Social Movement “Respect for Łódź” as an Example of New Urban Movements; Identity of Actors and Effectiveness of Social Movements in Both Real and Imaginary Dimension

Abstract

Transformations of post-modern identities, both on the individual and collective level, influence the process of identity formation in social movements. For this reason, some aspects/ characteristics of new urban movements, such as effectiveness, became those we should focus on again but from a different point of view. The aim of this paper is to present the author’s conclusions about the character of the identity of Social Movement “Respect for Łódź” and, based on those conclusions, to propose and critically elaborate on some hypotheses related to selected aspects/ characteristics of new social movements (covering issues such as the type of identity and the nature of community they build, their ties with a given territory, the issue of their durability and existence, interrelations between them and the third sector, their effectiveness). The issue is examined mainly from Touraine’s perspective on social movement, as well as by referring to legacy of other researchers interested in social movements, specifically other representatives of culture-based varieties of the theory of new social movements.