Week One: Introducing Social Movements

**Week one: Introducing social movements in historical context.** - Understanding social movements, state power and resistance. - Critically assess the development of social movements through key theoretical perspectives - To define social movements and understand the terminology associ...

**Week one: Introducing social movements in historical context.** - Understanding social movements, state power and resistance. - Critically assess the development of social movements through key theoretical perspectives - To define social movements and understand the terminology associated with protest politics - To identify examples of social movements across time and space and critically situate them in relation to other episodes of collective action - To understand the relevance of social movements in international politics **How do we define social movements and social change?** Some movements look for opportunities to gain new rights (economic or political emancipation) whilst others respond to violence. Formal organisations vs informal networks. Social movements are conscious, concerted and sustained efforts by ordinary people to change some aspect of their society by using extra-institutional means. Composed mainly of ordinary people as opposed to army officers, politicians or political elites. Social movements offer a view onto a number of aspects of social life. Innovation in values and political beliefs often arises from the discussions and efforts of social movements. Developing new ways of seeing society and new ways of directing it. "Social movements are inclusive organisation comprised of various interest groups."- Charles, Tilly, chapter one page one. "Social movements are conscious, concerted, and sustained efforts by ordinary people to change some aspects of their society by using extra-institutional means." (Goodwin and Jasper 2009:3) extra-institutional means outside the electoral system and demographic representative institutions. - Social movements are distinct from revolutionary movements in that the latter seek to overthrow the government, while social movements work within current political structures (Goodwin et al, 2003) Some form of either collective deviance from what their norm or currently or a counter norm to resist this active deviance. A social movement is a pattern within a society dedicated to changing that arrangement, either a cultural arrangement or an institutional arrangement. Combining 1. Sustained campaigns of claim making. 2. Public performances including marches, rallies, demonstrations, petitions, letter writing, performative stunts and lobbying. The performances are called *repertoires.* 3. Repeated displays of displays of collective identity, unity, numbers and commitment. 4. They draw on organisations, networks, traditions and solidarities to sustain the movement. A campaign extends beyond a single event. Linking a group of claimants, some objects of claims and a public (who will or will not support the campaign.) Social movements are spontaneous. Combining: Political opportunities, changes that make people more likely or empowered to take action, but also threats. Resources, financial, members or supporters, infrastructure, networks that mobilise people. Frames, persuasive message. Usually, the product of a long term social phenomenon than just a one of events, however they can be sparked by one of extreme events. Emotions of protest: Organisers must arouse anger and outrage and compassion, often by playing on fears and anxieties. Typically organisers must offer certain joys and excitements to participants in order to get them to remain in the movement. **Do social movements differ from riots and other forms of collective action?** Strikes, pickets and rallies of the labour movement. They last longer than a single protest or a riot. The rise and fall of social movements mark the expansion and contraction of democratic opportunities. The disappearance of social movements would be indicative of a retraction in ordinary people's participation in public politics. Analysts often extend the term "social movement" loosely to all relevant popular collective action. **Are we witnessing 'an age of dissent'?** Early 19th century, Luddites broke into British factories and smashed new machines. Dozens of revolutions: French, Russian, China, Cuba, Iran. Much of the protest took the form of urban riot. Movements of the 1960s and after were not about rights for oppressed groups, but about lifestyles and cultural meanings. In recent years, protests have become more global in scope. Movements are interested in changing our emotional cultures, especially movements influenced by the women's movement, which argued that women were disadvantaged by the way in which different emotions were though appropriate for men and women. More feudal systems before which meant types of actions were more locally based. **2011** Viewed as the peak of protest and "dissent" in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and the austerity agenda that followed it. Year of: - The Arab Spring - Occupy UK Uncut - Indignados - Urban riots and anti-austerity and tuition fee protests. - Time magazine named "The Protester" as its person of the year. Protests are continuing to occur at a rate rarely seen prior to the global crash of 2008. Now seems that **2015** had the highest level of visible dissent in the UK since before the 1980s. A graph with a line and numbers Description automatically generated **History of social movements:** Until the 1960s social movements were fears. Mainly that the emotions produced by crowds would cause people to do things that they otherwise wouldn't do, want to do, nor should do. Shift in attitudes in the 1960s when for the first time in history more affluent people (college educated) had more empathy for those at the bottom of society to demand freedoms and material improvements. *The civil rights movement* was the main reason that changed as Americans outside the South learned what condition of repression Southern black faced. 1965 economic turn, emphasis put on SMO's mobilisation of time and money; became known as resource mobilisation. Many of the movements in the 1960s and after were not about rights for an oppressed group, but about lifestyles and cultural meanings. Political turn, highlighting social movements interactions with the state, explaining that social movement result from "opportunities" provided by the state. Further dimensions added in the 1980's, the cultural side. Establishing a sense of solidarity amongst an oppressed group, and that they have grievances. - The processes by which organisers "frame" their issues in a way that resonates to potential recruits and the broader public. - "Collective identity" the organisers can use or create in arousing interest and creating loyalty to their cause. Today the emotions of protest are being rediscovered. Organisers must arouse anger and outrage and compassion, often by playing on fears and anxieties. Typically, organisers must also offer certain joys and excitements to participants to get them to remain in the movement. 1980's VS in 2010/11 with anti-austerity protests were conducted predominantly by three main groups: workers, students and those anti-cuts activists (UK Uncut) 2015, +-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+ | [*https://theconversa | 1980s | 2015 | | tion.com/hard-evidenc | | | | e-this-is-the-age-of- | | | | dissent-and-theres-mu | | | | ch-more-to-come-52871 | | | | *](https://theconvers | | | | ation.com/hard-eviden | | | | ce-this-is-the-age-of | | | | -dissent-and-theres-m | | | | uch-more-to-come-5287 | | | | 1) | | | +=======================+=======================+=======================+ | Who are conducting | Dissent was | It became | | the protests. | overwhelming | considerably more | | | conducted by workers | pluralist in nature. | | | and organised labour. | Seven key groups of | | | | protesters dominating | | | | protest politics. | | | | Including workers, | | | | environmentalists, | | | | housing activists, | | | | students, | | | | pro-minority groups, | | | | anti-cuts activists | | | | and right-wing | | | | groups. | +-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+ | Catalogue of protests | Strikes and wildcat | This shrank to 17.5 | | | strikes made up 50 | percent in 2010/11 | | | percent of protest | and remained around | | | figures. | that level at 22 | | | | percent in 2015. | | | | | | | | Rise in the 'other' | | | | category- that | | | | protest events that | | | | did not fit within | | | | the most common forms | | | | of protest. "stunts" | | | | carried out by | | | | protesters, | | | | reflecting growing | | | | innovation among | | | | contemporary | | | | protesters, to | | | | attract media and | | | | public attention. Eg | | | | Vivienne Westwood | | | | driving a tank to | | | | David Camerons home | | | | to protest fracking. | +-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+ Come to class with a couple of examples of social movements you are familiar with. Think about how the terminology used in Goodwin and Jasper might apply to it. Members of the Writers Guild of America. Looking for protections against AI, pay increases, new requirements for room sizes and employment duration. 148 days of strike. Contract ratified for the 11,000 members of the Writers Guild of America. Acknowledged that "AI is not a writer". Writers are allowed to use AI assistance if they want but cannot be required to do so, and companies must disclose to writers if they are using it. Page 12 Charles Tilly, social movements. *From their eighteenth-century origins onward, social movements have proceeded* *not as solo petj4omances, but as interactive campaigns.* Consisting of interaction between temporally connected (and often shifting) groups of claimants. Misuse of the concept of social movement. - Social movements are not the same as collective action, they involve collective action. All collective action is not a social movement. - Confusing a social movement with the organisations or networks that support social movements. Eg Green peace is an organisation involved in specific activities towards a specific cause, but they are not a social movement. - Treating social movement as a unitary actor. By definition it is diverse with competing actors and objectives. - There is a temporality to social movements, the definition of social movements has changed with the movements. Normative aspect of social movements. What is collective? When does it start and what counts as sustained? Riots aren't considered by scholars as collective actions, rather one off events. The object of research has been Eurocentric and also in north America. Collective action isn't necessarily public- there can be social movements within authoritarian regimes that aren't able to be public.