The term new social movements (NSM) refers to a plethora of social movements that have come up in various western societies roughly since the mid-1960s (i.e. in a post-industrial economy) which depart significantly from the conventional social movement paradigm. These movements differ from traditional social movements that had previously centered around economic concerns, such as the labor movement. These include the women's movement, the ecology movement, various peace movements, and others. Thinkers have related these movements with the postmaterialism hypothesis as put forth by Ronald Inglehart . Important contributors in the field include sociologists such as Alain Tourraine , Claus Offe , and Jürgen Habermas. Many of these NSMs tend to emphasize changes in lifestyle and culture, rather than pushing for specific changes in public policy or for economic change. Some NSM theorists argue that the key actors in these movements are members of the "new middle class", or service-sector professionals (such as academics).

Some sociologists, like Paul Bagguley and Nelson Pichardo, criticize NSM theory for a number of reasons, including 1) these movements existed (in one extent or another) during the industrial period and traditional movements still exist today, 2) there is a lack of empirical evidence showing the differences between these movements, 3) NSM focuses almost exclusively on left-wing movements and does not consider right-wing or regressive movements, 4) the term "new middle class" is amorphous and not consistently defined, and 5) might be better viewed as a certain instance of social movement theory rather than a brand new one.