Solidarity: The Analysis of a Social Movement: Poland 1980-1981

This 1983 book records a fascinating analysis of the Solidarity movement in Poland. Alain Touraine here proposes an understanding of the place of social movements in contemporary society, and a fresh means of analysing them through 'sociological intervention'. In 1981 he and a team of researchers applied these research methods to the Solidarity movements. Groups of Solidarity activists were involved in a discourse over the nature and aims of their political and economic struggle. What emerges is a record of exceptional value in understanding the movement which transformed Polish society, placed firmly in the terms of the Solidarity activists' own understanding of their role, but equally relating this role to a broad analysis of the social structures of eastern Europe. This reflection on forty years of Communist regimes in Europe will appeal to a wide readership interested in Solidarity and Poland.