Identity struggles may also generate explicit social movements. One influential theory
of social movements hypothesizes a collective identity that motivates group
action (Taylor & Whittier 1992). This identity requires a perception of membership
in a bounded group, consciousness about that group’s ideologies, and direct
opposition to a dominant order. Simon et al (1998) used an identity approach in
studying a movement of the elderly in Germany and the gay movement in the
United States. Both showed two different pathways to willingness to participate
in collective action, one based on cost-benefit calculations, the other on collective
identification as an activist. Bernstein (1997) reveals a strategic dimension to
the use of identities in collective action, in her analysis of when and how identities
that celebrate or suppress difference from the mainstream are used in strategic
collective action about gay rights.