Book contents
- Frontmatter
- POLITICS: Détente and Multipolarity: The Cold War and German-American Relations, 1968-1990
- SECURITY: German-American Security Relations, 1968-1990
- ECONOMICS: Cooperation, Competition, and Conflict: Economic Relations Between the United States and Germany, 1968-1990
- CULTURE: Culture as an Arena of Transatlantic Conflict
- SOCIETY: German-American Societal Relations in Three Dimensions, 1968-1990
- 1 “1968”: A Transatlantic Event and Its Consequences
- 2 Social Movements in Germany and the United States: The Peace Movement and the Environmental Movement
- 3 Women and the New Women’s Movement
- 4 Transatlantic Networks: Elites in German-American Relations
- 5 Bridging Constituencies: German Political Foundations in German-American Relations
- 6 Normalizing German-American Labor Relationships in a Changing International Environment
- 7 German and American Churches: Changes in Actors, Priorities, and Power Relations
- 8 The Twisted Road Toward Rapprochement: American Jewry and Germany Until Reunification
- 9 Difference and Convergence: Immigration Policy in the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany
- 10 Urban Planning, Transportation, and Suburban Development: Striking a Balance
- 11 Relations Between Right-Wing Extremists in Germany and the United States, 1945-1990
- 12 With America Against America: Anti-Americanism in West Germany
- 13 The Maturation of a Relationship: The Image of America in West German Public Opinion
- 14 Between Private Opinion and Official Pronouncement: Images of America in the German Democratic Republic, 1971-1990
- 15 The American Image of Germany, 1968-1991
- OUTLOOK: America, Germany, and the Atlantic Community After the Cold War
- Index
2 - Social Movements in Germany and the United States: The Peace Movement and the Environmental Movement
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2013
- Frontmatter
- POLITICS: Détente and Multipolarity: The Cold War and German-American Relations, 1968-1990
- SECURITY: German-American Security Relations, 1968-1990
- ECONOMICS: Cooperation, Competition, and Conflict: Economic Relations Between the United States and Germany, 1968-1990
- CULTURE: Culture as an Arena of Transatlantic Conflict
- SOCIETY: German-American Societal Relations in Three Dimensions, 1968-1990
- 1 “1968”: A Transatlantic Event and Its Consequences
- 2 Social Movements in Germany and the United States: The Peace Movement and the Environmental Movement
- 3 Women and the New Women’s Movement
- 4 Transatlantic Networks: Elites in German-American Relations
- 5 Bridging Constituencies: German Political Foundations in German-American Relations
- 6 Normalizing German-American Labor Relationships in a Changing International Environment
- 7 German and American Churches: Changes in Actors, Priorities, and Power Relations
- 8 The Twisted Road Toward Rapprochement: American Jewry and Germany Until Reunification
- 9 Difference and Convergence: Immigration Policy in the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany
- 10 Urban Planning, Transportation, and Suburban Development: Striking a Balance
- 11 Relations Between Right-Wing Extremists in Germany and the United States, 1945-1990
- 12 With America Against America: Anti-Americanism in West Germany
- 13 The Maturation of a Relationship: The Image of America in West German Public Opinion
- 14 Between Private Opinion and Official Pronouncement: Images of America in the German Democratic Republic, 1971-1990
- 15 The American Image of Germany, 1968-1991
- OUTLOOK: America, Germany, and the Atlantic Community After the Cold War
- Index
Summary
MOVEMENTS, MARKETS, STATES
After 1968, citizen participation in virtually all the advanced capitalist countries expanded beyond political parties and reconstituted itself in new forms. Most if not all parties subscribed to a “politics of productivity” based on economic growth as a solvent for potential class antagonisms. The terms of this postwar settlement left little room to accommodate sensibilities of affluent new middle-class strata, which focused on quality-of-life issues. Between 1968 and 1978, it became obvious that baby boomers reaching college age around 1968 were only the spearhead of a broader change in both the themes and modalities of politics. The emerging social movement sector involved an impressive variety of actors, which, in addition to peace and antinuclear protestors, included environmentalists, activists for the Third World, human-rights groups, women's groups, gay and lesbian initiatives, squatters, and alternative economy projects.
Although some movements were by no means new, they shared a novel element that justifies their designation as “new social movements.” Both the peace and environmental movements turned largely on risks associated with the introduction of potentially life-threatening mega-technologies. An additional novelty was the cyclicity of protest. In some countries, movement segments and campaigns blossomed for brief periods into a generalized challenge of the entire social and political order. This “totalization” pattern distinguishes continental European movements from those of the United States. The persistence of the state in continental Europe has created the conditions for a social-movement configuration quite unlike America’s. Therefore, despite common themes, individual movement segments as well as the entire movement ensemble are specific to national context.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The United States and Germany in the Era of the Cold War, 1945–1990A Handbook, pp. 430 - 436Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004