Download or read book Social Movements and Democracy in the 21st Century written by Dylan Taylor and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-01-16 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book contends that the impasse of the Left today is in part, a result of an anarchist ‘common sense’ among activists. The author argues that the vital dynamics of anarchism and social movements need to be combined with a reappraisal of the Communist party and state. While cynicism towards capitalism and existing political institutions is plentiful, this book argues that the Left appears mired in a reactive politics of resistance, unable to formulate programmes for substantive social change. Drawing insights from the history of the Left, political economy, contemporary critical theory and an in-depth study of Occupy, the author provides concrete suggestions as to how the Left might ‘claim the twenty-first century’ and realise a more equitable social order. Social Movements and Democracy in the 21st Century challenges activists and scholars to rethink social movements and political organisation, and to actively work towards enduring social change. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of social movement studies, Left theory, critical theory, political sociology and Marxism, as well as anyone with an interest in ‘political change’.

Download or read book Latin American Social Movements in the Twenty first Century written by Richard Stahler-Sholk and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2008 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This clearly written and comprehensive text examines the uprising of politically and economically marginalized groups in Latin American societies. Specialists in a broad range of disciplines present original research from a variety of case studies in a student-friendly format. Part introductions help students contextualize the essays, highlighting social movement origins, strategies, and outcomes. Thematic sections address historical context, political economy, community-building and consciousness, ethnicity and race, gender, movement strategies, and transnational organizing, making this book useful to anyone studying the wide range of social movements in Latin America.

Download or read book Waves of Democracy written by John Markoff and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-11-17 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second edition of this classic text covers contemporary democracy movements including the Arab Spring and its aftermath, Occupy, and new nations as well as old issues from the Balkans to Africa, from Latin America to Ukraine. The author has traveled widely around the world to take the pulse of transition and to profile journeys toward democracy and journeys away from democracy, too. At the same time, the book addresses important challenges that have emerged in even well-established democracies. These show up in declining voting rates, diminished membership in political parties, and, in some countries including the United States, negative views of central democratic institutions (like the US Congress).

Download or read book Doing Democracy written by Bill Moyer and published by New Society Publishers. This book was released on 2001-08-01 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An empowering guide to understanding the strategies behind successful social movements.

Download or read book The New Global Politics written by Harry E. Vanden and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-03-16 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past decade, there has been an unprecedented mobilization of street protests worldwide, from the demonstrations that helped bring progressive governments to power in Latin America, to the Arab Spring, to Occupy movements in the United States and Europe, to democracy protests in China. This edited volume investigates the current status, nature and dynamics of the new politics that characterizes social movements from around the world that are part of this revolutionary wave. Spanning case studies from Latin America, North and South Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and North America, this volume examines the varied manifestations of the current cycle of protest, which emerged from the Global South and spread to the North and highlights their interconnections – the globalized nature of these social movements. Analytically converging around Sidney Tarrow’s emphasis on protest cycles, political opportunity structures and identity, the individual chapters investigate processes such as global framing, internationalization, diffusion, scale shifts, externalizations and transnational coalition building to provide an analytic cartography of the current state of social movements as they are simultaneously globalizing while still being embedded in their respective localities. Looking at new ways of thinking and new forms of challenging power, this comprehensive volume will be of great interest to graduates and scholars in the fields of globalization, social movements and international politics.

Download or read book When We Fight We Win written by Greg Jobin-Leeds and published by New Press, The. This book was released on 2016-01-05 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Real stories of hard-fought battles for social change, told by those on the front lines—with clear lessons and tips for activists on gaining power from the ground up “As protests and demonstrations sprout across the land, young organizers and activists need to know why and how movements are sustained and how they grow. That resource has arrived.” —Mumia Abu-Jamal, author and activist In this visually rich and deeply inspiring book, the leaders of some of the most successful movements of the past decade—from the legalization of same-sex marriage to the Black Lives Matter movement—distill their wisdom, sharing lessons of what makes transformative social change possible. Longtime social activist Greg Jobin-Leeds joins forces with AgitArte, a collective of artists and organizers, to capture the stories, philosophy, tactics, and art of today’s leading social movements. When We Fight, We Win! weaves together interviews with today’s most successful activists and artists from across the country and beyond—including Patrisse Cullors, Bill McKibben, Clayton Thomas-Muller, Karen Lewis, Favianna Rodriguez, Rea Carey, and Gaby Pacheco, among others—with narrative recountings of their inspiring strategies and campaigns alongside full-color photos. It includes a foreword by Rinku Sen and an afterword by Antonia Darder. The recent nationwide explosion of protests has shown the power the people have when we join together with a common goal and compelling message. When We Fight, We Win! will give a whole generation of readers the road map to building resilient movements that can achieve real social justice.

Download or read book Social Movements in a Globalized World written by Cristina Flesher Fominaya and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-03-03 with total page 438 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the world experiences social unrest, polarization, and faces complex challenges, citizens are taking to the squares and streets to demand change. From climate change protests to far-right extremism, social movements are mobilizing around the key social and political issues of our times. In this extensively revised and updated book, the author offers a cutting-edge and original analysis to generate new insights into 21st Century social movements in a globalized world. Written in clear and accessible language, this book will appeal to both students new to the field and established scholars. Drawing on a wealth of examples from around the world, from Anonymous and Occupy Wall Street to Wikileaks, the Tea Party, and the Zapatistas, it develops a compelling framework with which to understand the important role movements play in contemporary politics. This expanded and revised second edition includes a comprehensive overview of social movement theory, a new chapter on “Movements on the Right”, a wider discussion of Information and Communication Technologies and Media - including new sections on “hacktivism” and “leaktivism” -and up-to-date case studies and references.

Download or read book The Social Movement Society written by David S. Meyer and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 1998 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scholars consider ways in which the social movement has changed as a politics and how it changes the societies in which it occurs. This volume contains revealing perspectives on the effectiveness of social protest.

Download or read book The Death of Social Democracy written by Ashley Lavelle and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-09 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Whereas many writers and scholars interested in the field of social democracy have focused on factors such as the role of economic globalization and electoral pressures, Ashley Lavelle explores the importance of the collapse of the post-war economic boom and lower growth rates since then. He examines how these pressures have led social democrats to embrace neo-liberal policies and become threatened by minor parties and independent politicians. Providing an original argument about the decline of social democracy, the author investigates how its decline has increased the popularity of minor parties and independents, along with the reasons for social democratic membership and electoral decline. This is an important book for scholars of social democracy and the broader themes of world politics, political parties, social movements and globalization.

Download or read book Freedom Is an Endless Meeting written by Francesca Polletta and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2012-06-12 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This “excellent study of activist politics in the United States over the past century” challenges the conventional wisdom about participatory democracy (Times Literary Supplement). Freedom Is an Endless Meeting offers vivid portraits of American experiments in participatory democracy throughout the twentieth century. Drawing on meticulous research and more than one hundred interviews with activists, Francesca Polletta upends the notion that participatory democracy is worthy in purpose but unworkable in practice. Instead, she shows that social movements have often used bottom-up decision making as a powerful tool for political change. Polletta traces the history of democracy from early labor struggles and pre-World War II pacifism, through the civil rights, new left, and women’s liberation movements of the sixties and seventies, and into today’s faith-based organizing and anti-corporate globalization campaigns. In the process, she uncovers neglected sources of democratic inspiration—such as Depression-era labor educators and Mississippi voting registration workers—as well as practical strategies of social protest. Polletta also highlights the obstacles that arise when activists model their democracies after nonpolitical relationships such as friendship, tutelage, and religious fellowship. She concludes with a call to forge new kinds of democratic relationships that balance trust with accountability, respect with openness to disagreement, and caring with inclusiveness. For anyone concerned about the prospects for democracy in America, Freedom Is an Endless Meeting will offer abundant historical, theoretical, and practical insights.

Download or read book Waves of Social Movement Mobilizations in the Twenty First Century written by Nahide Konak and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2015-02-26 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on case studies, this book analyzes a recent wave of social movement and protests in the twenty-first century. It has two overarching broadly defined themes: first, to identify commonalities across the social movements and protests in terms of strategies, desire, hopes as well as the main factors in the decline of the movements. And second, to underline the significance of the general economic, social, and political conditions in which these protests arose. Although there are specific national and local context-specific reasons for the protests observed in different countries, the gradual integration of the post-war neo-liberal hegemonic world order is the fundamental overarching structural factor behind these protests. From Turkey to Spain, Greece to Mexico, and the Netherlands to the U.S., this book observes that the “outsiders” of the system resist against the oppression of the neo-liberal world system.

Download or read book Social Democracy in the 21st Century written by Nik Brandal and published by Emerald Group Publishing. This book was released on 2021-01-29 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Social democracy is in a process of change as a number of developments challenge its organizational, ideational and electoral basis. This book elaborates on how social democracy should be understood under these changing circumstances, how social democratic parties have responded and what future trajectories await.

Download or read book Democracy Dialectics and Difference written by Brian C. Lovato and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-12-07 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It has been nearly two centuries since Marx famously turned Hegel on his head in order to repurpose dialectics as a revolutionary way of thinking about the internal contradictions of our social relations. Despite critiques from post-structuralists, post-colonialists, and others, there has been a resurgence of dialectical thought among political theorists as of late. This resurgence has coincided with a rise in the mention of words like class warfare, socialism, and communism among the general public on the streets of Seattle in 1999, in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, in the actions of the Greek anarchists and the Spanish indignados, and in the rallying cry of "we are the 99%" of the Occupy Movement, and in academia. This book explores how it is that dialectical thought might respond to the critiques brought forth by those on the left who are critical of Marxism’s universalizing and authoritarian legacy. Brian C. Lovato singles out Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe as the key interlocutors in this ongoing conversation between Marxism and post-structuralism. Laclau and Mouffe argue that Marxist theory is inherently authoritarian, cannot escape a class-reductionist theory of revolutionary subjectivity, and is bound by a closed Hegelian ontology. Lovato argues the opposite by turning to two heterodox Marxist thinkers, Raya Dunayevskaya and C. L. R. James, in order to construct a radically democratic, dynamic, and open conceptualization of dialectical thought. In doing so, he advances a vision of Marxist theory that might serve as a resource to scholars and activists committed not only to combatting capitalism, but also to fighting against colonialism, patriarchy, white supremacy, and heteronormativity. The writings of Dunayevskaya and James allow for Marxism to become relevant again in these tumultuous early years of the 21st century.

Download or read book Performing Citizenship written by Inbal Ofer and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-12-07 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, Tamar Groves and Inbal Ofer explore the effects of social movements' activism on the changing practices and conceptions of citizenship. Presenting empirically rich case studies from Latin America, Asia and Europe, leading experts analyze the ways in which the shifting balance of power between nation-state, economy and civil society over the past half century affected social movements in their choice of addressees and repertoires of action. Divided into two parts, the first part focuses on citizenship as a form of political and cultural participation. The three case studies that make up this section look into the ways in which social movements' activism prompted a critical re-evaluation of two central questions: Who can be considered a citizen? And what forms of political and cultural participation effectively enable citizens to exercise their rights? The second section focuses on citizenship as a form of community building. The three case studies that are included in this section address the ways in which activism fosters new forms of advocacy and communication, leading to the emergence of new communities and assigning qualities of fraternity to the status of citizenship. Throughout most of the 20th century social movements' literature focused on the challenges these entities posed to the state, since it was the state that had the capacity and willingness to grant social and economic concessions. This situation started to shift in the late 1960s. By the 1980s the existing configuration between the state, civil society and the economy was increasingly challenged by market penetration. Accordingly, we witness a proliferation of social movements that no longer target state institutions, or do so only partially. Their repertoires of action interact continuously with everyday practices, re-shaping demands within specific organizational, legislative and political contexts. As a result, such activism expands the understanding of the concept of citizenship so as to include demands relating to livelihood; division of resources; the production and dissemination of knowledge; and forms of civic participation and solidarity. Written for scholars who study social movements, citizenship and the relationship between the state and civil society over the past half century, this book provides a fresh insight on the nature of citizenship; increasingly framing the condition of being a citizen in terms of performance and on-going practices, rather than simply in relation to the attainment of a formal status.

Download or read book Nationalism Social Movements and Activism in Contemporary Society Emerging Research and Opportunities written by Stacey, Emily and published by IGI Global. This book was released on 2018-03-02 with total page 135 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nationalist movements have become a force in contemporary American politics regardless of the political party. As social issues plague America, civilian participation in activism is experiencing a resurgence. Nationalism, Social Movements, and Activism in Contemporary Society: Emerging Research and Opportunities provides vital information on the most current issues facing the American public and political system while also exploring nationalist ideology and its application in modern politics. While highlighting the challenges facing America’s democracy and social structure, this book explores how civilians and movements are working to make progress in the current political climate. This book is an important resource for researchers, activists, political scientists, journalists, professors, students, and professionals seeking current research on nationalism, social activism, civilian protest, and the current American political climate.

Download or read book Waves of Democracy written by John Markoff and published by Pine Forge Press. This book was released on 1996-02-07 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Waves of Democracy looks at two centuries of history of democratization as a series of multicontinental episodes in which social movements and elite power holders in many countries converged to reorganize political systems. Democracy is defined and redefined in these episodes. John Markoff examines several ways in which governing elites of national states mimic each other and ways in which social movements and elites interact. There is no other book written for undergraduates that looks at democracy over such a broad sweep of time and across so many countries and cultures.

Download or read book State Sponsored Activism written by Jessica Rich and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-03-14 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through a study of AIDS policy, this book introduces a new model of state-society relations in democratic Brazil.