What is a Social Movement?

Grassroots activism is activism that begins at the lowest level of the political pyramid: the local level. Grassroots activism can be described as an attempt to “weld the community into one bond of reason and emotion (3)” in the effort to achieve a common goal. Rather than trying to bring issues directly to the government, grassroots activism relies on pressuring the upper levels of the political pyramid (the regional, national and international level) into cooperation through the overwhelming force of mass protest, through strategies such as, organizing meetings, fundraising, and persuading voters to elect officials who represent the desired policies of the activists. A great majority of the Civil Rights Movements can be described as grassroots activism; numerous civil rights organizations were founded at the time such as the Congress of Racial Equality, the Southern Christian

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.

Activism, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is “a doctrine or practice that emphasizes direct vigorous action especially in support of or opposition to one side of a controversial issue.” While this definition is pretty accurate, activism does not have to be a direct action; it can be a subtle, indirect action as well. African Americans engaged in activism directly and indirectly between the Civil War and the 1920s. While African Americans were perceived to be “ignorant and lazy” , they proved to be intuitive and industrious. They were motivated by their imaginations of equality in all aspects – politically, socially, and economically. African Americans imagined desegregated schools, economic opportunities that could provide for them and their

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.

In the past few years, the United States has experienced many social movements. For example, there have been movements such as Black Lives Matter (2012), North Dakota Access Pipeline (2016) and the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge (2014). These movements have been lead by students, unions, and concerned citizens of the United States who want to see a change in social or political issues. These movements can be seen across the United States and even across the world. But how are these movements funded and what are the issues that go along with funding them? To understand how social movements are funded, first you need to understand what a social movement is.

Over time, the way social movements are organized changes. As technology becomes more advanced the process of these movements is able to reach a larger number of individuals. In the early twentieth century, two men were able to change the nature of social movements in ways that are very different, yet very similar. Huey Long and Father Charles Coughlin altered the way social movements advanced their agendas by using their standing within society and unconventional resources to organize and advance their causes. Huey Long’s

The social change movements of this time consisted of black men trying to obtain the right to vote. There were others that focused on a black mans right to own property and land, and others focusing on women’s needs. As one can see, there isn’t a blanket group that can cover the needs and desires for all, it is simply unreasonable to think so. Even if there was an organization of people accomplished enough to believe that they could fight for the civil rights of every American in the country, they wouldn 't be able to succeed without the help of smaller, local groups. The purpose of these groups is to be able to reach out to people on a comfortable level. People tend to find their homes, workplaces, and towns as comfortable places to express who they truly are. As a local social change group they would be able to reach people right at home, on the phone or otherwise. It’s a more comfortable platform to reach others and evidently people are more likely to comply if they find you familiar. This

Sociologists defines it as, “organized activism intended to be engaged in over a long period of time, with the objective of changing society in some way through collective action” (Fitzgerald, 2014, p. 177).

What determines a movement? Malcolm Gladwell defines what pushes a movement to make a difference. He analyzes the concept of “strong ties” and “weak ties” and how these relationships affect an individual’s willpower and determination to help a cause. Gregory Orr puts these ideas into context in his memoir, “Return to Hayneville”, in which he recounts his experience and involvement in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Malcolm Gladwell’s “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted”, focuses, in particular, on the civil rights movement concentrates to the lunch counter sit-ins in Greensboro, North Carolina. Gladwell’s ideas and opinions of social and political emancipations are given a real world setting, as

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

In the last decade or a half, it is seen that collective action has become easier due to technological and social advancements, which has significantly helped grass-root movements gain power and influence in the political sphere. The ability of movements to raise money, gather large support, enter competitive political elections and impact party support and agenda, has made them very influential and appealing to political parties. Social movements are able to influence political parties by having a strong support base and source of funding to keep the movement going, having goals that a party can associate with and incorporate those goals into the party’s agendas. It is also seen that social movements gain significant influence over parties

Start by narrowing the historical literature down into three main schools of thought so you can take a closer look at how social movements are born, why some succeed, and others fail. (Clearly, using a broad brush to paint a simplified scope of the topic, but this will help to centralize the data in a more digestible context.) The main schools of thought in this paper have been grouped in the following types of action: Collective Action, Economic/Political, and Leadership Centered.

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

We tend to think of politics as very contentious. Of course, most controversies we hear about on the news are mainly focused on politics. Political life can actually be defined by saying that it consists more of ceremonies, consultations, bureaucratic process, attending associational meetings, and reading and publishing newspapers, asking officials for favors… (Tilly and Tarrow 2006: 437). Movements have some similarities with contentious politics and tend to be mistaken for it. But if we look for the definition of social movements in its historical and social context, we would find that they are defined as “persistent and organized effort on the par of a relatively large number of people either to bring about or to resist social change”(Defronzo,