Article Version of Record

Changing the NHS a day at a time: The role of enactment in the mobilisation and prefiguration of change

Author(s) / Creator(s)

Moskovitz, Liora
Garcia-Lorenzo, Lucia

Abstract / Description

This paper aims to contribute to our understanding of the unique role of enactment in the dynamics of motivation and participation in prefigurative social movements, with the intention of providing a deeper understanding of the mechanisms, inherent to prefiguration, driving change through collective action. We achieve this through examining what motivates people to participate as activists in a social movement trying to enact changes within the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom. To do so, we explore the narratives of 23 activists working to develop the NHS Change Day movement. The narratives describe how NHS frontline staff engage in daily grassroots change activities while having to navigate top-down, planned, organisational change interventions. We analyse our findings in light of recent developments in the understanding of group identity processes in the mobilisation of collective action, and highlight the role of enactment in these dynamics. The findings indicate that it is not the overall top-down managerial strategies, but rather the daily participation and enactment of self-initiated small-scale change actions that gives meaning and direction to the activists’ participation in the social movement – a meaning which is constructed through the encapsulation of a sense of personal agency and collective efficacy, contributing to a sense of the affirmation of vocational and organisational identity. We contend that the relationship between the experience of the daily enactment of self-initiated activities within a supportive group setting and the motivation to participate in collective action is mutually constructed, and as such, inextricable.

Keyword(s)

motivation enactment participation identity prefiguration mobilisation social movements NHS Change Day

Persistent Identifier

Date of first publication

2016-05-24

Journal title

Journal of Social and Political Psychology

Volume

4

Issue

1

Page numbers

196–219

Publisher

PsychOpen GOLD

Publication status

publishedVersion

Review status

peerReviewed

Is version of

Citation

Moskovitz, L., & Garcia-Lorenzo, L. (2016). Changing the NHS a day at a time: The role of enactment in the mobilisation and prefiguration of change. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 4(1), 196–219. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v4i1.532
  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
    Moskovitz, Liora
  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
    Garcia-Lorenzo, Lucia
  • PsychArchives acquisition timestamp
    2018-11-26T12:45:21Z
  • Made available on
    2018-11-26T12:45:21Z
  • Date of first publication
    2016-05-24
  • Abstract / Description
    This paper aims to contribute to our understanding of the unique role of enactment in the dynamics of motivation and participation in prefigurative social movements, with the intention of providing a deeper understanding of the mechanisms, inherent to prefiguration, driving change through collective action. We achieve this through examining what motivates people to participate as activists in a social movement trying to enact changes within the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom. To do so, we explore the narratives of 23 activists working to develop the NHS Change Day movement. The narratives describe how NHS frontline staff engage in daily grassroots change activities while having to navigate top-down, planned, organisational change interventions. We analyse our findings in light of recent developments in the understanding of group identity processes in the mobilisation of collective action, and highlight the role of enactment in these dynamics. The findings indicate that it is not the overall top-down managerial strategies, but rather the daily participation and enactment of self-initiated small-scale change actions that gives meaning and direction to the activists’ participation in the social movement – a meaning which is constructed through the encapsulation of a sense of personal agency and collective efficacy, contributing to a sense of the affirmation of vocational and organisational identity. We contend that the relationship between the experience of the daily enactment of self-initiated activities within a supportive group setting and the motivation to participate in collective action is mutually constructed, and as such, inextricable.
    en_US
  • Publication status
    publishedVersion
  • Review status
    peerReviewed
  • Citation
    Moskovitz, L., & Garcia-Lorenzo, L. (2016). Changing the NHS a day at a time: The role of enactment in the mobilisation and prefiguration of change. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 4(1), 196–219. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v4i1.532
    en_US
  • ISSN
    2195-3325
  • Persistent Identifier
    https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12034/1404
  • Persistent Identifier
    https://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.1782
  • Language of content
    eng
  • Publisher
    PsychOpen GOLD
  • Is version of
    https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v4i1.532
  • Keyword(s)
    motivation
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    enactment
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    participation
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    identity
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    prefiguration
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    mobilisation
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    social movements
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    NHS Change Day
    en_US
  • Dewey Decimal Classification number(s)
    150
  • Title
    Changing the NHS a day at a time: The role of enactment in the mobilisation and prefiguration of change
    en_US
  • DRO type
    article
  • Issue
    1
  • Journal title
    Journal of Social and Political Psychology
  • Page numbers
    196–219
  • Volume
    4
  • Visible tag(s)
    Version of Record