Between the Spillover and the Spillout: Tracing the Evolution of the Czech Global Justice Movement
Between the Spillover and the Spillout: Tracing the Evolution of the Czech Global Justice Movement

Summary/Abstract: This article conceptually and empirically focuses on various dimensions of the Czech Global Justice Movement (GJM) dynamics. In discussions on the Western GJM it is possible to distinguish two main perspectives on the movement’s evolution, which were formulated in different contexts. One view claims that no such single movement exists anymore; it has already declined (or ‘spilled out’ into different field of activism). The other view argues that the movement is undergoing profound changes but its major principles and identity – at least latently – have survived. The aim of this article is twofold. First, it strives to re-introduce the concepts of ‘spillover’ and ‘spillout’ as multidimensional social processes and operationalise them to apply to the evolution of the Czech GJM in 2003–2009. Second, the article empirically traces the thematic shift of the Czech GJM towards anti-war activism and demonstrates that it is the movement’s collective identity that constitutes a key obstacle to its spillout in an unfavourable environment.

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