Neo-social movements as a special case of social movements
In the late 20th century sociologists were confronted with a new type of movements which required shift of attention from structural factors, resource mobilization and class conflict to identity. Students’ movements, civil liberties movements, women’s movements, anti-nuclear movements and anti-abortion movement and environmental movements were some of them. They were characterized by participation of people from all classes, raising of local issues but with global perspective, centering around identity, and in which influencing state decisions rather than capture of state power was the goal.
Postmodernism has led to hyperdifferentiation, i.e., extreme segmentation of society leading to new combinations and new identities. Neo-social movements, therefore, are highly divided. For example, take the case of women’s movement which aims at improvement of women’s position, and building a just society for women, where they are no more the second sex. As such the feminists seem to be organized on one single agenda of women empowerment. Yet, as Haralambos et al. (2000, 136) observe that within women’s movements itself there are several strands. The different women’s groups subscribe to different ideologies, broadly classified as follows:
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