CHALLENGING CODES. COLLECTIVE ACTION IN THE INFORMATION AGE

Descrizione

‘Alberto Melucci’s new book – his master book – is both the most comprehensive analytical study of social movements and an elaborate analysis of the new generation of collective actions which try to incorporate into private and collective experience the effects of a globalized and rapidly changing social context.

Melucci’s central and stimulating idea is that the social movements are no longer collective actions corresponding to concrete interests of organised social groups; they combine in a creative and changing way political action with cultural motivations and, as prophets of the presents, they transform cultural and psychological experiences into cultural innovation and social conflicts. This book will be widely read, studied and discussed by all social scientists who feel the need to substitute creative analyses for all social theories which have been transformed into ideologies.’

  Alain Touraine, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris

‘In Challenging Codes, Alberto Melucci provides a magisterial presentation of his distinctive approach to the study of contemporary social movements. At once appreciative and critical of prior work, Melucci argues for a hermeneutical approach to collective action that places identity and meaning at centre stage. The approach is used to illuminate the contemporary heterogeneity and transformation of contemporary movements.’           

                                                         Mayer Zaid, University of Michigan

‘In Challenging Codes, Melucci develops a brilliant theoretical framework for the study of social movements that is rooted in the grand sociological traditions and yet firmly encompasses the distinctive communicative character of movements in an information society.’

Frances Fox Piven, The City University of New York