Tell about Social Movements ?

This huge drop-off from sympathizers to activists underscores another fundamental point of social movement scholarship

The changing character of social movements is addressed by a recent theoretical approach. This theory emphasizes the distinctive features of social movements in post-industrial societies of North America and Western Europe.

Social movement participants tend to have many friends and to belong to several organizations and other sorts of social networks, and these social network ties help “pull” or recruit them into social movements.

Today’s movements are international in nature and focus on global issues such as environment, global ecology, the conse­quences of war and terrorism, and so on.

Social movements may be classified on the basis of purpose and interest, such as linguistic, religious, sectarian, caste, peasant, workers, tribal, ethnic, women’s, environ­mental, civil rights, and human rights movements.

This process of recruitment is an essential fact of social movement life, as movements usually cannot succeed if sufficient numbers of people are not recruited into the movement.

Though one social movement differs from another, almost all social movements go through similar stages. T

An interesting development in the modern era is the rising use of electronic means to recruit people into social movement activities and to coordinate and publicize these activities. The “Learning From Other Societies” box discusses a now-famous protest in Iran in which electronic media played a key role.

The perception that all is not well triggers off social movements. Widespread dissatisfaction becomes the basis of other movements. Sometimes, a small vanguard (forerunner) group increases public awareness on some issues and makes it a prominent public issue.

Once a social issue has emerged as a move­ment, it must define itself and develop a strategy for “going public”.

Resource mobilization theory is a general name given to several related views of social movements that arose in the 1970s (McCarthy & Zald, 1977; Oberschall, 1973; Tilly, 1978). This theory assumes that social movement activity is a rational response to unsatisfactory conditions in society.

The leaders must determine policies and tactics, and there should be a drive to recruit new members.

Resource mobilization theory has been very influential since its inception in the 1970s. However, critics say it underestimates the importance of harsh social conditions and discontent for the rise of social movement activity.

Alliances with other organizations should be formed in order to gain necessary resources.

A social movement must take on bureaucratic traits in order to become a political force. As it becomes established, the movement starts depending on the talents and charisma of its leaders and relies more on a capable staff.

Conditions can and do worsen, and when they do so, they prompt people to engage in collective behavior. As just one example, cuts in higher education spending and steep increases in tuition prompted students to protest on campuses in California and several other states in late 2009 and early 2010 (Rosenhall, 2010). Critics also say that resource mobilization theory neglects the importance of emotions in social movement activity by depicting social movement actors as cold, calculated, and unemotional (Goodwin, Jasper, & Polletta, 2004).

If move­ments do not become established in this manner, they may face the risk of dissolution. Sometimes, bureaucratization can also hinder a social movement, as leaders may become too involved in building up the organization and not concentrate on encouraging the members towards change.

This picture is simply not true, critics say, and they further argue that social movement actors can be both emotional and rational at the same time, just as people are in many other kinds of pursuits.

Over a period of time, social movements lose their importance and influence. Sometimes, if the goals of the movement are fulfilled, decline simply indicates success.

Although the many past and present social movements around the world differ from each other in many ways, they all generally go through a life cycle marked by several stages that have long been recognized (Blumer, 1969).

the social movements are classified into millenarian, migratory, Utopian, expressive, reformist, rebellion, revolutionary, and resistance.

This is the stage when social movements begin for one or more of the reasons indicated in the previous section. Stage 2 is coalescence. At this stage a movement and its leaders must decide how they will recruit new members and they must determine the strategies they will use to achieve their goals. They also may use the news media to win favorable publicity and to convince the public of the justness of their cause.

Millenarian movements are based on a belief of a religious, social, or political group that a major transformation of society will occur after which all the elements or components of the society will be changed in a positive or sometimes negative direction.

Stage 3 is institutionalization or bureaucratization. As a movement grows, it often tends to become bureaucratized, as paid leaders and a paid staff replace the volunteers that began the movement. It also means that clear lines of authority develop, as they do in any bureaucracy.

These movements take place when a large number of people leave one country and settle in some other place or country. The major reasons for mass migration may be discontent or dissatisfaction with the existing situations or circum­stances or looking for new opportunities for a bright future.