Lights and Shadows of Social Movements: Constructing a Collective Identity in Post-Socialist Macedonia
Lights and Shadows of Social Movements: Constructing a Collective Identity in Post-Socialist Macedonia

Summary/Abstract: The article analyzes the construction of a post-ethnic collective identity in the 2014-2016Macedonian social movements. Instead of looking at the large-scale political changes as a yard stick for the success or failure of a social movement, it focuses on the cognitive process of collective identity and social action, in which heterogeneous individuals come together as a collective entity, learn to understand their grievances in collective terms and nurture a new sense of group-identity in relation to the external environment. It concludes that this process – based on shared memories of a collective struggle for the common interest against the common enemy – is to be understood as a fruitful outcome of a social movement that generates new movement biographies for a sustainable and permanent ‘we-ness’. In light of Bernd Simon’s and Bert Klanderman’s ‘tripod approach’ to collective identity, the contribution further argues that the success of a long-lasting social movement is based on creating a politically relevant collective identity that appeals to social bystanders in the general public. This inclusive and societal context beyond ethno-nationalist rhetoric was the driving force behind the success of the 2014-2016 social movements in Macedonia.

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