successful insofar as they managed to develop resources, including an appropriate strategic framing, to achieve their goals. Here sociologists were in pursuit of a general theory of collective action a theory true across time and space that took the social, political and economic context – – as a background variable. It was only social “new movement” theory, associated with such writers as Alain Touraine, that considered the context in his case postindustrial society or the – programmed society as defining the form of collective action. – Today, we need to move toward a third wave of social movement theory that centers a a nebulous concept that expresses the invasion of markets new context, namely “neoliberalism” – into all arenas of social and political life. In order to understand contemporary movements for social and economic justice it is necessary therefore, to Here I will take define “neoliberalism.” (2001[1944]) as my point of departure. But first let Karl Polanyi’s The Great Transformation me explore the way marketization propels movements for social justice. From Marketization to New Social Movements Social justice and democratization are especially pertinent themes in Latin America, which for many years was ruled by military dictatorships. The transition to democracy, fought for bravely by so many, has been a major and indisputable advance. Democracy has not, however, fulfilled all of its promises. Primarily, this is because the fall of political dictatorship has been followed by yet another dictatorship: the dictatorship of the market through structural adjustment . In its wake came wave upon wave of injustice and inequality that have inspired Latin Americans, sociologists among them, to battle for a deeper democracy. We see this, for example, in the schemes of participatory budgeting in Brazil, in the Piquetero Movement and factory occupations in Argentina, in the ethnic democracy of Bolivia, and in the student
successful insofar as they managed to develop resources, including an appropriate strategic framing, to achieve their goals. Here sociologists were in pursuit of a general theory of collective action – a theory true across time and space – that took the social, political and economic context as a background variable. It was only “new social movement” theory, associated with such writers as Alain Touraine, that considered the context – in his case postindustrial society or the programmed society – as defining the form of collective action. Today, we need to move toward a third wave of social movement theory that centers a new context, namely “neoliberalism” – a nebulous concept that expresses the invasion of markets into all arenas of social and political life. In order to understand contemporary movements for social and economic justice it is necessary therefore, to define “neoliberalism.” Here I will take Karl Polanyi’s (2001[1944]) The Great Transformation as my point of departure. But first let me explore the way marketization propels movements for social justice. From Marketization to New Social Movements Social justice and democratization are especially pertinent themes in Latin America, which for many years was ruled by military dictatorships. The transition to democracy, fought for bravely by so many, has been a major and indisputable advance. Democracy has not, however, fulfilled all of its promises. Primarily, this is because the fall of political dictatorship has been followed by yet another dictatorship: the dictatorship of the market through structural adjustment . In its wake came wave upon wave of injustice and inequality that have inspired Latin Americans, sociologists among them, to battle for a deeper democracy. We see this, for example, in the schemes of participatory budgeting in Brazil, in the Piquetero Movement and factory occupations in Argentina, in the ethnic democracy of Bolivia, and in the student
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