Νέα κοινωνικά κινήματα στη Δυτική Ευρώπη

Abstract

The first part of this paper discusses the common social, cultural and political roots of the new social movements which have come to play a crucial role in the movement politics of most Western European countries during the seventies and eighties. It is argued that these movements are all rooted in a basic antagonism within the new middle class - a conflict about the control of professional work, about individual autonomy, and, in the final analysis about pfojects of the good life in modem society. Moreover, they are said to share a common political origin in the anti-authoritarian revolt of the late sixties, the mobilization of the New Left, and in the citizens action committees which started to mobilize in local and regional contexts in the early seventies. The second part of the paper tries to show that, in spite of the common traits shared by these movements, their level of mobilization and the ways in which they mobilize vary considerably from one country to the other, as a function of specific aspects of the national political contexts - national cleavage structures, the configuration of the left, and the institutional structure of the state. The heritage of the political past, it is argued, contributes to cross-national variations and is likely to continue to do so for some time to come..