Butina Maria Valerievna

This article discusses the signifi cance and developmental features of contemporary social movements, emphasizing their role in the modernization of society. Particular attention is paid to the process of social self-organization of social movements as a phenomenon that allows us to understand the basic defi ning framework of their development, the principles of societal functioning, and more clearly defi ne the role of the individual in the historical process. From a political science perspective, civil society is considered as not just a specifi c legal and economic form of interaction between society and the state, but as a vast and multifaceted space for mutual infl uence and interaction of social movements. Self-organization of social movements is seen as a natural and universal process that permits the resolution of active problems and maintains the stability of communities, forming and transforming structures for overcoming crisis phenomena in a timely manner. The article further presents an attempt to form a political science understanding of the theory of self-organization through the theory of resource mobilization (John D. McCarthy and Mayer N. Zald), Per Bak’s theory of self-organized criticality, Neil Smelser’s value added theory, and the use of the network approach and framework analysis. The author closes by drawing a conclusion as to the importance of the process of self-organization of social movements in the political process.

This article examines the process of political transformation of social movements, the vectors and means of their evolution and the factors that determine the procedures of their changes. In historical perspective, it was the process of development of social movements that ensured the progressive development of society, its transition to a higher level of social development. The study of the problem of transformation of social movements allows us to address the questions of ensuring sustainable social development, of the role of the masses and the leadership in politics, and to determine the vector of further development of the system of social relations. The author examines the issues of internal and external determinants of the development of social movements, as well as potential forms of their further transformation. The article also examines global trends in social development and answers the question of what impact they have on the process of transformation of social movements.