The Fragmentation of Political Solidarities in Contemporary Democracies: Processes of Identification and Differentiation

Abstract

Numerous scholars have pointed out the transformations that have taken place in the political and social solidarities that structured the mass societies of the last century. Changes in the manners of constituting collective actors have forced a redefinition of theoretical and methodological tools to address political phenomena, posing new questions. What kinds of dynamics become central when traditional players such as political parties and social movements find that other players take the lead in political enunciation? How should political sociology deal with processes that involve agents who, in many cases, are circumstantial collectives? This article proposes to interpret contemporary political dynamics in terms of a sequence of political identification processes that are discontinuous from the point of view of crystallization into collective subjects, but that can be articulated by the thematisation of public affairs.