Disrupting social movements. Ego-syntonies and accelerated socialisations in the Chilean youth

Abstract

This article presents the findings of a qualitative study, taking the proposal that social movements change individuals and societies. It develops two arguments to demonstrate the Chilean case. The first is that social movements break into young people’s everyday lives by changing the course of institutional political socialisation and the relationship activists have with politics. Second, social movements create the conditions for activists to live ego-syntonic experiences in which, momentarily, the tension between how activists perceive themselves, their desires and wishes, and the limitations that capitalist societies impose through different forms of domination, disappears. Finally, the conclusion shows that studying ego-syntonic experiences and accelerated socialisation allows us to understand cultural changes in citizenship.