Democracy, Social Movements and Rights: The Challenge Of Pluralism

In recent years social movements around the world have been more and more explicitly related to the issue of democracy. Since the 90s and the triumph of neoliberalism, transnational movements have struggled for an idea of democracy focused on human rights and inclusive citizenship, and not simply on the freedom of voting, producing and consuming. With the alter-global movement, and more recently with 15-M and Occupy, the focus of collective action has shifted from the search of individual freedom – as in many post-1968 mobilizations – to collective rights as main goal of a democratic project compatible with an idea of global justice in a pluralist world. On the one hand, digital technologies have enhanced transnational communications and cross-fertilization of mobilizations situated in contexts still deeply differentiated in terms of culture, history and politics. On the other hand, social rights and human rights have become a general framework of reference hiding different internal positions and interpretations about rights themselves. In this presentation I will focus on the theoretical issues raise by pluralism in the recent history of social movements fighting for democracy and rights.