In an interview from the 1980’s French philosopher Michel Foucault expressed his disappointment with the gay movement: Once it won some preliminary battles of recognition, it proved itself to be not revolutionary, but bourgeois. The gay community did not transform society in any substantial way, but only reenacted the basic capitalist bourgeois values - and therefore ‘gay’ as an identitarian proclamation was no longer a subversive act.

Is this the true fate of the post-‘68 social movements, the so-called New Social Movements, who were primarily based on identity? Or is this identitarian struggle still relevant as a subversive act today?

This question haunts some current events.

- Is the struggle for gay churchly marriage a subversive act of revolutionizing the church; or is it another step toward the complete bourgeosification of the gay movement?

- Is the Occupy Wall Street a non-identitarian movement directed against capitalism itself; that is the embodiment of the Badiou-Žižekian dream of a new communism? And if this is the case, is there any chance it will succeed?

- What are the lessons to be learned from the revolts of The Arab Spring?

These are just three examples of some of the events that can be discussed in an overall discussion of:

-  the future of social movements

- the lessons to be learned from popular struggles since 1968

- the revolutionary potential of social movements in present day politics

- the political potentials of ‘identity’ in direct collective actions today

This 'talk' will explore the way critique in the modern era of the project is organised. As the main organizing principle among social activists the project functions as a strong identity marker for the people involved in it. Project based social activism opens up for new forms of participation and calls for new analytical tools.

Contemporary sociologists agree that at the turn of the twenty first century the expression of social activism has changed. The present state of critique is described as toothless, disarmed or simply run out of steam (Bauman, Boltanski & Chiapello, Latour). The 'talk' will agree, however, only to a certain degree. The aim of the coming article is to present a correction to these findings.  The main argument will be that these analyses are unable to capture the new form of social critique due to the fact that they are searching for critique with outdated analytical tools. The point of departure is the sociologist Zygmunt Bauman’s book In Search of Politics. He carries out a thorough investigation of where the ‘public good’ can be discussed: Of where the modern agora is situated. Bauman argues that there is no common ground for ethical discussion; there is no room for Politics with a capital ‘P’. The article will instead suggest a search of the politics with a small ‘p’. In other words; projects. The investigation will be twofold. First, the article will try to learn from contemporary project-oriented social critique. Following theories describing the project-regime of in contemporary society, i.e. New Capitalism (Boltanski, Chiapello, Fogh Jensen, Sennett), the article explores the two main traits of project organized activism; that it is temporary, and that it implies constant activity. Second, a specific reading of Michel Foucault’s text; What is Enlightenment? will constitute an outline for an analytical framework of what can be described as; project critique.

From the beginning of its history, naturism itself  was a kind of a criticism of modernity. Those who practiced group nudity pointed at social alienation and disconnection from nature as the malady of contemporary world. Nudism appeared in a variety of forms and recruited supporters from different social classes in various countries. However, naturism as a movement tried to reach for universal, post-materialistic values: harmony with nature, pacifism, ecology, autonomy, emancipation. Nudity conjoined with mentioned qualities, it was not a simple rejection of body taboo, but  for many also a manifestation of alternative life style.

It seems, that naturism is no longer a venue for social protests, rebellion against mainstream rules, vanguard of new customs. In today's world, nudism is a well selling commodity, tourist attraction, but no longer a dynamically growing social movement, original value system and philosophy. Pleasure of leisure, catching up with market forces and trends such as hyper-consumption – that is important. Modern naturism is not a threat to capitalism and industrial society, it is phenomenon compatible with it and anchored to its base. Many of those who practice group nudity, do not perceive it as problematic. Indicated incoherence is not a subject for reflections, but at this same time it leaks through paradoxes of auto-presentation and difficulties with identity.