Social movements and social need

A central issue about social movements is whether or not their needs- eg women's, Green's, welfare recipients' - are relevant to society at large; whether their needs are universal or specific. Theorists divide between those stressing the specificity of movement needs and others their universality - a division at the core of debates about postmodem politics. This: article argues that Touraine's, Melucci's and Laclau & Mouffe's accounts maintain a particularist view alongside a problem atic universalism. By contrast, writers as diverse as Habermas, Doyal & Gough and Townsend provide more coherent accounts of universal and particular needs. These maintain the universality of: real needs, despite their cultural variations; social norms; and notions of human natute, which provide important rational foundations for social policy