New Social Movements: The End of Struggle for Welfare and Social Policy?

This article bring into focus the role of new social movements in the contemporary welfare landscape. It intends to analyze the problematic relationships between new social movements and welfare and social policy categories. Old social movements, or labour parties and movements, were, in the late modernity or in the industrial societies, the most important actors for influencing on the processes of formulation and reform of welfare and social security policies, but in recent post – industrial societies, new social movements have emerged that their focuses lay on identity and cultural concerns. Some of authors believe on fundamental difference between movement and class, and tell about the end of struggle for welfare and social policy in the new social movements. According to their points, class and labour movement fighted for improving the condition on life especially for labour and unprivileged class but new social movement are interested in cultural and identity problem. The main questions of this paper are as follow: what are the causes of formation of new social movements and consequences of them in the filed of social welfare; do new social movements theorists and actors dismiss the problems of poverty and unequality; In the context of globalization of unequality and decline of welfare state and in the age of inability of working class for self-organization and shift in intellectuals and theorists concerns and interests, thinking in poverty problem and actoring for redeem of unjustice on the level of new social movements in ending. The main methods of this article for the assessment of the compatibility between new social movements and welfare aims are documentary study and analytical argumentation. This article for answering its questions and evaluating of relations between new social movements and welfare and social policy, in the first place, review the related theorists thoughts and then examine the most important sociological explanations of new social movements emergence, and simultaneous changes in social welfare landscape and policies. This theoretical and conceptual study provides necessary condition for understanding the different approaches of new social movements to objects and policies of social welfare. New social movements could be distinguished in term of different organizations, policies, goals and methods in comparison to old social movement. Leading theorists of new social movements like Ingelhart, Habermas, Giddens, Touraine and Castels examine emergence of new social movements in relation to welfare categories. These different theories have a common idea about important influences of new social movements in formation new perspective in recent societies for integrating of social welfare in a more broder and more humanistic framework. Welfare state's deterioration coincides with a cultural change, or what Ingelhart named silent revolution, and the process of post-modernization. In later process with development of welfare and improvement of economic conditions, gradual passage from survival value toward self-expression values have occurred. This cultural space could change, or was parallel to, the new political atmosphere. These transformation induced new modes of thinking about and struggle for human condition's upgrading. New theory and action landscape has been reflected in new social movements.There are cultural, political and conceptual shifts in analysis and activities for regarding welfare and social policy, by theorists and activists of new social movements. final section of this article, based on conceptual and analytical analysis and argumentations in the process of the whole body of the paper, propose the possibility of reconciliation and interaction between new social movements theorists and welfare and social policy's researchers. new social movements do not overlook the welfare problems but open new windows for seeing the neglected aspects of human welfare. They bring new methods and procedures into focus for formulating and reforming the welfare categories, and develop new perspectives for research on these affairs. According to final conclusion of our paper, new social movements can be compatible with the reflection and contemplation for finding new modes of policies in favour of human welfare.