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This chapter provides an overview of social movements in the socio-cultural, economic, and political context of Hong Kong. It also draws on feminist and social movement scholarship to illustrate how the empirical focus on Hong Kong can advance theoretical deliberations on transnational feminism. Constructions of collective identity are fundamental to grievance interpretation in all forms of collective action. However, current debates within feminist scholarship reveal that this alignment between identity and mobilization has only been partially addressed. Identities, within these debates, are conceived as extant before movements, which subsequently make them salient by deploying them strategically for political and social change. On the contrary, social movement scholars argue that collective identity is not only necessary for successful collective action, it is often an end in itself. This chapter argues for feminism as a “collective action frame,” rather than a “collective identity,” so as to facilitate our understanding of how women activists build transnational feminist solidarity. The meanings of feminism that dominate at any particular moment are not given a priori, but rather formed out of negotiation and struggle within and across women's movements. This framing process facilitates the extension of personal identity in movement contexts and generates the collective action frame that inspires and legitimizes women's activism.

The emergence of new civic groups from the 1970s onward is discussed in this chapter. The new civic movements which begun in the 1970s can be understood as a Japanese form of the new social movements so prevalent in industrialized nations since the 1960s. The focus of movement intellectuals on issues of daily life, their attention to non-class identities, and their preference for practical initiatives are all quintessential elements of the NSMs (New Social Movements). Leading activists' emphasis on self reflexivity also lends credence to an NSM reading of these movements. Nevertheless, the chapter set aside the NSM paradigm for two reasons: firstly, much of what the intellectuals of the movement claimed to be new about their movements actually drew liberally on elements of earlier shimin thought and activism, especially notions of self-help, participation, nation, and community; and, secondly, the new civic movements and their leaders effected changes that NSM theory simply could not explain.

This chapter reiterates the argument that relations among women activists are constructed, not only on the basis of difference, but on shared understandings and aspirations. Women's movements in Hong Kong are embedded in a socio-political environment characterized by fluidity, heterogeneity, and partiality. On one hand, it allows social movements with diverse concerns, interests, and expertise to co-exist. On the other hand, alternative discourses cannot constitute a fully developed, singular ideology. As this environment shifts with the increasing influence of the Beijing government, women's activism may well become less effective, since it is not equipped, in its present form, to operate successfully in a more homogenous environment. Transnational feminist solidarity through transversal politics that is emerging in Hong Kong will prove to be increasingly complex and complicated in the long term. However, this book suggests feminism as a collective action frame through which we might try to sort out the interactions and negotiations among women activists in diverse historical periods and socio-cultural, economic, and political contexts. Transversal politics show us how activists with conflicting ideas and interests are talking across their differences and taking collective action and how understandings and interpretations of feminism are unfolding.

In lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) social movement communities, members with varied sexual and gender identities work to pursue shared goals. While gender and sexual marginalization serve as common rallying points for members, intersectionality theory recognizes that each person has multiple, intersecting identities, which influence their experiences of oppression and empowerment (Crenshaw 1989). As a result, it is important to understand how LGBTQ activists navigate multiple identities and investments, while still maintaining group solidarity. Using 53 interviews with non-heterosexuals, I examine how multiple sexual, gender, and racial identities were subsumed within a broader "queer community" group engaged in identity-verification among their peers. Based on the findings, I suggest that inclusive ideologies, when deployed in diverse social movement communities, can reproduce inequalities from within. Furthermore, I argue that these inequalities are made visible through the processes by which members of social groups engage in struggles to verify group membership.

This book studies third sectors in different parts of the world. The third sector refers to various types of relief and welfare organizations, innovation organizations, public service organizations, economic development organizations, grassroots mobilization groups, advocacy groups, and social networks. These include civil society organizations, nonprofit organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and formal and informal associations. Building on recent work on the origins, dynamics, and effects of civil society across the globe, this book compares the functions, impacts, and composition of the nonprofit sector for six countries: United States, France, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and China. This introduction explains the book's approach of using institutional logics to study the third sector, offers new theoretical perspectives on how different types of participation can increase generalized trust and state legitimacy, and considers the impact of neoliberalism and the so-called “New Political Culture” on nonprofits. It also discusses the emergence of New Social Movements and how associational politics might fit into the large picture of political life.

This chapter draws conclusions about the relationship between social movements and markets, while exploring the practical consequences of the Circuit Riders and nonprofit technology assistance organizations. Theoretically, this chapter explains the process by which accounts become conventions, or soft institutions. In the soft institutions stage, conventions are more easily challenged by alternative accounts. The result is contention in organizational fields over the “rules of the game.” Such contention is resolved when actors in the field accept a set of “rules” as appropriate. For moral markets, the “rules of the game” or institutions, are developed through these processes of contention. This chapter outlines how contention over institutions, especially battles over moral legitimacy, imbues markets with moral codes as well as rules of social action. Practically, this chapter demonstrates the positive and negative outcomes of the transformation of the Circuit Riders into a market for technology assistance in the nonprofit sector.

Chapter 6 provides a detailed examination of the impact of identity politics. It begins with a critical look at the development of black radical ideas, their dismissal of the ‘white working class’, and their failure to set out how sectorial struggle could lead to working-class unity. It concentrates on the experience of the Bengali Housing Action Group, a squatters’ organisation coordinated by black radical activists from Race Today, and on anti-racist resistance spearheaded by second generation Asian Youth Movements. These campaigns succeeded in securing homes for many families and in generating a sea-change in community consciousness and confidence as Bengalis asserted their right to stay in Britain and be treated decently. However they left a legacy of geographical clustering and of separate community-based organisation that failed to address wider socio-economic inequalities. The chapter compares this identity politics with the 1930s, when the Communist Party used campaigns against racism and for better housing to unite the working class across the racial divide, to undercut support for fascism, and to build support for left ideas. It concludes by looking at how public money has been used to incorporate once-radical organisation into the establishment and institutionalise competition between different community groups.

Of the three regions that attained statehood in 2000, Jharkhand had the longest running movement for statehood. Multiple parties, outfits and actors had campaigned for a separate tribal state, employing different tactics, arguments and with different degrees of intensity. In Uttarakhand, new social movements had emerged in the 1970s but it was only in the mid-1990s that there was a concerted campaign for statehood. This chapter looks at why statehood became a more singular objective for social movement actors in both regions from the late 1980s onwards, and why some political parties, especially the BJP, also adopted statehood as a goal. In both Jharkhand and Uttarakhand, unlike Chhattisgarh, where no popular movement emerged, social movement actors and political parties came to focus more single-mindedly on the achievement of statehood as a priority in itself and as a means of achieving control of the state. The chapters shows that interactions between social movement actors, political parties and the state helped to produce a focus on statehood that functioned as a lowest common denominator among actors with divergent interests.

This chapter shows how competition among groups shapes moral markets. It explains how the Circuit Riders engaged with the new dominant actor in nonprofit technology assistance, NPower. Through successive interactions, new conventions of coordination reduced the uncertainty of interacting in the nonprofit technology assistance market. In response to NPower’s growing dominance, some in the Circuit Rider movement mobilized around an alternative platform, free/open source software. The strategy was an attempt to reassert the founding values of the Circuit Rider movement as articulated in technology. Ultimately, the Circuit Riders had limited success in splitting the technology services market. This chapter illustrates how, once institutionalized, organizational forms and practices like social enterprise are difficult to challenge, but also how social movements can create alternative niches for consumers who share their social values. Because markets are not organized strictly on principles of economic rationality, such pressure can nudge them in socially desirable directions.

Brigitte Chamak and Beatrice Bonniau This chapter provides a comparative perspective on autism advocacy using insights gleaned from the study of health social movements. By refocusing attention on contested perspectives of community organization, the chapter sheds light on how people with autism (and non-autistic others) organize themselves and others for diverse political ends.

This chapter analyzes the extent to which the Egyptian public sphere, especially religious institutions were controlled by the ruling authoritarian regime. Eventually, both the state's dominance over institutions and society, along with the established religious institutions' discourse, became stagnant, which precipitated the development of new social movements that were able to mobilize people beyond the stagnant religious discourse. These developed a new discourse, based on human rights, freedoms and social equality. Through developing their new discourse, new secular social movements did not undermine Egyptian's religious consciousness, but rather developed new ideals, in harmony with the Egyptian political culture, but beyond the constraints of the main religious institutions.

This chapter explains how social movements can create moral markets out of their activities and the ambivalence that arises out of such outcomes. When social movements create and shape markets, they attempt to imbue such markets with social values they consider important, such as environmentalism or social justice. But which values eventually take hold? And how? This chapter addresses these questions by explaining three important actions in the creation of markets and movements alike. Establishing worth entails getting actors to recognize the value of one’s endeavors. Organizing creates stable relationships and meanings and channels the efforts of others toward achieving collective goals. Coordination is about figuring out appropriate modes of orientation toward other actors.

The available literature on the Telangana movement offers historical, political, and economic perspectives that define Telangana as a ‘backward’ region and the movement as an offshoot to this backwardness. The backwardness generally discussed pertains to the economic standing of the people of Telangana. From the vantage point of a fresh perspective, this chapter uses regional culture as a vantage point to understand the emergence of the mass movement. It explores the context in which the idea of separate statehood for Telangana took shape and discusses how the movement can be understood as a new social movement. The chapter also attempts to understand the contours of the movement’s history in terms of how the culture of Telangana was marginalized and how Telangana activists, especially employees and students, mobilized against the dominant Andhra culture, leading ultimately to widespread, robust cultural assertion.

Michael Orsini and Joyce Davidson The work brings together a range of perspectives by uniting researchers who are concerned, to a greater or lesser degree, with autistic subjectivities and the politics of cognitive difference. International, trans-disciplinary approach brings philosophers and critical theorists into dialogue with researchers who have conducted case studies of autism within the social sciences and humanities; Situates autism within an abilities framework that respects the complex personhood of autistic individuals, in contrast to the deficit model prevalent in much existing clinical literature; Suitable for scholars, policymakers, autistic individuals, and other individuals and groups involved in developing strategies and services with, and for, autistic people.