68 (Melucci 1989, 26)

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(Melucci 1989, 26)

...Collective action is not a unitary empirical phenomenon. Whatever unity exists should be considered the result and not the starting point, a fact to be explained rather than assumed. When actors produce their collective action they define both themselves and their environment (other actors, available resources, opportunities and obstacles). Such definitions are not linear but are produced by interaction, negotiation and conflict. This process is often concealed by both collective actors and their opponents. Collective actors tend to emphasize the ’highest’ meaning of their action and to claim a unity which they in fact rarely achieve. Those in power, conversely, tend to stress the ’lowest’ meaning of collective action, for instance by dismissing it as pathological behaviour. Such reactions fail to acknowledge that whenever individuals act collectively they are situated within a multipolar action system.... Individuals contribute to the formation of a more or less stable ’we’ by rendering common and laboriously negotiating and adjusting at least three orientations: the goals of their action; the means to be utilized; and the environment within which their action takes place. [Melucci, Alberto. 1989. Nomads of the Present. London: Hutchinson Radius.]