The mutual benefit movement in Chile from its origins to the present time (1853-1992)

The mutual benefit movement in Chile first appeared with the beginnings of industrialization and urbanization from the 1830s onwards. The first associations of urban workers emerged in 1853: this was followed by an initial period of expansion of mutual benefit activities until 1890. Almost all the urban trades were represented. During this period the mutual benefit movement was the principal organizing force for popular demands. From the 1890s onwards mutual benefit — linked with the workers'movement — grew rapidly and entered on a process of unification. Encouraging the development of the trade union movement, it took a leading part in determining the shape of the people's movements and maintained this role until 1924: this period marked the high point of mutual benefit activities in Chile. Mutual benefit organizations defended workers'demands and the boundaries between mutual benefit and trade union organizations were quite fluid. But the adoption of the social legislation and the support offered by certain leaders of the mutual benefit movement to the military dictatorship marked the beginning of the movement's decline. Efforts were then made to extend its scope of activities and unify the mutual benefit movement in Chile and in Latin America as a whole. The results of this were limited and the crisis continued after the Second World War. The 1973 coup d'état aggravated the situation still further. Today, with the virtual destruction of social security and its replacement by a system of private insurance schemes, one needs to ask whether the Chilean mutual benefit movement, which at one time was the principal form of popular organization, has a future.     

Disobedience and support for democracy: Evidences from the World Values Survey

For some time, social movement research and political science have studied protests and activists. However, little empirical research attempts to relate movements to the type of social change they endeavour to achieve. In this paper, we suggest that different psychosocial processes may distinguish between different types of movement and protest. In particular, we cross lines between classical social psychology studies on the individual–authority relationship and studies on protest and social movements. We focus attention on the psychological processes triggered in obedience/disobedience. Our results show that when disobedience is associated with attitudes of inclusiveness, it is also positively linked to prodemocratic individual attitudes and to the enhancement of democracy at institutional levels.     

Pākehā and Tauiwi Treaty education: an unrecognised decolonisation movement?

ABSTRACT

The Māori call to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi is arguably the oldest continuous social movement in Aotearoa New Zealand since the Treaty for European settlement was signed. A much more recent Pākehā and Tauiwi activism for the Treaty has supported the Māori movement, but is often overlooked as a social movement. Responsibility for ensuring that Tauiwi understand the Treaty remains contentious—is Treaty education a Tauiwi or a Māori responsibility? This article describes the emergence in the 1980s of a consensus among Māori and Tauiwi activists that, as Treaty partners, Pākehā/Tauiwi should take responsibility for their own learning about Te Tiriti and colonisation. Six reasons for overlooking such decolonising education as a social movement are explored through reflexive scholarship by Treaty educators: 1. hegemonic views of social change movements as only class- or race-based and adversarial; 2. Tiriti education as counter-hegemonic education that encourages transformation of the Māori–Pākehā relationship; 3. confusion over whether the aims of Treaty education are counter-hegemonic or assimilatory; 4. the movement’s evolving membership to include many cultural identities and activism about diverse neo-colonialisms; 5. its focus on mutually-agreed relationship-building; and 6. the complexity of assessing its impact and contribution to a decolonisation agenda.     

Participants in the nuclear weapons freeze movement

Explanations of why people participate in social movements are usually ad hoc combinations of ideology, social support, and ecological factors. This survey of Californians active in the nuclear freeze movement found that rather than structural isolation, as suggested by collective behavior tradition, the participants displayed links to Democratic Party organizations and the previous anti-Vietnam War movement. At least some social movements may become institutionalized to the degree that paradigms from areas such as political sociology of institutions are needed. Social movements may have evolved beyond their earlier collective behavior origins.     

Trends in the development of a European social union

Abstract The European Union's policy of economic concentration and de regulation en tails a creeping loss of sovereignty over social policy for the member States, which are also subject to the common monetary policy: the budgetary discipline they are expected to maintain calls for a constant reduction in social expenditure and the radical privatization of public areas of the economy. The question is whether, by harmonizing its various national fiscal, social and economic policies to a greater or lesser extent, the European Un ion can regain the freedom of action which individual States have lost. Given increasing in terregional competition, member States find them selves also competing in respect of their social systems. The idea of a European social union, dismissed in the past as a pipe dream, is increasingly be coming a necessity for the success of the integration process in the future. The European Union will remain an alien concept for its citizens until it succeeds in developing a specific base for emancipatory democracy. This will only be possible when social justice and a high level of social security benefits are guaranteed for all citizens. The European constitution is an other step in this direction but is not enough by it self; it can only set democratic processes in motion. The creation of a genuine social un ion calls for further initiatives from social security actors, among others.     

Social Movements, Social Justice and Social Work

Correspondence to: Neil Thompson, Avenue Consulting Ltd, PO Box 2060, Wrexham LL13 OZG, Wales, UK. Summary This paper explores the relationship between social movements,social justice and social work. It examines the role of socialmovements in promoting social justice and considers the influencesof such movements in the development of emancipatory forms ofsocial work practice. It also considers the question of whethersocial work can be viewed as a form of social movement in itsown right. A central theme of the paper is the fundamental tensionbetween social work as a force for social regulation and asa force for social development and emancipation.     

Context Matters: Explaining How and Why Mobilizing Context Influences Motivational Dynamics

The emphasis in the social-psychological collective action literature is on why individuals take part in collective action; however, it does not elaborate on how different mobilizing contexts may appeal to distinct motivational dynamics to participate. The present study connects the microlevel of motivational dynamics of individual protesters with the mesolevel of social movement characteristics. To do so a field study was conducted. Protesters were surveyed in the act of protesting in two different demonstrations in two different town squares simultaneously organized by two social movements at exactly the same time against the same budget cuts proposed by the same government. But with one fundamental difference, the movements emphasized different aspects of the policies proposed by the government. This most similar systems design created a unique natural experiment, which enabled the authors to examine whether the motivational dynamics of individual protesters are moderated by the social movement context. Previous research suggested an instrumental path to collective action, and the authors added an ideology path. The authors expected and found that power-oriented collective action appeals to instrumental motives and efficacy and that value-oriented collective action appeals to ideological motives, and, finally, that efficacy mediates on instrumental motives and motivational strength, but only so in power-oriented action.     

论效率、公平与共同富裕

效率与公平具有内在统一性,机会公平提高社会整体效率,社会整体效率促进结果公平;效率与公平的割裂只会导致贫富差距拉大,实现效率与公平的有机统一,是实现共同富裕的内在要求;在经济实践中,社会为人们创造公平的发展机会,充分发挥人们的积极性和创造性,能够提高社会整体效率,促进社会分配的结果公平,增进全社会福利,实现共同富裕。     

跨国社会运动动员的限制性因素分析——以全球替代运动为例

作为跨国社会运动,全球替代运动的跨国动员存在诸多限制,空间距离、心理距离以及政治机会这些因素都会影响到其跨国动员的效果。为了实现在全球层面的跨国动员,全球替代运动一方面采取网络抗议、社会论坛、新议题建构等方式来克服运动实践中空间距离与心理距离所带来的各种障碍,另一方面,还灵活运用国际社会与国内社会所提供的双重政治机会,规避政治机会因素对全球替代运动跨国动员的限制。     

都市运动研究：理论传统的界定和中国经验的嵌入

在西方学术语境中,都市运动（或称都市社会运动）代表了和主流社会运动研究截然不同的学术和理论传统。都市运动成为近年中国社会学研究领域的一个热点,但没有被置于一个系统的理论框架之中。本文从批判性地考察中国学者对“都市运动”这一术语的“借用”开始,然后对西方的都市运动研究的理论脉络进行梳理,突出揭示都市运动研究和主流社会运动在理论观点和研究旨趣方面的差异。文章认为,西方都市运动研究注重学者参与和立足社区的传统,对今天中国的实证研究具有启示意义。     

Attributing Outcomes to Social Policy Interventions – ‘Gold Standard’ or ‘Fool's Gold’ in Public Policy and Management?

In recent years there has been increased interest in outcome‐based social policy‐making and management. The UK has been in the forefront of this movement but similar movements have been identified internationally. This interest in outcome‐based decision‐making has been given particular impetus through the ‘results’‐based movement in evaluation and performance management since the 1980s, which has increased in scope over time, slowly changing its emphasis from cost reduction and measuring outputs to measuring outcomes. This change has been widely welcomed by policymakers, practitioners and academics. However, there is evidence that the reality is often rather less than the rhetoric. Moreover, the ‘attribution problem’ of attributing changes in outcomes to specific social policies has remained a major issue. The conceptual solution of constructing ‘cause‐and‐effect’ models, imported from the policy evaluation field, has only recently become common for operationalising these models. This article outlines the evolution of interest in outcome‐based social policy‐making up to recent times and the growing realization of the importance of the attribution problem. It then outlines both how the ‘cause‐and‐effect’ policy modelling approach can partially tackle the attribution problem, but also its inherent limitations. Lastly, the article uses several case studies in current UK social policy‐making to demonstrate the potential importance of the reasoning embedded within cause‐and‐effect models but also the dangers in policy‐making which adopts this approach without understanding its conceptual basis or in fields where it is inappropriate, given the current state of our knowledge of social policy systems.     

The Soviet 'wife-activist' down on the farm

Parties independent of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) were not formally permitted and non-party groups and movements needed the CPSU's approval to be allowed to form and survive. This was the situation up to Gorbachev's process of democratization. However, the CPSU had occasionally allowed the existence of social organizations which served the party and socialism and were perceived as ideologically non-threatening. One such was the 'movement of wives' ( dvizhenie zhen ) formed in the 1930s but not part of the party structure, but at best the wives could work within the boundaries of party policies. They tried to make daily life better for themselves, their husbands, children and the local community. Analyses have focused mainly on the movement as an urban phenomenon but they spread to farms and the rural sector. This article discusses their role in this context.     

Economic Determinants of Voting in an Era of Union Decline*

Objective. The objective of this article is to test competing hypotheses regarding union vote effects by economic sector. Overlooked in existing research on political participation and the labor movement is de‐unionization's sectoral dimension: declining union rolls is a private‐sector phenomenon. The sectoral dimension of union decline carries important political consequences if the influence of unions on voter turnout varies by sector. Method. Using Current Population Survey (CPS) November Voting and Registration Supplements for all national elections between 1984 and 2006, I estimate union vote effects for public‐ and private‐sector employees. Results. The results of the analyses reveal that while union members continue to vote at higher rates than otherwise similar nonmembers, the union effect is nearly three times as large for private‐sector members: private‐sector unionists have a predicted probability of voting 6.7 points higher than nonmembers, while public‐sector members have a predicted probability of voting only 2.4 points higher than nonmembers. Conclusions. Given the small fraction of private‐sector workers now in labor unions, recent fluctuations in the unionization rate have little aggregate affect on turnout. Given that private‐sector union members tend to be less educated and earn less than their public‐sector counterparts, the near disappearance of private‐sector unions from the economic landscape removes an important institutional buffer against political inequality in the United States.     

阶层分化与中国共产党的利益整合功能

利益整合是执政党的重要功能。在经济转型、社会结构变迁以及阶层分化的时代背景下 ,作为执政党 ,中国共产党应对其利益整合功能进行科学而准确的定位 ,并应寻求比较现实的途径以充分发挥这一功能。中国共产党利益整合的最高准则是增强党的阶级基础 ,扩大党的社会基础 ;其根本目标是构建合理的现代阶层结构 ;其理念依据是共享改革成果 ,实现社会公正。为此 ,中国共产党要提升市场化的体制结构对实现利益的激励作用 ;要从立法上保证不同阶层的权利和利益 ,建立合理的利益表达机制 ,实现社会各方面的利益需要 ;要建立社会各阶层间的协商和协作机制 ,大力发展社会中介组织和机构 ,发挥它们的协调作用及党和政府的宏观调控作用 ;要扩大社会中间阶层 ,强化其消解利益矛盾和摩擦的“沉沙地”作用     

The Greens and Social Policy: Movements,Politics and Practice?

The central aim of this paper is to show how different types of green movement respond to questions of social policy. An important factor in this is a difference in attitudes to the state between more anarchistic greens and those greens that are prepared to accept a permanent and/or strategic role for the state. The paper is divided into two parts. In part one, after defning the green movement, it outlines how different green social movements from local groups, direct action protestors, established environmental groups and green political parties, have developed analyses, responses and alternatives to social policy issues. Part two of the paper looks at some of the ideological/theoretical debates within green politics with regard to social policy, with particular regard to the role of the state. It goes on to look at some of the ways in which European green parties have viewed social policy, and at proposals they have advanced for moving the aim of social policy from "welfare" to "well-being". It concludes with suggesting that the "post-materialist" characterization of green politics is very wide of the mark in terms of the range of analyses and policy alternatives greens have put forward, from health, education and drugs to transport. The central and long-standing green concern with lessening socioeconomic inequalities (but without relying on indiscriminate and unsustainable "economic growth") means that in terms of social policy, green politics can be seen as an "environmentalism of the poor", concerned with "materialist" issues.     

A port in a storm: Spontaneous volunteering and grassroots movements in Amsterdam. A resilient approach to the (European) refugee crisis

This article seeks to expand knowledge about spontaneous volunteering in Amsterdam during the European refugee crisis in the winter of 2015–16. As formal institutions, which relied on a top–down command and control approach, were unable to handle the relatively large number of refugees who arrived in a short period of time, grassroots social movements based on bottom–up participation emerged. Grassroots volunteers were not only politically engaged, protesting against the strict refugee reception policy, but they also became involved in the crisis response, showing a great deal of flexibility. Although the social movements struggled with their organizational structures, they were able to adapt their missions and structures to changing circumstances. To achieve a resilience‐based response to future refugee influxes, this article advocates for formal response organizations to dismantle their static, top–down approach, and for social movements to find a balance between participation and professionalism. If institutionalized refugee response organizations adapt to the dynamics of local conditions, they could create the conditions for resilient solutions in the crisis context.     

Trade unions and the elderly population: is retirement still linked to the sphere of work?

Although trade unions focus on the labor force, they are important for the retirees as well. In Germany there are three main reasons for this importance. 1) Quite unintentionally, the unions - with 1.7 million retired members - have become one of the largest old-age organizations, 2) In a corporatist work and welfare regime such as Germany, the unions are one of the key actors not only in labor market policy but also in social policy, including the generational contract of old-age security. 3) The unions potentially link the retirees to the sphere of work, and thus to the concerns and conflicts of the work society. In an aging society, the saliency of such a link between work and retirement is increasing. On the one hand, with their active membership decreasing, unions are compelled to turn also to those who have retired from work to maintain their organizational strength. On the other hand, the retirees have a greater interest in union activity. By calling for a larger share in union affairs, they present the unions with an organizational dilemma. This article discusses the practice and potential of the link between unions and their older members from both perspectives: from that of the unions and their interest in the retirees and from that of the retirees and their interest in maintaining membership. Our empirical basis is a multi-level study of unions and old-age politics in Germany, including some steps towards comparison with other European countries. The study focuses on the German Metal Workers' Union - with its 3 million members the biggest single trade union not only in Germany but in all the Western world. After introducing our approach, we follow the three points outlined above. We begin by examining the evolution of the membership share of retirees in the unions. Secondly, we discuss the role of the unions in the corporatist system, especially with respect to policies concerning the elderly population. The third point, the link between retirement and the work sphere, is treated by first looking at the organizational supply of union activities for the elderly population, and then at the demand by elderly members. Finally, we briefly address the possible directions for the future, especially with regard to models of organizational representation.     

Shifting frames and rhetorics: a case study of the Christian Coalition of New York

In their struggle to realize their goals, social movements must develop a rhetorical frame that resonates with the world-view of potential adherents. This cultural dimension of social movement activity is addressed by exploring how movements construct meanings and, in the process, make sense of events both for their supporters and for wider audiences. This essay outlines a typology of “master frames” that provide a discursive grounding for classifying events and creating a coherent social order. The typology is then used to chart the evolution of rhetorical frames adopted by the Christian Coalition of New York in the debate over public school curriculum. Content analyses and interviews conducted for this study suggest that, despite a group’s underlying world-view, the effectiveness of master frames is governed largely by the discursive grounding of the arena in which the conflict is taking place.     

Understanding Leaders of Repressive Social Movements

Researchers studying right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) have discussed the need to distinguish authoritarian followers from leaders. Altemeyer's (2003) studies raise several issues about political leadership in the real world. First, are most leaders of authoritarian social movements high on both RWA and social dominance (SDO)? Second, is it possible to be an authoritarian leader of a repressive social movement without being high on SDO? Third, it would be useful to develop techniques to assess SDO at a distance. Fourth, what roles do the psychological motives of need for power, need for affiliation and intimacy, and need for responsibility play in motivating leadership behavior in high SDO leaders? Finally, does social dominance exist in countries with non–Western value systems? Understanding the psychology of leaders of repressive social movements may help us develop ways to limit access to the power they crave and to mitigate the damage that they do.     

Social Movement Identity: Validating a Measure of Identification with the Environmental Movement*

Objective. We offer an empirical measure of “social movement identity” vis‐à‐vis the environmental movement. Our measure of environmental movement identity complements existing efforts to measure the ambiguous concept of “environmental identity.” Methods. We utilize data from a 2000 Gallup Poll of 1,004 adults to examine relationships between our measure of environmental movement identity and self‐reported membership in environmental organizations, assessments of the environmental movement, and self‐reported pro‐environmental behaviors. Results. The measure appears to have face validity, and our results suggest it also has construct and predictive validity since it is related to environmental organization memberships, assessments of the environmental movement, and self‐reported pro‐environmental behaviors—even when controlling for relevant sociopolitical characteristics. Conclusions. The measure is useful for analyses of the environmental movement, can be adapted for research on other movements, and can help social movement analysts respond to calls to investigate linkages between public opinion and movement dynamics.