Crisis, Movement and Management in Contemporary Globalisations INTRODUCTION

Globalised neoliberalism has produced multiple crises, social, ecological, political. In the past, crises of global order have generated large-scale social transformations, and the current crises likewise hold a transformative promise. Elite strategies, framed as crisis management, seek to exploit crisis for deepened neoliberalism. The failure of elite policy to address the causes of crisis creates new forms of politicisation. Social movements become a crucial barometer, in signalling both the demise and rise of political formations and programs. Experiments in movement strategy gain greater significance, as do contending elite efforts at repressing, managing, or displacing the fall-out. In this Special Issue we investigate both management and movements in the face of crisis, taking crisis and unanticipated consequences as a normal state of play. The issue enquires into the winners and losers from crisis, and investigates the movement-management nexus as it unfolds in particular localities as well as in broader contexts. The Special Issue deals with pressing conflicts, and produces a range of theoretical insights: the ubiquity of crisis is seen as not only a hallmark of social life, but a way into a different kind of social analysis.