Deakin University
Browse

Social movement unionism and networked technology

Download (1.08 MB)
journal contribution
posted on 2006-01-01, 00:00 authored by Andrew VandenbergAndrew Vandenberg
From a European perspective, the wide-ranging social, economic, and political effects of networked computers have generated tensions between 'new' social movements and the 'old' labour movement. From an American perspective on social movements, there is no such tension between old and new social movements. A study of social-movement unionism in Sweden offers a interesting means of testing this emerging American perspective against the European perspective because the labour movement has long been particularly effective and networked technology has been embraced whole-heartedly throughout all aspects of the society, the economy, and the polity. The paper introduces the contrasting European and American perspectives on social movements and presents examples of the practice of social-movement unionism among Swedish social democrats, unionists, and diverse local activists. These examples support conclusions that eschew utopian theories of 'cyberunionism' in favour of developing a theory of articulated unionism in which local unions branches articulate vertically with national and global union bodies, and articulate horizontally with social movements in other arenas of conflict.

History

Journal

International journal of technology knowledge & society

Volume

1

Pagination

45 - 51

Location

Altona, Vic.

Open access

  • Yes

ISSN

1832-3669

Language

eng

Notes

Reproduced with the specific permission of the copyright owner.

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2006, Common Ground