Power and Social Movements in the Other Occident

Across a broad range of social and political enquiry, the analysis and conceptual location of social continue to evoke controversy and engender spheres of reflection. In exploring the emergence of social and especially what have come to be termed new social movements as a significant presence in much contemporary debate, three main factors can be mentioned. In the first place, there has been continuing growth of interest in questions of agency and subjectivity. In the wake of a surfacing disillusionment with the traditional anchorage of class analysis, the issue of the constitution of social subjects and their potential relation to collective action and political change has become increasingly pivotal. In this analytical context, the study of provides a potential point of convergence and condensation for many of the theoretical and political arguments that traverse this wider territory. Second, the controversies surrounding the potential political relevance of social movements, especially in connection with the differential meanings of democracy, have tended to flow into and reinforce the importance of discussions of the state-society nexus. Finally, in an era sometimes characterized in terms of a posited end of history and one in which the percepts of neoliberalism and possessive individualism have gained greater currency-Connolly (1991: 172), for example, refers to the universalization of the drive to affluence-the widespread occurrence of of protest has engendered a sense of hope. Social have, however tenuously or indeterminately, held open the possibility of another horizon; optimism of the will, in a time of disenchantment, has been given a dynamic.