Barriers to Collective Mobilization: Understanding the Failure of Social Movements in Contemporary Armenian Society

Study of social movements have increasingly captured the attention of social scientists, especially as powerful waves of protest continue to emerge worldwide. Since the main focus of researchers is captured by the causes of their emergence, life cycles, and structures of social movements, a critical question regarding the reasons behind the failures of social movements has not been thoroughly explored. This paper aims to address this gap by analyzing the causes of social movement failures within the specific context of contemporary Armenian society. The paper is based on sociological research, namely on the case study methodology conducted by the author from 2019 to 2023, which employs a mixed-methods approach, involving document review and key informant interviews with participants of different social movements that arose during last decade in contemporary Armenian society․ The paper's key findings highlight the multifaced challenges that social movements face in contemporary Armenian society emphasizing the complex relationship between movement’s strategy and the surrounding societal environment, indicating that the success or failure of social movements depends not only from stated goals and available resources, but also from their adaptivity to the cultural, social, and political conditions that define their environment.