Suchergebnisse

"Solidarnosz" wird immer als Gewerkschaft identifiziert, tatsächlich ist sie ebenso sehr eine gesellschaftliche Bewegung. Die Definition letzterer bezieht sich in der soziologischen Theorie primär auf kollektives Verhalten in westlichen und hier vor allem fortgeschrittenen Industriegesellschaften. Dennoch lassen sich so gewonnene Aussagen auch auf das Polen in der "Solidarnosz-Ära" übertragen. Sicher gibt es Gründe, die die Einmaligkeit der Situation in Polen ausmachen. Doch in bezug auf Ursprung, Ziele und Organisationsform gleicht "Solidarnosz" sozialen Bewegungen überall in der Welt, sie ist nicht eine bestimmte einmalige Reaktion auf das politische und gesellschaftliche System. Das spricht dafür, die Theorie der sozialen Bewegungen einer Revision zu unterziehen und gleichzeitig die Idee der Einzigartigkeit von "Solidarnosz" zu überdenken. (SWP-Hld)

Cette communication jette un regard critique sur plusieurs tendances du néo‐marxisme et du post‐marxisme ainsi que sur les tentatives de théoriser les nouveaux mouvements sociaux. L'auteur estime qu'on a trop vite fait de laisser tomber une bonne partie des principes fondamentaux de l'économie politique en analysant les nouveaux mouvements sociaux, alors qu'on évoque ces měmes mouvements comme confirmation des certains aspects problématiques de la théorie marxiste. Les problèmes découlent en partie du fait qu'on a voulu tirer des généralisations à partir d'observations très partielles d'un nombre limité de mouvements. Or, le travail d'analyse théorique doit tenir compte de l'économie politique de ces mouvements tout en s'enrichissant des analyses produites par les mouvements eux‐měmes.The paper offers a critique of several theoretical trends in neo‐and post‐Marxism and of new social movement theory, contending that many of the central tenets of political economy have been too quickly abandoned in analysing the new social movements and that, at the same time, these movements have too often been used to shore up other problematic areas of Marxian analysis. Some of these problems arise from generalizations made from very partial views of only certain movements. Theoretical work needs to include the political economy of these movements and at the same time learn from the analyses generated by these movements themselves.

In the early 1980s many social theorists claimed that the 'New Social Move­ments' (NSMs) were the authentic social movements of our time. This claim is discussed in relation to two traditions in the analysis of social movements. The 'American' tradition focuses on the single-issue movement of a protest and mobilizing character. The 'European' tradition focuses on the relation between major societal changes and processes of class formation, the labour movement being the classic case. In the article the women's movement is discussed as a major cultural revolutionary movement, the different campaigns dealing with the new urban forms of socialized reproduction, housing, planning, etc., as movements for the defence of the 'real consumption'; the green and environmentalist movements taking up the conflicting relation nature-society. Is the relation between the NSMs and the new and growing social strata of students, and employees within the welfare state, which make up their audience and activist core, to be understood as a parallel to the part played by the 'old' social movements in the making of the working class, the farmer class, etc? It is argued that there is no 'necessary' relationship between the societal changes and the NSMs, as there was between industrialization and the labour movement. The societal relations and changes around which the NSMs organize themselves - gender contradictions, socialization of reproduction, con­tradictions in the forms of modern urban living, nature society - do not single out a new social force as their 'natural' counterpart. They are both more encompassing in their reach and more non-partisan in character. The most likely centre for a possible coalescence of a multitude of NSMs into a major social movement, if not in the class formative sense, is the societally basic relationship, nature-society. The themes and issues raised by the NSMs can in the political process become articulated with existing political and social forces. The capacity of these forces and institutions to absorb the issues raised by the NSMs deter­mines the possibility for the NSMs to emerge as a new major social force.

Discusses several features of new social movements that are typically ignored by their adherents & by the academic literature: (1) the revolutionary nature of the sum of their demands; (2) what it would mean to incorporate their calls for change into the social fabric of daily life; (3) the extent to which these movements make demands on the state; & (4) the promise of the new social movements for bringing about fundamental change by combining a stress on qualitative change & core forms of domination. These social movements are defended as truly transformatory & not, as their critics claim, inherently limited & ineffective. While obstacles to the achievement of their goals exist, it is suggested that these can be overcome through a democratic theory that is complemented by a theory of change attentive to how new patterns become mobilized. It is argued that revolutionary change will not be accomplished violently or quickly, but through the institutionalization of new patterns of life & a new common sense. D. M. Smith