Economic Cycles And Social Movements

Economic Cycles and Social Movements: Past, Present and Future offers diverse perspectives on the complex interrelationship between social challenges and economic crises in the Modern World System. Written with a balance of quantitative, qualitative and theoretical contributions and insights, this volume provides a great opportunity to reflect upon the ongoing conceptual and empirical challenges when confronting the complex interrelations of various economic cycles and social movements. By engaging wide-ranging ideas and theoretical points of view from different disciplines, different countries and different perspectives, this study breaks new ground and offers novel insights into the way the capitalist world economy functions as well as the way social and political movements react to these constraints. Different chapters in this volume bring about novel interdisciplinary approaches to study business cycles, economic changes and social as well as political movements, offer new interpretations and, while examining the complexity of socioeconomic cycles in the long run, present epistemological challenges and a wide variety of empirical data that will increase our understanding of these complex interactions.

Traditionally, scholars have traced the origins and characteristics of social movements to purely local and national determinants. Until recently, the global dimension of such movements has been relatively neglected. This book takes the innovative step of linking social movements to international political and economic crises, identifying the general features of industrial and developing societies that predispose them toward social movements of particular kinds. The book consists of three parts. views the origins of the European working-class collective movement of 1848 from a variety of perspectives. reexamines the debate on the moral economy of the peasant in terms of "peasant nonrevolt" and global political economy. considers the emergence of fascist and populist movements in Western Europe and East Asia in their intersocietal dimensions. Each of the cases has been selected for its strategic contribution to an understanding of the occurrence of social movements in relation to large-scale societal crises. Collectively, the essays underscore the methodological utility of situating such movements in a global context.

This book analyses protests against the Great Recession in the European periphery. While social movements have long been considered as children of affluent times - or at least of times of opening opportunities - these protests defy such expectations, developing instead in moments of diminishing opportunities in both the economic and the political realms. Can social movement studies still be useful to understanding these movements of troubled times? The authors offer a positive answer to this question, although specify the need to bridge contentious politics with other fields, including political economy. They highlight differences in the social movements’ strength and breadth and attempt to understand them in terms of three sets of dimensions: a) the specific characteristics of the socio-economic crisis and its consequences in terms of mobilization potential; b) the political reactions to it, in what we can define as political opportunities and threats; and c) the social movement cultures and structures that characterize each country. The book discusses these topics through a contextualized analysis of anti-austerity protest in the European periphery.

This is a useful book and an important contribution to the literature on social movements and civil society. . . It will be very helpful for those who understand social movement theory but need an orientation to developing societies. . . This book will also be useful to advanced graduate students in sociology, economics, and political science. The case studies could be excellent teaching tools. This would be a good text for a course on social movements. Protests and Social Movements in the Developing World will add new dimensions to your work on social movements. It is a book that every social movement scholar will want on their bookshelf. John McNutt, Voluntas Protest and Social Movements in the Developing World is aimed at scholars and social movement activists. Its innovative framework brings a fresh angle to the academic debate on social movements, whilst its meticulous empirical detail will appeal to those involved in a wide variety of social movements. In this sense, Protest and Social Movements in the Developing World will enjoy a warm reception amongst its target audience. . . A useful book for those already well versed in this field. World Entrepreneurship Society Shinichi Shigetomi and Kumiko Makino have produced an important book, global in scope and incisive in its analysis of social movements in different parts of the world. It will be a major resource for scholars everywhere. James Midgley, University of California, Berkeley, US In this insightful book, the contributors focus on the impact of contextual factors on social movements in the developing world, pushing major existing theories beyond their traditional focus. With wide coverage of the developing world, leading academics explore a variety of forms and mechanisms of social movement. They present discussions on resource and institutional endowment for mobilization in Colombia and Thailand, and explore the structure behind political opportunities in Argentina, China and South Africa. The history and reality of identity-making in India, Mexico and Nigeria are also examined. Presenting novel analytical frameworks to study social movements in developing countries, this book will be warmly welcomed by academics and researchers with an interest in sociology, development and political science. It will also strongly appeal to social movement activists.

At a particularly urgent world-historical moment, this volume brings together some of the leading researchers of social movements and global social change and other emerging scholars and practitioners to advance new thinking about social movements and global transformation. Social movements around the world today are responding to crisis by defying both political and epistemological borders, offering alternatives to the global capitalist order that are imperceptible through the modernist lens. Informed by a world-historical perspective, contributors explain today’s struggles as building upon the experiences of the past while also coming together globally in ways that are inspiring innovation and consolidating new thinking about what a fundamentally different, more equitable, just, and sustainable world order might look like. This collection offers new insights into contemporary movements for global justice, challenging readers to appreciate how modernist thinking both colors our own observations and complicates the work of activists seeking to resolve inequities and contradictions that are deeply embedded in Western cultural traditions and institutions. Contributors consider today’s movements in the longue durée—that is, they ask how Occupy Wall Street, the Arab Spring, and other contemporary struggles for liberation reflect, build upon, or diverge from anti-colonial and other emancipatory struggles of the past. Critical to this volume is its exploration of how divisions over gender equity and diversity of national cultures and class have impacted what are increasingly intersectional global movements. The contributions of feminist and indigenous movements come to the fore in this collective exploration of what the movements of yesterday and today can contribute to our ongoing effort to understand the dynamics of global transformation in order to help advance a more equitable, just, and ecologically sustainable world.

Traditional economics is built on the assumption of self-interested individuals seeking to maximize personal gain, but that is far from the whole story. Sharing, caring, and a desire to uphold the collective good are also powerful motives. In a world wracked by inequality, social divisions, and ecological destruction, can we build an alternative economics based on cooperation? In this book Chris Benner and Manuel Pastor invite us to imagine a new sort of solidarity economics – an approach grounded in our instincts for connection and community – and in so doing, actually build a more robust and sustainable economy. They argue that our current economy is already deeply dependent on mutuality, but that the inequality and fragmentation created by the status quo undermine this mutuality and with it our economic well-being. They outline the theoretical framing, policy agenda, and social movements that we need to revive solidarity and apply it to whole societies. Solidarity Economics is an essential read for anyone who longs for a fairer economy that can generate prosperity and preserve the planet.