Mobilized collective identity

In this article the relation between identity and political action is analysed. As an alternative to collective identity and politicized collective identity, which have been often used to explain political action, a new type of identity called mobilized collective identity is put forward. In the construction of this identity, group identification plays in many cases a more significant role than does instrumentality. As a result there emerges a new type of rationality, which goes beyond consequentialist logic and is based on the subject's moral principles as well as on his/her commitment to the group.