Waves of Social Movement Mobilizations in the Twenty-First Century

Using case studies from around the world, this book analyzes the recent wave of social movement and protests.

Based on case studies, this book analyzes a recent wave of social movement and protests in the twenty-first century. It has two overarching broadly defined themes: first, to identify commonalities across the social movements and protests in terms of strategies, desire, hopes as well as the main factors in the decline of the movements. And second, to underline the significance of the general economic, social, and political conditions in which these protests arose. Although there are specific national and local context-specific reasons for the protests observed in different countries, the gradual integration of the post-war neo-liberal hegemonic world order is the fundamental overarching structural factor behind these protests. From Turkey to Spain, Greece to Mexico, and the Netherlands to the U.S., this book observes that the “outsiders” of the system resist against the oppression of the neo-liberal world system.

Chapter 1: Seeking (and Finding) DemocracyMark Purcell
Chapter 2: The Indignados and the Global Diffusion of Forms of Protest Against Authoritarianism and Structural Adjustment Programs, Ernesto Castañeda
Chapter 3: The Greek Social Movements and an Analysis of the Reaction in Greece to the Gezi Park Protests, Gökçe Bayındır Goularas
Chapter 4: # Yo Soy 132: A Networked Social Movement of Mexican Youth, Luis Rubén Díaz Cepeda
Chapter 5: Deconstructing Neo-Patrimonial System via Humor: Gezi Park “Çapulcu” Protests in Turkey, Nahide Konak and Rasim Özgür Dönmez
Chapter 6: Squatting (in Turkey): A Practice of Transforming Public Spaces into Commons?, Helga Rittersberger-Tılıç
Chapter 7: Occupying Power: Strategies for Change in Occupy London, Sam Halvorsen and Simon Thorpe
Chapter 8: Wildfire Movement’s Crashing on the Local Trenches: A Comparison of Occupy Los Angeles and Occupy Amsterdam, Walter Nicholls and Justus Uitermark
Chapter 9: Political Economy of European Mobilization: Why Did the Anti-Austerity Movements Fail, Beyza Ç. Tekin and Rıfat Barış Tekin