Skip to Content

Understanding European Movements

New Social Movements, Global Justice Struggles, Anti-Austerity Protest

Edited by Cristina Flesher Fominaya, Laurence Cox

Published May 21st 2013 by Routledge – 268 pages

Series: Routledge Advances in Sociology

Purchasing Options:

eBook Ordering Options

Description

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.

Contents

Introduction by Cristina Flesher Fominaya and Laurence Cox Part I: European Theory / European Movements 1. European Social Movements and Social Theory: A Richer Narrative? By Laurence Cox and Cristina Flesher Fominaya Part II: European Precursors To The Global Justice Movement 2. The Italian Anomaly: Place and History in the Global Justice Movement by Michal Osterweil 3. The Emergence and Development of the No Global Movement in France: A Genealogical Approach by Isabelle Sommier And Olivier Fillieule 4. The Continuity of Transnational Protest: The Anti-Nuclear Movement as a Precursor of the Global Justice Movement by Emmanuel Rivat 5. Where Global Meets Local: Italian Social Centres and the Alterglobalisation Movement by Andrea Membretti and Pierpaolo Mudu 6. Constructing a New Collective Identity for the Alterglobalisation Movement: The French Confédération Paysanne (CP) as Anti-Capitalist 'Peasant' Movement by Edouard Morena 7. Movement Culture Continuity: The British Anti-Roads Movement as Precursor to the Global Justice Movement by Cristina Flesher Fominaya 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 by Christian Scholl 9. The Shifting Meaning of ‘Autonomy’ in the East European Diffusion of the Alterglobalisation Movement: Hungarian and Romanian Experiences by Agnes Gagyi 10. Collective Identity across Borders: Bridging Local and Transnational Memories in the Italian and German Global Justice Movements by Priska Daphi 11. At Home in the Movement: Constructing an Oppositional Identity through Activist Travel across European Squats by Linus Owens, Ask Katseff, Baptiste Colin and Elisabeth Lorenzi Part IV: Understanding the New ‘European Spring’: Anti-Austerity, 15-M, Occupy 12. The Roots of the Saucepan Revolution in Iceland by Árni Daníel Júlíusson and Magnús Sveinn Helgason 13. Collective Learning Processes within Social Movements: Some Insights into the Spanish 15M/Indignados Movement by Eduardo Romanos 14. Think Globally, Act Locally? Symbolic Memory and Global Repertoires in the Tunisian Uprising and the Greek Anti-Austerity Mobilisations by Vittorio Sergi and Markos Vogiatzoglou 15. Fighting for a Voice: The Spanish 15-M / Indignados Movement by Kerman Calvo. Conclusion – Anti-Austerity Protests In European and Global Context: Future Agendas for Research by Cristina Flesher Fominaya and Laurence Cox

Author Bio

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.

Name: Understanding European Movements: New Social Movements, Global Justice Struggles, Anti-Austerity Protest (Hardback) – Routledge 
Description: Edited by Cristina Flesher Fominaya, Laurence Cox. 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...
Categories: Sociology & Social Policy, Europe - Social Policy, European History, European Union Politics, Historical Sociology, Political Sociology, Contemporary History 1945-, Economic History, European Union History, Europe - Anthropology, Political & Economic Anthropology, Social & Cultural Anthropology, Contemporary Social Theory, Politics & the Media, Eastern European Politics, European Politics, Human Rights