Lecture 1

Question 1

What is a social movement?

Answer 1

Collective behavior that is, organized and institutionalized but NOT ritualized

• A SM is a group of people who are fighting towards a common cause
• Fighting for rights
• Fighting for change
• Challenge those in power

Question 2

The communist manifesto

Answer 2

Marx thought that the worst thing about capitalism is that people had private property, ownership of means of productions like lands and factories.

He thought we should abolish inheritance so we could solve hunger and poverty because not everyone has an inheritance.

The communist manifesto presents us with the theory of social change and social movement.

Question 3

Five key elements of social movements

Answer 3

1) They challenge/ defend structures or systems of authority
Includes states or national governments, Non-governmental organizations like companies, corporations, Includes universities or world bank
2 things of all these systems of authorities
- They are all recognized seats of regulations, procedures, and guidelines that influence some aspect of the lives of individuals
- Systems of authorities are typically based on underlined sets of interconnected values beliefs and interpreted frameworks that work to rationalize their authority.

2) Social movements are collective actors
- You need individuals and organizations to organize together in order to have a SM
- One person alone does not constitute a SM

3) Social movements are extra-institutional challenges
- Distinguishes social movements from other group actions like :
- crowd behavior ex the wave at a sporting event
- Rioting is not a social movement
- Interest group behavior

• A social movement is when the challenges that group mounts is held outside the institution
• An interest group for ex. Planned Parenthood is involved in different social movements for their own benefits to promote themselves

4) They are organized activities
- Involves joining in pursued of a common cause
- They are organized and coordinated actions to produce change or reach a common goal

5) They have temporal continuity
Protest activities are planned and organized but are not regularly scheduled events