ABSTRACT
This chapter examines data on protesters taking part in demonstrations across Western Europe between 2009 and 2013, and presents a detailed empirical investigation of participants in anti-austerity movements in Europe. The chapter also examines the extent to which this type of movement presents continuity and change with respect to both "old" and "new" social movements. The movements emerging in the 1960s, particularly the student movement, were understood as "new" in relation to the "old" labor movement. While the labor movement was traditionally understood as fighting for the interests of the working-class against the ruling capitalist class, the new movements represented emergent constituencies that did not neatly fit into the logic of class struggle between bourgeoisie and proletariat. Most recently, anti-austerity movements struggling against government cuts and unjust policy-making in the face of the economic crisis including famous examples such as the Indignados and Occupy movements have sprung up across Europe in the wake of the Great Recession.
