Some Elements of an Interactionist Approach to Political Disengagement

This article uses an interactionist approach to propose a theory of activist disengagement processes. Over the last dozen years, the sociology of activism has been revitalized by the conception of activism as a long-lasting social activity articulated by phases of joining, commitment, and defection. This has given rise to the notion of ‘activist career’, drawing directly on Hughes' and Becker's concept of interactionism. Applied to political commitment, the notion of career allows us to understand how, at each biographical stage, the attitudes and behaviours of activists are determined by past attitudes and behaviours, which in turn condition the range of future possibilities, thus resituating commitment across the entire life cycle. The concept of career therefore enables us to combine questions of the predisposition to and operationalization of activism, of differentiated and variable forms of engagement over time, of the multiplicity of engagements across the life cycle, and of the withdrawal and extension of commitment.