Social movement thinking beyond the core: theories and research in post-colonial and post-socialist societies

Pleyers, Geoffrey [UCL] Cox, Laurence Nilsen, Alf

“Social movement studies”, as an academic entity with (some) power, resources and legitimacy, now has its institutional centre of gravity in the US, Canada and western Europe, and the same is true for pretty much all the thinkers who are routinely cited in general “social movements” textbooks. Similarly, some of the most “powerful” (insofar as the term has any meaning) theories used within social movements also have roots in these societies and are shaped by their specific historical experiences. These specificities, however, are often not recognised or discussed, including in those contexts elsewhere in the world where academics or activists are importing such theories as ways of thinking about local (and global) realities