Temporal Alignment During the Covid-19 Pandemic: The Emergence and Disruption of Collective Action

Although there has been substantial research on collective in crisis situations, there is a need for more knowledge on how temporal (mis-)alignment can influence the emergence, disruption and continuation of collective action. To study this question, we conducted 69 interviews to study the collective action between four organizations in the social care sector and their partners during the Covid-19 pandemic. We observed two temporal patterns: temporal alignment and temporal misalignment induced by the crisis. Existing collective action can break down during a crisis due to differences in temporal length and a disruption of joint pacing despite joint interest and a need for collaboration. This temporal misalignment can be repaired during the post urgency phase. In contrast, new collective action can arise during a crisis through temporal alignment, as urgency creates joint pacing and a joint understanding of short temporal length. This temporal alignment could lead to a breakdown during the post urgency phase. The theoretical implications of this study are twofold: first, it deepens our understanding of collective action in crisis situations by exploring the role of temporality for its emergence, disruption, and continuation. Second, the paper aims to expand our knowledge on temporality. It provides new understanding of the effect, interaction, and importance of ‘temporal length’ and ‘pacing’ for collective action in crisis. Keywords: Collective action, Temporality, Covid-19, Longitudinal, Crisis