Abstract
Social movements have been struggling against repressive states advancing the interests of dominant classes for many centuries. Over time, millions of people have organized and become empowered to bring about social change and transformations in numerous societies across the globe. This opening introductory essay provides an analysis of the conditions that lead to the emergence and development of social movements struggling to bring about transformation of society. It examines the origins, nature, dynamics, and mobilization of social movements as they struggle to transform the prevailing dominant social, economic, and political order. After a brief historical background and an examination of objective and subjective conditions leading to the development of social movements, the essay explores the dynamics of movement organization and mobilization with reference to concrete cases of social movements that have succeeded in rising up and transforming societies across the globe in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
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Notes
- 1.
This opening introductory chapter is based on my article “Social Movements and Transformation in the Age of Globalization: Origins, Dynamics, and Mobilization,” International Review of Modern Sociology, Vol. 41, No. 1 (Spring 2015), reprinted here with permission of the publisher.
- 2.
Kenneth Neill Cameron, Humanity and Society: A World History (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1977). Rodney Hilton, The Transition From Feudalism to Capitalism (London: New Left Books, 1976).
- 3.
Herbert Aptheker, The Unfolding Drama: Studies in US History (New York: International Publishers, 1978). See also Charles Beard and Mary Beard, The Rise of American Civilization (New York: Macmillan, 1930).
- 4.
Richard Boyer and Herbert Morais, Labor’s Untold Story, 3rd ed. (New York: United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America, 1980).
- 5.
These include the numerous revolutions in the periphery of the global capitalist system that took place during the course of the twentieth century (such as Russia, China, Cuba, and Nicaragua, to name a few). See Jack Goldstone, Revolutions: Theoretical, Comparative, and Historical Studies. Third Ed. (New York: Cengage, 2002); Stephen K. Sanderson, Revolutions: A Worldwide Introduction to Social and Political Contention. Second Ed. (Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, 2010); and James Defronzo, Revolutions and Revolutionary Movements. Fourth Ed. (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2011).
- 6.
Albert J. Szymanski, Class Structure: A Critical Perspective (New York: Praeger, 1983).
- 7.
Howard Sherman and James Wood, Sociology (New York: Harper Collins, 1989), Chap. 18.
- 8.
Sherman and Wood, Sociology, Chap. 18.
- 9.
Sherman and Wood, Sociology, Chap. 18.
- 10.
Albert J. Szymanski, The Capitalist State and the Politics of Class (Cambridge, MA: Winthrop, 1978), pp. 293–318.
- 11.
This could occur because of a loss at war, the disaffection of many upper-class youth and their rejection of upper-class traditions, widespread corruption, encroaching decadence and loss of will, or demoralizing internal antagonisms that cannot be contained by a strong sense of class solidarity.
- 12.
Szymanski, The Capitalist State and the Politics of Class, pp. 293–318.
- 13.
Szymanski, The Capitalist State and the Politics of Class, p. 294.
- 14.
Ted Goertzel, “Social Movements and Social Change: The Dynamics of Social Transformation,” in Berch Berberoglu (ed.), Critical Perspectives in Sociology, Second Edition (Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt, 1993), pp. 281–290.
- 15.
Goertzel, “Social Movements and Social Change,” pp. 281–290.
- 16.
Philip Foner, History of the Labor Movement in the United States: Industrial Workers of the World, Vol. 4. New York: International Publishers. See also Joseph Robert Conlin, Big Bill Haywood and the Radical Union Movement. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1969).
- 17.
Foner, History of the Labor Movement in the United States.
- 18.
Philip Foner, The Case of Joe Hill. New York, NY: International Publishers.
- 19.
Jack Goldstone, Revolutions: Theoretical, Comparative, and Historical Studies. Third Ed. (New York: Cengage, 2002); Stephen K. Sanderson, Revolutions: A Worldwide Introduction to Social and Political Contention. Second Ed. (Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, 2010); and James Defronzo, Revolutions and Revolutionary Movements. Fourth Ed. (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2011).
- 20.
R. Burbach, “Roots of the Postmodern Rebellion in Chiapas,” New Left Review 1, no. 205 (May–June 1994).
- 21.
Neil Harvey, The Chiapas Rebellion: The Struggle for Land and Democracy (Durham: Duke University Press, 1998).
- 22.
James Petras and Henry Veltmeyer, Social Movements in Latin America (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).
- 23.
Francois Polet (ed.), The State of Resistance: Popular Struggles in the Global South (London: Zed Books, 2007); Valentine M. Moghadam, Globalization and Social Movements (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009).
- 24.
See Jackie Smith, et al., Global Democracy and the World Social Forums (Boulder, CO: Paradigm, 2008), xi–xii, 3–4; and Val Moghadam, Globalization and Social Movements, 106.
- 25.
Martin Orr, “The Struggle Against Capitalist Globalization: The Worldwide Protests Against the WTO” in Berch Berberoglu (ed.), Globalization and Change: The Transformation of Global Capitalism (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2005). See also Jackie Smith, “Globalizing Resistance: The Battle of Seattle and the Future of Social Movements,” in Globalizing Resistance: Transnational Dimensions of Social Movements, eds. Jackie Smith and H. Johnston (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002).
- 26.
Mike-Frank Epitropoulos, “The Global Capitalist Crisis and the European Union, with Focus on Greece,” in Berch Berberoglu (ed.), Beyond the Global Capitalist Crisis: The World Economy in Transition (Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing, 2012), 83–101.
- 27.
Mark L. Haas and David W. Lesch (eds.), The Arab Spring: Change and Resistance in the Middle East (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2012). See also James Petras and Henry Veltmeyer, Beyond Neoliberalism: A World to Win (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2011), 175–197.
- 28.
Todd Gitlin, Occupy Nation: The Roots, the Spirit, and the Promise of Occupy Wall Street (New York: It Books, Harper Collins, 2012).
- 29.
Howard Sherman, The Roller Coaster Economy: Financial Crisis, Great Recession, and the Public Option (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2010).
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Szymanski, Albert J. 1978. The Capitalist State and the Politics of Class. Cambridge, MA: Winthrop.
———. 1983. Class Structure: A Critical Perspective. New York: Praeger.
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Berberoglu, B. (2019). Introduction: Dynamics of Social Movements, Revolution, and Social Transformation. In: Berberoglu, B. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Social Movements, Revolution, and Social Transformation. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92354-3_1
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