Social movements and social need
- 1 July 1993
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Critical Social Policy
- Vol. 13 (37) , 52-74
- https://doi.org/10.1177/026101839301303703
Abstract
A central issue about social movements is whether or not their needs- eg women's, Green's, welfare recipients' - are relevant to society at large; whether their needs are universal or specific. Theorists divide between those stressing the specificity of movement needs and others their universality - a division at the core of debates about postmodem politics. This: article argues that Touraine's, Melucci's and Laclau & Mouffe's accounts maintain a particularist view alongside a problem atic universalism. By contrast, writers as diverse as Habermas, Doyal & Gough and Townsend provide more coherent accounts of universal and particular needs. These maintain the universality of: real needs, despite their cultural variations; social norms; and notions of human natute, which provide important rational foundations for social policyKeywords
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