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    Social Movements

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    tina2325
    Several key processes contribute to the development of social movements. Urbanization and industrialization brought large groups of people together in cities and factories, facilitating social interaction and the formation of early social movements to address shared economic concerns. The spread of mass education in universities also united people, while advances in communication technologies from printing to the internet made the creation and spread of social movements easier. Finally, the growth of democracy and political rights such as freedom of speech enabled the formation and activities of social movements. A social movement emerges from a shared sense of discontent over a particular initiating event and grows through increasing organization, the development of formal roles and responsibilities, and either success in creating lasting social change or eventual decline through various routes.

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    Social Movements

    Uploaded by

    tina2325
    13 views2 pages
    Several key processes contribute to the development of social movements. Urbanization and industrialization brought large groups of people together in cities and factories, facilitating social interaction and the formation of early social movements to address shared economic concerns. The spread of mass education in universities also united people, while advances in communication technologies from printing to the internet made the creation and spread of social movements easier. Finally, the growth of democracy and political rights such as freedom of speech enabled the formation and activities of social movements. A social movement emerges from a shared sense of discontent over a particular initiating event and grows through increasing organization, the development of formal roles and responsibilities, and either success in creating lasting social change or eventual decline through various routes.

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    Several key processes contribute to the development of social movements. Urbanization and industrialization brought large groups of people together in cities and factories, facilitating social interaction and the formation of early social movements to address shared economic concerns. The spread of mass education in universities also united people, while advances in communication technologies from printing to the internet made the creation and spread of social movements easier. Finally, the growth of democracy and political rights such as freedom of speech enabled the formation and activities of social movements. A social movement emerges from a shared sense of discontent over a particular initiating event and grows through increasing organization, the development of formal roles and responsibilities, and either success in creating lasting social change or eventual decline through various routes.

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    13 views2 pages

    Social Movements

    Uploaded by

    tina2325
    Several key processes contribute to the development of social movements. Urbanization and industrialization brought large groups of people together in cities and factories, facilitating social interaction and the formation of early social movements to address shared economic concerns. The spread of mass education in universities also united people, while advances in communication technologies from printing to the internet made the creation and spread of social movements easier. Finally, the growth of democracy and political rights such as freedom of speech enabled the formation and activities of social movements. A social movement emerges from a shared sense of discontent over a particular initiating event and grows through increasing organization, the development of formal roles and responsibilities, and either success in creating lasting social change or eventual decline through various routes.

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    Several key processes lie behind the history of social movements.

    Urbanization led to larger settlements, where people of similar goals could


    find each other, gather and organize. This facilitated social interaction
    between scores of people, and it was in urban areas that those early social
    movements first appeared. Similarly, the process of industrialization which
    gathered large masses of workers in the same region explains why many of
    those early social movements addressed matters such as economic
    wellbeing, important to the worker class. Many other social movements were
    created at universities, where the process of mass education brought many
    people together. With the development of communication technologies,
    creation and activities of social movements became easier – from printed
    pamphlets circulating in the 18th century coffeehouses to newspapers and
    Internet, all those tools became important factors in the growth of the social
    movements. Finally, the spread of democracy and political rights like the
    freedom of speech made the creation and functioning of social movements
    much easier.

    The birth of a social movement needs what sociologist Neil Smelser calls an
    initiating event: a particular, individual event that will begin a chain reaction of
    events in the given society leading to the creation of a social movement. The
    root of this event must be the result of some common discontent among a
    community. Hence, making emergence the first step to a social movement.
    This discontent will act as the chain that links common people together, as
    they share the same experiences and feelings of oppression. "Within this
    stage, social movements are very preliminary and there is little to no
    organization. Instead this stage can be thought of as widespread
    discontent.Emergence is prior to any sort of organized resistance to the
    condition of society.
    This third stage, bureaucratization, is when movements must become more
    organized, centered around a more systematic model. The set up and system
    for going about the construct must be more formal, with people taking on
    specific roles and responsibilities. "In this phase their political power is greater
    than in the previous stages in that they may have more regular access to
    political elites."[38] In this stage, one organization may take over another one in
    order to obtain a greater status and formal alliance. This 'taking over' may be
    a positive or negative move for organizations. Ella Baker, an activist who
    played a role in the NAACP,[40] had proposed to the students of the student
    movement to start their own organization. This becomes known as the SNCC,
    the student nonviolent coordinating committee (1960s). The students could
    have join forces with the SCLC,[41] an already existing organization, but that
    would have been a poor bureaucratizing decision, as they would succumb to
    old ideologies. New and progressive ideas that challenge prior authority are
    crucial to social change.
    The declining of a social movement does not necessarily mean failure. There
    are multiple routes in which a movement may take before proceeding into
    decline. Success of a movement would result in permanent changes within
    the society and/or government that would result in a loss of need for protest.
    Failure is often the result of the incapability to keep a common focus, and
    work towards the goal in mind. "Failure of social movements due to
    organizational or strategic failings is common for many organizations".[42] Such
    a route would result in the gradual breaking up of an organization, and out of
    the stages of movement. Co-optation results when people or groups are
    integrated and shift away from the social movement's initial concerns and
    values. Repression is another example, when the movement is slowly wiped
    away from the public platform through means of an outside force, usually
    being the government. The last route into declining is going mainstream,
    which is generally perceived as an overall success. This is when goals of the
    movement are taken into society as a part of daily life, making it a 'social
    norm.' For example, birth control is still a greatly debated topic on a
    government level, but it has been accepted into social life as a common thing
    that exists.
    It is important to recognize that though movements may disintegrate and
    cease to be active, the impact that they have in the social realm is success in
    its own way. It sparks the notion in new generations that the possibility to
    organize and make change is there.
    Resource Mobilization Theory views social movement activity as "politics by other means": a
    rational and strategic effort by ordinary people to change society or politics.[50] The form of the
    resources shapes the activities of the movement (e.g., access to a TV station will result in the
    extensive use TV media). Movements develop in contingent opportunity structures that influence
    their efforts to mobilize; and each movement's response to the opportunity structures depends on
    the movement's organization and resources

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