Crossing Frontiers: Theoretical Innovations in the Study of Social Movements

Abstract

For better or worse, scholars who write about the origins, activities, and consequences of social movements often talk past each other. Babel occurs partly because social movement scholars are trained in different disciplines with dissimilar analytic concepts, presumptions about relevance, and methodological techniques. In addition, one finds in every discipline competing (if not clashing) intellectual currents and political orientations, which contribute to the multiplicity of voices and perspectives on any topic. For instance, one can find social-movement analysts in departments of political science who are Marxists, mass-society theorists, world-systems theorists, subaltern-studies folks, post-cultural-studies scholars,