Social Movement
A social movement is a “purposeful, organized groups striving to work towards a common goal of creating Social Change. (p. 843)
Stages of Social Movement
Stages:
- Preliminary
- Coalescence
- Institutionalization
- Decline and possible resurgence
Different ways to look at social movement
From a Functionalist perspective:
- Macro level focus
- Change comes from outside social system
- Change is slow and adaptive to arrive at a new equilibrium
- Try to understand the functions served by a social movement
- Look at the organization and goals of social movements
From a Social-Conflict perspective:
- Change = result of competition for scarce resources
- Sources of change are mostly immanent (coming from within the society), as a result of systematic inequalities
From a Symbolic Interaction perspective:
- “studies the day-to-day interaction of social movements” (p. 838)
- Meanings interactions
- Personal motivations