Social Movements

Introduction
• What are social movements? Social movements are forms of collective
behavior that aim to bring about social change in society. They are the main
reasons why social changes take place in society. They mostly occur in the
form of a group, and can be organized or unorganized.
• Social movements may emerge from a single localized collective behavior, for
instance from a protest on an incident like a riot or a mob, or from a number
of different dispersed social collectives.
• The relative deprivation of a group in relation to the larger society, social
unrest, dissatisfaction, a sense of injustice, ideology or beliefs, social stresses
such as a crisis or a cultural lag, competition over resources or their scarcity,
organization and an orientation towards change are all the factors that can
birth a social movement.
 Causes of Social Movements
• Social movements are formed due to four reasons:
• A collective action by a group of people who think some kind of change is
required or preferable.
• When society changes, and people become confused and uncertain due to
the uprooting of traditions, the restlessness starts as a starting point for social
movements to bring about some kind of clarity.
• Social unrest, social stress, and dissatisfaction may cause a social movement,
e.g. corruption and inequality.
• The prevalence of injustice at large in a society can ignite a social movement.
• Social movements are quite prevalent in industrial and post industrial
societies whereas pre-industrial simple societies don’t welcome social change,
hence they are bound to their traditions, making social movements rare in
them.
• Social movements always seek to address some social issues. Some instances
of contemporary social movements can be feminism, women’s rights, LGBT
rights, human rights, environmental activism, veganism, animal rights
movements, AIDS activism, gun control, abortion rights (pro choice and pro
life), Mothers against Drunken Driving (MADD), the right to be single and/or
child free, ace movements (for asexual people), religious movements, political
movements, the right to die (euthanasia), freedom of speech, freedom of the
press and many more.
• There are also many instances of historic social movements.
 Prerequisites for a Social Movement
• Preexisting communication networks between the particular social
group as masses alone don’t form a social movement. If the masses are
not linked, a protest does not become generalized but remains a local
irritant and dissolved rapidly.
• A member or two must be appointed in order to spread the word
regarding the ideas of the movement. it must be composed of like
minded people whose backgrounds, experiences or location in the
social structure make them receptive to the ideas of the specific social
movement.
• For the movement to be successful, the members of the movement
must be skilled and experienced in a specific filed in which they will
work.
• Lastly, an effort is required to bring all the members of a social
movement together.
 Function of Social Movements
• Social movements function to maintain solidarity in sub-cultures and
counter-cultures (non-criminal), and work to accomplish their goals through
actions that disrupt the status quo, authority and culture. Some social
movements are made to promote a sense of belonging and community in
people.
• Movement participants develop a sense of collective identity that bolsters
their sense of having a shared cause and helps sustain their efforts, thereby
sustaining the movement.
• Some movements are short lived and either die out after accomplishing their
goals (e.g. local efforts at the community level) or they can be long lived too
and have adherents that participate in some for their entire lives.
 Types of Social Movements
• Types of social movements are:
• Alternative Social Movement: is the least threatening social movements to the status
quo because they seek limited change in only a part of the population, e.g. the
movement against drunk driving or going green.
• Redemptive Social Movement: is a social movement that seeks a total change in an
individual’s life and to transform it. e.g. religious movements.
• Transformative or Revolutionary Social Movement: is a movement seeks a total
change or transformation in society and is dedicated to carry out a revolution. Many
historical movements such as the French Revolution, the Iranian Revolution and the
American Revolution.
• Counter or Reactionary Social Movement: when opposing social movements organize
in reaction or retaliation to any change or changes introduced by other social
movements.
 Stages of Social Movements
• The stages of a social movements are:
• Emergence: when people in a society or a specific group of people feel
that something isn’t well, when there is widespread dissatisfaction and
frustration. Also where the public becomes aware of a social
phenomenon.
• Coalescence: after its emergence, a social movement needs to devise a
strategy to go public and define itself. Leaders must determine policies,
tactics, build moral. Recruit new members and decide collective social
action such as rallies, marches, protests in order to garner support from
the public and the media.
• Bureaucratization: is the stage when a social movement must become
an established organization. At this point, the organization has to rely
on the unity of its staff instead of just the leader alone.
• Decline: Some social movements begin to decline or fade away with
the passage of time. There are four reasons for that.
• i) The members have achieved their goal and the dying of the
movement is a signal of success.
• ii) Poor leadership that results in disinterest and a loss of unity.
• iii) When the movement falls apart due to corrupt leadership who
are interested in making their own goals
• iv) Being crushed by the repression of governmental authorities.
Officials may destroy a social movement by frightening away
participants, discourage new recruits and imprisoning leaders.