Activists Forever? explores the consequences of political involvement on an individual's life. While much of the research in this area has focused on the motivations of entire protests groups, the editors of this volume propose an approach that focuses on actors. This book examines political involvement's socio-biographical effects, or the ways in which political commitment generates or modifies dispositions to act, think, and perceive, in a way that is either consistent with or in contrast to the results of previous socialization. The contents explore what political involvement leads to rather than what causes involvement. Using a variety of case studies, this collection of essays provides global coverage with a focus on participation in major protests in the 1960s and significantly broadens our understanding by looking outside the United States. These essays look at the lasting effects of activists' knowledge, connections, and symbolic capital on their future participation in politics, as well as their personal and professional lives.
Introduction: activists' trajectories in space and time Olivier Fillieule and Erik Neveu; Part I. From Shades of Red (or Blue) to Shades of Grey: The Ageing of Yesterday's Activists Richard Flacks; 1. The diversity of activist outcomes: the role of ideology in shaping trajectories of participation Catherine Corrigall-Brown; 2. Biographical impacts of activism in the French 'May '68' Julie Pagis; 3. Life stories of former French activists of 'May '68':using biographies to investigate the outcomes of social movements Erik Neveu; 4. Women in political activism: the biographical resonances of the '68 student movement in a Latin American context Guadalupe Olivier; Part II. Terrorist Violence, State Repression and Activists' Experiences Jocelyn Viterna; 5. 'Join up', they said! The biographical consequences of engagement in Morocco for the 1970s generation and its children Joseph Hivert and Frédéric Vairel; 6. From militancy to activism: life trajectories of Sikh women combatants Laurent Gayer; 7. 'Married forever', activists forever? What the multi-level and interactionist approaches to the study of 'exit' reveals about disengagement from radical organizations in contemporary Turkey Jordi Tejel; 8. Contextualizing the biographical outcomes of provisional IRA former activists: a structure-agency dynamic Lorenzo Bosi; Part III. Biographical Trajectories in Times of Transition. Social Movement Activists into Politicians? Gilles Dorronsoro; 9. When prophecy succeeds: the political failure of dissidents in the new Czech democracy Magdaléna Hadjiisky; 10. From grassroots activism to the cabinet, round-trip: the puzzling trajectory of a peasant leader in post-Communist Poland Cédric Pellen; 11. Red t-shirt or executive suit? About some biographical consequences of contentious engagement in the workers' party in Recife, Brazil Camille Goirand; Addendum: life history as a tool for sociological inquiry Olivier Fillieule; References; Index.
Olivier Fillieule is a professor of political sociology at the Institute for Political Historical and International Studies (IEPHI), research director at the CNRS (Paris 1-Sorbonne) and a member of CRAPUL (Research Center on Political Action, University of Lausanne). He has extensively published on social movements and political commitments, among those are: Demonstrations (with D. Tartakowsky, 2017) and Social Movement Studies in Europe: The State of the Art (with G. Accornero, 2016).
