Social Movements and the State

At the height of neoliberal globalisation, it was assumed that social movements were abandoning the task of engaging with and exacting concessions from the state. In an interconnected world in which state power seemed to lose relevance and many emerging issues such as climate change and inequality seemed to be global, it seemed that social movements would target transnational organisations such as the WTO, IMF, and World Bank or multinational corporations while at the same time often aiming more at the creation of alternative forms of self-management in civil society rather than pushing for social reform through the state. Yet, in recent years we seem to witness a change in this trend with the increasing prominence of collective actions directed towards the state in Western countries. On the one hand, we see a de-globalisation and re-nationalisation of contention. On the other hand, we see the rise of many popular movements that aim to exact concessions from their national governments, as with many recent movements for democracy and equality. But, what about some peripheral societies where the state is also changing, but becoming weak and fragile? What are the different understandings and conceptions of the state emerging within contemporary social movements, and what types of relationships do these actors maintain? How do activists build confidence through ‘do-it-yourself’ reforms without being co-opted? These are some of the issues to be considered by this panel.