Social Movements and New Cultural Identitarian Political Movements

Abstract

Elsenhans reflects on the origin of social movements and how he sees their modern day relations as morphing into a phenomenon he terms ‘network’ social movements. Such movements are no longer determined by their membership but by their lead negotiators in junctures of political negotiation, which leads to compromises in a middle-class orientation. This is a transformation from social movements in capitalism, which were interested in the distribution conflict. He explains the rise and moderation of political movements across Asia and Africa which mobilise popular support with references to conceptions of cultural identity; he terms them ‘new cultural identitarian political movements’. He believes these new cultural movements arise in countries where state development policies have failed and depending on the different constellations of social groups which give their support, the movements will succeed or not in reaching power. Despite the widely different cultural motifs of the movements, Elsenhans is optimistic that such movements could act as stabilising forces on global politics.