Syg 2000 - Discuss Social Movement

Phuoc Pham

SYG 2000

November 26th, 2013

Discuss Social Movement

        People commonly ban together to form social movement. It is a grangerized activity that encourages or discourages social change. Social movements are about connecting people who share some political goal. Computer technology, including smartphones, and social networking Internet sites, has mad it possible for people to connect as never before. There are some types of social movement

1. Alterative social movements are the least threatening to the status quo because they seek limited change only part of the population.
2. Redemptive social movements also target specific individuals, but they seek more radical change.
3. Reformative social movements aim for only limited change but target everyone.
4. Revolutionary social movements are the most extreme of all, working for major transformation of an entire society.

Sociologists have developed several explanations of social movements.

1. Deprivation theory holds that social movements arise among people who feel deprived of some thing, such as income, safe working condition, or political rights.
2. Mass- social theory a second explanation, argues that social movements attract socially isolated people who join a movement in order to gain a sense od identity and purpose.
3. Resource mobilization theory, a third theoretical scheme, links the success of any social movement to the resource that are available to it, including money, mass media.
4. Culture theory points out that social movement depend not only money and other material sources but also culture symbols.
5. New social movement theory point out the distinctive character of recent social movements in postindustrial societies.
6. Political economy theory is a Marxist approach that claims that social movements arise in opposition to the capitalist economic system, which fails to meet the needs of majority of people.

Stages in social movements typically unfold in four stages: emergence, coalescence, bureaucratization, and decline.

1. The emergence of social movements occurs as people begin to think that all is not well.
2. Coalescence takes place when a social movement defines itself and develops a strategy for attracting new members and going public.
3. Bureaucratization as it gain members and resources, a social movement may undergo.
4. Social movement decline as resources dry up, he group faces overwhelming opposition, or members achieve their goals and lose interest.