Gerechtigkeit und Rationalität – Motive interessenpolitischer Aktivierung

Collective action, whether unionised or not, is usually not a mere result of structural inequalities but. It rather depends on the actual experience that the individual has of violations of the workers’ sense of justicejustice. Drawing on three empirical case studies of activation – in retail, in the IT sector and in public child care services – the article discusses different components of the workers’ sense of justicejustice and their impact on mobiliszation. In our case studies it is the assault on dignity, the violation of the meritocratic principle and the neglect of care responsibility which play the most significant roless infor activation. play the assault on dignity, the violation of the meritocratic principle and the neglect of care responsibility. However, our findings also show that the violation of workers’ ideas of rationality and functionality may also lead to discontent and protest. Regarding the evolvement of a broader social or political movement, conflicts involvingclaims for justicejustice tend towards stronger political generalisations than still are more promising, whereas activation based on the workers’ sense of rationality, which tends to remain within the limits of the particular conflicts at the firm level.