Suchergebnisse

Examines the potential of contemporary social movements to act as agents of social & political transformation in the information age. Prior efforts to theorize this question have been hampered by the assumption that social movements are protagonists that always produce positive or progressive outcomes. This is an especially erroneous assumption under conditions of modern complex societies in which information is a valuable currency. In this context, social movements themselves may act as media in the sense that they broadcast to the rest of society the existence of dilemmas & conflicts. Thus, social movements may cause several types of change: (1) making visible forms of social power; (2) setting public discourse & public agendas; (3) creating greater access to channels of representation in the political system; (4) participating in the selection of new elites by supplying knowledgeable personnel; (5) modernizing organizations; (6) contributing to innovation in everyday life; & (7) restructuring the capitalist market. It is concluded that the capacity of social movements to make a progressive impact on these areas depends on the availability of an autonomous space for collective action guaranteed by a set of political rights. D. Ryfe