Global Crises and Social Movements

Traditionally, scholars have traced the origins and characteristics of social movements to purely local and national determinants. Until recently, the global dimension of such movements has been relatively neglected. This book takes the innovative step of linking social movements to international political and economic crises, identifying the general features of industrial and developing societies that predispose them toward social movements of particular kinds. The book consists of three parts. views the origins of the European working-class collective movement of 1848 from a variety of perspectives. reexamines the debate on the moral economy of the peasant in terms of "peasant nonrevolt" and global political economy. considers the emergence of fascist and populist movements in Western Europe and East Asia in their intersocietal dimensions. Each of the cases has been selected for its strategic contribution to an understanding of the occurrence of social movements in relation to large-scale societal crises. Collectively, the essays underscore the methodological utility of situating such movements in a global context.