Understanding Social Movements

Understanding Social Movements offers a multidisciplinary introduction to the study of social and cultural protest and contentious politics. It combines a theoretical perspective and with a fascinating array of case studies. It covers religious movements; social welfare movements; struggles over space; law, crime and social movements; and media and movements. Other sections of the book discuss the origins of social movement studies and historical perspectives, social movements and political processes, new social movements, identity and cultural politics, and virtual networking and cyber protest.

Case studies include the US civil rights movement, anti-globalization campaigns, and include further material from Europe, China, Latin America, Africa, India and the Middle East.

Greg Martin is a lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Sydney, Australia. He has published numerous articles (including on social welfare movements, subcultures and social movements, protest policing and new social movement theory) in a range of international journals, such as British Journal of Sociology, Critical Social Policy and Social Movement Studies. He recently co-authored the undergraduate textbook Sociology, 4^th ed (Pearson, 2010) and co-edited a special issue of Social Movement Studies (April 2010): ‘Surviving Neoliberalism: The Persistence of Australian Social Movements’. He is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for Social Movement Studies (Taylor and Francis) and is an Associate Editor of Crime, Media, Culture (Sage).