Double-edged Rituals and the Symbolic Resources of Collective Action: Political Commemorations and the Mobilization of Protest in 1989
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-2001
Abstract
"In this article, we consider political commemorations as ritual practices and explain why under certain conditions such practices may be used to mobilize protest in authoritarian regimes. Political rituals are important political indicators in authoritarian societies because they are public events in societies that are generally privatized and because they provide a relatively accessible indicator of social and political conflicts in societies in which repression and dissimulation often obstruct sociological research. Our argument is developed through a theoretical discussion of 1) the double-edged character of social rituals; 2) the conditions of collective action in state-socialist regimes; 3) the uses of rituals for staging protest; and 4) political commemorations as symbolic resources in collective action."
Recommended Citation
Pfaff, S., Yang, G. Double-edged rituals and the symbolic resources of collective action: Political commemorations and the mobilization of protest in 1989. Theory and Society 30, 539–589 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011817231681
Peer Reviewed
1
Copyright
Springer
Comments
This article was originally published in Theory and Society, volume 30, in 2001. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011817231681
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