Abstract
Contentious events often come in waves, but they are seldom homogeneous. A series of contentious events over the past two years were the result of the global financial crisis that began in the United States in 2008 and ultimately diffused around the world. But it was in Greece and the European Union that the crisis hit hardest. There, conventional protest, violence, and political contention combined. The Greek/Euro crisis has three lessons to teach us about the current themes in social movement research. The first lesson has to do with the nature of the capitalist crisis that triggered these events. The second lesson is that there are limits to globalization and internationalization. The third lesson is that while the financial crisis sparked a great deal of contention, it was differently affected by the political opportunity structure of each country. This article investigates three meanings of the term “social movement society” that became popular in the North in the 1990s: global movements; contained movements; and warring movements. It closes with some speculations about the relationship between the movements of recent years and protest policing and the increasing danger of suppression of all movements as the result of the fear of terrorism.
Highlights
Contentious events often come in waves, but they are seldom homogeneous
In Germany Chancellor Merkel was heckled in the Bundestag for her support of the Greek Bailout plan (CRS 2009; 2010). Every one of these contentious events was the direct or indirect result of the global financial crisis that began in the United States in 2008 and diffused around the world
The third lesson is that while the financial crisis sparked a great deal of contention, it was differently affected by the political opportunity structure of each country: As Greek anarchists torched the center of Athens, French workers used the austerity crisis as a pretext to demonstrate for broader social issues, the Spanish struck around trade union issues, the Germans heckled their Chancellor, and the American Tea Party threatened to take over the Republican Party
Summary
In the 1920s, an international financial crisis was touched off by the excesses of the international banking community. Globalization and internationalization have produced a far more integrated response to the financial crisis than our predecessors had available to cope with the great depression (TARROW, 2005). The financial crisis sped rapidly from the United States to the European Union because of the institutional links between these two hegemons; but the varied contentious responses to it reveal great differences between Europe and the U.S, and within Europe itself. In order to assess what has changed in the world of contentious politics today, I will examine these three meanings of “the movement society”. I will close an issue that has been too little present in social movement studies: how states and the “forces of order” are responding to these changes in contentious politics
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