ABSTRACT
The concept of social movement has been around for almost one hundred years now and remains a contested concept within sociology and other disciplines. Despite this, use of the term social movement has spread across disciplinary and sub-disciplinary boundaries in recent years. This suggests that the importance of social movement as a category for describing and analysing the contemporary milieu has a renewed prominence. Like any area of study with a hundred-year lineage, the relationship between contemporary developments and established approaches results in a dialogical process of claim and counter claim. The relevance of different established positions to contemporary developments is one major theme that sits alongside debates between new interpretations and theories. This is an important part of the process through which knowledge is socially negotiated and consolidated within and between disciplines.
