A Critical Theory of Social Movements

In recent years, a notable effort has been made to bridge the interests between critical theory and social movement studies. A few approaches have tried to advance this task, reintroducing the first generation of critical theorists and reimagining Habermas's influence in a new world of communications. However, these approaches do not address some of the questions of the social movement field, such as the lack of theoretical interest and practical challenges in reconstructing a comprehensive insight into the movements. This work addresses whether critical theory can contribute theoretically and empirically beyond providing a rearranged or revamped Zeitdiagnose to social movement research and whether there is space in the field for a value-laden approach. Following Rucht's (2023) plead for multiple perspectives and his approach of an interactionist, constructivist, and process-oriented view of social movements, this work utilizes Rosa's resonant theory account of human relations to address the interactionist perspective, Jaeggi's immanent social formation approach to fulfill the constructionist view, and a genealogical approach to address the process-oriented task.