The new social movements: a comparison with its old counterparts

The new social movements got much attention in the academic circles from the
1960s onwards. The proliferation of black civil rights movements in the west,
student movements and womens movements etc in 1960s prompted the academic
community to dwell upon various aspects of new social movements. Studies about
these emerging collective mobilizations in different parts of the world on different
issues reveal us about different unique features of the new social movements. Large
chunk of these studies also dealt with the nature and characteristics of these
movements with special reference on how they are different from old social
movements.

Although we can find many studies on new social movements exposing their
various features, none of them give us an abstract definition of what constitute to
be new social movements. However, it is generally accepted among the scholars
that, the new social movements emerged out of the credibility crisis of the
traditional channels for political participations. Let us put this in another way. After
the Second World War in general and in last five decades in particular, the global
political sphere got enormous changes. Many new independent state are emerged
as a result of the end of the British colonial regimes in different parts of the world.
One of the prominent nature of these emerging state as well as the existing state
are that, they tend to be more technocratic in their approach. The people state gap
in policy making were noticed everywhere. . State started to become more and
more to serve the interests of the dominant groups in the society. On the other
hand, through various organizations meant for students, women, peasant and trade
unions, the political parties were able to subsume the demands of various social
sections to the rubric of their organizational interests. This further lead to a big
crisis where, the free expression of opinion were curtailed. The student
organizations, womens organizations, peasant organizations and trade unions
under various political parties are fed up with various organizational hurdles and
have to consult their mother political organization for expressing any opinion and
have to protect the interests of the party while organizing a movement. . It is in this
context, the new social movements emerged as a way to regain a space for the
contesting voices of the people regarding different issues. The new social
movements therefore, tend to open spaces of state critiques through mobilizing the
civil society. They therefore, did not identify themselves with any political or
ideological orientations. The participants of these movements are from diffused
social groups cutting across women, students, peasants, workers etc.

For a better understanding about new social movements, it is important to have

a general idea about their old counterparts. This would help us to understand the
ways in which the new social movements are differ from the old one. It is found
that, existing social movements before 1960s were largely oriented towards
materialistic galls. further, the participants in these movements constitute particular
social groups like peasants, students, women etc. in other words, studies about the
old social movements did not see the diffusion of various social groups as
participators of one social movements. Different social groups organized different
movements by placing their own unique demands. They are also found to be
oriented towards a particular ideology. The peasant movements in this connection,
largely used the Marxist framework of class and class struggle. They consider
themselves as the ploriteriate class, who denied access to the resources and rights
enjoyed by the bourgeois in the society. Women movements on the other, use the
notions of feminism to fight against the exploitation against them. For the women
movements, the powerful presence of the patriarchal norms to control the women
body and sexuality in the society lead to various exploitations against women. The
women movements therefore primarily aim to eradicate the patriarchal norms and
values in the society, which ultimately will lead to achieve equal social status for the
women like men in the society. The tribal movements use the exploitative practices
of the state and other dominant groups as their motive behind mobilizing people.
The old social movements are further found to be organized under a strong
leadership of one or more persons. Rust of the participants of the movements are
supposed to follow his or her instructions and view regarding the nature and
direction of the particular movements. The old social movements are therefore
organized directly against the state some time even meant to capture the power to
attain their gall. We can also see some old social movements gain the violent
methods to achieve their galls.

Contrary to this, scholars identified various features of the new social movements in
their studies. It is therefore suggested that, the new social movements are
constituted non materialistic galls. They cut across the boundaries of class, nation,
society and culture. They are essentially nonviolent, pragmatic, non-integrated,
non-hierarchical, non coercive, cross- class and cross- ideological. According to
Larana, Johnston and Guesfield (1994), there would not be any clear structural roll
of the participants of these movements. Very often they have diffused social status
as youth, students, women, minority and professionals. They further suggest that, it
is very difficult to characterize new social movements as conservative or liberal,
right or left, capitalist or socialist. They tend to exhibit plural ideas and values. They
also found that, in the new social movements, mobilizations are linked with
symbolic and cultural identities than the economic issues. Actions within these
movements are a complex mix of collective and individual confirmation of identity.
The relation between the individual and the collective are therefore blurb in these

movements. The new social movements are found to be organized on various

demands related to personal and intimate actions like eating, dressing, loving etc,
which were not at all an objective of the old social movements. Nonviolence and
civil disobedient are found to be the known patterns of new social movements.

According to Alan Scott, the new social movements are primarily more
concerned with the mobilization of the civil society on socio-cultural issues. They
therefore are not oriented towards any political motive like seizure of power. These
movements are therefore basically located in the civil society spectrum and they
have little concern to challenge the state directly. These movements try to bring
changes through changing values and developing alternative life style against the
traditional and existing life values and norms. They tend to focus largely on local
issues by constituting small groups.

The absents of a strong leadership, Vacillation between high and low periods of
activities and the lack of permanent memberships are viewed as some of the short
comings of the new social movements. Some scholars viewed that, the lack of an
ideological orientation prevents the social movements from achieving its aims and
objectives in most of the time. Amidst these criticisms, one has to remember that,
the new social movements have been a corrective force against political parties,
social norms, values and state policies in various parts of the world. They were also
found to be providing spaces in the public to raise voices against various injustices
against minorities, women, children, workers LGBT community and many other
sections in the society.