Combining the strengths of both a reader and a textbook, this second edition of The Social Movements Reader not only expands on the collection of "classic" texts, but also provides the most important and readable articles and book selections on social movements from recent decades. Requiring no prior knowledge about social movements, this new edition includes definitions of key concepts, biographies of exemplary leaders, new developments in the field, and timelines of several ongoing social movements. Analysing the specific resources, networks, structures, and environments of social movements, as well as the motivating psychology, ideas, political debates, emotions, and personal and collective identities behind them, this is an engaging and illuminating collection for anyone curious about social movements.

Social Movements and Global Social Change teaches students not only about how social change occurs but also how social movements can contribute to this change. The book links two concepts in sociology that are often related in real life, but that can seem disconnected in traditional approaches to teaching these courses. The book examines different types of social movements, including those often ignored in social change textbooks, such as riots, migration, and disorganized protest. It also looks at citizens’ rights and inequality in connection to social movements and change. The book features global perspectives and examples throughout.

Drawing on a wide range of social science disciplines and approaches, each chapter in this book offers a comprehensive analysis of social protest, political dissent and collective action. The distinguished scholars contributing to the book discuss some of the key theoretical and methodological issues in social protest research, and analyse recent instances of collective dissent around the globe, ranging from the 15M movement in Spain, to the 2011 Salford riots in the UK, to Pro-Palestinian activism in Jerusalem. The result of these contributions is a sophisticated and multifaceted collection that enriches our understanding of why, when, and how groups of people decide to act collectively in order to pursue political change. The book is a timely testament to the vitality of the field. This book was originally published as a special issue of Contemporary Social Science.

This book sheds light on the outcomes of social movements in Brazil. It provides an extensive analysis of how and when collective mobilization and protest activities brought about social and political change. Charting the dynamics and characteristics of Brazil’s social movements from the abolition of slavery in 1888 to the present day, the contributors to this edited volume demonstrate the processes of social movement activism in Brazil, and its relations with political institutions across various types of governments and political regimes. They bring to light both political opportunity structures of different historical periods, and the political and cultural consequences of mobilization stemming from the collective action of social movements. Showcasing various approaches, the book encompasses a plurality of methodological perspectives including network analysis, collective memory, trajectories, and quantitative techniques of process analysis. Ultimately, the authors present new empirical evidence about social movement outcomes in Brazil, including the mobilization for housing rights, institutionalization processes in a re-democratized society, the effects of anti-dictatorship movements on activists, transformations of political agendas and the diffusion of social protests. Interdisciplinary at its core and highly engaging, The Consequences of Brazilian Social Movements in Historical Perspective offers essential reading on social movement studies to academics, activists and students.

Now in paperback for the first time, Social Movements and their Technologies explores the interplay between social movements and their 'liberated technologies'. It analyzes the rise of low-power radio stations and radical internet projects ('emancipatory communication practices') as a political subject, focusing on the sociological and cultural processes at play. It provides an overview of the relationship between social movements and technology, and investigates what is behind the communication infrastructure that made possible the main protest events of the past fifteen years. In doing so, Stefania Milan illustrates how contemporary social movements organize in order to create autonomous alternatives to communication systems and networks, and how they contribute to change the way people communicate in daily life, as well as try to change communication policy from the grassroots. She situates these efforts in a historical context in order to show the origins of contemporary communication activism, and its linkages to media reform campaigns and policy advocacy.

This volume addresses the contested relationship between social stratification and social movements in three different ways: First, the authors address the relationship between social stratification and the emergence of protest mobilization. Second, the texts look at social stratification and social positions to explain variations in political orientations, as well as differing aims and interests of protestors. Finally, the volume focuses on the socio-structural composition of protestors. Social Stratification and Social Movements takes up recent attempts to reconnect research on these two fields. Instead of calling for a return of a class perspective or abandoning the classical social movement research agenda, it introduces a multi-dimensional perspective on stratification and social movements and broadens the view by extending the empirical analysis beyond Europe.

This handbook on social movements, revolution, and social transformation analyzes people’s struggles to bring about social change in the age of globalization. It examines the origins, nature, dynamics, and challenges of such movements as they aim to change dominant social, economic, and political institutions and structures across the globe. Departing from a theoretical introduction that explores major classical and contemporary theories of social movements and transformation, the contributions collected here use a class-based approach to examine key cases of social movements, rebellions, and revolutions worldwide from the turn of the twentieth to the early twenty-first centuries. Against this wide-ranging background, the handbook concludes by charting the varied and competing future developments and trajectories of social movements, revolutions, and social transformations.

Southern social movements have played an important role in shaping world history and politics. Nevertheless, scholarly literature on movements of the global South remains limited and restricted to testing the social movement theory which was developed in the North. This Northern-centric approach largely fails to provide a meaningful understanding of Southern movements because it is not directly applicable to the differing historical backgrounds, culture and socio-economic structures found in the South. Much of the uniqueness and complexity of Southern social movements has therefore been overlooked. This collection analyses recent events and developments in Southern social movements, introducing well-researched case studies from fifteen countries of the global South. Arranged in two parts, the volume examines firstly movements which focus on rights and quality of life issues, and secondly the post-2011 wave of uprisings which started with Tunisian and Egyptian movements. Contributing to ongoing discussions about the Northern-centric nature of social movement theory and the social sciences more generally, the authors enter into dialogue with the debate on local and national levels, as well as globalizing processes. Through an interdisciplinary approach this book broadens the theoretical and empirical perspectives for the study of social movements and will appeal to sociologists, political scientists, scholars and students of social movements, and social activists.

This volume introduces and compares different concepts of culture in social movement research. It assesses their advantages and shortcomings, drawing links to anthropology, discourse analysis, sociology of emotions, narration, spatial theory, and others. Each contribution's approach is illustrated with recent cases of mobilization.

Religion in Rebellions, Revolutions, and Social Movements demonstrates that, while religion is often a social force that maintains, if not legitimates, the sociopolitical order, it is also a decisive factor in economic, social, and political conflict. The book explores how and under what conditions religion functions as a progressive and/or reactionary force that compels people to challenge or protect social orders. The authors focus on the role that religion has played in peasant, slave, and plebeian rebellions; revolutions, including the Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Iranian; and modern social movements. In addition to these case studies, the book also contains theoretical chapters that explore the relationship religious thought has with the politics of liberation and oppression. It examines the institutional, organizational, ritualistic, discursive, ideological, and/or framing mechanisms that give religion its oppressive and liberating structures. Many scholars of religion continue very conventional modes of thinking, ignoring how religion has been—and continues to be—both a hegemonic and counterhegemonic force in conflict. This book looks at both sides of the equation. This international and interdisciplinary volume will be of interest to students and scholars in the fields of politics of religion, sociology of religion, religious studies, gender studies, and history.