Social Movements Flashcards
Social change
The transformation of culture and social institutions over time
Social change can happen through institutional channels, particularly through the ______
State
Social change can also happen outside the state’s institutions, through ________ or _________
Cultural change
Social movements
Social movements
Sustained challlenges to existing holders of power in the name of a wronged population
Members of movements engage in _____, occupying buildings, ______, and striking to achieve social change
Protesting
Sending emails to political leaders
Charles Tilly theorized that social movements require 5 main elements
1) offering sustained challenge to power holders demonstrating commitment
2) engaging those with power by people with less power
3) representing a wronged population
4) disrupting the daily routines of power holders using tactics outside of politics
5) depending on the worthiness, unity, numbers, and commitment of its members
Early work on social movements argued that participation in movements was ________
Irrational
Collective action (free rider) problem
People avoid going to protest all they don’t believe it will make a difference
People tend to avoid participating in collective actions because they’ll still benefit from the action regardless if they’re there or not
Social movements often fight for ____________
Public goods
Many people participate in social movements. Name the various ways
1) some might join social movement organizations
2) others may not join an organization but still attend events like protests
3) other do things to support social movements causes
Different methods of engaging in social movements vary along two main dimensions
1) the risks associated with the activity
2) the cost of engaging
The risk associated with the activity
Potential participants must weigh what risks they are willing to take for the level of risk they are comfortable with determines how long they participate
Cost of engaging
Potential participants must think about how much in terms of time and resources they are willing to incur to participate
Compared to other countries, Canadians are quite _____ in social movements
Active
Participation in social movements requires four main Elements
1) idealogy
2) resources
3) biographical availability
4) social ties and identity
____________ is important because it makes people at least cognitively available to participate in a movement
Ideological commitment
Efficacy is important in social movements, why?
People gotta feel they have a chance to win!
Individuals must have the _______ to allow them to participate in social movements
Resources (SES being the #1 predictor if someone joins a movement or not)
When individuals are ______________ to participate in social movements, they have the opportunity to convert their idealogy and resources into action
Biographically available
If you have a lot of friends involved in social changes, you are likely to be involved
True dat young bass
Identities
The names that people give to themselves and others in the course of social interaction
Frames
Ways of interpreting the world that allow individuals to understand and label occurrences in their daily lives
The process of ______ is about selecting certain parts of the world to emphasize and other to de-emphasize
Framing
Frames have 3 key parts:
Diagnostic
Prognostic
Motivational
Selection bias
Involves media editors choices of small number of protest events from a much larger pool
Issue attention cycles
Events are likely to be reported if their focus can be used to illustate an issue that is already on the media’s radar
There are times where the public is more likely to be concerned about a problem and attempt to solve it
Description bias
The way the media depicts the actions of the collective action
How they base the information is based on either organizational or ideological methods
For activists to get their issue covered, they must connect it to some event or matter that is ______, ______, or _______
Increasing
Spreading
Intensifying
Editors tend to favour _______ reporters instead of ________
Generalist
Specialists
Why do they prefer generalist reporters
Eliminates need for multiple reporters
They are cheaper and easier to hire
Rely on government sources for info, so the news represents interests with power
There is a more concentrated effort on the part of the media, political, and corporate elite to control the information in the news
These large power sources mean that
The news is carefully selected and isn’t always represented fairly
Public sociology
Refers to the use of the sociological imagination to engage with wider audiences outside traditional academic circles
Herbet Gans
Examples of free spaces
Studnets lounges, union halls, and neighboiurhood groups
Organizaitnal Model of the media
Media acts as a gate keeper
They care more for events that are actually changing the world opposed to the most important events
Protest Paradigm
The specific way that the media tend to cover protest events
