Social Movements Studies and Social Critique

Abstract

This chapter turns to an investigation of how the topic of ‘social critique’ has been tackled within social movements studies. Rodriguez synthesises some of the main strands of social movement studies, focusing particularly on the ‘return’ of capitalism to social movements studies. The chapter traces the trajectory of social movement studies and the response of scholars to the ‘common agenda’ and to ‘macro’ and reductionist accounts of collective action, sketching out possible areas of convergence between critical social theory and recent developments in social movement studies. Crucially, the idea of ‘critique in movement’ is introduced here as an articulating concept between critical social theory and social movement studies.