1. Identity, Institutions, and
Uprisings
Theorizing the Web, CUNY
Tom Slee
March 2, 2013

2. Event Micro Macro

3. Event Micro Macro
Sudden uprising (cascade)

4. Event Micro Macro
Sudden uprising (cascade)
Lack of strong movement

5. Event Micro Macro
Sudden uprising (cascade)
Lack of strong movement
Network technologies

6. Event Micro Macro
Sudden uprising (cascade)
Lack of strong movement
Network technologies
Score 3 0

7. When I was in post-Mubarak Cairo, my hosts kept pointing in
amazement to various street corners where fierce political
discussions were being held and often whispered, before
remembering they could now speak up and adjusting their
voice, “You never saw this. Nobody ever discussed politics
openly, ever.” Then they would pause and add, “Well, except
online, of course. We all discussed politics online.”
(Zeynep Tufekci (2011), MIT Technology Review)

8. Concepts of “submerged networks”, “halfway houses”, “free
spaces”, “havens”, “sequestered social sites”, and “abeyance
structures” describe institutions removed from the physical and
ideological control of those in power, for example the black
church before the civil rights movement and literary circles in
communist Eastern Europe. Such institutions …represent a
“free space” in which people can develop counterhegemonic
ideas and oppositional identities.
(Francesca Polletta and James M. Jasper)

9. Institution High Status Low Status

10. Institution High Status Low Status
Approved

11. Institution High Status Low Status
Approved
Tolerated

12. Institution High Status Low Status
Approved
Tolerated
Forbidden
(Gordon Tilly and Sidney Tarrow (2006))

14. Collective identity: an individual’s cognitive, moral, and
emotional connection with a broader community, category,
practice, or institution.

15. Collective identity: an individual’s cognitive, moral, and
emotional connection with a broader community, category,
practice, or institution.
Expression: Collective identities are expressed in cultural
materials—names, narratives, symbols, verbal styles, rituals,
clothing, and so on.

16. Collective identity: an individual’s cognitive, moral, and
emotional connection with a broader community, category,
practice, or institution.
Expression: Collective identities are expressed in cultural
materials—names, narratives, symbols, verbal styles, rituals,
clothing, and so on.
Function: Boundary-setting rituals and institutions that separate
challengers from those in power can strengthen internal
solidarity.

17. Collective identity: an individual’s cognitive, moral, and
emotional connection with a broader community, category,
practice, or institution.
Expression: Collective identities are expressed in cultural
materials—names, narratives, symbols, verbal styles, rituals,
clothing, and so on.
Function: Boundary-setting rituals and institutions that separate
challengers from those in power can strengthen internal
solidarity.
Action: Collective identities can supply criteria for making
decisions that compete with instrumentally rational ones.
(Francesca Polletta and James M. Jasper (2001) Collective
Identity and Social Movements, Annual Review of Sociology)

19. • Niche society: dissent took place in pockets of private life,
around home, car and allotment.

20. • Niche society: dissent took place in pockets of private life,
around home, car and allotment.
• Youth culture: Clashes between fans and police at banned
concerts.

21. • Niche society: dissent took place in pockets of private life,
around home, car and allotment.
• Youth culture: Clashes between fans and police at banned
concerts.
• “Dissent could only take place in gaps in the system of
social control that dissidents could exploit. In the GDR this
principally meant the churches.”
(Steven Pfaff (2006): Exit-Voice Dynamics and the Collapse
of East Germany)

23. Identity:

24. Identity:
• Identities: Status Quo (G) or Oppositional (O)

25. Identity:
• Identities: Status Quo (G) or Oppositional (O)
• Ideal Attributes

26. Identity:
• Identities: Status Quo (G) or Oppositional (O)
• Ideal Attributes
• Norms: Conform (Status Quo) or Dissent (Oppositional)

27. Identity:
• Identities: Status Quo (G) or Oppositional (O)
• Ideal Attributes
• Norms: Conform (Status Quo) or Dissent (Oppositional)
Choices:

28. Identity:
• Identities: Status Quo (G) or Oppositional (O)
• Ideal Attributes
• Norms: Conform (Status Quo) or Dissent (Oppositional)
Choices:
• Adopt an identity: G or O?

29. Identity:
• Identities: Status Quo (G) or Oppositional (O)
• Ideal Attributes
• Norms: Conform (Status Quo) or Dissent (Oppositional)
Choices:
• Adopt an identity: G or O?
• Choose an action: d = 0 or d = 1?

30. 1
O
G
x*
Utility
0
‐1
0 1
Status

31. Active Dissent
0
1
0
Hegemony
1

33. An institution I is characterized by:

34. An institution I is characterized by:
Status (xI ) Natural membership of the institution. We can say
that the identity of the institution is the optimal
identity of an individual with status xI

35. An institution I is characterized by:
Status (xI ) Natural membership of the institution. We can say
that the identity of the institution is the optimal
identity of an individual with status xI
Breadth (δ) Individuals with status x ∈ [xI − δ, xI + δ] are
members of I

36. An institution I is characterized by:
Status (xI ) Natural membership of the institution. We can say
that the identity of the institution is the optimal
identity of an individual with status xI
Breadth (δ) Individuals with status x ∈ [xI − δ, xI + δ] are
members of I
Membership (m) Cost of membership for individuals whose
identity differs from the identity of the institution

37. 5
δ=0.10
δ=0.13
Membership Discrimination
4 δ=0.16
3
2
1
0
0 x* 1
Status

38. [S]ometimes repression inspires more mobilization; and
sometimes it efectively quashes movements or pushes them
underground. Sometimes repressive forces are successful in
characterizing protesters as legitimate targets of repression,
and other times they deligitimize the State and increase the
legitimacy of the social movements.
(Francesca Polletta and James Jasper)

39. The function of a civil resistance is to provoke response and we
will continue to provoke until they respond or change the law.
They are not in control; we are.
(M. K. Gandhi)

40. Censorship makes every banned text, bad or good, into an
extraordinary text.
(Karl Marx)

41. Membership Discrimination
0
1
2
3
4
5
0
x*
Status
xmax
1

42. 5
δ = 0.1
δ = 0.2
Membership Discrimination
4
3
2
1
0
x*
0 1
Status

43. The government’s dismissive handling of the exiting crisis and
its brutal attacks on peaceful protesters during the fortieth
anniversary …probably activated what might have otherwise
remained despairing, but inert, citizens.
“Wir sind das volk” [was] a thin claim, but an uncomplicated “us
versus them” message, a claim to political identity that could
bridge lines of class, education, neighborhood, and so on.
(Steven Pfaff)

45. • France 1848: Campaign des banquets

46. • France 1848: Campaign des banquets
• India 1930: Salt march

47. • France 1848: Campaign des banquets
• India 1930: Salt march
• China 1989: Death of Hu Yaobang, Tienanmen Square

48. • France 1848: Campaign des banquets
• India 1930: Salt march
• China 1989: Death of Hu Yaobang, Tienanmen Square
• Egypt 2011: National Police Day, Tahrir Square

50. • Take rich sociological concepts of identity and institutions
seriously, and use them in micro theories

51. • Take rich sociological concepts of identity and institutions
seriously, and use them in micro theories
• Recover cascades, but with a different revelation

52. • Take rich sociological concepts of identity and institutions
seriously, and use them in micro theories
• Recover cascades, but with a different revelation
• Screening institutions promote dissent

53. • Take rich sociological concepts of identity and institutions
seriously, and use them in micro theories
• Recover cascades, but with a different revelation
• Screening institutions promote dissent
• Appropriation of mainstream institutions provokes a crisis

54. • Take rich sociological concepts of identity and institutions
seriously, and use them in micro theories
• Recover cascades, but with a different revelation
• Screening institutions promote dissent
• Appropriation of mainstream institutions provokes a crisis
• Shed some light on the role of social media in promoting
free spaces.

55. Thank you

56. Thank you
tslee@web.ca tomslee.net @whimsley