The Emergence of a New Social Movement: Social Networks and Collective Action on Water Issues in Guelph, Ontario

Robert Case and Lea Caragata

Community Development, 2009, vol. 40, issue 3, 247-261

Abstract: For new social movement theorists, changes in Western capitalist societies brought about by the transition from an industrial to a post-industrial era are fundamental to understanding the formation, structure, and operation of new social movements. Using observational and interview data from a 2008 World Water Day rally, this article draws on and examines theoretical contributions of New Social Movement theorists Alain Touraine, Alberto Melucci, and Claus Offe to inform an exploration and analysis of growing collective action on water issues in Guelph, Ontario. The authors argue that growing citizen engagement in water issues in Guelph and area, operating primarily through loosely organized informal social networks, represents growing collective action that constitutes a vibrant New Social Movement. So conceptualized, the authors discuss implications for theoretical understandings of citizen mobilization in general and for the strengthening of collective action on water itself.

Date: 2009
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/15575330903091738 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:comdev:v:40:y:2009:i:3:p:247-261

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RCOD20

DOI: 10.1080/15575330903091738

Access Statistics for this article

Community Development is currently edited by John Green, Rhonda Phillips and Anne Heinze Silvis

More articles in Community Development from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().