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Contesting Global Governance: Multilateral Economic Institutions and Global Social Movements by Robert O'Brien, Anne Marie Goetz, Jan Aart Scholte, and Marc Williams is reviewed.

Discusses the developments in social movement studies, namely, the inadequacies of purely structural considerations & the impact of social networks. A sociology of knowledge approach to the embrace of "structure" in the discipline & the scholarly advances due to structure are explored. Three processes are analyzed: individual recruitment, emergent mobilization, & scale shift. The need to supplement the structural approach in social movement studies with a more culturally oriented approach is advocated. 3 Figures. L. Collins Leigh

Between 1966 and 1975 North American youth activists established over 35 school- and community-based gay liberation youth groups whose members sought control over their own bodies, education, and sexual and social relations. This book focuses on three groundbreaking New York City groups -- Gay Youth (GY), Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (S.T.A.R.), and the Gay International Youth Society of George Washington High School (GWHS) -- from the advent of gay liberation in NYC in 1969 to just after its dissolution and the rise of identity politics by 1975. Cohen examines how gay liberation

Science communication, as a multidisciplinary field, has developed remarkably in recent years. It is now a distinct and exceedingly dynamic science that melds theoretical approaches with practical experience. Formerly well-established theoretical models now seem out of step with the social reality of the sciences, and the previously clear-cut delineations and interacting domains between cultural fields have blurred. Communicating Science in Social Contexts examines that shift, which itself depicts a profound recomposition of knowledge fields, activities and dissemination practices, and the value accorded to science and technology. Communicating Science in Social Contexts is the product of long-term effort that would not have been possible without the research and expertise of the Public Communication of Science and Technology (PCST) Network and the editors. For nearly 20 years, this informal, international network has been organizing events and forums for discussion of the public communication of science.

This article addresses why movement scholars had no idea that the civil rights and black power movements of the 1960s and 70s were imminent. In fact, their theories led them to predict that these movements were impossible because only whites possessed history-making agency. These scholars accepted the dogma that black people, their culture, and their institutions were inferior and incapable of organizing and leading powerful movements. This article demonstrates that the black sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois predicted those movements a half century before they occurred. He did so because he conducted concrete empirical analyses of the black community, and his lived experiences led him to reject the thesis of black inferiority. This article argues that the field of social movements remains too white and elitist and that this condition causes less robust and accurate analysis. The article suggests ways to make needed changes.

Starting from the elections of 1990, the renewal of St Petersburg's political elite has developed in two stages. During the first stage, activists of social movement organizations were established in the city representative body (institutionalization of social movements). In the second stage, authoritative bodies within the city Soviet were formed from the deputy corps (whose members we have identified as the elite). Having progressed from their role of challenging the institutionalized political process to participating in it, the new city political leadership at first followed the patterns of social movement behaviour. There has been, however, a shift in activity patterns and an estrangement from challenging groups. There is also evidence of a change in the concept of city authorities' functioning. The desire for a union of representative and executive power, typical of an initial introduction to politics, is giving way to recognition of the need for a division of power. But the admission of leaders of challenging social movements to city power structures has not entailed their conversion to the new city elite.Depuis les élections de 1990, le renouvellement des élites de Saint Pétersbourg s'est produit en deux étapes. Durant la première phase, les activistes des organisations de mouvements sociaux s'établirent dans le corps représentatif de la ville (l'institutionalisation des mouvements sociaux). Durant la deuxième phase, les organisations autoritaires de la ville furent formées par le corps des fondés de pouvoir (dont nous avons identifiés les membres comme étant l'élite). Ayant progressé de leur position de contestation du processus politique institutionaliséà celle de participant dans ce processus, les nouveaux dirigeants politiques de la ville suivirent, au début, le modèle de comportement du mouvement social. Il y a cependant eu un changement dans les types d'activités et un retrait des groupes contestataires. Il y a aussi des indications de changement dans les concepts de fonctionnement des autorités de la ville. Le désir d'unir les pouvoirs représentatifs et exécutifs, caractéristique d'une introduction initiale à la politique, cède la place à une reconnaissance qu'une division du pouvoir est nécessaire. Mais l'entrée des dirigeants des mouvements sociaux contestataires dans les structures du pouvoir de la ville n'a pas été suivie par leur transformation en nouvelles élites.

Este artículo propone una reflexión epistémico-metodológica sobre el trabajo de investigación en ciencias sociales en el campo de estudios de los movimientos sociales y las experiencias de organización populares. Desde una perspectiva que recupera el pensamiento político y la epistemología crítica, se presenta una reconstrucción de los supuestos a partir de los cuales producimos conocimiento así como las implicancias que los puntos de partida ontológicos tienen en nuestros abordajes metodológicos. La reflexión se complementa con dos estudios empíricos de diferente alcance. En los casos presentados indagamos sobre la conformación de sujetos y subjetividades en sectores populares atendiendo a la densidad analítica de un objeto de investigación que se piensa a la vez como construcción, en movimiento y atravesado por múltiples temporalidades y espacialidades. El alegato es por recuperar un lugar para las investigaciones que procuran formular preguntas para las que no hay respuestas y que asumen el desafío del pensamiento abismal para una mejor comprensión de la realidad social. ; This article offers an epistemic-methodological consideration of research in the social sciences within the fields of social movements and popular experiences of organization. From a perspective which recovers political thought and critical epistemology, we present a reconstruction of the assumptions from which knowledge is produced, and the implications of the ontological starting points for our methodological approaches. The latter is complemented by two empirical studies that differ in scope. In the cases examined we investigate the formation of subjects and subjectivities in popular sectors, considering the analytic density of a research object which is seen at once as construction, in movement, and influenced by a number of temporalities and spatialities. The article suggests recovering a context for research that is able to formulate questions to which there are no answers, and which assume the challenge of abismal thinking for acquiring a better understanding of social reality. ; Fil: Retamozo, Martín. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales (UNLP-CONICET); Argentina. ; Fil: D'Amico, Victoria. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales (UNLP-CONICET); Argentina.

Este artículo propone una reflexión epistémico-metodológica sobre el trabajo de investigación en ciencias sociales en el campo de estudios de los movimientos sociales y las experiencias de organización populares. Desde una perspectiva que recupera el pensamiento político y la epistemología crítica, se presenta una reconstrucción de los supuestos a partir de los cuales producimos conocimiento así como las implicancias que los puntos de partida ontológicos tienen en nuestros abordajes metodológicos. La reflexión se complementa con dos estudios empíricos de diferente alcance. En los casos presentados indagamos sobre la conformación de sujetos y subjetividades en sectores populares atendiendo a la densidad analítica de un objeto de investigación que se piensa a la vez como construcción, en movimiento y atravesado por múltiples temporalidades y espacialidades. El alegato es por recuperar un lugar para las investigaciones que procuran formular preguntas para las que no hay respuestas y que asumen el desafío del pensamiento abismal para una mejor comprensión de la realidad social. ; This article offers an epistemic-methodological consideration of research in the social sciences within the fields of social movements and popular experiences of organization. From a perspective which recovers political thought and critical epistemology, we present a reconstruction of the assumptions from which knowledge is produced, and the implications of the ontological starting points for our methodological approaches. The latter is complemented by two empirical studies that differ in scope. In the cases examined we investigate the formation of subjects and subjectivities in popular sectors, considering the analytic density of a research object which is seen at once as construction, in movement, and influenced by a number of temporalities and spatialities. The article suggests recovering a context for research that is able to formulate questions to which there are no answers, and which assume the challenge of abismal thinking for acquiring a better understanding of social reality. ; Fil: Retamozo, Martín. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales (UNLP-CONICET); Argentina. ; Fil: D'Amico, Victoria. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación. Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales (UNLP-CONICET); Argentina.

The emergent new media ecology which integrates participatory media into the structure of global information flows has fundamentally affected the means of production and distribution of attention, a key resource for social movements. In social movement scholarship, attention itself is rarely examined directly; rather, it is encountered in the study of means of delivering attention such as mass media or celebrities. This conflation of the resource, attention, and the pathways to acquire it, such as mass media, was less of an analytic problem when mass media enjoyed a near monopoly on public attention. However, the paths connecting movement actors and public attention are increasingly multiplex and include civic and social media. In this article, I examine the concept of attention as a distinct analytic category, reevaluate social movement scholarship in light of weakening of the monopoly on public attention, and introduce and examine a novel dynamic brought about by emergent attention economy: networked microcelebrity activism. I examine this novel dynamic through case studies and raise questions for future exploration.

This article examines the emergence of new, highly politicized social movements in Latin America as a response to deteriorating economic and social conditions and the related growth of neoliberal economic policies advocated by International Financial Institutions like the IMF and the World Bank and by national political elites. It argues that the decline of bureaucratic authoritarianism and the growing democratization in the region have helped to move the struggle for more equitable societies and the empowerment of popular sectors away from armed struggle toward new repertoires of action conducted in civil society by new social and political movements. An overview of the phenomenon, examines the Zapatistas in Mexico, the National Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), the breakdown of traditional parties and the rise of the Chávez movement in Venezuela, recent political movements in Bolivia, the rise of neo-populism in Peru, and the political and economic crisis that delegitimized governments and politics in Argentina and led to popular assemblies and demonstrations that removed successive governments from power in 2001 and 2002. Finally, a case study of the Landless movement in Brazil (the MST) is offered as an example of how such movements develop and contest power.

The Stockholm Conference 1972 drew the world's attention to the global environmental crisis. To the inhabitants of Sweden, however, this threat to the planet and to humanity was nothing new. Anyone who regularly read newspapers, listened to the radio, or watched the television news would have encountered the issues. Five years earlier, in the summer of 1967, things were very different. At that time, it was not at all self-evident that humans were in the process of destroying their own living environment. Hence, in a short period of time, a radical change took place: an 'environmental turn'. It had major and far-reaching consequences. But what was it that opened people's eyes to the environmental crisis? When did it happen? Who set the ball rolling? And what does this historical process mean for us today? David Larsson Heidenblad's book sheds new light on the emergence of modern environmentalism in Sweden and provides fresh insight to challenges that concerns us all.

Although scholars have examined the different pathways to participation in social movements, far less research has looked at the endurance of activists once they mobilize. This article specifically explores the relationship between the pathways to mobilization and retention. Our data show that both social ties and individual motivations play a role in mobilizing participants of social movements. Contrary to what one might expect, we find that those activists who were mobilized with personal connections were less likely to be working for the organization a year later versus those who came to the organization as strangers. We find instead that self-starters -- those canvassers who entered the canvass through their own volition -- stayed on longer. Although those canvassers who came to the job through network ties were less likely to be working for the organization a year later, they were more likely to be engaged in other civic and political groups and they were more likely to be leaders of these groups. Adapted from the source document.

This chapter compares the perceptions and reactions of social movements to the European Union before and after the financial crisis. Drawing on the authors' respective research on the global justice movement, issue-specific movement campaigns and anti-austerity movements, the political opportunities of the EU are investigated. While before the financial crisis some movements engaged with the EU, even securing modest influence, while protest movements addressed the organisation as a target, after the crisis opportunities contracted. Movements moved back to the deeply local, territorially rooted arenas embodied in the camps of the Occupy and 'Indignados' movements, seeing Europe as essentially deaf to its citizens' concerns.

Citizen movements were an important factor in triggering the peaceful East German revolution that abolished the communist regime and contributed to achievement of elementary civil rights that are taken for granted in Western democracies. However, the movements failed in their efforts to resist quick German unification via the largely uncontested transplantation of the West German institutional system to East Germany. This article analyzes why the movements could not achieve their aim of a new political order, in their view superior to Western type democracy—one that would guarantee radical democracy and extensive social rights for citizens. Drawing on three prominent perspectives in social movement research it is argued that both internal and external factors contributed to the failure of these movements. Although they might have avoided some minor tactical errors, they had few prospects for strongly influencing the course and result of German unification. Because this outcome was overdetermined, it is incorrect to suggest that the movements missed an opportunity to achieve their goal of radical democracy.