ABSTRACT
Taken literally this is a period of time in which observable social movement activity by established actors declines and loses prominence within the public sphere and becomes latent. Alberto Melucci’s discussion of visibility and latency (Melucci 1989: Chp. 3) developed themes which are increasingly important given the development of network society arguments. Melucci differentiates between the political significance of social movements which tend to be assessed through the study of visible interventions and the social and cultural significance of movements that are latent activities. The latent portion of movement activity takes place at the ‘molecular’ level of day to day social relations and is central in constituting collective identities capable of resistance and conflict. For Melucci ‘the latency of a movement is its effective strength’ (1989: 71). The notion of latency has important methodological implications for the study of social movements. Approaches based on the observation of visible, for example, mainstream media accounts do not engage with the latent activities of the movement milieu. Consideration of the latent work of movements requires qualitative engagement and longitudinal approaches.
