Social movements in the south

Debates over social movements have suffered from a predominate focus on North America and western Europe, often neglecting the significance of collective action in the global South. Work on this them sought to redress this imbalance with case studies from Brazil, India, Bangladesh, Mexico, South Africa and Nigeria. In these examples, social movements have coalesced without the benefits of the structural or institutional resource base found in the North, and have persevered even where the state does not have the resources to effectively respond to collective demands. Yet neither are these movements driven by purely altruistic motivations. A complex set of relationships influence mobilisation and social movements in the south, suggesting that previous theories have underplayed the influence of state power and of elite dominance in the government and in non-governmental organizations.