SOCIOLOGY OF

SOCIAL
MOVEMENT
INTRODUCTION
▪ What is social movement?
▪ Social + movement
▪ Society: group of individual with sharing beliefs and
practices
▪ Movement: mobility or shifting from one stage to another
▪ Social Movement: defined as collective challenges, based on
common purposes and social solidarities, in sustained interaction
with elites, opponents, and authorities”.
▪ Collective challenge
▪ Common purpose
▪ Social solidarity
▪ Sustained interaction
COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOUR
▪ Collective behavior –Activity involving a large number of people that is unplanned,
often controversial, and sometimes dangerous – Examples: Mobs, riots, panic, mass
hysteria, and social movements
▪ Collective behavior is diverse – A wide range of human action
▪ Collective behavior is variable – Why do some rumors catch on, but others don’t?
▪ Collective behavior is transitory – Disasters, rumors, and fads come and go quickly.
▪ Collectivity- is a large number of people whose minimal interaction occurs in the
absence of well-defined and conventional norms
▪ • Localized collectivity–People physically close to one another
▪ • Dispersed collectivity (or mass behavior)– People who influence one another despite
being spread over a large area
 HOW COLLECTIVES DIFFER
FROM SOCIAL GROUPS
▪ Collectives are based on limited social
interaction.
– Interaction in mobs is limited and temporary.
▪ Collectives have no clear social boundaries.
– Little sense of unity compared to social
groups whose members often share a common
identity
▪ Collectives generate weak and unconventional
norms.
– Mobs often destroy and act spontaneously.
CROWDS, MOBS AND RIOTS
▪ Crowd: A temporary gathering of people who share a common focus of
attention and who influence one another
▪ Blummer identified 4 types,
i. A casual crowd: people on a beach
ii. A conventional crowd: a college classroom
iii. An expressive crowd: a church service
iv. An acting crowd: people fleeing from a fire
v. A protest crowd: a college student sit-in (a new social phenomenon)
▪ Mob: A highly emotional crowd that pursues a violent or destructive goal -A
lynch mob
▪ Riot: A social eruption that is highly emotional, violent, and undirected –
Sports riots, race riots, riots related to social injustice
MASS BEHAVIOR
▪ Collective behavior among people dispersed over a wide geographical area
• Rumor and gossip
• Public opinion
• Propaganda
• Fashions and fads
• Panic and mass hysteria
RUMOR AND GOSSIP
▪ Rumor–Unconfirmed information people spread informally, often by word of mouth
– Thrives in a climate of ambiguity
– Is unstable
– Is difficult to stop
▪ Gossip–Rumor about people’s personal affairs
– Rumors spread widely, but gossip is more localized.
– A means of social control
– Too much gossip is discouraged.
PUBLIC OPINION &
PROPAGANDA
▪ Public opinion–Widespread attitudes about controversial issues
– Some people have no opinion at all.
– Even on some important issues, a majority of people have no clear opinion.
▪ Propaganda– False or exaggerated information presented with the intention of shaping public
opinion
– Thin line between information and propaganda
– Not all propaganda is false but exaggerated.
FASHIONS AND FADS
▪ Fashion–A social pattern favored by a large number of people
– Traditional style gives way to changing fashion in industrial societies.
– Thorestien Veblen: Conspicuous consumption–people buying expensive products to show off
their wealth
• Fads–An unconventional social pattern that people embrace briefly but enthusiastically
– Sometimes called crazes
PANIC & MASS HYSTERIA
▪ Panic–A form of collective behavior in which people in one place react to a threat or other
stimulus with irrational, frantic, and often self-destructive behavior
▪ Mass hysteria–A form of dispersed collective behavior by which people respond to a real or
imagined event often with irrational and even frantic fear
4 DEFINING ELEMENTS OF SOCIAL
MOVEMENTS:
1. Collective challenge
▪ usually contentious and non-institutional

2. Common purposes
▪ overlapping interests, and values
▪ reason for coming together
3. Social solidarity collective identity
▪ recognition common interests
▪ mobilizing consensus
4. Sustained interaction with opponents and authorities
▪ moving from protest event to movement
▪ usually requires resources and organizations
WHO ARE INVOLVED?
1. Protagonists - supportive groups, interest represented
▪ Adherents - activist, core participants
▪ Constituency - those claimed to be represented
▪ Beneficiaries - benefit personally
▪ Conscious constituents - supporters who don’t directly benefit
2. Antagonists
▪ Targets
▪ Counter-movements
3. Bystanders - potential protagonists or antagonists
▪ Media plays crucial role
HOW DO MOVEMENTS EMERGE?
4 KEY PROCESS ELEMENTS
1. Political Opportunities/Threats
– broad change processes
– actions by authorities
2. Repertoires of Contention
– tactics and strategies for engagement, mobilization
3. Framing or Interpretive Processes
– movement strategy & cultural context
• interpreting changes
• attributing blame
• change through collective action
4. Mobilizing Structures
– organizations, coalitions, networks to sustain contention
REPERTOIRES OF
CONTENTION:
▪ Historically specific “ways that people act together in pursuit of shared
interests.” - Charles Tilly”
▪ Contentious politics as ‘performance’
▪ 3 main types of public contention
▪ Violence
▪ Disruption
▪ Convention
▪ Examples of institutionalization of contention?
FRAMING:
“process in which social actors, media and members of a society jointly interpret, define and
redefine state of affairs” (Klandermas, 109).
▪ Collective Action Frames - creating meaning for action
▪ Diagnostic Frames:
▪ Situation interpreted as “unjust” or intolerable
▪ Blame attributed to others

▪ Prognostic Frames:
▪ Change possible
▪ Requires collective action

▪ Motivational Frame:
▪ Call to Action: why you need to do it now
▪ Struggles over meaning
WHAT IS SOCIAL MOVEMENT
▪ Social movements involves sustained collective mobilization through informal and formal
organizations which aim to bringing about social change in the existing system.
▪ Social movements starts due to dissatisfaction with the existing arrangement
▪ Usually originated as an unplanned, unorganized group of people
▪ The formulation of an ideology, collective mobilization, and nature of leadership are important
aspects of social movements.
▪ People join specific social movements for various reasons – idealism, altruism, compassion
and practical consideration as well as frustration.
▪ Social movements throw light on various aspects which have been existing from a decades or
which is result of certain governmental policies or declaration.
▪ Fields- Religious, political, educational, economic, environmental and other fields
▪ Span and ranges varies – some are for a small time some are for large, some are localized,
some are global
DEFINITION OF SOCIAL
MOVEMENTS
▪ Social movement is a social phenomenon that assumes great importance in the study of collective
behaviours and social changes
▪ Turner and Killian-
A social movement is formally defined as a collective actions with some continuity to promote or resists
change in the society or a group of which it is a part.

▪ Horton and Hunt- a social movement is a collective effort to promote of resist the change
▪ Neill Smelser- Social movements can be defined as reorganized group effort to generate or resists
social change
▪ Paul Willkinson defined social movement as- a deliberate collective endeavor to promote change in
any direction and by any means, not excluding violence, illegality, revolution, or withdrawal into
‘utopian community’
DEFINITION OF SOCIAL
MOVEMENT
▪ Sociologist Charles Tilly defines social movements as a series of contentious performances,
displays and campaigns by which ordinary people make collective claims on others.
▪ For Tilly, social movements are a major vehicle for ordinary people's participation in public
politics.
▪ The sociologists John McCarthy and Mayer Zald define as a social movement as "a set of
opinions and beliefs in a population which represents preferences for changing some
elements of the social structure and/or reward distribution of a society.
HOW SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
DIFFER FROM INTEREST
GROUPS AND PARTIES
▪ Parties seek to elect their own members to the office.
▪ Social movements do not have this as a primary goal.
▪ Interest groups issues are narrowly defined— social movement issues are
broadbased and affect society as a whole.
▪ Social movements work outside of the system, and often use disruptive tactics.
WHY SOME SOCIAL
MOVEMENTS FAIL OR
FALTER
▪ Not enough followers
▪ Inspires a powerful counter movement- (think of Mahatma Gandhi who
mobilized Indian masses against the British)
▪ Repression-the state steps in to arrest and otherwise neutralize movement
followers
▪ Faltering: weakening of the movement due to lesser participation and/or falling
back of the participants.
SUCCESSFUL SOCIAL
MOVEMENTS
▪ Solidarity and integrity among the participants
▪ A successful movement garners empathy and avoids backlash
▪ A successful movement uses core values to its advantage in making claims
▪ A successful movement cannot advocate for radical change or a shift in power
relations, for to do so risks the death of the movement
STAGE 1-
EMERGENCE/INCIPIENCE
▪ The first stage of the social movement life cycle is known as the emergence, or, as
described by Blumer, the “social ferment” stage (Within this stage, social movements
are very preliminary and there is little to no organization.
▪ Instead this stage can be thought of as widespread discontent.
▪ Potential movement participants may be unhappy with some policy or some social
condition, but they have not taken any action in order to redress their grievances, or if
they have it is most likely individual action rather than collective action.
▪ A person may comment to friends and family that he or she is dissatisfied with
conditions or may write a letter to the local newspaper or representative, but these
actions are not strategic and not collective.
▪ Further, there may be an increase in media coverage of negative conditions or unpopular
policies which contributes to the general sense of discontent.
STAGE 2- COALESCENCE
▪ At this next stage in the life cycle, social movements have overcome some obstacles (which may never
overcome).
▪ Often, social unrest or discontent passes without any organizing or widespread mobilization. For example,
people in a community may complain to each other about a general injustice, but they do not come together to
act on those complaints and the social movement does not progress to the next level.
▪ Stage two, known as coalescence, or the “popular stage,” is characterized by a more clearly defined sense of
discontent. It is no longer just a general sense of unease, but now a sense of what the unease is about and who
or what is responsible.
▪ Rex D. Hopper in examining revolutionary processes, states that at this stage “unrest is no longer covert,
endemic, and esoteric; it becomes overt, epidemic, and exoteric.
▪ Discontent is no longer uncoordinated and individual; it tends to become focalized and collective”.
▪ At this point leadership emerges and strategies for success are worked out. Also, at this stage mass
demonstrations may occur in order to display the social movement’s power and to make clear demands.
▪ Most importantly this is the stage at which the movement becomes more than just random upset individuals;
at this point they are now organized and strategic in their outlook.
STAGE 3-
BUREAUCRATIZATION
▪ This stage, defined by Blumer as “formalization,” is characterized by higher levels of
organization and coalition-based strategies.
▪ In this stage, social movements have had some success in that they have raised awareness to a
degree that a coordinated strategy is necessary across all of the SMOs.
▪ Social movements in this stage can no longer just rely on mass rallies or inspirational leaders to
progress towards their goals and build constituencies; they must rely on trained staff to carry
out the functions of organizations.
▪ In this phase their political power is greater than in the previous stages in that they may have
more regular access to political elites.
▪ Many social movements fail to bureaucratize in this way and end up fizzling out because it is
difficult for members to sustain the emotional excitement necessary and because continued
mobilization becomes too demanding for participants.
▪ Formalization often means that paid staff can fill in when highly enthusiastic volunteers are not
readily available .
STAGE 4- FRAGMENTATION
▪ During this stage conflicts arise over a number of issues- leadership style, doctrine and
bureaucratization and even the message.
▪ Rebel groups and claim that the organization no longer represents the original goal and mission
▪ They fragment (Divide) the movements and sometimes they create a new movement.
STAGE 4- DECLINE
▪ Finally, the last stage in the social movement life cycle is decline, or
“institutionalization.” Decline does not necessarily mean failure for social
movements though. Instead, Miller argues, there are four ways in which social
movements can decline:
▪ Repression,
▪ Co-optation,
▪ Success, and
▪ Failure.
▪ Mainstreaming
TYPES OF SOCIAL
MOVEMENTS
▪ Sociologist David Aberle (1966) developed
categories that distinguish among social movements
by considering-
1) what it is the movement wants to change and
2) how much change they want.
▪ He described four types of social movements-
i. alternative,
ii. redemptive,
iii. reformative, and
iv. revolutionary.
▪ Alternative movements are typically focused on self-improvement and limited,
specific changes to individual beliefs and behavior. These include things like No
tobacco movement, safe driving campaign.
▪ Redemptive movements (sometimes called religions movements) are “meaning
seeking,” are focused on a specific segment of the population, and their goal is to
provoke inner change or spiritual growth in individuals. Some sects fit in this
category. E.g. Bhakti Movement,
▪ Reformative social movements seek to change something specific about the social
structure. They may seek a more limited change, but are targeted at the entire
population. Environmental movements, Chipko anadolan, Arya Samaj Movement,
Brahmo Samaj Movement etc.
▪ Revolutionary movements seek to completely change every aspect of society—their
goal is to change all of society in a dramatic way. Examples include the Civil Rights
Movement or the political movements, such as a push for communism. Arab Spring,
French Revolution, Industrial revolution etc.
▪ Reactionary or Revivalist Movement: these movements aims to ‘putting the
clock back’. Members view certain changes with suspicion and distaste and try
to reverse the present trend/system. E.g. Arya Samaj, Khadi Movement etc.
▪ Resistance movements: Many social and cultural changes of recent decades
have been profoundly disturbing to some people or group. They resist through
movements expressing the dismay at the directions in which our nation has
been moving. E.g. teen-talaq movement, gender movement
▪ Utopian movements: These Utopian movements attempt to take the society or
at least a section of it towards a state of perfection. The utopian ideal and the
means of it are often vague, but many utopian movements have quite specific
programmes for social change, for example, Ram-rajya theory,
POLITICAL MOVEMENT VS
SOCIAL
▪
MOVEMENT
Treated more or less the same
▪ Movement, when it enters in the arena of social relationship affecting public domain and
power relationship, it gets character of political movement.
▪ For instance community’s collective struggle for sanskritisation is though social movement, it
also challenges existing power relationship as community asserts not only higher status but
also compete with those who dominate. Backward caste movement is a case in point.
▪ Rudolf Heberle (1951) argues that all movements have political implications even if their
members do not strive for political power.
▪ Andre Gunder Frank and Marta Fuentes (1987) make a distinction between social and political
movements.
▪ Social movements ‘seek more autonomy rather than state power’. The objective of social movement is
social transformation. The participants get mobilised for attaining social justice.
▪ Political power, is located in the state alone.
A GLOSS OVER REALITY
▪ Politics is not located only in the political parties. The movements involving issues concerning
the sense of justice or injustice have political implications.
▪ Social movement involves any collective struggle aiming at bringing social transformation
questioning prevailing hegemony and dominance, property relations, power relations, assertion
for identity against the perceived adversaries and resisting dominance.
▪ struggle for justice, involves capturing or influencing political authority, though it may not be
on the immediate agenda.
▪ Therefore, in the present context, the difference between ‘social’ and ‘political’ movement is
merely semantic.
ARE SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
NECESSARY?
▪ The assumption that the ideal political system is ipso facto capable of resolving all conflict in society
is simplistic.
▪ Each society has its own contradictions.
▪ The system may resolve some issues but also can generate new areas of conflict among different
segments of society.
▪ The leaders and the members of their class or social group leading the movements are likely to occupy
seat of power and reap benefits. That situation generates conflict between the beneficiaries and the
deprived.
▪ those who dominate and occupy seat of power tend to claim to have ultimate and all wisdom for the
‘good of society’. There is a tendency among the political leaders not to step down from power.
Sometimes they feel that without them others would harm society. Such a tendency leads to
intolerance towards dissent and opposition.
▪ Dissent is a spirit of democracy. And social movement is one form of organised dissent.
▪ Social movements provides a possibility for articulation of grievances and problems.
▪ They bring pressure on the state, keep check over the authority needed for healthy democracy.
▪ Social movement is way of people’s/segment’s collective politics to express their aspirations
and priorities.
▪ Without understanding politics of the people we cannot understand complexities and dynamics
of political system.