Iztapalapa (Nov 1999)
New Social Movements and Collective Identities
Abstract
This paper criticizes the position that holds that the only meaningful political actions and the only formation of significant political identities are related to the economic bases. In other words, those within capitalist productive relations where the basic class contradictions can be found. The author of this paper basically takes into consideration two analytical criteria from the social movements theorists who argue that collective action can arise from sources other than the economic structure, such as the political or cultural dimension as well as from ethnic and gender relations. This shows that the sources of collective identity can be formed by something other than class. These different types of social movements create new identities and life styles.
