Analytical Framework

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1.4 Research Questions

This thesis aimed to make sense of the emergence of the APM in Taiwan by addressing three main questions:

1. Is the Animal Protection Movement representative as a ‘New Social Movement’ in the context of Taiwan?

a. What are the characteristics, similarities, and differences of this movement with its more developed counterparts in the US or Europe?

2. What is are the key issues currently being addressed by this movement?

a. How does social mobilization on animal protection issues take place in Taiwan?

b. How does animal advocacy translate into socio-political or institutional outcomes in Taiwan?

3. How is the advancement of animal protection interests in Taiwan significant to the democratic development process of the country?

a. Is the case of Taiwan’s Animal Protection Movement relevant to democratic eco-politics elsewhere?

With these questions in mind, the following section will introduce the theoretical and conceptual framework supporting the research undertaken throughout this project.

1.5 Analytical Framework

This thesis examined the emergence of the APM in Taiwan as an example of a New Social Movement (NSM). The following sections lay out the characteristics of NSM in relation to

“traditional” social movements, and outline the analytical framework based on Habermas’

“lifeworld-system” concept that informed the conduct of this research project.

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1.5.1 New Social Movements

Since the mid-1960s, the family of social movements has experienced an important expansion with the appearance of an increasingly diverse set of issues leading to social mobilization. Suitably, the rise of LGBT rights, women’s rights, minority rights, ecology and animal rights, peace movements, student movements, religious movements, and others have represented an important break from social movements concerned with struggles around class, ideology, and economic structures. These ‘new’ social movements are distinctive from

‘traditional’ social movements in various accounts. In a nutshell, Table 1 shows a comparison of eight key points between New Social Movements (NSMs) and ‘Tradition Social Movements’. As a result of this departure from ‘traditional’ movements, theories to analyze these ‘new’ social movements were developed. Among such, New Social Movement (NSM) Theory emerged in Europe in order to address the shortcomings of approaches mostly focused on ideologies, primarily Marxism to explain social mobilization beyond the basis of struggles for redistribution (Canel, 1997: 23; Buechler, 1995: 441; Pichardo, 1997: 412). Nevertheless, in spite of its widespread use, there is no agreement on the core tenets of what NSM Theory is. Mirroring the nature of the social movements it studies, Buechler (1995: 442) notes that NSM Theory is an umbrella term for approaches applying the general themes of: Symbolic action, empowerment, post-materialism, identity, constructivism, and latency (Table 2). At the same time, while different scholars apply these concepts to various different degrees, “all versions of NSM theory operate with some model of societal totality that provides the context for the emergence of collective action” (Buechler, 1995: 442). In summary “the NSM perspective emphasizes the cultural nature of the new movements and views them as struggles for control over the production of meaning and the constitution of new collective identities” (Canel, 1997: 22).

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Table 1 Ideal-Type comparison between ‘Traditional’ and ‘New Social Movements’

Source: Author. (Based on Johnston, Laraña, and Gusfield, 1994: 6-8).

Characteristics

Tends to be based on class structures.

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Table 2 Theme-issue focus under NSM theory approaches

Source: Author (Based on Buechler, 1995: 442).

Considering the diversity of the approaches to NSM theory, this thesis applies NSM theory as advanced by Jugern Habermas in his key publication The Theory of Communicative Action (TCA) (1981), and later outlined in his article ‘New Social Movements’ in the journal Telos (1987). From here, this thesis focuses on the dynamics of NSM mobilization within the “seam between the system and the life-world” as a response to the colonizing effects of the media of money and power on daily life (Habermas, 1981; 1987). More specifically, the processes of juridification and commodification by which government and economic apparatuses regulate and reify everyday life, and where individual actors are reduced to the roles of employed/consumer and client/citizen. A process against which NSMs seek to emancipate from or resists by creating

“sub-culturally protected communications groups which further the search for personal and NSM Theory Themes

Symbolic Action

Particular interest in the symbolic action in civil society or the cultural sphere as major spaces for collective action.

Empowerment

Attention to the processes of “empowerment”

based on autonomy or self-determination as opposed to strategies to obtain influence and power over society and the state.

Post-materialism

Post-materialist values are understood as key aspects for social mobilization, instead of conflict over resources.

Identity

Focuses on the problematization of the process of collective identity construction, and

identification of group interests.

Constructivism Grievances and ideology are socially constructed.

Latency

Social mobilization can arise from a variety of hidden, latent, and/or temporary networks, without the need of centralized organizational requisites.

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collective identity” (Habermas, 1981: 36). From here, it is important to recognize that the actual

‘newness’ of these movements has been contested in line with Picardo’s (1997) and Edwards’

(2004) assessments of NSMs.

Figure 2 Sytem-lifeworld dynamic. Adapted from Wikimedia Commons, 2007. Retrieved February 15, 2017, from

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Habermas-system-lifeworld.jpg. Copyright 2007 by Freetrader. Adapted with permission.

Based on Habermas (1987) and Edwards (2004).

However, Edwards (2004) also recognizes that Habermas’ approach to the study of social movements is useful due to the fact that beyond the debate over new versus traditional movements, his framework highlights the conflict-shift in modern socio-political mobilization. Thus, offering insight into “The changing relationship between the state and the economy in the process of capitalist modernization” and the effects that this has at the level of social integration within the lifeworld (Edwards, 2004: 128). Consequently, the remaining of this thesis will apply an

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Habermasian framework to examine the growing social mobilization around animal protection issues in Taiwan as a response to the transformation of socio-natural relationships under the advent of industrial development, and highlight the emergence of new identities and grievances based on these developments.