Sociology

The work stories do: Charles Tilly's legacy on the provision of reasons, storytelling, and trust in contentious performances

Document Type

Article

Abstract

In his later works Charles Tilly extended his analysis of contention by scrutinizing the dynamics of contentious performances and the enactment of identities through them. Complementing these investigations he analyzed the centrality of trust networks in sustained challenges to authority. On a somewhat detached track Tilly developed an examination of reason giving in social life and more particularly the ways in which people do critical transactional work through stories, often with the assessment of credit and blame. In this chapter, we quilt these various pieces to offer an analysis of how storytelling is vital to the construction of trust and blame in contentious performances, both in the face of threat and opportunity. We explain how these later works on storytelling, identities, and trust can be integrated fruitfully with his many writings on contention to expand the analysis of its culture dimensions. We draw on three years of field work with a chapter of the Voice of the Faithful, an organization of Catholics that formed in the wake of the priest sexual abuse crisis, to exemplify this integration of Tilly's work. Using data from field notes and interviews we demonstrate how chapter members engage in the telling standard stories of origin, legacy and transformation, and trust in their pursuit of change and in maintaining internal solidarity. We conclude that our integration of Tilly's later work can be added to other perspectives on narrative to broaden the cultural analysis of contention. © 2013 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Publication Title

Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change

Publication Date

11-15-2013

Volume

35

First Page

147

Last Page

173

ISSN

0163-786X

ISBN

9781781906354

DOI

10.1108/S0163-786X(2013)0000035011

Keywords

Charles Tilly, collective identity, narrative, storytelling, trust

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