Social Conflict And Social Movements

Violently divided societies present major challenges to institutions seeking to establish peace in places characterised by ethnic conflict and high levels of social segregation. Yet such societies also contain groups that refuse to be confined within separate forms of ethnic community and instead develop alternative modes of action that generate shared identities, build trust and foster consensual, peaceful politics. Advancing a unique social movement approach to the study of violently divided societies, this book highlights how various social movements function within a context of violent ethnic politics and provide new ways of imagining citizenship that complements peacebuilding. By analysing the impact of social movements on divided societies, this book contributes to debates about the complexity of belonging and identity, and constructs a nuanced understanding of political mobilisation in regions defined by ethnic violence. In turn, the book provides important insights into the dynamics of social movement mobilisation. Based on the author's extensive research in Lebanon and Northern Ireland, and drawing on numerous examples from other divided societies, this book examines a range of social movements, including nationalists, victims, sexual minorities, labour movements, feminists, environmentalists, secularists, and peace movements. Bringing together social theory and case studies in order to consider how grassroots movements intersect with political institutions, this book will be of interest to students, scholars and policymakers working in sociology and politics.

Now that we are almost a quarter of the way into the 21st century, the field of sociology is in need of research like this which explores methods for studying contentious politics in the context of broader social changes to peacebuilding, armed conflicts, and social movements.

Part of the "Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change" series, this title contains three sections of data-driven articles that address topics central to scholarship on social movements and conflict resolution. It also showcases research on a variety of movements, organizations and conflicts in ways that contribute to theory-building.

More than any other topic in social science, the study of social movements provides an opportunity to combine social theory with political action. Such study is a key to understanding the motivations, successes, and failures of thousands who aspire to high ideals of justice, but who sometimes aid in perpetuating inhumane political acts and systems. Building upon the past twenty years' developments in theory and research, Social Movements combines original theoretical and methodological approaches with penetrating analyses of contemporary movements from the sixties to the present.Anthony Oberschall argues that social movements are central to contemporary politics in both Western and Third World nations. They are not quaint stepchildren to public policy and social change that disappear as nations modernize. Collective action by the citizenry, spilling beyond the boundaries of routine politics is an integral part of the process of creative destruction that Joseph Schumpeter ascribed to modern capitalism and all dynamic, modern societies.Among the subjects that OberschaU examines in Social Movements are the Civil Rights movement, decline of the New Left, the feminist movement, the New Christian Right, the tobacco control movement, collective violence in U.S. industrial relations, and some comparative historical movements, including the Cultural Revolution in China, the abortive 1968 revolution in Czechoslovakia, political strife in postcolonial Africa, and the sixteenth-century European witch craze.In looking beyond the immediate political circumstances of these social movements, Oberschall points the way to achieving the next major task of social movement theory: a more satisfactory understanding of the dynamics and course of social movements and counter movements and a method of accounting for the outcomes of public controversies. Free of jargon and technical terminology, Social Movements is written for sociologists, political scientists, historians, professionals dea

This book examines issues of organisation in resistance movements, discussing topics including the integration of the world system, the intersection of networks with discourses of identity, and the possibility of social transformation. Drawing on a number of theorists including Deleuze and Guattari, authors Athina Karatzogianni and Andrew Robinson seek to reinterpret World Systems Theory in order to engage with issues of power, resistance, and conflict in the contemporary world. Discussing contemporary scholarship in global politics, the authors consider new and developing concepts including: global cities, bifurcations, hegemonic transitions, the relationship between capitalism and the state, the position of East Asia, and active and reactive network movements. Their analysis includes a very rich pool of empirical examples covering more than fifty countries and thirty resistance groups. Power, Resistance and Conflict in the Contemporary World will be of interest to students and scholars looking for a comprehensive new theorization of the forces at work in global politics. The book provides a framework which crosses the boundaries between international relations, international political economy, comparative politics, conflict studies, social movement studies and critical theory, producing a study of a highly interdisciplinary scope.

This ethnography set in contemporary Peru provides an analysis of the making and unmaking of class consciousness among the urban poor. The book chronicles the transformation of Peru's poor from a culture of deference and clientelism to a population mobilized for radical political action.