Movement Dynamics and Outcomes Essay

People fighting against injustices are something that happens every day it is inevitable unless the injustices cease to exist. As stated before social movements happen because of a certain injustice. This can be from people feeling oppressed from their race, sex, or sexuality. They have had many contributions to society mainly helping those and they get rid of oppression. While inspiring others who are oppressed as well to set up and speak up again their oppressors. Mainly helping other groups use the same successful tactic that other social group has done in the past or present. Some of these groups that are looked back upon on how successful their tactics were are the early Women's movement, Africa American movement, Chicano Movement, and

A social movement is defined as the gathering of people to change an element of society that they feel is not acceptable and cannot endure any longer. There are two primary types of movements: reactive and proactive. Reactive movements typically involved resistance movements and are a pushback or reaction to current social changes. Proactive social movements include reform and revolutionary social movements which are designed to bring radical social change and replace the existing structures with new ones. While these definitions remain constant, as social changes impact societies, many social movements may change labels. A proactive movement can become a reactive movement and vice-versa.

Social movements are not spontaneous events, and they must build towards their goals over time on a series of phases and preconditions. Successful social movements rely on a number of micro and macro factors including efficient organizational structures, the ability to mobilize human and material resources, as well as effective leadership and rapid diffusion of ideas. As it will be shown, the presence of mobilizing structures, movement frames as well as suitable political opportunities combined with reactionary incentives during the Civil Rights Movement helped culminate both short and long term societal changes.

A social movement is a group of individuals that focus on political or social issues. Though this explanation appears pertinent, movements are rarely that simple. In the case of racial militancy, a social movement is characterized by the need for justice, preserving the community and the emergence of the New Negro. What distinguishes racial militancy from other groups is the inclination to question society and combat relentlessly for their objectives. Frequently this movement employed empowerment, unity, and a new identity to define their movement.

In the late sixties and early seventies, the anti-war moment peaked during the Nixon administration. In October of 1969, the Weatherman, an ultra-left splinter group of SDS (which had become a revolutionary organization), held its infamous ‘Days of Rage" demonstrations in Chicago. Many young protesters attempted to fight police in the streets. The same month witnessed an outpouring of dissent unprecedented in U.S. history. More than two million people joined in Vietnam Moratorium activities around the country. Many were protesting against the war for the first time. For the first time, the press sympathized with the antiwar protesters. The following month more than 500,000 people demonstrated in Washington, 150,000 protested in San Francisco,

Social movements of the 1960’s and 1970’s have been interpreted and written about in varying ways. While contemporary scholarship disagrees with past analyses and offer fresh perspectives, past research can also provide a pathway for defining important questions for future research on social movements in America.

Social movements have many different definitions. In his paper, Social Movements, James Jasper defines them as “sustained and intentional efforts to foster or retard social changes, primarily outside the normal institutional channels encouraged by authorities”. (CITE) In simpler terms, a social movement is a movement created by people who want a social or political change. A big part of social movements is resource mobilization theory. Resource mobilization theory states that social movements “succeed through the effective mobilization of resources and the development of political opportunities for members” (CITE). This means that if a social movement wants to be successful, they need to organize themselves so they can do things such as collect funds from constituents and elites, receive volunteers and members, and get their

Social movements typically concern institutions that serve explicit and implicit purposes, including “perpetuation of cultural norms, value maintenance, policy making, and enforcement of statutes and doctrines”. The significance of this is that institutions frame situations to their benefit by definitions and interpretations. Protesters challenge this definitional authority by offering counter frames that portray institutions negatively. In attempt to sustain power, credibility, and legitimacy, institutions will implement four strategies when responding to these challenges: evasion, counter-persuasion, coercive persuasion, and adjustment. For example, during the Selma to Montgomery marches law enforcement institutions strategically used the evasion strategy in order to place a frame that the social movements do not exist and that their preexisting laws were constitutional. During this time the government and media did not acknowledge black Americans as equals let alone citizens of the United States. Thus, were seen as unworthy of institutional response. The institutional strategy, counter-persuasion, deals with the notion of “challenge a social movement’s vision of reality and attempt to discredit its leaders, members, and demands”. During the Selma to Montgomery marches, ideas were framed as “ill advised, poorly informed, and lacking merit”. This then relates to the third strategy, coercive persuasion, where there was an “enhancing of fear appeals or a method to resist change due to the appeal to basic fear”. Coercive persuasion is formed in order to persuade target audiences that force will follow non-compliance. For example, law enforcement institutions of the Selma to Montgomery marches threatened protesters through fear that if they participated in any uncivil uproar that they would be incarcerated or

Social movements are large groups of people who are usually without political power and influence that decide to promote or resist social change through unconventional means (Monnier, 2010). Social movements begin when there is a problem identified by a certain group of people. The group finds out who is responsible for failing to appropriately address their issues and at that point proceed to take action themselves. These movements can be violent or nonviolent when addressing the responsible parties. There are many types of social movements that include but not limited to civil rights, animal rights and environmental rights movements. The basis of these movements would derive from the conflict theory. The conflict theory

One of the strategies used by the activists was speeces. A speech is a form of communication in spoken language, made be a speaker before an audience for a given purpose. Another is marches. A march is to walk with regular and, measured tread, marches as soldiers on a parade; Advance in an organized body. Boycotts is another effective strategy they used. A boycott is to combine in abstaining from, or preventing dealings with, as means of intimidation or coercion. The last, most dangerous strategy they had was riots. A riot is a noisy, violent public disorder caused by a crowd or group of persons, as by a crowd, a government policy, ect. In the streets.

Social movements shed light to social issues present in communities and harvest social change in political, religious, educational, health, government, and other institutional matters. Social movements give individuals a clear outlet to concerns about the rights and well-being of themselves and others, mostly through public protest and conversation, in order to promote social justice and democracy. Throughout history, humans naturally ended up starting movements to simply improve their way of life and movements have continually aided in a remarkable change in communities. In the essay “From Civil Rights to Megachurches,” Charles Duhigg explains the three critical steps that initiative successful social movements. Social movements must

“As they fathom injustice, organize to protest, craft a tactics, and engage in action, these bodies read what is happening and articulate their imaginative rebuttal. In so doing they demonstrate to themselves and all those watching that something can be done. Could this be why they are called political ‘movements’?”

Social movements have a tremendous impact on our society and it is important that we understand how those movements are shaped. As individuals we are all part of a greater society and could be called upon to stand up for human rights. Understanding how to shape social movements so they have better chances of succeeding could mean the difference between a society that guides improved human rights and one that loses sight. There is a great deal of literature on social movements and it has become increasing popular since the Vietnam Era of social protest. The literature typically

Disobedience has proven to be a successful means of promoting social progress. Martin Luther King Jr used peaceful means of rebellion, such as boycotting busses and sit-ins, to help repair some of America’s most discriminating Laws and regulations. These acts were successful because they were well thought and dignified protests. Then in turn, the protests gained support and the movement grew in strength. The protests did not attack the power they were defying, but simply stood up for the message they were trying send. A protest is a highly effective way to defy a social power by gaining attention. However, when protests begin to attack the power at bay, attention can turn negative quickly and actually hinder public support that pushes social change.

In Johnston, Laraña, and Gusfield’s discussion of New Social Movement (NSM) theory, they identify the concept as a “double-edged sword,” in that is has both related itself to the changing shape of society but also overemphasized the newness of its model, almost divorcing itself from previous social movement theories instead of acknowledging and assessing the similarities between them and integrating what is useful from theories of the past. As its basic framework asserts that social movements now are not as linked to class as they were in the time of the emergence of Marxism and at the height of industrialist society (as Resource Mobilization Theory might stress), new