Social Movements

Social movements are essential to know how politics and government turned out in today’s society. When thinking of social movements I could only think of the United States’ civil rights movements, but then I realized there are numerous different movements. Social movements could range from individual rights to economic equality. My sources will focus on how social movements start, the values behind starting social movements, the types of groups or people who are involved in social movements through the world and how social movements usually end or resolved.

Social movements have constantly occurred in political history. Movements are part of the political process in which political institutions could arise. Knowing how they occur could help understand the difference between each of the different social movements. Social movements have two different actions; collective action, where a group of people or participants act on a movement and they do the actions together and individual action, where the action taken is by only one person. Social movements pursue a goal that all social classes could benefit from them. Social movements are carriers of a symbolic message, which are aimed to spread their message to the people in the community and to share new ideas that arise in the society. This is also creating new areas in which public policy develops more.

Then there are different ways a social movement could begin. Back in the late 19th century, social movements would begin in industrial classes, which in history was during the industrial revolution.1 In today’s society most social movements are started due to change in social structures, i.e. the civil rights movement or the cultural movement in China. Social movements are meant to challenge the combination of politics and society.1 Meaning that politics are mostly a main component in social movements along with the social aspect of them, like individual rights or economic rights. Social movements are collective efforts to bring about or resist change that affect people in the society. Along with social issues, social class has an affect on the issues that arise during social movements. “Social class shapes distinct cultural subsystems that order consciousness, organize perceptions, define priorities, and influence forms of behavior.” Being in one social class, i.e. middle class African American, would have more passion for certain issues in society than other classes. Many aspects could affect how or why social movements could come about. Though collective action is a major part on why a social movement starts as well.

People think of collective action as illegal and unorganized and it is frowned down upon. Collective action is the action taken behind social movements. First of all, collective action is the interaction of people with the same view taking a stance on a social issue or any kind of issue. There are many stances from boycotting or blockading streets