Social Movement Mobilization: Collective Identity as a Negotiated Outcome

Abstract: How do activists negotiate with prospective constituents to coalesce around a collective identity? Prior research highlights the importance of collective identity for successful social movements but has largely overlooked intra-movement negotiation as a process through which such identity is formed. Drawing on original interviews and archival materials from Taiwan’s 2014 Sunflower Movement, we examine how activists negotiate internal differences to coalesce diverse constituencies around a shared collective identity. Using an iterative, inductive analysis of emerging themes, we develop a model of collective identity formation as a negotiated outcome across internal subgroups. We show how activists respond through legitimacy-based and procedural-based negotiation strategies, as well as through the strategic use of emotion and creative coalition-building tools. These strategies foster participation-driven identity formation and psychological connectedness across groups, which ultimately form the basis for movement cohesion and influence. By conceptualizing collective identity as a negotiated outcome, this study bridges social movement and negotiation research and extends negotiation theory to morally charged contexts of collective action.

Keywords: negotiation; social movements; mobilization; collective identity; Taiwan