Social Movements in Advanced Capitalism The Political Economy and Cultural Construction of Social Activism

by Buechler, Steven M.

• ISBN13: 9780195126044
• ISBN10: 0195126041
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-07-08
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Building on a critical overview of current social movement theory, this book presents a structural model for analyzing social movements in advanced capitalism. This model provides a historically specific analysis that locates movements in global, national, regional, and local structures. The heart of the book draws on diverse theoretical traditions within sociology to specify the structural constraints and opportunities that comprise the environment in which movements mobilize and contest for power. These theoretical traditions include world system theory; critical theory; theories of class, race, and gender; and theories of everyday life. Movement dynamics are explored in terms of their dialectical relationship with these multiple levels of structure. The book also addresses the false dichotomies between political and cultural dimensions of social activism, and restores a critical, normative dimension to the analysis of social movements. Buechler makes a unique argument about the need to reorient social movement theory toward the structural, macrolevel contexts in which movements arise. Clearly presented, this thoughtful introduction links the theoretical traditions that make up the core of the discipline to the subfield of social movements. It is an excellent supplementary text for advanced undergraduate or graduate courses in sociology as well as for courses in such related disciplines as collective action and political protest. Social Movements in Advanced Capitalism contains a detailed, critical overview of the collective behavior and social movement theories that have taken place over the past fifty years.

Table of Contents

Introduction	xi
PART ONE The Sociology of Social Movements	1	(58)
Social Movements and Sociology: Siblings of Modernity	3	(16)
The Origins of the Social Movement	4	(7)
The Rise of Sociology	11	(5)
Conclusions	16	(3)
Social Movement Theory: A Sociology of Knowledge Analysis	19	(40)
Classical Collective Behavior Theory	20	(12)
Collective Behavior I: Symbolic Interactionism	21	(4)
Collective Behavior II: Structural-Functionalism	25	(3)
Collective Behavior III: Relative Deprivation	28	(2)
The Limits of Classical Collective Behavior Theory	30	(2)
Recent Social Movement Theory	32	(27)
The Resource Mobilization Paradigm	34	(6)
Social Constructionist Theory	40	(5)
New Social Movement Theory	45	(6)
The State of the Art	51	(8)
PART TWO Sociohistorical Structures and Collective Action	59	(102)
Global Structures and Social Movements: The World-Capitalist System	61	(18)
A Structural Approach to Social Movements	61	(2)
The Global Level of Sociohistorical Structure	63	(6)
World-System Theory	64	(2)
World-System Dynamics	66	(3)
Global Structures and Social Movements	69	(10)
Social Movements in Core Countries: The U.S. Case	72	(2)
World-System Dynamics and U.S. Movements	74	(3)
Transnational Social Movements	77	(2)
National Structures and Social Movements: Crisis, Colonization, and Post-Fordism	79	(26)
The National Level of Sociohistorical Structure	80	(8)
Crisis Tendencies	80	(3)
Colonization Dynamics	83	(3)
Post-Fordist Transitions	86	(2)
National Structures and Social Movements	88	(17)
Crisis Tendencies and Social Activism: A Dialectical Relation	88	(8)
Colonization Dynamics and Social Movements: A Critical Appraisal	96	(6)
Social Movements in a Post-Fordist World	102	(3)
Regional Structures and Social Movements: Class, Race, and Gender	105	(40)
The Regional Level of Sociohistorical Structure	105	(17)
The Class Structure of Power	107	(5)
The Racial Structure of Power	112	(5)
The Gender Structure of Power	117	(5)
Regional Structures and Social Movements	122	(23)
Class Movements: Au Revoir?	123	(8)
Racial Movements: New Social Movement Prototypes?	131	(6)
Gender Movements: The Longest War?	137	(8)
Local Structures and Social Movements: The Politics of Everyday Life	145	(16)
The Local Level of Sociohistorical Structure	145	(4)
The Social Construction of Reality	145	(2)
Structuration Processes	147	(1)
The Microphysics of Power	148	(1)
Local Structures and Social Movements	149	(10)
Life Politics and Everyday Resistance	150	(1)
The Battleground of Identity	151	(3)
Whither Public and Private?	154	(2)
The Return of Collective Behavior	156	(3)
A Structural Approach Revisited	159	(2)
PART THREE The Political and the Cultural in Collective Action	161	(52)
The Political: State Politics and Social Politics	163	(22)
Social Movements and State Politics	164	(12)
The State as Intermediary	167	(3)
The State: Classed, Raced, and Gendered	170	(4)
The State as a Reform Filter	174	(2)
Social Politics and Collective Action	176	(9)
Social Politics: Confronting Diffuse and Omnipresent Power	177	(1)
Social Politics in Social Movements	178	(2)
Conceptual Resolutions; New Issues	180	(5)
The Cultural: Identity, Ideology, and Organization	185	(28)
The Elusive Cultural Dimension in Social Movement Theory	186	(2)
The Construction of Collective Identity	188	(7)
Modernity and Identity	188	(1)
Dimensions of Identity	189	(2)
The Continuum of Collective Identity	191	(4)
The Return of Grievances and Ideology	195	(9)
The Framing of Grievances	197	(3)
Ideology: The Orphan of Social Movement Theory?	200	(4)
The Symbolism of Organizational Form	204	(5)
Organizational Culture in Women's Movements	205	(2)
Organization as a Cultural Resource	207	(2)
The Political and the Cultural	209	(4)
Epilogue	213	(2)
References	215	(18)
Index	233