Alternative Social Movements Research Articles

Serbia as a closed and impoverished society: Is there a way out?

The author writes about the transformation which Serbia has undergone since the collapse of former Yugoslavia, from being an open society and the most developed one within the circle of the former socialist societies, into a closed and completely isolated and impoverished society at the end of ther 20th century. The reason for such an involution can be found in a hybrid character of the former social system which combined the authoritarian structure and the monopoly of the party-state with self-government that was used as a façade covering the undemocratic nature of the regime. The former Yugoslavia lacked the alternative social movements, that existed in Poland Czechoslovakia and Hungary, therefore in the moment of the collapse of 'real socialism' it had no proper actors to direct the necessary social change. That is the reason why this job was performed in FR Yugoslavia by the communist nomenklatura that was transformed into the nationalist oligarchies, which prepared secession of the former republics of Yugoslavia and the inter-ethnic wars. Moreover, all the comparative advantages of former Yugoslavia have been annulled and from that period on its devided parts, in particular Serbia, have been confronted with the incessent recession. The next reason for Serbian incapability to get rid off the deep social crisis lies in the legacy of the traditional past, i.e. the population's hard liberation from the pressure of historical mythologies and the glorification of one's own nation that produces prejudices towards the other nations and xenofobia - in particular after the NATO attack to FR Yugoslavia. In this context the possibilities for democratic shange are discussed in the paper.

‘Messers, Visionaries and Organobureaucrats’: Dilemmas of Institutionalisation in the Irish Organic Farming Movement

This paper asks what happens to ‘alternative’ social movements like the Irish organic farming movement, which try to promote sustainable forms of rural development, when they begin to be incorporated into state policy for farming and the countryside. Does this provide a context in which farming and the food industry can begin to be ‘restructured from below’, or does it lead instead to ‘deradicalisation’ of the movement and its ideas? The European literature on ‘new’ or alternative social movements has focused more on mobilisation of such movements than on processes of institutionalisation and their effects. Yet institutionalisation is often experienced by movement members themselves as a critical, even highly divisive development, which can result in severe damage to the movement's core ideology and values. The Irish case discussed here is a starting point from which we may develop a more general understanding of the increasing institutionalisation of environmentalism in the contemporary developed world.