Scorecards, not sit-ins: repertoires of alignment as rivals to contentious tactics in social movements

Abstract

Classic accounts of contentious repertoires explain change through disruption. This article introduces the concept, repertoires of alignment, to be understood as a distinct, complementary toolkit that wins by converting movement claims into targets’ imperatives. Using semi-structured interviews with 53 LGBT insider activists and their allies across 36 large U.S. employers, triangulated with Corporate Equality Index reports and policy documents, we map alignment tactics that convert LGBT workplace movement’s individual-level, institutional-level, political, cultural, and economic goals to corporate goals. We show how these repertoires routinize change through evaluation infrastructures rivaling the earlier accounts of contention. We propose a research agenda to extend repertoires of alignment to outsider activism and across other sectors while engaging with contentious repertoires to show how different tactical families are woven into institutional change.