Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T04:44:47.770Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Iranian Green Movement: Fragmented Collective Action and Fragile Collective Identity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Arash Reisinezhad*
Affiliation:
Middle East Studies Center, Florida International University

Abstract

The Iranian Green Movement emerged after the presidential election in June 2009. The paper tracks down its foundational origins through the concept of ‘fragmented collective action’, that points to the dispersion of a social movement's political energies and the fragmentation of its constitutive groups. It also addresses the significance of informal mobilizing networks and the widespread use of modern virtual space to bring together an intersubjectively constructed collective identity which was shaped by the movement’s interactions with political forces and with its interlocutors. Finally, the paper argues that the collective identity shaped the movement's strategies over the course of its evolution.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 The International Society for Iranian Studies

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Apter, David E., ed. Ideology and Discontent. Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1964.Google Scholar
Einwohner, Rachel L. “Opportunity, Honor, and Action in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943.” American Journal of Sociology 109 (2003): 650675. doi: 10.1086/379528Google Scholar
Eisinger, Peter K. “The Conditions of Protest Behavior in American Cities.” American Political Science Review 67 (1973): 1128. doi: 10.2307/1958525Google Scholar
Escobar, Arturo. The Making of Social Movements in Latin America: Identity, Strategy, and Democracy. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Gamson, William. “The Social Psychology of Collective Action.” In Frontiers in Social Movement Theory, edited by Morris, Aldon D. and Mueller, Carol McClurg. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 1992.Google Scholar
Ganz, Marshall. “Resources and Resourcefulness: Strategic Capacity in the Unionization of California Agriculture, 1959–1966.” American Journal of Sociology 105 (2000): 10031062. doi: 10.1086/210398Google Scholar
Gerhards, Jurgen, and Rucht, Dieter. “Mesomobilization; Organizing and Framing in Two Protest Campaigns in West Germany.” American Journal of Sociology 98 (1992): 555596. doi: 10.1086/230049Google Scholar
Gheitanchi, Elham. “Symbols, Signs, and Slogans of the Demonstrations in Iran.” In Media, Power, and Politics in the Digital Age: The 2009 Presidential Election Uprising in Iran, edited by Yahya, Kamalipour. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2010.Google Scholar
Hardin, Russell. Collective Action. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press for Resources for the Future, 1982.Google Scholar
Johnston, Hank, and Klandermans, Bert, eds. Social Movements and Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Keshavarzian, Arang. “Contestation without Democracy: Elite Fragmentation in Iran.” In Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Regimes and Resistance, edited by Posusney, Marsha Pripstein and Angrist, Michele Penner. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2007.Google Scholar
Kitschelt, Herbert P. “Political Opportunity Structures and Political Protest: Anti-Nuclear Movements in Four Democracies.” British Journal of Political Science 16 (1986): 5785. doi: 10.1017/S000712340000380XGoogle Scholar
Kurzman, Charles. “Structural Opportunities and Perceived Opportunities in Social-Movement Theory: Evidence from the Iranian Revolution of 1979.” American Sociological Review 61, no. 1 (February 1996): 153170. doi: 10.2307/2096411Google Scholar
Laclau, Ernesto. New Reflection on Revolution of Our Time. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Laraña, Enrique, Johnston, Hank and Guseld, Joseph R., eds. New Social Movements: From Ideology to Identity. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Loveman, Mara. “High-risk Collective Action: Defending Human Rights in Chile, Uruguay, and Argentina.” American Journal of Sociology 104, no. 2 (1998): 477525. doi: 10.1086/210045CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maher, Thomas. “Threat, Resistance, and Collective Action: The Cases of Sobibór, Treblinka, and Auschwitz.” American Sociological Review 75 (2010): 252272. doi: 10.1177/0003122410365305Google Scholar
McAdam, Doug, Tarrow, Sidney and Tilly, Charles. Dynamics of Contention. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Melucci, Alberto. Challenging Codes: Collective Action in the Information Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 1996.Google Scholar
Melucci, Alberto. Nomads of the Present: Social Movements and Individual Needs in Contemporary Society. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1988.Google Scholar
Minkoff, Debra C. “Bending with the Wind: Strategic Change and Adaptation by Women's and Racial Minority Organizations.” American Journal of Sociology 104 (1999): 16661703. doi: 10.1086/210220Google Scholar
Morris, Aldon D., and Mueller, Carol McClurg, eds. Frontiers in Social Movement Theory. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Moslem, Mehdi. Factional Politics in Post-Khomeini Iran. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Pfaff, Steven. “Collective Identity and Informal Groups in Revolutionary Mobilization: East Germany in 1989.” Social Forces 75, no. 1 (September 1996): 91118. doi: 10.1093/sf/75.1.91CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Putnam, Robert. “Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital.” Journal of Democracy 6 (1995): 6578. doi: 10.1353/jod.1995.0002CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schirazi, Asghar. The Constitution of Iran: Politics and the State in the Islamic Republic. Translated by John O'Kane. London: I. B. Tauris, 1998.Google Scholar
Schock, Kurt. “Land Struggles in the Global South: Strategic Innovations in Brazil and India.” In Strategies for Social Change, edited by Maney, Gregory M. Kutz-Flamenbaum, Rachel V. Rohlinger, Deana A. and Goodwin, Jeff. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012.Google Scholar
Scott, James C. Domination and the Arts of Resistance: The Hidden Transcript of Subordinate Groups. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Snow, David A., and Robert, Benford. “Master Frames and Cycles of Protest.” In Frontiers in Social Movement Theory, edited by Morris, Aldon D. and Mueller, Carol McClurg. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Snow, David A., and Benford, Robert. “Ideology, Frame Resonance, and Participation Mobilization.” In From Structure to Action: Comparing Social Movement Research across Cultures, edited by Klandermans, Bert Kreisi, Hanspeter and Tarrow, Sidney. International Social Movement Research, vol. 1. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1988.Google Scholar
Snow, David A., Rochford, E. Burke Jr., Wordon, Steven K. and Benford, Robert D.. “Frame Alignment Processes, Micromobilization, and Movement Participation.” American Sociological Review 51 (1986): 464481. doi: 10.2307/2095581Google Scholar
Tarrow, Sidney. Power in Movement: Social Movements and Contentious Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tilly, Charles. From Mobilization to Revolution. New York: McGraw-Hill College, 1978.Google Scholar
Tilly, Charles. Coercion, Capital and European States: AD 990–1992. Rev. 7th ed. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 1992.Google Scholar
Torfing, Jacob. Poststructuralist Discourse Theory: Foucault, Laclau, Mouffe, and Zizek. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.Google Scholar
Williams, Rhys H., and Benford, Robert D.. “Two Faces of Collective Action Frames: A Theoretical Consideration.” Current Perspectives in Social Theory 20 (2000): 127151.Google Scholar
Zald, Mayer N., and McCarthy, John D., eds. Social Movements in an Organizational Society. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1987.Google Scholar
Zhao, Dingxin. “Ecologies of Social Movements: Student Mobilization during the 1989 Pro-Democracy Movement in Beijing.” American Journal of Sociology 103, no. 6 (1998): 14931529. doi: 10.1086/231399Google Scholar
Zuo, J., and Benford, Robert, “Mobilization Processes and the 1989 Chinese Democracy Movement.” The Sociological Quarterly 36, no. 1 (1995): 131156. doi: 10.1111/j.1533-8525.1995.tb02324.xGoogle Scholar