On New Social Movement(NSM)

NSM- The term used to describe a diverse set of popular movements characterized by a departure from conventional methods of political organization and expression, and experimentation with new forms of social relations and cultural meanings and identities.In advanced capitalist societies, the ‘movements’ have mobilized around feminist, ecological, peace, and anti-nuclear issues. In Africa, Asia, and Latin America their range has been wider, including Catholic base communities, neighbourhood and squatter associations, women's and human rights groups, peasant co-operatives, and environmental activists. New social movements aspire to a broadening of ‘the political’, popular empowerment, and the reappropriation of civil society, away from the control of the state.However, their diversity creates both methodological and political problems. It is unclear whether there can be a universal definition of a ‘new social movement’. Politically they encounter problems of sustainability and are vulnerable to co-optation by the state. Nevertheless their existence challenges the notion of the ‘end of politics’, representing as they do new types and levels of egalitarian struggle.
— Geraldine Lievesley Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/new-social-movements#ixzz1FQfDkLrx

For more on NSM click the link below-

http://theoryandscience.icaap.org/content/vol004.002/02_carty.html