ABSTRACT
While Chapter 6 focused on the role of political and economic elites in the politics of Pacific Asia, this chapter looks at movements which challenge such top-down organizations of political and social order. Section 7.2 considers definitions of social movements in Pacific Asia in both a practical and a theoretical context. The remainder of the chapter examines specific social movements as case studies of general trends in political opposition in the region. Section 7.3 considers old social movements in terms of nationalist movements in China. Section 7.4 traces the trajectory of social movements from old social movements to new social movements in South Korea. These new social movements, which have their counterparts elsewhere in Pacific Asia, show how the composition, style and substance of popular politics has changed in tandem with industrialization. Section 7.5 examines the fine line that social movements must tread between independence from and co-optation to the state through the examples of anti-corruption movements in Thailand and the Philippines. Thus far the chapter has focused on urban movements. Section 7.6 seeks to balance this by looking at rural social movements that address the issues of development and environmental protest. Section 7.7 concludes the chapter by examining how social movements are increasingly moving from national space to transnational space through an examination of transnational human rights organizations.
