Niche activism: Constructing a unified movement identity in a heterogeneous organizational field

This article draws on a study of interorganizational relations in the Chicago gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender movement to elaborate a theory for how activists integrate divergent organizational approaches to social reform into a coherent "movement identity." Departing from the resource mobilization and collective identity literatures, which tend to reduce organizational specialization either to a competition over resources or to ideological differences among movement participants, I argue that organizational interests and shared beliefs play interrelated, but nonreducible roles in the construction of movement identity. Activists understand social reform as requiring competencies in a wide range of cultural and political venues. Focusing on specific forms of movement activity, or niches, organizations develop proficiencies that activists share as part of a collective effort in which each organization is seen as playing a necessary, but insufficient part. Rather than undermining a unified movement i...