Individuals protest to raise a moral voice (Jasper 1997). But how do they sustain their activism? This paper puts forward that individuals protest because they constructed and continue to reinforce a specific worldview through social interactions. This worldview resembles Barber’s idea (1984) of a strong citizen articulating a specific relation to society and politics. Alongside of collective action frames, social networks and biographical availabilities, activists construct a specific understanding of the world through protest participation. We mobilize survey data and life histories of activists mobilized in three different protest fields: The defense of migrant’s rights, the defense of minorities’ and indigenous peoples’ rights and political ecology. These data allow us to answer three specific questions: First, are activists’ worldviews specific with regard to the general population? Second, what is the content of this specific worldview; does it resemble Barber’s idea of a strong citizen? Third, do these cognitive resources vary between different types of activists? Are active members stronger citizens than sympathizers? Are activists, engaged in more challenging contentions, stronger citizens than activists of mainstream protests? Through such a detailed mapping and comparison of activists’ worldviews we intend to better understand how meaning construction contributes to sustain activism.
