What keeps London’s housing activists going?
Energising and de-energising collective actions in London’s housing battle
Nadine Maarhuis (10306293) University of Amsterdam (UvA) Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (FMG) Bachelor Thesis Sociology First reader and mentor: Dr. J. L. Uitermark Second reader: Dr. A. J. J. Aalten 08/06/2016 13.363 words
Abstract
The following Bachelor thesis is about the dynamics that tend to make the collective actions in London’s housing battle energising and de-energising experiences for the housing
activists. Thus, I will try to answer the following research question: ‘‘What kinds of collective actions energise and de-energise the housing activists?’’ After having concluded that collective actions the activists are able to emotionally dominate tend to be energising experiences and collective actions in which the housing activists are emotionally dominated are usually experienced as de-energising, I will also look into the effects these energising and de-energising collective actions have on the amount of energy and empowerment the housing activists experience in their everyday lives. In order to understand the dynamics of these successful and unsuccessful collective actions, I both used and contributed to the theories of Collins, Drury and Reicher, and Brown and Pickerill.
Index
Preface and acknowledgements 4
Introduction 5-6
Theoretical Framework 7-11
Energising and de-energising collective actions 7-9 The effects of energising and de-energising collective actions 9-11 Methodology 12-19
Constructionist approach to ethnography 12 The role of theory 12-13 Operationalisation 13-14 Data collection 14-16 Data analysis 16-17 Methodological issues 17-19 Results: my data in a theoretical perspective 20-33 Empowering and energising collective actions 20-28 Disempowering and de-energising collective actions 28-30 The effects of collective actions 30-33 Conclusion & Discussion 34-36
Bibliography 37-38
Appendix 39-43 Participant Observation 1 - the Victorian March 39 Participant Observation 2 - the West London Demolition Tour 39 Participant Observation 3 - the Our House Occupation 39-40 Participant Observation 4 - the National Housing March 40 Meet my respondents 40-43 Topic List 43
Preface and acknowledgments
The following thesis is the final product of my Bachelor Sociology. In this research I’ve incorporated the theoretical, methodological, and analytical skills and - most importantly - the sociological imagination I’ve gained over the last three years.
I would like to thank my supervisor Doctor J.L. Uitermark for assisting me in the process of writing this thesis and Doctor A.J.J. Aalten for being my second reader. In
addition, I owe thanks to the Radical Housing Network and all the amazing housing activists I talked to and met whilst being in London. Each and every one of you inspired me
enormously and this thesis couldn’t have been there without your kind participation and collaboration. A special shout-out to my respondents Eugene and Alexa, the gatekeepers of this research, who introduced me to many of my other respondents and were always willing to show me around in London’s world of housing activism. Last but not least, I would like to thank Philippe Veloso, who’s moral support in London helped me to bring my fieldwork to a good end.
Introduction
At this very moment, hundreds of housing activists all over London have mobilised to fight against the gentrification, regeneration, and social cleansing of the city. Together with the Radical Housing Network, these activists battle in order to save their homes and communities from demolishment and displacement: things that are currently happening on a day-to-day basis in London. Despite of the fact that the housing activists are involved in an uphill battle against both basically every single layer of the English government, from local councils to the House of Commons, and seemingly out of control market forces, they keep on going. Over the last few years, big and small battles have been fought, won, and lost. Or, as one of my respondents Alexa said: ‘‘(..) it’s a bit like being in a band. (..) sometimes you release a hit, sometimes you don’t, but you just have to keep on plugging away really.’’ Because of the fact that the housing activists find themselves in a housing situation they have very little control over and are fighting something so extremely big, I started wondering: what is it that keeps them going? During my first conversations with the activists, the prominence of collective actions within this battle became clear. Therefore, I decided to dedicate my Bachelor Thesis to looking into which collective actions energise and which de-energise the housing activists.
In order to understand the dynamics of collective actions, I turned to Collins (2004: 47-102). He states that interaction rituals (from now on: IRs) such as collective actions can both have energising and de-energising effects on their participants. Depending on its dynamic, some IRs give people emotional energy, boosting their confidence and encouraging them to remain active, whilst others de-energise them, making people feel passive and less involved. Both Brown and Pickerill (2009: 1-12) and Drury and Reicher (2005: 35-58) discuss the effects successful and unsuccessful protest experiences can have: whilst unsuccessful ones can have disempowering effects, leading to feelings of despair, personal fragility and self-doubt, successful ones can empower people to act, inspire hope and energy, and motivate people to stay involved in further actions. This last point resonates with Collins (2004: 51), who argues that positive IRs that generate a lot of emotional energy motivate participants to engage in the next IR of the group as well: ‘’Individuals are attracted to the most intense ritual charges they can get (..).’’ Following from this, we can conclude that energising experiences can be vital for the success of social movements: after all, they need engaged members to be able to keep on challenging the things they’re fighting against.
Because of this importance, I research what types of collective actions such as squats and demonstrations influence the amount of emotional energy the housing activists
experience both during and outside of these actions. By looking at this from an ethnographic constructionist perspective, I am able to study how these feelings are constructed during collective actions and how they are being used by activists to give meaning to both the situation they are in and to themselves as (in)significant political actors.
Following from the above, my main research question is: ‘‘What kinds of collective actions energise and de-energise the housing activists?’’ In order to answer this overarching research question, I try to answer the following more concrete subquestions based on the semi-structured interviews with the housing activists and the participant observations of collective actions I conducted in February and March of 2016 in London:
• What type of collective actions causes high levels of emotional energy and feelings of empowerment to arise during the collective action itself?
• What type of collective actions causes low levels of emotional energy and feelings of disempowerment to arise during the collective action itself?
• How do the experiences of (a lack of) emotional energy and (dis)empowerment during collective actions influence the amount of emotional energy and (dis)empowerment the activists experience in their everyday lives?
Gaining more insight in what type of collective action leads to the experience of emotional energy, and thereby feelings of empowerment and agency, is societally relevant, considering knowledge on this subject could help all activist groups who are trying to motivate their activists to keep on battling. After all, in the long term, when enough people are both encouraged to start fighting and enough existing activists are reinforced to continue battling, energising collective actions could result in the societal change the activist group is looking to make (Drury and Reicher, 2005: 35-58). In addition, this research is also
scientifically relevant considering it doesn’t only uses theories of, amongst others, Collins (2004: 47-102) and Drury and Reicher (2005: 35-58) to understand the dynamics of
energising and de-energising collective actions, but it also contributes to them by adding new insights to the existing theoretical framework.
Theoretical framework
Energising and de-energising collective actions
In order to find out which collective actions have energising and which have de-energising effects on its participants, in this section we first explore what type of collective actions causes high, and which causes low levels of emotional energy to arise during the collective action itself.
Jasper (1998: 397-421; 2014: 1-68) states that a variety of emotions within protest groups can both energise and de-energise the activists. According to him, feelings of
indignation, anger, and moral outrage provide protestors with the energy to keep on fighting. In addition, Jasper (Ibid.) states that contrasting feelings towards ‘the good’ and ‘the bad’ help protestors to establish group boundaries, enabling them to articulate blame and draw more people towards the good pole. These shared feelings towards insiders and outsiders also make the activists feel united, causing positive in-group affects such as love, solidarity, and loyalty to arise. According to Jasper (Ibid.), these feelings are key, because they can spur further action and encourage resistance whilst also leading to the experience of joy, hope, and empowerment. However, emotions like cynicism, envy, resentment, and depression can discourage protest, dampening hope and the perceived possibility for change.
Following from this, we can state that a whole range of feelings and emotions can energise and empower activists, spurring further action, as well as de-energise and disempower them, resulting in a discouraging loss of enthusiasm and hope. Where Jasper (Ibid.) doesn’t define where the emotions that have these effects come from, Brown and Pickerill (2009: 1-12) outline the specific types of protesting experiences that can lead to these feelings. According to them, the experiences of collective actions are key: where unsuccessful protesting experiences result in feelings of despair and personal fragility, which can manifest in depression, an isolating sense of unworthiness and self-doubt, successful protests can inspire hope and generate energy.
But what determines whether a collective action energises or de-energises its participants? According to Collins (2004: 47-81), this depends on the ingredients the interaction ritual such as a collective action consists of. Where IRs are characterised as situations in which multiple people physically assemble in the same place, a successful IR also has clear boundaries that divide insiders and outsiders, consists of a high mutual focus of
attention on a common object or activity that’s communicated amongst the participants, and the participants share a common mood or emotional experience.
When this is the case, the mutual focus of attention and the emotional entrainment will reinforce each other, and thereby lead to a successful IR: as people become more tightly focused on their common activity, more aware of what the others are doing and feeling, and more aware of each other’s awareness, they get into a mutual rhythm and start experiencing their shared emotion more intensely.
These moments of high rhythmic entrainment enable the participants to keep the beat of the interaction. During these moments, such as clapping, cheering, and making mutual noises, individuals get into the flow of the interaction, which causes them to become more active. This subsequently has an effect on the emotional entrainment of the crowd as well, resulting in a strong collective identity that’s stored in symbols. This can be seen when, for example, people who participate in the same protest become more enthusiastic whilst being in the crowd, cheering and chanting along louder and louder over time.
According to Collins (Ibid.), these successful IRs lead to positive feelings of group solidarity and membership and to the generation of emotional energy: ‘‘a feeling of
confidence, elation, strength, enthusiasm, and initiative in taking action.’’ (Collins, Ibid.: 49). Collins (Ibid.: 133-40) states that emotional energy needs to be distinguished from other kinds of emotions such as excitement, agitation, or loudness: these are the characteristics of dramatic and disruptive emotions. In contrast, emotional energy is a strong steady emotion that has the ability to last over a longer period of time. What characterises emotional energy is that it gives the actors who experience it the ability to act with initiative and to set the direction of social situations. According to Drury and Reicher (2005: 35-58), this experience of emotional energy that they call empowerment is particularly present during a collective action when the participants are challenged and thereby motivated to re-commit themselves to the struggle. They give an example of how the police tried to stop a demonstrative tree ceremony and state: ‘‘(..) the very illegitimacy of the police action itself provided many participants with a strong motivation to re-commit themselves to the struggle, since it reconfirmed the legitimacy of their cause.’’ (Drury and Reicher, 2005: 49).
Collins (2004: 47-81) also looks at failed or empty rituals, such as demonstrations that don’t come off, and concludes that unsuccessful IRs have a low level of collective
effervescence, lack a momentary buzz, and have no or very little shared emotional
for the group’s symbols, and low emotional energy, which translates into a sense of drag, boredom and constraint, depression, interaction fatigue, and a desire to escape.
The effects of energising and de-energising collective actions
Now that we’ve explored what type of collective actions have energising and de-energising effects on its participants during the IR itself, in this section we look into how these effects can endure after the collective actions as well. Inquiring how these lasting feelings can
motivate or demotivate participants to engage in further collective actions of the group is key, considering any protest group needs active and motivated members in order to be successful and make the desired (societal) change.
According to Collins (Ibid.: 81-107), the emotional energy and group solidarity generated during successful IRs can prolong after the IR itself. Whether these short-term emotions are successfully transformed into long-term ones, depends on the nature of the IR during which they arose. First of all, as discussed above, whether strong mutual symbols emerge during the collective action itself depends on the amount of rhythmic and emotional entrainment that arises during that action. Collins (Ibid.: 53-81) also emphasises the
importance of bodily presence during a successful IR in order for high emotional energy to be stored in symbols. At peak moments of victory, participants reach out to hug, touch, or kiss each other. If someone is not able to share his or her excitement during the IR with other participants, it will soon ebb away. However, when the excitement can be shared, this leads to a recharging of this energy. Thus, reliving successful moments of an IR within the IR itself leads to a heightened sense of group membership and feelings of high emotional energy.
In addition, Collins (Ibid.: 83-87) states that mutual symbols have the strongest chance of being re-evoked over and over again when they came to existence in personalised crowds. Thus, according to Collins (Ibid.), mutual symbols that are generated within a group of people that are familiar with each other have a better chance of getting re-evoked than symbols that came into existence during a collective action that consists of participants who don’t know each other personally. He states that this is the case because, in order to prolong the emotional loadings of the IR through mutual symbols, the groups need to reassemble, which is less likely to happen when the participants don’t know each other. Therefore, Collins (Ibid.) argues that the symbols generated in anonymous groups are prone to greater volatility. As he puts it: ‘‘(..) (Anonymous) crowds have rather weak long-term solidarity: their symbols, although charged up by the crowd’s moment of collective effervescence, do
not reinvade the crowd itself, which on the whole is anonymous to most of its participants.’’ (Collins, Ibid.: 82-83). Thus, what happens in an anonymous crowd during a moment of excitement does not have much of a tie afterwards according to Collins (Ibid.): the crowd may share some collective symbols, but their solidarity is situationally specific.
In contrast, particularised symbols built up out of personal identities, memberships and narratives within more personalised crowds and networks are of lesser momentary intensity. Because they are used more frequent in self-reinforcing networks, for example during personal conversational rituals, they are more likely to be re-evoked: ‘‘In contrast to these situations where symbols are charged up by anonymous crowds, are situations that charge symbols with specific group membership. On the level of individualised encounters, personal ties are generated and enacted through IRs that produce a momentary level of
inter-subjectivity that is attractive enough to be repeated.’’ Collins (Ibid.: 84) says. In addition to the fact that these moments of inter-subjectivity reinforce existing symbols, new ones can also arise. For example, by talking about third parties, persons or organisations, stories and qualities are attached to them and are thereby turned into a symbol. Thus, successful IRs have a better chance of being relived when they took place within particularised crowds.
According to Collins (Ibid.: 39-51), the reliving of these positive feelings motivate people to participate in the next IR as well, because people feel attracted towards these energising experiences. Collins (Ibid.: 39, 44) states that feelings of emotional energy have a powerful motivating effect upon the individual: ‘‘(..) whoever has experienced this kind of moment wants to repeat it.’’ and ‘‘Emotional energy is what individuals seek; situations are attractive or unattractive to them to the extent that the interaction ritual is successful in providing emotional energy.’’. Following from this, we can conclude that reliving the positive feelings of emotional energy after the interaction remind people of that feeling and therefore motivate them to participate in the next collective action as well. Drury and Reicher (2005: 35-58) agree with him. They define the feeling of confidence, enthusiasm and feeling like taking initiative that Collins (2004: 47-81) calls emotional energy as empowerment, and state that experiences of empowerment during the collective action can spur people to participate in the next collective action. Brown and Pickerill (2009: 1-12) elaborate on this and state that expressions of solidarity during collective actions can have positive
consequences in terms of re-energising people to continue to protest. Thus, they stress the importance of knowing that you’re not alone.
As we’ve seen above, where successful energising and empowering collective actions can motivate further involvement in future collective actions as well, Collins (2004: 47-81)
states that unsuccessful IRs tend to be energy draining and thereby demotivate people to continue to participate in further collective actions. He states: ‘‘Individuals are attracted to the most intense ritual charges they can get, indifferent to lesser rituals, and repelled by others (..).’’ (Collins, Ibid.: 51). Based on this, we can conclude that unsuccessful collective actions aren’t very likely to motivate people to participate in the next collective action of the group as well, which can have serious consequences for the vitality of the action group in question.
Methodology
Constructionist approach to ethnography
Within my qualitative research, I used an ethnographic approach in order to understand how my respondents make sense of the world around them (Silverman, 2014: 166-203, 229-74). In order to be able to view collective actions from the perspective of the housing activists, I tried to immerse myself in their world as much as possible, for example by participating in community activities and collective actions. This focus on how the housing activists attribute meaning to collective actions resonates with the constructionist approach to ethnography.
In line with this approach, I conducted semi-structured interviews and participant observations to find out how the reality of the housing activists is produced, assembled, and maintained by stepping back from that reality and describing how it was socially brought into being: after all, inquiring people’s emotions and perceptions is best done when you can actually have an open conversation with your subject of inquiry, and observe them in their natural habitat. Whilst maintaining an interest for finding out what’s going on, my emphasis lay on raising questions about the processes through which social realities are constructed and sustained (Ibid.: 24-27, 118-26). Therefore, during my fieldwork I focused on how the
individuals present at a collective action construct the social reality of that interaction ritual together, and how different dynamics of interactions lead to different emotional experiences in terms of emotional energy and (dis)empowerment. In addition, I looked further into how the experiences of the collective actions influence the way the activists construct their own political realities outside of the collective actions: how do the collective actions influence the way they feel outside the actions themselves?
In order to follow up on new insights that emerged from my data through theoretical sampling, I chose for an open and relatively unstructured research design. Because of this open approach, my research became more focused over time: new data helped me to develop my research problem, and it was only after a couple of interviews that I discovered what my research was ‘really’ about: namely, (de)energising collective actions (Ibid.: 229-74). The role of theory
Whilst defining my research problem, I tried to stay away from clear-cut operational definitions of my variables. I decided I would let my respondents define concepts such as
energising and empowering themselves in order to get grip on what these things mean to them. However, this doesn’t mean that my ethnography is free from theoretical guidance. I used the theoretical framework outlined above to gain a research focus. This process of narrowing down the subject of my inquiry enabled me to start my fieldwork: without it, I wouldn’t have been able to know what to talk about during interviews or what to pay attention to during participant observations. Despite of the fact that I entered the field with this theoretical framework, my focus was constantly altered and refined by new insights that emerged from my data. By integrating both deductive and inductive components of theory development into my ethnography, I was able to formulate a research focus and get started whilst at the same time it enabled me to alter and refine my focus over time, and thereby to contribute to the existing theoretical framework (Wilson and Chaddha, 2009: 559-64). Operationalisation
In order to answer my main research question ‘‘What kinds of collective actions energise and de-energise the housing activists?’’ I answered my more concrete subquestions based on my fieldwork and analysed the definitions of emotional energy and empowerment my
respondents had given me in order to get grip on what these concepts mean to them. In order to answer my first subquestion ‘‘What type of collective actions causes high levels of emotional energy and feelings of empowerment to arise during the collective action itself?’’ I asked my respondents to tell me about their experiences of collective actions that they felt were positive, energising, empowering, that boosted their confidence, gave them hope, encouraged them to continue to participate in further collective actions, and made them feel as if they could make a change. In addition, I asked them what they thought made these experiences particularly positive.
To answer my second subquestion ‘‘What type of collective actions causes low levels of emotional energy and feelings of disempowerment to arise during the collective action itself?’’ I did the same thing for their experiences of collective actions that they felt were negative, de-energising, disempowering, and hopeless. In order to complement the findings I gained from my interviews, I used Collins’ (2004: 133-40) observation scheme to observe the emotional energy that arose during my participant observations of collective actions.
Lastly, in order to answer my third subquestion ‘‘How do the experiences of (a lack of) emotional energy and (dis)empowerment during collective actions influence the amount of emotional energy and (dis)empowerment the activists experience in their everyday lives?’’ I
asked my respondents how their feelings towards the housing situation in London changed since they became active in the housing movement and when they felt like it was easier to make a change: now, or when they started off as an activist.
Whilst you can find a definition of emotional energy, or - as Drury and Reicher (2005: 35-58) call it: empowerment - in the existing literature (Ibid.; Collins, 2004: 47-102), I decided to generate both the experiences and the definitions of these concepts out of my data by not only asking my respondents about their experiences of emotional energy and
(dis)empowerment during and outside of collective actions, but by also asking what these concepts mean to them. By doing this, I was able to allow concepts and definitions to emerge out of my data instead of forcing potentially irrelevant ones on it (Glaser & Strauss, 2006: 34).
Data collection
Collins (2004: 133-40) states it is worthwhile to compare observations of body postures and movements, voice sounds and facial and eye expressions with self-reports of feelings of high or low confidence and initiative during collective actions. He stresses that processes of emotional energy should always be studied in relation to the kind of situation that’s occurring in the moment, and within the chain of situations of the immediate past. Therefore, in order to get a good grip on the flow of emotional energy across situations, I decided to combine both interviews in which the respondents give a construction of the self-observation of their experiences and feelings during collective actions with participant observations, in which I constructed a representation of the social reality of the collective actions and the emotional energy present within them.
Interviews
During my fieldwork, I have conducted 11 semi-structured interviews with 10 housing activists. I did not only choose to study this particular group of activists because of my own personal interest in them, but also because I felt it would be appropriate to study the role of energising and de-energising collective actions within this group, considering their fight is so long and uphill. The combination of the duration and intensity of their battle made me
Through the Radical Housing Network I got in contact with my first respondent: Eugene. For our first interview, Eugene arranged for Alexa to come along. Over the whole course of my fieldwork, Eugene and Alexa were extremely supportive. They helped me to get in touch with most of my other respondents, either by introducing me directly to them or by inviting me to collective actions where I subsequently met them. Thus, together with the Radical Housing Network, they were the gatekeepers who helped me to get access to the field. During my interviews, I used a topic list to make sure I covered everything I wanted to discuss (Appendix: Topic list). Based on new insights I had gained during my fieldwork, these lists constantly evolved over time. Before each interview, I explained the purpose of my research to my respondents and asked them whether it was okay for me to record the
interview. I also asked the housing activists whether they’d like to stay anonymous in my research: eight out of ten did, which is why I’ll refer to them by using pseudonyms. During the interview itself, I asked open-ended questions in order not to steer the respondents in any particular way. Though, unfortunately, during the process of transcribing my audio records, I found out that sometimes I had asked slightly steering questions, such as: ‘‘Was that
empowering to you?’’ or ‘‘Does that newly gained knowledge make you feel as if it’s easier to make a change?’’
Because of my interest in finding out the situational conditions of collective actions in which the experience of high and low levels of emotional energy takes place, instead of asking my respondents for a global assessment of how much confidence, energy or depression they were experiencing in general, I asked them about specific experiences of collective actions (Collins, 2004: 133-40). Over the course of the interviews, I tried to validate my findings through respondent validation by occasionally summing up what my respondents had told me and checking my interpretation with them. Nevertheless, I’m aware of the fact that my interpretation of the respondent’s interpretation of reality is a construct in itself as well, and that therefore I’m studying a double construct.
Participant observations
In addition to the semi-structured interviews, I have conducted four participant observations. In order to try and capture the true bodily experience of the action (Wacquant, 2004: 1-12), I fully participated in what was going on. My first participant observation took place at the Victorian March, a relatively small protest against the demolishment of two Victorian pubs and a couple of houses in West London (Appendix: Participant Observation 1). During this
protest, everyone dressed up as Victorians and, in order to emerge myself in the world of the activists (Wacquant, 2004: 1-12), so did I. In addition, I actively marched, chanted, and sang along with the other protestors.
I conducted my second participant observation at the West London Demolition Tour: a tour across the Earl’s Court Area in West London along the estates and pubs that were going to be demolished. During this tour, everyone including me chatted with each other and made photos of the soon to be destroyed properties (Appendix: Participant Observation 2).
My third participant observation was at the Our House Occupation in central London: a pop-up housing squat where people came together, participated in workshops and organised themselves for the big fight of the week: the National Housing March in order to kill the Housing Bill. At the squat, I conducted two interviews. In addition to that, I participated in the workshops and socialised with the people around me (Appendix: Participant Observation 3).
My last participant observation took place at the National Housing March. During this big demonstration, I held up banners and talked to the people around me (Appendix:
Participant Observation 4). After each observation, I immediately went home to write down my recollection of the experience by using the photos I made. Despite of the fact that I tried to do this in the most accurate manner, I’m aware of the fact that my notes are shaped by the specific place and role I adopted during the collective actions. During my observations, I arranged interviews with six of my respondents, using a theoretical sampling strategy to pick out those respondents who would enable me to check out new hunches.
Data analysis
After transcribing the audio-records of my first six interviews, I started with my initial round of coding and memo writing by highlighting interesting quotes and adding in-vivo codes to them. By attaching these first labels to bits of data, I enabled myself to compare them and create a nascent idea about what was going on. During this process of open coding, in-vivo codes such as ‘‘set the alarm bells ringing’’, ‘‘absolutely brilliant’’, and ‘‘the right time and place’’ were created.
After this initial round of coding, I started with the process of focused coding: I selected and coded the key issues through an iterative process of continuously going back and forth between my data, codes, and data and codes. By using this constant comparative method, I was able to refine my findings. During this stage, focused codes such as ‘‘a feeling of
togetherness’’, ‘‘feeling negative because what you’re fighting is too big’’ and ‘‘little victories’’ came into being. In addition, I defined my key concepts such as energy and empowerment by making use of an emic approach and using the respondent’s own
descriptions and definitions of these concepts. It was here that definitions of empowerment such as ‘‘(..) channeling negative emotions into a positive outcome’’ came into play.
By first coding in a more open manner and subsequently moving on to the closed coding stage, I enabled myself not to lose touch with the fine detail of my data, whilst at the same time bringing focus to my data in a later stage. Every time I got a new hunch through my data analysis - such as that professionally involved activists might experience the housing issue in a different way or that collective actions were almost never experienced as
de-energising - I used a theoretical sampling strategy to check them. By using information I got during conversations at previous meetings, I was able to pick out the ‘‘relevant’’ respondents for a certain hunch. Therefore, the joint process of data collection, coding, and analysis enabled me to generate a more complete theory.
After having conducted my last five interviews, I analysed my new transcriptions in the same manner. In addition, in order to analyse the notes of my participant observations, I used Collins’ Observation Scheme (2004: 133-40) to get grip on the amount of emotional energy and solidarity entrainment I had witnessed during an observation. For example, by
identifying the situations in which the individuals during the collective action had moved and behaved in a rhythmic manner, keeping an eye on each other’s faces and responding with similar micro-expressions, I was able to detect high solidarity moments during collective actions.
When I had analysed all my data, I compared the results of my first and second round of analysis. This process caused me to refine my typology about which collective actions are energising and which are de-energising. In addition, by comparing my observations of body postures and movements with the self-reports of feelings of high and low emotional energy during collective actions, I was able to triangulate my findings.
Methodological issues
When I started off my research, my focus was too broad. I wanted to explore the role of emotions within the housing movement in London. During my first interviews I found out how collective actions were described as key experiences in terms of emotional energy and
empowerment. That’s when I decided to refine my focus towards energising and de-energising collective actions.
Despite of the fact that I minimised the scope of my research, I still felt as if the two months I spend in London was a relatively short period of time to conduct my fieldwork. Because of this, I wasn’t able to check upon all my hunches through theoretical sampling that emerged during the analysis of my interviews. For example, in a relatively late stage of my research, Emer and Daniel told me how collective actions are particularly energising to them when they lead to new actions and the establishment of resilient networks. Thus, their experience of a collective action predominantly depends on what they do with it afterwards. This is something I hadn’t encountered in my data before, and I would have liked to explore further. In addition, with more time, I would have conducted more participant observations to get a better ‘feel’ of the bodily experiences of the collective actions my respondents
described (Wacquant, 2004: 1-12).
In addition to this methodological limitation, in my research a methodological
innovation can be found as well. Although Collins (2004: 133-40) states it is worthwhile to compare participant observations of emotional energy with self-reports of these feelings, in practice he doesn’t use interviews as a data collection method for his research. This raises the question: are people able to notice it when they’re experiencing emotional energy? And can they identify those experiences afterwards during interviews? Based on my research, we can conclude that they can. The descriptions my respondents gave about energising and
empowering moments during collective actions are very much in line with what Collins (Ibid.: 47-81) calls emotional energy. Thus, this research shows that, in addition to participant observations, you can also use interviews to identify and measure emotional energy.
Representativeness, reliability and validity
Gobo (2014: 452-53) states that generalisability in qualitative research is based on the idea of social representativeness. In order to enable other researchers to judge whether the main aspects of energising and de-energising collective actions I describe can be noticed in other cases as well, in my results section I tried to provide thick descriptions of the collective actions and situations in question by using numerous quotes and descriptions to support my interpretations (Bryman, 2012: 390-92).
According to Silverman (2014: 83-90), reliability refers to the degree to which the findings of a study are independent of accidental circumstances of their production, and
thereby to whether future researchers are able to repeat the research and come up with the same results, interpretations and claims. In order to increase the reliability of my research, I tried to be as transparent as possible about my research strategy and data analysis methods. In addition, by clarifying my theoretical framework, I showed the reader the theoretical context my interpretations derived from. Lastly, to enable the reader to formulate his or her own hunch about the perspective of the activists that have been studied, I used low-inference descriptors: by including many quotes of my respondents in my results section and by adding short descriptions of my respondents and participant observations in my appendix, I enabled the reader to see where the interpretation of my data is coming from.
Validity is the extent to which an account accurately represents the social phenomenon to which it refers (Silverman, 2014: 71, 90 - 107). I tried to increase the validity of my research by using a slightly altered version of respondent validation: during the interviews themselves, I occasionally summed up what my respondents told me in order to check my nascent interpretation of their accounts with them. In addition, in order to overcome the danger of anecdotalism, I used a theoretical sampling strategy and the constant comparative method to continuously check and refine the hypotheses and ideas that emerged out of my data.
Results: my data in a theoretical perspective
In order to answer my main research question ‘‘What kinds of collective actions energise and de-energise the housing activists?’’ I will first answer my other subquestions based on my semi-structured interviews and participant observations.
Empowering and energising collective actions
In this section I try to answer my first subquestion ‘‘What type of collective actions causes high levels of emotional energy and feelings of empowerment to arise during the collective action itself?’’ But, before I will discuss the aspects that make collective actions energising and empowering experiences, I will focus on what these terms actually mean to my
respondents.
When I asked my respondents what empowerment means to them, the following answer came up almost every single time: being able to affect or change the status quo by doing something. Alexa illustrates this: ‘‘Yes (the collective action was empowering), because we actually did something. We didn’t sit down and do nothing, we actually got together and organised something and went for it.’’ Emer agrees with her, and states that empowerment is having the confidence to fight. Sam gives a similar answer: ‘‘(To me, empowerment is) That belief that you could not only be heard, but that you can make a difference.’’
In addition to this feeling of empowerment, the respondents perceive energy (in terms of Collins (2004: 47-102) emotional energy) as the feeling like you’re both able and eager to keep on fighting. For example, Elizabeth states: ‘‘I really enjoy it (participating in a
collective action) cause (..) that always reinforces why you’re doing (it), and you come away re-energised (..)’’. Alexa also says: ‘‘(..) there’s a rush about it (being in a collective action), a buzz of being in a large crowd of people.’’
Now that we’ve discussed what feeling empowered and feeling energised means to the housing activists, we can start to explore what determines whether a collective action is empowering and energising. First of all, I will discuss the aspects that make a collective action an empowering and energising one that are in line with what Collins (Ibid.: 47-102, 133-40), Drury and Reicher (2005: 35-58) and Brown and Pickerill (2009: 1-12) state: a feeling of togetherness and the experience of victory. Secondly, I will go over an aspect that the scholars named above don’t mention, but within my research is discovered to be key for a
collective action to be an energising experience: namely, for it to be fun, celebratory, and humorous.
A feeling of togetherness
First of all, in line with Collins (2004: 47-102), it becomes clear that being in a group and experiencing a feeling of togetherness and solidarity by physically assembling in the same place is very energising and empowering for all of the respondents: it makes them feel like they’re not alone. Eugene, Kenneth, and Sam emphasise the importance of the bodily
presence of others. Sam says: ‘‘(..) on your own, you’re only one person in this huge city. But (..) the more people come together, then the louder they can shout. And the louder you shout, you create attention and hopefully make a difference.’’ Nina agrees with Sam: ‘‘(..) I think that what’s so great about stuff like this (the Our House Occupation), (..) is that you realise you’re not alone, (..) and that feeling is incredibly reassuring, because you feel like you can do anything.’’ Thus, being in a group of people that fight alongside you gives the housing activists I interviewed the feeling they can do something, which energises and empowers them. Eugene and Emer also illustrate this point. Eugene tells me how becoming a member of the Radical Housing Network gave him the confidence to start taking initiative and organise actions by himself as well: ‘‘(..) And then it was finding the Radical Housing Network, meeting up with people and being able to do joint actions and getting confidence, you know, I never had the confidence to do a demo (demonstration) if it hadn’t been for the Radical Housing Network (..).’’ Emer also describes how she believes that the realisation that you’re not alone gives people the confidence to fight: ‘‘(..) the strongest thing is the solidarity, (..) that solidarity gives people the confidence to fight, and we need these spaces (Our House Occupation) to get together and see our strength in the numbers, cause we’re powerful when we’re united like that (..).’’
In addition, my research also shows that it’s key for these groups to have clearly established boundaries that reinforce the notion of insiders and outsiders and thereby strengthen this feeling of togetherness (Ibid.). Daniel emphasises the importance of having designated spaces where groups can come together to develop resilient networks and create opportunities for change: ‘‘(..) providing spaces where people can come together and talk about issues and meet up, I think that’s precisely the kind of thing that needs to start
happening. (..) (places) where people can not only find out about these (housing) issues, but also talk about possible ways to do something with regards to these issues.’’. Thus, here
Daniel reinforces Collins’ (Ibid.) notion that clearly established group boundaries increase a feeling of collective solidarity.
Another important aspect that reinforces the feeling of togetherness during a collective action and thereby makes it a more energising and empowering experience to my respondents is the presence of a collective mentality. Kenneth describes this perfectly, when he states: ‘‘(..) you’re (the housing activists) working for one gain only, that’s the purpose of everyone doing it (..).’’. Emer agrees with him, and says that having a similar goal is what unites the housing activists and enables them to take action: ‘‘(..) we (the activists) don’t care about the political stuff (in terms of who supports which party), we just focus on; this is in front of us, and this is what we need to do.’’
Eugene and Alexa discuss the energising aspect of being in a crowd with like-minded people. During this conversation, Alexa says: ‘‘(..) there’s a rush about it, a buzz of being in a large crowd of people, (..) it’s just nice to be with a like-minded tribe of people, you don’t feel on your own, you know.’’ Elizabeth also describes how meeting like-minded activists during collective actions re-energises her and makes her feel like she can make a change: ‘‘(..) I still occasionally feel like I can make a change, (..) I went to a residents meeting last night at an estate and being around people who are just waking up to it and feeling angry about it is really energetic, cause that’s like o yea that’s how I felt.’’ Thus, being with like-minded people that are full of energy and passion re-energises Elizabeth to keep on fighting. Nina also states this, and tells me that getting involved with an occupation organised by the Focus E15 Action Group, a group of single mums that fight to keep their homes, massively re-energised her, and actually was a turning point in her life of being happier: ‘‘(..) I
remember significantly thinking (..) o wow I haven’t been this happy in ages. I think that’s partly because (..) a lot of people are naturally inclined towards community and towards a situation where there’s a togetherness involved (..).’’.
The importance of a collective mentality for a group dynamic in which emotional energy is produced is something I also observed during the West London Demolition Tour: because of the fact that all the participants who didn’t know each other at all shared similar experiences and mentalities, people were very much at ease with each other, speaking confidently, laughing together and instigating contact with one another (Appendix:
Participant Observation 2). The conclusion that collective actions in which a strong feeling of togetherness is present and people share a common goal or mentality lead to the production of emotional energy is in line with Collins (2004: 47-102) as well.
A third aspect that’s considered to be important to foster emotional energy and feelings of empowerment during a collective action is the fact that collective actions can be
constructive events. For example, Emer describes how she feels that collective actions like the Our House Occupation are utopian experiences in which beautiful things are created: ‘‘(..) it’s utopian I think in a way. It’s (the Our House Occupation) obviously totally temporarily, but for this time, (..) you create that community space, and things can happen, it’s beautiful. It’s constructive, plans can me made, relationships are build (..)’’ Daniel also reinforces this notion. He explains how being in a collective action is only an empowering experience for him when there’s a follow-up after that action to continue to build on the energy that was created during the action itself: ‘‘I occupied Parliament Square for almost a week, and I did do stuff after that, so I did feel good about it. But if you go home and you don’t do anything about it, that’s when you feel disempowered.’’ Kenneth agrees, and explains how coming together and taking action to do things differently in your own estate ‘‘gives new energy and hope’’.
That the realisation that constructive things can spring from a collective action is very energising and empowering is something I experienced during the Our House Occupation as well (Appendix: Participant Observation 3). Being in an atmosphere full of enthusiasm, confidence and initiative, and seeing how that atmosphere crystallised in the narratives and actions of the people at the squat filled me with energy. In my notes, I wrote down: ‘‘The first thing that struck me when I walked in, was the open and energetic atmosphere of the squat. (..) one in which I felt like everyone was welcome, everyone’s support was more than valued and no-one was judged by who they were. (..) there was a very positive and hopeful vibe at the occupation: everyone I talked to reinforced the notion that change was possible and that they were going to achieve it by fighting hard for it. This atmosphere energised me massively: it made me feel positive and like taking the initiative to act.’’ By looking around, I observed how the constructive atmosphere in the squat definitely led to the experience of emotional energy (Ibid.; Collins, 2004: 133-40): ‘‘What struck me was that everyone seemed very comfortable with each other, despite of the fact that I heard from stories that some people had only just met. People were standing up straight, actively approaching others for interactions and conversations, making eye-contact, smiling, laughing collectively and sharing stories and experiences.’’ In addition, the feeling of togetherness and a sense of collective solidarity was present as well: ‘‘(..) people made a lot of physical contact: people were hugging and kissing each other when people came and took off, direct eye contact was made and people laughed or made noises at the same time’’. When we follow Collins (Ibid.:
47-81), this is not surprising, considering everyone inside the occupation had a shared mutual focus that was constantly communicated during conversations: namely, to kill the Housing Bill. In addition, the boundaries of the group were clearly established by the walls of the squat: everyone inside was in favour of the housing activists, whilst the people outside shopping in Brompton Road were occupying themselves with totally different things.
However, what Collins (Ibid.) doesn’t discuss but where Castells (2012: 60-61) does elaborate on, is the fact that creating your own space for a collective action by reclaiming an urban space is energising in itself. According to him, occupying a public space is an act of liberation, because it’s a way to escape the authority of the state and experiment with forms of self-management and solidarity. Thus, the fact that creating your own constructive space for a collective action is energising to the housing activists is in line with what Castells (Ibid.) states, but is something that we don’t necessarily find with Collins (2004: 47-102).
The experience of victory
The second key aspect that makes a collective action an empowering and energising one, is the experience of victory during the collective action. This victory can be experienced in different ways.
First of all, the victory is most often experienced when some sort of reaction is evoked from the people the activists are fighting against. According to Collins (2012: 1-20) internal solidarity fuels external conflict. Thus, when we take the strong internal dynamics of
solidarity discussed in the section above into consideration, the fact that the housing activists experience a sense of victory when a reaction from the people they’re fighting against is evoked, is not surprising. According to the housing activists, when a reaction is evoked, this is proof for them that their actions don’t stay unnoticed and are challenging the status quo. The fact that they experience this as energising and empowering is in line with Drury and Reicher (2005: 48-50), who state that feelings of empowerment are evoked when participants are challenged during a collective action.
Alexa gives an example of such an energising experience: ‘‘Like today (during the Victorian March), they pulled the shutters down in the showroom, that was fantastic (..). You feel a small victory in that. You’ve bothered them, they haven’t been able to do everything in their own way (..).’’ Nina gives a similar example of an energising reaction a mock-eviction she participated in evoked: ‘’(..) we did an action on Monday, where we staged a mock eviction, and that felt very successful. We went to his house, to the guy who’s the head of
regeneration, and he was just about to go down the road to tell the local estate that they were going to be evicted, (..) and we caught him going to the meeting. We had putted suitcases and clothes on the street, cause that’s the scene that it is so often (when people get evicted). When he came out, (..) what was great that we were able to talk to an individual, a specific person in charge (..), (..) it felt successful that we were able to tell him to his face how unhappy we were.’’ Eugene also states that he takes satisfaction in shaming local councilors during mock evictions: ‘‘(..) personally, what I like are mock evictions outside people’s houses, so identify the local councilors who are responsible for the regeneration, go to their homes, and make it personal, political, but personal (..).’’ And Lola emphasises that affecting the status quo during collective actions energises her: ‘‘(..) by voicing it and shutting the streets of London down for a while you make people think and look o what’s going on.’’
What’s central in all these energising experiences of my respondents is the fact that they were able to emotionally dominate the interaction: by evoking a reaction or by challenging the status quo, the activists felt like they were able to set the pace of the
interaction. That this experience of emotional dominance is very empowering and energising, is something I experienced during the sit-in at the National Housing March (Appendix: Participant Observation 4) as well. Whilst sitting down on Westminster Bridge and blocking all traffic for at least 20 minutes, to me it finally felt like we were actually reclaiming the streets of London, affecting the status quo, and thereby making a change. Despite the fact I was sick that day, during those moments I felt re-energised and empowered: ‘‘To me, this experience whereby we were blocking all the traffic approaching from both sides of the bridge felt really powerful: to be able to divert from what we were allowed to do and cross boundaries by occupying Westminster Bridge in Central London and blocking so much traffic felt as if we were actually reclaiming the streets of London for the first time during the march.’’
Secondly, the victory is also experienced by my respondents when a collective action generates a lot of (media) attention. Kenneth states that he thinks a collective action is most powerful when the media shows it: ‘‘I think the only way a demonstration is successful, the only way I think it works, is if you got someone who is a media person, who has cameras, and who’s dedicated and is fighting for you (..).’’ Emer and Nina also describe how getting the attention of the media during an occupation made them feel powerful and able to change things: ‘‘(..) because we got so much press, (..) it became kind of wider scale (..)’’, Emer says. Nina states that this attention clarified the power of what they were doing: ‘‘And (..) once the word started spreading, it became very clear, the power of what we were doing.’’
This last point Nina makes resonates with Brown and Pickerill (2009: 1-12), who state that collective actions that are perceived as successful - in this case in terms of media attention - energise and inspire hope for change. At the same time, it also ties in with the energising aspect of emotional dominance that’s discussed above: being able to set the pace of the interaction, in this case being able to get media attention for your collective action, is energising and empowering to the housing activists because it makes them feel in charge of their situation and thereby like they’re able to make a change.
The importance of celebratory, fun and humorous collective actions
Now that we’ve discussed the elements that make a collective action an energising and empowering experience that are in line with what Collins (2004: 47-107, 133-40), Drury and Reicher (2005: 35-58), and Brown and Pickerill (2009: 1-12) state, we will discuss another aspect that all my respondents name as being key for a positive collective action, but isn’t very present in the existing literature: for it to be a fun, celebratory and humorous experience. In my research, I’ve come across different reasons for why this is felt to be important.
Firstly, many housing activists explain how having fun during collective actions re-energises them and thereby helps them to gain the motivation to keep on fighting. Elizabeth is one of them: ‘‘I think it (the Victorian March) was good fun, that’s really important for a demonstration, for it to be good fun. I think people won’t keep showing up if it’s not fun. (..) (eventually) people are going to get tired (..).’’ John agrees with Elizabeth and also enjoyed the Victorian March because of its fun and positive atmosphere: ‘‘(..) I really enjoyed the positive (..) atmosphere they created with the dressing up. (..) and the songs as well, (..) and I really like doing that kind of stuff, because it’s positive (..).’’ Emer also stresses the point that the serious housing issue occasionally asks for a lighthearted approach to enable people to keep on going: ‘‘(..) it’s got to be fun, especially when you’re talking about something so fundamental and brutal as housing (..).’’ Lola agrees with her, and states that a fun
atmosphere engages people: ‘‘There are thousands of people walking along and dancing and singing and you just get so whipped up into it, and we just have a bit of fun with it.’’
Secondly, my respondents emphasise how adding humour to a collective action can be an intelligent way of getting (media) attention. Eugene explains how he feels that, in order to get media attention, you either need to do something intelligent and fun, or you need a confrontation with the police. For obvious reasons, he prefers the former: ‘‘(..) for me, the greatest demo’s (demonstrations) are the ones that are done with intelligence, that are done
with a bit of style, a bit of class, that’s the best demo (demonstration). The worst thing to do is to have a confrontation with the police, it’s better if you can do it (gain media attention) in a different way.’’ Lola elaborates on this: ‘‘(when) it’s quite funny, (in) these days of
technology, you can get your message out to a lot more people.’’ Daniel also emphasises that approaching the issue in a lighthearted way actually is more productive in terms of getting attention for it. He explains how he feels that a particular collective action he was involved with, whereby housing activists handed out an altered version of the Evening Standard on Hammersmith tube station, was a good and lighthearted way of getting the issue out there: ‘‘(..) it did that (getting the issue out there) in a way that wasn’t a negative repetition of problems, it had a hilarious spin to it, it was fun and creative and people sort of picked it up and said o what’s this. Whilst if you had kill the Housing Bill on it, people wouldn’t have wanted to pick it up, so I think it opened up the issue to a lot more people and that’s why I thought it was interesting, because it achieved that in quite a clever way.’’
Thirdly, turning a collective action into a celebratory experience and adding the aspect of humour to it is perceived as a massive ‘‘fuck you’’ towards the authorities:
according to Nina and Sam, it confuses them in terms of not knowing how to handle a group of jolly protestors. Sam gives an example of this: ‘‘(..) there was one group of people
occupying (..), and their whole modus operandi is to treat the security guards and police men with humour, they actively engage them with humour, and that made them feel very
uncomfortable because they don’t know how to react, how to deal with that.’’ Nina agrees with him: ‘‘(..) it’s (a collective action of the Focus E15 group) always a celebration or a party involving kids and cake and so you know, when the police turns up, it’s very hard for them (to respond) (..).’’
At the same time, adding humour and fun to a collective action makes the activists feel strong, because it shows that they’re going to fight the authorities in a manner that is fun and enjoyable as well. The collective actions in which humour and fun are used to gain back control over the situation are considered to be very empowering. This once again shows that when the activists are able to emotionally dominate the collective action, in this case by not letting the external circumstances but the self-created internal dynamics determine the mood of the interaction, this is felt to be very empowering and energising. Nina gives an example of such a collective action and tells the following about a protest that turned into a
celebratory event including singing and dancing on the highway: ‘‘(whilst we were protesting) Spanish tourists started singing ‘‘a a, anti, anti-capitalis’’ and we were like dancing and like singing (..), and that was a really good example of celebration being the best
form of protest, in the sense of like if you have a party and you enjoy what you’re doing it’s such a fuck you to the establishment, because we’re ourselves and we’re going to do this and we’re going to have fun doing it. (..) that was very empowering to me.’’
Disempowering and de-energising collective actions
Based on the results outlined above, we can conclude that collective actions in which a strong feeling of togetherness is present, victories are experienced, and entail aspects that are fun, humorous, or celebratory cause high levels of emotional energy and feelings of
empowerment to arise during the collective action itself. In addition, being able to emotionally dominate the pace and the mood of the interaction is found to be key for a collective action to be an energising and empowering experience.
In the following section, I will look into what type of collective actions is less empowering, or even disempowering, and results in low levels of emotional energy.
Therefore, I will now try to answer my second subquestion: What type of collective actions causes feelings of disempowerment and low levels of emotional energy to arise during the collective action itself?
The authorities acting out
Whereas a reaction from the authorities that showed that the activists provoked or annoyed them is experienced as an empowering element of collective actions, many of my
respondents tell me how violent behaviour of the authorities disempowers them. Eugene tells me how the collective action that started of as the happiest experience in his life, turned into an infringement of civil liberty when the police kettled him: ‘‘(..) it feels, just in the heart, it feels like an infringement of civil liberty, it just feels so awful.’’ Thus, this was a very disempowering and de-energising experience for Eugene. Sam also emphasises that a collective action is a negative experience for him when ‘‘(..) the police authorities are not behaving as they should be (..).’’ This gives him a feeling of indignation and defiance.
This shows that when the activists are no longer able to determine the pace and the mood of the interaction, and therefore lose their emotional dominance, this is experienced to be de-energising and disempowering.
Numbers
What’s interesting is that whereas some respondents describe collective actions where a lot of people showed up as empowering and energising, others emphasise that the most successful collective actions they participated in were the ones with a more local character. In terms of Collins (2004: 47-107) you could argue that this is because of the fact that in a local setting it’s easier to organise the ritual ingredients in such a way that the dynamic of the IR leads to heightened levels of emotional energy.
Sam and Eugene are part of the first group, and express how they feel it’s difficult when not as many people show up as they were expecting. For example, Sam says: ‘‘It’s always hard when (..) not as many people come as you’re expecting (..).’’ On the other hand, John and Elizabeth stress that local collective actions are more empowering to them, because they feel they’re more likely to lead to change. Elizabeth explains this: ‘‘(..) on a local level it’s more easy to identify (who’s to blame). So I think that’s helpful.’’
Conclusion: Collective actions tend to be pretty empowering and energising experiences What’s important to note is that, despite of the fact that collective actions where the authorities act out or where the numbers aren’t ‘right’ can be disempowering and
de-energising at times, over all my respondents generally describe their experiences of collective actions as very empowering and energising. Many of them identified them as the experiences that give them the energy and confidence to (continue to) fight. So, regardless of them being big, small, serious, or humorous, as long as like-minded individuals come together to fight for the same cause, these expressions of solidarity are experienced as being empowering and energising regardless. One of Alexa’s statements is pretty illustrative for what I found over all in my data: ‘‘I’m just glad if a man and his dog turn up to protest to be honest, if I got (..) two or three people, with social media you can do a lot, (..) they’re things you can do, clever little things, funny things. (..) and (..) we know that people are going to find it amusing and it will get out there.’’
Sam also feels that the majority of his experiences of collective actions have been positive: ‘‘Everything has been relatively empowering.’’, he says. Nina gives a similar answer when I ask her about collective actions that energised her: ‘‘Yea, there’s many, there’s many, many, many.’’ Emer agrees with her and describes collective actions as utopian experiences. She states that, as long as people get together, this gives people the confidence
to fight. In line with this, Lola says: ‘‘(during collective actions) you’re just happier, you feel happy.’’
The fact that collective actions tend to be very empowering and energising experiences is something I can confirm based on my participant observations. All the collective actions I experienced were very energising to me, because of the fact that we were all fighting for the same cause in a fun and celebratory way.
It’s important to note that these similar findings could be due to the fact that the housing movement in London is very active at the moment. There are a lot of collective actions going on, which gives the housing activists the opportunity to recharge themselves with emotional energy on a regular basis. Thus, the fact that all of my respondents
experienced most collective actions as energising and empowering could be caused by these positive feedback-loops of emotional energy.
The effects of collective actions
Now that we’ve concluded that most collective actions are empowering and energising, but some can be disempowering and de-energising at times as well, in this section we look into whether the feelings generated during collective actions have had an effect on how energised and empowered the housing activists feel right now. Therefore, in this section I try to answer my third subquestion ‘‘How do the experiences of (a lack of) emotional energy and
(dis)empowerment during collective actions influence the amount of emotional energy and (dis)empowerment the activists experience in their everyday lives?’’
Feeling empowered and energised
Whilst all my respondents experienced collective actions predominantly as energising and empowering experiences during the actions themselves, only five of my respondents state that they experience the same confidence and energy to fight and to take initiative outside of collective actions as well. Whilst all five of them express the fact that they realise that the housing issue is a very big and complicated one - a realisation that emerged over time - they don’t feel hopeless, but more determent and capable to continue to fight because of the accumulated knowledge and insights. This is in line with Drury and Reicher (2005: 35-58), who state that empowerment and feelings of confidence during collective actions can endure after the collective action itself, motivating people to stay active and involved. Brown and
Pickerel (2009: 1-12) also state that expressions of solidarity during collective actions can have positive consequences in terms of re-energising people and thereby motivating them to continue to protest.
One of the five respondents who also feels empowered and energised outside of
collective actions is Emer. She states that, ever since she became a housing activist, she feels empowered because of the fact that her actions as an activist have had the desirable outcome: ‘‘(..) to see the direct action tactics working, (..) the fact that we get little victories, getting people housed, that makes us realise how much power we do actually have (..).’’ And although she feels as if the housing situation in London has gotten worse over time, this doesn’t disempower her at all: ‘‘(..) things are getting worse, it’s not getting better, (..) that’s not a defeatist position, (..) that gives me more (energy) to fight (..).’’. She explains how much of this energy actually springs from the empowering and energising collective actions she participated in: ‘‘(..) you take it (the energy gained during a collective action) with you, it’s not just an initial burst (..).’’ Nina agrees with her, and explains how, despite of the fact that her time as an activist has made her realise how big the scope of the housing issue is, she feels more empowered because of that knowledge: ‘‘I do think knowledge is power, and it makes me feel better able to fight it off (..).’’ Sam has a similar position: ‘‘(..) it (the gained knowledge) made me more determined. (..) (I feel as if I have) more insights on how to tackle it (..).’’ John and Daniel agree with him: they both state that the positive energy during
collective actions further engages and motivates them to keep up the fight.
Although both Alexa and Lola usually don’t feel particularly energised and empowered outside of collective actions, there is one thing that occasionally does energise and empower them: the realisation that, during their time as a housing activist, they’ve experienced a massive personal growth. They don’t just describe this growth in terms of having gained new skills or expanded their networks, but also in the sense that they’ve gained a new sense of confidence that made them more open an outgoing over time. In line with Collins (2004: 47-102), you could argue that these transitions are a result of the emotional energy the activists have gained during successful IRs. For example, Alexa explains how she feels that being an activist changed her for the better: ‘‘(..) I quite like shouting and waving flags you know, (..) dressing up, cause I’m not like this normally, so actually you know, it’s a pleasant change. (..)’’ Lola states how she’s now able to speak in front of big crowds: ‘‘I had never done an assembly in front of a 100 people. And now I have to stand in my community hall to talk to them all (..). (..) it’s quite cool, yea.’’
