The relational basis of social movement identities: Re-assessing the ‘newness’ of new social movements

In this paper I suggest we address the question of the 'newness' of a social movement in the light of the patterns of social relations that social movements generate through the overlapping memberships and personal linkages of their activists, and through the alliances between the different groups which identify with a given cause. To this purpose I draw upon two classical concepts, Stein Rokkan’s “political cleavage” and Georg Simmel’s “intersection of social circles”, which are rarely related explicitly to each. Rokkan's work provides the link between the structural bases of conflict and social networks; Simmel's idea of the intersection of social circles enables us to grasp the individualization process, but also to look at how memberships may re-combine in different structural patterns. I do not claim to provide a global account, nor an original interpretation, of their work. I rather show how an unusual integration of two classics may improve our understanding of a specific contemporary process.