Perpetual struggle: Sources of working-class identity and activism in collective action

Abstract

Whereas previous scholarship on popular mobilization has focused on its sources or causes, this study redirects attention to its effects on participants—in particular, to the subjective consequences of different modes of collective action. In dialogue with a rich theoretical tradition focused on the tension between workplace/production versus community/citizenship as competing sources of class formation, my central research question is: How do contrasting patterns of collective action differentially transform working-class consciousness and subjectivity? To answer this question I compare what I conceptualize as “economic” versus “political” logics of collective action as empirically represented, respectively, by a workplace strike at a small auto parts manufacturer in the industrial Midwest and a community-based campaign to secure a “living wage” in Chicago. Drawing primarily on in-depth interviews, and comparing respondents from the two cases in a way that accounts for the possibility of selection bias, the project analyzes how these two modal types of collective action yield distinct forms of consciousness and subjectivity. The key difference that emerges in the two cases is the development of a “perpetual struggle orientation” where conflict and protest are perceived as ongoing. Although Chicago’s living wage campaign was profoundly diverse, participants nevertheless developed an expansive solidarity with other workers and a long-term commitment to struggle on their behalf. In contrast, the striking autoworkers—despite their structural power, denser social networks, and immediate success against their employer—failed to develop any such orientation toward future struggle or understanding of their place as part of a wider social class. These findings challenge our usual assumptions about the divisive dynamics of diversity, about the solidity of concrete networks, and about the role of the workplace in working-class life. More generally, the analysis demonstrates how key features of collective action—constituency, emotion, duration, and type of leverage used—are constitutive of distinct working-class identities and understandings of struggle. This study traces how solidarity with other workers, an activist identity, and a sense of collective efficacy emerge as participants are transformed through mobilization, advancing our theoretical understanding of group formation, collective action, social movements, and social change.

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