Social Movements

Social Movements
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Social Movements
The term social movement emerged in the eightieth century and was first used by Saint Simon in France to characterize the movements of social protests that emerged at the time. The protests could later spill over to other countries and the term being interpreted as new political forces opposed to the status quo. Kumar (2015) defines social movement as an organized effort by a significant number of people to change (or resist change in) some major aspect or aspects of society. Kumar further says that such movements must be purposeful, organized and working together towards a common goal. With the growth and advancement in technologies, social movements have taken different dimensions not only in terms of coming up but also on the major agenda that they push for or they are opposing. Most importantly, they have become a major source of political and governance change. Notably, they have changed in terms of their leadership and membership structure with a significant change in their characteristics and mode of operation.
Stages in the formation of social movements
Unlike other organizations and movements, social movements do not have uniform or a systematic way in which they come up. Take for instance the Arab Spring that was started off by protests in Egypt following a wave of civil unrest in countries like Tunisia. The protests could later see the end President Hosni Mubarak’s term. The civil unrest later extended to countries like Libya, Syria and throughout the Middle East.
Although social movements have no particular format or protocol they go through when starting, most sociologists agree on major stages that social movements go through before they become a great force of change in society (Little, 2014). The first stage is the unrest or the preliminary stage that is characterized by civil unrest among the populace. The unrest starts off with a discontentment among people who challenge the existing order in society. Kumar (2015) says discontentment in society is always a relationship between objective conditions and how people view those conditions. Sociologists argue that without discontentment then there could be no social movements as majority of them come up with the aim of pushing for an agenda or against a policy that they are dissatisfied with.
The second stage in social movements is the popular stage in which the movement gets its identity by rallying behind a specific goal. At this stage the movement identifies itself with a specific ideology and have a leading figure for that movement. Notably, there are no official ways of appointing or coming up with the leader, they just pop up or those who were the originators of the idea or original opposers of the idea assume the role of leadership (Ergun & Erdogmus, 2017). At this stage, the movement is likely to rally behind a popular charismatic leader who becomes the face of the group in terms of identifying with their goal. After it has emerged as a strong group with a leader, then the number of people also increases after realizing it has a possibility of leading to a brighter future or in opposing specific issues that they are not satisfied with.
The third stage is the formalization stage in which alliances are formed with other parties or similar groups that share the same vision or goal. The groups come together to form one unit with a clear ideology or a believe that they support. The ideas may range from opposing or advocating for certain policies or even supporting a certain agenda in society. These are then formulated into a program hence leading to the birth of a social movement.
The last stage is the institutionalization in which the movement graduates into an institution with a clear leadership structure and even gets formally registered as a civil organization. At this stage, it’s no longer an emotional exchange between the movement and authorities but changes to a recognized institution that operates within the norms and social order.
Characteristics of social movements
Although there are no universally accepted characteristics of social movements, sociologists agree on two major characteristics. The first one is the collective behavior. For a social movement to sustain itself it must have a unified way of doing things or rather a collective action approach in pushing for its agenda (Little, 2014). Although the collective action need not be formal it can also be informal but must be able to create an awareness or awakening among a large group of people. There are different forms of collective behavior and the first one is a crowd that is also divided into four. There is the casual crowd that consists of people who are at the same place at the same time but are actually not interacting with one another. A classic example of this is a group of people in a post office who all go there for the same thing but are not interacting with one another. The second type is the conventional crowd, which consists of people who meet at a place for one specific purpose. This can range from religious gatherings to drinking in clubs or attending concerts. The third type of crowd is the expressive crowd, which is made up of people who come together to express their emotions. It can either be in funerals, weddings or any other such related activity. The fourth one is the acting crowd who focus on a specific goal or action such as riots and protests. The other types of collective behavior are the mass and the publ...