Until recently, the
study of development process until recently has centered largely on the
triangle of states-markets-international institutions. For the last decade,
mainstream development discourse has adopted the notion of 'civil society' as
simultaneously the site of 'citizens' collective action' as well as a set of
actors to be incorporated in the planning, implementation and evaluation of
development projects. This notion of 'civil society' has tended to focus
exclusively on NGOs.
Social movements are a type of group action. They
are large, sometimes informal, groupings of individuals or organizations which
focus on specific political or social issues. In other words, they carry out,
resist, or undo a social change.
Modern Western social
movements became possible through education (the wider dissemination of
literature) and increased mobility of labor due to the industrialization and
urbanization of 19th century societies. It is sometimes argued that the freedom of
expression, education and relative economic independence prevalent in the
modern Western culture are responsible for the unprecedented number and scope
of various contemporary social movements. However, others point out that many
of the social movements of the last hundred years grew up, like the Mau Mau in
Kenya, to oppose Western colonialism. Either way, social movements have been
and continued to be closely connected with democratic political systems.
Occasionally, social movements have been involved in democratizing nations, but
more often they have flourished after democratization. Over the past 200 years,
they have become part of a popular and global expression of dissent.
Social Development
theory attempts to explain qualitative changes in the
structure and framework of society, which help the society to better realize
its aims and objectives. Development can be defined in a manner applicable to
all societies at all historical periods as an upward ascending movement
featuring greater levels of energy, efficiency, quality, productivity,
complexity, comprehension, creativity, mastery, enjoyment and accomplishment.
Development is a process of social change, not merely a set of policies
and programs instituted for some specific results. During the last five
centuries this process has picked up in speed and intensity, and during the
last five decades has witnessed a marked surge in acceleration.
PROCESS OF EMERGENCE OF
NEW ACTIVITIES IN SOCIETY
Unconscious vs.
conscious development
Human development
normally proceeds from experience to comprehension. As society develops over
centuries, it accumulates the experience of countless pioneers. The essence of
that experience becomes the formula for accomplishment and success. The fact
that experience precedes knowledge can be taken to mean that development is an
unconscious process that gets carried out first, while knowledge becomes
conscious later on only. Unconscious refers to activities that people
carry out without knowing what the end results will be, or where their actions
will lead. They carry out the acts without knowing the conditions required for
success.
The basic mechanism
driving social change is increasing awareness leading to better organization.
When society senses new and better opportunities for progress it develops new
forms of organization to exploit these new openings successfully. The new forms
of organization are better able to harness the available social energies and
skills and resources to use the opportunities to get the intended results.
Development is governed
by many factors that influence the results of developmental efforts. There must
be a motive that drives the social change and essential preconditions for that
change to occur. The motive must be powerful enough to overcome obstructions
that impede that change from occurring. Development also requires resources
such as capital, technology, and supporting infrastructure.
Cultural transmission by the family
Families play a major
role in the propagation of new activities once they win the support of the
society. A family is a miniature version of the larger society—acceptance by
the larger entity is reflected in the smaller entity. The family educates the
younger generation and transmits social values like self-restraint, responsibility,
skills, and occupational training. Though children do not follow their parents'
footsteps as much as they once did, parents still mold their children's
attitudes and thoughts regarding careers and future occupations. When families
propagate a new activity, it signals that the new activity has become an
integral part of the society.
Three stages of development
Society's developmental
journey is marked by three stages: physical, vital, and mental. These are not
clear-cut stages, but overlap. All three are present in any society at time.
One of them is predominant while the other two play subordinate roles. The term
'vital' denotes the emotional and nervous energies that empower society's drive
towards accomplishment and express most directly in the interactions between
human beings. Before the full development of mind, it is these vital energies
that predominate in human personality and gradually yield the ground as the
mental element becomes stronger. The speed and circumstances of social
transition from one stage to another varies.
Physical stage
The physical stage is characterized by the
domination of the physical element of the human personality. During this phase, society is preoccupied with
bare survival and subsistence. People follow tradition strictly and there is
little innovation and change. Land is the main asset and productive resource
during the physical stage and wealth is measured by the size of land holdings. This
is the and phase of society. Inherited
wealth and position rule the roost and there is very little upward mobility.
Feudal lords and military chiefs function as the leaders of the society.
Commerce and money play a relatively minor role. As innovative thinking and
experimental approaches are discouraged, people follow tradition unwaveringly
and show little inclination to think outside of established guidelines.
Occupational skills are passed down from parent to child by a long process of
apprenticeship.
Vital stage
The vital stage of society is infused with dynamism
and change. The vital activities of society expand markedly. Society becomes
curious, innovative and adventurous. During the vital stage emphasis shifts
from interactions with the physical environment to social interactions between
people. Trade supplants agriculture as the principal source of wealth.
The dawning of this phase in Europe led to
exploratory voyages across the seas leading to the discovery of new lands and
an expansion of sea trade. Equally important, society at this time began to more
effectively harness the power of money. Commerce took over from agriculture,
and money replaced land as the most productive resource. The center of life
shifted from the countryside to the towns where opportunities for trade and
business were in greater abundance.
Mental stage
This stage has three essential characteristics:
practical, social, and political application of mind. The practical application
of mind generates many inventions. The social application of mind leads to new
and more effective types of social organization. The political application
leads to changes in the political systems that empower the populace to exercise
political and human rights in a free and democratic manner. These changes began
in the Renaissance and Enlightenment, and gained momentum in the Reformation,
which proclaimed the right of individuals to relate directly to God without the
mediation of priests. The political application of mind led to the American and
French Revolutions, which produced writing that first recognized the rights of
the common man and gradually led to the actual enjoyment of these rights.
Framing perspective
Reflecting the cultural turn in the social sciences
and humanities more broadly, recent strains of social movement theory and
research add to the largely structural concerns seen in the resource
mobilization and political process theories by emphasizing the cultural and
psychological aspects of social movement processes, such as collectively shared
interpretations and beliefs, ideologies, values and other meanings about the
world. In doing so, this general cultural approach also attempts to address the
free-rider problem. One particularly successful take on some such cultural
dimensions is manifested in the framing perspective on social movements.
While both resource mobilization theory and
political process theory include, or at least accept, the idea that certain
shared understandings of, for example, perceived unjust societal conditions
must exist for mobilization to occur at all, and this is not explicitly
problematized within those approaches. The framing perspective has brought such
shared understandings to the forefront of the attempt to understand movement
creation and existence by, e.g., arguing that, in order for social movements to
successfully mobilize individuals, they must develop an injustice frame.
An injustice frame is a collection of ideas and symbols that illustrate both
how significant the problem is as well as what the movement can do to alleviate
it.
TYPES
OF SOCIAL MOVEMENT
Sociologists distinguish between several types of
social movement:
Reform
movement - movements advocating changing some norms or laws. Examples of such a
movement would include a trade union with a goal of increasing workers rights,
a green movement advocating a set of ecological laws, or a movement supporting
introduction of a capital punishment or the right to abortion. Some reform
movements may aim for a change in custom and moral norms, such as condemnation
of pornography or proliferation of some religion.
Radical
movement - movements dedicated to changing value systems in a fundamental way.
Examples would include the American Civil Rights Movement which demanded full
civil rights and equality under the law to all Americans, regardless of race;
the Polish Solidarity (Solidarność) movement which demanded the transformation
of a Stalinist political and economic system into a democracy; or the South
African shack dwellers' movement Abahlali baseMjondolo which demands the full
inclusion of shack dwellers into the life of cities.
Innovation
movement - movements which want to introduce or change particular norms,
values, etc. The singularitarianism movement advocating deliberate action to
effect and ensure the safety of the technological singularity is an example of
an innovation movement.
Conservative
movement - movements which want to preserve existing norms, values, etc. For
example, the anti-technology 19th century Luddites movement or the modern
movement opposing the spread of the genetically modified food could be seen as
conservative movements in that they aimed to fight specific technological
changes
Group-focus
movements - focused on affecting groups or society in general, for example,
advocating the change of the political system. Some of these groups transform
into or join a political party, but many remain outside the reformist party Political
system.
Individual-focused
movements - focused on affecting individuals. Most religious movements would
fall under this category.
Peaceful
movements - various movements which use nonviolent means of protest as part of
a campaign of nonviolent resistance, also often called civil resistance. The
American Civil Rights movement, Polish Solidarity movement or the nonviolent, civil
disobedience-orientated wing of the Indian independence movement would fall
into this category.[26]
Violent
movements - various movements which resort to violence; they are usually armed
and in extreme cases can take a form of a paramilitary or terrorist
organization. Examples: the Rote Armee Fraktion, Al-Qaida.
Old movements
- movements for change have existed for many centuries. Most of the oldest
recognized movements, dating to late 18th and 19th centuries, fought for
specific social groups, such as the working class, peasants, whites,
aristocrats, Protestants, men. They were usually centered around some
materialistic goals like improving the standard of living or, for example, the
political autonomy of the working class.
New movements
- movements which became dominant from the second half of the 20th century -
like the feminist movement, pro-choice movement, civil rights movement,
environmental movement, free software movement, gay rights movement, peace
movement, anti-nuclear movement, alter-globalization movement, etc. Sometimes
they are known as new social movements. They are usually centered around issues
that go beyond but are not separate from class.
Global
movements - social movements with global (transnational) objectives and goals.
Movements such as the first (where Marx and Bakunin met), second, third and
fourth internationals, the World Social Forum, the Peoples' Global Action and
the anarchist movement seek to change society at a global level.
Local movements
- most of the social movements have a local scope.[27] They are focused on
local or regional objectives, such as protecting a specific natural area,
lobbying for the lowering of tolls in a certain motorway, or preserving a
building about to be demolished for gentrification and turning it into a social
center.
DYNAMICS
OF SOCIAL MOVEMENT
Social movements are
not eternal. They have a life cycle: they are created, they grow, they achieve
successes or failures and eventually, they dissolve and cease to exist.
They are more likely to
evolve in the time and place which is friendly to the social movements: hence
their evident symbiosis with the 19th century proliferation of ideas like
individual rights, freedom of speech and civil disobedience. Social movements
occur in liberal and authoritarian societies but in different forms. However,
there must always be polarizing differences between groups of people: in case
of 'old movements', they were the poverty and wealth gaps. In case of the 'new
movements', they are more likely to be the differences in customs, ethics and
values. Finally, the birth of a social movement needs what sociologist Neil
Smelser calls an initiating event: a particular, individual event that will
begin a chain reaction of events in the given society leading to the creation
of a social movement. For example, American Civil Rights movement grew on the
reaction to black woman, Rosa Parks, riding in the whites-only section of the
bus (although she was not acting alone or spontaneously—typically activist
leaders lay the groundwork behind the scenes of interventions designed to spark
a movement). The Polish Solidarity movement, which eventually toppled the
communist regimes of Eastern Europe, developed after trade union activist Anna
Walentynowicz was fired from work. The South African shack dwellers' movement
Abahlali base Mjondolo grew out of a road blockade in response to the sudden
selling off of a small piece of land promised for housing to a developer. Such
an event is also described as a volcanic model – a social movement is often
created after a large number of people realize that there are others sharing
the same value and desire for a particular social change.
One of the main difficulties facing the emerging
social movement is spreading the very knowledge that it exists. Second is
overcoming the free rider problem – convincing people to join it, instead of
following the mentality 'why should I trouble myself when others can do it and
I can just reap the benefits after their hard work.
Many social movements
are created around some charismatic leader, i.e. one possessing charismatic
authority. After the social movement is created, there are two likely phases of
recruitment. The first phase will gather the people deeply interested in the
primary goal and ideal of the movement. The second phase, which will usually
come after the given movement had some successes and is trendy; it would look
good on a résumé. People who join in this second phase will likely be the first
to leave when the movement suffers any setbacks and failures.
Eventually, the social
crisis can be encouraged by outside elements, like opposition from government
or other movements. However, many movements had survived a failure crisis,
being revived by some hardcore activists even after several decades later.
SOCIAL
MOVEMENT THEORIES
DEPRIVATION
THEORY
Deprivation theory
argues that social movements have their foundations among people who feel
deprived of some good(s) or resource(s). According to this approach,
individuals who are lacking some good, service, or comfort are more likely to
organize a social movement to improve (or defend) their conditions.[29]
There are two
significant problems with this theory. First, since most people feel deprived
at one level or another almost all the time, the theory has a hard time
explaining why the groups that form social movements do when other people are
also deprived. Second, the reasoning behind this theory is circular – often the
only evidence for deprivation is the social movement. If deprivation is claimed
to be the cause but the only evidence for such is the movement, the reasoning
is circular
MASS
SOCIETY THEORY
Mass society theory
argues that social movements are made up of individuals in large societies who
feel insignificant or socially detached. Social movements, according to this
theory, provide a sense of empowerment and belonging that the movement members
would otherwise not have.[31]
Very little support has
been found for this theory. Aho (1990), in his study of Idaho Christian Patriotism,
did not find that members of that movement were more likely to have been
socially detached. In fact, the key to joining the movement was having a friend
or associate who was a member of the movement.
STRUCTURAL
STRAIN THEORY
Social strain theory,
also known as value-added theory, proposes six factors that encourage social
movement development.
Structural conduciveness
- people come to believe their society has problems.
Structural strain -
people experience deprivation.
Growth
and spread of a solution - a solution to the problems
people are experiencing is proposed and spreads
Precipitating
factors - discontent usually requires a catalyst (often a
specific event) to turn it into a social movement
Lack of social control - the entity
that is to be changed must be at least somewhat open to the change; if the
social movement is quickly and powerfully repressed, it may never materialize
Mobilization
- this is the actual organizing and active component of the movement; people do
what needs to be done
This theory is also
subject to circular reasoning as it incorporates, at least in part, deprivation
theory and relies upon it, and social/structural strain for the underlying
motivation of social movement activism. However, social movement activism is,
like in the case of deprivation theory, often the only indication that there
was strain or deprivation.
Political process theory
Political process
theory is similar to resource mobilization in many regards, but tends to
emphasize a different component of social structure that is important for
social movement development: political opportunities. Political process theory
argues that there are three vital components for movement formation: insurgent
consciousness, organizational strength, and political opportunities.
Insurgent consciousness
refers back to the ideas of deprivation and grievances. The idea is that
certain members of society feel like they are being mistreated or that somehow
the system is unjust. The insurgent consciousness is the collective sense of
injustice that movement members (or potential movement members) feel and serves
as the motivation for movement organization.
Organizational strength
falls inline with resource-mobilization theory, arguing that in order for a
social movement to organize it must have strong leadership and sufficient
resources.
Political opportunity
refers to the receptivity or vulnerability of the existing political system to
challenge. This vulnerability can be the result of any of the following (or a
combination thereof):
- growth of political pluralism
- decline in effectiveness of repression
- elite disunity; the leading factions are internally fragmented
- a broadening of access to institutional participation in political processes
- support of organized opposition by elites
One of the advantages
of the political process theory is that it addresses the issue of timing or
emergence of social movements. Some groups may have the insurgent consciousness
and resources to mobilize, but because political opportunities are closed, they
will not have any success. The theory, then, argues that all three of these
components are important.
Critics of the
political process theory and resource-mobilization theory point out that
neither theory discusses movement culture to any great degree. This has
presented culture theorists an opportunity to expound on the importance of
culture.
One advance on the
political process theory is the political mediation model, which
outlines the way in which the political context facing movement actors
intersects with the strategic choices that movements make. An additional strength
of this model is that it can look at the outcomes of social movements not only
in terms of success or failure but also in terms of consequences (whether
intentional or unintentional, positive or negative) and in terms of collective
benefits
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