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106 Social Movements

cultural frame in which they are situated any more than any other social
member. RMT, however, is based on a realist epistemology in which the
objects of study are, or have been, real resources and political structures
which exist independently of their meaningful construction by social
actors. The implications of adopting a framing theory of social action
which is incompatible with this realist epistemology have not yet been
fully considered within this tradition.
Finally, the cultural framing approach also has important implications
for the RMT view of politics. If social action is based on defi nitions and
meanings made from within cultural frames, then there is no reason to

see the contestation of definitions and meanings as simply a preliminary
to collective action, a mobilizing strategy to enable a social movement to
realize the real goals of influencing political structures and effecting socio -

economic change. On the contrary, the theory of framing suggests that
what is at stake in much collective action is cultural politics: the contesta-
tion and transformation of the meanings actors attribute to events, experi-
ences, and perceptions, and the attempt to construct and reconstruct one ’ s
view of oneself and others.
Traditionally, RMT has focused on social movements as political actors
concerned above all with achieving change to the socio - economic struc-
ture through the nation - state. It is important not to neglect the relation-
ship between social movements and the state, nor to ignore the fact that
integration into the political process in the way Tilly describes may facili-
tate the realization of a movement ’ s aims, rather than representing its
cooption and neutralization (as, for example, Touraine would see it).
However, this is very different from the understanding of politics which
is the consequence of RMT ’ s “ cultural turn. ” On this understanding, the
ongoing contestation of social identities and structures and the broader
social change effected as a result must also be seen as political. At this
point, the RMT tradition joins “ new social movement ” theory, to which
such an understanding of the cultural politics of social movements has
always been central.

3.2 New Social Movement Theory: Confl ict
and Culture

In contrast to the liberal premises of RMT, New Social Movement Theory
has its roots in Marxism, which it rejects but from which it, nevertheless,
retains certain presuppositions. It is based on the centrality of confl ict to
society and, rather than beginning from the starting point of isolated