Everything that lives must die?

Ok, stumbled on a really cool sounding project “Mapping the Australian Women’s Movement” at the Australian National Univeristy. And the section on “the Trajectories of Social Movements“

The social movement literature contains many hypotheses concerning the trajectories of social movements. The first is that there is a naturally short life span for intense social movement activism and engagement. This hypothesis received an influential form in Sidney Tarrow’s (1994) life-cycle model of social movements. Social movements become possible within certain historical conjunctures, and by their nature as non-institutionalised forms of collective action cannot be sustained for very long. Their life cycles are limited by internal factors, which may relate to the volatility of emotions that drive non-institutionalised protest, such as rage at injustice (Goodwin et al 2001); and external factors, which can include the change to a less favourable political and social context where movement activism no longer has discernible returns.

The second hypothesis is that social movements that succeed in achieving their aims change into something else—for example, through opening up new opportunities in the power structure or in professional careers for those they have mobilised. Movement from the streets into the corridors of power may be regarded ‘the long march through the institutions’ on the one hand or co-option on the other. The transformation of social movements into ‘something else’ may also create a new constellation of institutions reflecting movement values and perspectives—for example the institutionalising of women’s movement values in women’s services such as domestic violence refuges (Bagguley 2002) or the unobtrusive mobilization of women within mainstream institutions and vocational bodies (Katzenstein 1990). The ‘submerged networks’ created by social movements may sustain cultural change within communities and within daily life.

The third hypothesis is that cognitive frames shift so markedly in a post-modern era that collective action to achieve social goals no longer appears a real option, as collective identities become fragmented and social movement mobilisation is delegitimised. New cognitive frames that stress individual market choices and cultural consumption become dominant, overshadowing the values of collective action (Sawer 2006). The ability to ‘speak for’ shared identities and values is called into question as the fragmented and contingent nature of identity makes the assumption of shared values problematic. This loss of faith in collective identities removes the political base for claims-making and enables the dismantling of social movement policy gains and policy structures.

The fourth hypothesis is that the emotion cultures of social movements may sustain groups after broader mobilisation recedes—in other words, social movement organisations may be sustained by close friendships based on shared values (Taylor 1989). Within abeyance structures the meanings and identities produced by social movements may be preserved through periods when the political environment is unreceptive, and provide continuity from one stage of mobilisation to another (Rupp and Taylor 1987). This hypothesis leads to another—that activism during the downturn is the foundation for later success (Maddison and Scalmer 2006). In other words, there will be a third wave of women’s movement mobilisation and it will have some identifiable continuity with earlier waves.