VDM Verlag Barriers & Bridges: In Search of Common Ground within the Movement of Movements

The purpose of this book is to examine whether the “Movement of movements” has the capacity to unite into a larger movement for social change. Despite nine years after the “Battle of Seattle,” multiple protests, conferences, listservs, and World Social Forums (WSFs), this social movement phenomenon is presently fragmented into many narrowly focused movements finding themselves precariously poised against a “common enemy.” However, there are many indications that factions of this Movement of movements has some potential transformation capacity into a higher level of unity greater than what is currently experienced based on shared grievances and values. This analysis provides a new theory called the Relational Empowerment Strategy (RES) that can act as a foundation to facilitate separate movements to unite for the common good and shift society into a more sustainable paradigm. This book should help scholar-activists, scholars, and activists reexamine this movement phenomenon's future.