Kapwa and Cooperative Resistance

Kapwa, as a non-antagonistic worldview, also espouses pakikibaka (fusion in a common struggle) in the face of injustice and exploitation not as a form of pakikisama (adjusting) but as an affirmation of “one’s conviction as part of one’s being” (Enriquez, 1992).

In Western individualistic literature, Haslam (2001) explains social mobility and social change following on Tajfel’s (1978a) psychological and behavioral continua associated with the interpersonal-intergroup continuum. When the individual views the social system as flexible and permeable, they move between groups to maintain to improve or maintain their social standing. When the individual views the social system as inescapable, collective action is initiated to improve negative conditions or maintain positive ones. Catellani (in Semin & Fiedler, 1996) goes further by positing that involvement in collective action [for social change] boosts a group’s identity, but social identity generates collective action if it results from membership to a group that is oriented towards collective action and human relationships (Kelly & Kelly, 1994).

The Filipino culture may be considered as a group oriented towards collective action and human relationships under this assumption, but collective action for social change exists in the Filipino Filipino psyche in two levels- those that engage in collective action for being aktibista or activist (defined as resistance against a social issue or belief), and those that join collective actions for being mulat or having sufficient knowledge regarding the issues at hand (Almario, 2001). Interestingly, mulat is also associated with how an individual is brought up, implying that social knowledge building is essential in the enculturation of Filipinos.

Two studies on Filipino ingroup-outgroup identification elucidates the social identification process in Filipinos.

Huyong (1997) found that for intergroup movement to occur, at least in terms of religion, lower degree of identification with the old ingroup and/or a higher identification with the new ingroup or dissatisfaction with the old ingroup and/or satisfaction with the new ingroup are sufficient. This is consistent with the findings of Jaime (1974-75) with Filipino skilled migrants where identification with the US was found to be a good predictor of migration, and identification with the Philippines as a good predictor of returning home. Time was also found to be an important element in social identification processes (Huyong, 1997; Jaime, 1974-74; Marcelino, 1996).