Social Movements Lecture Notes

Replacement Quiz and Extra Credit

  • Replacement quiz posted to Canvas, Week 10.
  • Extra credit on the turbulent twenties: a paper applying Smelster's value-added theory to an article.
  • Replacement quiz replaces the second-lowest quiz score.
  • Missed quizzes are handled according to the syllabus (one dropped).
  • The replacement quiz is cumulative, with questions from previous quizzes.
  • The quiz consists of approximately 50 questions, with 15 questions randomly selected.
  • The random selection is stepwise, ensuring questions from each quiz are represented.
  • A lower score on the replacement quiz will replace the existing score, but significant drops affecting grade levels are unlikely; more likely marginal changes.
  • The replacement quiz is not for missed quizzes but for students seeking to improve a low score from a bad week.
  • Both the replacement quiz and extra credit are due on Monday.

Social Movements and Social Change

  • Social movements are unconventional collectivities, outside of everyday life and institutions.
  • Conventional collectivities: statuses and roles attached to main institutions (e.g., family, work, school).
  • Social movements: outside the everyday experiences.
  • Dimensions of social movements:
    • Hierarchy: more or less hierarchical.
    • Organization: loosely or formally organized.
    • Involvement: level of participation.
  • Loosely organized movements: e.g., pro-Palestinian protests on campus.
  • Formally organized movements: e.g., Sierra Club (president, vice president, hierarchy).
  • A social movement is more organized than a crowd, mob, panic, or aggregate of people at a concert.
  • Participation: varies from high commitment (stopping an oil tanker) to low commitment (donations).
  • Small movements ask for significant commitment, and large movements for spectrum of commitment.
  • Example: donating to ACLU (emotional connection, still part of the movement).
  • Mutual aid: a broad category supporting members and others; small networks connected with the goal of helping anyone.
  • Emotions: social movements involve emotional reasons, rather than instrumental (e.g. money; social movements not about money).
  • Politics: social movements often have political goals related to power dynamics in society (not just Republican vs. Democrat).
  • Face-to-face recruitment is common. Example: Pasadena for All, which addresses homelessness and shares resources.
  • Ideologies guide rationales and rules of social movements.
  • Environmental movements share ideological goal: protection of the environment is inherently valuable.
  • MAGA movement: underlying ideology that the globalist world is unfair and a desire to return to a prior age.
  • Opposition: movements often require opposition or the belief in an opposition to create solidarity.

Thomas Theorem

  • What people believe to be true is true in its consequences.
  • People act on beliefs, not necessarily reality.

Social Science Definitions

  • Broad definitions are needed to capture all variables.
  • Social movements: focus on sympathizers, adherents, supporters, and activists.
  • Degrees of participation range from weak support to intense activism.
  • Different dimensions of movements have pockets of interest.

Politics and Social Change

  • Social movements are typically understood as creating change from the bottom up.
  • Elites can use sentiments and emotions to channel people in ways that serve elite interests.
  • Example: rise of Nazi Germany used humiliation and anger to mobilize people.
  • Humans can be shaped by elites as well as from the bottom up.
  • Similar trends (right-wing movements) are observed globally.

Key Dimensions of Movements

  • Reform vs. revolutionary.
  • Instrumental vs. expressive.
  • Progressive vs. conservative.

Reform and Revolution

  • Reform: Modest or mild change within institutions.
    *Example: changing teacher professionalization, decreasing housing permit regulations in wildfire zones.
  • Revolutionary: Transformative change to the entire system, impacting all institutions.

Instrumental and Expressive

  • Instrumental: Using politics and power to accomplish goals.

*Example: NIL money in college athletics.

  • Expressive: Changing individuals and lifestyles.
  • Examples: veganism, vegetarianism, being a swifty.

Conservative vs. Progressive

  • Progressive: Movements that expands rights for previously excluding groups.
    *Example: LGBT rights
  • Conservative: returning to the way it was. Ex. MAGA. Roe vs Wade.

John Wilson's Model of Social Movements

  • Intersection of reform/radical and instrumental/expressive dimensions.
  • Reform: Alterations of existing social relations and culture.
  • Radical/Revolutionary: Significant departure with different language.
  • Instrumental: Change policy.
  • Expressive: Change lifestyle.
  • Four types:
    • Influence Movements: policy, goals
    • Redemptive Movements: lifestyle, new member.
    • Transformative Movements: values, lifestyle change (cults)
    • Alternative Movements: solidarity, support networks (trekies).

Individual Perspective on Joining Movements

  • Rational choice: logical explanations.
  • Movements have more impact than individuals.
  • Cost-benefit analysis.
  • Rewards and benefits.
  • Hoffer (1951): The True Believer.
  • Psychological analysis; people join movements to fit in because they are looking to repair self-esteem.
  • People join movements for solidarity, loyalty, and support.