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New book explores anti-capitalist Britain
Dr Joseph Ibrahim’s book, Bourdieu and Social Movements: Ideological Struggles in the British Anti-Capitalist Movement, uses the key ideas of the late French sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu, to explain social movements, the history of political activists, and how crises can create opportunities for social movements to emerge.
Dr Ibrahim uses the book to detail the main stages in the development of 21st Century British anti-capitalist organisations. He also argues that a new perspective is needed beyond established social movement theories to understand conflict within movements.
The book, which has been published by Palgrave, will be launched by the University’s Centre for Applied Social Research on Wednesday 9 September from 3-4.30pm in the University’s Broadcasting Place building, room 102. Places at the event are free and can be booked at https://booklaunchibrahim.eventbrite.co.uk.
Dr Ibrahim explained: “My book focuses particularly on the British anti-capitalist protests that occurred at the turn of the century: from the first carnival against capitalism that brought the city of London to a standstill in June 1999, through to the emergence of the Occupy Movement that swept the globe between September 2011- February 2012.
“I spent many months interviewing activists from a range of different organisations and networks as well as observing demonstrations in Europe and the UK.
“The book is unique in its aims as it sets out to explain not just why political groups emerge and what they are arguing against, but why they compete and come into conflict with each other when they have the same political objectives. To this end, I aimed to offer a fresh perspective from established social movement theories that largely concentrate on movements versus elites.”