Why do social movements take the forms they do? How do activists' efforts and beliefs interact with the cultural and political contexts in which they work? Why do activists take particular strategic paths, and how do their strategies affect the course and impact of the movement? Social Movements aims to bridge the gap between "political opportunities" theorists who look at the circumstances and effects of social movement efforts and "collective identity theorists" who focus on the reconstruction of meaning and identity through collective action. The volume brings together scholars from a variety of perspectives to consider the intersections of opportunities and identities, structures and cultures, in social movements. Representing a new generation of social movement theory, the contributors build bridges between political opportunities and collective identity paradigms, between analyses of movements' internal dynamics and their external contexts, between approaches that emphasize structure and those that emphasize culture. They cover a wide range of case studies from both the U.S. and Western Europe as well as from less developed countries. Movements include feminist organizing in the U.S. and India, lesbian/gay movements, revolutionary movements in Burma, the Philippines, and Indonesia, labor campaigns in England and South Africa, civil rights movements, community organizing, political party organizing in Canada, student movements of the left and right, and the Religious Right. Many chapters also pay explicit attention to the dynamics of gender, race, and class in social movements. Combining a variety of perspectives on a wide range of topics, the contributors' synthetic approach shifts the field of social movements forward in important new directions.

为什么社会运动会采取这样的形式？活动家的努力和信仰如何与他们所处的文化和政治背景相互作用？为什么活动家会采取特定的战略路线，他们的战略又是如何影响运动的进程和影响的？社会运动》旨在弥合 "政治机会 "理论家和 "集体认同理论家 "之间的差距，前者研究社会运动努力的环境和效果，后者关注通过集体行动重建意义和身份。本卷汇集了来自不同角度的学者，考虑社会运动中机会与身份、结构与文化的交集。作为新一代社会运动理论的代表，作者们在政治机会和集体认同范式之间，在运动的内部动态分析和外部环境之间，在强调结构的方法和强调文化的方法之间架起桥梁。他们涵盖了来自美国和西欧以及欠发达国家的广泛的案例研究。这些运动包括美国和印度的女权主义组织、女同性恋/男同性恋运动、缅甸、菲律宾和印度尼西亚的革命运动、英国和南非的劳工运动、民权运动、社区组织、加拿大的政党组织、左派和右派的学生运动以及宗教右派。许多章节还明确关注了社会运动中的性别、种族和阶级的动态。撰稿人结合了对各种主题的不同观点，他们的综合方法将社会运动领域推向了重要的新方向。