4. Social Movements & Social Change Flashcards
SOCIAL MOVEMENT
- an organized activity that encourages or discourages social change
- eg. Greenpeace
- Some social change is planned, for instance, government policy (eg. the Australian Baby Bonus to help increase the national birth rate) and other are unplanned (eg. civil unrest).
While some change is willingly accepted by society (eg. improved health care programs), most are associated with a level of controversy (eg. feminists attempting to equalize power between men and women).
Conflict arises because the process of change challenges existing, often well established, social patterns.
- A common feature of social movements is that …
they represent people who feel that their voices are not being heard and/or who feel they haven’t had adequate power to initiate socia, change.
Most social movements hope to raise public awareness of key issues that they view as important, such as animal rights of climate change.
Social movements use many methods to help encourage change. They include:
- protest marches
- coordinated demands
- publicity
- civil disobedience
ALTERNATIVE SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
- encourage individuals to change their own behaviour
- their aim is to help specific people to alter their lives by changing certain attitudes and/or types of behaviour
- eg. Alcoholics Anonymous (they seek limited change to part of the population)
REDEMPTIVE SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
- seek radical change in individuals
- they wish to help people ‘redeem’ or completely remake their lives
- eg. Narconon Australia (aims to eliminate the problem of drugs and alcohol abuse on people’s lives)
- eg. a religious cult
REFORMATIVE MOVEMENTS
- aim for limited social change, but target all members of a society
- tend to work with the existing political systems to promote moderate change
- eg. the feminist movement/many environmentalist movements
Some reform movements are progressive, promoting new social patterns, whereas others are reactionary, opposing those who seek change by trying to preserve the status quo or reviving past social patterns.
REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS
- emerge from a strong dissatisfaction with the existing society
- seek to radically alter society’s fundamental structure of practices
- eg. French Revolution
- eg. 2011 pro-democracy revolution in Egypt
- The (relative) deprivation theory argues that social movement form to address social inequality, particularly in regard to unjust economic conditions.
New social movements theory suggests that quality of life issues rather than economic inequality motivate members of these groups.
The Australian paid maternity leave social movement, which lobbied for paid maternity leave for example, involved both economic and quality of life issues.
RELATIVE DEPRIVATION THEORY
- refers to social movements that evolve as a result of a sense of deprivation when comparisons are made with others within society
- eg. women’s suffrage movement (wanting the right to vote in the 1900s because other women had the right to vote, as opposed to the 1800s when no women had the right to vote)
- argues that social movements occur when a reactively large number of individuals feel deprived of what they consider to be necessary for their well-being and happiness
- Observations, made by Alexis de Tocqueville and others, suggest that people often rebel when things are improving.
When social and economic conditions begin to improve so too do expectations. It is when the rate of improvement does not match expectations that people feel deprived.
Key features of the Relative Deprivation Theory:
- a desire for social change evolves from the view that differences exist between wants and reality
- people decide how ‘deprived’ they are in comparison to others
- action is taken in order to acquire something specific (eg. opportunities, wealth, power)
- for the movement to emerge the group must believe they have a right to more opportunities, wealth, power etc.
- the group must also conclude that they cannot achieve their goals through conventional methods
Criticisms of Relative Deprivation Theory:
- one concern relates to the inability of the theory to account for why social movements arise in one social situation rather than another
- another criticism of relative deprivation theory relates to its research methods (although feelings of relative deprivation may be present, they are not likely to result in collective action unless other factors such as financial resources are available to the movement)
NEW SOCIAL MOVEMENTS THEORY
- refers to post-industrial social movements from the late 1960s onwards that placed greater emphasis on alteration of social and cultural values, signaling a departure from conventional political movements
Although NSMs are characterized as having a distinctive social base, means of action and organization are different from conventional political movements. This has come under challenge, for example in their increasingly formal structures.
- Examples of NSMs, that have increased over the decades:
1960s & 70s - civil rights and feminist movements
1980s & 90s - anti-nuclear and environmental movements
2000s - same-sex marriage
(post-industrial)
Old social movements:
- focused on economic change
- class based
- centralized bureaucratic organizations
established political bodies
- social movement
- Australian Labor Party
- groups representing working class associations (eg. trade unions)
As opposed to old social movements, new social movements …
- focus on improving social and physical conditions
- eg. environmental movements - goal of decreasing climate change and addressing environmental dangers
Common characteristics shared by most new social movements:
- informal network of interactions between activist groups, individuals and organisations
- a sense of collective identity
- a sense of opposition to or conflict with mainstream politics concerning the need for social change
