Page 138 - Contemporary Political Sociology Globalization Politics and Power

124 Social Movements

1994 : 52 – 3). Moreover, it is still the case that social movements differ
within national contexts in terms of styles of mobilizing, the relative vis-
ibility of different causes, the actors involved, and the confl icts in which
they are engaged (Tarrow, 2005 ; Della Porta, 2007 ). However, the pos-
sibilities for exchanges between activists across borders and for the aware-
ness of global problems have been enormously increased in recent years
by the explosion of new technologies that have facilitated other aspects
of globalization. New media and communications bring individuals and
groups news of distant events and problems and possibilities of action in
other places, whilst, at the same time, they facilitate cooperation across
borders.
In the last decade, the growth of transnational activism has been such
that Donatella Della Porta and Sidney Tarrow, probably the most promi-
nent scholars of social movements in the US and Europe today, argue that
we are now seeing a new “ cycle of protest, ” a general wave of the forma-
tion, growth and expansion of multiple and overlapping social movement
activities (Della Porta and Tarrow, 2005 : xiv). Della Porta defi nes global
social movements as “ transnational networks of actors that defi ne their
causes as global and organize protest campaigns and other forms of action
that target more than one state and/or international government organiza-
tion ” (Della Porta, 2007 : 6). There are a number of movements today
that can be considered global, including: the women ’ s movement (Eschle,
2001 ; Moghadam, 2005, 2008 ; Naples and Desai, 2002 ; Ferree and
Tripp, 2006 ); the environmental movement (Chasek, Downie, and Brown,
2005 ; Lipschutz, 2004 ; Rootes, 2005 ); and the global justice movement
(Moghadam, 2008 ; Della Porta, 2005 ; Della Porta, 2007 ; Smith, 2008 ).
The human rights movement may be considered as part of the global
justice movement (Blau and Moncada, 2007, 2009 ; Gready, 2004 ;
Stammers, 2009 ). The movements of this globalizing “ cycle of protest ”
differ in some respects from those of the last century. Here I will outline
the differences globalization is making to social movements, and social
movements are making to globalization, under the headings of Diani ’ s

synthetic definition, looking at networks, identity, and confl ict.

Networks
In terms of networks, there is no doubt that use of new media technolo-
gies plays a crucial role in enabling activism across national borders (van
de Donk et al., 2004 ). Where social movements tended to be based on
face - to - face personal relationships above all, with printed media used to
recruit, persuade, and challenge those not involved in such networks, use