UNIVERSITY OF CAGAYAN VALLEY

Tuguegarao City,Cagayan, 3500

COLLEGE OF SOCIAL WORK

Finals

Name of Student:__________________________ Year/Section:___________________

Subject: Social Change & Dev’t Perspective Teacher: _______________________
MODULE No. M-04
TITLE: Topic 01:Social Movements and its Impact
Overview/ Introduction:
Learning Objectives: At the end of the topic, students will be able to:

1. Illustrate how societies are transformed because of mass

movements that took place over the course of history and
civilizations

2. Explain the role that mass movements play in

transforming societies through the parliaments of the street,
civil disobedience and by armed revolution

3. Link and integrate various theories of social change and

development perspective in analyzing the socio-political,
cultural and economic context of the contemporary society

4. Articulate appreciation on the importance of social

movements in transforming societies.
Discussion:

Social Movements and its Impact

In January 2011, Egypt erupted in protests against the stifling rule of longtime President Hosni
Mubarak. The protests were sparked in part by the revolution in Tunisia, and, in turn, they inspired
demonstrations throughout the Middle East in Libya, Syria, and beyond. This wave of protest
movements travelled across national borders and seemed to spread like wildfire. There have been
countless causes and factors in play in these protests and revolutions, but many have noted the
internet-savvy youth of these countries. Some believe that the adoption of social technology—from
Facebook pages to cell phone cameras—that helped to organize and document the movement
contributed directly to the wave of protests called Arab Spring. The combination of deep unrest and
disruptive technologies meant these social movements were ready to rise up and seek change.

What do Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the
anti-globalization movement, and the Tea Party have in common? Not much, you might think. But
although they may be left-wing or right-wing, radical or conservative, highly organized or very
diffused, they are all examples of social movements.

A social movement is a persistent and organized effort involving the mobilization of large numbers

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of people to work together to either bring about what they believe to be beneficial social change or
resist or reverse what they believe to be harmful social change.

Social movements are purposeful, organized groups striving to work toward a common goal.
These groups might be attempting to create change (Occupy Wall Street, Arab Spring), to resist
change (anti-globalization movement), or to provide a political voice to those otherwise
disenfranchised (civil rights movements). Social movements create social change.

It also refer to a loosely organized but sustained campaign in support of a social goal, typically
either the implementation or the prevention of a change in society’s structure or values. Although
social movements differ in size, they are all essentially collective. That is, they result from the
more or less spontaneous coming together of people whose relationships are not defined by rules
and procedures but who merely share a common outlook on society.

Collective Behaviour
 refers to relatively spontaneous and relatively unstructured behavior by large numbers of
individuals acting with or being influenced by other individuals.
 non-institutionalized activity in which several people voluntarily engage.
Example, flash mob, a large group of people who gather together in a spontaneous activity that
lasts a limited amount of time before returning to their regular routines.

PRIMARY FORMS OF COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOUR:

1. the crowd - a large number of people gathered together in a disorganized or

unruly way
large number of people who gather together with a common short-term or long-
term purpose.
4 types of crowd
a. Casual crowds consist of people who are in the same place at the same time, but who
are
not really interacting, such as people standing in line at the post office.
b. Conventional crowds are those who come together for a scheduled event, like a religious
service or rock concert.
c. Expressive crowds are people who join together to express emotion, often at funerals,
weddings, or the like.
d. acting crowds, focus on a specific goal or action, such as a protest movement or riot.
e. protest crowds - is a collection of people who gather to protest a political, social, cultural,
or economic issue. The gatherings of people who participate in a sit-in,
demonstration, march, or rally are all examples of protest crowds.
2. the mass
3. the public, and
4. social movements

Characteristics of Social Movements

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(Social Movements: An Introduction byDonatella Porta and Mario Diani.1999)

1. Informal interaction networks;

2. Shared beliefs and solidarity;
3. Collective actions focusing on conflicts;
4. Use of protests

Three Distinctive feature of Social Movements

1. Decentralize rather than hierarchical in structure;

2. Participation and direct democracy;
3. A particular form of leadership and distribution of power

Types/ Classification of Social Movements

1. Innovative (Liberal) Movement intends to introduce something new with regard to culture,
patterns of behavior, policies, or institutions. For example, a liberal movement
exists to legalize marijuana.
2. Conservative Movement has the goal of maintaining things the way they are (resisting
change), such as the movement to prevent legalization of marijuana where it
remains illegal.
3. Reactionary Movement seeks to resurrect cultural elements, patterns of behavior, or
institutions of the past (“bring back the good old days”). An example would be a
movement that wants to return to banning same-sex marriage. Movements can
also be classified in terms of which aspects of society are targeted for change. Is
change sought in patterns of behavior, culture, policies, or institutions? Are the
changes meant to affect everyone, or only a particular group of people?
4. Reform Movement calls for change in patterns of behavior, culture, and/or policy, but does not
try to replace entire social institutions. Supporters of reform movements appeal to
policymakers, attempt to elect candidates, and sometimes bring cases before
courts to achieve their goals. Movements involving civil rights, women’s rights,
sexual orientation, and the rights of people with disabilities all call for acceptance
by the larger culture to ensure equal access to all social institutions but do not aim
to replace them. Antiwar and environmental movements are also considered
reform movements because they call for changes in government policy rather
than sweeping institutional change.
5. Revolutionary Movement in contrast, aims to bring about great structural change by replacing
one or more major social institutions. In the eighteenth century, the American
Revolution succeeded in changing the political system of the original thirteen
colonies by freeing colonists from British monarchical control and creating a
democratic form of government. In the late eighteenth century and early
nineteenth century, the French Revolution ended a monarchy and established a
republic. More contemporary examples of successful revolutions include the 1979
Iranian Revolution that replaced a monarchy with a fundamentalist Islamic
republic, the revolutions that swept away one-party systems in Eastern Europe
and the former Soviet Union from 1989 to 1991, and the anti-apartheid movement

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in South Africa that ended the system of white political domination there in 1994.
Even more recently, the 1996–2008 Nepalese Revolution replaced a monarchy
with democracy, and the Arab uprisings (collectively called the Arab Awakening or
Arab Spring), which began in Tunisia on December 17, 2010, changed the forms
of government in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, and may affect even more Arab
societies in the coming years.
6. Identity Movement is to spread understanding of mechanisms of domination, including cultural
elements such as oppressive language, to destroy debilitating stereotypes, ways
of thinking, and talking that are “the means and products of group subordination”
(Gill and DeFronzo 2009:212). These movements attempt to create a new identity
for the oppressed group “that provides a sense of empowerment, pride, self-
confidence and equality” and also actively confront “the larger public’s norms,
beliefs, behaviors, and ways of thinking” (Gill and DeFronzo 2009:212). Identity
movements develop among persons who perceive themselves to be the target of
discrimination based on an ascribed characteristic such as race, nationality,
physical characteristics, gender, sexual orientation, or other fixed traits. For
example, the feminist movement attacks the traditional view of women as lacking
the intelligence, will, emotional stability, or toughness to successfully participate in
all areas of life by focusing attention on women who have made great
achievements in politics, science, and business. This movement also promotes
traits traditionally associated with women, such as compassion and
cooperativeness, as crucial to the well-being of society. The purpose of the
feminist movement is to provide all women with psychological empowerment and
positive identities, and to replace stereotypes that limit their roles or define them
as inferior with a global conception of women as equal to men.

*
-sectoral movements; children, labor, urban poor, overseas Filipinos, indigenous people
-Feminist and LGBTI movements
-Faith-based movements
-Ecological movement
-Liberation movement
-Working with men – (e.g. MOVE (Men Opposed to violence everywhere), ERPAT (Enhancing and
Reaffirming Paternal Abilities and Talents), KATROPA (PopCom),

Levels of Social movements

Local
Regional
National
Global

Stages of Social Movements Blumer (1969) and Tilly (1978)

1. Preliminary stage (emergence) - people become aware of an issue, and leaders emerge.
2. Coalescence stage when people join together and organize in order to publicize the issue and

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raise awareness
3. Institutionalization stage (bureaucratization), the movement no longer requires grassroots
volunteerism: it is an
established organization, typically with a paid staff.
4. Decline stage - When people fall away and adopt a new movement, the movement successfully
brings about the change it sought, or when people no longer take the issue
seriously

Theories of used to understand social movements

1. Resource Mobilization Theory

According to resource mobilization theory, people motivated to create a social movement must
have access to necessary resources to succeed (Jenkins 1983). Useful resources include funding,
effective leaders, and access to social networks through which new participants can be recruited.
Other beneficial resources can be the support of powerful persons, aid from previously established
social movement organizations, and assistance from important moral figures who can bestow
legitimacy on the movement and its goals.

2. Absolute Deprivation and Relative Deprivation Theories

According to absolute deprivation theory, social movements develop when people are unable to
obtain adequate food, shelter, or other basic needs. However, history shows that people living in
poverty over a period of generations develop the cultural outlook that their situation is fated and
unchangeable. Similarly, the existence of wide gaps in wealth levels of groups in a society does
not seem sufficient to bring about social movements. Social movements, including revolutionary
movements, appear to develop not just as a result of deprivation or inequality but because of
expectations and moral beliefs concerning fairness and social justice (DeFronzo 2015; Fullerton

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2006). In other words, living conditions or political limitations only become intolerable when people
come to view them as unacceptable relative to how they think things should be. Gurr (1970:46–56)
called relative deprivation theory.

3. Leadership Theory

Leadership theory asserts that the emergence and success of social movements requires
exceptional leaders. Leaders can be classified into three types (DeFronzo 2008). Charismatic
leaders, usually the type most widely recognized by the public, emotionally inspire others through
their words and their actions and by presenting the movement as an essential moral struggle.

REFERENCES:
https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontosociology/chapter/chapter21-social-movements-and-social-change/
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/sociology/chapter/social-movements/
SP_CH2.pdf (rowman.com)

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