A central aim of Social Movements: Critiques, Concepts, Case-Studies is to bring together classical, recent, and contemporary analyses of the social movement phenomenon. Analysis is represented in several variants of its discursive form: the expository essay, the critique, the general theory, the specific case study, the futuristic meditation. The book is divided into six sections - entitled, respectively, classical perspectives; disciplinary approaches; conceptual issues: debates and critiques; contemporary studies; the future of social movements; and a coda: social movements in sociological thought - each enclosing from one to four essays. The editor's concluding essay provides an original and critical summation of the place of social movements in past and present sociological thought.