Social movements and social stratification

The forceful return of (economic) inequality as a movement issue questions the ignorance toward issues of stratification in a large part of social movement research. The attention to cleavages and stratification declined with the advent of the classic social movement research agenda of political process on the one hand and a focus on transnational processes as a result of the prominence of the Global Justice Movement on the other. They attempt to reconnect social movement with stratification research and distinguish between three different perspectives: (1) stratification as a starting point for understanding the emergence of several mobilizations sharing a common socio-structural trait, (2) research about the stratified nature of social movements and protest events, and (3) stratification as an outcome of social movement activities.

Conference du programme de recherche Mouvements sociaux à l'âge global avec Sabrina Zajak, professor at Ruhr university.