scholarly journals Advances in social movement theory since the global financial crisis

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 376-390 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugene Nulman ◽  
Raphael Schlembach
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Levels Of Analysis ◽  
Occupy Movement ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis

The social movement literature in Western Europe and North America has oriented much of its theoretical work towards micro-, meso-, and macro-level examinations of its subject of study but has rarely integrated these levels of analysis. This review article broadly documents the leading theoretical perspectives on social movements, while highlighting the contributions made in recent years with regard to the wave of protests across the globe – typified by the Occupy Movement and the ‘Arab Spring’ – and grievances that are relatively novel in qualitative or quantitative form such as austerity, precarity, and a sense of democratic deficiency. While these novel social processes have invigorated the specialized arena of ‘social movement studies’ and generated a resurgence of work on social movements beyond the field, this article argues for the need to interconnect levels of analysis in order to develop a more insightful account of contemporary contentious politics.

Taiwan's State and Social Movements Under the DPP Government, 2000–2004

2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 401-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ming-sho Ho
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Economic Recession ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
Democratic Progressive Party ◽  
Opportunity Structure ◽  
Conservative Policy ◽  
Movement Strategy ◽  
Progressive Party

This article explores the evolution of social movement politics under the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government (2000–2004) by using the perspective of political opportunity structure. Recent “contentious politics” in Taiwan is analyzed in terms of four changing dimensions of the opportunity structure. First, the DPP government opens some policy channels, and social movement activists are given chances to work within the institution. Yet other features of the political landscape are less favorable to movement activists. Incumbent elites' political orientation shifts. As the economic recession sets in, there is a conservative policy turn. Political instability incurs widespread countermoblization to limit reform. Last, the Pan-Blue camp, now in opposition, devises its own social movement strategy. Some social movement issues gain political salience as a consequence of the intervention of the opposition parties, but its excessive opportunism also encourages the revolt of antireform forces. As a result of these countervailing factors, social movements have made only limited gains from the recent turnover of power.

The aestheticization of restraint: The popular appeal of de-cluttering after the global financial crisis

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 513-531 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susie Khamis
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Discussion Groups ◽  
Occupy Wall Street ◽  
Wall Street ◽  
Occupy Movement ◽  
Video Tutorials ◽  
Popular Appeal ◽  
Liberal Economy ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis

The concept of consumer restraint has had a popular makeover. This is seen in the worldwide popularity of books, video tutorials and online discussion groups devoted to de-cluttering, and specifically the stunning success of professional organizer Marie Kondo and her best-selling book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying. De-cluttering sits on a broad continuum of alternative consumption that champions the benefits of consumer restraint, on multiple fronts: economic, environmental, psychological, and so on. Through Kondo, this is framed in positive, uplifting ways. This is distinct from the more critical, nuanced, or anti-consumerist rhetoric associated with more subversive advocates of alternative consumption, such as voluntary simplifiers or Occupy Wall Street. That said, just as the Occupy movement channeled growing frustration with how the reigning tenets of capitalist culture had shackled and misled the “99%,” de-cluttering finds cultural traction in the midst and wake of the Global Financial Crisis. Unlike Occupy though, Kondo’s appeal rests less on the logic and language of political economy than the more emotive vernacular of pop psychology. In this way, de-cluttering positions restraint as reflective of a highly developed and sophisticated sensibility, whereby individuals “own” their consumption choices and in turn craft carefully curated spaces. Therein lies the aestheticization of restraint: freed of any negative connotations (dour, miserly or miserable), the de-cluttered subject is autonomous, self-aware, and chic. Crucially, it also pivots on the slippery assumptions of the (new) neo liberal economy, which requires individuals to be agile, creative, and empowered.

scholarly journals THE RISE OF INEQUALITY: HOW SOCIAL MOVEMENTS SHAPE DISCURSIVE FIELDS*

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 413-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Gaby ◽  
Neal Caren
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Limited Attention ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Wall Street ◽  
Term Outcome ◽  
Long Term Outcome ◽  
Occupy Movement ◽  
Movement Organizations

Social movement scholars have considered several political and cultural consequences of social movements, but have paid limited attention to whether and how social movements shape discourse. We develop a theory of discursive eruption, referring to the ability of radical movements to initially ignite media coverage but not control the content once other actors— particularly those that can take advantage of journalistic norms—enter the discourse. We hold that one long-term outcome of radical social movements is the ability to alter discursive fields through mechanisms such as increasing the salience and content of movement-based issues. We examine the way movements shape discourse by focusing on newspaper articles about inequality before, during, and after the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement. We analyze changes in the salience and content of coverage as well as shifts in actor standing and influence. Using 7,024 articles from eight newspapers, we find that the OWS movement increased media attention to inequality, shifting the focus of the discourse toward movement-based issue areas (e.g., the middle class and minimum wage). Further, we find that compared to the pre-OWS period, the influence of social movement organizations and think tanks rose in discourse on inequality. In addition, the discourse on inequality became more highly politicized as a result of the Occupy movement. These findings highlight the importance of social movements in shaping discourse and indicate that social movement scholars should further consider discursive changes as a consequence of social movements.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ngok Ma ◽  
Edmund W. Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Student Movements ◽  
Hybrid Regimes ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Civil Resistance ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Hybrid Regime

Analysis of the 2014 Umbrella Movement speaks to three strands of academic literature: contentious politics and space, hybrid regimes and democratization, and social movements in China and Hong Kong. Based mostly on fieldwork conducted during the occupation, this book brings together 14 experts who studied the Umbrella Movement from different theoretical perspectives with different methodologies. The studies in the book analyze the occupation as a spontaneous and emotional contentious action, which made good use of public space and creative passion. They also show how civil resistance was shaped and constrained by the hybrid regime and situate the Hong Kong movement in a broader comparative perspective in reference to past student movements in China and protests in Taiwan and Macau.

Part IV Market Institutions And International Capital Markets, 12 Intermediaries—From Handmaiden to New Market

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordan Cally
Keyword(s):  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Capital Markets ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Multiple Roles ◽  
Market Institutions ◽  
International Capital Markets ◽  
Rapid Changes ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis

This chapter studies the roles of intermediaries. As exchanges developed in Western Europe and the colonies, they spun out a widening web of intermediaries participating in the process of trading financial products. In the lead up to the global financial crisis, the roles assumed by intermediaries, and their sources of revenue, had mutated over time. Intermediaries became issuers and capital raisers in their own right. Originally handmaidens to the exchanges, intermediaries created a new, free floating, trading world. In this new trading world, the potential conflicts of interest inherent in agency relationships have been exacerbated by the multiple roles intermediaries have assumed. Further intensifying the stresses on market relationships have been the rapid changes in trading practices now permitted by technology and the internationalization of the capital markets. Lastly, over ten years after the global financial crisis, regulatory responses continue to play out, as markets and intermediaries jockey and adjust to the new rules.

scholarly journals Genocide as Contentious Politics

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aliza Luft
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Social Movement Theory ◽  
Final Version ◽  
Movement Theory ◽  
History Of ◽  
Convergence And Divergence

Preprint, final version in Sociology Compass available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/soc4.12304/fullDespite a recent turn towards the study of political violence within the field of contentious politics, scholars have yet to focus their lens on genocide. This is puzzling, as the field of collective action and social movements was originally developed in reaction to fascism (Nazism in particular), while research on collective action and research on genocide has long shown parallel findings and shared insights. This paper reviews the history of this scholarly convergence and divergence, and suggests that recent findings of research on genocide can be improved by the consideration of concepts from social movements and collective action. It then details three theories of the micro-mechanisms that mobilize individuals for contention – framing, diffusion, and networks – and specifies how they refine existing explanations of civilian participation in genocide. In the conclusion, I suggest that a contentious politics approach to genocide would consider it one form of collective action among others, analyzable within the existing framework of collective action and social movement theory.

Contentious Politics and Social Movements

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sidney Tarrow ◽  
Charles Tilly
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Many

This article discusses contentious politics and social movements, specifically during the Philippines' turmoil of January 2001. It first defines ‘contentious politics’, and then relates it to social movement. It identifies the many ways of studying the dynamics of contention and ends with a study of democracy, violence, and several questions of the future of social movements.

The power of violins and rose petals: The Eurovision Song Contest as an arena of European crisis

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 448-469
Author(s):  
Marcus Pyka
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Rhetorical Strategy ◽  
Music Competition ◽  
Video Recordings ◽  
Eurovision Song Contest ◽  
Objective State ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis

This paper explores the interconnection between European crises and the Eurovision Song Contest, the largest non-sports-related TV show on earth, which has run as an annual music competition of European countries since 1956. The paper explores the development of the actual show, based on existing audio and video recordings, as well as selected aspects of the respective media coverage. Special focus is paid to the creation of the contest in a post-catastrophic Europe, specifically the first show in Lugano in 1956; the apparent decline of the show’s appeal in Western Europe in the 1980s and 1990s; and finally the contest held in Moscow in 2009, when the global financial crisis had just reached Europe. This research shows that ‘crisis’ is less an objective state, but rather a rhetorical strategy to communicate one’s perceptions of the time, illuminating the significance of the Eurovision Song Contest as an arena for European affairs.

scholarly journals Beyond contention: urban social movements and their multiple approaches to secure transformation

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 557-574 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Mitlin
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Global South ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Alternative Strategies ◽  
Urban Social Movements ◽  
Poverty And Inequality ◽  
Movement Organizations

This paper explores the strategies of social movement organizations working in towns and cities of the global South to secure justice for their members and address poverty and inequality. The paper argues that there has been a false distinction between alternative strategies of resistance. Drawing on research in Kenya and South Africa, I argue that, rather than seeing strategies of contention, collaboration and subversion as separate approaches, they can best be understood as alternative strategies, adopted simultaneously and iteratively by urban social movements. Movements, I suggest, move among contentious politics, efforts at collaboration with the state, and subversion (often taking the form of encroachment), to address the survival imperatives of their members.

Toward a Militant Ethnography of Infrastructure: Cybercartographies of Order, Scale, and Scope across the Occupy Movement

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 482-509
Author(s):  
Joan Donovan
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Organizational Change ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Occupy Movement ◽  
Academic Knowledge ◽  
Infrastructure Studies

Taking networked social movements as a fieldsite, I chart how the Occupy Movement transformed as activists turned to building infrastructure as a mode of political participation. Critically, infrastructure is not simply a feature of networked social movements, but forms its core capacities. Integrating insights from militant ethnography with STS research on infrastructure studies, I illustrate how to use these methods to render visible the infrastructure of networked social movements. Because militant research projects and STS scholarship have a dual role of making knowledge about as well as knowledge for participants, examining the epistemological foundations of social movement research requires understanding the researcher’s purpose for participating and, then, operationalizing their knowledge. To illustrate this, I introduce cybercartography, a theory/methods package, for mapping organizational change in order, scale, and scope across networked social movements. As such, cybercartography bridges academic knowledge production with activists’ goals to organize action.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document