Social Movements and Politics

.
             At this point is it necessary to mention that every social movement I have mentioned so far other than the Suffragette movement is considered a New Social Movement. It is important to highlight the distinction between a social movements and a New Social Movement. Essentially a New Social Movement is general considered any social movement that was formed after the student movements which occurred in Europe and the US in the late 1960's (Marjorie Mayo, 2005:61). The cause of the formation of New Social Movements as Touraine highlighted was the fact that at the time a new class of educated, middle class, youth in Europe had emerged from a post-industrial society which meant these people were able to take a more critical view of society at the time and form social movements to question political and social issues of the time. Engaging in politics had begun to move away from the traditional working class method of trade unions into social movements which were much more participatory (Marjorie Mayo, 2005:62). Not only did the old ways of engaging in politics change from trade unions to social movements but so did goals, trade unions fought for material gains of the collective that were part of them, such a pay rises. New Social Movements saw the shift from material needs that Touraine highlighted in his writings about struggles between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie to more social and political matters that New Social Movement theory highlights. (Nick Crossley, 2002:151-152).
             Social movements often stem from and individuals feelings or opinions towards a certain topic. Usually these topics consist of political or social factors in which an individual or collective individuals see these factors to be immoral or threatening to the rights, safety and civil liberties of the individuals. An important factor to consider when understanding social movements is that ordinarily it is a minority that starts them with the objective of correcting or changing the political or social structure they are contesting, only later does the social movement gain a following (Della Porta, 2006:3).