The use of intersectional tactics by Tunisia’s multicultural movement to build social capital and sustain collective action: It is not what we say or think that defines us but what we do

Multicultural movements can pursue strategies, like utilizing intersectionality, to overcome collective action problems created by diversity. Scholarship has shown how intersectionality has inspired the creation of common ideological frames among marginalized groups who come to see their causes as intertwined, but such rhetoric is insufficient for sustaining collective action when social capital is lacking. This is relevant in contexts where activists have never collaborated such as a democratic transition. Activists need to see that others practice what they preach so that trust can develop across communal networks. Intersectionality, as I will demonstrate, also inspires social-movement tactics that target intersectional minorities as beneficiaries and encourages activists from different backgrounds to coordinate resources. This builds social capital by strengthening trust and reciprocity across social networks – thereby, sustaining collective action. To demonstrate this, I analysed collective action processes within Tunisia's multicultural movement after the revolution in 2010 by using historical process tracing and elite interviews. I show how a diverse movement representing women, racial minorities, migrants, and the LGBTQ community utilized intersectional tactics to build social capital and sustain collective action during a democratic transition.