Social Movement
:a large group of people who are organized to promote or resist some social change
-members hold strong ideas about what is wrong w/ the world & have to make it right
-@ the heart of social movements lies a sense of injustice
Proactive Social Movement
:a social movement that promotes some social change
-they find a particular condition of society intolerable & want to change it
Reactive Social Movement
:a social movement that resists some social change
-they feel threatened b/c some condition of society is changing & they react to resist that change
Social Movement Organization
:an organization people develop to further the goals of a social movement
-promote social change--EX: NAACP
-resist particular changes--EX: KKK
Types of Social Movements
1. Alternative
2. Redemptive
3. Reformative
4. Transformative
5. Transnational
6. Metaformative
Alternative Social Movement
:a social movement that seeks to alter only some specific aspects of people
Redemptive Social Movement
:a social movement that seeks to change people totally
EX: fundamental Christianity
Reformative Social Movement
:a social movement that seeks to change only some specific aspects of society
EX: civil rights movement, Pro-Life
Transformative Social Movement
:a social movement that seeks to change society totally
-want to replace the current social order w/ their sense of a good
society
EX: Revolutions in American colonies
-MILLENARIAN SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
Millenarian Social Movement
:a social movement based on the prophecy of coming social upheaval
EX: cargo cult
Transnational Social Movement
"New Social Movements"
:a social movement whose emphasis on some condition around the world, instead of a condition in a specific country
EX: Animal's Rights Movements
Metaformative Social Movement
:a social movement that has the goal to change the social order, not just of a society or 2, but of the entire world
-strive to reformulate concepts & practices of race-ethnicity, class, gender, governments, & the global stratification of the entire world
EX: Al-Queda
Levels of Social Movement Membership
1. Inner core
2. Committed
3. Less committed
4. Sympathetic public
5. Hostile public
6. Disinterested public
Inner Core
:most committed to the movement, sets the groups goals, time tables, & strategies
-predispositions of Inner Core are crucial in choosing tactics
Committed
:committed, but less than the inner core, can be counted on to show up for demonstrations & grunt work
Less Committed
:less dependable, their participation depends on convenience
Public
:a dispersed group of people relevant to a social movement
-the sympathetic & hostile publics have an interest in the issues on which a social movement focuses
-there's also an unaware or indifferent public
Sympathetic Public
:their sympathies lie w/ the movement but the they have no commitment
-their sympathies w/ movement's goals make them fertile ground for recruitment
-the source of new members & support at the ballot box
Hostile Public
:movement's values go against its own, & it wants to stop the social movement
Disinterested Public
:unaware or indifferent to the social movement
Institutionalize Social Movements
:(accepted by authorities), violence will not be directed against authorities
-does not rule out violence directed against the opposition
Public Opinion
:how people think about some issue
Propaganda
:broad senses--the presentation of information in the attempt to influence people, narrow sense--one-sided information used to try to influence people
EX: retailers, government, mass media
7 Basic Propaganda Techniques
1. Name Calling
2. Glittering Generality
3. Transfer
4. Testimonials
5. Plain Folks
6. Card Stacking
7. Bandwagon
Name Calling
:aims to arouse opposition to competing product, candidate, or policy by associating it w/ a negative image
-makes one's own product, candidate, policy attractive
EX: Yanks--Americans, Frogs--French
Glittering Generality
:surrounds the product, candidate, or policy w/ images that arouse positive feelings
EX: "New" "Fresh" "Pure"
Transfer
:in POSITIVE form--associate the product, candidate, or policy w/ something the public respects or approves
EX: surrounding a beer w/ American flags--believe patriotic:in NEGATIVE form--associate the product, candidate, or policy w/ something the public disproves of
Testimonials
:famous individuals endorse a product, candidate, or policy
EC: MJ--Nike, Hanes
:NEGATIVE form--a despised person is associated w/ the competing product
EX: Osama bin Laden supporting gov. candidate
Plain Folks
:associate the product, candidate, or policy w/ "just plain folks"
-"I'm just a regular person"
EX: Presidential candidate wearing a baseball hat
Card Stacking
:present only positive info about what you support, & only negative info about what you oppose
-intent is to make it sound as though there is only one conclusion a rational person can draw
-falsehoods, distortions, & illogical statements used
Bandwagon
"Everyone is doing it"
:emphasizing how many others buy the product or support the candidate or policy conveys the message that anyone who doesn't join in is on the wrong track
Mass Society Theory
:an explanation for why people participate in a social movement based on the assumption that the movement offers them a sense of belonging
-many people feel isolated b/c they live in a mass society--social movements fill this void--offer a sense of belonging
-find more social movements where ties are stronger--midwest & south
Mass Society
:industrialized, highly bureaucratized, impersonal society
EX: Nazis attracted people firmly rooted in firmly & community
-homeless people generally don't join anything--total isolation
Deprivation Theory
:people who feel deprived (of $, of justice, status, privilege) join social movements in hope of redressing their grievances
EX: African Americans in Civil Rights Movement
Relative Deprivation Theory
:belief that people join social movements based on their evaluations of what they think they should have compared w/ what others have
-improving conditions can spark revolutions--occurs when people's expectations outstrip the actual change they experience
EX: Civil Rights Movement--black demonstrators compared themselves w/ whites w/ equal status
-what is significant is w/ whom we compare ourselves
Agent Provocateur
:someone who joins a group in order to spy on it & to sabotage it by provoking its members to commit extreme acts
-use agent provocateur b/c radical social change in social movements poses a threat to the elite power
-to be credible, agents must share at least some of the class, age, gender, race-ethnic, or religious characteristics of the group
-effective agents must work their way into the center of the group
-agents are often cut off from their own group
EX: FBI recruited agents to sabotage groups--provoked illegal activities that otherwise would not have occured
Stages of Social Movements
1. Initial Unrest & Agitation
2. Resource Mobilization
3. Organization
4. Institutionalization
5. Organizational Decline & Possible Resurgence
Initial Unrest & Agitation
:people are upset about some condition in society & want to change
-most social movements fail at this stage--don't get enough support & die
Resource Mobilization
:a theory that social movements succeed or fail based on their ability to mobilize resources such as time, money, & people's skill
-resources include: access to churches to organize protests, technology & mailing lists
-need resource mobilization to constitute as a social movement
Organization
:a division of labor is set up
-leadership makes policy decisions, & the rank & file carry out daily tasks to keep the social movement going
-still much collective excitement about the issue
Institutionalization
:the movement has created a BUREAUCRACY--control lies in the hands of the Career Officers
-Control Officers may care more about their own position in the organization than the movement for which the group's initial leaders made sacrifices
-collective excitement diminishes
Organizational Decline & Possible Resurgence
:managing the day-to-day affairs of the organization dominates the leadership
-a change in public sentiment may have occurred
-there may no longer be a group of committed people who share a common cause
-the movement is likely to wither away