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Oppositionel Consciousness: The Subjective Roots of Social Protest, edited by Jane Mansbridge and Aldon Morris. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001. 309 pp. $60.00 cloth. ISBN: 0-226-50361-5. $19.00 paper. ISBN: 0-226-50362-3.
How do members of oppressed groups come to understand their circumstances as unjust? How do they develop a consciousness that motivates them to participate in collective action? This fine collection is the first to take on the question of oppositional consciousness in theoretical depth and with a wide range of case studies. Consisting of three theoretical chapters and six chapters analyzing oppositional consciousness in various social movements, this impressively cohesive book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the cognitive, emotional, and cultural transformations that motivate and shape activism.
Jane Mansbridge's Introduction and Conclusion and Aldon Morris and Naomi Braine's theoretical chapter, together lay out a comprehensive definition of oppositional consciousness, including its components and variations, its emergence and ramifications, and its intersections with mobilization. Oppositional consciousness entails claiming a "previously subordinate identity as a positive identification, identify[ing] injustices done to their group, demand[ing] changes . . . to rectify those injustices," and seeing their group as sharing interests; groups reach a "mature" oppositional consciousness when they identify dominant groups as causing these injustices as part of...