36. Business
• Book update
• Book report assignment (distributed,
explained)
• Web update
– Username: SMStudent
– Password: SocMove
– These are CASE Sensitive!!
• Correct exam dates: March 10, April
28
37. Choosing Sides, Choosing
Theory
• There is a broad tendency to use different
theories for movements we agree with and
those we disagree with
• Our own movements
– Respond to core principles of justice, morality
and characterized by clear thinking.
– Principal focus on identifying the most effective
forms of action
• Opponents
– Irrational, deluded even motivated by evil
– OR cynical, hiding their true motives
– Principal focus on explaining how people could
think such things, or on exposing the “true”
38. Theories are rooted in cases
and standpoints
If you understand what movements are the
touch-points for a line of theory, and how
the theorists stood with respect to them,
you will understand the core of the theory
Our goal is to treat movements as even-
handedly as possible in our theory, use the
same theories for all movements, or be able
to explain theoretically why they differ
This does NOT mean we give up our capacity
to form political or moral judgments about
right and wrong
39. Older theories
1. Fearful. French revolution, turmoil,
Fascism, Stalinism, lynching. “How could
people support such terrible things?”
• Group mind, Authoritarianism, Ideological
delusion
• “Collective behavior” theory focused on
disruption of society
1. Celebratory. Marxian/Socialist supporters
of working class movements. Black Civil
Rights Movement and anti-war
movements of the 1960s
• Goals seem unproblematic, reasonable
• Political sociology tradition fed into resource
40. Basic Definitions (courtesy
Goodwin/Jasper)
• Protest = the act of challenging, resisting,
or making demands upon authorities,
powerholders, and/or cultural beliefs and
practices by some individual or group
• Social movement = a collective,
organized, sustained and noninstitutional
challenge to authorities, powerholders, or
cultural beliefs and practices.
• Revolutionary movement = a social
movement that seeks, at a minimum, to
overthrow the government or state
41. Protest
• the act of challenging, resisting, or
making demands
• upon
– authorities, power-holders,
– and/or cultural beliefs and practices
• by some individual or group
Discuss examples? Borderline cases?
We don’t study ONLY protest.
42. Social Movement is a
• challenge to
– authorities, power-holders, OR
– cultural beliefs and practices
– (NOTE: others would say “actions to promote or
resist social change”)
• that is
– collective (multiple people)
– organized (coordinated, at least to some
degree)
– sustained (lasts a while, not just one outburst)
and
– non-institutional (the most problematic part of a
standard definition – outside the “normal”
43. Different ways of defining
movements
• As groups of people (the most natural idea):
BUT a movement can continue as the
people in it come and go
• As a (single) challenge that lasts a long
time – but misses the complexity of
movements
• As preferences for change (i.e. as sets of
ideas) (McCarthy & Zald 1977 – commonly
cited) BUT although the preferences bound
a movement, they are not the thing itself
• As sets of actions with common orientations
toward social change preferences
44. Another, related way of
defining terms
• Collective action (esp. protests): people act
together in some concerted fashion.
• Collective campaign: series of collective
actions oriented toward the same general
social change goal bounded by space, time,
and/or participants
• Social movement: a complex set of
collective campaigns and other collective
events broadly oriented to the same
general goal
– Emphasis on complexity, diffuse boundaries
45. About the “goals” of social
movements• Can be extremely vague and ill-defined, especially
for relatively unorganized turmoil expressing
discontent without clear proposals: “make things
better for farmers [or peasants, or poor
urbanites]."
• Organizations are more likely to articulate clear
goals or proposals.
• Different factions of the same movement may
disagree about specific goals. I.e. different
branches of women’s movement, Black
movement, workers’ movements, gay movement.
• A complex movement generally encompasses
may specific and even competing goals within a
broader more diffuse social change orientation
46. Organizations
• Social movement organization (SMO): an
organization (with boundaries, members, a
structure) explicitly oriented toward
movement goals. National Organization for
Women. NAACP. Greenpeace.
• Other organizations (sometimes called
“preexisting” organizations) may be part of
movements, but their “purpose” is not the
movement. I.e. churches, unions, fraternal
organizations, government agencies.
• All the organizations in a social movement
taken together may be called a social
movement sector (but the term is NOT
47. Movements are more than
organizations
Individual Actions
Organizational Actions
Collective Actions not by
Organizations
Actions
oriented
toward
goal
Preferences for social change
48. Organizations in movements
• Coherent decision-making groups set
goals, plan strategies, accumulate
resources
• Often seek directly to influence those
who have power
• Often plan events designed to draw in
other people OR to influence other
people’s opinions
• May take many forms: moderate law-
abiding, small informal or small
clandestine, large bureaucratic,
49. Other kinds of collective
actions
• Demonstrations, mass protests. Typically
planned by an organization or coalition of
organizations, but may draw in many other
people. May also occur more
spontaneously after a major precipitating
event, or at a gathering formed for another
purpose.
• Riots, short-term insurrections. Typically
not planned (although some may be
incited). Generally build upon prior
sentiments, organized on the spot.
•
50. Individual actions are also parts of
movements
• Individual thoughts, ideas
• Isolated contributions, usually
financial
• Votes, public opinion, “green”
consumerism
• Some individuals take extensive
actions to promote their movements:
one-person campaigns
• Individual acts of interpersonal
resistance and solidarity. Challenge
51. Individuals and movements:
Beliefs
• Adherents support the goals of the
movement.
• Beneficiaries stand to benefit personally
from the movement.
• Constituents are adherents who identify
with the movement. If you support the
goals but hate the movement, you are an
adherent who is not a constituent.
• Conscience constituents are people who
support a movement even though it won't
benefit them (e.g. white supporters of black
movement, wealthy supporters of working
class movement).
52. Individuals and movements:
actions
• Participants engage in movement activities
• Contributors give money to movement
organizations.
• Members are be members of particular
organizations (see below)
• NOTE: a "movement" as a whole is not a
single entity with a membership list, but it is
common for the term "movement member"
to be used casually by non-specialists to
refer to participants, contributors,
constituents, or sometimes even adherents.
53. Social movements overlap
with other elements of society
We don’t worry about drawing
boundaries, but about
understanding the phenomenon
57. Turner & Killian’s Movement
Orientations
1. Value: the specific things the group
wants to change
2. Power: the desire to acquire power
3. Participation as an end in itself: self-
expression, doing the right thing,
belonging
All movements have elements of all
three, but vary in the mix.
58. Types of movement issues:
many dimensions
• Universal issues: “everyone” benefits
(in principle): peace, environment
• Responses to economic crises,
threats to subsistence, livelihood
• Inequality issues
• Specific issue, moral reform
movements
– On behalf of yourself
– On behalf of others, victims
• Think in terms of the social structure
59. Universal issues
• Examples: peace, environment
• Despite universal claims, always
contentious
• Peace: avoid war vs. use force to get
rid of a perceived problem
• Environment: all are harmed if the
planet is destroyed, but the harms and
the costs of protection are distributed
unevenly
• The groups supporting these issues
tend to be tied to lifestyle, political, or
60. Inequality issues
• Oppressed people who form separate
economically & politically weak communities
(many ethnic/racial minorities). Few ties to
dominant groups.
• Class movements
– Reactive responses to subsistence threats
– Longer-term solidaristic institutionalized movements
seeking state power
– These may be tied to deep social divisions
• People who experience discrimination (e.g.
women, gays, disabled, religious minorities)
– Typically integrated with other groups
– Vary in class position and level of economic deprivation
– Group members may disagree about whether
61. Specific reform issues
• The issue itself is not necessarily a matter
of people’s whole lives
• People choose whether to be involved with
the issue, although tied to life
circumstances
– Victimization of self or family member
– Professional involvement
• These issues may “spin off” from other
strong ideological communities, e.g.
religious conservatism or feminism
• Or they may be relatively isolated issues
not closely tied to other movements
62. Interrelations (more later)
• Movement issues tend to come in sets,
people who support one issue tend to
support others that are seen as related
• Common ideologies such as class
conscious social justice or conservative
Christian morality create a general view,
people may move between issues
• Other linkages more “accidental,” who
happens to be allied: the linkages become
stronger due to alliance & conflict structures
& patterns, or may shift around over time.
63. Movement forms: an
empirical inventory 1
• Reform campaigns carried by formal
organizations that raise money, lobby
legislators, organize volunteers. Shade into
interest groups, charitable groups. Link to
larger pools of public opinion.
• Larger movements (e.g. women, Blacks,
labor) with many organizations, strong
base, have won presence in the polity
• Nationalist movements: broad upswelling of
oppressed populations, revolutionary if not
repressed
• Sporadic or unorganized uprisings or
resistance by oppressed people
64. Movement forms: an
empirical inventory 2
• Movement sects. Small isolated
organizations with sweeping social change
goals but no mass base.
• Top-down mass mobilizations. Elites
organize “movements” for their own ends;
may lose control of them.
• Ideological movements whose main goals
are creating & communicating new ideas.
• Cultural movements whose main goal is
creating new ways of living or being
• Religious movements are ideological &
cultural but seem to have special features
65. Borderline cases
• Special interest groups that lobby but lack
mass actions
• Limited mobilizations around highly specific
issues (citizens for a stop sign at the
corner)
• Self-help movements (depends on
definition, theoretical orientation)
• Movements within organizations (e.g.
movements within churches, within
businesses)
• Small political parties (often movement
consciousness, not really contending for
66. The basic questions about
movements
Why are there social movements?
How are there social movements?
67. Why movements? Depends
on the question
• Why do people need movements? Issues
of disadvantage, power differentials
• Why do people think they need
movements? Issues of interests, grievance
formation, ideologies.
• Why are people able to form movements?
Issues of resources, capacities,
opportunities.
• Why do movements succeed? Issues of
opportunity, strategy.
• Why do movements rise and fall? Issues of
coevolution, dynamics.
68. Political Process
• The broad orientation of this class is
the political process synthesis with a
“coevolutionary” twist
• A way of integrating different factors
into a common model
• Considers structural conditions, the
organization and capacities of a
group, the processes of ideology and
social construction, and strategic and
tactical interactions.
69.
70. Coevolutionary Theory
• Builds on political process
• Stresses that movements change/evolve
not only from their own internal logic but in
interaction with other actors
• Stresses that regimes, opponents, media,
etc. ALSO change/evolve in interaction with
movements
• Historical trajectories are the consequences
not only of the movement’s choices but of
what others do.
• No actor can control outcomes, because
the outcomes are ALSO a product of others’
71. Linking Structure & Agency
in Coevolution
• We need to think probabilistically: a
particular set of conditions puts constraints
and limits on action but does not pre-
determine it
• Some sets of conditions are highly
constraining, you almost always get the
same outcomes
• Other sets of conditions are less
constraining, permit a wide variety of
outcomes depending on luck or
strategy/skill
• Even when conditions are highly
constraining, sometimes the low-probability
Notas del editor
The power of a group may be widely recognized as legitimate or valid under some circumstances; if it is, raw power becomes legitimate authority
The sociological study of politics and social movements focuses on why some people's demands get articulated and implemented, while other people’s demands get ignored or suppressed
Sociologists have proposed various theories to explain these two types of politics
“Politics beyond rules”: Under some circumstances, power flows to nonauthorities
The state’s power is “ultimate” because its authority stands above all others
Furthermore, if the state needs to use force to maintain order or protect its borders, most people will regard its actions as legitimate
As noted earlier, social movements can influence the state by rioting, petitioning, striking, demonstrating, and establish pressure groups, unions and political parties to achieve their aims
The mass media are supposed to keep a watchful and critical eye on the state and help keep the public informed about the quality of government
Pressure groups or “lobbies” are formed by trade unions, manufacturers’ associations, ethnic groups, and other organizations to advise politicians of their members’ desires; lobbies also remind politicians how much their members’ votes and campaign contributions matter
Political parties regularly seek to mobilize voters as they compete for control of the government
In democratic countries, such as Canada, the government is formed by the elected members of the political party that wins the most seats in a general election (see Figure 18.1).
It comprises the head of the party, who becomes prime minister, and the cabinet ministers whom the prime minister selects to advise him or her.
It is the job of the government to initiate policies, propose laws, and see that they are enforced; that is why the government is also called the executive branch of the state.
Proposed laws are turned into operating statutes by the legislature, which consists of all the people elected to Parliament.
It is the responsibility of the judiciary or court system to interpret laws and regulations, that is, to figure out whether and how particular laws and regulations apply in disputed cases.
The state’s administrative apparatus or bureaucracy undertakes enforcement of laws; if laws are broken or the state’s security is jeopardized, it is the role of the coercive apparatus—the police and military—to enforce the law and protect the state.
The state, then, is a set of institutions that exercise control over society.
Each theory seeks to explain the relationship between the state and civil society
According to pluralists, we live in a heterogeneous society with many competing interests and centres of power; in a democracy no one social group controls the state because there are competing interests in civil society and different groups win political struggles on different occasions
Elite theory claims that the wealthy have a disproportionate influence over the state since they have disproportionate resources to run for office, contribute to parties, and influence politicians
The most powerful elites are the people who run the country’s several hundred biggest corporations, the executive branch of government, and the military
The elite are interconnected and move from one elite group to another over the course of their careers; however, they do not form a ruling class (i.e., self conscious and cohesive group of people led by corporate executives who act to advance their common interests) because each elite group has its own jealously guarded sphere of influence thereby making conflict between elite groups frequent
Lower classes are less likely to vote, run for office, and influence public policy
Therefore, it is inaccurate to say that all groups are more or less equal in political struggles
According to Structuralist Marxists, the capitalist state acts as an arm of big business not because of social origins of elite members and social ties among elites but because it is constrained to do so by the nature of capitalism itself
According to both of these Marxist theories, ordinary citizens – and especially members of the working class – rarely have much influence over state policy; true democracy can emerge, then, only if members of the working class and their supporters overthrow capitalism and establish a socialist system in which economic differences between people are eliminated or at least substantially reduced
As intensity of political participation declines, so does political influence.
Consequently, although political apathy and cynicism are high among Canadians, the poorest Canadians are the most politically apathetic and cynical of any income category.
They have less interest in politics than do the well-to-do, and they are more likely to think that government does not care what they think (see Figure 18.2).
In the 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama’s message of hope and change appealed strongly to the most cynical age cohort: youth; voters between the age of 18 and 29 supported Obama over McCain by a 2-to-1 margin, and they came out to the polls in droves (MSNBC, 2008).
Meanwhile, voter turnout among Canadian youth is the lowest among all age cohorts (see Figure 18.3).
Although power-balance theorists admit that power is usually in the hands of the wealthy, they insist that power is sometimes redistributed with profound effects
Democratic politics becomes a contest among various classes and other groups to control the state for their own advantage
When power is substantially redistributed – when, for example, a major class gets better organized while another major class becomes less socially organized – old ruling parties usually fall and new ones take office (although this does not become a winner-take-all phenomenon because the party in power must attend somewhat to the wants of the losing minorities)
By treating the distribution of power as a variable, power-balance theorists improve our understanding of the relationship between power and democracy
The parties that have formed Canada’s federal governments (Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, and Conservatives) are those that are most strongly supported by business (see Figure 18.4).
Elections determine the types of parties that get elected. Elected parties, in turn, shape government policies.
The outcome of any particular election depends on the appeal of party leaders, their effectiveness in presenting issues to the public, and myriad other short-term factors (Clarke, Jenson, LeDuc, and Pammett, 1996; see Figure 18.5).
From this point of view, the high rate of non-voting in the United States, for example, is a result of voter registration law that requires individual citizens to take initiative in registering themselves in voter registration centres
Since many American citizens are unable or unwilling to register, the United States has a proportionately smaller pool of eligible voters than other democracies: Only about 65% of American citizens are registered to vote
As well, because some types of people are less able and inclined than others to register, a strong bias is introduced into the political system: specifically, the poor are less likely to register than the better-off
People without much formal education are less likely to register than the better educated, and members of disadvantaged racial minority groups – especially African Americans – are less likely to register than whites
Thus, American voter registration law is a pathway to democracy for some but a barrier to democracy for others
Each school of thought reviewed above makes a useful contribution to our appreciation of normal democratic politics.
All five theories of democracy reviewed above focus on normal politics; we know, however, that politics is sometimes anything but normal.
Routine political processes can break down. Social movements can form.
Large-scale political violence can erupt.
As Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the Russian revolution of 1917, said, people sometimes “vote with their feet.”
This theory was popular until about 1970
According to this theory, then, people are most likely to rebel against authority when rising expectations are met by sudden decline in social rewards
A large body of research has found though that unrest is often not associated with relative deprivation; furthermore, we now know that the leaders and early joiners of social movements are usually well-integrated members of their communities, and not socially marginal newcomers
This approach has gained popularity over past 30 years
This theory calls attention to the interplay between social movements and other groups capable of providing or withholding valuable resources
It focuses on the broad-social structural conditions that facilitate the emergence of social movements
Figure 18.6 shows the pattern of strike activity in post–World War II Canada. It supports the arguments of resource mobilization theory.
Until 1974, the trend in strike activity was upward (in the 1970s, Canada was, in fact, the most strike-prone country in the world).
This was a period of growing prosperity, low unemployment, expanding state benefits, and increasing unionization.
With increasing access to organizational and material resources, workers often challenged authority in the three decades after World War II; in 1973, however, economic crisis struck.
Oil prices tripled, and then tripled again at the end of the decade; inflation increased and unemployment rose.
Soon, the government was strapped for funds and had to borrow heavily to maintain social welfare programs.
Eventually, the debt burden was so heavy that the government felt obliged to cut various social welfare programs.
Unionization reached a peak in 1978, stabilized, and then began to fall (see Figure 18.7).
Thus, in the post-1973 climate, the organizational and material resources of workers fell; as a result, strike activity plummeted; in 1974, nearly 16 strikes took place for every 100 000 Canadian workers.
By 2006, that figure had fallen to just over 1 (Brym, 2008).
Something seems to lie between (1) the capacity of disadvantaged people to mobilize resources for collective action, and (2) the recruitment of a substantial number of movement members; that “something” is referred to by sociologists as “frame alignment”
Frame alignment has recently become the subject of sustained sociological interest
The theory focuses on the process by which individual interests, beliefs, and values either become congruent and complementary with the activities, goals and ideology of the movement, or fail to do so
Other ways in which frame alignment can be encouraged are:
Idealizing values that have so far not featured prominently in the thinking of potential recruits
Analyzing in a clear and convincing manner the causes of the problem that the movement is trying to solve
Stretching their objectives and activities to win recruits who are not initially sympathetic to the movement’s original aims (may involve “watering down” of the movements ideals)
Taking action calculated to appeal to nonsympathizers on grounds they have little or nothing to do with the movement’s purposes
With variations, the patterns to be described apply to the 20 or so rich countries of North America, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan
Three centuries ago, in Europe, poor residents of a particular city might riot against public officials in reaction to a rise in bread prices or taxed
Peasants on a particular estate might burn their landowner’s barns (or their landowner) in response to his demand for a larger share of their crop
Social movements often used their power to expand the rights of citizens
Their higher education exposes them to radical ideas and makes those ideas appealing
This group also tends to hold jobs outside the community, which often opposes their values
Finally, they often get personally involved in the problems of their clients and audiences, sometimes even becoming their advocates
In the 1960s, social movements were typically national in scope
In 1953, there were 110 international social movement organizations; by 2003, that number had increased to 631: About a quarter were human rights organizations, and about a seventh were environmental organizations, the latter representing by far the fastest growing organizational type
Greenpeace is an example of a highly successful environmental movement that originated in Vancouver in the mid-1970s and now has offices n 41 countries, with its international office in Amsterdam; among other initiatives, it has mounted a campaign to eliminate the international transportation and dumping of toxic wastes
Outside of the world’s 20 or so richest countries, Western domination prevented industrialization and the growth of a large business class; this constrained the growth of democracy and bred resentment against Western power
Social movements in developing countries tend to focus more on restoring independence and dignity lost through colonial rule rather than on minority rights, multiculturalism, elections, etc.
One of the great tasks that the West faces in the 21st century is to defend itself against violence while doing its utmost to remove the ultimate source of that violence: The gap between rich and poor countries that opened up at the time of the Industrial Revolution and that has widened ever since