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Recruiting Inclusiveness: Intersectionality, Social Movements, and Youth Online

Non-State Violent Actors and Social Movement Organizations

ISBN: 978-1-78714-191-9, eISBN: 978-1-78714-190-2

Publication date: 18 April 2017

Abstract

The majority of research on intersectionality and social movements has focused on agenda-setting or internal identity processes. However, little research has focused on the ways in which social movements present themselves as intersectional, particularly in recruitment, which is important for building inclusive movements. In this chapter, we begin to outline a theory of movement recruitment based around intersectional identities that draws on work on coalitional recruitment and concepts from framing. In particular, we argue that “identity bridging,” which occurs when two or more identities are linked during recruitment attempts, is a potential tool for inclusive and intersectional recruitment. We evaluate the extent to which movements engage in this style of recruitment using data on intersectional youth identities acknowledged on web-addressable advocacy spaces. Youth are at a critical moment in their identity development, and so it is especially important to engage them in ways that respect their developing intersectional identities. We find that, overall, most movement sites do not engage in identity bridging, and those that do rarely move beyond bridging the youth identities with one other aspect of identity. Based on our theory, this would help to explain why so many movements struggle with issues of inclusivity.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments

We thank Morgan Johnstonbaugh for her feedback on previous versions of this chapter. We also would like to thank the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for funding the Youth and Participatory Politics Research Network, which supported this research, and the National Science Foundation (NSF) for CAREER Award SES-0547990, which supported some of the data collection.

Citation

Elliott, T., Earl, J. and Maher, T.V. (2017), "Recruiting Inclusiveness: Intersectionality, Social Movements, and Youth Online", Non-State Violent Actors and Social Movement Organizations (Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change, Vol. 41), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 279-311. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0163-786X20170000041019

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2017 Emerald Publishing Limited