The Social Construction of Strain and Ideological Models of Grievance in Contemporary Movements

On the basis of a critical review of the collective behavior tradition and changes in social movements themselves, the "strain (or stress) model" is found to contain several theoretical and empirical shortcomings. An alternative approach is sketched, emphasizing processes of symbolic interpretation in the creation of meanings which lead to the social construction of conceptions of strain and grievances. Such processes tend to occur in ideological primary groups where shared beliefs in collective interpretations are linked to the establishment of new models of personal and collective identity. Those models influence not only specific aspects of role performance, but also define what is to be taken as appropriate targets of indignation and anger. Symbolically articulated models of identity and grievance transcend the boundary of the ideological primary group and can be "marketed" through mass media. Modern social movements emerge as ideological contexts of identity formation and media for redefining social reality in ways presumed to be more gratifying.