Social Movements

Definition of Social Movements

We may know social movements are driven by a sense of injustice (Klandermans, 1997) and that participants have strong opinions about social issues (and how to fix them). But what is the actual definition of social movements?

Not all social movements are borne of the same type of objective, however. Below, let's look at the different forms of reasoning behind various social movements.

The Goal of Social Movements

Some people want to promote social change because they find a certain social condition or issue unacceptable - this is referred to as a proactive social movement. Others, in contrast, experience a threat as a result of a changing social state, and they retaliate by resisting the change. Their social movement is a reactionary one.

People create social movement organizations to further their objectives. Organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) are created by those who seek to foster social change. On the other hand, people attempting to prevent social change, in this case, racial and ethnic equality, join groups like the Ku Klux Klan or Aryan Nations.

Social movement leaders use tactics such as marches, protest rallies, sit-ins, and boycotts to gather supporters and draw attention to their complaints. These "media events" have been very successful, such as in the case of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

Sociologist Mayer Zald (1992) argued that social movements are similar to a rolling tide. At first, a few social movements might emerge, but soon after, a wave of them arrive and vie for the public's attention. Zald contends that a wave of social movements can emerge from a cultural crisis.

A society's institutions occasionally fall behind the pace of social change. Many people's demands are not met during these periods, which causes discontent, and people establish and participate in social movements to address this.

Fig. 1: Social movements are formed for various reasons.

Examples of Social Movements

Many social movements have transpired in modern history that you have likely learned about while studying US history. Let's look at some examples of relatively recent social movements that have changed society or caused conversation:

• Occupy/anti-capitalism
• Anti-globalization
• Black Lives Matter
• Fair trade
• Decolonizing education
• Me Too
• March For Our Lives/gun laws
• Animal rights/veganism

Levels of Social Movements

Movements take place in our cities, our country, and all around the world. Let's look at several social movement examples, from local to international.

Local Social Movements

AREA Chicago is a social organization that is currently working to create a socially just city. Through art, research, education, and action, the organization aims to sustain community and build relationships (AREA Chicago 2011).

It offers online resources like the Radicalendar, a calendar for connecting and becoming radical, as well as activities like an alternative to the traditional Fourth of July picnic. AREA Chicago offers Chicago locals the ability to participate in a movement to aid in the creation of a socially equitable city through its programs.

Statewide Social Movements

The Texas Secede! social movement is at the other extreme of the political spectrum from AREA Chicago. This statewide group advocates the idea that Texas can and ought to break away from the US to establish an independent republic.

The group, which as of 2022 has over 8,000 Facebook followers, uses both Texas and American history to argue for separation. The movement calls on Texans to reclaim their independent and robust origins and to resist what its supporters see as the theft of their rights and property by the federal government (Texas Secede! 2009).

National Social Movements

While we now have marriage equality in the US, before its federal legalization, same-sex marriage was a contentious national issue that gave rise to numerous activist groups.

The Human Rights Campaign, a national group with over a million members that fights for LGBT civil rights, had a campaign called Americans for Marriage Equality that discussed equal rights under the law by utilizing public figures, e.g., athletes, entertainers, and politicians.

The National Organization for Marriage, a group that sponsored efforts to outlaw same-sex marriage, was an opposing movement. Both organizations operated nationally and attempted to spread their messages by involving the public in grassroots initiatives.

Global Social Movements

Internationally, social organizations take positions on issues such as poverty, human trafficking, and the usage of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food that are generally of concern.

The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movement (FOAM) is one example of a non-governmental organization (NGO) that has been established to assist such movements. The Oxford Committee for Famine Relief (OXFAM), among others, is a representative of global efforts to eradicate poverty. The goal of the Fairtrade movement is to defend and assist food producers in poor nations. Despite beginning as a local movement in New York City, Occupy Wall Street spread throughout Europe and the Middle East.

Types of Social Movements

So, we are aware that social movements can take place at the local, state, and even global levels. Sociologist David Aberle (1966) further classified types of social movements by creating categories based on what they seek to alter and how much change they want.

• Reform or reformative movements aim to alter a certain aspect of society and social order. Examples include organizations that oppose nuclear power, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), the Dreamers immigration reform movement, and the Human Rights Campaign's support for marriage equality.

• Revolutionary movements aim to transform society in its entirety to align with their vision and values. These include the anarchist collectives and the counterculture movement of the 1960s, which featured The Weather Underground and other revolutionary organizations. Texas Secede! is another example.

• Religious and redemptive movements are "meaning-seeking," intending to cause people to experience inner change or spiritual development. These movements are being promoted by groups like Heaven's Gate and the Branch Davidians. Despite government intervention that resulted in the murders of numerous Branch Davidian members in 1993, the latter is still in existence.

• Alternative movements emphasize self-improvement and small, targeted adjustments to personal ideas and conduct. These include fads like macrobiotic eating or transcendental meditation. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union, which was active in the early 1900s, serves as an example. Its objective was to persuade people to give up drinking.

• Resistance movements aim to stop or reverse changes in the social order. This group includes the Minutemen, the Ku Klux Klan, and pro-life groups.

Stages of Social Movements

As you may know, social movements do not always have the same momentum. From their inception to their end, support for social movements ebbs and flows.

Five stages in the development and maturity of social movements have been identified by sociologists (Lang and Lang, 1961; Mauss, 1975; Spector and Kitsuse, 1977; Jasper, 1991; Tilly, 2004):

1. Initial discontent and disturbance: People become concerned about a social condition during this initial stage and wish to change it. Leaders may arise who vocalize difficulties and articulate people's emotions. At this point, most social movements fall flat. After a brief burst of activity, they fade away due to an inability to gather sufficient support.

2. Resource mobilization: This is a key component that enables social movements to progress past the first stage. Sociologists use this phrase to refer to the planning and use of resources like time, money, information, mailing lists, and people's abilities.

Using communications technology, such as cell phones and websites, to attract the interest of the media is another aspect of it. These resources included having access to churches to coordinate protests for the Civil Rights Movement (Mirola, 2003).

3. Organization: The division of labor is structured. The rank and file carry out the daily chores required to sustain the movement, while those at the top decide on policies. The topic, which is the movement's main focus, continues to generate a lot of communal excitement.

Fig. 2: Organization and bureaucracy are important stages for social movements.

4. Institutionalization: At this point, the movement has an established bureaucracy. The power is in the hands of career officers, who may be more concerned with maintaining their own status within the organization than advancing the cause. The communal excitement among the group fades.

5. Death and decline: During this phase, the leadership mostly focuses on running the organization's daily operations. Public opinion may have changed and that there is no longer a dedicated group of people working toward the same goal. The movement eventually dies off, but a few individuals may stick around for years until all the money has been spent.

• Resurgence: Sometimes, the death or decline of a social movement can be delayed indefinitely as new events and generations revitalize pre-existing movements. An example is the reproductive rights movement, which has had both major victories and losses in the past few decades.

Social Movements: Theories and Explanations

Most theories about social movements are referred to as "collective action theories," which highlight the intentional aspect of this type of group behavior. Let's look at three theories that analyze social movements and their dynamics below.

Resource Mobilization Theory For Social Movements

This was conceptualized by McCarthy and Zald (1977) to explain the success of movements in terms of their capacity to mobilize people and gather resources. Resources, which largely consist of time and money, are what give organized movements their power.

A social movement industry is made up of numerous social movement organizations (SMOs) with the same objectives (SMOs refer to individual social movement groups).

Resource Mobilization During the Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Movement's activities throughout the decade between the mid-1950s and the mid-1960s serve as an illustration of resource mobilization theory. Social movements have been around for a while, most notably the Women's Suffrage Movement and a long line of trade unions. Therefore, movements striving for social change already existed.

Also, before Rosa Parks declined to give up her bus seat to a White man, the Civil Rights movement was already well underway (Parks herself was also a member of the NAACP). When she performed her legendary action, triggering the famous Montgomery bus boycott, resources had to be mobilized immediately.

The need for alternative mobility resulting from the bus boycott was met by carpools. Churches and their clergy joined the fight, and groups like In Friendship, The Friendly Club, and the Club From Nowhere were created as protest groups. There was a developing social movement industry, which contributed to the eventual success of the movement.

Framing/Frame Analysis For Social Movements

Sociologists have developed the idea of frames to explain how people recognize and comprehend social events, as well as which social standards they ought to adhere to in different circumstances.

Three different types of frames are used by effective social movements to achieve their objectives (Snow and Benford 1988):

• The first kind, diagnostic framing, presents the issue in a straightforward, understandable manner. There are no gray areas when using diagnostic frames; instead, there is the assumption that what "they" do is incorrect and that this is how "we" will correct it. With its unwavering determination that marriage should only take place between a man and a woman, the anti-gay marriage movement is a prime example of diagnostic framing.

• The second form, prognostic framing, gives a solution and describes how it will be applied.

  When examining the topic of marriage equality as it has been presented by the anti-gay marriage movement, some examples of this frame include a proposal to limit marriage to "one man/one woman" or to permit only "civil unions" as opposed to weddings.

• Once a movement has a diagnostic and prognostic frame, what are the next steps? This is the motivational framing. These frames focus on taking action. Within the example of gay marriage, motivational framing may ask participants to vote on proposals or contact members of congress to support or object to marriage equality.

Since there are so many similar diagnostic frameworks, some groups believe that working together will maximize their impact. A frame alignment process (Snow et al. 1986) takes place when social movements combine into a single group and link their objectives to the objectives of other social movements. This is a continuous and deliberate way of enlisting supporters for the movement.

Theory of New Social Movements

New social movement theory was conceptualized in the 1950s-60s. It attempts to explain the growth of postindustrial and postmodern movements, which are typically challenging to study using conventional social movement theories.

New social movement theory is more of a perspective (rather than a particular theory) that focuses on making sense of movements as they relate to politics, identity, culture, and social change. Examples of such intricately intertwined movements are the transgender rights movement and ecofeminism, which studies patriarchy and capitalism as the causes of both gender inequality and environmental issues.

The sociologist Steven Buechler (2000) proposes that we should switch to a macro-level, global analysis of social movements in order to better understand the larger context in which these movements emerge.

Legalizing Marijuana as a New Social Movement

Marijuana was a drug that was sold over the counter and used for recreational purposes before the 1930s. Subsequently, a campaign spearheaded by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics in the 1930s altered the public's perceptions. Because of their negative propaganda, many Americans now perceive marijuana as a dangerous substance.

However, there has been a recent change in the public's viewpoint and there is now a social movement in favor of legalization. This is largely attributable to a greater awareness of its effects, and the realization that prosecution for possession carries a heavier burden for people of color.

When Colorado and Washington legalized marijuana in 2012, the movement gained momentum. Other states and nations around the world have also adopted this change in recent years.