The relationships between social movements and religion in processes of social change: a preliminary literature review

Abstract

The first part of the paper broadly outlines theories related to social movements that have been developing within the social sciences over the past 50 years. The second part moves away from general social movement theories to theories related to religion and processes of social change. The final section outlines the research being undertaken as part of the Religions and Development Research Programme which aims to fill some major gaps in social movement theory by taking a comparative approach and looking at the relationship of religion to movements for social change in Southern contexts