Social Movements #1

~by Colm Fox

Social Movement Theory (wk 1-3)

1. 2011 resurgence of Youth activism
2. 2-3 years of authoritarian challengers to activism
Wk4-12: case studies of social movements (underground)
1. Documentary films
a. Visuals, immediacy, primary source footage, visceral, humanising
the movement
b. Filmmaker bias, oversimplify complex issues
2. Journalist reports (investigative journalism)
a. Great effort taken for investigation and fact-checking, uncovers
previously hidden aspect of movements and structural/systemic
weaknesses
b. Lacks emotional appeal, removed from the immediate experience;
constrained by editorial pressures
3. Academic articles
a. Academia—peer-reviewed and academically standardised—can link
to other academic material and help for methodical long-term
analysis instead of just dramatic moments
b. Slower to publish, even harder to understand and relate to when
disconnected from the event itself
4. Putting them together
a. Emotional impact but factual accuracy
b. The event, its immediate triggers, and historical roots
c. Broader and more comprehensive understanding of social change
Wk 13 presentation (open topic open platform)
Questions for case studies:
1. Why did the movement emerge NOW
2. What drives the activist behind the movements
3. What tactics+how effective
4. How have powerholders responde?
5. What are the consequecnes?
6. What are the successes and failrues of the movement
The case studies
1. Occupy Wall Street (both the domestic and international)
2. Democracy in Hong Kong (2019-2020)
3. Democracy in Thailand—Future Forward Party (dissolved 2020)
4. Democracy in Myanmar—Myanmar Spring revolution (2021)
5. Civil rights in the Phlippines under Duterte
6. Labor exploitation cases (modern slavery) in Thailand, Myanmar,
Cambodia
7. The environment
 a. How the major powers respond
b. How the climate activists respond in restrictive environments
8. How authoritarian regimes surveil and supress
Advocacy SHOULD BE first person view
Social movements
1. Conscious
2. Concerted (but interestingly so over the internet)
3. Sustained
4. By ordinary people
5. Using extra-instituional means
US Civil Rights Movement
1. Consciou, concerted—planned from boycotts to marches
2. Sustained—many years
3. Ordinary people—ordinary African Americans
4. Change—legal political and social systes
5. Extra institutional—civil disobedience
Pre-1960s: The fear of protest—the fear of the mob following demagogues
1960s: the privileged (university students) start to sympathise w the “mob”
Understanding Social Movements
1. Economic turn—Mancur Olson
a. People weigh benefits, costs, and impacts of participating…but
“Free-rider” problem
b. Selective benefits, social rewards moral satisfaction, development
of skill and networks—all from participating
c. Resource Mobilisation Theory: movements are organisations,
acquire resources, personnel and strategically sell their message
2. Political turn
a. Movements do normal politics just through whatever channels are
available
b. Strategic rights claims
3. Cultural turn
a. Symbols—psychological methods to frame issues in order to gain
support
b. Collective identity—politicising an existing ientiy or creating an
entirely new one based on the movement
4. Recent developments (e.g. climate movements)
a. Global movements
b. Emotional dynamics
Why study movements?
1. Understand humans
2. Understand what drives political change
3. Movement are also central to SOCIAL change
Second class
Structural Theories
I. Early Movement Theory
a. Collective Behavior Theory
i. How people act together outside of institutions
1. Extra institutional
2. Social Breakdown
3. Shared beliefs
ii. Chicago School’s Symbolic Interactionist—park and burgess
1. Existing patterngs breakdown, need for reform
2. “Emergent norms”
iii. Smelser’s Value-added Model
1. Structural conduciveness; e.g. Free flow of money
(Prone to crisis and panic)
2. Structural strain
3. Shared beliefs about what is wrong
4. Precipitating event (incident of injustice, target for
action, “who’s the bad guy”)
5. Leadership (who mobilises everyone)
6. Response from authorities (to suppress, smother, or
add fuel)
b. Mass society theory—William Hornhauser
i. Social isolation makes people more “vulnerable” to
participate in social movements
ii. No substantial proof, the opposite seems to be true
c. Relative deprivation theory (e.g. Arab Spring, frustration from
deprivation)
d. Fall of collective behaviour theory: Civil rights movement points to
more organisation, strategy
J. Theoretical shifts
a. Psychological responses vs organised political phenomenom
b. Resource mobilisation theory—psych and strain not enough, need to
take into account acquisition and use of resources
i. Who joins and why join vs how do they organise and sustain
ii. Types of resources
1. Material resources
a. Money
b. Property
c. Equipment
d. Supplies
2. Human resources
a. Skills, expertise, and labor
b. Time or specalised knowledge—whether innate
or learned
3. Social-organisationsal
a. Physical infrastructure
b. Communication infrastructure—tapping into
other grps
4. Cultural
 a. Beliefs
b. Tactical knowledge
5. Moral
a. Legitimacy and influential support
b. Celebrity endoresements+ insttuional regonition
c. But controlled by the entities that grant them
iii. Accessing Resources
1. Self-production
2. Aggergation from supporting individual or groups
(Donations)
3. Cooptation
4. Patronage frome external actors
iv. Criticism
1. Downplayed aggrieved base
2. Too much formal no grassroots
3. Neglected cultural and political context
K. Political process theory--McAdam
a. Favorable political opportunities
i. Access to Power
ii. Alignment of elites
iii. State capacity
b. Inigenous organisation capacity (black churches during civil rights
movement)
c. Not just an automatic response, have to consciously seize them
d. Resources only translate to mobilisation when a collective
consciousness is reached that believes in the possibility of change
e. Case Study: the Civil Rights Movement
i. Political opportunities
ii. Indigeous Organisational capacity
iii. Cognitive liberation
f. 5 Features of Regimes that shape political opportunities for
movemetns
i. Multiple power centers (federal vs state vs national)
ii. System openness—can new groups enter the game (the
vote)?
iii. Political alliances
iv. Influential allies
v. State responses