What Was One Of The Largest American Social Movements That Effected Major Social Change?

Learning Outcomes

• Distinguish betwixt unlike types of social movements
• Describe and use the iv stages of social movements

Types of Social Movements

We know that social movements can occur on the local, national, or even global stage. Are there other patterns or classifications that tin aid u.s. understand them? Sociologist David Aberle (1966) addresses this question by developing categories that distinguish amid social movements past considering one) what it is the movement wants to modify and 2) how much alter they want. He described four types of social movements, including: alternative, redemptive, reformative, and revolutionary social movements.

• Alternative movements are typically focused on self-comeback and limited, specific changes to individual beliefs and beliefs. These include things like Alcoholics Anonymous, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), and Planned Parenthood.
• Redemptive movements  (sometimes called religions movements) are "meaning seeking," are focused on a specific segment of the population, and their goal is to provoke inner alter or spiritual growth in individuals. Some sects fit in this category.
• Reformative social movements seek to modify something specific near the social construction. They may seek a more than express change, but are targeted at the entire population. Ecology movements, the women's suffrage movement, or the more contemporary "Purchase Nothing Solar day", which protests the rampant consumerism of Blackness Fri, are examples of reformative movements.
• Revolutionary movements seek to completely change every aspect of society—their goal is to alter all of society in a dramatic way. Examples include the Ceremonious Rights Movement or the political movements, such as a push for communism.

  

  Effigy ane. David Aberle identified these four types of social movements, with some types of movements targeting either specific individuals or everyone, while some desire limited changes, and others are more than radical.

Other helpful categories that are helpful for sociologists to draw and distinguish between types of social movements include:

• Scope: A movement can be either reform or radical. A reform motion advocates changing some norms or laws while a radical motion is dedicated to irresolute value systems in some cardinal way. A reform movement might be a light-green motion advocating a sect of ecological laws, or a movement against pornography, while the American Civil Rights movement is an example of a radical motion.
• Type of Change: A movement might seek modify that is either innovative or conservative. An innovative movement wants to innovate or change norms and values, like moving towards self-driving cars, while a conservative movement seeks to preserve existing norms and values, such as a group opposed to genetically modified foods.
• Targets: Grouping-focused movements focus on influencing groups or gild in general; for example, attempting to change the political arrangement from a monarchy to a democracy. An individual-focused motility seeks to affect individuals.
• Methods of Work: Peaceful movements utilize techniques such equally nonviolent resistance and ceremonious disobedience. Violent movements resort to violence when seeking social change. In extreme cases, vehement movements may take the form of paramilitary or terrorist organizations.
• Range: Global movements, such as communism in the early on 20^th century, have transnational objectives. Local movements are focused on local or regional objectives such equally preserving anhistoric building or protecting a natural habitat.

Try It

Stages of Social Movements

Sociologists have studied the lifecycle of social movements—how they emerge, grow, and in some cases, die out. Blumer (1969) and Tilly (1978) outlined a four-stage process through which social movements develop.

1. In the preliminary stage, people go aware of an issue, and leaders sally.
2. This is followed past the coalescence stage when people join together and organize in order to publicize the issue and raise awareness.
3. In the institutionalization stage, the movement no longer requires grassroots volunteerism: it is an established organization, typically with a paid staff.
4. When people fall away and adopt a new movement, the movement successfully brings well-nigh the alter it sought, or when people no longer take the upshot seriously, the movement falls into the refuse stage.
   

Figure 2. As social movements grow, they typically go increasingly organized and bureacratized, add together members, which either leads to success or failure every bit a move.

Social Movement Stages, Media, and Black Lives Matter

Equally we accept mentioned throughout this text, and likely as you accept experienced in your life, social media is a widely used mechanism in social movements. Earlier in the course, we discussed Tarana Burke first using "Me Likewise" in 2006 on a major social media venue of the time (MySpace). The phrase later grew into a massive movement when people began using it on Twitter to bulldoze empathy and support regarding experiences of sexual harassment or sexual attack. In a similar way, Black Lives Matter began every bit a social media message after George Zimmerman was acquitted in the shooting death of 17-yr-old Trayvon Martin, and the phrase burgeoned into a formalized (though decentralized) movement in subsequent years.

Social media has the potential to dramatically transform how people go involved in movements ranging from local school commune decisions to presidential campaigns. Equally discussed above, movements go through several stages, and social media adds a dynamic to each of them. In thepreliminary stage, people become enlightened of an issue, and leaders emerge. Compared to movements of 20 or 30 years agone, social media can accelerate this stage essentially. Effect awareness tin can spread at the speed of a click, with thousands of people across the globe becoming informed at the same time. In a similar vein, those who are savvy and engaged with social media may emerge as leaders, even if, for instance, they are not great public speakers.

At the next phase, thecoalescence stage, social media is also transformative. Coalescence is the point when people join together to publicize the issue and get organized. President Obama'due south 2008 campaign was a case study in organizing through social media. Using Twitter and other online tools, the campaign engaged volunteers who had typically non bothered with politics. Combined with comprehensive information tracking and the power to micro-target, the campaign became a blueprint for others to build on. The 2020 elections featured a level of data analysis and rapid response capabilities that, while echoing the Obama entrada's early piece of work, made the 2008 campaign look quaint. The campaigns and political analysts could measure the level of social media interaction following any entrada stop, argue, argument past the candidate, news mention, or any other outcome, and measure out whether the tone or "sentiment" was positive or negative. Political polls are however important, but social media provides instant feedback and opportunities for campaigns to act, react, or—on a daily footing—ask for donations based on something that had occurred simply hours earlier (Knowledge at Wharton 2020).

Interestingly, social media can have interesting outcomes once a motility reaches theinstitutionalization phase. In some cases, a formal organization might exist aslope the hashtag or general sentiment, equally is the example with Black Lives Matter. At any one fourth dimension, BLM is essentially three things: a structured organisation, an idea with deep and personal meaning for people, and a widely used phrase or hashtag. Information technology's possible that users of the hashtag are not referring to the formal organization. It'southward even possible that people who hold a strong belief that Blackness lives thing practice not agree with all of the organization's principles or its leadership. And in other cases, people may be very aligned with all iii contexts of the phrase. Social media is however crucial to the social movement, merely its interplay is both circuitous and evolving.

In a similar mode, MeToo activists, including Tarana Shush herself, have sought to analyze the interweaving of different aspects of the movement. She told the Harvard Gazette in 2020:

I think we have to exist careful about what we're calling the movement. And I recollect 1 of the things I've learned in the last 2 years is that folks don't really empathise what a movement is or how it'south divers. The people using the hashtag on the internet were the impetus for Me Likewise being put into the public sphere. The media coverage of the viralness of Me Too and the people being accused are media coverage of a popular story that derived from the hashtag. The motion is the piece of work that our system and others like us are doing to both support survivors and move people to action (Walsh 2020).

Sociologists take identified loftier-risk activism, such as the ceremonious rights movement, equally a "strong-tie" phenomenon, meaning that people are far more likely to stay engaged and non run abode to safe if they accept close friends who are likewise engaged. The people who dropped out of the movement—who went dwelling after the danger became also dandy—did non display any less ideological commitment. Merely they lacked the strong-necktie connection to other people who were staying. Social media had been considered "weak-tie" (McAdam 1993 and Brown 2011). People follow or friend people they have never met. Weak ties are important for our social structure, just they seemed to limit the level of risk we'll take on their behalf. For some people, social media remains that way, but for others information technology can relate to or build stronger ties. For example, if people, who had for years known each other only through an online group, run across in person at an event, they may feel far more connected at that event and afterward than people who had never interacted earlier. And as we discussed in the Groups chapter, social media itself, even if people never meet, can bring people into primary group condition, forming stronger ties.

Another mode to consider the touch on of social media on activism is through something that may or may not be emotional, has little implications regarding necktie forcefulness, and may exist fleeting rather than permanent, just still be one of the largest considerations of any formal social movement: money. Returning to politics, recall of the massive amounts of entrada coin raised in each election bicycle through social media. In the 2020 Presidential ballot and its aftermath, hundreds of millions of dollars were raised through social media. Likewise, 55 percent of people who engage with nonprofits through social media take some sort of activity; and for 60 percentage of them (or 33 percent of the total) that activeness is to give money to support the cause (Nonprofit Source 2020).

Link to Learning: Blackness Lives Matter

Watch this video "BLM 5th Anniversary Trailer" equally it explains the initial stages and goals of the Blackness Lives Matter movement.

Try It

Occupy Wall Street

Perhaps the social movement that ran the well-nigh reverse to theory in contempo history is Occupy Wall Street (OWS). Although it contains many of the classic developmental elements of a social motility described in this module, it is set apart past its lack of a single message, its leaderless organization, and its target—fiscal institutions instead of the government. OWS baffled much of the public, and certainly the mainstream media, leading many to ask, "Who are they, and what do they want?"

Scout It: Occupy Wall Street

On July thirteen, 2011, the organization Adbusters posted on its blog, "Are you ready for a Tahrir moment? On September 17th, flood into lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street" (Castells 2012). The "Tahrir moment" was a reference to the 2010 political uprising that began in Tunisia and spread throughout the Centre East and North Africa, including Egypt'due south Tahrir Foursquare in Cairo. Although OWS was a reaction to the continuing financial chaos that resulted from the 2008 market meltdown and non a political movement, the Arab Bound was its catalyst.

Manuel Castells (2012) notes that the years leading upward to the Occupy move had witnessed a dizzying increase in the disparity of wealth in the United States, stemming back to the 1980s. The pinnacle 1 percent in the nation had secured 58 percent of the economic growth in the period for themselves, while real hourly wages for the average worker had increased by only 2 pct. The wealth of the top 5 percent had increased by 42 percent. The average pay of a CEO was now 350 times that of the average worker, compared to less than l times in 1983 (AFL-CIO 2014). The country's leading financial institutions were, to many, conspicuously to blame for the crisis simply dubbed "too big to neglect." These big banks were in problem after many poorly qualified borrowers defaulted on their mortgage loans when the loans' involvement rates rose. The banks were somewhen "bailed out" by the government with over $700 billion of taxpayer coin. According to many reports, that same yr, height executives and traders received large bonuses.

On September 17, 2011, an ceremony of the signing of the U.S. Constitution, the occupation began. One thousand outraged protestors descended upon Wall Street, and up to xx,000 people moved into Zuccotti Park, only 2 blocks away, where they began building a village of tents and organizing a system of communication. The protest before long began spreading throughout the nation, and its members started calling themselves "the 99 percent." More a one thousand cities and towns had Occupy demonstrations.

This video gives an idea of the protest—what it looked like, and how it played out.

In respond to the question "Who are they?" Castells noted ". . . by and large the movement was made up of a large majority of democratic voters, as well as of politically independent minded people who were in search of new forms of changing the world . . . " (Castells 2012). What do they want? Castells has dubbed OWS "A not-demand move: The procedure is the bulletin." Using Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and live-stream video, the protesters conveyed a multifold message with a long listing of reforms and social change, including the need to address the rise disparity of wealth, the influence of money on election outcomes, the notion of "corporate personhood," a corporatized political system (to exist replaced by "direct democracy"), political favoring of the rich, and rising student debt. Regardless, some in the media appeared confused virtually the protestors' intentions, and articles carried titles like, "The Wall Street Protesters: What the Hell Do They Want?" (Gell 2011) from The New York Observer, and person-in-the-street quotations like, "I remember they're idiots. They have no calendar . . . " from the Los Angeles Times (Le Tellier 2012).

The late James C. Davies suggested in his 1962 paper, "Toward a Theory of Revolution" (from the American Sociological Review, Vol, 27 Upshot 1) that revolution depends upon the mood of the people, and that it is extremely unlikely those in farthermost poverty will be able to overturn a government, but because the government has infinitely more power. Instead, a revolution is more possible when expected demand satisfaction and actual need satisfaction are out of sync. As actual need satisfaction trends downward and abroad from what a formerly prosperous people have come to expect—tracing a bend that looks somewhat like an upside-downwardly J and is called the Davies-J curve—the gap betwixt expectations and reality widens. Eventually, an intolerable point is reached, and revolution occurs. Thus, change comes not from the very bottom of the social hierarchy, but from somewhere in the middle. Indeed, the Arab Spring was driven past mostly young people whose pedagogy had offered promise and expectations that were thwarted by corrupt autocratic governments. Occupy Wall Street too came non from the lesser only from people in the middle, who exploited the power of social media to heighten communication.

Think Information technology Over

• Exercise you remember social media is an of import tool in creating social alter? Why, or why not? Defend your opinion.
• Describe a social movement in the decline stage. What is its issue? Why has information technology reached this stage?

glossary

alternative movements:

social movements that limit themselves to self-improvement changes in individuals

reform movements:

movements that seek to change something specific nigh the social structure

religious/redemptive movements:

movements that work to promote inner change or spiritual growth in individuals

revolutionary movements:

movements that seek to completely change every attribute of society

social movement organization:

a single social movement group

social motility sector:

the multiple social motility industries in a society, even if they have widely varying constituents and goals

Contribute!

Did you lot take an idea for improving this content? We'd dear your input.

Improve this pageLearn More

Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wm-introductiontosociology/chapter/types-and-stages-of-social-movements/

Posted by: marinohaductincer.blogspot.com

Share this post