What Is A Social Movement

Social movements play a central role in the scope and direction of social change. They were instrumental in the creation of the modern state and, today, are major forces in politics and culture. Environmentalism, gay rights, alterglobalization, and Islamic fundamentalism are all movements with far-reaching impacts on contemporary society. What is a Social Movement? traces how the study of movements such as these - of their structures, their ideas, and their repertoires of protest - have grown in recent years to become a major focus in the social sciences. It deftly navigates the organizational, ideational, and cultural complexity of political and social movements, and offers a succinct but comprehensive overview of the hows, whys, and wheretofores of studying them. The book analyzes how politics and culture frequently intersect as people participate in movements that call for change and pursue group interests. By focusing on movement organizations and networks, on what they do, and how they articulate their ideas of justice and collective interests, What is a Social Movement? lays the essential groundwork for understanding this significant and exciting field of research, where it came from, and where it is headed.

Social Movements cleverly translates the art of collective action and mobilization by excluded groups to facilitate understanding social change from below. Students learn the core components of social movements, the theory and methods used to study them, and the conditions under which they can lead to political and social transformation. This fully class-tested book is the first to be organized along the lines of the major subfields of social movement scholarship—framing, movement emergence, recruitment, and outcomes—to provide comprehensive coverage in a single core text. Features include: use of real data collected in the U.S. and around the world the emphasis on student learning outcomes case studies that bring social movements to life examples of cultural repertoires used by movements (flyers, pamphlets, event data on activist websites, illustrations by activist musicians) to mobilize a group topics such as immigrant rights, transnational movement for climate justice, Women's Marches, Fight for $15, Occupy Wall Street, Gun Violence, Black Lives Matter, and the mobilization of popular movements in the global South on issues of authoritarian rule and neoliberalism With this book, students deepen their understanding of movement dynamics, methods of investigation, and dominant theoretical perspectives, all while being challenged to consider their own place in relation to social movements.

"Examines the role of cultural production within social justice struggles and within archives. Contains reproductions of political ephemera, including zines, banners, stickers, posters, and memes, alongside 15 interviews with artists and activists who have worked across a range of movements including: women's liberation, disability rights, housing justice, Black liberation, anti-war, Indigenous sovereignty, immigrant rights, and prisoner abolition, among others."--Provided by publisher.

Are the dynamics of contention changing? This is the question confronted by the contributors of this volume, among the most influential scholars in the field of social movements. The answers, arriving at a time of extraordinary worldwide turmoil, not only provide a wide-ranging and varied understanding of how social movements arise and persist, but also engender unanswered questions, pointing to new theoretical strands and fields of research. The Future of Social Movement Research asks: How are the dynamics of contention shaped by globalization? By societies that are becoming increasingly more individualized and diverse? By the spread of new communication technologies such as social media, cell phones, and the Internet? Why do some movements survive while others dissipate? Do local and global networks differ in nature? The authors’ essays explore such questions with reference to changes in three domains of contention: the demand of protest (changes in grievances and identities), the supply of protest (changes in organizations and networks), and how these changes affect the dynamics of mobilization. In doing so, they theorize and make empirically insightful how globalization, individualization, and virtualization create new grievances, new venues for action, new action forms, and new structures of contention. The resulting work—brought together through engaging discussions and debates between the contributors—is interdisciplinary and unusually broad in scope, constituting the most comprehensive overview of the dynamics of social movements available today. Contributors: Marije Boekkooi, VU-U, Amsterdam; Pang Ching Bobby Chen, U of California, Merced; Donatella della Porta, European U Institute; Mario Diani, U of Trento, Italy; Jan Willem Duyvendak, U of Amsterdam; Myra Marx Ferree, U of Wisconsin–Madison; Beth Gharrity Gardner; Ashley Gromis; Swen Hutter, U of Munich; Ruud Koopmans, WZB, Berlin; Hanspeter Kriesi, U of Zurich; Nonna Mayer, National Centre for European Studies; Doug McAdam, Stanford U; John D. McCarthy, Pennsylvania State U; Debra Minkoff, Barnard College, Columbia U; Alice Motes; Pamela E. Oliver, U of Wisconsin–Madison; Francesca Polletta, U of California, Irvine; Jacomijne Prins, VU-U, Amsterdam; Patrick Rafail, Tulane U; Christopher Rootes, U of Kent, Canterbury; Dieter Rucht, Free U of Berlin; David A. Snow, U of California, Irvine; Sarah A. Soule, Stanford U; Suzanne Staggenborg, U of Pittsburgh; Sidney Tarrow, Cornell U; Verta Taylor, U of California, Santa Barbara; Marjoka van Doorn; Martijn van Zomeren, U of Groningen; Stefaan Walgrave, U of Antwerp; Saskia Welschen.

Bringing together over forty established and emerging scholars, this landmark volume is the first to comprehensively examine the evolution and current practice of social movement studies in a specifically European context. While its first half offers comparative approaches to an array of significant issues and movements, its second half assembles focused national studies that include most major European states. Throughout, these contributions are guided by a shared set of historical and social-scientific questions with a particular emphasis on political sociology, thus offering a bold and uncommonly unified survey that will be essential for scholars and students of European social movements.

Westerners invented social movements during the 18th century, but after that social movements became vehicles of popular politics across the world. By locating social movements in history, prize-winning social scientist Charles Tilly provides rich and often surprising insights into the origins of contemporary social movement practices, relations of social movements to democratization, and likely futures for social movements.

"Understanding Social Movements offers a multidisciplinary introduction to the study of social and cultural protest and contentious politics. It combines a theoretical perspective and with a fascinating array of case studies. It covers religious movements; social welfare movements; struggles over space; law, crime and social movements; and media and movements. Other sections of the book discuss the origins of social movement studies and historical perspectives, social movements and political processes, new social movements, identity and cultural politics, and virtual networking and cyber protest. Case studies include the US civil rights movement, anti-globalization campaigns, and include further material from Europe, China, Latin America, Africa, India and the Middle East"--

"Supporting a Movement for Health and Health Equity" is the summary of a workshop convened in December 2013 by the Institute of Medicine Roundtable on the Promotion of Health Equity and the Elimination of Health Disparities and the Roundtable on Population Health Improvement to explore the lessons that may be gleaned from social movements, both those that are health-related and those that are not primarily focused on health. Participants and presenters focused on elements identified from the history and sociology of social change movements and how such elements can be applied to present-day efforts nationally and across communities to improve the chances for long, healthy lives for all. The idea of movements and movement building is inextricably linked with the history of public health. Historically, most movements - including, for example, those for safer working conditions, for clean water, and for safe food - have emerged from the sustained efforts of many different groups of individuals, which were often organized in order to protest and advocate for changes in the name of such values as fairness and human rights. The purpose of the workshop was to have a conversation about how to support the fragments of health movements that roundtable members believed they could see occurring in society and in the health field. Recent reports from the National Academies have highlighted evidence that the United States gets poor value on its extraordinary investments in health - in particular, on its investments in health care - as American life expectancy lags behind that of other wealthy nations. As a result, many individuals and organizations, including the Healthy People 2020 initiative, have called for better health and longer lives.