Social Movements and Collective Identities in Periods of Crisis

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aphrodite Baka ◽  
Anastasia Garyfallou
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Collective Identities

The Concept of Social Movement

1992 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Diani
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Specific Area ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
Cultural Conflicts ◽  
New Synthesis ◽  
Recent Developments

Recent developments in social movement research have evidenced a greater underlying consensus in the field than one might have assumed. Efforts have been made to bridge different perspectives and merge them into a new synthesis. Yet, comparative discussion of the concept of ‘social movement’ has been largely neglected so far. This article reviews and contrasts systematically the definitions of ‘social movement’ formulated by some of the most influential authors in the field. A substantial convergence may be detected between otherwise very different approaches on three points at least. Social movements are defined as networks of informal interactions between a plurality of individuals, groups and/or organizations, engaged in political or cultural conflicts, on the basis of shared collective identities. It is argued that the concept is sharp enough a) to differentiate social movements from related concepts such as interest groups, political parties, protest events and coalitions; b) to identify a specific area of investigation and theorising for social movement research.

scholarly journals Serpica Naro and the Others. The Media Sociali Experience in Italian Struggles Against Precarity

2008 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Mattoni
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Political Socialization ◽  
Mutual Recognition ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
Symbolic Resources ◽  
The Media ◽  
Data Source ◽  
Work Insecurity

Social movements are also producers of symbolic resources, since they construct new collective identities and provide alternative system of meanings to societies. This was particularly significant with regard to recent struggles against work insecurity in Italy. There, in a discursive context dominated by the so-called ‘flexibility political mantra’, activists raised their voice in order to identify a novel social problem, precarity, and a novel social subject, precarious workers. The paper starts from these premises in order to investigate the so-called media sociali, a particular kind of media practice that had been developed by Italian activists involved in the long protest campaign against precarity, namely the Euro Mayday Parade (EMP). Probably, the media sociali are the most evident attempt to construct a fresh imagery based on precarious workers living and working conditions and to provide an alternative cultural grammar able to speak about precarity. The paper gives back the most important mechanism on which the media sociali rests through the living voices of activists involved in their elaboration: the mechanism of political socialization and social networking as well as the mechanism of diffusion and mutual recognition. Moreover, the paper proposes further reflections about the way in which those activists involved in the EMP perceived the media sociali. In doing so, the paper presents different ways of interpreting political conflict in contemporary Italian social movements and argues that the media sociali are an interesting attempt to overcome both mainstream and independent media in the construction of precarious workers’ imagery and political socialization. Interviews with activists and social movement generated documents are the main data source, investigated according to a qualitative analysis approach.

scholarly journals Terras tradicionalmente ocupadas: processos de territorialização e movimentos sociais

2004 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfredo Wagner Berno de Almeida
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Amazon Region ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
Mutual Help ◽  
Self Defense ◽  
Brazilian Amazon Region ◽  
Domestic Group ◽  
And Gender ◽  
National Constitution

O texto analisa a relação entre o surgimento, na Amazônia, de movimentos sociais que incorporam fatores étnicos, critérios ecológicos e de gênero na autodefinição coletiva e os processos de territorialização que lhes são correspondentes. Ênfase é atribuída às denominadas “terras tradicionalmente ocupadas”, que expressam uma diversidade de formas de existência coletiva de diferentes povos e grupos sociais em suas relações com os recursos da natureza. Não obstante suas diferentes formações históricas, elas foram instituídas no texto constitucional de 1988 e reafirmadas nos dispositivos infraconstitucionais, como constituições estaduais, legislações municipais e convênios internacionais. Em termos analíticos tais formas designam situações nas quais o controle dos recursos básicos não é exercido livre e individualmente por um determinado grupo doméstico de pequenos produtores diretos ou por um de seus membros. A territorialidade funciona como fator de identificação, defesa e força: laços solidários e de ajuda mútua informam um conjunto de regras firmadas sobre uma base física considerada comum, essencial e inalienável, não obstante disposições sucessórias porventura existentes. Aí a noção de “tradicional” não se reduz à história e incorpora as identidades coletivas redefinidas situacionalmente numa mobilização continuada, assinalando que as unidades sociais em jogo podem ser interpretadas como unidades de mobilização.Palavras-chave: Amazônia; movimentos sociais; territorialidade. Abstract: The article analyzes the relation between the rise, in the Brazilian Amazon region, of social movements that incorporate ethnical, ecological and gender criteria in its self-definition as well as its correspondent territorialization processes. Focus is put on the “traditionally occupied lands” that express diversified forms of collective existence of people and social groups in its relation to natural resources. Despite its different historical formation, these forms has been institutionalized in the 1988 national Constitution as well as in infra-constitutional legal instruments. In analytical terms, these forms indicate situations in which the control over resources is not exercised freely and individually by some domestic group of direct little producers or one of its members. The territoriality operates as a factor of identification, self-defense and strength: solidarity linkages and mutual help practices nourish the creation of a set of rules based on a common physical terrain, seen as essential and inalienable. The notion of traditional is here not reduced to history, but incorporates collective identities defined in a continuous mobilization through social figures interpreted as mobilizing unities.Keywords: Amazon region; social movements; territoriality.

To Map Contentious Politics

1996 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doug McAdam ◽  
Sidney Tarrow ◽  
Charles Tilly
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
Institutional Politics ◽  
Cycles Of Protest

Different forms of contentious politics such as social movements, revolutions, ethnic mobilizations, and cycles of protest share a number of causal properties, but disciplinary fragmentation has obscured their similarities. Recent work and this new journal provide opportunities for comparison and synthesis. A network of researchers is undertaking a broad survey of contentious politics in hopes of producing an intelligible map of the field, a synthesis of recent inquiries, a specification of scope conditions for the validity of available theories, and an exploration of worldwide changes in the character of contention. Discussions of 1) social movements, cycles, and revolutions, 2) collective identities and social networks, 3) social movements and institutional politics, 4) globalization and transnational contention illustrate the promise and perils of the enterprise.

Social Movements

2020 ◽  
pp. 365-365
Author(s):  
Marilena Simiti
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
Social Protest ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
Future Challenges ◽  
Recent Financial Crisis

Greece has a sustained political tradition of social movement activity. From the restoration of democracy in 1974 to the recent financial crisis Greece has experienced numerous episodes of collective action, ranging from peaceful demonstrations to violent protests. This chapter delineates the trajectory of major social movements (the student, feminist, ecological, alter-globalization movements, the anti-austerity protests, the Greek Indignados as well as the urban disruption of December 2008) underlining that social protest has not been pacified in contemporary Greek society. Even though protest is a normal and ubiquitous aspect of political life, social movement activists have not retreated from the use of confrontational protest, nor has political conflict become more institutionalized. On the other hand, the Greek social movement sector has also witnessed significant long-term shifts since 1974, including the diminishing influence of political parties on movements, the transnationalization of contention, and the increased heterogeneity and fluidity of collective identities, as well as the proliferation of non-state-centric forms of political activism. The chapter concludes with some reflections on future challenges for social movement studies in Greece.

Identity and Its Transformative Dynamics in Knowledge Era: Some Critical Reflections

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debal K. SinghaRoy
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Knowledge Society ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Industrial Society ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
The One

Collective identities of people have remained largely transitional despite largely remaining rooted in certain inherited essentialities. The essential dynamics of identity often get negotiated with various forces and processes like those of the economic transformation, technological reorientation, collective mobilisation, modernisation, colonisation, globalisation, penetration of information and communication technologies (ICTs), mass and social media among others. The contemporary society is marked by the fast transformation of its economic order from agriculture and industry to knowledge/information-driven post-industrial society, fast transference of information, images, ideas, services, goods and people across spaces and the borderless expansion of ICTs. These have paved the way for the emergence of a new social order which has been widely described as the knowledge society. Within this emerging economic, social and technological order, new varieties of social interaction and solidarities are constructed from within the pre-existing varieties causing a good deal of fluidity of collective identities on the one hand and their consolidation on the other. Thus, with fast social transformation and increasing interconnectivity and mobility of people across the globe on the one hand and consolidation of new forms of social collectivities on the other, the contours of contraction and configuration of identities have undergone phenomenal change. Against such a backdrop, this article is an attempt to develop an understanding of the nuances of identity: its essence, construction, transformation and configuration within the broad processes of social transition. This article is arranged in five sections. The Dynamics of Identity section deals with the dynamics of identity. In the Social Movements. Modernity, Colonisation, Globalisation and Identity: Changing Facets of Fluidity and Solidarity section, the processes of construction and reconfiguration of identity in the context of social movements, modernity, colonisation and globalisation are discussed. The key dimensions of the emergence of knowledge society are explained in the Emerging Knowledge Society and its Key Dynamics section. In the Solidarity and Fluidity in Identity: The Emerging Facets section, the emerging facets of solidarity and fluidity of identity are elucidated. Finally, the Conclusion section makes the concluding arguments.

The doors that culture opened: Parallels between social movement studies and social psychology

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 285-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
James M. Jasper
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
Strategic Choices ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
The Doors

During the last 30 years the study of social movements has changed dramatically, under the recognition of how important cultural meanings are to collective action and outcomes. Social movement studies has rediscovered a number of microlevel cultural mechanisms that have enriched our understanding of protest and social movements, bringing some subjective elements to a field that for a generation had been highly structural. These include the collective identities of political players, the dynamics of gender, the role of emotions, strategic choices, and the influence of leaders. In much of this work, sociologists and political scientists in social movement studies have worked in parallel to social psychologists, and there has been insufficient dialogue between the two traditions.

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