Understanding European Movements: New Social Movements, Global Justice Struggles, Anti-Austerity Protest

by Cristina Flesher Fominaya (Editor), Laurence Cox (Editor)

Overview

European social movements have been central to European history, politics, society and culture, and have had a global reach and impact. Yet they have rarely been taken on their own terms in the English-language literature, considered rather as counterpoints to the US experience. This has been exacerbated by the failure of Anglophone social movement theorists to pay attention to the substantial literatures in languages such as French, German, Spanish or Italian – and by the increasing global dominance of English in the production of news and other forms of media.

This book sets out to take the European social movement experience seriously on its own terms, including:

• the European tradition of social movement theorising – particularly in its attempt to understand movement development from the 1960s onwards
• the extent to which European movements between 1968 and 1999 became precursors for the contemporary anti-globalisation movement
• the construction of the anti-capitalist "movement of movements" within the European setting
• the new anti-austerity protests in Iceland, Greece, Spain (15-M/Indignados), and elsewhere.

This book offers a comprehensive, interdisciplinary perspective on the key European social movements in the past forty years. It will be of interest for students and scholars of politics and international relations, sociology, history, European studies and social theory.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415638791
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	05/21/2013
Series:	Routledge Advances in Sociology
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Cristina Flesher Fominaya has a PhD in Sociology from UC Berkeley and works at the University of Aberdeen. She is a founding co-editor of the journal Interface.

Laurence Cox co-directs the MA in Community Education, Equality and Social Activism at the National University of Ireland Maynooth. He co-edits the social movements journal Interface.

Table of Contents

Introduction Part I: European Theory / European Movements 1. European Social Movements and Social Theory: A Richer Narrative? Part II: European Precursors To The Global Justice Movement 2. The Italian Anomaly: Place and History in the Global Justice Movement 3. The Emergence and Development of the No Global Movement in France: A Genealogical Approach 4. The Continuity of Transnational Protest: The Anti-Nuclear Movement as a Precursor of the Global Justice Movement 5. Where Global Meets Local: Italian Social Centres and the Alterglobalisation Movement 6. Constructing a New Collective Identity for the Alterglobalisation Movement: The French Confédération Paysanne (CP) as Anti-Capitalist 'Peasant' Movement 7. Movement Culture Continuity: The British Anti-Roads Movement as Precursor to the Global Justice Movement Part III: Culture and Identity in the Construction of the European "Movement of Movements" 8. Europe as Contagious Space: Cross-Border Diffusion through Euromayday and Climate Justice Movements 9. The Shifting Meaning of ‘Autonomy’ in the East European Diffusion of the Alterglobalisation Movement: Hungarian and Romanian Experiences 10. Collective Identity across Borders: Bridging Local and Transnational Memories in the Italian and German Global Justice Movements 11. At Home in the Movement: Constructing an Oppositional Identity through Activist Travel across European Squats Part IV: Understanding the New ‘European Spring’: Anti-Austerity, 15-M, Occupy 12. The Roots of the Saucepan Revolution in Iceland 13. Collective Learning Processes within Social Movements: Some Insights into the Spanish 15M/Indignados Movement 14. Think Globally, Act Locally? Symbolic Memory and Global Repertoires in the Tunisian Uprising and the Greek Anti-Austerity Mobilisations 15. Fighting for a Voice: The Spanish 15-M / Indignados Movement Conclusion – Anti-Austerity Protests In European and Global Context: Future Agendas for Research