ABSTRACT

Social movements are such a general phenomenon that it is difficult to find a precise concept to describe them. They are still considered specifically modern, that is to say a nineteenth and twentieth century phenomenon, thus excluding the peasant and slave uprisings as well as revolts by the nobility. Faced with current phenomena that no longer bear this stamp, one takes refuge in the provisional concept of 'new social movements'. This chapter speak of protest movements only if the protest serves as catalyst in the formation of a system of its own. It covers broad areas of the phenomenon of the social movement, but can more easily be delimited. The movement cannot be pressed into the form of a normal organization. Its autocatalysis demands protest as a form that cannot be pressed into the quite different form of a goal; for protesting cannot very well be declared to be the goal of the movement.