Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Most social theorists agree that this mode of collective action involves a specific type of socially conflictual relationship. The classical type is the workers' movement that marked nineteenth- and early twentieth-century industrial society. More recently, in the 1960s, most Western countries experienced important social movements, such as the S tudent movement , civil rights movements and peace movements, while in Third World countries, national liberation movements emerged. During the 1970s and early 1980s a multitude of social movements proliferated throughout North America and Europe – women's, ecological, antinuclear and peace movements, and movements for regional autonomy. Elsewhere, fundamentalist movements arose, emphasizing cultural specificity. China, in 1989, experienced a democratization movement which was suppressed; and in Eastern Europe popular movements overthrew the communist regimes. Many social movements challenge institutional structures, ways of life and thinking, norms and moral codes. In fact, social movements are closely linked to social change, and several features of contemporary societies are likely consequences of the actions of social movements. From a theoretical point of view, too, social movements stand in the centre of social scientific discussion. Herbert Blumer (1939) claimed early on that collective behaviour and social movements are core concepts ... log in or subscribe to read full text