Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides a rigorously- researched, evidence-based set of research chapters on the relationship between austerity and protest. It talks about the three crucial, long-standing debates in scholarship in political sociology, social movement studies, and related fields: the effects of economic hardship on protest and social movements, the role of grievances and opportunities in social movement theory, and the distinction between "old" and "new" movements. The book discusses primary survey data retrieved in the context of a collaborative project carried out between 2009 and 2012 in several European countries. The economic crisis may provide the political space and motivations for the mobilization of those seeking to criticize what are perceived to be unjust patterns of wealth distribution in advanced capitalist democracies and to draw attention to the fact that not all sections of society bear the costs of economic crisis evenly.