Why do social movements matter? Cox draws on his own extensive experience as an activist and academic to argue for the enduring importance of social movements in our lives. This accessible book urges us to build alliances across the particularisms of specific movements and learn from the 'struggles of others' to help us to 'keep stepping out' into the streets and, ultimately, to help us keep going

Maclean, Kirsten

English

Concept

Vol. 11, No. 2, Summer 2020   Review:  Laurence, Cox (2018) ​Why Social Movements Matter: An Introduction​, Rowman and Littlefield International Ltd, paperback, 150 pages, ISBN 1786607832, 9781786607836, £19.95  Why ​do social movements matter? Cox draws on his own extensive           experience as an activist and academic to argue for the enduring importance            of social movements in our lives. This accessible book urges us to build             alliances across the particularisms of specific movements and learn from the           'struggles of others' to help us to 'keep stepping out' into the streets and,              ultimately, to help us keep going.   Cox begins with connecting to the personal, emphasising the human and           everyday nature of movements, as well as the human qualities common in            people who participate. He also explores the human needs met by           movements and describes how we 'make and remake ourselves' in the           struggle. I found his idea of movements as 'collective self-creation' (p10)           particularly powerful; this idea of questioning and resisting the forces that           want us to remake ourselves in line with corporate or marketing agendas. Cox             argues that movements are processes of education and emancipation, that          this is an educational process of learning to question power relations or            cultural norms, and to take action, or resist. The learning happening in            movements is collective and interactive; it is praxis.  One of the central arguments in the book is the concept of learning 'from each               other’s struggles', a process of 'collective learning across time…as they make           themselves in struggle', so transmitting learning from one generation to the           next, across movement alliances, across history, time and place. Cox also           talks of the disconnection rampant in our societies, and how capitalism           1  http://concept.lib.ed.ac.uk/​ Online ISSN 2042-6968 Vol. 11, No. 2, Summer 2020  alienates and disconnects us. He argues that involvement in movements,          building alliances and learning from the struggles of others can reconnect us            to each other as human beings.   Cox then takes the lens out further to take a wider, global, and historic look at                the role played by social movements in shaping our history and constructing            the world we live in today. As he says 'just how far the world we live in is the                   product of collective struggle is a necessary starting point for understanding           our own world and the effects of our own past actions, to think through how               we remake it in our present struggles, and to see more clearly what it means               to be human'. (p17) By setting the historical scene, from the Haitian            revolutions against slavery in 1798 to the revolutionary wars of the nineteenth            century, the dismantling of Empires by the radical Left in 1915/16, the new             social movements of 1968 and the role of right-wing populism, Cox situates            the entrance of neoliberalism and the need for a 'movement of movements'            and collective learning between movement actors to tackle the new          challenges we face in late capitalism. Later in the book he also talks about              the difference between movements from 'below' and movements from 'above',          describing the dangers of co-optation, commodification and conservatism.        (p80)  The book explores in detail the relationship between social movements and           formal political parties, with a focus on the relationship with the           institutionalised Left. Here he argues that parties that are willing 'listen and            learn, rather than propose eternal truths' (p55) will be more effective in the             long run. He also points out the anomaly that the Left originated and emerged              from movements, yet now somehow stands as separate; morally and          structurally superior. In order to move past this alienation, Cox encourages           those who come from the Left to 'learn to understand their own knowledge             and practice more deeply as the sedimented product of earlier popular           2  http://concept.lib.ed.ac.uk/​ Online ISSN 2042-6968 Vol. 11, No. 2, Summer 2020  struggles, and to translate it back for present generations'. He urges the Left             to think about what it genuinely offers social movements, and for movement            actors to reclaim the left as their territory (p59). I enjoyed this 'sedimentation'             metaphor; how the layers of movement experience and knowledge persist          throughout history, like layers in peat or soil.   Cox also talks about the importance of a way of thinking and theorising that is               continually linked to practice and collective action. In fact, one of his chapter             subheadings is, 'Human action as a way of thinking' (p74). He argues that             Marx’s most transformational thinking is around 'praxis orientated thought'         (p74), and that our thinking and theorising about movements must always           centre collective action, practice or collective agency.   In the chapter 'Movements and the Mind', Cox looks explicitly at the complex             relationship between social movements and the university, including the         experience of activist academics of which he is, of course, one. He points to              some thorny issues: how academia can be parasitical of movement          knowledge, and the need to tread carefully and be aware of power dynamics.             He goes on to say, 'our task is to question the fields we are in and their wider                  social purpose; to seek to reclaim academic territory for movement purposes'           (p105).   Cox concludes by reflecting on the way forward and argues for the need to              find connectivity with other struggles, to 'look elsewhere, outside ourselves          and our own lives' (p107), and to recognise that our liberation is tied with the               liberation of others. We are asked to find 'a better sense of we', and to hold                tightly to the confidence that comes from that. He also speaks of, and has              great respect for, the remarkable human tenacity to keep picking ourselves           up. He talks of his own struggles to keep going, to keep stepping out the door                and into the street and into movements: 'Often enough, the challenge arises in             3  http://concept.lib.ed.ac.uk/​ Online ISSN 2042-6968 Vol. 11, No. 2, Summer 2020  the middle of daily life, and it really is a question of recognising it, thinking               politically and taking appropriate action rather than doing what we are           expected to do. It is, in other words, the challenge of actually being ourselves              in that moment, and not who other people would like us to be'. (p113) This               misleadingly slim book packs in a lot and will be of interest to community              workers and educators, people involved in local campaigns who might or           might not call themselves activists, and those of us who navigate the complex             boundaries between movements, universities and research. Kirsten Maclean PhD Candidate Centre for Health Policy  School of Social Work and Social Policy Strathclyde University, Glasgow         4  http://concept.lib.ed.ac.uk/​ Online ISSN 2042-6968 

Laurence Cox, (2018) Why Social Movements Matter: An Introduction

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Laurence Cox, (2018) Why Social Movements Matter: An Introduction

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