European inventory of
societal values of culture

Isaac - Movement of Movements

Isaac, L. (2008). Movement of Movements: Culture Moves in the Long Civil Rights Struggle. Social Forces 87(1):33-63.

In what way do movements move? What do we mean by the movement of movements? While still a rather unconventional stance, the author advances the argument that social movements are, at root, culture production agents. Regardless of whatever else they may accomplish, movements produce new cultural forms in the course of struggle; they often change and augment cultural stock in the process, and sometimes live on for generations in collective memory. Author's answer to the query follows a movement-centered production and circulation of culture template organized around several major moments of culture moves: moving across space, moving emotions, moving social-cultural conditions and moving through memory. He illustrates culture moves in these four moments using sociological and historical studies of the long civil rights movement, suggesting a variety of research agendas along the way.

Larry Isaac “Movement of Movements: Culture Moves in the Long Civil Rights Struggle”