The Evolution of Social Movements

Social movements are often assumed to have limited life spans, because of the difficulty of sustaining non-institutional forms of politics. More recently, however, social movement theorists have developed the concept of abeyance, to suggest the continuity of social movements through periods of less visible activity. This is the first project to test the concept of abeyance in relation to Australia. It will create an event database for the Australian women's movement over the period 1970-2005, and examine the relationship between visibility and impact on policy and discourse. It will also develop criteria for assessing movement life cycles.