Abstract
This study draws on theories of personalist culture and social performance to explain why organizations in the field of faith-based community organizing are able to effectively engage people in collective action on multiple issues across social difference. Using two qualitative datasets, we document the construction and transformation of personal motivations in interactive social movement settings, and show the importance of this process for mobilizing action in pursuit of a multi-issue social justice agenda. Through cultural practices that construct moral meaning in interactive settings, activists learn to internalize a collective moral imaginary – a cultural schema that affirms the importance of individuals’ personal motivations, links these to those of other people, and situates them within a larger social structure. This expands individuals’ understandings of self and community, and thus frames multi-issue social justice activism organized across social difference as a morally compelling and effective means of pursuing personal interests and motivations.
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Notes
ELIJAH is a pseudonym, but not an acronym. The names of all persons in this study have been changed to protect participants’ confidentiality.
Although all of ELIJAH’s affiliate churches are rooted in Christian faith traditions, significant bridging work is required to develop unity within the organization. For discussions of bridging among Christian communities in the FBCO field, see Braunstein et al (2014), Swarts (2011), and Warren (2001).
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Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to ELIJAH and the research participants for enthusiastically supporting and assisting us in our work. We also thank Ron Aminzade, Ruth Braunstein, Penny Edgell, Korie Edwards, Teresa Gowan, Doug Hartmann, Paul Lichterman, Evan Stewart, and the AJCS editor and reviewers for insightful comments and advice on earlier versions of the paper. Financial support for this research was provided by the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, The University of Minnesota Graduate School, and The Ohio State University Sociology Department.
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Delehanty, J., Oyakawa, M. Building a collective moral imaginary: Personalist culture and social performance in faith-based community organizing. Am J Cult Sociol 6, 266–295 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41290-017-0029-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41290-017-0029-7