Social movement

About: Social movement is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 23103 publications have been published within this topic receiving 653076 citations. The topic is also known as: movement & syndical movement.

The Chiapas Rebellion: The Struggle for Land and Democracy

Abstract: In 1994 the Zapatista rebellion brought international attention to the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. Neil Harvey combines ten years of field work in Chiapas with extensive historical and political research to provide a comprehensive history of conflict in this region and a nuanced analysis of this rural uprising against federal bureaucracy and landed elites. Beginning with an exploration of the history of ethnic and class conflict in Chiapas since the Conquest, Harvey moves specifically to trace the development of peasant and indigenous organizations in Chiapas since the early 1970s. He compares the struggles for agrarian rights of three grassroots movements facing hostility from both local elites and federal bureaucrats. His examination of the complexities of political change in Chiapas includes the impact of neoliberal economic policies, the origins of the Zapatista army of National Liberation (EZLN), and the political impact of the rebellion itself. Engaging with current theoretical debates on the role and significance of social movements in Mexico and Latin America, Harvey focuses on the primacy of political struggle and on the importance of these movements in the construction and meaning of citizenship. While suggesting that the Zapatista revolution has heightened awareness among the people of Chiapas of such democratic issues as ethnicity, gender, and land distribution, he concludes with an analysis of the obstacles to peace in the region today. This unprecedented study of the Zapatista rebellion will provoke discussion among students and scholars of contemporary Mexico, political science, Latin American studies, history, sociology, and anthropology.

The Cross-National Diffusion of Movement Ideas:

Abstract: Current theory and research on social movements continue to treat these movements as discrete entities, rather than to focus on the ways in which activists in one struggle borrow elements from other similar groups. With its emphasis on the spread of information or other cultural elements, the diffusion literature represents a potentially fruitful starting point for theorizing about the transfer of ideas or tactics from one movement to another. Drawing on this literature, the authors sketch a model of the cross-national diffusion of movement ideas that emphasizes (1) the role of direct relational ties in encouraging an initial identification of activist-adopters in one country with activist-transmitters in another and (2) the role of nonrelational channels as the principal means of information transmission once this initial identification is established. The authors then use the case of the American and German New Left to illustrate the utility of the approach for the study of cross-national diffusion.

Religion and Globalization

Abstract: Introduction Religion in Global Society PART ONE: THEORY AND CONCEPTS Four Approaches to Globalization Socio-cultural Particularism in a Global Society Systemic Religion in Global Society Religion and Social Movements in Global Society PART TWO: CASE STUDIES: Religion in Global Society: Five Contemporary Cases The New Christian Right in the United States The Liberation Theological Movement in Latin America The Islamic Revolution in Iran Religious Zionism in Israel Religious Environmentalism Conclusion

Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements: Culture, ideology, and strategic framing

Abstract: The recent focus on the strategic framing of injustice and grievances, their causes, motivations, and associated templates for collective action, has served to reemphasize the central importance of ideas and cultural elements in understanding the mobilization of participation in social movements and the framing of political opportunity. While conceiving of culture and framing as strategically produced represents a substantial break with past conceptions of ideas in movements, which tended to emphasize their embeddedness in community and as crescively emergent, still the notion of strategic framing is quite vague in terms of its constituent elements and general processes. This introduction to Part III focuses first on the larger evolution of the analysis of ideas and culture in academic scholarship and as it was entailed (or not) in the study of social movements. Recent decades have seen the emergence of modes of analysis of culture, of frames and scripts, of rhetoric and dramaturgy, and of cultural repertoires and tool kits that substantially enhance our ability to analyze the role of culture, ideology, and frames in social movements. The literature on culture and framing in social movements has been somewhat amorphous. I sketch six basic topics in the interplay of movements, framing, and the larger society. First, I discuss the cultural construction of repertoires of contention and frames . Second, since framing takes place in the context of larger societal processes, I discuss the contribution of cultural contradictions and historical events in providing opportunities for framing.