P.Lecture 8

Social Movements and Social Change Week 8 Social Movements Social movements refer to organized collective activities to bring about or resist fundamental change in an existing group or society Small Change: ex. diverting a highway Large Change: ex. transforming an economic order About Values and Order About Economic Issues It is the collective effort of individuals organized in social movements that ultimately leads to change Collective Behaviour Collective Behaviour: When a large number of people, who often do not accept some of the values, norms, or leaders of society, come together and act. Panics: People are overcome and try to save themselves with immediate action. Crowds: Collective behaviour occurs when behaviours vary from what is considered conventional or normative behaviour, e.g., fight at a soccer game. Fad: unconventional practices that spread rapidly and last for a short time. Collective Behaviour Craze: a fad with intense commitment, that is considered strange, e.g., streaking, dressing as a punk. Public: large dispersed group made up of people with an interest; a community that is against the use of nuclear energy due to the contamination it causes on the environment. Social movement: large collectivity trying to bring about or resist social change. (2005: Education Canada) Theories of Collective Behaviour Social contagion: Blumer—“the relatively rapid, unwitting, and non-rational dissemination of a mood, impulse, or form of conduct.” Contagion, think of CONTAGEOUS… fast spreading… Circular reaction: interstimulation; your nervousness causes other people’s nervousness. Criticism: exaggerates the unanimity of collective behaviour. (2005: Education Canada) Theories of Collective Behaviour Turner and Killian: Emergent norm theory: Great diversity among people in a crowd, but the members are under the impression that most others are in agreement and they conform to the apparent will of the crowd. Criticism: Insufficient attention to social structure Insufficient attention to interest groups and conflict It can be institutionalized (2005: Education Canada) Social Breakdown Social breakdown approach: when unrest occurs, people become “uprooted” and become susceptible to the appeal of a movement. Durkheim noted the importance of social integration, attachment to social groups. Criticism: institutions can also promote social unrest. (2005: Education Canada) Relative Deprivation Relative deprivation: gap between what people believe they have a right to receive and what they actually receive. Movements are more likely to occur when people are frustrated than when their welfare is declining. Criticism: focuses on conditions that immediately precede a social movement. (2005: Education Canada) Collective Action Approaches Collective action: institutionalized and non-institutionalized activity in pursuit of a goal. Concerned with the character, not the amount of social unrest, and change of character Identifies cleavage factors, which separate people, and integrating factors that bind people Discontent is not a sufficient condition; it must be mobilized (2005: Education Canada) Resource Mobilization Mobilization: transfer of resources from one kind of collective action to another. Conditions to assist mobilization: Ideology: set of beliefs providing a basis for action Frame: principles enabling people to make sense of their world Leadership , Effective means of communicating Network of cooperative relationships Selective incentives: benefits that a person can derive from belonging Financial resources make organizing easier. Only those who are better off have the resources to organize a social movement and impress their demands. (2005: Education Canada) Resource-Mobilization theory Success of resource-mobilization depends on resources as well as a problem. The success of a movement will depend largely on how effectively it mobilizes its resources Money, political influence, access to media, volunteers Marxist Explanations Marxists are interested in Bourgeois revolts to overthrow feudalism Revolts to overthrow capitalism Capitalism creates exploitation and polarizes classes to mobilize workers for collective action. Gramsci argued importance of non-economic struggles against the existing order. Hegemony: domination of a class over others, not just economically but politically and culturally. (2005: Education Canada) Political Structure & Competition Looks at the political opportunities available to leaders and participants, e.g. stability & availability of allies Recognizes how social movements are shaped by forces beyond the control of members, despite literature based on the intentional behaviour of actors. Competition: Those most likely to engage in action are those in competition and conflict with other groups. Status competition (e.g, sex, age, and ethnicity) is prominent in our modern society Theoretical Perspectives Functionalist Perspective Even where unsuccessful, social movements contribute to the formation of public opinion View as training grounds for leaders of the politics Conflict Theory Social institutions and practices continue because powerful groups have the ability to maintain the status quo Change is crucial: to correct injustices to correct inequalities Social Movements and Social Change Social movements exist to encourage or resist change and many have been partially successful, e.g., feminism and environmentalism. Major social transformation, e.g., the industrial revolution, have given rise to social movements. New technology permits social movements to unite people around the world. Social Change (Chapter 17) Cultural lag: when some cultures have yet to adapted to certain changes Evolution from Hunters and Gathering Societies to Farming Societies People in control created military organization, creating an inequality of political power State: an organization with a monopoly (monopoly means domination, control, proprietorship) on the legitimate use of force (Weber) Metal weapons contributed to imperialism, control of one society by another (2005, Education Canada) Social Change Throughout history one society has always absorbed or annihilated another With the development of the plough, a decline in the status of women began These societies created the major world religions and the cultural and scientific foundations of the modern age. Modern Era ? Began 200 years ago in Britain Transformation to an industrial state caused changes in family, gender, work, etc. Ideas included use of reason and observation, not persecuting people for beliefs, and equality (2005: Education Canada) Theories: Evolutionism Spencer: coined “survival of the fittest.” Societies evolve from simple to complex like an organism Every new aspect of society is explained by its function, e.g., polygamy for surplus of women (due to war) War is crucial in development of civilization Societies likely to survive are large, complex, and strong, weaker societies do not fare well Diffusion: adoption of an innovation by a society that did not create it Developmental Theories Tönnies: Gemeinschaft, community, to Gesellschaft, society, a negative development. Durkheim: Mechanical Solidarity, strong bonds, to organic solidarity, interdependence of occupation all positions, leads to social progress, but anomie, normlessness, could emerge leading to deviance. Historical Materialism Historical Materialism: Material (economic) factors are the engines of change and they bring cultural change. Marx and Engels were most influential. Dialectical approach: everything has a built-in antithesis which causes a new synthesis: feudalism causes capitalism causes communism. Ideas of the ruling class are the ruling ideas. Revolution, after polarization of classes, brings about change. In our society, life improved for the workers. Historical Materialism Thesis ? Antithesis ? Synthesis State Theory of Modernization State encourages or halts development. Leaders did not know what they were preventing. restricted economic and intellectual activity to prevent other power centres Chinese rulers stopped iron and steel production Rationalization, formalized procedures create predictability. Postmodernism Also called deconstructionism: themes Moral and epistemological relativism Questioning of the scientific method Viewing great work as perpetuating domination But, Idea of universal truths is strong Science still enjoys prestige Shakespeare is still a big draw (2005: Education Canada) Group Rights and Globalization Though individualistic, a propensity exists for group rights and equality of condition, e.g., Language rights for French Employment equity Globalization: economic, political, and cultural interlinking. Transnational corporations have revenues higher than mid-sized countries American culture is widespread, but rejected by Iranians and attacked by terrorists (2005: Education Canada) Why Are Some Countries Poor? Neo-liberalism: too much state ownership and intervention in the economies. Dependency theory: industrialized countries exploit the Third World and people have authoritarian governments. World systems theory: dependency theory plus the world as a unit of analysis.