Waves of Social Movement Mobilizations in the Twenty-First Century

Challenges to the Neo-Liberal World Order and Democracy

Edited by Nahide Konak and Rasim Özgür Dönmez - Contributions by Ernesto Castañeda; Luis Rubén Díaz Cepeda; Rasim Özgür Dönmez; Gökçe Bayindir Goularas; Sam Halvorsen; Nahide Konak; Walter Nicholls; Mark Purcell; Helga Rittersberger-Tılıç; BEYZA TEKİN; Rifat Barış Tekin; Simon Thorpe and Justus Uitermark

Based on case studies, this book analyzes a recent wave of social movement and protests in the twenty-first century. It has two overarching broadly defined themes: first, to identify commonalities across the social movements and protests in terms of strategies, desire, hopes as well as the main factors in the decline of the movements. And second, to underline the significance of the general economic, social, and political conditions in which these protests arose. Although there are specific national and local context-specific reasons for the protests observed in different countries, the gradual integration of the post-war neo-liberal hegemonic world order is the fundamental overarching structural factor behind these protests. From Turkey to Spain, Greece to Mexico, and the Netherlands to the U.S., this book observes that the “outsiders” of the system resist against the oppression of the neo-liberal world system.

Lexington Books

Pages: 178 • Trim: 6½ x 9¼

978-0-7391-9635-9 • Hardback • February 2015 • $128.00 • (£98.00)

978-0-7391-9637-3 • Paperback • January 2017 • $57.99 • (£45.00)

978-0-7391-9636-6 • eBook • February 2015 • $55.00 • (£42.00)

Subjects: Political Science / Globalization, Political Science / Political Ideologies / Conservatism & Liberalism, Political Science / World / General, Social Science / Sociology / Urban, Social Science / Political Sociology, Social Science / Social Change, Social Science / World / Middle East

Waves of Social Movement Mobilizations in the Twenty-First Century

Challenges to the Neo-Liberal World Order and Democracy

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

Based on case studies, this book analyzes a recent wave of social movement and protests in the twenty-first century. It has two overarching broadly defined themes: first, to identify commonalities across the social movements and protests in terms of strategies, desire, hopes as well as the main factors in the decline of the movements. And second, to underline the significance of the general economic, social, and political conditions in which these protests arose. Although there are specific national and local context-specific reasons for the protests observed in different countries, the gradual integration of the post-war neo-liberal hegemonic world order is the fundamental overarching structural factor behind these protests. From Turkey to Spain, Greece to Mexico, and the Netherlands to the U.S., this book observes that the “outsiders” of the system resist against the oppression of the neo-liberal world system.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 178 • Trim: 6½ x 9¼

978-0-7391-9635-9 • Hardback • February 2015 • $128.00 • (£98.00)

978-0-7391-9637-3 • Paperback • January 2017 • $57.99 • (£45.00)

978-0-7391-9636-6 • eBook • February 2015 • $55.00 • (£42.00)

Subjects: Political Science / Globalization, Political Science / Political Ideologies / Conservatism & Liberalism, Political Science / World / General, Social Science / Sociology / Urban, Social Science / Political Sociology, Social Science / Social Change, Social Science / World / Middle East

Author

Nahide Konak is associate professor of sociology atAbant İzzet Baysal University.

Rasim Özgür Dönmez is associate professor of international relations at Abant İzzet Baysal University.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Seeking (and Finding) Democracy, Mark Purcell
Chapter 2: The Indignados and the Global Diffusion of Forms of Protest Against Authoritarianism and Structural Adjustment Programs, Ernesto Castañeda
Chapter 3: The Greek Social Movements and an Analysis of the Reaction in Greece to the Gezi Park Protests, Gökçe Bayındır Goularas
Chapter 4: # Yo Soy 132: A Networked Social Movement of Mexican Youth, Luis Rubén Díaz Cepeda
Chapter 5: Deconstructing Neo-Patrimonial System via Humor: Gezi Park “Çapulcu” Protests in Turkey, Nahide Konak and Rasim Özgür Dönmez
Chapter 6: Squatting (in Turkey): A Practice of Transforming Public Spaces into Commons?, Helga Rittersberger-Tılıç
Chapter 7: Occupying Power: Strategies for Change in Occupy London, Sam Halvorsen and Simon Thorpe
Chapter 8: Wildfire Movement’s Crashing on the Local Trenches: A Comparison of Occupy Los Angeles and Occupy Amsterdam, Walter Nicholls and Justus Uitermark
Chapter 9: Political Economy of European Mobilization: Why Did the Anti-Austerity Movements Fail, Beyza Ç. Tekin and Rıfat Barış Tekin

Reviews

This book provides a very sophisticated and thoroughly insightful analysis of social mobilization at the beginning of the twenty-first century. It is an innovative and remarkably perceptive study of the significance and varieties of contemporary social mobilizations and their consequences.

— Bogdan Szajkowski, University of Exeter

Situating the recent wave of social movements within a broader, global, context marked by, among other things, the failures of the neoliberal world order, this collection of essays brings a much-needed comparative dimension to the analysis of 'contentious politics' in the twenty-first century. A valuable contribution to the growing field of social movement studies.

— Umut Ozkirimli, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University

A critical research collection, written by inspiring social movements' scholars, comprises case studies from Tunisia, Spain, Greece, Iceland, Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States, Mexico, and Turkey. In about seven years and more (2008–2015) of the enduring global political-economic crisis and its repercussions, we are witnessing not only waves of social movement mobilizations but also a more mature, rich, and creative theoretical and empirical scholarship as offered by this book.
— Miri Gal-Ezer, Kinneret College