encompasses how people become available for peace activism and how political and social contexts affect their willingness to join and stay. It also identifies important social and personal factors that help to sustain commitment. These include creating an activist identity, integrating peace work into everyday life, holding beliefs that sustain activism, feeling bonded to a peace group, cultivating opportunities for action, sharing a peace vision with other activists, and managing responsibilities, criticism, and burnout. Persistent peace activists are rational in selecting courses of action, but also creative in the way they fashion their lives, manage their commitments, avoid burnout, and design and carry out projects. This creativity is an important factor contributing to pacifist persistence, yet it is a topic that has been largely neglected in collective action research. The authors argue for a stronger emphasis on `creative action' in future research about activists and how they sustain their commitment in the face of many odds
Action (physics) · Collective action · Creativity · Criticism · Feeling · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Sociology · Law · Peace and Human Rights Education · Peacebuilding and International Security · Psychology · Resilience and Mental Health · Social Psychology
Trajectories of Contestation
Selection and Response Bias in Protest Surveys
The Mobilization Dropout Race
Against the Wall
In it together
Attachment, Security, and Relational Networks
The Future of Social Movement Research
Burnout in Social Justice and Human Rights Activists
All Growing but Differently
The demand and supply dynamics of the MST activists’ mobilization
Recruitment and disengagement
Considering the Wellbeing Correlates of Activist Purpose
Reducing Burnout and Disengagement
A new approach to assess the normalization of differential rates of protest participation
Sustaining participation in the ecological movement during the global pandemic
Social Movement Engagement over the Long Haul
More than an Activist
The complexity of social participation and its variable effects on the health and wellbeing of people living in deprived Maltese neighborhoods
The Influence of Social Capital on Willingness to Pay for the Environment Among European Citizens
Tying transnational activism to national protest
Persisting or Withdrawing? An Insight into the Psychosocial Processes Underlying Sustained Engagement
Persistent Anti-Littering Activism in a Non-Western Context
When Ignoring the News and Going Hiking Can Help You Save the World
Intergenerational encounters in the struggle for abortion rights in Argentina
Compound players and emotional arenas
The Psychology of Effective Activism
Structural Identity Theory and the Post-Recruitment Activism of Irish Republicans
The biographical consequences of protest and activism
Helping a loved one die
Mixed feelings. Changing group-based emotions explain the decline in collective action for Ukrainian refugees
Comparing Neighborhood‐focused Activism and Volunteerism
The role of activists’ sexual orientation and gender identity in their participation in LGBT movements
Women’s Movements, Identity Politics, and Policy Impacts
The First Time is the Hardest? A Cross-National and Cross-Issue Comparison of First-Time Protest Participants
Legacy of Resisting State Repression
Beyond organizational ties
Remaining in or leaving climate activism – insights from current and former activists on sustained engagement
Slow justice
(Not) working 9-5
Mental health, availability to participate in social change, and social movement accessibility
Peace, War and Conflict
Did the Tea Party Movement Fuel the Trump-Train? The Role of Social Media in Activist Persistence and Political Change in the 21st Century
Permeable Participation
Environmental activists' hysteresis as a driving force for establishing environmental actions against urban forest privatization in Bandung, Indonesia
Persistent Activist Communication in Occupy Gezi
How to study political activists
Struggle, politics, and reform
Social conflict and social movements.
Social psychology through symbolic interaction.
The social construction of reality
The Social Construction of Reality
Justice Without Violence
The Rebel's Dilemma
The Logic of Collective Action
Commentary
Rebel Leadership
Notes on the Concept of Commitment
The subversion of politics
The persistent activist
Rethinking Recruitment to High-Risk/Cost Activism
Rethinking Rationality and Rebellion
Political empowerment, local-central state relations, and geographically shifting political opportunity structures
Social Networks and Social Movements
The Biographical Consequences of Activism
Sacred Journeys
An Evolutionary Theory of Spiritual Conversion and Commitment
Institutional actors and the Italian peace movement
| Unique citing works | 46 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,09 |
| Citation span | 2004 - 2026 (23) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 41 |