Action and meaning

TL;DRAbstract

Without a reference to the systems of action that explain the complexity of the actor and the actor's relations with the whole of the social field, analysis of collective action will not be able to achieve a clear grasp of its subject matter. Below, I shall discuss a number of different interpretative models contained in the literature that make an attempt at precisely this direction, and then take them as examples in trying to show the dependency of movements research on certain implicit assumptions upon which the relative validity of these models rests. As I want to claim, behind their manifest argument they all presuppose a theory of action and identity of the kind I have outlined in the previous chapters and I will complete in chapter 4. An explication of such a covert theory, against which only the explanatory power of these models can be examined, is in order if we are to provide a proper foundation for their claims and redeem the (potentially) enduring value contained in them.

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