Abstract

Unlike many partisan accounts of the nineteen sixties this book aims to give a considered explanation of the context in which the sixties radical movements arose and, also, their significance from the standpoint of various nations' actors, often ignored by North American and West European standpoints. Secondly, it examines how the radical decade sowed the seeds of various liberation or 'rights movements' – initially in the West but also globally as movements became increasingly diffused. Contributors' varied international backgrounds and specialities provide expertise in examining the international context. Thirdly, many nineteen sixties' radicals' values and strategies recur in contemporary social movements; albeit in different technological and, post 9/11, political and cultural environments. Unravelling similarities and differences is a key theme. Fourthly, many participants in sixties radicalism saw it as 'cultural' as well as 'political' and in some historical treatments as primarily or 'only' cultural. Detailed examinations of this perspective involve critical discussion – particularly in the light of the allegedly 'mere' (i.e. apolitical) cultural hedonism and escapism of youth in the nineteen eighties and nineties. Contrarily, the contributions here assess resonances between the radical/libertarian emphasis on civil society 'freedoms' in sixties' cultural radicalism and, arguably, today’s more self-consciously political global human rights movement. The conclusion suggests that, in some senses, the sixties live on today in discursive and political themes.

Bryn Jones is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Bath.

Mike O'Donnell is currently Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Westminster.

This book’s four main aims are to examine: firstly, why movements happened in the socio-historical context of sixties’ radicalism; secondly, its distinctive legacy of crucial, cultural, societal and political interconnections; thirdly, continuing links between seminal ideas and movements and socio-political activism today; fourthly little-discussed national instances and divergent impacts of sixties radicalism, in relation to contemporary 'global' social movements. A conclusion traces all these dimensions from current social movements back to sixties radicalism’s pioneering upheavals.

'A vivid and timely account of the most scene changing decade of the last century. This book is required reqding for anyone who wants to understand how we are today.' —Chris Rojek, Professor of Sociology & Culture, Brunel University, UK

‘Recommended.’ —R. C. Cottrell, California State University, Chico, in ‘Choice’

‘This edited collection originated in the British Sociological Conference “1968: Impact and Implications”… The engagement is both critical and sympathetic, and this is refreshing in an area where partisan stances are easily adopted. This book establishes that there was no such event as the 1960s, rather there were multiple mediated social, cultural and political responses to the prevailing changes based in both shared concerns and “difference”.’ —Ian Welsh, School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, in ‘Social Movement Studies’