Obszary wiejskie jako miejsce powstawania nowych ruchów społecznych. Implikacje teoretyczne i empiryczne
Rural areas as a space for the emergence of new social movements. Theoretical and empirical implications

Summary/Abstract: One can say that the changes affecting rural areas reflect the processes and phenomena on the level of society as whole. The growing importance of social movements, especially new social movements, which can be observed in contemporary societies, as well as the logic of changes taking place in rural areas, makes it possible to identify the space which these two seemingly distant phenomena share. This article points out the processes which underlie the new social movements coming into existence in rural areas. Simultaneously, the article shows that theories of social movements are useful for analysis of contemporary rural areas. There are two reasons for this approach: Firstly, social movements in modern societies are among the main expressions of empowerment for entire societies, communities, and particular social groups. Thus any new research on social movements deserves attention. Secondly, application of the theory of social movements to analyse the collective behaviour of farmers and rural area residents has been applied in the sociological literature in Poland and elsewhere, usually in the context of collective protest actions of this social group.However, this theory is not widely used to analyse everyday non-protest activities of certain categories of rural residents. The main question is: Is the theory of social movements the right tool for analysing changes in contemporary rural areas?

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